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Volume XVI, Number 3
Striving for excellence
Februar}' 8,1990
UNCA celebrates Black Heritage Month
South African
journalist
speaks
to students
By Kim Cooley
Asst, News Editor
Sipho Ngcobo, a journalist from
South Africa, spoke Monday in the
private dining room in the first of
a series of events planned for
Black History Month at UNCA.
Ngcobo’s lecture was entitled "The
Roles of Blacks in South Africa."
According to Ngcobo, many
things are different for blacks in
South Africa than they are here in
the United States. "Black peasants
have no right to ownership of land.
They can only lease." Ngcobo said
by leasing, families pay for the
walls and the materials to build
the house, but they can never own
it.
Another difference between
South Africa and the United
States is that the "blacks are not
able to live in white residential
areas. They can be jailed for up to
27 years for doing this," Ngcobo
said.
In the United States, persons are
use to the freedom of speech, the
right to a fair trial and the ability
to speak with lawyers before
speaking to the press. South
Africans do not have such
privileges.
According to Ngcobo, people can
be jailed for six months before
their trial with no acces-s to their
children, friends or lawyers. "Even
if your lawyer is standing right
next to you, he does not have the
right to talk to you," he said.
The United States also has a
juvenile court to try children under
a certain age. In South Africa, they
do not. According to Ngcobo,
people are not put in a jail cell
when jailed, they are put in a
prison camp. "People share prison
camps with kids as young as nine
years old with no access to anyone
else but the people in the camp,"
he said.
Americans have thousands of
colleges and universities from
which to choose if they decide to
continue their education. Once
again, this is a difference between
South Africa and the United
States.
"South Africans get a most
inferior education. There are 62
high schools in South Africa eind
not one of them had a laboratory,"
Ngcobo said. There are four black
universities, but there is not one
engineering course.
"Students study and know
absolutely nothing. The employers
won’t hire them because they
know they go a most inferior
education and didn’t learn
anything," Ngcobo said.
In the United States, freedom of
the press is guaranteed by the
First Amendment. According to
Ngcobo, there is no freedom of
the press.
"If a policeman walks down the
street and sees a newspaper with
a headline he doesn’t like or a bad
picture, he can have all the papers
in the city seized," Ngcobo said.
Ngcobo said if a journalist writes
"everything," he can be sentenced
to 10 years in jail, a $10,000 fine
or both. "Writers write everything
and its up to the editors to cut it,"
Ngcobo said. "There are a lot of
brave reporters and brave editors
out there.
"If the government wants to, they
can send police to sit in the
newsroom to watch*every article
printed to make sure nothing is
said bad about the government,"
Ngcobo said.
"We are no longer fighting for
sharing toilet seats or water
fountains. We are past that. We
fought for that in 1912, the 1920s
,the 1930s and 1960s. We thought
we would be above that by the
1990s, but we aren’t," said Ngcobo.
According to Ngcobo, the people
who are not tortured to death in
jail and return to the city will find
themselves struggling once again
for the same things they went to
jail for in the first place. "As a
country we don’t know what we
want most, but we will not be
fooled," he said.
For more information on the
events surrounding Black History
month at UNCA, contact Carolyn
Briggs at 251-6588.
M.
Environmental
group gets
#40,000 in arants
Photo by Diane Maney
South African journalist Sipho Ncgobo
speaks to students Monday.
r’ir f'
By Cindy Dotson
Staff Writer
The Environmental Protection
Agency and the country’s leading
manufacturer of plumbing fixtures
have awarded UNCA’s
Environmental Quality Institute a
total of $40,000 in grants.
The money will fund research on
lead contamination of drinking
water. This problem constitutes
"the most widespread and serious
public health hazard we face
today," said Richard Maas, a
UNCA environmental scientist and
chief investigator in the current
research.
UNCA’s Environmental Quality
Institute has been studying this
problem for the past two years.
The researchers have found
"strong circumstantial evidence"
that soft water may play an active
role in causing lead to ooze from
faucet fixtures, joints and pipes.
According to medical evidence.
Candidate
discusses
youth
service
By Vicki McCoy
News Editor
even small amounts of lead
consumed through contaminated
water can cause harm to the
kidneys, nervous system and red
blood cells. It may even cause
permanent brain damage to
fetuses, infants and small children.
Donated by one of the nation’s
largest fixture manufacturers (who
has requested anonymity), $25,000
of the money in grants will finance
research on how soft water may
cause lead to leach into ground
water. With this money the UNCA
researchers will also examine the
pH properties of water in
promoting lead contamination.
"This study is being funded by a
safety-conscious manufacturer who
wants to know more about what
might be an industry-wide
problem," said Maas.
