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Sports
Women’s soccer: Charleston Southern
blanks Bulldogs, 2-0
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Also inside:
Features
Music professor receives grant
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Opinions
“Customers are not what they used to be,”
by Dearborn McCorkle
■ see page 3
Volume 34 Issue 11
The University Of North Carolina At Asheville
UNCA examines student retention rates
Ed Fickle
Staff Reporter
Student retention rates at UNCA have
historically appeared low in comparison to
other schools, but recent studies have ex
posed conditions the statistics do not ac
count for.
“UNCA is not for everybody,” said Archer
Gravely, director of institutional research.
“We attract serious students, we have a rig
orous academic program, and it is not a party
school.”
In comparison with other colleges, UNCA’s
one-year retention rate of 78 percent for
2000 is roughly equal to nationwide aver
ages.
One-year retention rates represent the per
centage of students from the previous year
who either graduated or returned for enroll
ment.
Courtney Nelson, a senior education ma
jor at UNC-Chapel Hill, transferred from
UNCA after her freshman year.
“When it really comes down to it, if I’d had
a better roommate situation, and if more of
my friends had not transferred, I would not
look back at my freshman year with such
contempt,” said Nelson.
The Princeton Review, and other groups
which rate colleges, warn that placing a value
on student retention does not provide accu
rate data.
Gravely said that retention rates are really
“a measure of students socio-economic data.
For example, at Chapel Hill, their family
income is much higher. The percentage of
students working 20 hours or more a week is
about two percent, but at UNCA it is around
20 percent.”
In a 1998 study on retention and gradua
tion rates for colleges nationwide, the Con
sortium for Student Retention Data Ex
change found the average one-year retention
rate is 69 percent.
Although the nationwide average for
underrepresented minorities was lower than
that of white students, black students at
UNCA have a higher one-year retention rate
than white students at UNCA.
“Our diversity numbers have always been a
problem,” said Gravely. “However, our re
tention and graduation rates for black stu
dents are higher than than they are for white
students, and that’s because there is a special
effort made to do the best we can for students
that are underrepresented.”
Earlier this fall. The US News and World
Report ranked UNCA fifth in the nation
among public liberal arts schools. The other
top liberal arts schools show retention rates
slightly higher than UNCA.
Top ranked St. Mary’s of Maryland has a
86-percent retention rate, and Virginia Mili
tary Institute holds an 84-percent rate.
Fourth place went to the Evergreen State
%
WALTER FYLER/PHOTO EDITOR
Senior N.C. State mechatronics majors John Hawkins and Beth Raymer work on a
digital systems interfacing project. UNCA retention rates are misleading due to the
N.C. State Two Plus Two program.
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College in Olympia, WA, whose retention Silcott, a senior mechanical engineering ma-
rate is only G7 percent. joratNorthCarolmaStateUniversity. Silcott
“I loved UNCA. I like the atmosphere there was in the Two Plus Two program at UNCA
much better. If UNCA had engineering, I before transferring to NC State to finish his
would have stayed there for sure,’ said Chris degree.
“We attract serious students, we
have a rigorous academic pro
gram, and it is not a party
school”
-Archer Gravely,
director of institutional research
“The thing you need to understand about
retention at UNCA is that our data is
artificially low, beca'use of the Two Plus
Two transfer program with engineering,”
said Gravely.
According to a study of admissions at
UNCA, approximately 10 to 15 percent of
incoming freshmen come in with an inter
est in engineering. Gravely said that one
third of those students never pursue engi
neering and graduate UNCA with another
degree, while one third pursue engineering
and transfer to NC State, and the remain
ing third drop out of UNCA before com
pleting their studies.
“I was at UNCA for just one year, and I
loved it, I met friends who I still have and
probably always will. The classes were what
you would expect, not too easy, but not
ridiculously hard either,” said Kristen
Haubenreich, a senior Mmechanical engi
neering major at the University of Michi-
gan.
Western Carolina’s 69 percent retention
rate is one of the lowest in the state schools,
with most other UNC system schools scor
ing well above 70 percent. Appalachian
State shows a high retention rate of 80
percent, compared with UNC
Greensboro’s 74 percent and UNC
Charlotte’s 75 percent. UNC Chapel Hill
has the highest retention rate in the state,
and one of the highest in the nation, at 94
percent.
