TIi« University of Noith Ca#ojSaa at Asheville
Volume 25 , Number 20
NEWS
BRIEFS
Overseas
drug warning
The U.S. Department ofState has
issued public service messages to
warn college students of the dan
gers of possessing or using drugs in
foreign countries.
Each year more than 2,000 U.S.
citizens are arrested abroad. More
than half of these are held on charges
of using or possessing drugs. Addi
tionally, the State Department
warned students about violating
local laws regarding the use of alco
hol in public places, being intoxi
cated in public, and drunk driving.
Once an American leaves the U.S.,
the laws of the foreign country ap
ply. An American abroad is not
protected by the U.S. Constitution
or U.S. laws. American consular
officers can visit Americans in for
eign jails but cannot intervene in a
foreign legal system on their behalf
Americans suspected of drug viola
tions have often spent months or
years in pretrial detention, and in
some countries are subject to the
death penalty for violating drug
laws, the State Department said.
The State Department offers a
free pamphlet entitled “Travel
Warning on Drugs Abroad” that
students can order from the Bureau
of Consular Affairs at 202-647-
1488 or view onhne at http://
j travel.state.gov.
AmeriCorps
seeks recruits
AmeriCorps, the domestic Peace
Corps, has launched its annual drive
to recruit up to 25,000 men and
women to apply for a year of na
tional service. AmeriCorps volun
teers serve one or two years with
local non-profit and national orga
nizations. Volunteers receive a
monthly living allowance and an
educational stipend ^f $4,725 at
year’s end to pay college tuition or
student loans.
AmeriCorps*VISTA seeks 1,500
recruits 18 years of age or older,
particularly college graduates, to
serve in disadvantaged communi
ties. AmeriCorps*NCCC seeks
1,000 people, aged 18 to 24, to
serve in a full-time residential pro
gram whose main priority is restor
ing the environment.
For information, contact
AmeriCorps at 1-800-942-2677 or
visit their website at http://
www.cns.gov.
Champs!
!
Student levels charges
UNCA wins Big South conference title.
PHOTO BY DEL DeLORM
Kyle S. Phipps
Sports Editor
The UNCA men’s basketball
team won its first ever Big South
regular season title on Feb. 22 by
defeating Winthrop University 81-
70. Preseason polls picked the Bull
dogs to finish seventh.
Instead, UNCA set a school record
with 11 wins in the conference. At
season’s end,the Bulldogs finished
tied with Liberty University with
11-3 conference records. However,
UNCA beat Liberty twice in the
See CHAMPS page 7
By Catharine Sutherland
staff Writer
Ryan McGarghan is one student
who does not feel that the new stu
dent conduct system is working. He
claims the new system violated his
constitutional rights and placed him
on specific probation, one step below
expulsion from the university, with
out his knowledge.
McGarghan, a UNCA junior, said
last week that the student conduct
system denied him his right to a fair
trial, due process of law, and the
ability to prepare an adequate de
fense. His charge came after a stu
dent conduct committee “tried, con
victed, and sanctioned” him during a
Feb. 6 meeting at which he was not
present.
‘If you don’t show up to a conduct
committee meeting, they assume
you’re guilry. In the United States,
I m innocent until proven guilty,”
said McGarghan.
Under the old student court sys
tem, a student who failed to appear
for a trial would be charged with
contempt of court and fined $25, a
charge that would appear on a
student’s court record.
Under the new system, the conduct
committee considers cases regardless
of a student’s attendance.
“When the appointment is made
and not kept, the case is still re
viewed,
advisor
viewed
said Ellie Marsh, faculty
of the committee that re-
McGarghan’s conduct
matter.
“Students
who choose
not to show
up at the
meeting will
have their
case re
viewed with
out their in-
Ryan put.”
McGarghan M^^a:Bhan’s
failure to ap
pear for his student conduct meet
ing appears to be the result of
miscommunication between uni
versity and student due to incom
plete address records, and not a
“blatant disregard for authority,”
stated the conduct committee in
its review of his actions.
