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Sports
Men’s baseball
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Features
Local artist
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Asheville Pizza
in fifth win out of
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See page 5
Volume 31 Issue 7
March 23, 2000
Baby’s death
controversial
By Davon Heath
UNCA faculty, staff and students
reacted to the grand jury indict
ment of a Western Carolina Uni
versity (WCU) student who is ac
cused of killing her newborn in
fant.
In order to combat similiar in
stances, UNCA offers assistance to
students through the health ser
vices office and the counseling cen
ter, according to Rick Pyeritz, di
rector of health services.
“You don’t just wake upone morn
ing and decide you are going to kill
your baby,” said Cheryl Garvy, a
senior accounting major. “I am sure
most people who do those kinds of
things have some underlying prob-
SON GRAHAM
I the
Sculp-
gh
n page 1
:are manywil
ling it ‘Servit
ut this comp
I volunteer in
“I know she
must have been
cely, this m-
really scared
do what she
unusual any
Whitmire
junior litera
rure major
chancellor
think (it)
of student af-
awful. It is hard
fairs. We
put yourself
fleet society
every colleg
else’s shoes.”
Christ
campus
Marie Fiske
country
This kind of
dent has
happened
, has been
UNCA
accused of first-
cording
murder
lovacch
campus
PHOTO COURTESY OF CITIZEN-TIMES
concealing the Christina Fiske, a WCU
kth of a child sophomore, allegedly killed
irding to the March 14 edition of
The Asheville Citizen-Times.
The infant was found in a bale
of trash at the Macon County
Landfill. An autopsy concluded
the child died of asphyxia caused
by intentional suffocation, ac
cording to The Asheville Citizen-
Times.
munity to deal with,” said Pyeritz.
“I am pleased with the programs we
offer at UNCA.
“I would encourage any student
who felt they were in crises to use our
See WESTERN page 8
Math conference
teaches teachers
By Alison Watson
Over 225 pre-service and in-
service mathematics teachers (K-
16) attended the conference. Sev
eral pre-ser vice math teachers from
UNCA, Appalachian State Uni
versity (ASU) and Western Caro
lina University attended the con-
rhe 27th Western Regional Math- ference.
matics Conference was held at Students from these universities
presented
conference
sessions and
assisted
sored by the
d prepara
N.C. Council
oiTeachers of
Mathematics
(NCCTM)
tended these
nd the de
partment of
said Eman
The confer
professor of
successful
and chair of
the confer
Gary Kadar
PHOTO BY JASON GRAHAM
Eman Hoosain, professor of
president of
estern Re
sisted of 23
education, chaired the confer-
NCCTM. ence. sessions.
The confer- , , ^here were
mce theme was “New Faces, New 14 hands-on and four computer
Places, New Ideas.” The confer- workshops,
ence introduced new ideas about Presenters included in-se^ice
mathematics for teachers. math teachers from across N.C
The conference had not been held and speakers from Georgia and
the school in over 25 years.
Asheville is somewhat central for
the western region, and the facili-
les were ideal for it, according to
'^adar.
Defense class attracts few
■i': ■t
PHOTO BY WALTER FYLER
Students participated in a self-defense class nearly a month after an intruder attacked a female resident. The par
ticipants received a brass whistle as a part of a new defense program at the end of the class.
By Kathryn Krouse
staff Writer
Six female students gathered for
a self-defense class on March 13,
organized in response to a resi
dent student being attacked by an
intruder on Feb. 18.
“I was very disappointed in the
turn out,” said Vicki Harris, pub
lic safety victim/witness officer. “I
thought since everyone’s aware
ness was heightened by the inci
dent in (Governor’s) Village that
it would be a great time to have
the course.”
The class is the second organized
by Harris. The first class occurred
on Feb. 16, in which six people
also participated.
“I hope it does not taken some
one getting hurt even worse to get
students to participate in courses
like this,” said Harris.
Dave Torbett, a self-defense in
structor, with the help of his assis
tant Jon McCoy, instructed the
class on various techniques some
one could use to escape an assail
ant, according to Harris.
“Some girls got in touch with me
about doing a self-defense course,
and I really didn’t know who to
contact,” said Harris.
Harris contacted Maggie Smith,
director of recreation, who sug
gested Torbett, who used to be a
teacher at UNCA.
“This is the second time he has
come out and taught a self-de-
fense course,” said Harris. “I think
“1 thought they were excellent
instructors, very nice and practi
cal,” said Claire Ellington, a jun
ior history major. “Most self-de
fense classes I have taken have
been real fancy-schmancy.”
The class gathered in a circle
around Torbett in the be^nning.
He explained why self-defense was
important and talked about the
techniques he would be teaching
the class throughout the evening,
according to Harris.
The maneuvers he taught were
based on martial arts. However,
instead ofbeing engaged in a fight,
the movements centered around
inflicting pain on the assailant,
according to Harris.
Most types of martial arts are
futile, according to Torbett.
“They are very impractical,”
said Ellington. “I have been at
tacked twice (and) a lot of it does
The idea is for the victim to
have a window of opportunity to
run away, according to Harris.
“The best thing about these
courses is that they teach you to
move,” said Ellington. “Ameri-
sit still. We do not know how to
react quickly.”
At the end of the course, Harris
passed out brass whistles, part of
the whistle defense program she
has begun as an effect of the
Anyone who would like a
whistle can pick one up at the
public safety office, according to
See MATH page 8
Endowment brings writers
By Susan McCord
staff Writer
The P. B. Parris endovv-
ment, named for Peggy
Parris, a retired UNCA
creative writing pr^essor,
plans to bring “big names”
in writing to UNCA for
readings and workshops,
according to Rick Chess,
associate professor of lit-
“We wanted to honor
Peggy’s contributions to
our creative writing pro
gram, and to the life of
writing in Asheville,” said
Chess.
Once fully operative, the
endowment will provide
a permanent source of
funding for visiting writ-
“We have never had any
reliable source of fund
ing, and so we often have
had to scramble at the last
minute to figure out who
to invite, based on how
much money we could
scrape together,” said
Chess. “That was no way
for a serious program in
creative writing to oper-
The New Leaf Founda
tion provided the basis for
the endowment by giving a
large contribution recently,
which enabled the endow
ment to bring its first writer
to UNCA.
Charles Frasier, an ac
claimed author from N.C.,
will speak on April 13, and
is the first “big name” to
appear at UNCA that is
funded by the endowment.
Frasier has written several
novels, including “Cold
Mountain,” a Civil War
love story.
The novel reached The
New York Times best-seller
list, won theNational Book
Award in 1997 and will be
made into a motion pic
ture, according to a July
1997 edition of Newsweek.
The ultimate goal of the
program is to bring in four
writers a year to do public
readings, teach classes to stu
dents and do workshops for
the community.
“We need more money to
bring the endowment to a
point where it can support
the visiting writers series.
At the moment we have a
good start,” said Chess.
Parris retired last spring to
write full-time, but she con
tinues to work as a volun
teer tutor at the writing cen-
PHOTO COURTESY OF UNCA PUBLIC INFORMATION
Charles Frasier, author of “Cold Mountain,” will speak at UNCA on April
13.
ter. the English suffragette,
“To see light bulbs go off^ Lady Constance Lytton.
over people’s heads is very Parris is known for form-
rewarding,” said Parris. ing writing groups with
Parris is currently work- former students,
ing on her third novel, a One ofher groups has been
fictional autobiography of together for 12 years, and
members have published*
over a dozen novels and short
“I could not write without
getting some knowledgeable
feedback as I am going
along,” Parris said.