The Uniwrsitf of North Cafolina at Asheville
www,unca.edu/bann«r
Volume 27 Issue 12
April 16, 1998
Athletics battles gender equity problems
By Amelia Morrison
staff Writer
The UNCA Athletic Department has
aken steps to eliminate gender equity prob-
ems which jeopardized its final certifica-
ion as a National Collegiate Athletic Asso-
iation (NCAA) Division I athletic pro-
ram. Currently, UNCA only has provi-
onal certification as a Division I school.
“We have made continual progress,” said
Tom Hunnicutt, Director of Athletics at
UNCA. “It has been a priority since I’ve
leen here.”
In February 1996, a complaint was filed
ith the Department of Education’s Of-
ice of Civil Rights (OCR) alleging that the
university discriminated on the basis of sex
in the intercollegiate athletic program. An
investigation by the OCR found that there
was gender inequality in the UNCA ath
letic department.
“The OCR sent two or three investiga
tors to campus. They collected their infor
mation and drafted a report. They took
(the UNCA) response and drafi:ed a final
report which mandated certain changes,”
said Keith Krumpe, assistant professor of
chemistry and chair of a UNCA subcom
mittee investigating gender inequity in the
athletic department.
According to Tom Cochran, associate
vice chancellor for academic affairs, a
progress report from the UNCA adminis
tration is due to the OCR by May 1.
Cochran said the report will include infor
mation about participation rates and eq
uity in recruiting areas.
Being in violation with OCR gender eq
uity jeopardizes potential certification by
thd NCAA.
“The NCAA
will not penal
ize institutions,
but they will not
certify them if
they are not in
compliance
with the Office
of Civil Rights,”
said Robert
Yearout, associ
ate professor of management and the former
Faculty Athletic Representative.
In 1995, UNCA faculty and staff con
Tom Hunnicutt
ducted an internal “Self-Study” as part of
the NCAA Division I athletic certification
process. The study isolated problem areas
in the athletics department in regards to
finances, equity, rules, and commitment to
academic integrity.
The self-study reported that the number
of women’s participants was proportion
ately low to the female percentage of full
time students, and said that women ath
letes did not have as much access to female
coaches as male athletes did to male coaches.
“Almost all of the problems resulted from
male athletes receiving more benefits than
female athletes,” said the report.
Soon after the completion of the self-
study, the NCAA conducted a “peer-re
view team report,' where officials not con
nected to UNCA athletics reviewed the
self-study report.
The peer-review report said that the self-
study was “reasonably accurate,” and set
forth time frames for the completion of the
changes suggested by the UNCA self-study
report. It also said that most problems
regarding gender equity must be addressed
within eight months of final NCAA Divi
sion I certification.
According to Hunnicutt, UNCA has
taken many steps to correct the gender
equity problems in the athletics depart
ment. He said that a gender equity advisor
has been appointed, the women’s basket
ball team is now traveling by charter bus
instead of in vans, female coaches have
been added to the program, and a new
See GENDER on page 8
False fire alarms plague dorms
ATASHEVIU^
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY PRESTON GANNAWAY
UNCA residents have experienced an unusual number of fire alarms in the past month. Always vigilant, Hoey Hall
residents Chrissie Plew (left) and Meredith Licht (right) are ready to take action on a moment’s notice.
By Nicole Miller
staff Writer
An inordinate number of false
fire alarms have occurred in the
UNCA residence halls over the
past month, forcing residents to
evacuate their buildings at all hours
of the day and night.
On April 7, three false fire alarms
occurred at South Ridge Hall dur
ing the early morning hours, and
many residents left the building
wearing only pajamas.
"People were quite upset,” said
Derek Edwards, head resident as
sistant for South Ridge Hall.
“There were not a lot of happy
campers out there at three and
five in the morning.”
According to Resident Assistant
Eric Winters, when a fire alarm is
activated, he and other resident
assistants go to each of the rooms
in the hall where the alarm is
sounded and tell the residents that
they need to evacuate the build-
ing.
Winters said that he is worried
that students have grown accus
tomed to the false alarms, and will
not react properly in the event of an
actual fire.
“Lately, it has gotten to the point
where my residents won’t even pay
attention to the fire alarms,” said
Winters.
A number of resident students
admit to ignoring the fire alarms
and the warnings of the resident
assistants.
“Its kind of scary, but I usually try
to ignore it and go back to sleep,
said freshman Misty Moser, a resi
dent of Mills Hall.
“We have never left before (when
the alarms went off), ’ said Emma
Jones, a freshman creative writing
major and resident of Mills Hall.
Mirza Selimbegovic, a freshman
resident of Swain Hall, doubted
that anyone would leave his build
ing “unless someone saw or smelled
smoke in the dorm.
Many residents complained about
not being informed as to the cause
of the recent false alarms.
Selimbegovic said that when the
alarm is activated in his dorm, resi
dents think that someone is simply
testing the system.
“We have no clue as to what is
going on,” said Selimbegovic.
“Here in South Ridge, there are a
lot of alarms, and there is a lot of
misinformation about their causes,”
said junior classics and psychology
major Jonathan Freeze.
