Tlie Uniwetsoy of North Carolina Skt AsheviUe
Volume 25, Number 22
March 20,1997
NEWS
BRIEFS
Author Lawrence
Graham to speak
Author, attorney, and diversity
consultant Lawrence Otis Graham
will speak at UNCA at 7 p.m. on
Thursday, March 20 in the
Highsmith Center lounge. His talk
was originally scheduled for Febru
ary 13 but was cancelled because of
snow.
A graduate of Princeton Univer
sity and Harvard Law School, Gra
ham is the author of 11 nonfiction
books and many stories on race and
ethnic relations and diversity. His
newest book, “Member of the
Club,” includes essays on affirma
tive action and interracial dating.
His book “The Best Companies for
Minorities” is the first guide to
offer a comprehensive review of the
corporate environment—from en
try-level and blue-collar jobs to the
corporate suite—for all minority
groups.
Graham was the subject of an
HBO movie about his experiences
at the Greenwich (Conn.) Country
Club, where he exposed discrimi
nation against minorities, Jews, and
women after working undercover
as a busboy.
Graham is a corporate attorney in
New York, an adjunct assistant pro
fessor at Fordham University, and
president of the diversity consult
ing firm Progressive Management
Associates, Inc. He has worked at
the White House and the Ford
Foundation, and is a popular
speaker on civil rights and diversity
at college campuses.
His talk is co-sponsored by
UNCA’s African American Student
Association, the African American
Student Development Office, and
U nderdog Productions. Admission
for the general public is $5. For
information, call 251-6674.
Creative writing
contests
The UNCA Creative Writing Pro
gram is sponsoring four contests
for students next month. The dead
line for all contests is April 15 and
the prize for each contest is $100
and eternal fame. Two copies, one
with a name and one without a
name should be submitted to Pro
fessor ofLiterature David Hopes in
KH210.
The Wilma Dykeman Prize in
Non-Fiction and University Writ-
' ing is for works up to 20 pages in
length of non-fiction, academic, or
mother university writing. The Tho-
•mas Wolfe Prize in Fiction is for
works up to 20 pages in length of a
short story, novella, or novel e>
cerpt. The Carl Sandburg Prize i
Poetry is for up to 10 poems with a
total length of no more than ten
p^es. The Francis Hulme Prize in
Playwriting is for one full-length
play or two one-act plays.
Historic
Asheville tour
UNCA’s North Carolina Center
for Creative Retirement will con
tinue its series of behind-the-scenes
tours with a tour of historic Asheville
on Saturday, March 22 and Satur
day, May 3. Harry Weiss, Preserva
tion Society of Asheville and Bun
combe County executive director
will lead the day-long program.
The “conference on wheels will
start with a visit to All Soul’s Cathe
dial in Biltmore and will be fol
lowed by a walking tour of Biltmore
Village. Participants will then de
part for a bus tour of the Kenilworth
and Chestnut Hill neighborhoods,
a walking tour of the Manor cot
tages, Kimberly Lands and other
Asheville sights.
Biltmore Village Historic Mu
Students volunteer over spring break
Coach files, drops lawsuit
PHOTO COURTESY OF LAURA MILLER
Freshmen Wendy Caudill and Landon Holland work to
scrape and repaint peeling ironwork while volunteering
with Charleston Outreach. See story on page 5.
By Jennifer Thurston
Managing Editor
The mystery about suspended
UNCA head women’s basketball
coach Ray Ingram has deepened.
On Feb. 26, Ingram’s attorney filed
a civil lawsuit against UNCA seeking
a temporary restraining order to al
low him to finish coaching the bas
ketball season, according to court
records.
Ingram was suspended with pay
from UNCA on Feb. 17 for undis
closed “personnel matters” and the
women’s basketball team played their
final tournament game on Feb. 27, a
day after the suit was filed. The suit
was dropped on March 14.
Where does the mystery play in?
When contacted for this story, Ingram
claimed that he knew nothing about
the lawsuit. Chancellor Patsy Reed,
Associate Vice Chancellor for Aca
demic Affairs Tom Cochran, and
DirectorofAthleticsTomHunnicutt
were named as co-defendants in the
lawsuit.
Both Cochran and Hunnicutt
said they had no knowledge of the
matter and neither had been sub
poenaed. UNCA spokeswoman
Marianne Epstein also knew noth
ing of the lawsuit.
Ingram’s attorney, Tony E.
Rollman, did not return phone
calls for this story.
In the lawsuit, Ingram alleged
that he had “suffered discrimina
tory conduct directed towards him
and the women’s basketball pro
gram” and that he was “paid sub
stantially less than the Head Coach
ofthe men’s basketball program.”
