All sorts of music
4
Cross country tourna
ment 7
Tribute to John
Edwards 10
Images (^hilh, page 5
Weekend Weothen Finally a nice weekend. Checl( the weather on page 3.
The Blue
Volume 25, Number 12
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT ASHEVILLE
November 21, 1996
UNCA ATHLETICS UNDER SCRUTINY BY NATIONAL AGENCIES
University taking measures to balance athletics
Jennifer Thurston
Siports Editor
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of
Civil Rights (OCR) has found UNCA in viola
tion of the federal gender equity statute, Title
IX. In a report received and signed by the
Chancellor on Oct. 24, the OCR cited UNCA
as “not equally effectively accommodating the
interests and abilities of its female students”
because of past practices of the athletics depart
ment.
The OCR found UNCA’s athletic practices
inequitable in six areas: travel, coaching, pub
licity, medical services, recruitment, and sup
port services. UNCA must correct the dispari
ties before the end of the 1996-97 athletic
season, and has already corrected some of them
in anticipation of the investigation.
Additionally, in order to achieve gender equity
in satisfaction of Title IX regulations, UNCA
will change the proportionality of student ath
letes by gender to reflect the overall student
body. Currently, the full-time student body is
55 percent female and 45 percent male, while
43 percent of athletes are female and 57 percent
of athletes are male. As many as 15 male athletes
could be cut while 30 females are added.
Tom Cochran, associate vice chancellor for
academic affairs, said the coaching staff and
administration are committed to achieving gen
der equity at UNCA. “They see the success of
the athletics department as more important
than the success of their (individual) programs,”
Cochran said. “What we’re going to try and do
is increase participation rates for women’s sports
and cap men’s sports. So, in some ways, sports
are going to be hindered because ... not a lot of
women will walk on and play. For scholarships,
they’ll play. That’s not a problem. But it’s not
the culture for women to walk onto teams in
college.”
Cochran said that achieving proportionality
with the student body was a two-year project.
“If I had my druthers, I’d add a women’s sport,”
he said. “But right now I don’t have a solution
for how to come up with $80,000 to add that
sport.”
The athletics department will need additional
funding to achieve equity, however. “I don’t see
this year’s budget being specifically impacted
except in the area of scholarships,” said Cochran.
“Because we need to pay more scholarship dol
lars to women, we’re probably seeing a $30,000
increase.”
This year, UNCA has budgeted $306,757 for
male athletic scholarships and $301,621 for
female athletic scholarships.
While achieving proportionality is an accept
able means of satisfying the Office of Civil
Rights’ requirements for gender equity, there
have been several federal court cases involving
other universities where proportionality has been
thrown out.
In a case involving Louisiana State University
in January of this year, a federal judge ruled that
measuring equity by proportionality was based
on the inaccurate assumption that interest and
ability to play sports was equal between men
and women. Louisiana State was also found in
violation of Title IX statutes, according to a
report in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
EQUITY cont. on pg.8
Division I status on hold until summer, says Cochran
Alex Self
Staff Writer
UNCA’s athletics department came under
review last week by a National Collegiate Ath
letics Association (NCAA) committee who ex
amined whether or not the university would
receive certification as a Division I school. The
review committee said a final ruling on the issue
would not be handed down until mid-summer,
according to reports.
UNCA has been pre
paring for the visit since
last spring when a fac-
ulty-staff peer review
council, called the
NCAA Certification
Steering Committee,
was created to identify
problem areas in the
athletics department
with regards to equity,
fiscal integrity, aca
demic integrity, and governance and rules com
pliance, according to earlier reports in The Blue
Banner.
Even though the reviewers from the NCAA
were not the ones who would make the final
decision, some members of the Steering Com
mittee were “disappointed” that the delegates
did not give them some sort of indication of
what their recommendation would be to the
Certification Committee.
“We all realized that this was a longer process
than just this group (the reviewers) coming on
campus and giving us a decision,” said Keith
Krumpe, the chair of the equity subcommittee.
^CAA
r
“The actual (certification) committee had to
make the final decision, but we were hoping
they would let us know what their recommen
dation to that committee was going to be.”
The university, however, must wait until sum
mer for a decision. The reason for the delay,
according to the Associate Vice Chancellor for
Academic Affairs Tom Cochran, is because the
NCAA’s agenda is full until their spring meet
ing.
“They have a meeting scheduled for February,
(but) that agenda is already booked,” said
Cochran. “We don’t get
on the agenda until
(spring).”
The delegates from the
NCAA did give the Steer
ing Committee some sug-
gestions for improve
ment, but none of them
came as a surprise, since
they mostly mirrored the
faculty-staff self-study
findings, said Krumpe.
