The
„Blue
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The Unluersity of north Cdrolind dtHsheuille
Uolume32 IssueU
Pouember30,2000
The Tanglewood
Children’s Theater
presented “Selkie"
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Basketball defeats
East Tennessee State
to improue record
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Uleb site for struggling
musicians, by
Andrew Thomasson
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Student Web site offers professor rating
auren Owens
itaff Ulriter
Students say speaker’s flyer misleading
Former follower of Hinduism presents lecture on Christianity
li’i JUMIN '
Rabi Maharaj pleased several who attended his discussion on Christianity, but others criticized his negative
comments toward Hinduism, according to several attendees of Maharaj’s lectures.
Rachel Grumpier
staff UJriter
Several students said tliey
were misled by advertising
concerning Rabi Maharaj, a
traveling speaker who con
verted from Hinduism to
Christianity as a young adult.
Instead of objective infor
mation regarding the two
religions, they said Maharaj
spoke negatively about Hin
duism at his lectures Nov.
13 and 14 at UNCA.
The posters “said (Maharaj)
was a yogi, so I expected to
hear a motivational or edu
cational (lecture) on Hindu
ism,” said Logan Cole, an
undeclared freshman. “But,
whenever he spoke about
Hinduism, there was a nega
tive tone in his voice. In the
end, it turned out to be a
plug for Jesus.”
Two Christian organiza
tions, Illumination and
Veritas Forum, sponsored
Maharaj’s three lectures “En
counters with the Supernatu
ral, Krishna, Buddha,
Mohammed or Christ?” and
“My Search for Truth.” The
groups made posters that
introduced Maharaj as a
“former Hindu yogi,” and
listed the lectures he would
give.
The organizations did not
intend to mislead students
with the advertisements, ac
cording to David Steele, as
sociate professor of math
ematics and faculty advisor
for Reformed University Fel
lowship.
“We did not want to hide
the fact that we were coming
from a Christian perspective,
but on the other hand, we
did not want to push that
out there,” said Steele. “It
might turn people off ini
tially. We wanted people to
listen to what he had to say.”
Some students said the ad
vertising should have been
more informative about the
content and approach of the
lectures.
“The ads made it sound
like the religions would be
explained from a neutral
standpoint,” said Crystal
Goure, a sophomore art
major. “They should have
come out and said he used to
be Hindu, but now he is
Christian. I would not have
been excited about it.”
Steele said Maharaj’s lec
tures served the purpose of
introducing a Christian per
spective to non-Christian
members of the audience.
The organizations wanted
“to expose non-Christian
people to a person who be
came a Christian from a
unique background,” said
Steele. “(Maharaj was) not
born in the United States
into a Christian family. He
was raised in Trinidad in a
Hindu culture.”
Erika Pollard, an unde
clared freshman and a non-
Christian, said the lectures
made her reconsider the va
lidity of the Christian faith.
“When I got (to UNCA), I
began to question iny be
liefs,” said Pollard.
“(Maharaj) talked about
Christianity passionately. It
is hard to come out of your
caste in Hinduism, so for
him toconvertfromaHindu
to Christian is amazing.
Maybe all that stuff they were
telling me in Bible school is
true.”
Maharaj also gave Chris
tian audience members in
formation concerning
Hindu culture, and a fresh
view of their own religion,
according to Steele.
“Many Christians come
from very sheltered back
grounds,” Steele said. “We
wanted to expose Christians
to a person’s perspective from
another culture that shares a
lot of similarities with their
beliefs.”
A senior literature major
and memberoflllumination,
Alexis Stephenson said the
lectures strengthened her
faith in God.
Maharaj’s “talks were en
couraging to me as a Chris
tian,” said Stephenson. “It is
easy for me to think Ameri
cans are the only ones who
can and do believe in Christ.
The whole world is covered
with believers in Christ. To
me, that was a comforting
revelation.”
See SPEECH page 10
Students from UNCA can
ank professors and post com-
nents about their teaching
bilities on a Web site called
vww.collegesucks.net. Two
JNCA and Western Caro-
ina University students de
igned the site to let students
now which professors to take
or classes, according to Sean
itevens, a UNCA undeclared
ophomore and one of the
ounders of the site.
One of the inspirations for
he site was a general frustra-
ion with school and not re-
lly knowing where to turn to
et people know when I’d had
bad professor,” said Stevens
n an e-mail. “Also, I thought
he site would be great around
egistration time so you would
now what to look forward
[Stevens and WCU freshman
att Sprinkle met while
orking together at a Web
design company in Winston-
Salem.
There currently are not any
other sites like this on the
Web that I know of,” said
Stevens in the e-mail. “My
inspiration was a site that was
up for a while last year called
www.depaulsucks.com.”
