The Banner
Volume xm. Number 7 Proudly serving the UNCA community since 1982
October 13. 1988
Confusion may have forced Dukakis to skip UNCA
by Maria Honon
News Editor
Athletic Director Ed Farrell
said he was irritated that the
Asheville Citizen chose to
present last week’s conflict
between scheduling Governor
Michael Dukakis to speak in
Justice Gymnasium or
conducting a scheduled
volleyball tournament as a
battle between the two
events.
"I was called out of a
meeting by Tom Byers to see
if Justice was available for
Friday evening. I said yes,
Farrell said.
"There was no way to do
both, so I called (Byers) back
to say no," Farrell said.
Teams from five schools
were already committed to
the tournament which had
been planned in the Spring
of ‘88, according to Farrell.
"I was wrong. It
(tournament) was scheduled
and I forgot," he said. "The
problem was that I said yes
and then said no in about
five minutes time," Farrell
there was no commitment.
But Fm not saying the signals we
Han't '' "
gave them didn’t confuse them
then remembered the
volleyball tournment later,"
Farrell said.
According to Farrell, he
called Byers, special assistant
to the chancellor, back to say
the gym was booked, but
Byers had already told the
local democratic headquarters
it was available.
"Nona McDonald, with the
local orgaitization, called to
explore the options, but there
was no definite commitment,"
Byers said. "But I’m not
saying the signals we gave
them didn’t confuse them."
Byers said he regretted that
Dukakis did not come to
speak on campus, but the
situation was complicated by
the short planiting time
involved.
"We were up against a big
problem-there was only 72
hours notice," he said.
The call to check the
availability of the gym came
in around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The UNC Asheville
Tournament was scheduled"
to begin on Friday at 3 p.m.,
Tom Byers
said.
According to Byers, the
university was working to
make tlie campus available
to Dukakis when the
headquarters called back to
say they were no longer
interested.
"Thursday morning we were
on hold for a while trying to
work out our conflicts when
they (Democratic
Headquarters) called back
to say they had chosen the
Thomas Wolfe House as the
site for the appearance," he
said.
"It would have created
hassles, but we were excited
about the possibility," Byers
continued.
Judy Williamson, staff
member with Victory ‘88,
who is running the Dukakis
campaign, said UNCA was
only one of several places
under consideration.
"There was only 24 hours
to come to a conclusion, so
if it couldn’t be resolved
immediately, it was dropped
from consideration," she said.
Staff Photo—Stacey Higdon
Govenor Michael Dukakis and his daughter, Andrea, appeared before supporters gathered at the Thomas
Wolfe Memorial Friday afternoon.
"The Boston people were the
ones who made the decision."
Willliamson said Dukakis
had an interest in the
Thomas Wolfe site, but the
party wanted to look at the
university because there was
concern that the other site
would not hold a lot of
people.
"It (Thomas Wolfe House)
had nostalgic merit, but it would have hated to cancel
was a challenge type site," she the tournament."
said. "We would have made
"We wanted to do it," Byers drastic changes in the
"““Ssrr PI*.... D.t.11. P.S..
UNCA lacks enrollment of local Black students
by Joan Schiiyder
Editor
There are ten black
students out of a total of 456
new freshmen at UNCA this
year. This is the largest
freshmen class ever, with the
lowest number of black
students since 1981.
None of these students
come from Buncombe County
or any of the counties
surrounding it, according to
a report issued by the UNCA
Office of Institutional
Research.
Black students make up 50
percent of the student body
at Asheville High School, but
none of these students
enrolled at UNCA this year.
One reason may be that no
one went to Asheville High
School to recruit students,
black or white, according to
Charles Lance, college
counselor at Asheville High
School.
"We haven’t had anybody
from UNCA visiting our
campus and trying to recruit
our, students. There have
been representatives from a
number of other campuses,
even a number of out-of-state
universities, but no one from
UNCA," said Lance.
"There are not very many
Blacks in western North
Carolina. However, 50
percent of the students at
Asheville High School are
black and they are a very
sharp group," he said.
"We don’t know if it is that
we have a bad reputation in
Asheville or what, but we
have a very sharp group of
black students on at Asheville
High. I think with some
personal effort it (Asheville
High) could be an in-road for
good black students at
UNCA."
"We do visit Asheville High
School. I visited Asheville
High myself last year," said
Steve Wellborn, admissions
officer.
"We host the Buncombe
County College program in
the Fall. We also pay a visit
to all area high schools in the
Spring," said Derwin
Williams, admissions officer.
Recruiting black students
is not an easy job because the
competition for good black
students is so great, Lance
said.
Wellborn agreed with this,
saying "the competition for
black students is so great that
to be competitive we have to
re-evaluate and reaccess what
we are doing."
"A black student with a 900
SAT and a well-rounded
education can get into UNC-
Chapel Hill or Wake Forest,"
said Lance.
"People seem to think that
there is a difference in
admission requirements for
black and white students at
UNCA and that is just not
true," said Wellborn.
We evaluate all students in
the same way, looking
primarily at their college
New Black Freshmen
klUllL
1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988
New Freshmen
' 1981 1982 1983 l" 1985 i” m7 1988
Statistics taken from the UNCA Office of Institutional Research
and from the Statistical Abstract of Higher Education in North
Carolina
record and then at SAT
scores, said Wellborn.
A few of the good black
students I have talked with
want to go to big name
schools, but most are
interested in the selective
black schools like Howard or
North Carolina A&T, said
Lance.
"I would like to go to
Spellman in Atlanta or
Bennet in Greensboro
because of their heritages.
Both of these are black
colleges, and I want to see
what it is like to be in an all
black school," Faith Dickson,
a senior at Asheville High
School, said.
"I have heard what it is like
from my parents who went
to segregated schools," she
added.
"Another problem is that it
isn’t cool to stay at home and
go to college. Most of these
black students who are
college-bound are the first
generation of their family to
go to college and they want
to get away from home. That
is what heroes are made of
for these kids," said Lance.
"Somehow it would be great
e it so that it was cool
to stay home and go to
UNCA. One way of doing
this is to get communication
\
going between students at
UNCA and students at
Asheville High School,"
Lance continued.
A number of college-bound
black students from Asheville
High School are expressing
the desire to leave home and
go to college.
"I want to go away to
college for the excitement
and the experience of being
away from home," said
Dickson.
"UNCA is too close to
home. I need to get away,"
said Sheri Davidson, a senior
at Asheville High School.
"I want to go away to school
in a big city because
Asheville is too small. Also
I want to be farther away
from my parents," said Java
Wilson, a junior at Asheville
High School.
"I think it is so important
for good black students from
Asheville to go to UNCA to
keep them in the community.
My concern is that our good
black students will go away
to college and we won’t get
them back," Lance said.
"Keeping them here would
enable them to provide
political, social and economic
leadership in the Asheville
Please see Blacks page 8