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The Blue Banner "A pessimist is a man who thinks all women are bad. An optimist is one who hopes they are." — ohauncey M. Depsw Volume 22, Number 16 The University of North Carolina at Asheville Thurs., Feb. 10, 1994 Blood drive falls short of goal Teri Smith Staff Writer The Student Government Association (SGA) sponsored a blood drive last week that collected 75 units of blood, 10 units short of the goal set by organizers and the American Red Cross. The next blood drive to be held at UNCA is scheduled for April 5. “Some time in our life, 95 percent of us are going to need blood or a blood t^oduct, but only about 5-6 percent of the population actually donates blood,” said I.isa Lusk, blood services consultantfor the American RedCioss. Blood drives typically average about 20-40 percent of the population at the site [schools or factories] donating blood, according to Lusk. “UNCA has not been living up to that average,” said Lusk. “We would like to eventually get to a point where we could have two-day blood drives at UNCA with daily goals of 100 units or more. “I think there are plenty of people there,” said Lusk. “It’s just a matter of getting the word out and letting them know how much they are needed.” The SGA advertised last week’s blood drive by sending letters to faculty and staff, by notifying campus organizations, and through student mail, posters, and table tents in various locations, according to Jo Peterson, SGA executive for external relations, who organized the event with Lusk. “The hardest part is getting people to sign up in advance,” said'Peterson. “We had 122 sign up in advance last semester and exceeded our goal by two pints.” Last week, there were 55 donors scheduled in advance. There are usually more student donors than faculty andstaff, according to Peterson. “Wemustcollect 1,500 unitsofblood per day to meet the needs of the hospitals in the Greater Carolinas Blood Region,” said Lusk. TheGreaterCarolinas Blood Regions includes most of North Carolinas, and a small part of South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. There is a nationwide blood shortage, atuibutable in part to the holidays, bad weather, the flu and the recent earthquake, accordingtoLusk. “Ourregion also is at a critical level,” said Lusk. “Our blood mobiles throughout the summer only brought in 80 percent of their goal, so we were working at less than ideal inventories before we went into bad weather.” B lood drives at factories and schools often have to be cancelled when the weather is bad, according to Lusk. “If we have to cancel, we may reschedule, but we still have lost the blood we would have received that day,” said Lusk. There are several reasons that people don’t donate blood. “The number one reason people say they don’t donate blood is because no See "Blood," on page 8 Staff Photo By Chan Carter Jon Hayes, a junior, donates blood during the Red Cross blood drive on Feb. 4. Adjunct professor seeks Republican nomination to state senatorial election Kevin Ellis Staff Writer UNCA Adjunct Professor Bill Thurman filed as a Republican candidate in January for the 28th Senate District in the N.C. General Assembly. The 62-year-old Thurman will face a May 3 primary against three other Republicans for the party’s two nominations in the two-member district. Other Republicans filing include: Asheville businessman R.L. Clark; Meredith “Mick” Hunt, the full-time director of Life Advocates, a group which provides “daily sidewalk counseling” at Asheville’s two abortion clinics; and Jesse Ledbetter, 71, a former member of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners and a former member of the UNCA Board of Trustees. Incumbent Democrats Herbert Hyde and Dennis Winner, both attorneys in Asheville, also filed for re-election. Thurman, who taughtatAsheville-Biltmore College, which preceded UNCA, founded the UNCA Classics Department. He retired as a full professor at the end of the 1992-1993 sc'hool year after a combined 30 years of teaching at the two schools. He now works as a consultant in computer Unguistics for UNCA. A father of seven, with nine grandchildren, Thurman said his conscience called him to run for state Senate. “The finances and policies of this state are in such a mess that I could not live with myself if 1 didn’t try to do what 1 could to leave a better situation for the ages to come,” Thurman said. Still, Thurman remains an unwilling candidate. “I don’t want to go to Raleigh and participate in the state Senate,” Thurman said. “Anyone who wants to is either a complete ignoramus and has no understanding of the problems, is a masochist, or is probably crooked.” The candidate plans on spending no campaign funds, other than the $193 filing fee. A high-financed campaign is “the evil in American politics. “Maybe there’s enough people that will whisper around, ‘Vote for Thurman, he’s not even going to take a penny'." Known on campus as an avid letter-to-the-editor writer to The Blue Banner on mostly moral issues, Thurman says he’s often misjudged. “I come across as very radical, but if you’re a person of your word, you’re “The finances and policies of this state are in such a mess that I could not live with myself if I didn't try to do what I could to leave a better situation for the ages to come, ” Thurman said. considered radical in the climate we are in,” he said. “In my mind. I’m one of the tfue liberals running,” he said. “Liberal means to me leaving people as free as possible.” Increased crime and government regulations have cut into freedoms, he said. So-called liberal policies have hurt, not helped, he added. “It’s pseudo-liberalism because it’s only liberal