The EPA’s $15,000 grant will go
to research on how effective pH
and corrosion-control additives will
be in keeping lead out of
Please see Grants, page 14
Let them eat cake
Mayor Ken Michaelove officially opens the "Heart of Asheville”
Ceremony downtown Thursday, Please see related story on p. 5.
Attorney Larry Linney, currently
entered in the race for one of the
four North Carolina House seats
from the 51st district, conducted
an informal dialogue with students
Feb. 1 on campus.
Sponsored by Students For
America, Linney addressed the
issue of the two current proposals
in the U.S. Congress for some
type of youth citizen service. The
proposals, according to Linney,
would require young people ages
18-26 to serve in some type of
either civilian or military service
before they would be eligible for
federal aid to fund their education.
The first proposal is sponsored
by the Bush Administration and
calls for voluntary service, while
the second, submitted by the
Democratic Leadership Council,
calls for mandatory service. Both
programs would give each
participant a voucher, not cash, as
- payment for service that could be
used in his or her future, Linney
said.
Please see Service, page 14
Inside
Teacher and student
Top 25 college
romances
2 basketball teams
y
Wendells Window
3 Music censorship
questioned
10
Profile Board of
Trustees
Vinyl Opinion
11
"Heart of Asheville"
Dante’s snack bar
11
month
5 to open
Baptist Student
Life in Hell
12
Union
6
Robotman
12
Hazing on college
campuses
^ Announcements
13
Winning streak
snapped
8 Health Beat
14
Budget cuts
affect UNC
system
By Vicki McCoy
News Editor
Student Government Vice-
President Chris Brown met with
other student leaders from across
the state to discuss budget cuts
that will affect state universities.
Brown and the other leaders met
with Governor Jim Martin to
discuss the main causes of the cuts
and how the state will try to
recover. Brown said Martin gave
three main reasons for the lack of
funds.,
"We have changed tax codes to
closely represent changes with
feder^ tax codes," Brown quoted
Martin as saying. "In shifting of
revenue, we (the state) lost $170
million in revenue shortfall," he
said.
Brown said one of the main
causes for the loss of revenue is
the capital gains tax. "The capital
Please see Cuts, page 14
New minor focuses on women
By Jamie Steele
Staff Writer
Historical events and people fit
together like the pieces of a jigsaw
puzzle. However, much of this
puzzle remains missing, according
to some UNCA professors and
students.
"One big ^ant piece of the
puzzle is missing," said Robert
Straub, a history and Spanish
major. "Women are half of the
world. You can’t study just half of
the world and not the other."
To address this issue, Larry
Wilson, vice chancellor of
Academic Affairs, is forming a
task force of faculty members and
students to design a minor in
women’s studies, said Cathy
Mitchell, assistant professor of
mass communication.
But what exactly is women’s
studies?
Women’s studies is a discipline
that examines women’s roles and
contributions in society and
attempts to complete the historical
puzzle, said Mitchell. "Because
history is basically the study of
kings and presidents who are
obviously almost always men,
women began to wonder where
they fit in," she said.
The concept of women’s studies
originated in the late sorties as a
part of the feminist movement,
said Pamela Nickless, associate
professor of economics. "It has not
been strictly a feminist venture,"
she said. "However, it does make
women the focus.
"Interest in women’s studies is
predominately from women.
However, there are some
exceptions," saidJjJickless. She said
and ideas of the upper class white
men," said Zacks. "That gives the
impression that women don’t have
contributions to make to society,
which is false.
"The main purpose of education
is to be able to think for yourself,
to analyze and interpret
information. Then you are able to
"One big giant piece of
the puzzle is missing. Women
are half of the world You
can’t study just half of the
world and not the other’
Robert Straub
certain courses attract more men.
"Men do gain a lot by being the
only one in the room," said
Nickless. "This allows them to
speak up for themselves."
According to Nickless, pressure
from students convinced her to go
to Wilson with the proposal for a
minor. "The process of creating a
minor is time-consuming," she
said. "And without students’
support and interest, it may not be
worth it."
"Women’s studies concerns
everybody, not just feminists," said
Michelle Zacks, a senior literature
major.
"The courses I’ve taken have
concentrated on the achievements
form your own opinions," she said.
"You can’t form well-rounded
opinions after looking at only one
point of view.
"Any view of the world that’s
narrow is real dangerous," said
Zacks.
All disciplines stretching from
political science to literature to
economics display the elite white
man’s point of view in history, said
Nickless. "It is a legitimate view
point, but the world is much more
complicated."
The fact that women’s studies
involves all disciplines created
excitement for those involved. It