The University of North Carolina at Asheville
www.unca.edu/baniieri
ms
Volume 27 Issue 2
January 29, 1998
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SGA fills vacant positions, faces budget shortfall
By Greg Sessoms
staff Writer
The UNCA Student Government
Association (SGA) started the se
mester with six vacant senate posi
tions, and may have to raise funds
in addition to its campus commis
sion allotment to compensate for
overspending by the previous ad
ministration.
According to SGA president
Adrian Tatum, the current admin
istration may have to deal with a
budget shortfall due to overspend
ing by the previous administration
under former SGA president Sergio
Mariaca.
“During our fall semester, bills
from the last administration did
come in,” said Tatum. “Money had
to be taken out of the current ad
ministrations account to cover the
unpaid bills.
“At this time, we do not know how
much money was taken out or where
the money went,” Tatum said.
SGA currently has enough money
to cover planned projects, said Tif
fany Drummond, SGA vice presi
dent. However, she said that a fund
raiser, such as selling doughnuts,
Firm suggests
smaller fund
campaign
Drop Center for Creative
Retirement from campaign
plans, report says
By Brian Castle
Editor-in-Chief
After a fall 1997 study, a New
York-based consulting firm has
advised UNCA officials to move
forward with the school’s first ma
jor fundraising campaign.
However, the firm has proposed
decreasing the university’s poten
tial campaign goal of $ 13 million to
million after concluding that
the University Relations depart
ment is under-staffed and under
funded and that the university’s
major gift prospect pool lacks the
tiumber of qualified donor pros
pects to make a $13 million cam
paign feasible.
The consultants’ report also rec
ommended that funding for a new
building for the North Carolina
Center for Creative Retirement be
dropped from the campaign.
UNCA Chancellor Patsy Reed has
said that she will decide on the
campaign’s viablility and imple
mentation before the end of Janu-
iry.
The consulting firm, Washburn &
McGoldrick of Latham, N. Y., re
leased the findings of its fall 1997
study on Jan. 22.
The focus of the study, according
to the consultants’ report, was to
Jssess the readiness of both the uni
versity and its foundation (the
fundraising arm of the university)
for the first major fundraising cam
paign in the school’s history.
“We had a long list of finding
objectives, of critical needs, and
giving opportunities, and we
"'anted to get a sense from the most
critical constituencies that partici
pated in the study whether those
tteeds were, in fact, considered high
priority needs among the school,”
said the firm’s Susan Washburn.
We said that we would seek to
tecommend a goal, a campaign goal,
tliat we thought you would need to
stretch to achieve but that was, in
fact, achieveable.”
The original $13 million poten
tial goal is derived from the 1997-
59 University Strategic Plan and
stated in a “case for support” state-
■tient for potential donors.
might be necessary “because there
may be something at the end of the
semester that we may have prob
lems with.”
The vacant senate positions were
caused by the resignation of six
senators elected in April 1997. Se
nior Senators Hilary Russell and
Adrienne Kruse resigned on Oct.
8, after it was determined that they
had not completed a sufficient
number of hours to be classified as
seniors.
Junior Senator Stephan Horvath
resigned Jan. 14 after accepting an
internship in Washington, D.C.
Sophomore Senator Zach
Petersen and Residential Senator
Danny Rossi resigned on Jan. 14
due to “time conflicts,” and Com
muter Senator Marc Villegas re
signed on Nov. 12 due to “personal
reasons,” according to Tatum.
The resignations forced the can
cellation of one senate session last
semester, because there were not
enough senators present to hold a
quorum.
However, Tatum said the resigna
tions did not have a significant
impact on the overall operation of
SGA.
“It did not cause a lot of problems
because the senators that were there
were committed to being there,”
Tatum said.
Five of the six vacant positions
were filled by appointments made
at the senate meeting on Jan. 21.
They were: Jennifer Peterson, se
nior senator, Piper Nieters, junior
senator, Chris Green, sophomore
senator, Jim Lackey, commuter
senator, and Ben Weigand, resi
dential senator.
SGA’s major focus for the semes
ter will be on the creation of an on-
campus child day care program, an
issue which has been investigated
by every SGA for the past 17 years.
“This year is going to be different
because we have a dedicated
SGA,” said David Marshall,
commuter senator.
Other SGA projects for the
semester include a “pawliday,”
where new organizations can
have a bulldog paw painted on
the street in front of the cafete
ria, and those organizations that
already have paws can touch
them up.
According to Drummond,
improvements to the book co
op will also be considered this
semester.
“There are still some logistics
to workout,” Drummond said.
Some $10.5 million is being
sought for “academic needs.”
