INSIDE:
SPC^TS: ^'sbaskefbalheam
defeats Wintbrop p. 5
OPINION: Univef^iiy needs snow
policy p. 2
The Blue
FEAWHES: Hypnotist perhrms in
the new dining ball p. 4
COMICS: New feature: Soaps summary
p. 6
"Human diversity makes tolerance more
than a virtue, it makes it a requirement fot
survival—Rene Dubos
BANNER
WEA THER-.lncreasing cloudi
ness this weekend with a chance
of freezing rain or snow.
VOLUME 23
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT ASHEVILLE
NUMBER 14
OFFICIALS SAY PARKING IS NO LONGER AN ISSUE: LAZINESS IS THE PROBLEM
Christin Hall
Staff Writer
With the opening of a new parking garage on
campus this semester, students say that finding a
parking space is generally less of a problem. The
parking deck is located under the new dining hall
which opened this semester. The new facility cost
approximately $4.8 million.
The new parking deck and the gravel lot behind
it contribute about 138 new parking spaces for
students. With the loss of the 108-space lot behind
Justice Gym, however, students have gained fewer
than 30 new spaces overall.
“I would say it’s a little easier this semester than
it was last semester,” said Amy Graham, a com
muter student. “I haven’t had any trouble finding
a space.”
Although opinions differ among students, the
general consensus echoes Graham’s viewpoint.
Most commuter students agree, however, that
arriving on campus early is the key to finding a
parking space easily.
“When you have an 8:00 o'clock class it’s easier
to find a space,” said Judy Gentry, who also
commutes. “If you come in for a later class you
cannot find parking anywhere, except on the big
parking lot way, way down below Owen.”
Jeffrey Van Slyke, director of public safety on
campus, said there is ample parking for students.
He said the problem is “laziness.” Everyone wants
a convenient space, and nobody wants to have to
walk, he said.
This semester there are approximately 861 park
ing spaces designated for students, according to a
parking survey conducted by Van Slyke. The new
parking garage added about 98 spaces, and the
gravel lot behind the new dining hall added 40
This 138-space gain is considerably lessened by
the loss of the Justice Gym lot, which contained
108 parking spaces, most of which were student
spaces, according to Van Slyke.
Faculty and staff also lost some spaces with the
demolition of that lot, but they have gained 30
spaces to counter the loss, said Van Slyke. There
are now an estimated 462 parking spaces on cam
pus designated for faculty and staff, according to
the parking survey.
Van Slyke said that when people look at the
numbers of student-designated spaces and faculty/
staff-designated spaces, they often overlook the
fact that there are about 560 “open” parking'spaces
that anyone can use. With these 560 spaces, the
total number of parking spaces on campus, includ
ing handicapped and service spaces, is estimated at
1883.
Ronald D. Reagan, director of facilities planning
and construction on campus, agrees with Van
Slyke that the real problem is that everyone wants
a convenient place to park.
“If you want to find a space outside your dorm or
classroom, yeah, there’s a problem,” said Reagan.
“You’re looking for the location, not the empty
space. There’s always available spaces on campus.
The problem is people want a [close] space.”
For the most part, though, parking has not been
a problem so far this semester. Van Slyke said.
“There’s usually a crunch at the beginning of the
semester. We just haven’t had it [this semester],”
said Van Slyke.
He said that, unlike past semesters, when cars
could be seen lined up on the grass along Univer
sity Heights, this semester has seen very little of the
“overflow-onto-the-grass situation.”
Campus police have already begun issuing tickets
for parking violations, but this semester they’ve
Please see "Parking," page 8
Students Are Pleased With The New $4.8 Million Dining Facility
Andrea Lawson
Staff Writer
The new dining hall facility opened at the beginning of this semester.
Photo by Lot Roy
Even though lines have stretched out
of the building, students say they are
pleased with the food and atmosphere
in UNCA’s new 490-seat dining hall
which opened at the beginning of this
semester.
“I think that they need to make the
lines more structured so that they don’t
back up as much,” said Tim Martin,
junior. “It’s more accommodating [and]
more attractive, not a standard lunch
room.”
“It’s more like a restaurant now,” said
Sophomore Jesse Richards. “It’s defi
nitely more hospitable.”
The project to build a new dining hall/
parking deck was started about five years
ago, according to Ken Barefoot, direc
tor of University Dining Services.
“I think right now we’ve got one of the
best facilities of anybody [in this area],”
said Barefoot. “Everything is really
geared to the student. When we started
working on this project, we found out
what the students wanted. Luckily, it
hasn’t changed since we started.”
Barefoot said that the old dining hall
was built to service a smaller resident
population. The new facility has double
the amount of square feet, an increase
from 10,000 to 21,000 square feet, and
will accommodate the growing number
of on-campus students.
“The [old] space was designed when
the school only had 300 students who
lived on campus,” said Barefoot.
