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L.A. Story
Review
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The Blue Banner
’Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier. ”
Kettering
Volume XVIII Number 6
The University of North Carolina Asheville
February 28, 1991
Group protests
dissection
Danny Holcomb
Staff Writer
An area animal rights group is
pushing to end the use of animal
dissection in UNCA’s biology
classes, but according to Alan
Comer, chairman of the
department, animal dissection will
continue to be a part of the
curriculum.
The Asheville chapter of the
North Carolina Network for
Animals will have an information
booth in the Highsmith Center on
Mar. 1 stressing alternatives that
can be used in the place of
animals, according to Kayla
Rosko, Asheville Chapter
Coordinator of the statewide
network.
Rosko claimed that changes in
the department are already being
talked about among the UNCA
biology/zoology professors.
"Dr. Alan Comer, associate
professor and chairman of
UNCA’s biology department said
that the dissection lab was not
effectively educating the students
in Biology 105, and it is being
considered to be changed over to
non-animal alternatives," Rosko
said.
However, Comer claimed that
animals are a very important part
of the biology material.
"The use of real animals for
dissection is essential for learning.
The information a student absorbs
from using animals is superior to
artificial substitutes," explained
Comer.
Comer also stated that the use
of animals would continue to be a
part of UNCA’s biology
curriculum. However, he did say
that UNCA is "pursuing an
alternative" for real animals.
"The process is called
Plastination," explained Comer.
"We (members of the
biology/zoology department) went
to a conference at the University
of Tennessee, in Knoxville,
concerning this new method."
Please see Animals, page 5
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Mullen speaks
on policies of
South Africa
Stacy Libby
Staff Writer
Faces m iime of war
Photo by LeeAnn Donnelly
Dwight B. Mullen, associate professor of political
science, spoke Feb. 18-concerning "Apartheid in South
Africa: An Update" at the Highsmith Private Dining
Room.
Concerned with the recent changes within South
Africa, the lecture strove to answer questions and
discuss the effects of such changes.
Despite the lifting of some segregation laws and the
freeing of Nelson Mandela, political freedom has not
been restored to South African blacks, said Mullen.
"This is why the sanctions imposed by the United
States and other nations have not been lifted."
"Black South Africans can be arrested and jailed for
infinite amounts of time. There is no due process of
law for them," he said.
The government of South Africa has made
movements toward the drawing of a new constitution
with various talks involving many different factions.
"Not only the African National Congress, who has
received the most press, is involved in the talks, there
are many others," said Mullen.
These groups range from liberal to tribal interest
This paint and paper collage represents one art student’s feelings about "Basically, the agreement is that the minority
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the many faces of war.
government must go," he said,
1 Please see Mullen, page 14
I need a job, bad Photo by LeeAnn Donnelly
student Ken Gray (r) interviews with a representative from Sherwin-Williams. Gray
was_one_of_sjj^l students to participate in UNCA’s Placement Day on Friday.
Vigilante justice topic
of Last Lecture Series
Susanne Roper
Staff Writer
The social phenomena of
lynching in America, both past and
present, was the topic of Dwight
Mullen’s lecture at the second
Faculty Last Lecture on Feb. 25 in
the New Classroom Building.
Mullen, who is UNCA’s assistant
vice chancellor for academic
affairs and an assistant professor
of political science, spoke about
the peculiarly American behavior
of vigilante lynchings at the turn of
the century and today in the 1990s.
During Black History Month,
Mullen said, people tend to talk
about the stars, the personalities,
to say that, "we are a people," and
that "as a people, there are things
in which we have a great deal of
pride."
But, Mullen explained, that is
not the sum total of anybody’s
history. No one’s history is
completely comprised of
happiness. "Probably the majority
of the African-American existence
in this country has not been
happy," he said.
Mullen read newspaper accounts
of lynchings that occurred in 19th
century America and asked, "Why
is lynching a particularly significant
American phenomena?"
"No place in the history of the
world could you find accounts of
lynching as they took place during
nearly a 100-year span of this
country’s history," he said.
Mullen read a list of the names
of four men who were lynched in
UNCA participates
in acid rain study
Davey Ramsey
Staff Writer
UNCA’s Environmental Science
Department, along with collection
sites around the country, is helping
scientists gain a better
understanding of acid rain in the
nation.
The study is part of a federal
project under the National
Atmospheric Deposition Program
(NADP) and the National Trends
Network (NTN).
This program is trying to find
trends in atmospheric deposition,
which means all the rain, particle
matter and everything In the upper
atmosphere that hits the ground,
and in what proportion, said
Charles Wilson, junior
environmental science major and
Asheville at the turn of the
century to point out that these
lynchings were not so long ago or
far away.
He also emphasized that
"lynching is not just hanging by the
neck until dead. It includes
shootings, beatings, burning at the
slake. It includes a variety of
means by which a mob enacts its
own justice upon an individual."
He went on to define lynching as
"the killing of individuals by
informally sanctioned actions that
result in benefits to the dominant
or killing group."
Mullen explained that there is no
legal justification for lynching
because Americans hold the three
main values of the Constitution:
Please see Lecture, page 5
site operator and observer at
UNCA.
"It is good for our
Environmental Studies
Department to be involved in this
nation-wide program," said Wilson.
"The research that UNCA is doing
here is interconnected with the
data that helps to make legislative
decisions in the United States and
that is used by scientists all over
the world."
UNCA’s collection facility is on
Ml. Mitchell, which makes
gathering samples difficult.
"We do our collecting every
Tuesday morning at nine o’clock,"
said Wilson. "It is so humid up
there and the weather is so bad
that it creates extreme stresses on
the equinment and makes it hard
to reach in the winter. '
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Don Dougherty and Kelly O’Grady go shopping for Greek
fashions in preparation for Rush week.
Currently there are two tests
made at the Mt. Mitchell site.
"We do a PH analysis and a
conductivity analysis," said Wilson.
PH analysis helps scientists
determine how much acid is in the
precipitation while conductivity is
basically a test to check the purity
of the precipitation.
The samples collected at UNCA
and all over the U.S. are sent to
Illinois State University where the
Central Analytical Laboratory does
the chemical analysis.
To qualify as a collection site
UNCA must meet strict
regulations of the NADP.
"For the past three years we
have meet all the protocol
requirements of the NADP," said
Please see Rain, page 14
UNCA
hosts
Scholars
Awards
Susan Woody
Staff Writer
UNCA will host up to 70 semi
finalists for Undergraduate
Fellows and Scholars Awards on
March 2. The students will attend
a series of interviews with faculty
members.
"It’s an exhausting series of
interviews," said Phyllis Lang,
director of the Honors Program,
"at most we’ll be picking I?
people."
Open only to high school
seniors, Undergraduate Scholars
jnd Fellows Awards offer students
Please see Awards, page 14