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Volume 26 Issue 4
September 18, 1997
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PHOTO BY ROB HAMMONDS
i Dr. Ken Betsalel, left, Associate Professor of Political Science, holds one of his photographs steady
if-while Dick Young, center, films it for a North Carolina Humanities Council (NCHC) documentary
II celebrating the life of Charles Kuralt and the 25th anniversary of the council. Young is the producer/
director/photographer for the documentary being produced by his company, Dick Young Produc
tions, Ltd. Betsalel’s photographs were part of a NCHC project entitled “The Different Faces and
Changing Landscape of Asheville.” The documentary is scheduled to be completed in October.
ifficial calls gym repairs ‘normal’
By Mandlssa Templeton
staff Writer
While bowing glass, expanding floors,
and a leaking roof have raised concerns
about the stability of the newly-renovated
Justice Center, one university official claims
such problems are routine in the construc
tion business. The gym, which cost over $6
million to complete, opened its doors last
January, after more than ayear of construc
tion.
For those involved in construction, this is
"very normal” in a project of this size, said
Ron Reagan, director of facilities planning.
“You open up a new building and, all of a
sudden, it gets used day and nightReagan
said. “There are little problems that you
find out about. You fix those and go on.
You can’t be in this position and think it’s
the end of the world every time you find a
problem.”
Damage within the racquetball courts are
the most noticeable problem in the gym to
date, Reagan said. High humidity levels
caused damage to the racquetball courts
shortly before students returned to school
from summer break. Due to the damage,
all four racquetball courts were closed in
definitely, although two have re-opened.
“We noticed that the windows were bow
ing adjacent to the racquetball courts and
the large basketball courts,” said Reagan.
“There is more moisture [in the racquet
ball areas] than the wood floor was de
signed for, ” Reagan said. “Therefore, the
floors are expanding more than what we
plaijned.”
Theories have developed about where the
humidity problem is coming from. Ac
cording to Reagan, the rooms may need to
be maintained at a more constant tempera
ture. The observation area at the top of the
racquetball rooms and the doors to the
courts were frequently left open. This may
have allowed moisture from the multi
purpose court areas to enter the rooms.
Moisture may also have entered the rooms
See GYM on page 10
Funding rests on
full-time numbers
By Veronika Gunter
staff Writer
Eric lovacchini.
Vice Chancellor
for Student
Affairs
Following comments that the university
hopes to see full-time students in the future
and expects a decrease in commuter and
part-time popu
lations, UNCA’s
Vice Chancellor
for Student Af
fairs said he has
comprehensive
goals concerning
university growth
that go beyond
“FTEs” (Full
time equivalent)
Eric lovacchini
wants students to
immerse them
selves in the lib
eral arts and its philosophy, living its es
sence while they attend UNCA. To achieve
this, he envisions the school “growing bet
ter, not bigger,” in terms of academic and
social offerings, becoming the “best public
liberal arts university in the nation.”
But, for the time being, talk of university
planning will be in terms of “FTEs,” a
state-mandated funding system based on
full-time equivalencies that will end at the
close of this year.
To pay for “growing better,” as well as
regular academic and other programs,
UNCA depends on the state, and the term
“FTE” arises.
North Carolina, via the UNC system,
pays 49% of university costs for every stu
dent. Services, investments, endowment,
and other means account for 40%. Tuition
charges, paid by the student, reflect 11 % of
the total cost.
The state funds UNCA (and all schools in
the UNC system) based on the FTE sys
tem.
It provides approximately $7,500 to
UNCA for each full-time student (those
who take 12 or more academic hours).
Proportionally less money pays the costs
for three-fourth, half and quarter-time stu
dents, those taking nine to 11, six to eight
and one to five academic hours, respec
tively.
Based on this system, UNCA would re
ceive the same amount of money whether
it had 3,000 full-time students or 6,000
part-time students. Because they are the
basis for funding and having more full
time students is economically efficient, the
administration has discussed FTEs when
creating growth plans, saidArcherGravely,
director of institutional research.
Though the funding system changes next
year, administrators must work within the
current FTE-based system until the fall of
1998, Gravely said.
In the fall of 1998, General Administra
tion of the UNC system will fund univer
sities based on the cost of each program
rather than the academic hour status of the
student. This system will reflect the differ
entiation between faculty, materials and
other costs among departments. Gravely
said.
FTE SYSTEM
(Full-Time Equivalent)
Students with;
• 1 -5 credit hours = .25 FTE
• 6-8 credit hours = .5 FTE
• 9-11 credit hours = .75 FTE
• 12+ credit hours = 1 FTE
UNCA Fain 997; 2,659 FTEs
Fall 1996: 2,604 FTEs
Via the UNC System, the state pays
UNCA approximately $7,500 per FTE.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH
For instance, science courses with labs
cost more to implement than literature
courses, and computer science teachers are
paid more than art teachers. Gravely said.
Until then, enrolling more full-timers is
economically efficient. 2,250 are enrolled
currently.
See FUNDS on page 8
Search continues
for safety director
' A year after former director's
departure, post remains vacant
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By Amanda Thorn
staff Writer
overall financial
i\’ A/iiifylii-iil
em carefully
UNCA remains without an offi
cial public safety director over a
year after the departure of Jeff van
S 1 y k e ,
former di-
rector. Ad
ministrators
attribute the
prolonged
vacancy to
the sudden
withdrawal
of a favored
candidate
last year,
and have re
cently assembled a second commit
tee to continue the search.
