Local man donates money
for scholarship fund 4
Special Dave Barry
poem 3
New gym preview 6
Jbhn Kuhn's glass sculptures, 4
Weekend Weather: Possibility of some showers, highs in mii-SOs
The Blue
Volume 25, Number 14
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT ASHEVILLE
December 11,1996
Book Co-op not worth the hassle and may not save money, some students believe
Monica Williams
Staff Writer
Students may have an opportunity
to get more money for their used
books through an effort sponsored
by Student Government Association
and the North Carolina Student Leg
islature (NCSL).
Hov/ever, the two organizations
plan to keep 15 percent of the profits
each book brings, and then send a
check for the remaining money to
the person who sold the book.
“People can come and find the book
that they need, and give us the
money,” said Tiffany Drummond,
delegation chairperson ofNCSL. “At
the end of the Book Co-op, we will
take out 15 percent for our costs, and
then right a check to the person who
sold the book, and they will receive a
check in four to six weeks.”
Some students said that the Book
Co-op would be nothing but a hassle.
“Students should just put up their
fliers like they usually do, and just
sell their books that way,” said sopho
more Shawaka Mosley. “The Book
Co-op is too much of a hassle be
cause you have to wait so long to get
your money. Everything around here
is a hassle anyway. Selling your book
to the bookstore means getting $20
for a $90 book, and the Book Co-op
means waiting around for weeks to
get your check.”
“The Book-Co-op allows students
to sell their books directly to other
students,” said Sergio Mariaca, stu
dent body president. “Students will
save money by allowing students to
purchase used books at used books
prices. It will also allow students to
make money because they will be able
to sell their books for more money
than they would get from the book
store.”
According to Drummond, students
were not getting a fair amount of
money for their books at the book
store.
“We (NCSL) felt that the students
were getting ripped off,” said
%
* ■
r.
Photos by Del OeLorm
Senior Laura Howell waits while Sherrie Willcox looks up a buy back price in her computer, while freshman Sharon Baggett looks to see if her book
is on the list to be used next year.
Drummond. “The bookstore did not
offer students enough reimbursement
for their books and then raise the
prices when it comes to selling them
to other students.”
Some UNCA students agreed with
Drummond.
“The bookstore rips you off,” said
freshman Piper Nieters. “It is about
time we get some money for the books
that we pay for. I think that the Book-
Co-op is a good thing.”
Mariaca also said that the competi
tion that the Book Co-op has to offer
is needed to best serve the students.
“The bookstore had a monopoly on
book sales,” said Mariaca. “You could
walk around campus and find indi
vidual students taking it upon them
selves to sell their books, as opposed
to getting hardly any money from the
bookstore. Now, we can centralize
that competition to make it better
serve the students’ needs.”
According to Mariaca, this pro
gram has been installed in college
campuses aroimd the coimtry.
“The Used Book Co-op is some
thing that has been successful at many
other colleges around the nation and
we are trying to bring it to UNCA,”
said Mariaca. “At most other univer-
BOOK conf. on pg. 8
Professor presents paper in Rhode Island
*
y
Brian Castle
Contributing Writer
UNCA political science professor,
and Sudanese
asylee Elmoiz
Abunura, re
cently traveled
to Providence,
R.I. to present
his views on the
current politi
cal powder keg
situation in his
w a r - t o r
homeland.
During meet
ings that took
place on the
weekend
Nov. 21-24,
Abunura pre
sented a paper
to the Middle
East Studies
Association of
North
America. The
paper, “Racism
and Identity Crisis Within the
Northern Sudanese Nationalist
Movement,” outlined Abunura’s
perspective on the racial and reli
gious policies of Sudan’s Afro-Arab
elites toward the oppressed tribes of
southern Sudan.
Professor Abunura, who also serves
as advisor to the UNCA chapter of
Amnesty International, saw the
MESA conference as an opportunity
to educate other scholars on the root
causes of the continuing human
rights violations in the land that he
himself was forced to flee as a politi
cal target.
