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He nd you ;rsonal 1 prob- / for 3| i, and I 1 him,” mgo.”' The „Blue Banner The Uniuersity of north Carolina at fisheuille Uolume 32 Issue 2 September 7,2000 'Bannockburn" comes to Lipinsky Auditorium Sept. 8-11 See page 4 Women's soccer defeats Union College 4-2 Sept. 2 at Greenwood Field See page 7 SGA gives new goals for year 2000 administration See page 2 led r- n. )al ;e ig m i 1 a 3n, ive the I 3, 5, !t1- vill J 9, n- Letters mailed for violations Annie Crandall staff Writer UNCA administration now sends a letter home to parents if a student under 21 violates the zero tolerance alcohol and drug policy, according to Eric lovacchini, vice chancellor of student afairs. “We are not going to stop students from drinking, but hopefully we can educate them about making the right choices,” said lovacchini. “We want to promote re sponsibility at this school.” In Septem ber 1999, the Buckley Amendment was changed to allow insti tutions to no tify parents if a student has violated the drug or alco hol policy of the campus agreement, according to lovacchini. Parents will be notified if a stu dent under 21 has a second viola tion of the alcohol portion of the drug and alcohol policy, or for the first offense involving illegal drug use or possession, according to lovacchini. Students over 21 will have a letter sent if there are extenuating cir cumstances, such as going to the hospital, according to lovacchini. “We feel that we were probably not being vigilant enough; some people would disagree and say ‘it is college, people will do what they want to do,’ but it is illegal,” said lovacchini. Alcohol violations on campus have increased from one violation in 1997 to 28 violations in 1998. In 1996, there were two re ported inci dences of li- quor-law vio lations. Drug- use violations increased from three in 1997 to 11 in 1998. At this point last year there were more re ported viola tions com pared to the same period this year, said Nancy Will iams, associate directorofresi- dence life and housing. “It has been a very smooth start,” said Williams. Last week, several students were issued citations and one was ar rested for alcohol violations at a shuttle stop where students were See POLICY page 11 PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY WALTER FYLER Students under 21 will have their parents notified if charged with an alcohol or illegal drug violation. $62,000 theft goes unsolved Justin Wolf Staff Writer An investigation done by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) con cerning the over $62,000 theft from UNCA’s business office in January, was closed on Au gust 10. SBI agent David Barnes said that results of the investigation did not provide suffi cient evidence to name suspects or file charges. “There were prob lems in the depart ment with the way ' the money was handled,” said Barnes. “It gave ev eryone in the office a chance to become a suspect, and it ; made it very difficult for the bureau to pinpoint anyone.” h All personnel who had access to ; the vault area during the time of the theft were interviewed. After a thor- • ough investigation, the verbal re- PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY ARTHUR FOLEY Arthur Foley, vice chancellor of financial affairs, helped the SBI with the investigation. port issued by the SBI concluded that since the case was closed with no arrests made, they were unable to report if any UNCA employees or students were suspects, accord ing to Arthur Foley, vice chancellor of financial affairs. “Since the bureau did not make any arrests in this particular case, we are not able to in dicate whether we had any serious sus pects,” said Barnes. “The investigation went on for several months and the bureau did every thing that it could.” Incident reports completed by pub- I ic safety show that $2,257 in cash and $60,723 in non endorsed checks were found miss ing from the busi ness office last spring. UNCA had stopped the payment on the checks Athletic program falls short Sachie Godwin Staff Writer The athletic assessment recently completed by Gene Corrigan, former president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), advocated raising stu dent fees to help fund various athletic programs, while men rion- ing that several aspects of the pro gram need to be improved. “This may be one of the only ways short of an expanded stu dent body (to fund the program),” said Corrigan in the report. “You have a very attractive campus with a fine student body, a proud fac ulty and energeticand determined leadership. I am sorry to say the same cannot be said for your ath letic program.” Although Corrigan said he found merit in UNCA’s decision to re main Division lAAA, he found the athletics program lacking in specific areas, according to the report. “To start with, your facilities are poor, even for Division III, your budget is a serious problem and you are understaffed in certain areas,” said Corrigan in the re port. “Add to this a budget that starts the year with a $200,000 plus deficit-and never gets out of the hole-and you face a number of significant challenges. At the present time, UNCA is in over its head.” Division I consists of schools such as Purdue University and UNC-Chapel Hill. There are three levels to Division 1: Division lA, Divison lAAand Divison lAAA, according to Mike Gore, sports information director. Joni Comstock, athletic direc tor, said she does not see raising the fee students pay for the main tenance of the athletic depart ment as an option in the immedi ate future. “We need new revenue dollars, no question about it, but we are not looking to the