Miss UNCP facing assault charges:
Pageant continues as scheduled

By Nathan Walls
Editor

Assault charges against the reigning Miss UNCP, Aja Locklear, have not halted the future of the Miss UNCP Scholarship Pageant, Pageant Executive Director and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Diane Jones said last Wednesday, Oct. 1.

“At this point it has not been discussed,” Jones said.

Locklear was served warrants by Robeson County police last Tuesday, Sept. 30 charging her with simple assault, assault with a deadly weapon and damage to personal property, according to Maj. Randal Patterson of the Robeson County Sheriff’s Department.

Scrutiny of the pageant, the only one in the UNC system, has been somewhat high in recent years, based on events involving Miss UNCP 1998 Rebekah Revels, Miss UNCP 2002 Katherine Greer and now Locklear.

Revels resigned as Miss North Carolina last year after her former fiance, Tosh Welch, told Miss America pageant officials he had topless photos of her.

Greer was arrested along with several UNCP women in March of 2002 in connection with a stolen road sign before charges were dropped.

Jones said she does not feel that the incidents at issue with the three women are representative of the pageant as a whole.

“We’re looking at isolated incidents in each one of these lady’s reign,” Jones said.

She also explained that Miss UNCP 1981 Francesca Adler Loeffke went on to win the Miss North Carolina Pageant.

Jones said guidelines will be reviewed.

“We’re going to review our whole application process, our guidelines,” Jones said. “Currently, that is something we are looking into.”

Applications for the 2004 Miss UNCP Scholarship Pageant are available and Jones hopes that the pageant, which began in the 1952-53 school year, continues to be held annually.

“We have over 50 years of history of pageants here at the university,” Jones said. “It’s a tradition to have Miss UNCP and it’s one that personally I would not want to see us forego.”

This year’s pageant is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 29.