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■ see page 7
Volume 37 Issue 2
The University of North Carolina at Asheville
Winter weather interrupts class schedules
Christina Clayton
News Reporter
Recent snow and ice has caused
concern among some students re
garding how UNCA decides
whether to hold, cancel or delay
classes.
“Since there is a pattern of bad
weather, get up a few hours earlier,
drive slower, that’s how you get to
class, ” said Mark Padilla, vice chan
cellor of academic affairs. “Assume
it’s a part of your day, not just as a
student but as a person in Asheville
during a winter storm. The more
people can take responsibility for
living in this area and not blame me
for the weather, the more high qual
ity educational experiences we’ll
have.”
The decision to cancel or delay
class due to inclement weather falls
into the hands of Padilla.
“My job is not to predict the
weather,” said Padilla. “Myjob is to
make the most rational determina
tion based on what predictions I
have available to me.”
That information comes from staff
on campus and information on the
Internet, as well as from other area
schools. When snow falls on the
area, or is about to, the day begins
around 4:45 a.m., said Padilla.
“I get up and look outside, I look
at Web pages and spend 15 to 20
minutes studying it,” said Padilla.
“I look at the Weather Channel
Web site and several other Web
sites with weather maps.”
Padilla then begins making phone
calls.
“I speak with Steve Baxley, director
of facilities management, to get in
formation about the campus,” said
Padilla. “I call people to get infor
mation about what other schools
are doing. I call the Chancellor, and
I call Merianne Epstein, director of
public relations, and she arranges
the announcement of the class de-
wm.,
COURTESY OF CHRIS SUMMERVILLE
“Myjob is not to predict the weather.
Myjob is to make the most rational
determination based on what pre
dictions I have available to me”
- Mark Padilla,
vice chancellor of academic affairs
COURTESY OF CHRIS SUMMERVILLE
Several days of snow and ice forced class cancellations and delays, creating schedule problems for classes, as well as road safety concerns
among commuter students.
lay or cancellation on the web.”
Students such as Andrea Gentis, a
sophomore computer science ma
jor, voice concerns on how late they
feel they find out the information.
“I think they’ve made fairly good
decisions so far,” said Gentis. “I
wish they could make them earlier,
but if they don’t have any Way to
tell how the roads are .going to be in
the morning, what can they do?”'.
As soon as Epstein recpives the
information, she sends out and posts
“The first thing we update is the
UNCA Snow Line, because more
people have access to that than any
thing else,” said Epstein. “The sec
ond thing we update is the Web
site. Then we start the media list
and the e-mailing. We try to keep
everything current.”
The snowline has class informa
tion available at (828) 259-3050.
During winter weather, the UNCA
homepage displays a snowflake
graphic and “Adverse Weather” link
at the top of the page that leads to
class information.
In the past, students have had
trouble with receiving up-to-date
information on class scheduling
during winter weather when using
local media sources, according to
Padilla.
“It’s important just to call the
UNCA snowline, that is the first
thing that is changed and that’s the
authoritative information,” said
Padilla. “Everything else is an inter
pretation or passing along of infor-
UNCA has more control over its
own information, leading it to be
more reliable, according to Epstein.
“Historically, the snow line,
UNCA’s homepage and our e-mail
messages are more reliable about
what we’re doing about classes than
the media,” said Epstein. “It doesn’t
mean the area media are doing a
bad job, but we are able to change
our messages faster than they can.”
The late start schedule used dur
ing adverse weather has confused
some students, according to
Epstein. The schedule is available,
“on the web, it’s in the UNCA
See SNOW Page 10
Local student hangout robbed three times
Three nighttime robberies oc
curred at Viva Europa, a Montford
deli, since mid-December 2002.
“I do know from some of our
customers that they’ve expressed
some concerns about things at
nighttime and stuff like that, not
just for coming here, for anywhere
in the Montford area now,” said
Glenn Goldberg, owner of Viva
Europa. “Walking down the street,
going to the ice cream store or
whatever at nighttime, they think
twice now.”
The first incident occurred in mid-
December at approximately 7:30
p.m. The incident involved three
people, but only one person actu
ally held-up the store. The employ
ees present gave “very good de
scriptions of them, but they’re
young and probably not on record
already,” said Goldberg, who be
lieves the suspect is a minor.
