Sports
i/blume31 Issue 10
Men’s
beats Winthrop
in record 18
inning game.
See page 6
^ Banner
. Features
Drumming
instructor gives
workshop at YiWI
cultural center.
See page 5
April 13, 2000
UNCA aware of eco-issues
By Kathryn Krouse
staff Writer
PHOTO BY WALTER FYLER
Students expressed concerns about environmental awareness for the campus and curriculum in a meeting on
April 3. Beth Fogelman, a senior environmental science and chemistry major and a leader of Active Students for
a Healthy Environment, participated.
fessor of economics and partici- cording to Pitts.
pant in the conference. “One way to ensure that stu-
The Biosphere is a controlled dents, faculty and staff are more
environmental study area where environmentally aware, is
businesses can mimic natural en- through the humanities pro-
vironments indoors and test af- gram, said Greden Mathews.
A January environmental con- fects on them, according to Pitts. Humanities reaches the major-
ference resulted in a gathering of “The Biosphere site was very ity of students, since all UNCA
students and facjLilty on April 3 provocative,” said Pitts. ^ students are required to take four
to discuss campus anZcurricular UNCA is interested in raising ' humanities courses, accordmg to
changes. student awareness of environ- Downes.
“Service learning gives students
a real sense of empowerment,”
said Greden Mathews.
“Particularly related to the Key
Center for Service Learning, we
want students to be able to be
more aware of and more active in
service learning projects as they
relate to the environment,” said
Greden Mithews.
“There are three of us that are
SevS members of the faculty mental concerns and making Since environmental issues have offering service learning projects
attended the conference “in or- UNCA an environmentally occured throughout history, stu-
der to explore ideas on how envi- friendly campus, according to dents can gain a better under-
ronmental science and issues Greden Mathews. standing of the present environ-
might become more present in The campus has already begun mental issues by learnmg how
the general education curricu- acting on environmental con- other cultures have dealt with the
lum for all UNCA students,” cerns, such as reducing pesticide environment, accordmg to Dan
said James Pitts, vice chancellor use on campus landscaping, ac- Pierce, professor of history,
of academic affairs. cording to Greden Mathews. The humanities department has
The conference consisted of in- These issues involve many of
stitutions around the country the disciplines taught at UNCA,
that came together to discuss their accotding to Greden Mathews,
efforts and goals for the “green- The environment affects eco-
ing” of their campuses, accord- nomics, culture, science and
people’s perc(
world.
In order to raise student aware-
of the issues, UNCA would
Pitts.
“The goal of the workshop was
to get us thinking about these
issues, and develop a plan of ac
tion for our campus,”' said Leah like to begin incorporating e
Greden Mathews, assistant pro- ronmental topics in classes.
iged for speakers
and talk to professors about the
environment and its relevance to
the humanities program, accord
ing to Downes,
f their Other ways that environmental
issues will be brought to students’
attention could be through ser
vice projects, which offered in
their major, according to Greden
Mathews.
this semester as an off-shoot of
this, like that in my natural re
source economics class,” said
Greden Mathews.
“One student is working on or
ganizing a carpool-ride board,”
said Greden Mathews. “The idea
is to get an icon on the UNCA
web site so that students could
coordinate rides with others.
“I also have a handful of stu
dents working with the recycling
coordinator to figure out what
they could do to be of more ser
vice to the campus,” said Greden
Mathews. This could be done
“by helping separate the
recyclables, or through further
education.”
Opportunities
in Middle East
By Alison Watson
staff Writer
“The students are not as inter
ested, historically, to study abroad
after such a break,” said Chess.
There is a 16 member committee
set up for the program. The com
mittee tries to recruit Israeli stu
dents to attend a university in N.C.
UNCA will offer exchange programs Currently, there are only two stu-
with colleges in Israel to students dents from N.C. who will be par-
beginning next year. ticipating in the exchange program,
“Our goal is to build the program since it was announced in January,
and encourage many students to par- One of the students is from
ticipate in the fu
ture,” said Rick
Chess, associate
professor of litera
ture and director of
Jewish studies pro
gram.
