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y[arch 26, 1998
The Banner
Page 3
Perspectives
Empower student government or dissolve it
Brave Horvath an
example for us all
Dear Editor,
Lord knows I’ve felt more hip to
he facts since reading Stephan
Horvath’s letter in the March 12
issue.
A a poorly-informed outsider, I
ould not have suspected that in
terns were so well-acquainted with
ibe complexities oflife in Washing-
on, D.C.
Wow. “Zippergate.” Those of us
fith access to news coverage of
sser caliber haven’t heard that
■itty buzzword before. I am grate-
ulforMr. Horvath’s willingness to
us in on some Beltway-insider
Krets, and I applaud his determi-
Btion to “live by a higher stan-
lard,”
However, 1 must question Mr.
lorvath’s wisdom in revealing that
lehas “Top Secret clearance.” The
•old War may be over, but indis-
fetion in matters of national secu-
ity still has no place in our capitol.
'lore revelatory letters to The Ban-
might bring Mr. Horvath to
lienot-altogether-undue attention
fthe C.I.A., underground-Com-
nunist-super-spy organizations, or
ny number of rogue agents of in-
rnational espionage. The amoral.
Brian
Editor-in-Chief
As a member of The'Banneredko-
rial board for the last three semes
ters, I have watched the workings of
our Student Government Associa-
[ion with a keen interest in holding
our elected representatives account-
,ble for the way in which they gov-
rn student life at UNCA.
During my time as managing edi-
:or last semester and now as editor-
n-chief, I have driven our editorial
jolicy to criticize the SGA and its
nembers for what I have believed
10 be their failure to properly serve
he student body. I had hoped that
n criticizing such projects as the
jaw painting on University Heights
would spur the various senators
nd administrators to achieve higher
oals for the students, such as im-
roved services, security measures,
nd entertainment options.
I was wrong.
In criticizing the Student Gov-
rnment Association and its mem-
lers for what I perceived as their
naction and ineptness in dealing
ith student issues, I have alien-
ited friends and fellow students.
OTien I took the job of editor-in-
hief, I knew that I would more
han likely make more enemies than
friends. But I now believe that much
of my criticism of our student gov
ernment was unfair.
These criticisms, in the form of
editorials written with fellow mem
bers of my editorial board, have
been unfair because our student
government is not a case of bad
people not utilizing a good system.
Quite simply, it’s a case of good
people like current President Adrian
Tatum, Senator Doug Jones (in
spite of his ami-Banner bills last
semester), and newly-elected Presi
dent Alphonse Donaldson; these
are people who want to make a
difference and make changes for
the betterment of student life at
UNCA, but they are trapped in the
confines of a bad system that gives
them no real power to affect these
changes.
In talking to both friends and
acquaintances who are involved in
student government on our fair
campus, I have learned that the
power of the SGA has eroded
through the years. I have learned
that the power of the SGA is cur
rently at its weakest point in school
history, as its members have what
they desribe, in all of its feebleness.
as “the power of suggestion.”
Suggestion?
I have been assured by at least one
person in the student government
that the administration does listen
to their concerns. But all too often,
listen is all that the administration
does. And the reason that we have a
student government, in an ideal
world but not in the reality oflife at
UNCA, is to take action.Take, for
example, the issue of voice mail on
campus.
Bookstore Manager Mike Small is
charged with providing services to
students in the field of communi
cations. InhisdealingswithAT&T,
Small has secured voice mail service
to be paid for by a fund generated
by resident students’ long distance
charges. Those who know Mike
Small tell me that he is “one of the
good guys” on campus, a genuinely
nice person who tries to accomodate
student needs.
Before Small and the administra
tion implemented the voice mail
system, they took a campus-wide
survey to find out whether or not
students wanted voice mail at all.
Their survey was problematic in
that it included the opinions of
commuter students, who, by virtue
of the fact that they don’t live on
campus, would neither be paying
for the system via their long dis
tance calls nor using the system as
would resident students. I am a
commuter student, and I myself
was hounded for days in front of
Zageir Hall to vote on voice mail. I
remember thinking, why the hell
should they care what I think about
something that is geared toward
resident students?
Evidently, President-elect
Letters to the Editor
unscrupulous world of cloak-and-
dagger intrigue is an unforgiving
one, or so I hear. Caution is war
ranted, as Mr. Horvath could one
day be ambushed, kidnapped,
beaten, questioned, and beaten
some more, all while emphatically
denying that he knows anything
about anything.
Still, I commend Mr. Horvath on
his courage and humility in the face
of danger. Verily, he stands guard
at the gates of the citadel of Ameri
can democracy.
Jack Walsh
Senior, mass communication
CBTV is ready for
its close-up
Dear Editor,
There is something new in the air,
in Western N.C., and it is Commu
nity Broadcasted Television.
CBTV is not your everyday TV
station.
We the founding board members
(Herschel D. Williams, CEO; Neal
B. Kelly, President of Special
Projects and Production; Albert W.
Di Martino, Director of News and
Programming) of CBTV have
brought into inception, here in
Donaldson was thinking the same
thing, because he set out to discover
how the students who would be
paying for voice mail and who would
be most affected by it felt about its
possible implementation. In his
door-to-door survey of the residence
halls, then-Senator Donaldson un
covered an overwhelming opposi
tion to voice mail among the resi
dent student population, which he
then related to the student govern
ment.
In its current state of grand impo
tence, the SGA could merely sug
gest that we not spend residential
student money on voice mail. The
We ail know
from history
tiiat tiiose wfio
lioid power are
usuaiiy reiuc-
tant about giv
ing up any part
of tiieir power
SGA had, and still doesn’t have,
any formal power to block a mea
sure that did not, in light of
Donaldson’s survey, serve the best
interests of the students at UNCA.
