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Volume 26 Issue 3
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September 11, 1997
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By Troy Junge
Contributing Writer
Of the 16 University of North
Carolina constituent campuses in
the state, 15 scheduled Labor Day
as an observed holiday, according
to the UNC General
Administration’s Program Assess
ment and Public Office. Only
UNCA held classes on Sept. 1,
meaning a day of learning, instead
of Vacation, for students, and one
l^re^&nator majority of faculty
cers
;Hall
ulldog
and staff.
The loss of the Labor Day holiday
came as a surprise to most students
and “didn’t seem well-received,”
senior Kate Dwornik said.
“It’s a shame for those people who
were expecting to have the day off.
It didn’t seem fair to the support
staff that had worked through the
summer,” Dwornik said.
According to faculty and admin
istrators, however, the loss of Labor
Day as an observed holiday was the
most satisfactory option available
to the university following a man
dated increase in class days by the
UNC general administration last
year.
UNC general administration an
nounced a system-wide policy
change in the summer of 1996,
requiring a minimum of 75 class
days per semester, excluding exam
week, said Tom Cochran, assistant
dvice chancellor for academic affairs:
• In an effort to comply with the
* new guideline, UNCA added 3 days
of scheduled classes to its calendar,
risini one of which was Labor Day.
t for Externi The goal in devising the new cai-
St. Apt. 103endar was to preserve an equal
amount of class time for every sched-
les
Senator
;Hall
ica
inson
ir Internal
dner Hall
See LABOR on page 8
Politics on campus
Dorm addition
raises issues of
campus growth
PHOTO BY ROB HAMMONDS
Mayoral candidate Leni Sitnick (left) discusses election issues with Paul Hunt and Julie
Pearson, co-organizers of Students for Sitnick.
STUDENT VOTES
In the 1996Asheville city elections,
18-29-year-olds accounted for only
4.41 percent of the vote. UNCA
alone could potentially offer more
than 2,000 voters. Here's how the
numbers break down.
3,179 UNCA students
2,232 live off campus
1,194 have an Asheville city address
947 live on campus (an address that
makes these students eligible to vote)
Total of 2,141 potential student votes
4,916 voters registered for city elections
as of July 18, 1997
SOURCE: THE INSTrrUTIONAL RESEARCH
DEPARTMENT
Low voter turnout
inspires activism
Friday, Sept. 12, is the
last day to register to
vote in city mayoral
election. Registration
tables will be set up
in front of the library.
By Veronika Gunter
staff Writer
Low voter turnout by young
people, those 18-29 years old, has
made at least one UNCA student
“feel terrible” enough to take ac
tion in the face of upcoming city
elections.
“I want our group to improve
turnout, to coordinate people at
UNCA to vote,” said Paul Hunt, a
senior sociology major and co
founder of Students for Sitnick, a
campus political group organized
to support Leni Sitnick, one of four
candidates running for mayor this
year.
In the 1996 elections, 18-29-year-
olds accounted for 4.41 percent of
the Asheville city vote, casting 566
ballots. Hunt hopes to increase these
numbers.
“Our biggest goal is to get people
registered (to Vote), and also advo
cate Leni Sitnick for mayor,” Hunt
•said.
Time and energy often factor into
students’ political participation,
according to postgraduate student
Amy Cunningham. Organizations
and students can get bogged down
with their own affairs and miss out
on political activity., she said.
Though she served as co-chair of
the Students for Gantt organiza
tion at UNCA last year,
Cunningham said she feels she
hasn’t had the time to be active in
the city elections.
See VOTE on page 10
By Catharine Sutherland
News Editor
The pit of red clay next to South
Ridge residence hall, soon to be
UNCA’s fourth residence establish
ment, West Ridge, will provide
housing for an additional 150 resi
dent students upon opening in the
fall of 1999. The $7.6 million hous
ing expansion has sparked concern
among many students about the
university’s plans for growth.
“It’s kind of interesting that (the
university’s administrators) keep
advertising a small school, and then
keep expanding,” said junior David
Rothman, apolitical science major.
“The majority of students come
here because it’s a small school with
a low professor to student ratio,”
senior Moque Krape said.
Junior David Wilcox agreed.
“(UNCA) is special because of its
size,” said Wilcox, a recording arts
major. “If you want to go to a big
school, there are other schools to go
to.”
In a recent visit to UNCA in
August, Governor Hunt advised
the growth of the university.
“I think this university needs more
resources to have the kind of future
it needs to have,” Hunt said. UNCA
needs additional buildings and
easier access from the highway, he
said.