Following a national search con
ducted last spring to fill the posi
tion, UNCA made an offer to an
employee at UNC-Greensboro.
The candidate accepted the posi
tion, but then declined the offer
two weeks later, said Eric lovacchini,
vice chancellor for student affairs.
■ I “After we made the offer, we
thought we had closed the books,
Dennis Gregory
Acting Director
lovacchini said.
The administration at UNC-
Greensboro increased the
candidate’s salary and gave him a
promotion in order to keep him at
the university, lovacchini said.
“We made him what we thought
was a good olfer in terms of salary
and starting time. UNCG not only
matched that, but went a little be
yond,” lovacchini said. “They re
ally liked him and didn’t want to
lose him. He is a guy with about 10
years experience at UNCG. He is a
real up-and-coming young profes
sional.”
Since the chosen candidate’s de
cline, administrators have reas
sembled a representative commit
tee to continue the interview pro
cess.
“We are back to the drawing
boards,” lovacchini said. “I think
our process (last year) worked well.
We had someone from housing,
the physical plant, student devel
opment, athletics, and a member of
the faculty on the committee,”
lovacchini said.
See SAFETY on page 8
Fiberoptic to link dorms to Internet
By Nate Conroy
Electronic Editor
Busy signals at 251-6102,
UNCA’s modem access number,
will soon be a thing of the past. The
campus-wide fiberoptic network,
which will bring fast Internet access
to every dorm room, office, and
classroom on campus, is scheduled
to go into operation in fall 1998.
“Construction will start sometime
in November, but I’m now con
vinced that the backbone won’t be
finished in time to mount a signifi
cant dorm computing effort this
academic year. It’s our goal to kick
off a formal dorm networking
project at the start of the fall 1998
semester,” said Director of Univer
sity Computing Kern Parker.
The network, which will be able
to handle traffic up to 155 mega
bytes per second, will connect every
building on campus.
While getting the main computer
labs and dormitory rooms hooked
up to the fiberoptic network is top
priority, Internet access will “trickle
down” to the dorm labs, said Lab
Manager Mark Galloway.
“Fiber(optic networking) will im
pact the dorms more in the indi
vidual rooms than in the dorm labs.
The biggest impact will be when
students can plug their own com
puters into a jack in the wall and do
the Internet for free,” Galloway said.
Originally slated to be completed
by the 1998 spring semester, the
project has been delayed in part by
the fact that UNCA is currently
working with its second contrac
tor, Key Services Inc. of Chatta
nooga, Tenn., after rejecting the
first “lowest bid” contractor.
a
I
PHOTO BY TRISH JOHNSON
Kern Parker, director of
university computing
The final price estimate has been
set at $950,000.
“That’s one port per person, mean
ing ‘per pillow,’ not one port per
room,” Parker said.
Key Services will complete the
first phase, construction of the fiber
backbone, fromNovemberto April
for a bid of $384,967.32. The sec
ond phase will involve wiring the
10 remaining campus buildings at
a cost of $260,000. Phase three, the
purchase of network electronics,
such as hubs and routers, will cost
approximately $300,000.
Internal wiring has been an ongo
ing process, said Parker. South
Ridge has been wired since its open
ing in 1994, while Governor’s Vil
lage and Mills Hall were wired this
summer at a cost of $95,000. Uni
versity Computing, in conjunction
with Housing Director Pete Will
iams, made the decision to wire
Governor’s Village, despite future
plans to replace it with new dorms.
“We’re not sure when that’s going
to happen. We decided that we
wanted the students who live in
those dorms for the next couple
years to be able to have the fiinc-
tionality of the network,” said
Parker.
The wiring of Highrise Hall is
slated to take place next summer
for an estimated $38,000, at the
same time that air conditioning is
added to the building.
UNCA’s stance on technology has
never been, nor should it be, at the
absolute forefront of technology,
but this new network will do more
than catch us up, Parker said.
“The network we are putting in
should last for a while,” he said.
“We’re building in extra bandwidth
now, so we can handle fiiture needs.
Noone’splanningtodovideo [over
the network] yet, but if they want
to down the road, they will be able
to.”
For students, the fiberoptic hook
up will bring fast Internet connec
tivity to anyone with a computer
equipped with an Ethernet card,
the hardware necessary to connect
to the network.
“We’re going to offer a basic
Internet suite so that students can
access e-mail, ftp (file transfer pro
tocol ), and the Web,” said Parker.
There are no plans yet to allow
students to access UNCA’s internal
PC and Mac networks.
University Computing will select
one Mac Ethernet card and one PC
Ethernet card, which students will
be encouraged to buy if their com
puter is not Ethernet-ready. The
cards will be sold in the bookstore
and supported by the computer
center.
While waiting for the fiberoptic
network this fall, the computer labs
have already undergone some
changes, with more in the works,
according to Galloway. Galloway
recently came to UNCA after com
pleting an M.A. in project manage
ment at Western Carolina Univer
sity, the first school in the UNC
system to wire every dorm.
One of Galloway’s first projects
was to upgrade Karpen 037’s 20-
machine lab to Windows ’95.
“This lab has software that is geared
See FIBER on page 8