Ingram’s salary this year is
$33,043 while Eddie Biedenbach,
the men’s basketball coach, is paid
$54,900, according to UNCA
records.
The lawsuit also stated that
Ingram was one of “approximately
five” black head women’s coaches
out of 4,000 women’s coaches in
the nation and that his suspen
sion from UNCA would draw
national media attention.
Cochran denied that racism was
a factor in Ingram’s suspension.
The lawsuit also stated that
Ingram’s professional reputation
would be damaged and his oppor
tunities to obtain employment
would be diminished if the suspen
sion were upheld. Ingram also al
leged that UNCA committed a
breach of contract by refusing to
allow him to coach and that the
suspension was instated “without
just cause.”
The lawsuit also stated that Ingram
was “informed, believes, and there
fore alleges that the Defendants,
and each of them, will continue to
prevent (Ingram) from coaching at
the institution for the remainder of
the term of the contract.” Ingram’s
contract extends through the 1997-
98 school year.
Ingram, after denying knowledge
of the lawsuit, declined to com
ment further about the case or his
suspension.
But the mysterious lawsuit remains
as a footnote to his story, preserved
permanently on microfilm as case
number 97-CVD-778.
Campus officials revoke funds for rave
By Catharine Sutherland
staff Writer
Kappa Delta Rho (KDR) frater
nity members felt a door slammed
in their faces last month when uni
versity officials revoked $1,000 in
funds three days prior to a sched
uled off-campus rave event. Con
cerns about university liability led
to the last-minute denial of funds,
said Nina East, director of student
development.
The denial followed what frater
nity members considered an offi
cial approval of university funding
for the event by the vice chancellor
for student affairs, Eric lovacchini,
in a lunch meeting on Feb. 11.
Yav said, ‘Sounds great. I say go
for it,’ and shook on it,” said Jay
ohnson, a sophomore manage
ment major and secretary of KDR.
That was a verbal agreement with
five witnesses that would stand up
in any court of law.”
The debate over whether or not
to allocate the money focused on
the name of the fraternity event.
called a “rave,” as well as its off-
campus location at Club Metropo
lis in downtown Asheville. Both
factors posed possible liabilities for
the university, said East.
“KDR was never allocated money
for a rave,” said East, also a member
of the campus commission. “They
were allocated money for an event
to occur within university guide
lines and be approved by the uni
versity. I could not have been more
up front with KDR that they
couldn’t count on money for this
event.”
East said she did not realize the
potential problems associated with
the rave when the fraternity pre
sented its funding request to the
campus commission in a hearing
onFeb. 3. The commission, a board
of students and faculty members
that hears funding requests from
student organizations and decides
how to allocate student money
among the applicants, responded
favorably to the idea of a rave and
agreed to allocate the funds on Feb.
10, said Johnson.
“I had no idea a ‘rave’ was associ
ated with drugs,” said East, stating
that the fraternity had defined this
type of event as a “dance marathon.”
When she discussed the name of the
event with colleagues in a student
development staff meeting on Feb.
18, however. East found unanimous
opposition to campus sponsorship of
such an event.
“1 consulted with my colleagues,
which is my obligation, and that’s
when I found out what a rave really
is,” East said, referring to some
people’s interpretation of a rave as a
“drug-fest.”
“The 100 percent belief of that group
was that the university can’t associate
itself with something advocating sub
stance abuse,” said East.
East also consulted the university
attorney, Betsy Bunting, from the
UNC General Administration in
Chapel Hill, to examine the risk man
agement aspect involved.
“The attorney called back and said
the risk was astronomical. She said
the university cannot be associated
with an event of this sort, and that we
shouldn’t do parties off-campus spon
sored by student organizations. That
was her recommendation,” said
East.
East attributed the high-risk fac
tor to the fact that it would be easy
for someone
to show the
university
knew or
should have
known
about the
danger of
what’s being
called a
“rave” and
what’s con
strued by the name “rave.”
However, KDR members main
tained that they planned the rave
as an alcohol-free, all-night dance
party that would be strictly moni
tored and would fall within Fra
ternity Insurance Purchasing
Group guidelines or those estab
lished by the fraternity’s insur
ance company.
“We agreed to shut down the
bar and check IDs at the door,
and we would only let in UNCA
students. We had a waiver for
Ian Jones
people to sign at the door and six-
man crews monitoring the floor
every hour,” said Ian Jones, presi
dent of KDR.
The fraternity’s goal in holding a
rave was to attract “a whole new
group of people at a fraternity
party,” Jones said.
