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I'hursday, October 18, 2007
The student body at UNC
Asheville must be improved
by the administration tnrough
diverse recruiting of students
in regards to ethnicity, gen
der, and religion of stucfents
and making UNC Asheville
an attractive selection to all
up and coming students.
There must be a diverse
student body to di.scuss cul
ture and .social issues on
campus that affects all stu
dents here.
The student bxly at UNC
Asheville today does not
have this necessity.
Some readers felt cheated
by the article written about a
fight during an intramural
flag football game printed
la.st week. Sigma Nu mem
bers Justin Newhart and
Evan Foote-Hudson, who
were interviewed for the arti
cle, said that Joe May made a
racial comment to Foote-
Hud.son after a call during an
intramural football game last
year. Since the claims were
not officially substantiated,
as journalists, we made the
decision to omit them.
The article noted that May
wa.s suspended after the alter
cation. While readers may
feel that the omission of the
racial comment is the real
issue, we must look deeper
into the issue of race, and
dialogue on our campus.
UNC Asheville prides itself
on recruiting the best and
brightest students while
enrolling a minority popula
tion, including an interna
tional student population that
accounts to 10 percent of the
student body for the Fall
2(X)7 semester.
With this in mind, we must
take each other into consider
ation. While minority stu
dents do have a voice at UNC
A.sheville, at the end of the
day the campus life reflects
the majority on campus. This
occurs on many levels. Here
we have qualified professors
Devon Dow
Sports Editor
r/)eBLUE Banner
Kditorial Board
Karpen Hall 019 828.251.6586
banner@unca.edu
I Asa V. (Jillespie, Editor-in-Chief
Ben Smith, Managing Editor
Kristen Marehall, News Editor Devon Dow, Sports Editor
Melissa Deckert, Lifestyles Editor
Pennie Leas, Photo Editor Emily Mase, Arts Etc. Editor
Emily Sigmon. Business Manager
Ashley Home, Chief Copy Editor
Ruggie Ridgeway, Business Editor
Wally Hosn, Ad Director Mary McCoy, Online Editor
Aaron Dahlstrom, Assistant News Editor
Mary Ball, Assistant Sports Editor
Brian Gallagher, Assistant Arts Etc. Editor
Hannah Doyle, Assistant Lifestyles Editor
Christa ChappeDe, Assistant Op-Ed Editor
Michael Gouge. Faculty Adviser
The Blue Banner is UNC Asheville’s student newspaper. We publish
each Thursday except during summer sessions, finals week and holiday
breaks. Our office is located in Karpen Hall, 019.
The Blue Banner is a designated public forum and welcomes letters to
the editor and articles, considering them on a basis of interest, space and
timeliness. Letters and articles should be e-mailed to banner@unca.edu
^ limited to 300 words. They should be signed with the writer’s name,
followed by the year in school, major or other relationship to UNC
A.sheville. Include a telephone number to aid in verification. All articles
submitted are subject to editing.
The Blue Banner}
Editorials
Pai
gel;
The issue of race is
much broader than
Intramural controversy
Radiohead rocks the boat with independent releas
* While minority
students do have a
voice at UNC
Asheville, at the
end of the day the
campus life
reflects the majori
ty on campus.
5
who teach courses on race,
ethnicity and humanities to
classrooms that have few, if
any minority students. How
many discussions in class
rooms take place at UNC
Asheville where the student
body provides a broad spec
trum of experiences and
understandings?
My guess is not many. The
influence of the majority at
UNC Asheville can be seen
in the repre.sentation of stu
dent run organizations,
events, student government,
etc. Why else would students
want to rally to stop injus
tices abroad in the Sudan
before they fight the social
and political injustices occur-
rir^ in Asheville?
These arguments are the
greater issue that the omis
sion of the racial comment is
tied to. Although readers
maybe upset, together we all
must looK at the big picture
when it comes to now the
student body collectively
deals with race on our cam
pus. I must admit, the
re.sponse to this article is
promising, it is about time
someone else recognized the
big pink elephant on campus.
By Adam Hillberry
Investigative Reporter
Radiohead released their new
album, “In Rainbows,’’ as a free
online download Oct. 10 to the
delight of most of the world. This
is an interesting advent to the trend
of consumer purchases in the
music industry in the past few
years.
Besides the excitement of
Radiohead’s first album in four
years, the ease to obtain and quick
ly listen to this album is the most
advantageous and marketable idea
in its use of the Internet to divert
the current trends of consumers
who no longer purcha.se music in
stores. Consumers look for the
quickest and easiest way to obtain
the entertainment gratification
they seek. With the creation of
peer-to-peer music trading servic
es being the most attractive and
popular, yet vaguely illegal,
method to acquire the music, it’s a
wonder this didn’t happen sooner.
The avenue exists for companies
to sell directly through the
Internet, yet the music industry
cautiously refrains from using it.