The larger space will help improve the
quality of food served, according to
Barefoot. In the old building, cooks
were forced to cook large quantities of
food ahead of time, since the kitchen
could only cook for about 250 people at
once. Barefoot said that the new kitchen
is larger, enabling the cooks to spread
out, cook more food at one time, and
keep less pre-prepared food warming.
Several residents have said that they
are pleased with the new dining atmo
sphere, especially the new seats and larger
dining area, but confused by the new
structure of the lines.
“They need better signs so you don’t
wander all over the place,” said Doug
Flaherty, freshman. “The seats are great,
there’s a good selection of food, and
there’s always something to choose
from.”
“I think that the seats are much more
comfortable, and the food is better,”
said David Underhill, senior. “It’s pret
tier, and it has much more room.”
Barefoot said that the cafeteria’s multi-
line system, while not lessening the
amount of time spent in the cafeteria,
will offer students a better variety of
foods such as sub sandwiches, ham
burgers, and Pizza Inn pizza.
“We’re the only school that I know of
that has a national brand in their board
ing cafeteria,” said Barefoot.
“I like the wide variety of foods of
fered,” said Jennifer Loftin, freshman.
“It’s a little confusing to figure out
where to go to get your food,” said Skip
Petro, freshman. “You don’t quite know
which line to get in. Other than that,
the place is beautiful.”
Many students said that they liked the
new grill and pizza lines, but were con
fused by the fact that they are not open
for lunch and dinner. Barefoot said that
for now, the grill will stay open only for
lunch, and the pizza line will be open for
dinner. However, the possibility of
having all of the lines open for lunch
and dinner has not been ruled out for
the future.
“It would be a real zoo in there if we got
all of the lines open at the same time
right now,” said Barefoot.
Another concern of students is the fact
Please see "Dining," page 8
Fire In South Ridge Residence Hall Leaves Students Out In The Cold
Todd Hagans
Staff Writer
An electrical fire in an air handler unit last
Thursday evening caused an evacuation ofUNCA’s
South Ridge Residence Hall.
According to Pete Williams, UNCA’s Director
of Housing, the motor in an air handler unit
overheated, burned up, and filled a room on the
third floor with smoke around 6:30 p.m. The air
handler is a mechanism that filters the heat and air
conditioning into each room.
“From vvhat I understand, what actually hap
pened was the motor in the heater burned out, and
Was just smoking,” said Natalie Reid, a South
Ridge Hall resident assistant.
Kim Walker, a South Ridge Hall resident, said
that she was in the shower when the fire alarm went
off. “All I wanted was a warm shower, but instead,
I was stuck in the freezing rain,” said Walker.
South Ridge Hall’s Head Resident Assistant Jesse
Kenyon said that he was entering the building
when the alarm went off “I went up to room 307,
and I could see a lot of smoke,” said Kenyon.
Kenyon said that he searched the room to find the
cause of the smoke, and that it smelled like some
thing electrical was burning.
According to Kenyon, the resident assistants
should check the fire board when there is a fire
alarm to see which smoke detector set the alarm
off Kenyon also said that the fire alarm sounds for
a long period of time so people will remain outside
of the building.
Kenyon said that campus security was called after
the fire was found, and that campus security called
the Asheville Fire Department.
According to Reid, the residents of room 307
were able to stay in their room overnight. Reid said
that all South Ridge residents evacuated the build
ing, and that there were no injuries.
“I was very proud of everybody for evacuating the
building,” said Reid. “Every time the fire alarm
goes off, you need to evacuate the building because
we aren’t going to know until after the building is
evacuated how dangerous it might be.”
According to Angelique Roberts, of 307 South
Ridge Hall, no one was in the room when the fire
occurred. Roberts said that her roommate told her
that she could not enter the building because there
was a problem in room 307.
Roberts said that the air handler unit was not
working earlier Thursday, and that maintenance
came to fix the problem.
Roberts said that she was surprised that there was
not any smoke damage, and that she and her
roommate were able to stay in the room overnight.
Roberts also said that a space heater was provided
to her and her roommate while the air handle^ unit
was being repaired.
“We were planning on going to spend the night
in another friend’s room because everyone was so
worried about us staying in here, but we decided
to stay here,” said Roberts.
Kenyon said that members of the Asheville Fire
Department inspected the room, and said that
residents were allowed to return to the building
after the inspection by the fire department. Kenyon
also said that several people from the physical plant
were called to the scene Thursday night to fix the
problem.
According to Kenyon, there were three fire alarms
in South Ridge last week. The first alarm occurred
Monday night when a resident sprayed disinfec
tant and insect spray in their room which caused
the alarm to go off
Kenyon said that the second fire alarm on Wednes
day morning was due to an electrical problem in
the air handler unit, and that maintenance fixed
the unit Wednesday.
Walker said that because of the numerous fire
alarms, she does not know if the fire alarms are real
or false.
Reid said that the fire last Thursday evening was
a small incident, and that UNCA is lucky that the
incident was not any larger.