Newspapers / University of North Carolina … / Feb. 20, 2003, edition 1 / Page 1
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3,2003 ms e was a free whis movie, )uld have fii nternational 0 the discus- lam lecture, ition of thii )f emotional :urrent vola- /liddle East, ;UnitedSt4te Iraq, and thf c and peopk :1 right now,' pportunity tc 1 Islamic and )ther af&ont,' d and sympa- :hat perspec- ing academic ip in the lib- the issue, f the lecturf diversify thf oizAbunura 1 studies pro- i:ustration ol Hike to know Ke faculty’s 't necessaril) ling that thf ■ry. verdidcan- ionally try- y at UNO anities pro- iJ^ahdan, an ^ of'^JeJen! is the mosi e people whc cknovifledga have tappcfj JNCA. _ the vocahu- ich is under- urking behinfi I think that! inxieties of thf licandarefrorr vant to be i Hostile place.’ :ies I like that.” jhomore po- thatraceshould ions dedsions. e of the top lanzi. “But I east consider t would en- ;gregation of Mullen, about deseg- consider the top and bot- tryingtogetout vluUen. “That’s angedusirom yingtodowith dofthat” JNCA’s past ng were un- le past was to said Mullen, /^ears the out- )table.Wehave gation thatwe What the new s and admis- rdge by out- The Blue Banner Features Literature professor publishes first novel Sports UNCA picks up home win behind McGonagil’s 31 points ■ see page 5 Volume 37 Issue 3 The University of North Carolina at Asheville Asheville residents protest war in Iraq Beth Wyche News Reporter Just 10 days after Colin Powell’s United Nations address and only D weeks after President Bush’s State of the Union address, anti- r protesters around the world rallied to voice opposition against a United States war with Iraq. Asheville’s own peace rally packed 1 estimated 2,000 people into Pritchard Park to coincide with the lobal outcry on Feb. 15. ‘I think it’s awesome that all these people are here to speak their minds, said Mary Snow, an undeclared sophomore. “They’re here to say how they feel, state what they be lieve in and are united in what they stand for. I’m inspired by all this.” The Western North Carolina Peace Coalition managed to orga nize the protest in about two weeks, according to Jim Brown, a steering committee member. (/'e were really happy with Sat urday. We had more people than expected, said Brown. “On Dec. 7, we had a peace rally that had about 500 participate, with only about at one time. This time we were told there were over 2,000 people. I don’t think there was quite that number all at once there. But this rally was about four times bigger than the (previous) one.” The protest began at noon, lasted about three hours and featured an array of speakers and performers. Overall, the sign and poster carry ing crowd enjoyed the speakers. “I’m impressed, said Mark Boyd, n associate computer science pro- essor. “I was not sure when I just aw the list on the e-mail, but I’m very impressed.” Event organizers marveled at the turn out, as did most participants. “It more or less means to me, that there’s a huge segment of society TARA BARONE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Approximately 2,000 Asheville residents attended a peace rally in Pritchard Park Feb. 15. The event coincided with protests around the world to voice opposition to possible war with Iraq. that’s really just moved intellectu ally forward to the point where they can really see what’s just in the world,” said Rob Close, a senior philosophy major. “I wanted to see how big and strong this could be. I’m pretty blown away.” However, some protesters still hoped for an even stronger turn- “I’m pleased with the turnout, but I expected more to be honest,” said Chris Wiener, an undeclared sophomore. “But it’s always really good to see people supporting peace. It’s a positive vibe and you can just feed off the energy.” For others, the peace rally proved “reinforcing,” according to Boyd. “ I think the most exciting thing that people have been saying is just how much has been happening all over the world today,” said Boyd. “What we really need is huge num bers of people to actually get somebody’s attention. But I think we’re getting there.” Huge numbers did in fact, turn out across the globe. London had at least 750,000 pro testers; Madrid had 660,000, while NewYorkCity had around 500,000 protesters, according to t\\t Asheville Citizen-Times. Sydney, Australia saw as many as 500,000 protesters on Saturday. Protesters demonstrated in other countries such as Iraq, South Africa and Greece, where several scuffles broke out between protesters and police, according to the CNN Web Rally attendees cheered as speak ers periodically announced the lat est numbers of protesters through out the United States and the world. The global grassroots connection impacted those in Asheville. “This movement is even greater in other countries than it is here in this country,” said Brown. “People all over the world, I think they just want peace and I think other coun tries look at the United States as a bully. And it troubles me that the U.S. is viewed like we are.” Many in attendance felt the anti war movement in Asheville has strong roots. “I think it’s great. I expected there to be a lot of support in this area anyway,” said Caroline Grady, an undeclared freshman. “I think the fact that there are so many people out here from obviously