“The only solution to the ethnic
conflict in Sudan is recognition of
the rights of minorities, to preserve
and develop their own culture,” said
Abunura. “And also, working for a
I new democratic, federal, and secular
Sudan where the followers of Islam
and Christianity and traditional Af-
I rican religions have equal rights,”
Elmoiz Abunura
stated Abunura.
Abunura was also notified of the
potential publication of his paper in
a volume of essays on the Sudanese
conflict. He
will also attend
the 4th Inter
national Con
ference of
Sudan Studies
in Cairo, in
June 1997.
In his presen
tation to the
Sudan Studies
Association
Panel of
MESA,
Abunura ar
gued that the
northern elites,
who collabo
rated with the
British during
Great Britain’s
occupation of
Sudan between
1898 and
1956, used a
variety of ideologies to justify their
hegemony over the southern tribes
since the British granted indepen
dence in 1956.
The latest of these ideologies, em
bodied by the National Islamic
Front, that took over the govern
ment in 1989, includes elements of
racism and religious intolerance.
According to Abunura’s paper, the
northern elites now seek to define
themselves as Arab and Muslim, to
the exclusion of the African poly
theistic tribes of the south.
In this attempt to justify their civil
war on the south, the northern elites
deny their own African heritage,
which involves centuries of race-mix
ing between Arabs and Africans.
They have also asserted their brand
of militant Islam on the non-Islamic
south by making the ancient Islamic
Sharia the legal code for the entire
country, with no secular allowances
for their polytheistic countrymen.
Photo by Del DeLorm
UNCA students charged with marijuana possession
Trish Johnson
Staff Writer
Three UNCA residents received a
violation for possession of marijuana
on Oct. 18, according to a UNCA
incident report.
The bust was made in Mills Hall,
room 321, where the offenders live.
They will appear in court
on Jan. 7.
UNCA security is strict
enough when it comes
to drug busts, according
to Dennis Gregory,
UNCA department in
vestigator.
“We don’t want to have
to start going in the
dorm rooms every hour
to look for marijuana,”
said Gregory. “We try
to only react when we
get a complaint, which
is what happened in this
case.
A female neighbor of
the three residents,
Hooper Turner, Ryan
Todd, Dale Haskins,
called campus security
after smelling the mari
juana odor. When the
officer arrived, the odor
was very strong even
with a towel stuffed un
der the door, according
to the report.
Several students, male
and female, besides the
residents were in the
room at the time of the
bust.
“There are an equal
amount of female and
male drug users on cam
pus,” said Gregory.
Apparently the most
common drug found on
the UNCA campus is
marijuana.
“Nine times out of 10, it is mari
juana, but we have confiscated pills
and cocaine before, but it is still
rare,” said Gregory. “We usually get
about five or six arrests for marijuana
possession a year. So far, this semester
we have only had this one incident.”
Three out of the four roommates were
present at the time of the bust, so the
fourth roommate was not charged,
according to Gregory.
A marijuana roach was found on a
coffee table in the dorm room, which
1
I.
Photo by Michael Taylor
Smoking devices such as these are becoming more prevalent on campus as
marijuana use by students increases.
was confiscated for evidence, accord
ing to the report.
The drug use at UNCA seems to be
getting worse because this year has
had more drug searches than in previ
ous years. This is probably be
cause of a better reporting sys
tem,” said Gregory.
The drugs are mostly found in
dorm rooms, cars and on the per
son charged. “Even though the
drugs were found on campus, the
students have not been suspended
at this point,” said Gregory. “It
depends on what
happens at their court
appearance in Janu-
ary.
According to the
UNCA Student
Guide, the minimum
penalty for a first of
fense of marijuana
possession is proba
tion, for a period to
be determined on a
case-by-case basis. It
also states that a per
son on probation
must agree to partici
pate in a drug educa
tion and counseling
program, consent to
regular drug testing.
The handbook also
states that the student
charged must also
perform community
service, as the chan
cellor deems appro
priate. Refusal or fail
ure to agree to the
terms of probation
shall result in suspen
sion from enrollment
or from employment
for any unexpired bal
ance of the set period
of probation.
If a second offense
should occur, the Stu
dent Handbook states
that “progressively
more severe penalties
shall be imposed, in
cluding expulsion of students and
discharge of faculty members.”