* i$ Giving is Great!: Phlebotomist Kitty Broermann and UNCA student Scott Alexander appear to enjoy contributing their time and blood at the Student Government Association sponsored blood drive, held in the Lipinsky Building, Oct. 18. The Red. Cross collected 85 units from the 98 UNCA students who signed up to donate. Two student organizations, the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity and the Mud 500 Club, received $25 each from the SGA for tieing in the highest contributing organi zation contest. Last April, 91 students donated 181 pints of blood to the organization. The SGA I ‘plans to bring the Bloodmobile to the campus again next spring, says SGA President Ken Cagle. Photo by Pam Walker Serving The Students Of The University of North Carolina at Asheville since 1982 ^Volume 3, Number 10 WCUNCA? Merger matter viewed as madness By Lee Hinebaugh and Anna Paulette Witt The 1983 faU semes ter may be remembered in UNCA history as "The Autumn of the Merger Madness." However, the three- year debate over the advisability of UNCA and Western Carolina University merging to form one institution seems to be nearing an end. UNC President WiUiam Friday addressed the issue Oct. 14, in a speech to the Universi ty of North Carolina Board of Governors at their October meeting which took place in CuUowhee. Friday said the advi sory committee which he set up to study the si tuation of higher edu cation in Western North Carolina; and to parti cularly review the re lationship between UNCA and WCU, recently sub mitted to him its re commendations . "I intend to follow closely the recommend ations of the commit tee," Friday said. However, Friday said he has not yet made his final decision about the merger and the fu ture relationship be tween the two institu tions. He said he wants to think the issue through a bit more and win issue a report concerning it in the near future. The three members of the president's adviso ry committee spent one and one-half days on each campus in Septem ber conferring with administration, faculty and concerned citizens. Two ex-UNC chancel lors, Dr. Dean Colvard of UNC-Charlotte: and Dr. James Ferguson, of UNC-Creensboro; and Southern Regional Edu cation Board member Dr. Winfred Godwin composed the committee. Their recommendations include, according to Dr. l^urmoe Dorr, UNCA vice chancellor for a- cademic affairs: . Setting up a com bined graduate center in Asheville. . Quickly dispensing with any overlap in curncolum between UNCA and WCU programs in Asheville. . Forgetting any mer ger of the two institu tions . Friday indicated that he plans to go ahead with the graduate cen ter and a committee is studying plans for it, said Ken Cagle, UNCA SGA president. Cagle attended the meeting in CuUowhee and said he plans to attend the next board of governor's session Nov. U in Chapel HiU. Friday promised to give a full report of the committee's find ings at this session. UNCA is pleased with the committee's propos als this far, said Dorr. "Funding for graduate programs wiU be given directly to the center which will then reim burse UNCA for the use of its facilities as well as pay graduate faculty salaries," said Dorr. Dorr said that pre sently UNCA receives a token amount from WCU for electricity, heat, grounds maintainance, etc. "The graduate center wiU probably begin functioning as soon as a director is chosen for it," said Dorr. He said this might be as soon as July. The center will ad minister aU graduate level courses taught at UNCA by WCU. It wiU also be in charge of the North CaroUna State graduate engin eering program being taught at UNCA, Dorr said. He also said that the center wiU administer any future UNCA gradua te programs. However, he said that there are no plans to begin any UNCA graduate programs at this time. Dorr said that some courses are presently being taught on UNCA's campus by both UNCA and WCU. However, Harry Ram sey, assistant to the WCU chancellor for WCU programs in AsheviUe, said he is not aware of any current overlap in classes. The committee said that in its opinion any merger between UNCA and WCU would be impracti cal, said Dorr. Many, if not all the UNCA faculty seem to agree. However, al though several of them consented to talk to Kaleidoscope's reporter about the issue, they nearly all said their names could not be in cluded with their com ments because the administration asked them to not discuss the issue. "If I was tenured and did not have to fear for my continued em ployment at this insti tution you could attri bute these statements to me by name," said one professor. "However, the admin istration has made it very clear in previous meetings that the fac ulty is to remain si lent on this matter." "The most important issue raised by the proposed merger is that it would sacrifice aca demic quality at UNCA," said one professor. Another professor said that "a merger of the two universities would concretely detri ment UNCA graduates in Continued on page 8

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