so many different walks of life is really great. It’s just good to hear that echoed (peace), the fact that there are a lot of other people out there who really want peace and the fact that it’s worldwide too.” However, the Bush administra tion remains undeterred by the weekend protests, according to The New York Times, a realistic fear echoed by many peace rally attend- “I think its (protesting) the only thing we can do,” said Connie Schrader, a lecturer and health and fitness instructor at UNCA. “But sadly, I don’t think that our admin istration cares at all. Bush doesn’t care. It’s a sad time. Our represen tative government is obviously un responsive.” See PEACE Page 8 February 20, 2003 War with Iraq? “The lack of support alone is reason not to go to war. This past week end there were staged global protests against the war. That should let the President know that it’s notsomethingthe U.S. or other allied countries want.” Brunilda Rodriguez, junior marketing major “I believe that we should go to war with Iraq, but be careful and look at all possibilities.” Christina Robinson, freshman history major See WAR Page 8 Student governments voice concerns to NC legislators Becky Reese News Reporter COURTESY OF Benjamin S. Ruffin, of the UNG system Board of Govenors, speaks to SGA members in Raleigh Feb. 5. Three members of the UNCA Student Government Association (SGA), along with two other UNCA students, attended Students’ Day at the Capital in Raleigh to talk to local state representatives about is sues facing N.C. universities Feb. 5. “It was basically a gathering of students from all 16 institutions of the UNG system to come together at the capital for a day and talk to our different legislators,” said Anne Chesky, SGA sophomore senator. “(We came) to talk to them about budget cuts and tuition hikes that have been going on in the last sev eral years, this year especially.” The University of North Carolina Association of Student Govern ments (UNCASG) organized the event. Students addressed legisla tors regarding the recent cuts in the state budget concerning education and tuition increases. “I would say [the purpose was] to raise awareness in the legislature and also in the general public,” said Cady Etheredge, SGA sophomore senator. “Just to get things out in the public about the state of educa tion right now as far as the budget goes.” The state senate recently froze raises on tuition, but that could still create problems, according to Chesky. “Everyone on campus has to pay tuition and student fees to go here, and they’ve frozen tuition but they haven’t frozen student fees,” said Chesky. “One of the things I was concerned about was that, ‘well we’re not getting any money from tuition, so let’s charge them a little more for this or that in student fees. ’And that’s sort of an individual university problem, but tuition is frozen and student fees can still go up.” Students talked with N.C. Sena tor Stephen Metcalf and N.C. Leg islator Martin Nesbitt about the current budget crisis for approxi mately 45 minutes each, according to Etheredge. “We only got to talk to rwo of them because we talked to them for so long,” said Etheredge.“It seems like they knew what we were going to say before we said it, and they had their answers ready. I thought Metcalf was honestly very con cerned about it to begin with, that’s just the impression that I got.” The students heard about the rep resentatives’ stances on education, limiting time for questions, accord ing to Chesky. “We got to find Metcalfs and Nesbitt’s stances on education, so if anything we know who to vote for in the next election,” said Chesky. Because every student may not be aware of the budget cuts and tu ition increases, it’s important to go talk to state senators as opposed to letting them do whatever they want, said Chesky. “[Nesbitt] wants to encourage UNCA to grow because we’re in a bottom category, so we don’t get a lot of money from the state,” said Chesky. “Our mission statement, says that we want to stay small, as a university.” However, Nesbitt claims that when he supports budget cuts for educa tion, he wants to direct it towards the larger universities in the UNC system, according to Etheredge. “He was talking about (North Carolina) State and (UNC) Chapel Hill, and about how they had all this extra money running around,” said Etheredge. “He said that those institutions were started for educa tional purposes, not for research purposes. “He said that people here see him as anti-education when he talks about budget cuts, but he’s talking about cuts that would, in theory, affect Chapel Hill,” said Etheredge. Metcalf appeared sympathetic about budget cuts and tuition in creases, having gone through the UNC system himself, according to Chesky. “He really seemed to understand the value of education, given his background,” said Etheredge. Only five students from UNCA attended the event, mostly due to a lack of notification and prepara tion time, according to Etheredge. Chesky estimated 200-300 students were at the rally, with the majority See SGA Page 8 Serving UNCA Since 1982 WWW. unca. edulhanner
University of North Carolina at Asheville Student Newspaper
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Feb. 20, 2003, edition 1
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