However, administrators claim the
planned increase in on-campus
housing is not indicative of a dra
matic escalation in the student
population.
“3,500 is as big as we want to
get,” which is “very weird for a
public institution,” said Archer
Graveley, director of institutional
research.
“All other (public institutions)
equate being big with being better.
UNCA does not do that,” Graveley
said.
The overall push toward an in
crease at UNCA lies in the category
of students, not in their numbers,
said Eric lovacchini, vice chancel
lor for student affairs.
“We’re not going to grow num-
bers-wise,” lovacchini said, predict
ing a minimal growth of 15 or 20
students per year. Rather, he said,
UNCA will see a growth in the
number of students living on cam
pus.
“We’re trying to play the game of
more FTE’s (full time equiva
lents),” he said. The university
hopes to gain more full-time stu
dents, lovacchini said, and expects
to see a decrease in commuter and
PHOTO BY ROB HAMMONDS
Construction began this
year on West Ridge, the
campus’ fourth residence
hall. The building will
house 150 students when
it opens in the fall of 1999.
part-time students.
“That’s where we need residence
halls and things that are going to
satisfy full-time students,”
lovacchini said.
“I think all of us (faculty, staff,
and administration) feel real
strongly that this is a good size for
this school. What we’re looking for
is the right mix,” he said.
3,179 students currently attend
UNCA, with 947 currently resid
ing in the residence halls.
Despite many who claim UNCA’s
advantages lie in-its small size, not
all students are against the growth
of the university.
“Without adding growth to our
campus, we’re not generating
enough student flow because there’s
no major attraction here,” said Julie
See GROWTH on page 10
Forests in crisis, experts say
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Cjearcutting, or removing all the trees on a tract of land at onc^ has
students leati had devastating effects on forest land in the Southern Appalachians. A
e country, media tour flight on Saturday circled this example, located not far from
Asheville on the border of McDowell and Rutherford Counties.
By Veronika Gunter
staff Writer
Southeastern forests rank “globally out
standing” in terms of biological value and
ecosystem fragility, and their conservation
status is “critical,” said the keynote speaker
at Saturday’s Forest Health Conference at
UNCA.
The keynote speaker Dr. Reed Noss of
Oregon State University, editor of the jour
nal Conservation Biolo^, urged attending
activists, citizens, students and faculty to
protect our unique, vulnerable forests.
The regionally and internationally promi
nent scientists convened in the Owen Con
ference Center at the invitation of the
Western North Carolina Alliance, address
ing the question, “What are the real forest
health issues in the Southern Appalachians?”
Air pollution, human encroachment, and
exotic species are the major issues in forest
health in the Southern Appalachian region
and worldwide, according to UNCA envi
ronmental studies professor Gary Miller.
“Our forests are suffering from a series
of problems resulting in the decline of
both communities and species,” said
Miller. The conference held Saturday
was intended in part to serve as a rebuttal
to U. S. Representative Charles Taylor’s
recent report on the region’s environ
ment, Miller said.
“It was mainly targeted to better inform
the public about forest health issues in
response to Taylor’s view on forest health,”
which some felt was not as objective as it
could have been or should have been. Miller
said.
The term “forest health” served as a battle-
cry for salvage logging on public lands
under the direction of Taylor, who at
tached a controversial salvage timber rider
onto a 1995 House budget bill.
The rider opened logging on public lands
to any trees susceptible to fire, disease or
other damage and withdrew the right to
public appeal of these timber sales.
The lecturers forwarded a holistic defini
tion of forest health and called for a re-
evaluation of forest management practices
on public lands at the all-day seminar.
Dr. Robert Zahner, professor emeritus of
forestry at Clemson University, traced the
history of forest management practices in
America. He concluded that practices re
main tied to the timber industry and a
narrow view of forest value.
“Foresters see commercial trees and non
commercial trees,” he said, and ignoring
biologically valuable aspects of forests have
“imperiled” the Southern Appalachians.
Clear-cutting methods of timber extrac
tion and accompanying road building and
chip mills number among serious threats to
forest health in our area, Zahner said.
UNCA freshman Erik Breedlove has ex
perienced the devastation potential of
roadbuilding in the Southern Appalachians
firsthand. Breedlove, a native of Grayson
Co., Va., cited current construction under
way to transform Interstate 58 from a two-
lane to a four-lane highway in portions of
theGrayson Highlands, partofthejefferson
National Wilderness Area, as one example
of the current forest health crises.
“There’s no real way they can put the road
through without bulldozing the whole (for-
See FOREST on page 8