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VOLUME 23 UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT ASHEVILLE NUMBER 15
STUDENTS SAY INEFFICIENCY AND RUDENESS ARE PROBLEMS IN FINANCIAL AID OFFICE
Greg Deal
Staff Writer
While UNCA operates under the motto “stu
dent-centered university,” some students have
voiced complaints about the financial aid ofiice
and have said that their deahngs with that depart
ment have been less than pleasing.
In a December interview with The Blue Banner,
Chancellor Patsy B. Reed said that administration
will be looking for ways that UNCA can be “a
more customer-friendly campus,” as the new mas
ter plan is developed in 1995.
Ben Green, UNCA junior, said he feels the
financial aid office has some work to do in reaching
that goal. “I’m a service person, and the businesses
I’ve always been involved in have always been
people businesses,” said Green. “Any business in
this day and time, you better be nice because
there’s some competition down the road.”
In a survey from the UNC system of 1992
UNCA graduates who were “very or moderately
satisfied with academic and service functions,”
UNCA ranked lower than the university system
average on satisfaction of financial aid services.
One of the problems that Green feels hurts the
image of the financial aid office is unfriendliness
and lack of concern for students.
“My first initial contact, I almost had to milk the
answers out of these people,” said Green. He said
that one person, in particular, seemed to create
roadblocks for him. “This person seemed very
reluctant to be helpful. This front, first person
needs to be the one that’s helpful.”
Green said that this lack of concern could prob
ably have an effect on prospective students’ deci
sion to enroll at UNCA. “It seems to me that it
would be in the best interest of not only the
students, but the university as well, if they had
somebody that was a litde more helpful,” he said.
Carolyn McElrath, director of financial aid, said
that she she does not want any students cut short
with any answers. “I would expect anyone in the
office to go to the fullest extent that they can go,”
said McElrath.
Green said that he is tired of getting the run
around when he asks about the status of his loan.
“It’s not my position to know if everything in my
file is right,” he said. “It should be their job. It
seems like their job, to me, in a financial aid office,
is to do everything possible within their power to
make sure that these students get it.”
Green said that the attitude that he got from the
person at financial aid was that it “it didn’t matter
to her.”
“Every other department I’ve been to has been
great,” said Green. He said that the one person in
financial aid, however, has created problems for
him. “It’s like I have to pull the next step from her,”
he said. “If I’ve got to know the answer to the
question, then I don’t need [financial aid’s assis
tance].”
Chuck Fogarty, UNCA junior, said that he has
experienced some of the same problems as Green.
“A lot of times they don’t explain things very well,”
he said. “But I’ve never had any problems with
rudeness.”
“Basically, I had to go in there and drag it out of
them as to what I actually had to do.”
Green said that the people in the financial aid
office need to be people persons. “From what I’ve
seen with the university as a whole, they have the
technologies, the resources, and the caring about
students, in general, to be able to get the job done,”
said Green. “But I think they need the right people
in the right places.”
McElrath said that it might be the work-load
issue that has an effect on the students’ perceptions
of the friendliness of the person in financial aid.
“This person is handling a dual job,” she said. She
said that many of her duties include receptionist,
data entry, file folder maintenance, and answering
Please see "Financial Aid," page 10
Dancers Entertain Local Students
Flamenco dancers entertained area scliool students in Lipinsly Auditorium this week.
Photo by Ld Ray
Planning Begins For Highsmith Renovation
Andrea Lawson
Staff Writer
Several student groups are benefiting
from the decisions made by an advisory
committee established this semester for
planning the renovations of the
Highsmith Center.
“This committee will meet with vari
ous groups and come up with recom
mendations for priority use of the space
and the priority use of new space,” said
Sharyn McDonald, chair of the
Highsmith Center Renovation Advi
sory Committee.
The committee was created to help
plan for the temporary renovations of
the old cafeteria, as well as future plans
for permanent changes in the Highsmith
Center.
The committee members consist of
students and faculty members. The
members were chosen on the basis of
their activity in various campus groups
and their interest in the functions of the
University. A list of seven students was
recommended by McDonald last se
mester, including five comm^'atcr stu
dents and three non-traditionally aged
students. The list was expanded by
Chancellor Reed to 15 members.
“We recommended a list of students to
the chancellor and faculty and staff”
McDonald said. “The students repre
sent resident students and commuters
and non-traditionally-aged students.
Also, students that are involved in clubs
or organizations.”
McDonald said that the committee
also includes faculty members who are
active in extracurricular activities and
student interests outside of the class
room. Additional students or faculty
members may be involved in the activi
ties of the committee as the semester
progresses, according to a memoran
dum from Chancellor Reed.
