[•:
The Univ«rsiiy of North Carolina at AsheviDe
Volume 25, Number 28
May 1, 1997
1
NEWS
BRIEFS
Chancellor ends
coach’s employ
ment
Ray Ingram’s appointment as
UNCA’s head women’s basketball
coach officially ended on April 29
after investigations were made into
allegations of sexual harassment
brought against him.
“University administration took
action to separate Ray Ingram from
the university, and he is no longer
employed by the university,” said
Merianne Epstein, UNCA’s direc
tor of public information.
Ingram was put on suspension
with pay on Feb. 17 after two play
ers said he had sexually harassed
them. State laws prohibit any
UNCA officials from discussing
exactly why Ingram was suspended
or what the terms of his release
from UNCA are.
“State law is very stringent about
personnel records being maintained
as confidential,” said Epstein, but
that the decision to release Ingram
from his coaching position was “the
chancellor’s decision.”
Ingram had one year left in his
contract with UNCA. The athletic
department will be looking to re
cruit a new women’s head basket
ball coach to fill the vacant posi
tion.
CUR to develop
website
The Council on Undergraduate
Research has been awarded a
$200,000 grant to develop and fiind
a new website for students and fac
ulty across the country. RE
SEARCH LINK, as the website
will be called, will be developed in
the nextsixto 12 months, said John
Stevens, UNCAprofessorofchem
istry and CUR’s national executive
officer.
RESEARCH LINK will enable
students and faculty in the natural
sciences to exchange research re
sults and discuss experimental data.
The three-year grant will also fund
conferences and workshops for stu
dents and faculty involved in un
dergraduate research.
Investigative laboratories are be
ing developed'aggressively in un
dergraduate courses nationwide,
said Stevens. The website will help
with the exchange of information
between students and to help fac
ulty develop research-based labs for
students.
The National Science Foundation
College Curriculum Development
Program awarded the grant to CUR,
a national organization based at
UNCA. CUR’s primary purpose is
to generate support and awareness
for the sciences at undergraduate
institutions across the country.
“The main benefit (of the grant)
for UNCA is that it continues to
put UNCA on the map,” Stevens
said. “It gives the institution excel
lent exposure across the nation.”
May concerts
The UNCA Student Guitar En
semble, under the direction of
UNCA Jazz Studies Coordinator
Tim Haden, will perform at 8 p.m.
on Thursday, May 1, in Lipinsky
Auditorium. The ensemble, made
up of guitars, violin, piano, bass,
percussion, and drums, will per
form music by John McLaughlin,
Wes Montgomery, John Coltrane,
and Pat Metheny.
The University Singers will per
form at 8 p.m. on Friday, May 2 in
the Humanities Lecture Hall. The
concert will feature a wide range of
music, including English and con
temporary madrigals, tunes from
“Bye Bye Birdie” and “The
Fantasticks,” and folk songs.
Admission to both concerts is free,
but a $4 donation is suggested. For
information, call 251-6432.
Gambling the night away
PHOTO BY DEL DELORM
Sophomore Susan Bell and junior Leah Spence try
their luck at A«I) and KAP-sponsoredMonte Carlo night
Friday.
Evaluations do count
They carry weight, says Dean of Faculty
By Chanse Simpson
staff Writer
While some students believe the
teacher evaluations they fill out at
the end of each semester fall on deaf
ears, the Dean of Faculty Develop
ment says they carry more weight
than people might think.
Dr. Merritt Moseley, who has
headed up the faculty development
office since its inception in 1995,
said recently that student evalua
tions factor significantly in and out
of classroom decisions.
Aside from informing teachers
about ways to improve their classes,
these evaluations are also “used in
decisions on promotion and ten
ure,” Moseley said.
“I think sometimes students think
these are not taken seriously, that
this is some kind of empty exer
cise,” he said. “But it’s not.”
Teachers do not see the comments
that students write nor the numeri
cal scores they are given until after
they have turned in their grades,
Moseley said.
Even then, they do not see the
original evaluation sheets that stu
dents filled out, but rather a print
out of the numerical scores.
