Weekend Weather: Chance of roin Saturday nigk Highs in the /O's, lows in the 50's
Remember the 80s?
4
UNCA's paddling club
7
Reflections on Tupac
10
The Blue
BANNER
Volume 25, Number 3
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT ASHEVILLE
September 19, 1996
LONGER SCHOa YEAR MAY BE PART OF UNCA'5 FUTURE
M The Humanities 414 lecture
entitled “The Consequences of the
1960s-The 70s and Beyond” will be
given by John McClain at 11 a.m. in
Lipinsky Auditorium on September
20. It is open and free to the public.
B The men’s soccer team will be
playing a home game against East
Carolina University at 4 p.m. on Fri
day, September 20. The game will be
played at Greenwood Field and is free
to all faculty, students, and staff with
ID.
John Hodges
Staff Writer
The Board of Governors has been
asked by UNC system president C.D.
Spangler to study increasing the num
ber of class days from 150 to 160,
according to a press release. Although
the request for an investigation made
no actual changes to the length of the
school year, some students are appre
hensive about the possibility of a
longer school year.
Many students feel that increasing
the school year by ten days would not
be a good idea for UNCA. They said
that they feel the school year is long
enough.
“I really don’t like the idea of length
ening the school year by ten days,”
said junior Michael Slaughter, a me
teorology major. “I think that 16 weeks
is a long enough time period to cover
material in a class.’
“20 to 30 years ago, colleges gener
ally had 190 days of classroom time,”
said Spangler. “It’s a natural question
for a university system president to be
asking.”
In June, Spangler asked all 16 sys
tem schools to meet a minimum of
150 days in their academic calendars.
At that time, most of the schools had
plans for between 140 and 146 days.
Some students at UNCA said that
they would not particularly like the
school
year to be
length
ened.
They also
said that
they do
not un
derstand
the rea
soning
behind
this idea.
"I really
don't like the
idea of
lengthening
the school
year by ten
days."
—Michael Slaughter
“Frankly, I am a bit shocked by this
idea,” said Marla Stecki, freshman. “I
don’t really think that this is neces
sary.
“These ten days seem to be just an
extension so the UNC system presi
dent can say that we go to school
longer,” said Stecki. “How are ten
days going to really benefit anyone?”
“I am unsure of the purposes of this
idea,” said senior David Ely, a politi
cal science and history major. “If the
president has a good reason for this
idea, I can be open to this. But as long
YEAR cont. on pg.8
H On Saturday, September 21,
the UNCA women’s soccer team will
be playing the University of Mary-
land-Baltimore County at 2 p.m. The
game will be at Greenwood Field and
is free to all faculty, staff, and students
with ID.
H Classic blues and rock guitarist
Lewis McGehee will perform a con
cert at 9 p.m. on Friday, September
20, in Dante’s at the Highsmith Cen
ter. McGehee has toured with several
national acts such as Ry Cooder and
Christine McVie from Fleetwood
Mac. The concert is free to UNCA
students, faculty, and staff All others
are $4 at the door.
H The Richard Merritt Exhibition
and the Rhett Thompson Exhibition
will be showing through October lin
Owen Gallery. The Merritt Exhibit is
in the first floor gallery and the Th
ompson Exhibit is in the second floor
gallery.
H The deadline for Soars Grant
Application and Fall Research Grant
Apphcations is September 20. The
NCUR Travel Grant Form and Re
search Scholar Nomination Forms are
due on November 1.
H The Humanities 124 lecture
entitled “Significance of Myth,” will
be given by David Hopes in the Hu
manities Lecture Hall at 11 a.m. The
Humanities 214 lecture entitled “The
Middle Ages,” by Robert Yeager, will
be given in Lipinsky Auditorium at
11 a.m. on September 23. The lec
tures are free and open to the public.
UNCA student represents party rooted in transcendental meditation
Alex Self
Staff Writer
A September 24 demonstration in the Owen
Conference Center will introduce spectators to
“yogic flying,” the Natural Law Party’s solution
to the nation’s problems, said a UNCA student
who is running for public office as a Natural Law
Party candidate.
“If you can have enough people that are medi-
' «
—j
taring on a certain level, then you can reduce stress,
which can prevent crime,” said Scott Lamb, a
UNCA student and the Natural Law Party’s candi
date for Buncombe County Commissioner.
Regarding local and university concerns, Lamb
said he was unsure of how to address them.
“I’m not too aware of all the issues that are out
there,” said Lamb. “One of the things that the
Natural Law Party does support, besides commu
nity policing, is looking at some ways where juve-
UNCA student Scott Lamb is mnning for Buncombe County Commissioner as a Natural Law Party candidate.
Photo by Del Delorm
niles and young people can feel like they’re a part
of the community.”
The type of meditation the Natural Law Party
says will solve mankind’s problems is “yogic fly
ing,” a form of transcendental meditation (TM)
that makes the body want to rise up and float, said
Lamb. The party was formed in 1992 and is based
on TM.