“I certainly was not surprised by any of the
recommendations,” Krumpe said. “They were
right in line with what the individual subcom
mittees and the Steering Committee had con
cluded from our self-study.”
The reason the reviewers had so little addi
tional input was because the self-study was an
exhaustive search that left no “stones unturned,”
said Krumpe.
“We (the Steering Committee) were very criti
cal in our analysis,” Krumpe said. “We looked at
all aspects of the athletic department, and we’ve
NCAA cont. on pg.8
“Miss A Meal" program to aid the less fortunate misses with many students
Monica Williams
Staff Writer
_ Several UNCA students are opting
to go hungry to help families who are
less fortunate by giving up a meal
from their meal plan, according to a
member of one of the sponsoring or
ganizations. However, some students
are wishing they hadn’t made the de
cision to donate.
“I gave up my meal, but I am kind of
wishing that I hadn’t,” said junior J.P.
El-Rif “I really need my meal on
Thursday. However, I don’t use all of
my meals every week. I think there are
between five or seven (meals) that I
don’t use. I would gladly give up one
of those to help the amnesty people.”
The “Miss A Meal” drive, sponsored
by Marriott and Alpha Phi Omega,
will donate the food to the Manna
Food Bank.
According to sophomore Gwen
Slaughter, treasurer of Alpha Phi
Omega,
Marriott chose
one meal on one
day for students
to give up for a
good reason.
“Marriott usu
ally buys more
food for the
dinner meal,
and it is easier
to keep it at one
meal so they can
have a specific
number that
they are work
ing with, rather
than several dif
ferent numbers
from breakfast
and lunch,” said
Slaughter. “They (Marriott) spend
more money on dinner than on break
fast or lunch, with breakfast being the
cheapest. They will use the money
that they were to spend on people
Alffwugh fxjpular wilti many students, ttie "Miss A Meal" plan is missing witti others.
who aren’t eating to buy food in bulk
for Manna.”
Some students said they refused to
give up their meal on several grounds
despite the cause.
“I would be
damned if I was
going to give
somebody my
meal,” said jun
ior Ramora
Springfield.
“On Thursdays,
classes are an
hour and fifteen
minutes long,
and I have them
back to back
from 9:25 a.m.
until 5:45 p.m.
Then, when you
think about it,
who the heck
wants to eat the
cafeteria food? I
have no choice.
“Plus, I am paying $900 for a meal
plan, and they want me to give one of
them up? Half the time you can’t
even get into the cafeteria without
your ID. There are a whole lot of
Photo by Michael Taylor
things that go with this.”
Some students expressed that giving
up their meal was a simple way to give
to others.
“The “Miss A Meal” drive is for a
very good cause,” said junior Andy
Folds. “I want to help families.”
“I signed up to give my meal because
I think that it is a good thing to help
feed a family,” said junior Vince
Krieger. “I am glad to help support
other people who are less fortunate
than myself.”
The “Miss A Meal” drive has been
successful, exceeding the goals the
organizers had originally hoped for.
“The goal was 300 and we currently
have 314 names, but we should get
more,” said freshman Kristin
Kuhlman, a member of Alpha Phi
Omega.
According to senior Chris Jones, the
vice president of membership for Al
pha Phi Omega, the “Miss A Meal”
MEAL cont. on pg. 10
Images of faifh, page 4
Photo courtesy o
Archbishop’s daughter speaks at UNCA
Aimee Campbell
Staff Writer
An internationally renowned speaker brought to cam
pus by the political science department spoke last Mon
day for nearly an hour about the role of the church in
social and political change in South Africa. Naomi Tutu,
daughter of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
made an appearance at Laurel Forum.
According to Dan Henderson of the political science
department, turnout at the lecture was high.
“The department was ecstatic about the enthusiasm
and response to Ms. Tutu’s visit,” said Henderson. “We
counted over 80 persons in attendance in the crowd.”
One student commented that the event was under
advertised.
“I thought this was highly under advertised for such a
prominent person to come and speak,” said senior John
Allison. “I think to hear Naomi Tutu speak, a lot of
people think ‘Oh, that’s Desmond Tutu’s daughter,’ but
she is very much an intellectual and a civil liberties leader
in her own right.
“Desmond Tutu made the Tutu name, but Naomi is
carrying it on to the fullest extent,” Allison continued.
One of the issues Tutu addressed was the role of the
church in support of apartheid.
I think it is important, as a South African, when we
talk about our religion, and talk about being Christian,
that we are aware of the role that Christianity has played
in oppression as well as in movements for liberation,”
said Tutu.
“In South Africa, Christianity did not come to apart
heid. Apartheid came through Christiani’ty,” Tutu con
tinued.
Allison said he found parallels in the African and
TUTU cont. on pg. 8