April 14, 2006 — The Clarion
OPINION
Page 5
Letter to the Editor:
Brevard College advertises:
“For hearts and minds as large
as mountains '”
In the heart of the beautiful
North Carolina Appalachian
Mountains, it must be time to
make changes.
Student tuition may in
crease to an estimated $25,000
per year, or more.
Who decided the historic
Bam Theatre should switch into
a football locker room?
The new coach’s salary is
rumored at an astonishing
$70,000. The average Brevard
College professor is paid much
less. In fact, some professors
earn lower wages than local high
school teachers.
Shelly Webb, Brevard Col
lege Chaplin, has repeatedly
been denied requested funding
to build a chapel on the grounds.
The Methodist-affiliated school
currently has no sacred space
on campus for worship, prayer,
meditation, or communion. She
is admired, respected, and sup
ported by many students.
I’m requesting reasonable
funding from the college for a
large-scale organic garden and
a state-of-the-art campus green
house. Healthy organic foods
will be grown for students and
sold to the community. The
foods grown on-site will replace
foods that the college currently
imports from out-of-state. I be
lieve the college will make and
save lots of money and create
work-study jobs for students.
“Administration” believes
“operation football” will attract
new students for Brevard Col
lege and estimates that lots of
money will be raised in tuition
dollars from football players.
Scholarships will be available for
players; the majority of the tu
ition will be paid with loans,
grants, or family money.
On April 11, 2006, five cur
rent Brevard College students at
tended the first day of football
tryouts.
Many students believe it’s
“too late” to stop the football
program. The first game is Au
gust 26. Students protesting the
program advocate re-distribut-
ing current football monies to
more worthy causes.
Statistically, new football
programs have increased vio
lence and abuse on campuses.
President Van Horn pro
poses that the new football team
will perform at Brevard High
School; Brevard College will not
have a field ready in time for the
opening season. Tailgating and
alcohol will be prohibited on the
high school grounds.
Aaron Post, on a passion
ate note, quoted; “The football
program is not going to make a
positive impact on the lush,
green area of the world tradition
ally rich in music and art that is
Western North Carolina— The
Football program will turn
Brevard College into a valley of
dry bones, or shall 1 say a valley
of dry plastic cups and beer
cans... shame on Dr. Van Horn”.
Students are promoting bi
cycles for transportation and
sporting. Public transportation
to and from Asheville will need
to be implemented in order to
facilitate energy conservation
and fight rising gasoline prices.
The Brevard College campus
security also needs a new ve
hicle, as the 1993 Jeep is ready
to be retired and donated.
Kelly Bone, Music and The
atre major; “The school should
invest more money into the per
forming arts; the program is cur
rently suffering due to a lack of
funds.” She suggests more
money for theatre, music, and
performing arts. She says many
college-owned instruments are
in need of repairing or replacing.
Oh, and housekeeping ser
vices have been contracted and
outsourced by the President and
the staff reports that they are
paid unfairly, despite requested
increases in salary.
Increasing numbers of
people are questioning Brevard
College President Van Horn;
Who pays the Bill?
-Andrew Grier Barnhardt
Economic troubles abound
by Jamie Michaels
Special to The Clarion
Those of you who have
been following the news lately
(and you should) will notice sev
eral things - apart from the voice
of “Chef’ leaving Southpark and
Liza Minelli appearing drunk on
Larry King Live. You will notice
that President Bush in a recent
press conference implied that
the War in Iraq will likely extend
beyond his second term. You will
notice that the federal budget is
under constitutional review due
to a clerical oversight. And you
will notice that congress has re
cently raised the national debt
ceiling to nine-trillion dollars.
Now, I don’t know about
you, but nine-trillion is a figure
that’s just unfathomable to me.
Let me put it in perspective for
you. Wal-Mart’s profit last year
was 68.2 billion dollars. That
means that the US, in the time
that Bush has been in office, has
spent 13.2 times what the en
tirety of the Wal-Mart Corpora
tion (Sam’s Club, etc) spends in
a year. Uganda (whose annual
GDP growth, by the way, is more
than twice ours, while their GDP
per capita last year was about
$285 US Dollars) has only 1.9
billion dollars in debt. We could
buy Uganda’s debt with ours 473
times. And Windmere castle in
Winter Harbor, Maine, with 4,500
square feet of living space, sells
for a mere $ 1.2 million. With our
national debt, we could buy 7.5
million castles. That’s enough
castles to give one to each fam
ily living in North Carolina - with
some to spare. Man, I’ve got to
hand it to congress. I would be
way too scared to tell the Ameri
can people that not only do 1 set
my own budget (worth trillions
of their tax dollars), but I set my
very own credit limit and can
raise it whenever 1 see fit. I’d be
afraid someone would notice I
was making ill use of their money.
Several BC professors have,
in fact, noted these things in
their classes. Scott Sheffield, for
example, has shared with some
of us a website which claims that
last week would sec the eco
nomic end of the world and the
crash of the US dollar. With the
nation $9 trillion in debt and en
gaging for the first time in nega
tive savings. I’m not sure this
idea is so far off - though clearly
the time frame is a little skewed.
For now, I suppose 1 can
take heart in the state of our
economy. I mean, how often is it
that a typical, broke young col
lege student has a brighter eco
nomic future than her nation - a
developed, industrialized coun
try and the “leader of the free
world?” So 1 figure. I’m going to
go to my bank tomorrow and ask
for a $100,000 loan. Undoubt
edly they will deny me. After all.
I’m 20 years old, have almost no
credit, will exit college with a mere
B.A. in December, will soon be
responsible for student loan
payments, have never had a
long-term (well paying) job, and
have almost nothing to offer as
collateral. “But,” I will deftly re
ply, “I’ve got one thing going
for me. I’m probably more likely
to pay it back than our govern
ment is.” Now... how am I going
to spend that money? I guess I
should put it in an IRA. Heaven
knows I won’t be able to rely on
Social Security.
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