“We have to give [the Chancellor] a
report by the end of the semester, and
develop recommendations for how the
space should be used,” said McDonald.
The permanent renovations will in
clude an addition to the Highsmith
Center, according to McDonald. The
committee will be involved in selecting
architects and will aid in planning the
construction with the needs of the cam
pus community as a whole in mind,
McDonald said.
“Architects will be interviewed prob
ably within the next couple of weeks,”
McDonald said.
The temporary renovations currently
underway will include several offices,
according to McDonald. Among these
will be space for the International Stu
dent Association and the Volunteer
Coordinator and Student Activities In
tern. These offices are currently being
built in the old dining area. The African
American Student Association and
Underdog Productions will be given
additional space from existing offices.
ENCORE, the commuter student or
ganization, has also been awarded space.
The group’s new office will be the old
University Dining Services office. This
award of space came after the old com
muter lounge was converted to office
space last semester.
Dr. Carol Schramm, ENCORE’s fac
ulty advisor, said that the office will
provide a gathering spot for students
who previously had no space available
to them.
“ENCORE is delighted to have such
visible space where we can post our
meeting times and dates and provide a
network for non-traditional and com
muter students,” Schramm said.
McDonald said that she is unsure about
how long the renovations will take place.
After an architect is chosen, the com
mittee will probably plan for a year,
according to McDonald. McDonald
also said that she thinks the actual reno
vations will take 16 months to two
years. Vice Chancellor for Financial
Affairs Arthur Foley said that the reno
vations will not begin prior to spring of
1996. According to Foley, the cost of
the construction will be about four mil-
Enrollment Shortfalls May Cost UNCA Nearly $300,000 In Funding
Christin Hall
Staff Writer
UNCA could lose as much as $285,000 in fund
ing this year for failing to meet its targeted enroll
ment number of full-time students, according to
university administrators. At a Faculty Senate
meeting last Friday, Chancellor Patsy B. Reed and
Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs Larry Wilson
said they are worried about the possibility of such
a loss.
“There is always the potential that any university
below their targeted enrollment could have money
taken back,” said Wilson. “We don’t know that
that will happen, but it’s always a concern.”
UNCA’s target for enrollment this year is 2,620
full-time equivalents (FTE), students carrying 12
or more semester hours, according to Wilson.
This semester UNCA has a total enrollment of
3,060, including both full-time and part-time
students, Reed said. This number reflects a one-
half percent increase over last year, she said.
The number of FTE, however, is only 2,443,
Reed said. UNCA’s average for the year is going to
be about 50 FTE below the window of where it
should be to guarantee no loss of funding. At an
estimated loss of $5,700 per FTE below the target,
this translates to a potential loss of $285,000, said
Reed.
Reed said that in the past, UNCA has rarely had
to give back funds for not meeting enrollment
targets.
“Ordinarily, we have not had to give back monies
based on not hitting our projections or. the nvo
percent window on our projections,” said Reed.
In fact, according to Wilson, the last time the
General Assembly took money back because of
enrollment was back in 1979. The general assem
bly is the governing body that appoints members
to the UNCA's Board of Governors. It is also the
General Assembly that allocates money to each of
the 16 universities in the UNC system, said Wil
son.
Wilson and Reed both said that part of the reason
UNCA’s administration^ is worried about losing
money this year is that the legislature consists of
primarily new members, whose actions are not
predictable.
“We are nervous about [losing funding] this year,
because it’s sort of a new ballgame with the legis
lature,” said Reed.
“If the whole [UNC] system turns out to be
below the two percent window, then there is a
will lose money.
We believe that if the whole 16-university sys
tem is close to its stated target the General Assem
bly will not take any money back,” he said.
The problem, said Wilson, is that last year the
UNC system, as a whole, was below its target for
the first time in 20 years. If the same thing happens
a second consecutive year, he said, it might in
crease the likeli
hood of a loss for
"There is always the potential that any university below their
targeted enrollment could have money taken back. We don't
know that that will happen, but it's always a concern.Larry
Wilson, vice chancellor for academic affairs
chance that the legislature would look to the
system and say, ‘Well, you got new monies to
support new students. Those new students aren’t
there. We want the monies back,’” Reed said.
Contrarily, Wilson said, if the entire system is
near its target, with some schools under and some
over, there is a good chance none of the universities
all 16 universi
ties.
Further com
plicating mat
ters, Wilson said,
is that if the Gen
eral Assembly elects to take money away at this
point in the academic year, the loss will be espe
cially tough since the money’s essentially already
spent.
Please see "Funding," page 10