Serving The Stodents Of The Umveisity of North Carailma at Asheville sinoe 1982
Volume 4, Number 4
Thursday, February 9, 1984
New dorm hits drawing board
AjkSsLl,* -5. ( ' •'Si
3\
The Ground Hog Was Right! After seeing his
shadow last Thursday he descended into his
burrow for six more weeks of hibernation.
Three days later Old Man Winter came to
Asheville ground hog hunting. Finding no sign
of the prophetic rodent he gave vent to his
wrath with a flurry of flakes that closed UNCA
classes Monday for the first time in two years.
Students who braved the elements to get here
found an empty but picturesque campus.
Photo bv Gary Skidmore
By David Plunkett
The UNCA Board of
Trustees voted Jan. 19,
to ask the UNC Board of
Governors for permis
sion to find an archi
tect to design a new
residence hall for the
campus.
A possible site for
the building is across
University Heights from
Rhodes Science Build
ing.
The tentative comple
tion date is fall 1987,
said Dr. Eric lovacchi-
ni, vice-chancellor for
student affairs.
The Board of Trustees
also discussed the pos
sibility of construct
ing an alternative to
the traditional type of
residence hall. One
possibility is an
apartment-style build
ing to house students
with families.
"We're real pleased
that the Board of Trus
tees voted to build a
new building so soon,"
said Vickie Looper-
June, Director of
Housing and Residence
Life.
There will soon be a
need for additional
housing on campus, she
said. The new dorm
itory was full last
fall; only the second
year that it was open.
The current state of
UNCA's academic facil
ities has led some
people to question the
proposal to build a new
residence hall before
new classrooms.
"The state of our
physical facilities is
abyssmal," said Dr.
Milton Ready, Chairman
of the History Depart
ment.
"We're inferior to
almost any other unit
of the system."
All of the fastest
growing programs—
computer science, com
munications, music—
have outgrown their
allotted .space, said
Ready.
"1 really can't speak
against a new dorm.
Our needs cire so great,
it's silly to denegrate
the need for a new dorm
when other schools have
both (new dorms and new
academic facilities),"
he said.
The reason the board
chose to go ahead with
new housing rather than
new academic facilities
is that money for the
two types of buildings
must come from differ
ent sources, said
lovacchini.
The money for new
housing is generated
from fees for the
existing housing faci
lities and from parking
permits. The schools
must come up with this
money themselves.
The money for new
academic facilities
comes from the state
legislature.
Legislative approval
is not needed for a new
housing project because
funds for it do not
come from the state.
"We're very anxious
to get an . addition for
the science building,"
said Thomas Arnold,
Chairman of the UNCA
Board of Trustees.
"We hope that the
legislature will ap
prove funds for that
this summer."
The 1987 completion
date for the new dorm
is tentative at this
point.
The Board of Trustees
must now go through the
process of getting ap
proval from the UNC
Board of Governors cind
must arrange financing
for the project, said
Arnold.
Industrial engineering attracts seventeen
By David Proffitt
Seventeen students,
all presently employed
by area companies, en
rolled in the new In
dustrial Engineering
program this semester,
said Dr. Raoul Alvarez.
Alvarez, a professor
at N.C. State Universi
ty since 1958, is di
rector of the new pro
gram which he began
planning in September,
1983.
"Chancellor Highsmith
was really surprised we
put it together so ra
pidly," said Alvarez.
All of the classes
meet during the evening
hours, thus enabling
full-time employees of
area companies to fur
ther their education in
this field.
The program, which
consists of 30 credit
hours of 400-600 level
courses, requires a
year of calculus and
statistics plus know
ledge of a high-level
computer language, pre
ferably Fortran,’ as
prerequisites, said
Alvarez.
UNCA and NCSU will
administer the program
jointly, with UNCA
faculty teaching the
minor courses in econ
omics, math, manage
ment , and computer
science.
NCSU faculty members,
with the aid of video
cassettes , will teach
all engineering cours
es .
"We have been using
videocassettes at NCSU
for many years with
great success. Some
times the instructors
have to travel, but
they can still teach
their classes in this
manner. Students like
them because they can
view them more than
once," said Alvarez.
Every instructor who
teaches via videocas
settes will visit Ashe
ville at least three
times during the
semester.
These visits will
occur just before exams
so they can review the
material with the
students, said Alvarez.
Additionally, Dr.
Alvarez is on campus
four days a week.
Industrial engineer
ing, in contrast to
other fields of engi
neering, is primarily
concerned with mcinage-
ment of production as
opposed to design of
production, reducing
the necessity of expen^
sive equipment.
Continued on page 8
M
Dr. Raoul Alverez,
director of the new
Engineering Program.
Photo by Pam Walker