Not even the comment portion,
which Moseley believes is the most
useful aspect for teachers wanting
to improve their classroom skills,
can be traced back to individual
students’ handwriting.
Before teachers read them, he said,
secretaries in each department type
up the comments and present them
to teachers.
“There are all sorts of cautions
built in so we can’t possibly reward
or punish anybody for what they
write,” said Moseley.
From these lists of comments,
some teachers find ways of genu
inely improving the way they will
teach their classes in the future, he
said.
“Most of the faculty members I
know of feel that if they’re going to
really get information that will help
them improve, it will come from
the comments,” said Moseley.
“I like to ponder the comments
the students have made and see
what they can tell me that will make
the course better the next time I
See FACULTY page 10
Solutions posed for skateboarders
By Shelley Eller
staff Writer
Skateboarders at UNCA have little
room to move under campus poli
cies prohibiting the sport on school
grounds and similar ordinances in
downtown Asheville.
“There is a standing policy at
UNCA that states that skateboard
ing is not allowed,” said Randy
Martin, a public safety officer at
UNCA. “This policy is similar to
the Asheville city ordinance that
prohibits skateboarding on streets,
sidewalks, or city-owned property.”
Freshman Josh Burcham, a skate
boarder who lives on campus, has
been confronted by UNCA public
safety officers while skating in re
stricted areas.
“On campus I’ve been busted a
few times? ” said Burcham. “I asked
(the officers), ‘Where are we sup
posed to skate?’ and they always tell
us to do it somewhere besides cam
pus.”
A solution to the problem of find
ing a legal place to skate may be in
the works after a public meeting
sponsored by the Asheville Parks
and Recreation Department on
April 10.
“At the meeting, skateboarders
were interested in a park,” said
Debbie Ivester, Asheville’s Parks
and Recreation administration su
perintendent. Possible plans to con
struct a park for skateboarders in
cluded the park possibly being built
by yolunteer skateboarders as well
as being partially funded by corpo
rate sponsors, Ivester said.
According to Sergeant Sarah
Benson at Asheville City Police
Department, there has been a lot of
property damage because of skate
boarders. ,
“There has been a lot of damage
done, especially to City Hall,” faid
Benson.
“Broken windows are a big prob
lem,” he said.
Burcham said that he had never
witnessed the occurence of any
bodily injury or property damage
while skateboarding.
“I have never seen anyone get hurt
when skating,” said Burcham. “The
only property damage I’ve seen is
when skateboards leave black marks
on the curbs of sidewalks.”
See SKATE page 8
More than an art professor, he's a guru
By Jennifer Thurston
Managing Editor
In her second semester of life draw
ing, Tucker Cooke took Ali Lingerfelt-
Tait’s erasers away. He told her to keep
every line on the page, that she put them
there for a reason. When he finally gave
the erasers back, she didn’t need them
anymore.
Lingerfelt-Tait says now that the most
important thing she learned from Cooke
was “to keep coming back, to not give
up.” Cooke’s influence as a teacher kept
her in school and inspired her to find
her own artistic style, one that didn’t
require erasing.
“He’s a gifted teacher,” said Lingerfelt-
Tait, a junior art major. “He’s inspired
me in ways that I can’t explain. In
Tucker’s classes, 1 work. 1 get a lot done
for him.”
Lingerfelt-Tait’s admiration is only
one reason why Cooke, professor and
chair of the art department, received
this year’s UNC Board of Governors
Excellence in Teaching Award for
UNCA. Cooke is known for his open
office door, for bringing people together,
and for his commitment to improving
teaching at UNCA.
Cooke first came to UNCA thirty
years ago, and intended to stay only two
years before moving on to the New
York art world. Instead, he took over
the art department and found satisfac
tion in exposing students to art, finding
new opportunities with every class.
“The contact with learners is an in
credible rush, to see when they accom
plish something worthwhile,” Cooke
said. “Or it’s incredibly depressing. I
have failures that are traumatizing and
you go back to the drawing board and
start again. But the highs make up for
the lows.”
