A fistful of music
reviews 4
UNCA splits with
Coastal Carolina 7
George McGovern
^ visits 10
Bk/e-foed (Sikken at Ramsey. Page 4
Weekend Weather: Mostly sunny and warm. Highs 75-80, lows in ihe 50's
The Blue
BANNER
Volume 24, Number 27 UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT ASHEVILLE
May 2, 1996
Stolen ATM
card used at
Highsmith
Mountain Trace no longer available as university housing
Kenneth Corn
Staff Writer
On March 10, a student from UNCA
allegedly stole an ATM card from
another student and used it to make
an unauthorized withdrawal from the
teller machine located in front of the
Highsmith Center, according to a
UNCA incident report.
On March 20, Marion Kuehn re
ported to the public safety office that
someone had stolen her card and used
it to get money.
According to the incident report filed
by Dennis Gregory, investigation/
crime prevention officer, the suspect
withdrew $ 1360 with the stolen card.
The location of the crime, the name
of the victim, and the amount stolen
were the only details Gregory could
release at this time.
Gregory did say the only other out
side firm involved in the investigation
was the State Employee’s Credit
Union. The credit union owns and
operates the teller machine where the
unauthorized withdrawal took place.
Kuehn declined an interview, saying
that she had made an agreement with
the student who used the card not to
reveal the student’s name.
Gregory said he could not give the
name of the suspect because Kuehn
decided not to press criminal charges.
“It appears that there has been an
agreement worked out between the
perpetrator and the victim which is
satisfactory to both of them,” said
/Gregory.
“If there are no charges pressed, then
the initial report is the only public
document we have,” said Gregory.
“The case will be closed and marked
‘prosecution declined,’ and that will
be as far as the investigation goes.”
“I am always glad to see it resolved in
this manner,” said Gregory. “This
way, the student will not be arrested
and the incident will not go on a
criminal record.”
“It is encouraging to know that we
have students that can work out very
serious problems without any outside
intervention,” said Gregory.
There will be no disciplinary action
taken by the public safety department
since no charges have been pressed,
said Gregory. But he said the univer
sity has the option of sending the case
to student court.
The Public Safety Department usu
ally leaves the decision up to the vic
tim to send the case to student court,
said Gregory.
He said Kuehn had not decided
whether to take the suspect to court
yet, but she was “leaning very much
toward taking it.”
“Most likely, it will go to student
court this summer or early fall,” said
Gregory. “The great thing about stu
dent court is that she (the suspect)
will be judged by her peers.”
According to federal law, Gregory
can not give any details of the investi
gation until the case goes to court. If
the case does appear in court, all
records, including the name of the
suspect, will be released to the public,
said Gregory.
Student court could select a variety
of different disciplinary actions. Com
munity service work, counseling, or
many other types of reprimands could
be decided upon by the court, said
Gregory.
Christine Treadaway
Staff Writer
Because of lease problems and stu
dent complaints, UNCA has decided
not to renew the Mountain Trace
apartment complex as university hous
ing. As a result, 34 students must find
new housing for themselves.
Pete Williams, director of housing,
said there were two main reasons why
the university chose not to renew their
lease with the owners of the complex.
“Last year we (UNCA) opened with
approximately 25 vacancies. We origi
nally had taken Mountain Trace to
handle the overflow situation that we
had. The sccond reason is that we
were having some difficulty because
of the fact that there are two owners.
We had 17 of the apartments, but the
others were under the jurisdiction of
another owner.
There was some conflict between
the two owners, in terms of the main
tenance of the property. That was the
primary reason we didn’t wish to con
tinue with the lease agreement,” Wil
liams said.
Several residents of the Mountain
Trace complex said that they had prob
lems with the maintenance and up
keep of the building and their apart
ments, as well as disturbances from
other non-student tenants living there.-
Williams said this was another con
sideration in UNCA’s decision.
“We (the university) did not have
control or influence over the non
students that were there, or students
who were not under the UNCA um
brella (i.e. students who rent from the
landlords rather than from UNCA
housing.) We had incidents with pets
and some difficulty with trash being
left in the hallway. We also had some
problems with parties that non-
UNCA residents had, in terms ofkeep-
ing quiet hour,” said Williams.
Chris Polhamus, a senior majoring
in political science, who had lived in
Mountain Trace for almost a year,
said he didn’t get any official notifica
tion until after Spring Break, which
changed his and his roommate’s plan
to remain in their apartment over the
HOUSING cont. on pg. 10
UNCAMONT provides campus fun
Photo by Michael Taylor
The UNCA school moscot, Rocky the Bulldog, joined in the fun at UNCAMONT on Saturday, April 27. The all-day event featured games,
live music, free Pepsi and food, and Punchy the Robot.
