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y
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH ^aIIOLINA ASHEVILLE
Blue Banner
compited by Sandy LaCorta and Gina Douthat
Lifestyles
Dogs get a free place to roam,
see page 6.
Find out whether this
student found the luck
of the Irish,
see page 11.
THUR. 51 50 FRI. 55 55 SAT. 58 57 SUN. 02 H)
Thursday, November 8, 2007
THE
NEWS
IN BRIEF
Firefighters
battle store blaze
on Patton
Ashley Furniture Store on
Patton Avenue burned down
Monday night, but firefighters
kept the blaze from spreading to
snrrounding businesses. The
fully-involved fire required all but
one of the city’s nearly 20 fire
trucks and more than 100 fire
fighters to contain.
’he fire, which began at 9:30
pfi., kept firefighters on the
scene until after midnight. No one
was injured during the event.
Firefighters have yet to determine
the cause of the fire.
Writers strike
threatens static
for future of TV
(The Writers Guild of America
went on strike Monday over issues
regarding royalty payments on new
media formats such as DVD and
Internet. The last such strike
l^uned in 1988 and lasted for 22
weeks, costing the film and televi
sion industries $500 million.
Experts estimate in today’s dollars,
such a strike would cost more than
$1 billion.
^he Guild entered last-minute
negotiations on Sunday, trying to
reach a resolution. When one could
not be reached, they went on strike
at midnight. Many television pro
ducers, anticipating a strike, began
stockpilings scripts earlier in the
year, leaving Primetime television
largely unaffected for the rest of
2007.
iJNC Asheville’s
Wellness Center
;ets a shot
in the arm
jBB&T donated $50,000 Tuesday
to UNC Asheville’s Center for
Health & Wellness. The Center
received most of its funding
4rough a $35 million appropria
tion from the N.C. General
Assembly, but the university is
raising $5-$7 million in private
fend to support the construction.
'The Center will serve as the hub
for educating health and wellness
pofessionals and conducting inter-
'inary research.
compiled by Aaron Dahlstrom
www.unca.cdu/ltanncr
Boys in blue go green
...... ^■ ■—— -
Emily Gray - Staff Phot(x;raphf.r
Dennis Thompson, a security guard and traffic enforcement ollicer with UNC Asheville’.s
Campus Police, drives the department’s new Global Electric Motorcar. The new vehicle does
not produce any emissions or pollution because it runs solely on electric power.
Whatcha’ gonna do when they come for you:
?
By Courtney Metz
Staff Writer
Campus police are working to become
more environmentally friendly and keep
students safe with new equipment acquired
this semester.
“I think nationwide campus law enforce
ment will probably see more changes in the
next 10 to 20 years than it has seen in the
past 50 years,” said Steve Lewis, chief of
Campus Police. “A lot of things are in the
works.”
Some of the first among these changes for
UNC Asheville are a new Globa! Electric
Motorcar and a new radio system allowing
campus police to communicate directly
with the Asheville Police Department.
Many students around campus have already
noticed the GEM car, according to Dennis
Thompson, security guard and parking
enforcement officer.
“The students have been very positive in
the remarks that they’ve made about the
GEM car,” Thompson said. “It’s got a lot
of advantages.”
“I didn’t know what it was at first, but I
thought it was kind of cute,” said Sarah
Maldonado, freshman student. “The whole
world should be like that because sooner or
later we’re all going to die, I think, from
pollution.”
Global Electric Motorcars, a subsidiary of
Chrysler, manufactures the GEM car,
which is an entirely electric, low-speed
vehicle
“It’s all electric,” Thompson said. “To
recharge it, you just simply plug it into a
regular household current, so you do not
have to have any expensive battery pack
systems to recharge. We can basically go
one full shift on a charge and then it takes
four and a half to five hours to recharge it.
So there’s no gas involved whatsoever,
there are no emissions from it whatsoever
and it’s not putting out any pollutants of
any kind.”
It also allows campus police to respond
quicker to situations, according to Lewis.
“If we get a call from South Ridge, West
Ridge or Founders and we’re here at the
office, he will get there quicker in the GEM
car than I’ll get there in the patrol car,”
Lewis said. “He’ll get down a sidewalk
somewhere and get there significantly
quicker.”
It also makes more sense for a college
campus, according to Kyle Sherard, sopho
more art .student.
SEE Police page 2 |
Manna FoodBank helps students make a difference
By Clary Tedford
Staff Writer
:As
t -- Thanksgiving approaches,
milies in need will bear heavy
'Nens during the already stress-
fel holidays; however, MANNA
'odBank says students can help.
Manna FoodBank’s Turkey
j7rive 2007 is a way for the com-
punity to help these families in
The event began Nov. 3 and
continue until Nov. 19.
^! The main thing students can do
I K to donate a turkey to MANNA
ptween now and Nov. 17.
fudents can drop off turkeys
prectly at MANNA or at desig-
2ted Ingles locations on
Pturday, Nov. 10 or Nov. 17,”
?'d Shelley Booth, MANNA
F'MBank public relations coordi-
^tor.
