VOICE
continued from page 3
"I think all students want to hear an
adult say, 'Everyone deserves respect.' I
think they appreciate that."
Danny Lee
Our VOICE volunteer coordinator
Last year, volunteers helped
with more than 250 crisis calls,
Rubinsky said.
Our VOICE routes its crisis
line through United Way, Vol
unteer Coordinator Danny
Lee said. When a call comes
in. United Way contacts a cri
sis response advocate with the
victim’s contact information.
Every few months. United
Way sends a call report to Our
VOICE, he said.
Last September’s report
shows 16 crisis calls; however,
Lee says they average between
20 and 30 calls per month.
“We sort of had a lull here
with our outreach. I do know
that after we do outreach, or
if we do an event that gets
our name out there like Walk
a Mile in Her Shoes, we’ll get
a lot of clients that way,” Lee
said. “It’s really about how
we’re doing with outreach, not
how many assaults are hap
pening. Those are happening.
It’s just a question of whether
people know about us.”
Lee, 29, started as a volun
teer with Our VOICE before
becoming the full-time volun
teer coordinator for the agen
cy.
“I started in the prevention
education, doing the dating
and communication work
shops for ninth graders in Bun
combe County high schools.
That’s where I started with Our
VOICE, but then I took the
training and became a crisis re
sponse advocate a couple years
ago,” Lee said. “When this po
sition opened, I applied.”
Lee became the volunteer
coordinator last November. He
also focuses his attention on
community outreach, attempt
ing to educate the public..
Lee and the Our VOICE
volunteers visit Buncombe
County schools for education
workshops.
“We get a lot of ninth grad
ers that take it very seriously,”
Lee said. “There are some kids
who act up, but I think this is
just a really difficult topic to
discuss.”
Even if the students seem to
be acting out, Lee said he tries
to stay positive.
“I think that all students want
to hear an adult like me say,
‘Everyone deserves respect.’ I
think they appreciate that,” Lee
said. “Even if they don’t seem
to be taking it seriously, I hope
my voice will be in their head
later. At some point, they’ll re
member that, and it will make
some sort of difference.”
Our VOICE also offers a
hotline for sex workers in the
Buncombe County area called
Kelly’s Line, Rubinsky said.
“It’s named after a woman
who was murdered while do
ing sex work, and it sort of
brought the attention around
this idea that folks who do sex
work are very vulnerable to
violence. It’s a population that
also may not feel like they can
go to the police and report and
be validated and listened to,”
Rubinsky said. “So, Kelly’s
Line is a free and confidential
anonymous reporting tool for
sex workers.”
Each of the agency’s pro
grams focus on awareness
education and prevention, Ru
binsky said.
“We strive to maintain a
good presence in the commu
nity and to be there as best we
can for survivors of sexual as
sault,” she said “There’s this
idea that we can’t really talk
about it. It’s really taboo and
dirty, and (in our society), we
just want to sweep it under the
rug and blame victims. On a
wider, community level, we
just want to change the atti
tudes concerning sexual as
sault and refocus the blame to
where it belongs, which is on
perpetrators.”
POLICE
continued from page 2
misuses. As a tool, a body
worn video camera that can
be turned on and off at the of
ficer’s discretion can be used
and abused, said Betsalel, who
specializes in the origins of
democracy, American political
thought and civil engagement.
“These are overtly-wom,”
Boyce said. “What they’re do
ing is they’re being transparent,
and if there was an issue that
came up, departments don’t
get into the he-said, she-said
type situation. They go back
and look at the video footage
and they’re able to take action
based on what they actually
see on the camera system.”
At the end of every shift, of
ficers place the cameras on a
"It can create a
kind of Big Brother
feeling."
Kenneth Betsalel
UMCA political science
professor
docking station, where the re
corded material uploads onto
software called Evidence.com,
which securely stores digital
information. Officers do not
review the recordings of their
cameras after the shift, Boyce
said.
“I’m not suggesting anything
dishonorable here, but I do feel
that citizens, students and others
feel that there are more ways in
which government knows more
and more about us, in situations
that are new to us,” said Bet
salel. “Undoubtedly, situations
like this will, if not at UNCA, at
some campus somewhere, will
result in some kind of litigation
at some point in the future, I
would imagine.”
Misuse, intentional obstruc
tion, destruction or alteration
of the system and its recorded
material results in disciplinary
action, Boyce said.
“It’s not like we’re mounting
secret cameras. We just want
to be able to record and docu
ment, provide for court, video
evidence and audio evidence,”
Boyce said. “I haven’t found
that departments who have de
ployed these body worn cam
eras have had issues with that.
What I have found is that there
is a level of comfort among the
citizens in that agency’s juris
diction.”
PLAN
continued from page 3
print out your syllabus for a
specific course, and you can
show exactly what you studied
in that class, you can give it to
us and we’ll make that judge
ment call on whether it satis
fies some of the requirements
here,” Humphries said.
Alex Fabiszak, a senior
economics student at UNCA,
transferred from Asheville-
Buncombe Technical Commu
nity College after receiving his
associate degree. Fabiszak said
the transfer process accepted
all but a few courses toward his
UNCA degree requirement.
“Overall, it was really easy to
transfer over to UNCA and not
have to take a bunch of classes
I had already taken,” Fabiszak
said.
Fabiszak said he encountered
the most trouble with his writ
ing intensive transfers, only
receiving credit for one of his
A-B Tech English courses.
“I petitioned with two upper-
level English courses from A-B
Tech,but neither was accepted,”
Fabiszak said. “The petition for
writing intensive classes from
other schools takes forever to
get everything that they want,
so it’s quite rare for a writing
intensive class to be accepted
from another school.”
The UNC system Board of
Governors approved the final
draft of the $910 million plan
at their Feb. 7 meeting. With
the board’s approval, the plan
travels to the state legislature
next for passage into law.
Dohse said the plan creates
noble goals, but would require
finesse in the implementation
stage.
“Its goals are quite laudable,
but achieving those goals will
require monumental effort,”
Dohse said. “As a faculty
member, I am concerned that
the problems will arise in the
implementation, and that will
be the work we need to do in
the next couple of years.”