Although Lamb has never seen yogic flying in
action, he says that it is a documented phenom
enon.
“To be honest with you. I’ve never seen it myself,”
Lamb said. “It’s been done.”
Some other Natural Law Party members, such as
North Carolina Senate candidate, Victor Pardo,
said the government should sponsor a permanent
group of 7,000 Yogic Flyers to promote national
unity, reported John Cochran, a staff writer for the
Greensboro News and Record.
“The result, they say, would be a radiating spirit
of harmony and contentment that would give the
nation the strength it needs to fight crime, cure the
ailing health-care system, improve public schools
in short, to solve all our problems,” reported
Cochran.
“There have been a couple of articles where it was
done at Elon College, where they describe it in
detail,” said Lamb.
Cochran, an eyewitness to the yogic flying pre
sentation at Elon College, reported that the dem
onstrators, Ron Pero of Boone, and Eddie Gob of
Philadelphia, seemed to push themselves into the
air with their knees.
“Although it lool?ed as if the men were launching
themselves from the mat with a shove of their
knees,” reported Cochran in the Tuesday, August
20, 1996 edition of the Greensboro (NC) News
and Record. “Gob and Pero insisted it was their
higher consciousness that was raising their bodies.”
Lamb says that meditation is not a requirement to
be part of the Natural Law Party. However, all
CANDIDATE cont. on pg.^
GrowingGreek population leads to three new organizations, increased involvement
Aimee Campbell
Staff Writer
Over the past few years, involvement inGreek
social organizations at UNCA has grown quite
a bit, despite mixed reactions from the non-
greek population, according to Beth Daniels,
president of the Panhellenic Council at UNCA.
“I’d like to say that the school is 100 percent
supportive, but I don t think it is, said Daniels.
“I think it is really hard for us to stamp out the
stereotype of what we’re all supposed to be.
“We work all the time to stamp it out, but
people have this image in their mind of Greeks
as the party people, the people that don t go to
class, that flunk out of school, that have nothing
better to do, ” Daniels said. Maybe that s true
on larger campuses, but our Greek system is
different.”
“I think it’s appealing because the chapters are
smaller, the campus is smaller, and the Greek
system is much more diverse than at larger
schools,” said Daniels. “You fit in not because
you’re just like the other people, but because
you’re something different they might be look
ing for, like the missing piece of a puzzle.”
“I think students recognize the benefits of
Greek life and want to be a part of it,” said
sophomore Danielle Almeida, an assistant del
egate to Panhellenic for Alpha Phi.
The greek organizations have gotten mixed
reactions from the majority non-Greek popula
tion here at UNCA.
“I think some common misconceptions are
that we buy our friends and that we only exist to
party,” said Almeida,
“I have nothing against them,” said senior
John Allison. “I have nothing for them. If they
don’t harm me, I won’t harm them.”
Larger member sizes and new groups on cam
pus add to the growth of the Greek community.
“I’ve seen a lot of growth, especially in the
women’s system,” said Daniels. “When I got
here, the fraternities were larger in number and
in member size. The sororities were smaller,
some numbering only a little over twenty. Total
number was at forty, but most of them weren t.
“I’d say there has very definitely been growth,
said Almeida. “We have three very new Greek
organizations on campus; Alpha Phi, Kappa
Delta Rho, and Alpha Phi Omega, the co-ed
service fraternity.”
Some believe that the Greek system has a lot to
offer the school and the community.
“There is always a population of non-Greeks at
public functions such as parties and philanthro
pies, so we must be doing something right,” said
Almeida.
“We’re
easily the
most orga-
n i z e d
groups on
campus,
and despite
the fact
that we’re
selective
with our
member
ship we’re
all very
open and
friendly
people,” Almeida continued. “We like to sup
port each other and the UNCA community.”
“They (sororities and fraternities) contribute,
some more than others,” said junior Mike
Slaughter. “Not so much to the school as to the
community, such as doing service like hurricane
"I think some com
mon misconcep
tions are that we
buy our friends
and that we only
exist to party."
—Danielle Almeida
relief and picking up trash.”
“I think at this school it’s better than oth
ers,” said Slaughter. “At other schools they
cause division in the student body, and here
they seem to do more service. They also give
some people reasons to keep their grade point
averages up.”
“I think we offer a tremendous amount to
the school, seeing as how the administration,
admissions, and a lot of faculty committees
all want the residential percentages to in
crease and be more of a traditional campus,”
said Daniels. “What better way than to be
Greek? It gets you involved, it’s a time com
mitment and also a commitment to school
ing, with scholarship programs that we have
to uphold.”
“I think we deal with a lot of things like if
Greeks sponsor something on campus, there
is twice as much security, and a lot more
questions attached,” said Daniels. “People
just assume that things are going to happen
and get out of control.”
“We need one called “tappa kegga beer” and
we’ll be happy,” said sophomore Jason Allen.
GREEK cont. on pg.8