“An underage guy came in and
TARA BARONE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Viva Europa, a deli located in Montford and frequented by UNCA students, was robbed three times.
was asking for Black and Milds,”
said nine-month employee David
Roberts, who worked the night of
the first incident. “I asked him for
ID and he didn’t have it, so I sent
him away.
“Then he hung outside with a
couple of friends for a little while,”
said Roberts. “Another kid came
in, that was a friend of his I guess
because they were hanging out to
gether, and he asked me for Black
and Mild’s, but he didn’t have ID.
He pulled out the gun after I asked
for his ID so I gave him all the
money, and he ran out the back
door. I called the cops, locked the
doors and did all the usual stuff.”
The second incident occurred Jan.
7 at approximately 8:30 p.m. The
suspect broke the front door glass
and stole two tip jars worth $5, $2
of it in change, and a 24-ounce
Corona Beer, according to an APD
incident report filed Jan. 13. The
crime cost Viva Europa at least
$1,000 for the broken glass alone,
according to Goldberg.
The third incident occurred Jan. 10
at approximately 2:30 a.m. Two
employees and five customers w
nessed the incident, according
Goldberg. Approximately $250 w
stolen, according to the incident
report filed by the APD Jan. 23.
Goldberg has mixed feelings about
the APD’s response to the recent
robberies.
“I feel they’ve responded fairly
well, but there’s definitely some
communication issues, even
amongst them,” said Goldberg.
“The patrolling officers in our area
here, our district, did not know
two, three, four, five days later that
there was an incident to this par
ticular property,” said Goldberg.
“Things like that in today’
Internet world have got to be able
to be much easier and quicker,"
said Goldberg. “Now, if they don’
have those capabilities for whatever
reason, funds or whatever that is,
the public needs to know about
that.”
The APD has made no arrests,
but they have assigned one detec
tive to all three incidents to find any
similarities in the cases, according
to Goldberg.
See THEFT Page 10
February 13, 2003
Student
fees
increase
Ginger McKnight
News Reporter
The UNCA Board of Trustees
icently approved an increase in
student fees for the upcoming 2003-
2004 school year.
“We do have one of the highest
fees in the state,” said Jenny Bowen,
student government association
president. “That’s pretty well
known. We have one of the lowest
tuitions, but one of the highest
fees.”
The decision on the student fee
increase began with the campus fee
committee, co-chaired by Vice
Chancellors Eric lovacchini and
Wayne McDevitt. This committee
has a set of guidelines to follow
when deciding on student fees,
provided by the UNC President’s
Office.
“Each fall we get directions from
the president’s office as to what to
do with regards to review of fees,
required fees, for the coming year,”
said Eric lovacchini, vice chancel
lor of student affairs. “It gives us
directions as to what we need to do,
what the guidelines are, what we
need to make sure we consider and
not consider and what the time
frame is for getting them any sug
gested changes.”
The committee starts out by re
viewing these rules before making
any decisions.
“We usually start out by rnaking
sure we understand the rules, the
guidelines. We make sure we un
derstand what the fees lave been in
the past,” said lovacchini. “We
make sure that we understand what
we’re going to establish as priorities
and that we communicate that to
the individuals who are responsible
for the administration of student
The committee listens to admin
istration representatives who
present requests for specific fee in
creases. These requests account for
each cent to show how increases
will benefit the university, accord
ing to lovacchini.
“It’s basically a very clear outlined
budget, usually it has research that
follows it,” said Bowen. “Every cent
is accounted for.”
The committee decided on in
creases ranging from $1.50 to $11,
for a total increase of $33.25 per
year. This 4.88 percent increase
will bring student fees up to
$714.25, according to UNCA’s
Website.
“The state almost expects every
school to give a 4 to 5 percent
increase every year in the fees,” said
Bowen. “Student fee increase is av
erage. It happens every year and
every year it’s going to be about the
same price as we are going to have
to pay.”
The decision on how much money
each administration receives also
takes into account factors such as
an increase in utilities and the di
rect impact the cost of fees would
have on students.
“If the fee area has personnel as
sociated with it, and a number of
them do, there is hope that there
will be some salary increases in this
years operating budget,” said
See FEES Page 10
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