“One way to stop the rumor mill
would be to have resident assistants
provide some explanation for these
alarms as they happen,” Freeze said.
Tom Goddard, assistant director
of facilities management and
UNCA safety officer, said that the
primary cause of the false fire alarms
is people cooking in the dorms.
“Cooking is the biggest offender,”
said Goddard. “Burning popcorn
in the microwave can generate
enough smoke that a detector will
go into alarm.
“The current systems are very so
phisticated and will detect very
minute amounts of particles of com
bustion,” said Goddard.
Goddard said that there are a vari
ety of other reasons why the fire
detection system is prone to false
alarms.
“If the batteries get low, it goes
into alarm. Ifacircuitbreakerblows,
it goes into alarm. If a wire gets cut
or shorted out, it goes into alarm,”
said Goddard. “They are designed
so that if there is ever anything
wrong with them, they go into
alarm.”
Goddard said that the current
installation of the campus
fiberoptic network and construc
tion of West Ridge Hall may be
another cause of the reccnt out
break of false alarms.
“We’ve had some alarms gener
ated from the dust that was cre
ated by the work being done,”
said Goddard.
Director of Housing Pete Will
iams said that some resident assis
tants voiced concerns about the
fire alarm systems at a meeting
two weeks ago.
“Some questioned whether the
systems are inspected,” said Will
iams.
According to Goddard, all cam
pus fire alarm systems are inspected
twice a year by a qualified vendor,
and facilities management work
ers check the system every time an
alarm is sounded.
Williams said that UNCA offi
cials are planning to install new
fire alarm systems in Founder’s
Hall and four of the Governor’s
Village residence halls this sum-
See FIRE on page 8
UNCA hosts
conference on
core materials
Participants will come
from colleges nationwide
By Gene Zaleski
staff Writer
Over 180 faculty representatives
from 120 colleges and universities
will descend on Asheville today for
the fourth annual conference of the
Association of Core Texts and
Courses (ACTC), which is hosted
this year by UNCA.
The ACTC is sponsored by the
Intellectual Heritage Program at
Temple University in Philadelphia,
and focuses its efforts on helping
universities improve the courses and
texts that they require of all stu
dents.
Margaret Downes, director of the
UNCA humanities program, said
that the purpose of the conference
is to bring representatives ofdiffer-
ent universities together so that ideas
about how to improve core curricu
lum can be shared.
“When new ideas are presented
on what should be taught in a core
courses and how to improve core
teaching, we can listen to those
ideas and incorporate them into
our own course, whether they be
the four humanities courses or the
Arts 310 course,” said Downes.
According to Downes, the confer
ence was started four years ago by
two faculty members at Temple
University, Steve Zelnick andScott
Lee, who wanted to find out what
was going on around the nation
with core programs.
“They felt that what they were
doing at Temple University was a
little unusual, and they wanted to
see ways in which they could make
things better.” said Downes.
Downes said that this is the first
year that the ACTC conference has
been held outside of Philadelphia.
“The ACTC organization was
looking to switch venues,” said
Downes. “Theythoughtthatmaybe
with a change of place, new ideas
could possibly arise.
“It also helps schools which are
not that close to Philadelphia and
closer to Asheville to attend with
out having to travel a long dis
tance,” said Downes.
Downes said that the conference
has grown remarkably over the four
years that it has been in existence.
more than doubling in size since it
began.
“It started with about 50 to 75
participants and now we are up to
180 participants,” said Downes.
According to Downes, UNCA will
benefit from the exposure that host
ing the conference will provide to
the school.
“There is more awareness nation
wide of what is going on at UNCA,
and there is more awareness at
UNCA of what is going on nation
wide,” said Downes. “I think in a
practical way, the conference is good
publicity for UNCA and Western
North Carolina.”-
The conference, which runs
through Sunday, will consist of in;
dividual sessions where participants
will be presenting short papers, and
group sessions where plenary ad
dresses will be given by speakers
from various disciplines.
“This conference has traditionally
had one speaker from social sci
ences, one from natural sciences,
and one from humanities,” said
Downes. “They discuss what they
perceive to be essential for all stu
dents to be exposed to in their
particular discipline.
“They won’t focus on something
like ‘Most students need to know
about DNA,’ but from a broader,
more philosophical sense,” said
Downes.
Downes said that the conference
will give UNCA faculty new ideas
for conducting core courses at
UNCA, such as the humanities se
ries.
“I think people see the humanities
program as being central to the
mission of UNCA,” said Downes.
“We darn well better be doing things
which we consider central to the
students the best way possible.
The eight faculty members who
will represent UNCA at the confer
ence are David Peifer, assistant Pro
fessor of mathematics, Cynthia Ho,
assistant professor of literature,
Jeanne McGlinn, associate'profes
sor of education, Jeffrey Konz, as
sistant professor of economics,
Dorothy Dvorsky-Rohner, assistant
Professor of classics, Grace
Campbell, adjunct instructor of
humanities, and Keith Green, ad
junct assistant instructor ofhumani-