The academic needs list includes
$3 million in student scholarships
($2.5 million in academic scholar
ships and $500,000 in athletic
scholarships) and over $1.4 million
in faculty support, in addition to
$2.15 million in technology and
equipment needs for a fiber optic
network, computer laboratories,
and multimedia classrooms.
The plan also calls for a $2.5 mil
lion building to house the North
Carolina Center for Creative Re
tirement, currently housed in
Carmichael Hall.
According to the consultants’ re
port, the University Strategic Plan
“is in place and appears to have
provided a good basis for the iden
tification of funding objectives.”
Due to the unfeasibility of a $13
million campaign, the university
needs to place “greater focus on the
most compelling and urgent priori
ties for private support.”
In their report, the consultants
recommended that the plan for the
campaign be rewritten to include
only those proposals that the po
tential donors found “most com
pelling”: academic scholarships,
technology, and faculty support.
Coupled with this proposal was a
recommendation that the Center
for Creative Retirement be dropped
from the campaign, since most of
the potential donors were more con
cerned about UNCA’s undergradu
ate student population.
Washburn and McGoldrick in
terviewed 45 potential donors on
Oct. 28-29 and Nov. 3-7 to gauge
their feelings about UNCA and its
officials and to find out the poten
tial results of a fundraising cam
paign.
In the survey, 82 percent of the
interviewees “felt well-informed”
about the university and 95 percent
of the interviewees had “positive
feelings” about the university.
The most-often mentioned
strengths of UNCA, according to
the interviewees, were “teaching,”
and “faculty.”
The most often-mentioned weak
nesses at UNCA were “alumni in-
See REPORT on page 10
Surprise snowstorm hits UNCA
PHOTO BY NATE CONROY
The unexpected snow that crippled UNCA left some residents without transportation when trees fell under the
weight of the snow onto their cars (pictured above). The snow led to UNCA cancelling classes Tuesday, but not
until after several classes had already been held. UNCA’s doors remained closed throughout most of the week.
Campus construction progresses
By Gene Zaleski
staff Writer
Construction crews on the UNCA
campus are working on three ma
jor projects this spring semester.
Projects currently underway in
clude the installation of air condi
tioning in Founder’s Hall, an addi
tional campus entrance from Divi
sion Street, and the West Ridge
residence hall, according to Ron
Reagan, director of facilities plan
ning and construction at UNCA.
The 300-bed Founder’s Hall has
plans to install an air conditioning
system this coming summer, and
service to students begin in the fall
semester of 1998.
“We are in the process of getting
the contracts through state con
struction,” Reagan said. Once the
contracts have been signed, equip
ment can be ordered and work can
begin outdoors. As soon as school
lets out the workers will actually go
into the dorms and continue all the
work.”
Reagan said the air conditioning
project will not disturb Founder’s
Hall residents.
“Part of the project will be started
while the students are still in the
dorms, though not the construc
tion part,” said Reagan. “We’ve been
planning this for awhile and the
plan is to do as much work on the
outside and in the mechanical room
as soon as possible and not do any
interior work until students have
left for the summer.”
The total cost of the project is
$931,800. Sud Associates of
Durham has been hired to com
plete the engineering part of the
project, the Bolton Corporation of
Asheville is the mechanical con
tractor, and Electrics of Asheville is
the electrical contractor.
Other facilities on campus are
obtainmg air conditioning systems
as well. According to Reagan,
Carmichael Hall and the Science
tower are in line for air condition
ing systems, and Phillips Hall was
air conditioned last summer.
In addition, a lengthening of Di
vision Street will provide another
entrance to campus for UNCA stu
dents.
The road is actually the second
phase of the project to provide ac
cess to the university’s Chestnut
Ridge property.
The project, which is scheduled to
be completed by the end of March,
is being done by Cooper Construc
tion, at a total cost of $755,000.
“They are probably about 75 per
cent complete. They have installed
sewer lines, water lines, and storm
drainage lines. Right now they are
about to install the duct bank which
is the conduit for future phone and
electrical wiring. Once they get the
duct bank in, they will be able to
put in the curb, gutters, and as
phalt quite quickly,” said Reagan.
According to Reagan, the road
will benefit non-resident students
coming in from the south side of
campus the most.
“If you are coming ofF-site and
want to go to the gym or the
Zageir parking lot, this road will
give you direct access without
going to the service drive and
driving through campus to get up
there,” said Reagan.
Also in progress is the West Ridge
residence hall, scheduled to be
finished in March 1999. Accord
ing to Reagan, about 23 percent
of the project is done.
“The original schedule was for
the building to be completed in
December of 1998. Weather has
played a small factor, but we be
lieve the first students to use it
will be summer school students in
See WORK on page 10