“We figured we could get a bigger
crowd and a different crowd if we
appealed to the MTV image and
the cyber-lingo of today,” Johnson
said, insisting that drugs were not a
factor in the decision to call the
party a “rave.”
Despite their desire to host a rave,
KDR officers said they “were not
married to the name” and were
willing to change it to win campus
support of the event. A large sheet
advertising the upcoming party
went from “Rave” to “It’s Gravy”
overnight, a measure lovacchini
considered ineffective.
“The University is not comfort
able with an event that could be
construed as advocating substance
See RAVE on page 9
Math professor arrested
Pleads not guilty to felony charge
By Jennifer Thurston
Managing Editor
Associate Professor of Mathemat
ics Steve Patch was arrested on
campus on Friday, March 7 fol
lowing an indictment from the
Buncombe County grand j ury that
charged him with felony manufac
ture of marijuana.
Patch was ar-
raigned on
Monday,
March 17 and
pleaded not
guilty to the
charges. The
trial date has
been set for
March 31, ac-
cording to
court records.
UNCA’s
drug policy states that Patch could
be suspended if the university con
siders his presence a “clear and
immediate danger.” If convicted
on the charges. Patch would be
suspended for at least one semester
Steve Patch
and could face termination of his
employment.
“I see no evidence that Steve Patch
is a danger to the community,” said
Jim Pitts, vice chancellor for aca
demic affairs. “It would be prema
ture to take action against someone
when a legal decision hasn t been
made.” The policy is clear regard
ing criminal convictions, Pitts said.
“He is a much esteemed professor,
very valuable to the students, Pitts
said. “I know him professionally
and there is a lot to respect. His
colleagues think very highly ofhim.
“The administration has been very
fair,” said Patch. “They’ve said they
don’t consider me a risk to the
students and will wait until the
legal proceedings work themselves
out.” Patch declined to comment
further about the charges against
him.
Patch was arrested as part of a
sting operation by the Metropoli
tan Enforcement Group. Ten other
suspects were arrested the same day
for marijuana and cocaine charges,
according to the Asheville Citizen-
Times. Patch was charged with
growing marijuana plants on his
Barnardsville property last summer
but was not indicted by the grand
jury until March 3.
Local media organizations were in
vited to accompany the police on
campus to document Patch’s arrest.
“It was one of the worst covered
stories on TV I’ve ever seen,” said Bill
Sabo, associate professor of political
science. Sabo called the coverage “per
fectly made for TV,” and a tactic to
scare people. At the same time, Sabo
pointed out, a man charged with
selling crack cocaine got the briefest
mention while Patch’s arrest was the
lead story.
“Based on what I know about Steve
(Patch), I find it difficult to accept
the public information that’s being
floated about this,” Sabo said. Steve
is an unimpeachable character. I trust
him implicitly. I have tremendous
respect for him as a teacher and my
advisees have constant praise for him.
He is trustworthy and committed to
the students and this university.”
Lothar Dohse, chairman and asso-
See PATCH on page 12
Officials increase
faculty summer pay
By Chanse Simpson
staff Writer
By offering additional upper-
level courses and increasing teach
ers’ salaries, UNCA administra
tors have redesigned summer
school this year in an effort to lure
more faculty and students back to
campus between spring and fall
semesters.
Unlike past years, summer
school in 1997 will feature a three-
week mini-term from May 19 to
June 6, which will include 300-
level classes in several departments.
Although this idea has worked
effectively at other schools. Assis
tant Vice Chancellor for Enroll
ment Services Caroline Miller said
the ultimate decision of whether
or not it will become a permanent
part of the curriculum remains to
be decided.
“We’re hoping that students will
find the mini-term attractive,”
Miller said. “Ifit doesn’t work, I
mean if our students don’t enroll,
then they’re telling us something.”
“May Term” classes, as they are
called in the summer schedule,
will meet Monday through Fri
day for two-and-a-half hours each
day. Because so much time will be
involved in out-of-class work.
Miller said, individual students will
only be allowed to register for one
May Term class per year.
Although these three-week ses-
' sions will benefit students who need
to complete a single class in a short
amount of time, the North Caro
lina legislature sees broader finan
cial implications in having state in
stitutions offer more courses in the
summer
months.
Miller ex
plained that
the UNC
General Ad
ministration,
the adminis
trative body
that oversees
the l6-unit
Caroline Miller university sys-
tem, funded
proposals last
summer at select schools to exam
ine ways of improving the use of
existing campus facilities in the sum
mer. North Carolina legislators are
See SUMMER on page 12