In short, no power equaled no ac
tion on behalf of the students, and
we now have unwanted voice mail
on campus. Imagine what the re
sult would have been had the SGA
Western N.C., the first amateur
community television station.
It is CBTV’s mission to offer “We
the People” the access to the air
waves that are freely and constitu
tionally ours.
CBTV’s objective is to facilitate
production ofTV programming to
the diverse Western N.C. commu
nity, without constraint of race,
class, gender, or age, so as to pro
mote communication, understand
ing, and community where there is
a void at present.
CBTV looks to offer its facilities
to all who wish to enhance the
educational, cultural, economic,
and political community of West
ern N.C. with their passion of tal
ent and beliefs.
All are wclcome to express them
selves to the fullest extent of the
First Amendment and the FCC.
Where accessibility to the people’s
airwaves in the past was only open
to those of power and wealth.
We at CBTV look to offer to all in
the Western North Carolina com
munity an opportunity to display
their feelings.
To finally have an open forum
that can freely inform, educate, en
tertain, and build a community for
all of our citizens and not just the
big fish of the small pond that
Asheville, is CBTV’s raison detre.
For more information about
CBTV, contact me at 259-7559.
AI Di Martino
Senior, sociology
Shape up or tune
out
Dear Editor,
What is the point of this stupid
article (“Asheville radio fails its lis
teners, students say,” Oct. 9, 1997)?
Yes, stupid. The students at UNCA
don’t know how lucky they have it.
First off, I am at Western Carolina
University, in Cullowhee, N.C. We
don’t get Asheville stations, and we
sure as heck don’t get Charlotte
stations. All we get is Rap and Top
40 from the campus radio station.
I see no reason for a campus like
UNCA that receives at least three
stations to complain. It’s stupid.
You don’t have it hard. Remind
students there that that they have a
choice, turn up the volume, or turn
on the CD player.
Stop complaining. Come down
here, and see how lucky you have it.
Feel free to print this letter and
submit it. Stop complaining.
Kyle Kissmann
WCU student
Letters to the editor may be submitted to The Banner at One
University Heights, 208A Carmichael Hall, Asheville, NC 28804,
e-mailed to banner@unca.edu, or submitted via The Banner
Online. Letters should be typed, single-spaced, and limited to
300 words or less. Submissions may be edited for space and
content. Letters to the editor must be signed and include the
author’s classification and major or other relationship to UNCA.
had the power to block Mike Small
and the administration, who, no
matter how good their intentions,
are doing a disservice to resident
students by spending the students’
money against their wishes.
The truth of the matter of student
government is that the “power of
suggestion” is not power at all. There
are two means by which we can
solve the problem of student pow
erlessness at UNCA.
First, the administration could
recognize the error of its ways and
give back the power that it has
systematically wrested away from
the students through the years. By
definition, the members of the ad
ministration of this public univer
sity are public servants. They can
realize that one way in which they
can better serve the community is
to give the students a powerful voice
in matters that directly affect them
(which would include just about
everything that crosses the
chancellor’s and the vice chancel
lors’ desks). Through power-shar
ing, the administration will save
itself the hassle and embarrassment
of making ill-informed (if not ill-
conceived) decisions such as the
implementation of voice mail, and
share in the glory of properly serv
ing the students alongside an em
powered student government.
But we all know from examples in
political history that those who hold
power are usually reluctant, to say
the least, about giving up any part
of their power, even if it means
greater legitimacy and, conse
quently, strength, for those already
in power. That said, if the adminis
tration fails to give the elected rep
resentatives of the students any real
power, the SGA should dissolve
itselfand its leaders join with cam
pus activists in mass protest against
the oppressive policy of the ad
ministration.
President-elect Donaldson and
the rest of the newly-elected SGA
should end the farce that has been
student government for as long as
any of us can remember. We elect
them to take action on our behalf
to solve the problems that face us,
problems like dark, rape-friendly
parking lots. We don’t elect them
to serve as our pep club, to paint
paws on University Heights to
build school spirit (not that spirit
paws are a bad thing in and of
themselves, we should just have a
damn pep club to do things like
that and not have student body
officers bragging about their
accomplisments being blue paint
on a road).
Some might suggest that UNCA
students don’t really care whether
or not they have a powerful stu
dent government, and they may
cite the 10 percent turnout for the
pre-spring break elections. I refute
that suggestion by citing the fact
that those who voted were not
voting for people running for
postions in the UNCA Student
Government Association. They
were voting for new leaders for the
UNCA School Spirit Association.
I maintain that iftheSGA had real
power, you would see a lot more
people caring about student gov
ernment in a positive way.
President-elect Donaldson, the
choice is yours: continue the bad
joke that is SGA, or empower your
self to truly lead the people whom
you are charged to serve.
(EditoriaJ Board
Brian Castle
Erin King
Chris Brooker
Renee Slaydon
Chris Garner
Preston Gannaway
Amanda Thorn
Nate Conroy
Editor-in-Chief
Managing Editor
News Editor
Features Editor
Sports Editor
Phot6 Editor
Copy Editor
Electronic Editor
Staff
Travis Barker, Lissa Hall,
Nicole Miller, Amelia Morrison, Andrew Pearson,
Greg Sessoms, Gene Zaleski
Susan Johnson
Fatima Johnson
Managers
Advertising Manager
Circulation Manager
Columnists
Nate Conroy, George Costant,
Justin Stein
Online Staff
Matt Hunt, Hugh Kelly, Darrell Sellers
Mark West, faculty advisor
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