Minimal distribution of music is
available for download through
services such as the iTunes Music
Store. A similar consumption is the
bulk trade of bit torrents, a form of
downloading where a user streams
and saves a condensed folder of
many files, where one could
download hundreds of albums in
one download.
Perhaps the decline of record
and CD sales launched an empha
sis for audiences to demand more
from live performances. Most
bands today rely on touring and
night after night gigs to earn a
place in the business.
In the last ten years the quantity
and quality of live music festivals
with bulk music performance
increased. During the season, one
can count on a music festival every
week or weekend in some part of
the United States, and seeing an
array of bands from many genres.
Consumers find a great value in a
bulk live performance where about
one hundred artists are billed to
perform in one place. The market
for large-scale music festivals is
lucrative and money can be made.
The market for small-scale club
and event performances are also
Adam Hillberry
Investigative Reporter
very lucrative, especially with the
success of the Orange Peel Social
Aid and Pleasure Club in down
town Asheville. Our local venue
attracts acts from all over the
music spectrum. This summer,The
Smashing Pumpkins played at the
club for nine shows in an extend
ed-stay residency, blending the
ideas of a club performance and
repeated festival performances.
The Smashing Pumpkins are tak
ing advantage of the trend of the
consumers to travel to the per
former. They also played in San
Francisco for nine shows, demon
strating how a modem performer
can setup and draw their audience
regionally. The Smashing
Pumpkins blended a performance
strategy which shifted their over
head costs from the band spending
the money to pack up everyday
and move their gear to a new city
to exciting fans into spending the
money to travel and see the band.
Traditionally, musicians would
pack up their gear and tour the
country looking for the greatest
gig and hoping to earn the nicest
record contract. Artists traveled to
cities on their bill, and the con
sumers were restricted or appeased
to stay put. The new trend of con
sumers traveling for weekend-long
events of one band playing six
shows takes advantage of the
biggest bang for your buck ideal.
One similar music event is Jam
Cruise, a music festival aboard a
cruise ship sailing from Fort
Lauderdale, Florida and destined
for Honduras and Mexico in early
January. The dependent capital
factor for this enterprise is the
willingness of the audience to
come to the performance.
With an obvious switch to easier
technological consumer trends and
the demand for a shocking live
per
formance,
where does
the music
market
stand to go
next? Will
other bands
begin selling
their merchan
dise predominately through the
Internet, or will the Radlohead-
inspired idea of a virtually no pro
duction cost album available for
owning then allowing the audience
to name its price be the next wave
of consumption?
Sampling music through appro
priate channels is also a new trend
in music generation. Such utilities
as the Pandora, Music Genome
Project allow users to select a
genre of music and listen to it like
a radio station, and utilities like
MySpace allow visitors to sample
music of bands from anywhere.
Earlier this year. Prince promoted
a new single by offering it for free
through Verizon mobile phones.
This showmanship is as simple as
the old lady with samples in the
Sam’s Club.
The traditional idea of music
being owned and regulated by
copyright is slowly being win
nowed away. The flow of informa
tion and music from receiver to
receiver is fast and uncannily
unnoticed. The amount of music
transferred between users is great,
and the use of the pirated files is
too widespread for our current
copyright laws to keep up with.
This concept was addressed
somewhat by DJ Spooky who
spoke at UNC Asheville last
spring. DJ Spooky instructed the
audience not to worry about copy
right laws when it came to creating
music, as his product is one of
mashing up music samples to cre
ate something brand new. This
idea of motivic creation is refresh
ing from the insistence of the
music industry in threatening those
who steal music. He said music
should be free to flow, and perhaps
it is up to the audience to shell out
more when it comes to paying for
Photo lausTR,^
EmmaKh5(^
per- %.
for- ^ V
mance.
The open
channels of
the Internet
provide so
much
opportunity
for sales to
the tech-
savvy young
music consumers of today Tv
medium was expected to be'
itable years ago. One safegu^
this may be the status ofourcu.
rent popular music industiy.Son,
of the public is discouraged b
popular music. Many in thenusj
business say it is much harder n
develop a career now than it wj
30 years ago. The artistic ende».
ors of the contracted artists lad
the sophistication and complex
a transcendent audience expect
Artists of today target their spedf.
ic market and sacrifice rausH
creativity for what sells the most
The popular music industry make
most people shudder. So whej
will the industry go in the nextfa
years?
My bet is more artists will c»
tinue to use the build up of teeb
logical capabilities open to aim
everyone through the Interna
More artists should take advaniaji
of the ease of use to sell their prat
uct directly to an interested amt
ence through the Interna
Recording artists could findi
much more lucrative and benefi
cial market without a major laM
contract. Radiohead hopefulk
stumbled onto a new trend of tk
music industry.
“In Rainbows” is availabk
through their Web site, whereon:
may download a copy for a dom-
tion, or order the enhanced
Disebox, which includes theorip
nal download at the time of pii-
chase, the compact disc versiono(
“In Rainbows,” two vinyl reconi
of the album, an enhanced CD
with other new songs, digital pint
tographs, a lyrics booklet ani
other artwork. The Disebox costs
and ships for $81.27 and will begin
shipping in December.