students,” said Comstock. There are many different av enues to explore that would help raise initial funds for the depart ment, according to Comstock. “What we need to do is increase the fiscal base of the athletic de partment to provide better op portunities for the students to compete,” said Comstock. The report also initially ques tioned whether UNCA athletics were participating in the right division. However, after visiting, Corrigan said the Big South Con ference and Division lAAA is a good fit for UNCA. “After being with you and meet ing independently with your vice chancellors, I believe you have the chance to make the program work, because you all seem to be on the same page,” said Corrigan in the report. “There was nothing shocking in the report, (but) I thought he was a little harsh on the, facilities,” said Gore. “He could appreciate once he got here and saw (the school) that we should be in Divi sion I. “Division I schools come in all shapes and sizes, and the Big South Conference is the perfect place for UNCA,” said Gore. “We re ally appreciate Corrigan coming down and giving us these sugges tions.” Division I programs have the highest level of financial aid for their athletes, and the distinguish ing characteristic between Divi- PHOTO BY JASON GRAHAM Gene Corrigan, former president of the National Colle giate Athletic Association, recently completed the ath letic assessment. sion lA schools and Division lAAA schools, according to Gore, is that lA schools play football. “Division lAAA participates in all the sports at the Division I level, except football because ei ther you do not have football or you do not have football scholar ships,” said Comstock. UNCA has 14 sports and that is the minimum number needed to participate in Division 1, accord ing to Comstock. “What we ought to be thinking about is the most participation opportunities that we can give the students on this campus,” said Comstock. In the report, Corrigan criti cizes UNCA’s facilities them selves, referring to problems that “make no sense. ” The report never goes into detail about what these problems actually are, but Comstock said he iTi ight have been referring to the size of the athletic center. “Justice Center is very small,” said Comstock. “It is extraordi narily small for most Division I programs. He may be referring to that. However, I would argue that there is a tremendous advantage to that, because we can fill J ustice Center and make it an exciting See ATHLETIC page 11 See THEFT page 11 Students journey to Ghana ^ . 1 r I • • t 1 1 1- • Kay Alton Staff Writer PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY CHARLES G. JAMES Susan Ketner, Carmen Canty, Shara Schenck, Nikki Young and Tuesda Roberts stand in front of a castle at Elmina. professor of political science. “They learned a lot about another culture,” said Jenkins-Mullen. “They came back speaking the lan guage, they learned about the slave trade and the middle passage and made a particular connection with Africa, enabling them to come baclc with confidence and affirmation.” Students Carmen Canty, a senior political science major; Lindsay During summer break, seven UNCA students participated in the Ghana Summer Study Abroad Pro gram and lived in the West African nation for six weeks, according to Dolly Jenkins-Mullen, assistant Berginsky, a senor political science and philosophy major,Tuesda Rob erts, a senior Spanish major; Jay Hackett, an undeclared sophomore; Shara Schenck, a senior sociology major; Susan Ketner. a senior psy chology major and Nikki Young, a senior biology major, left New York on June 22 and returned Aug. 1. “This program was piloted at UNCA this year, and N.C. State allowed us to essentially piggyback on all their arrangements,” said Jenkins-Mullen. N.C. State included the UNCA students in all their arrangements for itineraries, organizing courses and credit value, said Jenkins- Mullen. “Incredible effort was made to fund this trip,” said Jenkins-Mullen. “Actually, the University Founda tion helped, as did private donors.” Each student chose two out of three courses offered in economics, psychology and sociology of Gha naian culture. In addition, some students conducted independent studies in topics like the health sys tem in Ghana. Students attended classes in the morning at the Ghanaian Univer sity Exchange Program in Legon, Ghana and traveled around Ghana during the afternoons. One UNCA professor, Charles G. James, associate professor of chemistry, traveled with the stu dents, as did several faculty mem bers from NC State. A week of the trip included living in the dormitories of the university. The remai n i ng five weeks were spent living in the homes of Ghanaian families. The two Caucasian students came back with an attitude that the trip was great fun. By comparison, the five African American students were busy identifying with Africa and a particular connection with Africa, according to Jenkins-Mullen. Hackett said that the best part of his trip was living with the families in Legon. “They treated us like members of the family,” said Hackett. “My biggest experience of the cul ture was dealing with the conflict between myself and my brother in the Ghanaian family,” said Hackett. “We fought and disagreed just like real brothers, because he was arro gant, unreasonable and self-righ- teous.” Schenck said she had experiences that she could never have imag ined. “I walked on a rope pathway very high in the air among the canopy of the treetops, and I cannot imagine doing this in America,” said Schenck. Some of the students said the in teraction with the Ghanaian people was the greatest experience they See GHANA page 11