Conflict between
students and store
leads to petition
Susan Sertain
Staff Writer
Two UNCA students are circulating a petition
to boycott Black Dome Mountain Sports after a
March 9 incident at the Asheville sporting goods
store.
“I want UNCA students who read this article to
know what happened and be able to make a
conscientious decision as to whether or not they
will go to this store,” said Patricia Parker, a
sophomore mass communication major.
“If you go to this store and give them personal
information, you could run over the neighbor’s
cat, walk into this store and be attacked by all the
employees,” she said.
The petition that is being circulated states,
“March 9, 1996, at approximately 4:00 p.m.,
Charles Ciaffone entered Black Dome Mountain
Sports, located at 140 Tunnel Road, Asheville,
North Carolina. His purpose for entering the
store was to make a payment on a layaway ac
count. Ciaffone was verbally assaulted by Scott
Lowrey, an employee of Black Dome Mountain
Sports, because Ciaffone had been involved in a
minor traffic accident with Lowrey’s mother on
February 26, 1996. Scott Lowrey was not present
at the accident.”
“This accident did not involve him or Black
Dome Mountain Sports in any way. Trent Tho
mas, the owner of the store gave his consent for
Scott Lowrey to use information Lowrey found in
the layaway records of Black Dome Mountain
Sports to surprise Ciaffone and verbally assault
him in the store. The accusations and insults
BLACK DOME cont. on pg.8
UNCA graduate and Weather Channel personality speaks
Denise Sizemore
Staff Writer
The American Meteorological Society (AMS)
held its last meeting on April 24 with special guest
speaker, and 1993 UNCA graduate, Kristina
Abernathy of The Weather Channel. Abernathy
spoke with the audience about how she got into
television, and afterwards held a question-and-
answer session.
“If anyone is interested in going into TV, the best
thing they can do is get an internship,” she said.
Abernathy said working for a TV station would be
the best internship so “you can get that experience
in front of a camera,” and because “you have to
have a resume tape to get the job.”
“Sometimes, if the studio was open and they had
finished with the news, I would go in there and
practice,” she said. She said she made a tape during
her internship and after graduation sent them out
all over the Southeast. “I was really lucky because
six weeks after graduation, I had a job,” said
Abernathy.
After being in Albany for a year, she said she sent
out a tape to The Weather Channel. However, at
that time they had no openings.
“About six months later, I got a call and all of a
sudden they had an opening,” Abernathy said. She
has been at The Weather Channel since July 1995,
and said it is “a pretty good place to work.”
She also told the audience that “your first job (in
TV) is going to be in a really small market.” In the
TV market. New York is number one and Albany,
Georgia, is number 154, according to Abernathy.
She said she did no forecasting in Albany because
she had nothing to forecast with.
“They didn’t want to spend the money on it
(forecasting),” she said. “They were never going
to spend the money on the equipment needed, so
it was basically just a rip and read.”
A “rip and read” is where they “rip” the National
Weather Service report off and read it, according
to Abernathy. She said because of this, she had
gotten out of the practice of forecasting.
“Even at The Weather Channel, the on-air
people don’t do the forecasting,” said Abernathy.
“We have more behind the scenes meteorologists
than we do in front of the camera.”
“They (people behind the scenes) do all of the
forecasting, which is kind of unfair because they
do all the hard work and don’t get any of the
recognition for it,” said Abernathy. “Everyday,
before we go on the air, they brief us about what
is going on.”
She said a lot of people who are just out of
college are hired at The Weather Channel to work
behind the scenes.
Abernathy said it was a little nerve-racking to go
from local television to a national audience. “We’re
seen all over the country,” she said. “I came from
south Georgia where maybe 50,000 people were
watching.” The Weather Channel has over a mil
lion viewers during a big weather event, according
to Abernathy.
Abernathy said her job at The Weather Channel
was “hard to get used to knowing that there were
that many people watching.” She also said she had
to get used to talking about the entire country’s, as
well as European and Australian, weather. “I had to
do some real brushing up on my meteorology and
geography skills,” she said.
Abernathy said she has not covered any major
storms while at The Weather Channel and “I
personally don’t want to.” She said the seasoned
veterans are usually the ones who go out in the
field.
“Sometimes it is a real big competition to see who
goes and sometimes they’re having to pull teeth to
get somebody to go, depending on what it is,” she
said.
She said the philosophy at The Weather Channel
is, “the weather is the focus, not the person. We’re
all sort of interchangeable and expendable, in a
way, so there is not a lot of room for competition.”
Abernathy said The Weather Channel is a good
environment to work in, and provides good expo
sure for future jobs. “A lot of really smart and sharp
WEATHER cont on pg. 10