Following an incident report
filed with the housing office last
December, which charged
McGarghan with noise and pos
sible alcohol violations inside a
residence hall, the housing office
turned the case over to the stu
dent conduct system when
McGarghan failed to appear for
an arranged meeting with a hous
ing office administrator.
The conduct system followed
regular procedure and mailed let
ters to McGarghan’s address in
January notifying him of his up
coming student conduct commit
tee meeting.
The only address the university
had on file was a permanent
Hendersonville address, however,
after McGarghan, who had resided
on campus at the time of the inci
dent, relocated to an ofF-campus
address at the start of the spring
semester and failed to give the uni
versity his new address.
It s the student’s responsibility
to have the correct address on the
computer system,” said Sue Hintz,
assistant director of student devel
opment and head of the student
conduct system. “I’ll only send let
ters to the permanent address if
that’s the only address listed. If
there is more than one address. I’ll
send it to the one that’s local.”
Hintz said she labels letters from
the student conduct system “Dated
and Confidential Material,” so that
even if a student’s parents were to
receive them they would realize the
important nature of the mail and
contact their son or daughter.
Reliance on this technique did
not prove sufficient in McGarghan’s
case, however.
I do not live in Hendersonville. I
do not have contact with iny
mother. My mother does not open
up my mail,” said McGarghan,
See CONDUCT page 8
New conduct committee questioned
By Catharine Sutherland
staff Writer
Only six months into its incep
tion on campus, the student con
duct system faces its own bout of
trials as some students question
the new system’s ability to protect
their constitutional rights.
“I don’t think students’ rights
are being looked out for as much
under the new system as they were
under the old one,” said Charles
Yeganian, a senior political sci
ence major and former public
defender in student court.
“Neither system is what I would
consider ideal, but if I had to
choose the lesser of the two evils, I
would choose the old system, and I
think the majority of the students
who have been through the process
would agree with me,” said
Yeganian.
Many students and administrators
involved in the creation and work
ing of the new conduct system dis
agree, claiming the new system,
which gives students the option of
meeting with a housing administra
tor or with a three-person conduct
committee to discuss conduct inci
dents, is a great improvement from
the old,
“Judging from how many com
plaints we had about the old court
system and how few we have had
about the new conduct system,” the
new system has so far proven a suc
cess with students, said Nina East,
director of student development and
supervisor of the student conduct
system.
“I think it’s far and away a better
system than student court,” said Brian
Pittman, a junior history major who
served on the Student Affairs Task
Force on Student Conduct that re
vised the student court system last
spring.
“My biggest reason for getting in
volved with the task force and the
new system was because I thought
the old court was not helping stu
dents. If anything, student’s rights
were being violated by the old sys
tem,” said Pittman, now in his third
yearofinvolvementwith the campus
conduct system.
According to SGA senators
Stephen Gross and Josh
Littlejohn, the student conduct
system will soon be receiving sug
gestions from SGA as to how the
organization believes the process
could change for the better,
SGA’s list starts with the need
for confirmation of the accused, a
concern stemming from a recent
case in which a student did not
receive notification of his student
conduct meeting due to incom
plete address records filed with
the university. Miscommunica
tion in the notification process
led to sanctioning decisions being
made and put into effect without
the student’s knowledge.
The student should sign a form
saying that he or she received a
subpoena and that the suggested
time is okay with the student, said
Gross, referring to the effectiveness
of the subpoena system used in the
former student court.
Despite the assurance of student
notification guaranteed by subpoe
nas, they may not be the best route
to take in the notification process,
according to Sue Hintz, assistant
director ofstudent development and
head of the student conduct sys
tem.
“Student prosecutors and clerks
had to track down students. It was
a tough job and everyone hated
See SGA page 8
UNCA reinforces AIDS awareness
UNCA skiing
discounts
Sugar Mountain Ski Area is offer
ing mid-week discounts on lift tick
ets to UNCA students through the
end of the season. Monday through
Friday day or twilight skiing tickets
are $16, half-day tickets are $11.