Trust is his goal, Cooke said. He offers
it to his students and waits for them to
challenge him. In the meantime, he has
faith. “The power behind art is what’s
more important,” Cooke said. “The
drive, the need to make art, to feed the soul.
True art comes from a different place. Some
times you wonder if you’re doing a disser
vice to people. But you have to be satisfied
with life.”
“What Tucker’s really good at is pushing
people in the direction they need to go,”
said Deanna Watson, a graduating art ma
jor. “He’s good at challenging students. If
you’re going to get any better at art, you
have to be challenged. He’s more than a
teacher. He’s a guru.”
In Watson’s first class with Cooke, he
made the class do calisthenics. He jumped
around the room and yelled, “Yah, yah,
yah!” It gave the students energy, got their
blood flowing, and loosened them up
enough to draw, Watson said.
“He goes the extra mile to make his stu
dents do well,” Watson said. “He teaches
more than art. It’s life. The philosophical
and emotional aspects ofart. He encourages
his students to express whatever emotional
baggage they have in their art and to use
what they’re feeling. What he does makes
sense to me.”
Reaching art majors is not his only goal,
Cooke said. “I like being around students
who are doing other things than art,” Cooke
said. “It’s equally important that we learn to
understand vision. The liberal arts is about
the senses and how to perceive the world
around us more effectively, to make sense of
ourselves as human beings.”
Cooke still teaches the Arts 311 lab course,
visual arts for the non-major, to reach these
students. “It’s fun to watch them. They’ve
been told that they can’t do it. The first
thing is that regardless of what they think,
they can do art. No one can fail. Each
student is important to me, their ideas, their
feelings. Even if they hate art, I need to
know.”
“I think of retiring every day,” Cooke said.
“How much longer can I do this effectively?
How can I make it refreshing? That’s why
it’s so rejuvenating with the Arts 311 stu
dents.”
Even when he retires from UNCA, how
ever, Cooke says he will still continue to
teach students somewhere.
Besides his commitment to students,
PHOTO BY JENNIFER THURSTON
Tucker Cooke, left, discusses a self-portrait with student Donnie
Tessneer, an environmental studies major. Cooke is UNCA’s recipient
of the UNC Board of Governors Excellence in Teaching Award. “All the
things he adds to it make a lot of difference,” said Tessneer.
Cooke has also been influential in improv
ing teaching at UNCA. Four years ago,
Cooke created a mentoring program to
help new faculty members adj ust to UN CA.
The program sponsors workshops on teach
ing issues, benefits, time management, com
mittees, and the student body, among other
topics.
“This faculty is incredibly active in trying to
improve teaching,” Cooke said. “Students
don’t always understand that teaching is the
most important skill for professors at UNCA.
That’s something we should be proud of
Students shoiJd know that if they approach
their teachers, they will help them reach what
ever goal they’re trying to reach.”
“Tucker creates an environment that’s com
fortable for you to succeed in, but also to fail
in,” said Lingerfelt-Tait. “He gave me the
confidence to work through a problem. It’s a
long process of reworking, love, and hate.
You’re always working to trust yourself”
When he received the teaching award, Cooke
invited Lingerfelt-T ait to attend the ceremony
in Chapel Hill with him. He says he doesn’t
know why he was selected. “I was dumb
founded,” Cooke said. “I’ve always had night
mares about having bad classes. This makes
you humble, for one thing, because there are
so many great teachers here.”
Cooke, who grew up in “rural, redneck”
Florida, is as committed an artist as he is a
teacher. “There is a Southern sensibility in
what I do,” he said. “In the South, nothing
equals out. There’s an aura, a sense of mys
tery. My images are caught up in that dark
ness and mystery.”
But art isn’t just a personal experience,
Cooke said. Non-artists must participate in
the experience in order to benefit. The visual
language is as important to learn as the spo
ken language. Throughout history, art has
served humanity in many ways, he said.
“Think of the cave art,” Cooke said. “When
there was art, it was sacred. When there
wasn’t art, no one was home.”