to the bad guy and doesn’t help the guy who’s U'ying,” he said. Thurman criticizes the two incumbents for failing to “consider the long-term impact of what they’ve been doing.” The legislature has raised taxes too high, Thurman said, adding he wants to see spending cut. “Public school education will eventually crumble from under its own weight,” Thurman said due to the high number of adminisU-ators. He’s especially critical of the state’s Basic Edycation Plan, a bill passed in 1985 co-sponsored by Winner, which aims to bring spending at rural schools up to the level of urban districts. The plan added too many administrators, Thurman said. “The Basic Education Plan is a farce. It created a bureaucracy more than it created help in the classroom,” he said. “1 would try to fire almost everyone from the [state] Department of Public Instruction except the teachers and let the teachers rule.” A National Rifle Association member, he calls most gun control measures “nut legislation.” “They pass a law which says you must keep your guns locked up in a cabinet and then when someone comes to break into your home what are you going to do, pick up the cabinet and hit him in the head?” Thurman asked. “It’s nut legislation. “It’s not the guns that kill people, it’s the people that kill people and if you try to control guns, you’ 11 just disarm the law-abiding citizen,” he said. He also favors gubernatorial veto power and wants to see laws changed so that government will reimburse property owners if new laws or regulations devalue their property. He said he also favors single-member legislative districts because multi member districts - like the 28th - ai^ too easily dominated by urban areas. The 28th District includes most of Buncombe County and all or parts of McDowell, Avery, Mitchell, Madison and Burke counties. During the campaign, he said he hopes to hear from potential constituents. “I’ll Uy my best to listen,” he said. “Anyone who is elected has a responsibility to represent the people.” Inside Opinions 2 Olympians prepare Susan Hanley Lane Perspectives 3 Correction S.E. gets slammed Features 4 Alternative Pub review Art Core preview Sports 6 Baseball preview Kohn leads Bulldogs Comics 8 Wild Kingdom The Far Side Announcements 9 Job opportunities Events Weather Report Friday Saturday Hi 42 Lo33 Weather Report courtesy of the National Weather Service UNCA Atmospheric Scier^ce Department offers updated forecasts through the 24 hour Weatherllne...251-6435 7. staff Photo By Lat Ray A conference on the information highway was held in UNCA's teleconference center. Aniong those who attended were Dennis Perry (pictured), educational user coordinator from the North Carolina Information Highway Administration. UNCA student returns from semester in Vietnam Alex Eastwood Staff Writer Last fall, Stephen Skufca, a literature major at UNCA, stood by an abandoned airstrip in Tra Vinh, Vietnam. He listened for the sound of warplanes, gunfire, and the cries of wounded. His father had heard them clearly. Skufca heard only the laughter and excited chatter of Vietnamese children at play. “Hey man, you are an American?” is the English translation, he said. Skufca spent three months last fall studying atDai Hoc Tong Hop Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh University in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. How easily that name rolls off his tongue, in spite of his assurance thathis pronunciation is, at best, awful. Skufca flipped through the hundred or so photographs he has of his visit, and began to tell his stories. “My father was a forward air controller in ’68 and flew enemy observation missions from this airstrip,” said Skufca as he held out a picture of the defunct airstrip now being used as a makeshift park. “He would fly out of what was then Tra Vinh, look for Vietcong, and call in air strikes. He doesn’t talk about it much. He’s always been a fairly Staff Photo By Russ Reed Student Stephen Skufca will return to live and teach in Vietnam religious man, and his job was such a contradiction to me. I know that’s part of the reason I went there.” Eleven students from various American universities accompanied Skufca in Viemam last fall. They managed to incorporate themselves into Vietnamese life quickly. They attended classes and lectures on history, culture, etc., delivered primarily in Viemamese. There was one lecturer that spoke in Vietnamese and translated through an English interpreter. “It could be a bit frustrating,” he said, “when you would ask a question, get a 45-minute response in Vietnamese, and the interpreter would say “Uh...'5('es.” Looking like a tourist was not to be part of his experience there, he said. Viemamese dress is conservative. At the university, students wear khakis and cotton oxford-type shirts.” Economics dictates common sense in all purchasing decisions made by the students, he explained. “For example, Coca-Cola is 70 cents a can. When you consider that a middle class salary falls between $9 and $18 a month, that’s definitely a luxury item.” Vietnam is a poor country by U.S. standards. Many workers must rely on their resourcefulness to transform war leftovers Into usable machinery. “It’s amusing, and ironic, that they collect thousands of war remnants and sell them to the Japanese to be melted into auto parts that they sell right back to us,” he said. “What the country needs now is for the U.S. trade embargo to t)e Ufted,” he said. Last week. President Clinton made a motion to finally lift the embargo on Viemam. Many of Skufca’s stories describe an American’s struggle to adapt in a foreign country. ‘The language is See "Student," on page 8
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