Seniors Choose Gift to Library

The winning gift is an endowment of at least $20,000 to keep the Undergrad's resources up-to-date. It also includes quotes chosen by the seniors for all the new benches outside the library, as well as a plaque inside the building that will memorialize the gift.

The other two gift options were four glass etchings in the Campus Y memorializing the Sept. 11 attacks, which received 450 votes, and a special-needs scholarship given through the Office of Scholarships and Student Aid, which received 244 votes.

All told, 1,180 voters logged on -- a much larger number than last year's 702.

Seniors had a chance to vote last week for the same gifts.

But due to a glitch in the voting software that listed some seniors as juniors, Board of Elections officials decided to postpone the voting to Wednesday so they could obtain an accurate count.

The change in date did not affect the vote as much as senior class officials had believed, even though the original day for seniors to vote coincided with the day for the choosing of Homecoming king and queen.

Class officers said they put a lot of effort into educating seniors about the rescheduled vote.

Senior Class President Paymon Rouhanifard said he was pleased in the turnout of voters despite Wednesday's round of voting being a second trial.

"This wasn't quite expected because it was a revote," he said. "We didn't think people would take the time to go out and vote again, so this was very encouraging."

Rob Albright, senior class vice president, said he was encouraged by the seniors' enthusiasm about a gift that will continue to benefit the school.

"This is an awesome tribute to our class," Albright said. "It's about our valuing the academic climate and how we appreciate what the library is about."

Now that the gift has been selected, senior class officials are moving on to the next step of the process: putting all the pieces together.

"The next step will be to meet with the people we've been meeting with since the beginning of this process and begin raising money for the Undergrad," Rouhanifard said.

He said senior class officers will meet with Emily Stevens, director of young alumni programs for the Office of Development, to discuss fund-raising strategies for the project.

The officials will contact seniors, families of seniors and alumni to help in raising money for the endowment.

In December of their sophomore year, this year's seniors saw the Undergrad close for renovations that took almost two years. The total cost of the renovation was $9.8 million.

"Seniors had a chance to see the library before and after the renovations," Rouhanifard said.

"They saw what public and private funds could do to the library system and the importance in sustaining a great library system."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.