“Some of the best researchers in the coun
try say that you should never use gradua
tion rates as an indicator of quality,” said
Gravely. “If I have survey data on family
income, I can predict the school’s gradua
tion rate pretty well. It is all I need to
know.”
National and state statistics have shown
that students who work more than 20
hours a week do not do well in classes
compared with students who work fewer
hours, and are more prone to drop out of
college early. Another early indicator of
student dropout is the occurence of serious
academic problems in the first year of
college.
“We tend to find a whole range of idio
syncratic issues among dropouts,” said
Gravely. “All kinds of personal things, but
that one global finding (at UNCA) tends
to be life outside the classroom.”
“There were no classes left when I regis
tered,” said Nelson. “The professors help
ing us with registration had to start letting
us know what the few classes were that had
any seats available.”
Charles Worley.
November 15, 2001
Group
backs
Worley
Rae Stephens
Staff Reporter
A group of 38 local business own
ers have joined together to form the
Citizens for New Leadership, uni
fied by their concern for Asheville
economics, according to Paul J.
“Joe” Pless, treasurer of Citizens for
New Leadership.
According to a.n Asheville Citizen-
Times article,
the local group
formed in re
sponse to eco
nomic reports
from the non-
partisan
Asheville-Bun-
combe VI
SION, a local
publication.
“The
Asheville economy is headed in the
wrong direction,” said Pless. “This
year’s annual report shows that lo
cal wages and incomes are falling
farther and farther behind State and
Federal averages.”
In the recent mayoral and City
Council elections. Citizens for New
Leadership supported Charles
Worley, Joe Dunn, Carl
Mumpower and Jim Ellis. Citi
zens for New Leadership supported
candidates filled three out of the
four open seats.
Worley is the new elected mayor
of Asheville. Dunn and Mumpower
are new City Council members,
and Ellis is likely to be added to
council in the position left open by
Worley, according to the Citizen-
Times.
Mumpower did not say that mem
bers of Citizens for New Leader
ship were going to use negative
publicity to boost their candidates
into office, but he did send a letter
to the group asking for a positive
campaign.
When the mudslinging began,
Mumpower was not surprised.
“I feared it could happen, and I
made my resistance known,” said
Mumpower.
The story involving Peterson and
a prostitute is the reason for
See GROUP Page 10
Committee continues search for new vice chancellor
Stuart Gaines
Staff Reporter
A i 5-member search committee,
consisting of faculty, staff and a
student representative, is currently
screening candidates to fill the po
sition of Vice Chancellor for Aca
demic Affairs.
“It’s fun to talk to people from
different institutions who are ar
ticulate and have a degree of vision
about higher education. It gives
you a lot of ideas about things that
you could be doing differently,”
said Tracy Brown, professor of
psychology and chair of the search
committee.
“It’s an enriching process, but it
is a lot of work,” said Brown.
The year-long search is operating
on a budget of approximately
$45,000 , in addition to the salary
of one full-time administrative as
sistant, according to Brown.
The high cost of the search, due
primarily to the advertising of the
position and travel expenses asso
ciated with interviewing candi
dates, was offset by the decision
to not use an independent con
sulting firm in the search process.
As of Nov. 9, there were 88
candidates for the position. Thirty
to 50 more applicants are expected
in the next few weeks, according
to a search update from Brown.
“We want to make sure that our
candidate pool is as diverse as
possible,” said Brown.
“Ifsfun to talk to people from dijferent institutions
who are articulate and have a degree of vision
about higher education.*^
-Tracy Brown,
chair of search committee
The position has been advertised in
five academic publications, includ
ing Black Issues in Higher Education,
Hispanic Outlook on Higher Educa
Serving UNCA Since 1982
tion. University Faculty Voice and
Chronicle of Higher Education.
“Even with all the many challenges
we face, even with all the work that
WWW.unca.edu!banner
we must do in the months ahead,
we must set this search as a matter
of utmost importance,” said Chan
cellor Jim Mullen in the opening
faculty meeting this fall.
“The critical issues that lie in our
future make this search even more
important. Your Vice Chancellor
for Academic Affairs must have the
authority that comes with perma
nence.”
See SEARCH Page 10