The Univetsiiy of North Carolina at AsheviUe
Volume 25, Number 21
March 6,1997
NEWS
BRIEFS
Jewish carni
val to be held
The Annual JCC Spring
Children’s Carnival, celebrating the
Jewish holiday “Purim,” will be held
at the Asheville Jewish Community
Center, 236 Charlotte Street, on
Sunday, March 23 at 12:15 p.m.
Admission is free, game tickets will
be on sale at the door. For more
information, call 253-0701.
Popular books
According to the latest survey of
college bookstores in The Chronicle
of Higher Education, “The English
Patient” by Michael Ondaatje is
the best-selling book among col
lege students. “The Book of Ruth”
byJane Hamilton took second, fol
lowed by “Snow Falling on Cedars”
by David Guterson, “It’s a Magical
World” by Bill Watterson, and “Fu
gitive from the Cubicle Police” by
Scott Adams.
“One Hundred Secret Senses” by
Amy Tan is in sixth place, followed
by “Dogbert’s Top Secret Manage
ment Handbook” by Scott Adams,
“A Reporter’s Life” by Walter
Cronkite, “The Horse Whisperer”
by Nicholas Evans, and “The Rules”
by Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider.
Not so at UNCA. General trade
books generally don’t sell well here,
said Mike Small, UNCA bookstore
manager. For the most part,
UNCA’s non-text best-sellers are
nature or hiking guides or books
that have regional appeals or themes.
Faculty books often sell well when
they are first published, especially
books that have a general audience
appeal. Other books that generate
interest at UNCA coincide with
campus events, such as African
American Heritage Month or
Women’s History Month, Small
said.
Science and
spirituality
Jewish spiritualit)i expert Daniel
C. Matt will give a lecture entitled
“God and the Big Bang: Discover
ing Harmony between Science and
Spirituality” at 7:30 p.m. on March
17 in Carmichael Hall’s Humani
ties Lecture Hall.
Matt, a professor at the Graduate
Theological Union in Berkeley, Ca.,
is UNCA’s Center for Jewish Stud
ies 1997 Phyllis Sollod Memorial
Lecturer. His new book explores
the connections between ancient
Jewish mysticism and modern theo
ries of cosmology. His lecture will
offer a bridge between ancient reli
gious traditions and contemporary
science. For information, call 251-
6669.
League of
Women Voters
The public is invited to a “power
breakfast” hosted by the League of
Women Voters at 7:30 a.m. on
Thursday March 20 at the Fine
Friends Restaurant. Breakfast will
be available from the restaurant for
$5.20, and campaign reform will
be the topic of discussion. Jane
Bingham from Common Cause and
Ken Schapira from the Coalition
for Campaign Finance Reform will
lead a discussion.
The League of Women Voters has
also begun a campaign to repeal the
North Carolina sales tax on food.
The League urges everyone to save
their grocery receipts, circle the sales
tax, write “NO” on them, and mail
them to state legislators. The N.C.
General Assembly lowered the food
tax by one percent last year in re
sponse to public pressure. For in
formation about these events, call
258-8223.
He’s back!
£i"
I
PHOTO BY DEL DeLORM
The Reverend Gary Birdsong once again returned to
campus on Wednesday.
Student Health Care
57 students enrolled in university plan
By Chanse Simpson
staff Writer
For students without health insur
ance, the medical bills following a
trip to the hospital or a health
specialist’s office can be as unsettling
as the injury or illness itself.
It’s generally not long after the
stitches heal and the prescriptions
run out that medical bills bring home
a harsh reality of health care in
America.
For someone who is uninsured or
underinsured, and most college stu
dents find themselves in one of these
two categories, it can be an over
whelming experience.
“The American College Health As
sociation estimates that between 50
and 60 percent of all college students
across the country have no health
insurance, and that an additional 25
percent are underinsured,” said
UNCA’s Director of Health Services
Dr. Eric Pyeritz.
Currently on campus, Pyeritz said,
there are 57 students enrolled in a
university insurance plan underwrit
ten by MEGA Life and Health Insur
ance Company in Dallas, Texas.
The university keeps no records
regarding the number of students
who have off-campus insurance,
so it is virtually impossible to get
an accurate assessment of unin
sured students at UNCA.
The present single-year policy
offered through the university
ranges in price from $435 for the
basic major medical plan to $689
for optional catastrophic cover
age. The policy can be expanded
to include dependents.
Although the policy is desig
nated for an entire 12-month pe
riod, students taking at least six
credit hours can purchase a pro
rated policy at any time of the
year.
The main reason that most stu
dents do not have health insur
ance is a matter of finances, said
Pyeritz.
“We have a lot of older students
on campus who don’t have insur
ance and are just sort of scraping
by,” said Pyeritz, adding that
many UNCA students work part-
time jobs that offer no insurance
benefits to employees.
Although the university does not
require students to have insurance
while they are enrolled, Pyeritz said,
many other schools, such as the
North Carolina School for the Per
forming Arts in Winston-Salem,
have a hard waiver policy that de
mands all students to carry some
type of insurance.
Many other schools maintain a
soft waiver policy in which they
encourage students to purchase in
surance, but do not mandate it, he
said.
“UNCA has neither,” Pyeritz said.