The exchange
program allows
students from any
of the 16 N.C.
campuses to attend
any of three Israeli
universities for a se
mester or full
school year.
The cost of a se
mester is relatively
the same as a se
mester at UNCA.
The only real extra
cost deals with air
fare, according to
Chess.
The classes of
fered cover general
education require
ments as well as de
partment credits.
The exchange
program allows Is
raeli students to at
tend N.C. univer
sities as well.
“We would like to s
students to come c
sible,” said Chess. “We have to ati
these students to N.C.”
This can be difficult since the
UNCA. Kati
Machalek,ajun
literature
jor, will be at
tending Ben-
Gurion Univer-
(BGU)
located
Beer Sheva
Another
Malina, a fresh
philosophy
major, has ap-
The summer
programs
and the program
II send
dents from N.C
BGU. The
An exchange program with
Israel will be offered next
year to UNCA students.
The Ben-Gurion University
is one of the colleges that
students could enroll in
and earn credits.
iversity
the desert and
known for being
Sounds like
great way
learn about such
lyIsraeli
mandatory se
place by studying abroad. It could
really add to the curriculum that is
offered now,” said Aaron Beck-
Schlachter, a senior classics major.
“You don’t
Israel tend to be older and seeawholelotconcerningacombi-
finish school, as a result of nation of ancient religion as well as
Israelis before college
Chess.
Men must serve for three years and
women must serve for two years. After
service, many Israeli men and women
choose to take a year off before school
and travel, according to Chess.
the military for modern Israeli politics.”
BGU was established in ! 969 by
the government of Israel. The school
was named after David Ben-Gurion,
See ISRAEL page 8
Asian and Pacific Islander celebration at UNCA
By Davon Heath
staff Writer
A four part series celebrating
the Asian, Asian-American
ind Pacific Islander cultures,
intends to provide UNCA stu
dents exposure to the Asian
cultures, according to Octavia
Wright, coordinator of
multicultural student pro
grams.
We’re hoping that we are
increasing awareness in the
campus population in terms
ofAsian culture,” said Wright.
Three of the four sections of
this series have concluded.
The series started with Japa
nese Taiko drumming on
March 30.
On April 6, there was a re
ception held featuring Asian
food followed by a panel dis
cussion facilitated by Heon
Lee, assistant professor of so
ciology. Lee also helped de
velop this series, according to
Wright.
“The panel discussion topic,
‘Myths vs. Realities of Asians
in America,’ discussed the his
torical, political and sociologi
cal impact that America and
(other) western civilizations
have had on the Asian culture
in America and vice versa,’
said Wright.
A film focusing on the
Tienanmen Square Massacre
will be shown as the fourth
part in this series, according
to Wright.
The celebration was meant
to be brief and condensed to
peak student interest for a fu
ture series, according to
Wright.
Lee’s “idea was to do some
thing we could build off of in
the future,” said Wright. “This
will hopefully lead to some
thing bigger as students ex
press more interest.”
There are 39 Asian students
currently enrolled at UNCA
this semester, or just over 1
percent of the student popu
lation, according to the office
of institutional research fact
“We had a high amount of
student participation for the
drumming, with about 200
students in attendance,” said
Wright. “Approximately 30
people attended the reception
and discussion panel, (and) a
few Asian students partici
pated.”
This is the first attempt at
creating a program for the
Asian culture, and is a way to
create diversity on campus,
according to Wright.
“These events were co-spon
sored by the cultural and spe
cial events committee, the
humanities program, the
alumni office and
multicultural student pro
grams.
Other contributors to the
series were Alex Huang, asso
ciate professor of atmospheric
sciences, Atcha Turner, a jun
ior art major, and Haripriya
Del Villar, a undeclared fresh-
“We have had positive com
ments” in regards to the se
ries, said Wright.
PHOTO BY WALTER FYLER
As a part of the series celebrating Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander cultures, the Japanese
Taiko drummers performed for students on March 30.