The site is no longer aroimd,
but it was basically the same
sort of Web site, except for
that every college he and
Sprinkle feature involves a
considerable amount of uni
versities from around the
country, according to Stevens.
“I think it is a good idea,
especially for freshmen who
do not know who the profes
sors are,” said Chris
Vanderford, a senior music
technology major.
The site allows students to
look up professors and see how
other students rank them. Sev
eral UNCA students said they
believe the site is a good idea,
according to Stevens.
“It helps incoming freshman
pick a professor and have a
better year,” said Douglas
Davidson, an undeclared
sophomore.
The site currently gets about
50 hits a day, according to
• Stevens. Since the site went
up three weeks ago, the site
PHOTO BY LENA BURNo
Sophomore computer science major Sean Stevens, co-creater of collegesucks.net,
discusses the Web site with David Bourne, multi-media arts and sciences professor.
has received about 1,400 hits.
“We are looking into getting
the name out to other places
on the Web such as search
engines,” said Stevens in the
e-mail. “Right now we are de
pending on word of mouth.”
Stevens said he wants stu
dents to be able to use the site
to vent frustration, but does
not want it to be a site where
people just degrade professors
they do not like.
“My only hope is that the
professors actually read their
critiques,” said Summer Star
ling, a sophomore creative
writing major.
Out of 173 full-time profes
sors, 125 are listed on the site.
The most student input any
professor received was about
five student opinions, accord
ing to the site.
“There should be more stu
dent input for each profes
sor,” said"Rachel Isaacs, a se-
niorpsychology major. “It will
be interesting to see if it catches
Foley to retire,
McDevftt hired
Kay fllton
staff Writer
UNCA’s new vice ch.incel
lor of adminis
tration and fi-
nancial affairs
will be Wayne
McDevitt, cur
rent chief of
staff in the of
fice of the gov
ernor and
UNCA alum
nus. McDevitt
will replace
Arthur Foley,
who currently
holds the posi
tion and plans
to retire in De
cember and
move to Colo
rado.
“The breadth
and depth of
study exposure
and mentoring
that I got, and I find my son
gettingby professors and staff,
has certainly served me well,”
said McDevitt. “I think hav
ing UNCA’s incubator for
critical thinking and engen
dering the love of learning is
critical.”
McDevitt’s knowledge of
government, and his skill in
administrative matters is un
surpassed, accordingto Chan-
PHOTO COURTESY OF
PUBLICATIONS
Wayne McDevitt is
an aluiTini of UNCA
and will become a
vice chancellor.
cellor Jim Mullen.
“Our university is very for
tunate to have attracted a can
didate of McDevitt’s stature
and experience,” said Mullen.
“Since my earliest days on the
job, I have
sought him out
for his wise
guidance and
counsel.”
The university’s
position in the
academic com
munity asapub-
lic undergradu
ate liberal arts
university is sig
nificant in this
state, the South
east and the na
tion, according
to McDevitt.
‘UNCA is a
g: at university,
and the core aca
demic mission is
of great impor
tance,” said
McDevitt.
Mullen said he did not be
lieve he would, be able to con
vince McDevitt to come back
to UNCA when he first asked
him to consider taking the
job.
“What I did not fully appre
ciate was the depth of his love
See REPLACE page 11
WNC novelist and
poet presents work
Justin Wolf
staff Writer
Appalachian author Robert
Morgan enlightened students
of characters’
situations in his
writings Nov.
28, accordingto
Stephanie
Lucas, a sopho-
ore history
major.
“He has a
beautiful way of
describing the
situations he is
writing about,”
said Lucas. “I
almost felt like I
was there when
he was reading
them. His de
scriptions were
so good.”
The creative
writingprogram
recently named
Morgan, who
wrote the best-selling novel,
“Gap Creek,” the UNCA
2000 P.B. Parris visiting
writer. Set in N.C., “Gap
Creek” is a fictional account
oflife in the Appalachian high
country during the last part of
the 19th century, according
to Morgan.
PHOTO BY PATRICK
BRASWELL
Author
Morgan made Oprah
Winfrey’s book club
with “Gap Creek.”
“The story revolves around
Julie and Hank Harmon,” said
Morgan. “They are a young
married couple who finds their
love and marriage being tested
against such challenges as a
flood, fire and sickness.”
“Gap Creek” was chosen as
the January
2000 selection
for Oprah
Winfrey’s book
club, which
helped bring it
into the na
tional lime
light. Morgan is
also well known
for his poetry
writing, and
read several of
his prior works
to the crowd,
according to a
UNCA press
release.
Morgan’s
most recent
poem, “Blow
ing Rock,” was
inspired by
Cherokee of
WNC area, according to Mor-
gan.
“I have written many poems
about the Cherokee, and the
way in which they almost
haunt the mountains of this
See MORGAN page 10