VOL VI, No. 8
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1971
Social Sciences Funding Cut
Budget Goes Before Legislature Soon
Governor Bob Scott
presented his Budget Advisory
Commission’s report to the N. C.
Legialature January 14. The
report contained budget cuts for
the UNC-A campus which will
eliminate among other items any
possibility of constructing the
new Social Sciences Building
called for in the UNC-A budget
requests.
The Social Sciences Building
was the top priority item in the
campus’ building request of S1.9
million. The Budget Commission
recommended cutbacks in the
UNC-A requests to the General
Assembly and the Social
Sciences Building estimated at
$ 1.5 million was one of the first
requests to be cut.
Chancellor Higlismith was
quoted in the Asheville Times as
saying that the Social Sciences
Building was “extra important”
to the college’s plans since it was
designed to house the
department with the largest
enrollment on campus.
Highsmith added that Social
Scjences is now in “cramped and
unsatisfactory quarters which
are completely indadquate for
the instructional progarm.”
The removal of the building
from the budget will seriously
hinder the growth of UNC-A,
according to Highsmith who will
spend the greater part of his
time in the near future trying to
persuade the members of the
General Assembly to reconsider
the Commission recommenda
tions.
Most of the other budget
requests made by UNC-A for the
coming biennium were also cut
by the Commission. The original
budget requests which were
made by the Asheville campus
amounted to over' S3 million.
Also included in the buidling
requests were track and field
facilities and a service building
for the Asheville-Biltmore
Botanical Gardens, both of
which were turned down by the
Advisory Commission.
Recommended by the
Commission, however, were air
conditioning for the Student
Center at 535,000.; roads and
parking at S25,000.; and walks
and landscaping at $17,000.
In the past, UNC-A has been
fortunate with budget requests
and has reaped per student more
money from the state than any
other University.
IS
The N. C. Legislature which went into session January 14 after a State of the State Message in which
Governor Bob Scott recommend an amendment to allow the eighteen year old vote in N. C., as well as
reforms in higher education across the State.
The Legislature will soon take up the Budget Advisory Commission’s report that, if passed, will kill
any chance of building the badly needed Social Sciences Building until after 1973.
V
White Removed as Proctor
in Administrative Reprisals
An appropriate message for almost everyone concerned is
scrawled on this makeshift repair for one of the damages that
caused the ouster of Curtis White as Dormitory Proctor of 1
Dorm in recent Administrative reprisjils.
by Dee Grier
- Curtis Wliite has been
dismissed as proctor of Hoey (I)
Dorm in the wake of
Administrative investigations
into activities in the dorm.
Reported incidents of extensive
abuse of facilities and
unreported damages are
allegedly the cause for the
action.
Wliite’s replacement has been
named as Lars Petersen,
formerly proctor of Swain
Dormitory.
The damages have been
charged to overly-enthusiastic
partying in the basement
recreation room of 1 Dorm. The
parties were sponsored by Delta
Chi Omega, a new fraternity on
campus composed mainly of
Freshmen. The n^ room with
its beer-serving facilities was also
decorated and made comfortable
by the fraternity. The parties
had been made open to all
students, resulted in the damage
of furniture, ceiling tiles and
other articles.
White was removed from his
position after two members of
the Administration, Thomas
Dula, Dean of Students and Ed
Harris, Adminstrative Assistant
to the Chancellor made a tour of
the dorms discovering the
damages, which had been
allargedly unreported. As
proctor, White’s duties had
entailed the reporting of all
damages and any trouble within
the dorm.
Actions on the part of the
Administration following Curtis’
dismissal included locking the
rec room of the dorm except for
the purpose of doing laundry,
forcing students to use the
facilities in Aycock Dorm.
Inhabitants of the dorm
protested this action, pointing
out that out of the dorms 32
residents, only 14 are members
of the fraternity. Furthermore,
the members of the fraternity
claim that the action was taken
without consultation with the
representatives of the fraternity
and without sufficient reasons
being given.
the opinion that Chancellor
Highsmith may have acted too
hastily.
Plans at the moment on the
part of the dorm residents
include appealing the last action
to the Judicial Board of the SGA
in hopes of a reversal.
All of these actions have
taken place shortly before the
planned re-assignment of
proctors. The dismissal of White
has caused the addition of Trip
Hill’s name to the list of the
One member of the (see White Removed... page 4)
Administrative staff interjected
Scott Proposes
School Reforms
Governor Bob Scott in an
address to the Governor’s
Committee on Reorganization of
Higher Education, told the
committee thathe expects the
results soon and that he wants a
new plan for higlier education in
North Carolina in time for
consideration by the 1971
General Assembly.
The committee, headed by
former State Senator Lindsay
Warren, Jr. of Goldsboro, agreed
to start meeting behind closed
doors next weekend to begin
thrashing out a plan to end the
bitter rivalry and competition
for funds that has plagued higher
education in the state.
Scotl has called for the
creation of a new system that
would provide for a more
centralized control of the six
branches of the University of
North Carolina and the nine
regional Universities. One of the
suggestions made recently by
Scott was the formation of a
single board of regents to
control all the Universities in the
state.
Scott is seeking an end to the
cutthroat competition for funds
similar to the battle that UNC-A
now faces in trying to convince
the General Assembly to ignore
several of the budget cutbacks
proposed to the Assembly by
the Advisory Budget
Commission recently.
The Governor told the group
at its organizational meeting
recently that its work could well
be one of the milestones for
North Carolina in the coming
decade.