“We put the brochures around cam
pus and offer information on the
policy, but that’s about all we can
do.
“What happens under our system
here at UNCA, because there is no
requirement to get insurance, our
numbers are going to stay low. Now
that’s fine for the student who
doesn’t want insurance, but the
(university) community is running
a risk because someday our rates
might be $ 1000 ayear,” said Pyeritz.
See HEALTH page 8
\^siting filmmaker holds workshop
By Shelley Eller
staff Writer
Documentary filmmaker
Chris Larson, who has worked
as a producer for NBC’s “Date
line,” recently came to UNCA
to hold a screening of his work
and host a day-long workshop
on filmmaking methods.
The UNCA Cultural and Spe
cial Events Committee and the
department of mass communi
cation sponsored his visit.
On March 1, Larson screened
“Whose Death is it Anyway?,”
a documentary segment that ex
plored end-of-life decisions
faced by terminally ill people
and their families. The segment
has aired on public television
previously.
“I was directly responsible for
finding the families in the docu
mentary,” said Larson. “People
in the documentary wanted to help
other people by sharing their expe
riences.”
A discussion of the film immedi
ately followed the screening.
“The documentary shows the tough
decisions people are forced to make
for the end of life,” said Larson
during the discussion. “Death is a
very difficult thing for people to
think about.”
On March 3, he conducted a day
long workshop entitled “Creating
Nonfiction: Telling the Story and
Telling the Truth.” Larson gave
participants an overview on the
process and production of nonfic
tion storytelling.
“Theworkshop was fantastic,” said
Don Diefenbach, assistant profes
sor of mass communication.“Chris
took us through the entire process
of producing network news and
nonfiction pieces.”
Larson began the workshop by
discussing methods of nonfiction
work and the challenges of its pro
duction.
The workshop showed participants
how to conduct good interviews. With
production equipment, an interview
was set up and techniques in lighting
and composition showed how the
interviewee was visually accentuated.
Good interviewing methods were also
addressed.
“We went over the elements of a
good nonfiction story,” said Larson.
“Students got hands-on experience
through role-playing interviewers and
documentary subjects.”
Students were given an assignment
during lunch time in which he or she
had to use interviewing techniques to
find a story to present at the after
noon session.
“There was a nice mixture of stu
dents who participated in the work
shop,” said Diefenbach.”There wasn’t
just mass communications students,
but students from the political sci
ence and social science departments.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF DON DIEFENBACH
Filmmaker Chris Larson recently visited the campus to
screen his documentary work and host a day-long work
shop.
The workshop also had meth
ods of story pitch ideas. A story
pi tch meeti ng was held where par
ticipants had to select a story idea
to produce. The process of
preproduction, production and
See FILM page 8
Public safety officers find gun at nearby campsite
PHOTO BY JENNIFER THURSTON
Public safety officer Bruce Martin cautiously investigates
one of two tents found on property behind W.T. Weaver
Boulevard.
By Jennifer Thurston
Managing Editor
When UNCA public safety officers
found a campsite on UNCA property
behind W.T. Weaver Boulevard sev
eral weeks ago, they felt the need to
warn students of the potential dan
gers of hiking or biking through the
area.
The campsite was probably occu
pied by at least one vagrant, public
safety officer Bruce Martin said, and
a 12-gauge shotgun, a box of .22
magnum handgun shells, hypoder
mic syringes, and other drug para
phernalia were confiscated from the
site. It is illegal for anyone to have a
gun on state property.
“We’re not advocating that students
don’t use the area,” Martin said. “Just
to be aware of the area and to pay
attention to their surroundings.”
Martin advised students to hike with
friends and to use caution in the
woods, as they would in any area
Additionally, “hard-core porno
graphic” magazines and skinned ani
mal hides were seen at the site,
but were later removed by the
unknown occupant, said Martin.
On March 4, physical plant em
ployees tore the site down and
removed two tents, two sleeping
bags, a pillow, clothing, some
personal items, a shovel, and a
Bible.
A list was left for the person to
claim the items if he or she re
turns, but if claimed, an arrest is
possible on charges of possessing
a weapon and drug paraphernalia
and trespassing on state property.
“Safety is a factor in our day and
age,” Martin said. “He’s still com
ing and going. All of this com
bined makes for a possibly dan
gerous individual.”
The campsite was located about
20 yards off the area’s hiking paths.
“While we were inspecting the
site,” Martin said, “we saw a num
ber of students go by. They didn’t
even see us.”
Warm weather has brought in
creased use of the wooded area by
students and residents of the
neighborhood, Martin said, but it
also means an increase in use by
homeless people.
“This has been an ongoing prob
lem, but we’ve never had as many
people at once. The difference now
is the shotgun and drugs.”
“Everybody’s worried that it’s a
well-used path and we don’t want
a dangerous situation,” said Mel
issa Acker, physical plant grounds
superintendent.
“We hate to see people suffer,
but safety is our main concern.
We do things for the students as a
priority.”
UNCA owns the property be
hind Weaver Boulevard, bordered
by Broadway on the west and
North Street and Vivien Street to
the south.
Remains of older campsites still
exist in the woods as well as “spi
der holes,” or dug-out areas re
sembling graves that people have
camped out in.
See CAMPSITE page 10