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The Daily Tar Heel

Franklin Street solution is a focal-point event

TO THE EDITOR:

The solution to the dangerous conditions at Franklin Street victory celebrations is breathtakingly simple: There is no focal point for all that pent up energy following a victory. Students rush to Franklin Street to share their jubilation only to find no official University symbol or group to reflect their jubilation. With nothing happening and hordes of television reporters desperate for a story students are left to their own devices and we have fires and makeshift group actions. Everyone is desperate for something to happen.

The University together with the town of Chapel Hill which already has the crowd control plans in place could provide the missing element by providing an official stage or the back of a flatbed truck in the center of Franklin and Columbia Streets. Sports marketing should provide cheerleaders and a pep band to be on hand to lead a traditional pep rally for an hour or so. We would have an event with a beginning and an end to provide crowd control.

Everything is in place already. All we need is a focal point. Why is that so hard to understand? We don't need to disperse the celebration around campus. It just won't happen. The Franklin Street victory celebrations have become a major tradition at UNC and probably one of the best accidental recruiting tools for the University. Every aspiring high school senior wants to go to a school with that kind of spirit.


F. Marion Redd
UNC Printing Services


 


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