The University of North Carolina at Asheville
Volume 25 , Number 15
January 23,1997
NEWS
BRIEFS
Fellowships,
internships
to be offered
The Z. Smith Reynolds Foun
dation is offering a paid fellow
ship to North Carolina residents
to begin next August. Individuals
interested in philanthropy, pub
lic policy, or community service
can apply. Several paid intern
ships will also be offered this sum
mer. For information, contact
Mamie Broadhurst at (800) 443-
8319 or e-mail fellow@zsr.org.
Ecology lecture at
Warren Wilson
David W. Orr, author of Earth
in Mind and Ecological Literacy,
will give a lecture entitled “Re
constructing the Pieces: Environ
mental Design in Liberal Arts
Education” next Thursday, Jan.
30 at 7 p.m. at Warren Wilson
College, Orr teaches at Oberlin
College and specializes in global
environmental issues and respon
sibilities. The lecture is free and
will be followed by a discussion
and book-signing. For informa
tion, call 298-3325, ext. 272.
United Way seeks
citizen reviewers
United Way of Asheville and
Buncombe County is recruiting
local residents to serve on its Citi
zen Review panels. The panels
will help decide how United Way’s
donated campaign funds will be
disbursed into community
projects. The agency needs '/ol-
unteers to serve five to ten hours
over several months. F^r infor
mation, call 255-0696.
Political issues
lecture series
Pack Memorial Library will host
a four-part series of political lec
tures Tuesdays at 7 p.m. begin
ning Feb. 4. Dr. Marc Karson will
lead the free lectures and discus
sions, focusing on historical per
spectives as they relate to current
issues. The first lecture will con
trast the egalitarian spirit of the
Declaration oflndependence with
the conservative features of the
Constitution. For information,
call 255-5203.
Tai Chi classes
UN CA adj unctBrentN eely will
teach ongoing tai chi classes at
area locations. Classes are offered
at 6 p.m. Tuesdays at 75 Broad
way, 5:30 p.m. Mondays at Jones
Elementary School, and & a.m.
Thursdays at St. James Episcopal
Church in Black Mountain. For
information, call 253-2207.
DeBlasio honored
UNCA junior Marissa DeBlasio
received the Pubhc Relations As
sociation ofWestern North Caro
lina Student Scholarship Award
in December and will serve as a
student representative on the
organization’s board of directors
in 1997. DeBlasio, named a
UNCA Emerging Leader in 1995,
interned at the United Way of
Asheville and Buncombe County
this year, and served as The
Banner’s business manager last
semester. She has been a presi
dent of the Civitan Club, a mem
ber of Alpha Xi Delta, and was
actively involved in last year’s
NCUR conference at UNCA.
Menu for vegetarians improving
PHOTO BY BONNER BUTLER
Marriott employee Amy Jackson sets out a vegetarian dish, part of an effort on dining
services to provide better service to vegetarians on campus.
By Chanse Simpson
Staff Writer
In an effort to provide more
diverse food choices for vegetar
ian students, particularly those
who live on campus and are re
quired to buy a meal plan, dining
hall officials say they are currently
improving their vegan cuisine and
expanding their meatless menus.
“We offer at least one vegetar
ian entree at each meal,” explained
Ken Barefoot, Marriott’s director
of dining services at UNCA.
“And as we get more resources,
we’ll continue to add more items.”
While students have certainly
welcomed the news of a broader
menu, some vegetarians say
progress has indeed been slow.
“There have been improve
ments,” admitted Elizabeth
Lundeen, a junior majoring in
psychology. “But there is still a
lack of options for strict vegetar
ians.”
Here on campus, Barefoot cal
culates that vegetarians comprise
“about six or seven percent” of the
university’s student population
that regularly eats in the dining
hall. That translates into about
30 to 40 people in a typical lunch
time crowd of 600, Barefoot said.
“I’m wide open to suggestions,
vegetarians or otherwise,” Kitchen
Manager Benjoyner added. “I get
a lot of complaints from some of
the vegetarians on campus, but I
hardly ever get any other feed
back. "Joyner has a computer pro
gram that allows him to convert
family-size recipes into institu-
tional-size amounts and has said
he’s willing to entertain new ideas.
Nutritionists generally divide
vegetarianism into three separate
categories: Vegans eat no animal
or dairy products of any kind
(many also refuse to wear leather
or use honey); Lactovegetarians
consume dairy products; and
Lacto-ovovegetarians eat dairy
products and eggs. Of course all
three diets include no meat. Ac
cording to information supplied
by Marriott staff, most vegetar
ians in the United States follow a
lacto-ovovegetarian discipline.
Marriot, which coordinates din-
See MENU on page 8
Student fees to increase for next year
By Catharine Sutherland
staff Writer
Members of the student fees
committee voted on Dec. 2 to
increase stu
dent fees 4.2
per cent for
the 1997-98
school year,
said Sergio
Mariaca, stu
dent body
president and
one of three
students on
the commit
tee. Mariaca
estimated
in
crease would go toward funding
a pay raise for state employees
mandated by the state last sum
mer.
“When the state passes a man
datory salary increase then the
salary source must increase,” said
Caroline Miller, vice chancellor
for enrollment management. In
this case, she said, the increase
source is the student fee account.
