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Ticket Distribution Rigged; CAA Not Representing Students

I am currently leading a Board of Elections investigation into election law violations stemming from the race for CAA president.

Most of the findings I present in this letter are independent of that investigation. I hope that my duty as a student of this University to present the following information will not preclude me from continuing in my role with the Board of Elections.

It is my personal belief that every men's basketball distribution for the last two years, including the Feb. 17 Duke distribution, has been rigged. This is only my personal belief.

These are the facts. I attended four of the five ticket distributions this year.

I was advised, by a source with CAA connections, to pick up a bracelet at 3 p.m. Wednesday for each of the distributions.

I did poorly on the senior Duke distribution when the winning bracelet was supposedly handed out at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

For the other three distributions, I received riser seats for six games (Kentucky, Miami, Buffalo, Maryland, Virginia and Georgia Tech) and lower-level seats for two games (Florida State and N.C. State).

I can and will provide proof of these facts as required.

I apologize to all UNC students for not disclosing this information earlier. The first time I got riser seats I thought that I might have just been lucky.

I thought it might have been a coincidence that the time I had been told to get a bracelet happened to put me in a position to get spots in the riser section.

After two repeats and the DTH article on Feb. 19, I feel quite confident that my good fortune was not mere luck.

I am not the only person who had this knowledge, and I am disappointed that no one has publicly come forward to support the DTH story.

After a series of disappointments, I came to the conclusion that many opinions concerning whether the Duke distribution was rigged, or just coincidentally predicted and revealed to the DTH, might rest on my decision to reveal or not reveal what knowledge I have of the situation.

I feel that the opportunity to rectify the current situation might rely largely on those who possess knowledge relevant to this situation. I sincerely hope that this call for disclosure will elicit a response from anyone who possesses any helpful knowledge and a conscience.

The reason I am coming forth with this information is that I feel that my account might lead to political change that I hope will eliminate any past or current irregularities.

I am sorry that I took advantage of what I believe was inside knowledge of the ticket distribution system.

Before the Feb. 19 DTH article about the Duke distribution, I chose not to publicly present this information because I felt that my account lacked credibility and would be dismissed as a random and unsubstantiated occurrence.

I also feared that publicly raising questions about the legitimacy of the distribution system would provide a warning to whoever was responsible for the odd trend centering around 3 p.m. Wednesdays.

It was my fear that this warning might allow the system to be rigged in a new and more sophisticated way that would elude future detection and, I must admit, my own desire to take advantage of the knowledge to which I was privileged.

Immediately following the Feb. 19 DTH article, I did not come forward because it was in the midst of the CAA re-election. I did not feel it would be proper for a Board of Elections official to make political allegations that might have affected the outcome of an election that I had an obligation to help conduct from a neutral position.

My understanding is that it is the practice of the Department of Athletics to give the CAA president a block of 40 to 60 lower-level tickets for every home basketball game to distribute as he wishes.

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Additionally, every CAA Cabinet member and every person who assists in the ticket distribution process receives two lower-level tickets.

Many of these tickets make their way into the hands of prominent student government officials. I fear that the allocation of tickets among CAA Cabinet members and student government leaders is the reason that student government has not pursued, to the best of my knowledge, any investigation into the highly suspicious ticket handling practices of the CAA.

I have heard from CAA members that students from colleges other than UNC participate in the ticket distribution process (and presumably receive tickets in return).

I have been told that a sign-up sheet for this year's ACC tournament (list No. 8) was passed around at a CAA Cabinet meeting for CAA officials and their friends to sign -- those who signed this list understood it would be drawn and, as expected, the list was drawn.

The Code of Permanent Laws of the Student Government says that the duty of the CAA is to "represent the athletic concerns of the student body."

I do not believe that the student body desires suspicious distribution practices, a reward system that gives more than 100 of the best seats to CAA members and their friends (some of whom are not UNC students), and a system of patronage that appeases those who should be keeping a watchful eye over the CAA with the best seats in the Dean Smith Center.

These practices are contrary to the interests of the student body and the CAA has consequently violated its constitutional mandate to "represent the athletic concerns of the student body."

Again, I reiterate that these findings are not part of any official investigation being conducted by the Board of Elections.

I ask that Student Congress investigate these issues and take appropriate action.

Frederick Hill is the vice chairman

of the Board of Elections and a senior political science and peace, war and defense major.

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