Sunday through Thursday night
tickets are $11.
Scholarship fund
honors slain man
Friends of Gerald Allman, one of
the men who was shot and killed
on May 17, 1995 at the Union
Butterfield plant in Asheville, have
established a scholarship fiind in
his name at UNCA.
Russell Truluck, a business friend
of Allman’s and president of In
form Systems Data Document, Inc.,
has organized the effort. Through
his work, $10,000 has been raised
to endow the fund, which will pro
vide scholarships for students with
financial need.
Truluck recently presented a check
for $7500 raised during the first
annual Gerald Allman Golf Tour
nament to Beverly Modlin, UNCA
vice chancellor for university rela
tions.
By Stephanie Hunter
Staff Writer
The UNCA health promotion
program sponsored four films last
week in order to create a campus-
wide awareness of AIDS, accord
ing to the chair of the health and
fitness department.
Hoping to reinforce the issues
presented in the drama
department’s production of “An
gels in America,” the health pro
motion program wanted to have
other events on campus to rein
force AIDS awareness, said Cheryl
McClary. “The chancellor has al
ways wanted the campus to have
an AIDS event to make our cam
pus more aware of AIDS, and to
make the student’s interest peaked
enough to become educated,” said
McClary.
Furthermore, anytime during the
month of February, a university
can designate a week as AIDS
awareness week on campus, and
UNCA chose last week, said Vicki
Brunnick, adjunct instructor in the
health and fitness department.
Students in the peer education
class chose two of the films, and
the student Hippocrates organiza
tion chose the other two, said
McClary. Through the peer educa
tion class, taught by Brunnick, the
students learn how to better com
municate health education to other
students, said McClary. “Your peers
can teach you more than a professor
ever can,” said McClary.
These two organizations screened
“AIDS: The Women Speak;” “Sex,
Condoms, and Video Tapes;” “And
the Band Played On;” “AIDS Re
search: The Story so far.”
One of the selected videos entitled
“And the Band Played on” shows
how AIDS came into this country
and how no one took it seriously.
“That’s why it spread like wildfire,”
said McClary. “We thought in this
age of antibiotics, modern medi
cine, and technology that there could
never be another disease that we
couldn’t control, and we were
wrong,” said McClary.
According to the Centers for Dis
ease Control, 650,000 to 900,000
people living in America have AIDS,
and the CDC expects this number
to continue to increase almost than
5 percent.
The CDC believes that the epi
demic appears to be slowing down
overall and with more efforts and
education this number will decrease.
In North Carolina alone, 6,887
people have AIDS; furthermore.
North Carolina ranks 19th in the
number of AIDS cases reported na
tionwide.
UNCA Health Services offers test
ing for HIV, said Linda Pyeritz, clinic
coordinator. An HIV test indicates
the antibodies that will eventually, if
a person is HIV positive, develop
AIDS.
“The testing that v.'e do here is
anonymous testing,” said Pyeritz.
Pyeritz defines anonymous as noth
ing such as a name or social security
number is associated with the labora
tory work which leaves the infirmary.
“All of our lab work leaves in an
anonymous state,” said Pyeritz.
UNCA Health Services uses a pri-
vate laboratory in Asheville, and a
courier picks up the blood from the
UNCA Health Services office for
delivery, said Pyeritz.
“I do require that students see me
and that we talk a good 30 to 40
minutes prior to drawing blood, and
that is called a pre-HIV test counsel
ing. I do require that students come
back and talk to me again to get their
results because I won’t give any re
sults for any blood work over the
phone,” said Pyeritz.
See AIDS page 10
Study Break
PHOTO BY JENNIFER THURSTON
Jeff White, a senior music major, practices Pat
Metheny’s “Better Days Ahead” in the music depart
ment in Lipinsky.