Miller described positions
funded by student fees as those
on campus that do things to di
rectly support student activities.
Sergio Mariaca
that 80 percent of the fee
She cited employees working in
student development as one ex
ample; since the Highsmith Cen
ter operation fees (a branch of
student fees) encompass these
workers salaries, the university
must increase student fees to com
ply with the pay raise.
Student reaction to the pro
posed fee increase has been posi
tive, with many students claim
ing to support a higher cost if the
result will prove beneficial.
“I’d be in favor of the increase
because it costs so much to im
prove student life on campus, said
Marquis McGee, a junior biology
major. McGee said he felt the pay
raise would serve as an extra in
centive to the already dedicated
student development workers.
“Overall, nobody wants to pay
more money,” said freshman
Preston Gannaway, “but if they
are asking for more money and it
goes toward something all stu
dents will benefit from, then I
think it s worthwhile. UNCA’s
effective health services and the
new parking lot on campus stand
out as applications of student fees
that are worth an increase, she
said.
Translated into dollars, the pro
posed increase would place next
year’s student fees at around
twenty dollars more than the cur
rent $521 charge. However, com
mittee members believe the in
crease would be both minimal and
“Ithinkwe worked
hard to try to mini
mize fee increase
and to look at
assuring that any
increase would go
directly to student
interests.”
Caroline Miller, vice
chancellor for enroll
ment management
beneficial.
“I think we worked hard to try
to minimize the fee increase and
to look at assuring that any in
crease would go directly to stu
dent interests,” said Miller, also a
member of the committee as
sembled to discuss student fees.
The purpose of the seven-per-
son committee, which included
faculty, administrators and stu
dents, was to offer the chancellor
a recommendation on student fee
increases, said Mariaca. He added
that making the final decision on
the increase was not a purpose.
The North Carolina Board of
Governors holds the ultimate de-
cision-making power on the cost
of student fees, according to a
memo from the UNC General
Administration concerning pro
posed fees. The board bases its
final decision on the recommen
dation of the chancellor and the
university president.
The recommendation of the stu
dent fees committee came after a
series of interviews with represen
tatives from each of the fee-driven
services on campus, such as cam-^
pus commission and recreation
and intramurals, said Mariaca.
“We asked each representative
what they could do without in
order to keep costs as low as pos
sible,” said Mariaca. “Each of
them was very sensitive to raising
fees.”
An increase in student fees at
UNCA may raise more eyebrows
than a hike at other North Caro
lina public universities due to the
high ratio of fees to tuition found
here, Mariaca said. While the av
erage fee to tuition ratio of the
sixteen state institutions stands at
89.58 percent, UNCA’s ratio
peaks at 136.03 percent, nearly
35 percent higher than any other
state-supported school.
The high ratio does not reflect
extraordinarily high student fees
in comparison to other universi
ties, said Mariaca, but rather a
striking discrepancy in the rela
tionship of fees to tuition. “Fee-
wise we are right in the middle,
but compared to tuition we are
far above all the others,” he said.
Mariaca attributes much of the
problem to the state’s failure to
financially support the 1992 dec
laration of UNCA as a public lib
eral arts school. The attraction of
a liberal arts campus lies in perks
such as a small student body,
smaller class sizes and no teaching
assistants, he said, naming these
as some of the many privileges
that raise the costs of the univer
sity.
“We are getting hurt by the state.
We have one of the highest oper
ating costs, but we have less stu
dents. If we’re going to be a lib
eral arts school, then the state
needs to back it up,” said Mariaca.
“Students need to speak up,” he
said, relating SGA’s plan to put
together a letter-writing campaign
to voice student opinion in the
General Assembly and get the
word out about the student fees.
See FEES on page 8
New gym opens
By Johanna Luks
staff Writer
The new addition to the Justice
Health and Fitness center opened
Tuesday after two years of con
struction. The addition includes
a large weight room and three
courts for basketball, tennis, vol
leyball, badminton, and indoor
soccer. Other new features include
racquetball and squash courts,
new locker rooms, and an indoor
track.
The purpose of the gym is to
serve as a recreation and health
and fitness center. This setup cre
ates a “balance of users,” said
Maggie Smith, Justice Center fa
cilities manager. Monday through
Friday the center will be closed
from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. to accom
modate health and fitness classes.
“The athletic department does not
run this facility,” said Smith.
“UNCA was strapped with a
small facility that could not ac
commodate Division I competi
tion and recreation,” said Smith.
“We can offer probably ten times
the recreation activity than we
did before.”
Smith is positive about the way
the new addition will affect the
community. The center is open
to all UNCA students, staff, and
faculty, and their families. “We
have the capacity to handle the
people and we think it’s a benefit
for the UNCA community,” said
Smith.
“I’m glad that the gym will open
soon, especially because of the
indoor track and weight room,”
said Ellen Shinkle, a sophomore
majoring in sociology. Shinkle felt
See GYM on page 8
Ten in a row!
■■ I
Gels
Mike Matthews splits the Winthrop double team in t co
HOTO BY DEL DeLORM
h-up. Page 6.
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