^Students can also contribute $12
MANNA to purchase a turkey.
•t
In addition, organizations like
sports teams or fraternities and
sororities can pool money to make
a larger donation or hold a food
drive to collect nonperishable
food items and turkeys, according
to Booth.
“Students can also spread the
word about the need to faculty,
families and faith groups. You can
be advocates,” Booth said.
“It’s a good idea, any way you
can help out the less fortunate,
said A.J. Jessup, senior literature
student. . ,
As a member of America s
Second Harvest and the Nation’s
Food Bank Network, MANNA
serves 375 non-profit agencies in
16 Western North Carolina coun
ties. . ,, ,,
“The turkey drive is really the
kick off for our holiday long cam
paign, the Ingles Giving Tree,
66
99
It’s a great opportunity to try to give
back and make sure that everyone can
enjoy the holidays.
MarkGellman
Senior Political Science Student
Booth said.
The Ingles Giving Tree is anoth
er way for the community to pitch
in and help the less fortunate.
According to a MANNA
FoodBank publication, $1 or more
added to your grocery bill when
checking out at your local Ingles
Market is a convenient way to
help.
“Customers can ask a cashier
for the ‘empty plate’ icon and
have it scanned at the cash regis
ter,” Booth said.
The in-store giving program
began Nov. 3. Donations can also
be made at the Ingles Giving Tree
in the Asheville Mall or through
MANNA’S Web site.
Senior political science student
Mark Gellman said students at
UNC Asheville are willing to help
the community.
“It’s a great opportunity to try to
give back and make sure that
everyone can enjoy the holidays,”
Gellman said.
It seems like the UNC Asheville
student body, as a whole, is pretty
generous both on-campus and off,
and students should get involved
if they can, according to Gellman.
“I’ve always given to charity,”
said Brian Ponder, sophomore stu
dent. “It’s great when people do
get involved because that involve
ment betters the community and it
definitely helps people who can’t
necessarily afford, you know, a
warm meal.”
Last year MANNA distributed 6
million pounds of food through its
_ SEE MANNA PAGE 3|
\bl. 47, Issue 10
Bill of Rights
returns
home after
centuries lost
By Jon Waiczak
Staff Writer
North Carolina’s copy of the Bill
of Rights visits UNC Asheville
Nov. 8 to 10. with a scries of spe
cial events scheduled in honor ot
the visit.
“This is an extremely important
document in our history, and the
fact that it’s coming here, we
should be honored,” said Bryan
Sinclair, associate university
librarian for public services.
The Bill of Rights is on display
in Ramsey Library’s Whitman
room and is open to the public 5 to
7 p.m. on Thursday, 3 to 7 p.m. on
Friday, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on
Saturday.
“They’re bringing their own spe
cial lighting, and their own special
display case, and they’re bringing
two armed guards who will stay
with the document at all time,”
Sinclair said.
The document is open for limited
hours to protect it from damaging
sunlight, according to Sinclair.
“We did cover the two windows
in that room with plywood, not
because of security but mainly
because of UV rays from the sun,”
he said.
North Carolina’s copy of the Bill
of Rights, one of 14 copies created
in 1789, disappeared in the closing
days of the Civil War, when
Raleigh fell to Union forces. The
FBI recovered it in a sting opera
tion in 2(X)3 from a dealer who was
trying to .sell it to a mu.seum.
To celebrate the visit, the univer
sity will hold .several panels on
topics including freedom of speech
and freedom of religion.
Thursday, Sinclair moderated a
panel entitled “Freedom of Speech
in the Internet Age,” along with
Alan Hantz, mass communication
chair.
“I know of no restrictions on our
students, but there arc special
groups of people like students in
public schools, and soldiers in
Iraq,” Sinclair said. “We are talk
ing about freedom of speech and
freedom of the press, and how they
relate to the internet.”
In May, the Pentagon blocked
access to a dozen Web sites on
Department of Defense computers,
including MySpace, YouTube,
MTV, Pandora and PhotoBucket.
If the government allowed
greater freedom to blog from the
front lines, the American public
would be better informed about the
war in Iraq, according to Laura
Beth Payne, senior history student
who was one of 10 students to
serve on the panel.
“1 see no harm in allowing men
to post on blogs to their friends and
family about how they arc doing or
how much they miss home,” Payne
said. “If anyone can set the media
straight about what is going on,
they can.”
If the military trusts soldiers to
fight overseas, it can trust them
with unrestricted Internet access,
Payne said.
“All this to say, the military has
the right to impose these restric
tions, and I understand their con
cern, but maybe a little trust could
be allowed.”
Another topic the panel covered
was filters and restrictions on
Internet access in public schools.
Payne, who plans on becoming a
teacher, said she understands the
need for filters to keep students on
task, and to protect them from
pornography.
“But when students can only use
the Google search engine because
all others are blocked, or if I as a
teacher can’t pull up YouTube for a
presentation, both of which 1 have
witnessed personally, then the fil
ters become frustrating,” Payne
said. “Strong filters can also pre
vent student research. A research
SEE Rights page 31
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