Taser this... student newspapers have
the right to publish as they see fit
By Kelly McIntyre
Copy Editor
Have no fear, UNC Asheville
campus community, this editorial
will not feature the f-bomb. Even if
it did, the editorial board would
make the good decision not to print
it, without any worries of an adviso
ry board’s outside editorial content
review. The Colorado State
University student newspaper, the
Rocky Mountain Collegian, did,
however, choose to spell out the
expletive in an editorial on Friday,
Sept. 21.
Tile full content of the editorial,
which appeared in type larger than a
typical headline, was, ‘Taser this.
F*** Bush” and included the state
ment, “This column represents the
views of the Collegian’s editorial
board” in regular font size.
Significant controversy ensued, and
the paper lost about $30,000 of
advertising in a matter of days.
The Collegian maintains editorial
independence, yet the campus
Board of Student Communications,
a 10-member board of students and'
faculty members, serves as its pub
lisher and thus maintains the author
ity to hire and fire editors. The BSC
began discussing whether to repri
mand or fire the editor, J. David
MeSwane, amid controversy
between support for the paper’s
freedom of expression and calls for
MeSwane’s dismissal.
Finally, on Thursday, Oct. 4, the
BSC formally admonished
MeSwane, choosing to not fire him.
This incident brings up several mat
ters for discussion, including edito
rial decisions, free speech for col
lege newspapers and advisory
boards.
Kelly McIntyre
Copy Editor
First, was it OK for MeSwane and
his editorial board to print the f-
word? Sure, freedom of expression
allows publication of expletives, but
was it decent, necessary or good
journalism? Well, most likely, it was
not. Editorial decisions require
weighing possibilities of controver
sy with the necessity for good jour
nalism in informing the public.
The editorial was not informative,
contained little content and proba
bly did not persuade any dissenters
to change their minds. Lacking
these elements, many would be
inclined to deem the editorial and its
content unnecessary and unhelpful
journalistic commentary regarding
the University of Florida Tasering
incident, George W. Bush’s presi
dency and freedom of speech.
Even for those of us who agree
with the gist of the editorial, none
could deny how futile this kind of
commentary is in contributing to the
discussion or persuading others to
join our side. Regardless of the
debate surrounding MeSwane’s edi-
tonal decision, he should have the
nght to make that decision without
fear of being fired.
Second, supporting direct or indi
rect outside editorial authority to
quell free speech in any situation
leads to scary prospects. It may
have just been an expletive this
time, but what if the paper pub
lished an important, critical com
mentary that angered the BSC?
Potentially, BSC could exercise its
authority and fire the editor. This
could lead to self-censorship at the
paper ^d keep writers and editors
from divulging important informa
tion to the campus community.
The United States Supreme Court,
in Hazelwood School District v!
Kuhlmeier (1988), ruled on the
issue of administrative censorship
over high school student newspa
pers that are published as part of a
course in which students receive
grades for their work. The decision
allowed educators to retain editorial
control over school-sponsored
newspapers, so long as the censor
ship IS based on educational reason
ing, such as concern for grammatical
errors or vulgarity. The Hazelwood
decision included a footnote that left
open any determination for educa-
levef college
The Supreme Court turned down
me opportunity to review the 7th
Cirrait Court of Appeals decision
^^er (2005), which
stated that the degree of administra
tive review over collegiate stuuent
newspapers is based on whether the
paper IS a designated public forum
A college press writing in a non-
pubhe forum or receiving public
funding may be open to a degree of
Since the Supreme Court
decided not to review the case,
there are still no nation-wide court
guidelines on the constitutionalil)
of controlling editorial content iJ
collegiate press.
Therefore, the extent of
of the press entitled to the CSl
Rocky Mountain Collegian and i*
other college newspapers, except»
those in the 7th Circuit, retna#
uncertain. But based on the setup
eSU, the student newspaper exet
cises editorial indepiendence, »
hence the ability for the BSC to W
its editor based on editorial decisio®
seems contradictory.
Third, is it legitimate for a coW
giate student newspaper to have
advisory board? This is
harder
question to address, as no stu
newspaper has yet to challenge w
constitutionality of an advis^
board in court. Theoretically- ^
on previous court rulings, “
on the extent of authority
the advisory board, the board nwy
may not be considered
For example, an advisory
that asserts control over ed®
content for a student paper
thatise
designated public forum
probably not hold up in cou(|;
all advisory boards assert
content control, and it is harde
estimate how these types oi
would potentially stand up in d
decision.
The Blue Banner is a
smdent;'®
collegiate newspaper that
as a designated public forum, ^
coming contributions fm®
entire campus community ® ^
of the controversy at CSU, me ,
Asheville community ^
especially lucky the Banner s ^
rial board suffers no
editorial content control at the
of faculty or the administration