The University of Noxtfi Carolina at Asheville
olume 26 Issue 7
October 9, 1997
i
Resident students oppose mandatory voice mail
By Catharine Sutherland
News Editor
A newly-installed, $94,000 voice
lail system will begin operating in
1 offices on campus next week,
lespite the fact that over half of the
isident student population op-
osed voice mail for students in a
tudent Government Association
(SGA) senator’s survey last fall, ad
ministrators and university officials
support the future implementation
of voice mail in student life.
The main opposition to voice mail
lies in the concern that the service
will be mandatory for all students,
said SGA Senator Alphonso
Donaldson.
“All we want is a choice. It’s not
the cost. It’s the notion that
whoever’s in charge of voice mail
can impose it on the entire student
body whether (the students) want
it or not,” Donaldson said.
However, Bookstore Manager
Mike Small, who oversees the phone
and voice mail systems, feels that
incorporating students in the voice
mail network would be beneficial
to students, and the campus as a
whole.
“We bought a (voice mail) system
large enough to include students.
and, to me, it would be a waste of
the software and all this computing
potential not to include students,”
said Small.
“The university is not just faculty
and staff That’s leaving out the
most important element, and that
is the students.”
While Small claimed the ques
tion of whether student voice mail
will be mandatory remains “unde
cided,” he urged students to make
their feelings about the issue known
now.
The university purchased a sys
tem which includes 3,000 voice
mail mailboxes, only 600 of which
will be used by the university’s fac
ulty and staff The university also
published guidelines for the use of
voice mail that state “Each student,
faculty, and staff member at UN CA
will have a voice mail mailbox.”
Donaldson surveyed resident stu
dents about voice mail following
the results of a survey conducted by
Small last fall, in which 32 percent
of resident students (or 302 out of
946) responded, with 83 percent in
favor of voice mail. Out of 2,146
commuter students, 161 returned
surveys, showing 94 percent in fa
vor of voice mail.
“Students didn’t pay a lot of at-
See VOICE on page 8
Senator pushes child care
Students, faculty claim need for service
m
mmm
PHOTOS BY SARA HARNDEN
Morgane St. Claire Marshall, daughter of UNCA students David Marshall
and Bethany Beasely, is shuttled back and forth between parents during
the day as they divide their time between classes and part-time jobs.
By Veronika Gunter
staff Writer
Many people on campus agree that con
venient and affordable child care on or near
campus would benefit students, faculty,
and staff who work and attend classes at
UNCA, but supporters of university-affili
ated child care have yet to determine how
or if it will happen.
“This is my crusade. I won’t give up,” said
SGA Commuter Senator David Marshall,
a senior history, philosophy, and political
science major.
Marshall proposed the formation of a
committee to study the feasibility of uni
versity child care at Wednesday s regular
SGA meeting, and asked the body to sus
pend rules mandating a one-week wait
before voting on the measure to speed
action, as allowed by SGA’s parliamentary
rules system.
Marshall and several other students met
with Chancellor Patsy Reed on Sept. 25 to
discuss the topic.
“There are some great ideas floating
around. The committee will look at the
ideas and move towards concrete goals,”
Marshall said. “People want to help, which
is good, because the people who need this
the most don’t have the time to do it.”
UNCA’s Office of Institutional Research
does not track the number of students who
are parents, but two-thirds of UNCA stu
dents live off-campus and the median stu
dent age is 25.
See CHILD on page 10
Chancellor's
salary boost
to close gap
By Amanda Thorn
staff Writer
Chancellor
Patsy Reed
UNCA’s chancellor received an almost 6 percent salary in
crease paid from state allocations for the 1997-98 academic
year, nearly 2 percent more than other state employees. The
increase was part of an effort to decrease wide disparities among
the salaries of chancellors in the University of North Carolina
System, said a UNC official.
“In the last years, the individual campuses have had the
authority to supplement their chancellors’ salaries from private
funds. This created wide disparities in
the salaries of chajicellors,” said Joni
Worthington, assistant vice-president
for communications for the UNC
System.
There has been a conscious effort to
phase out these private funds, said
Worthington.
“We are trying to gradually bring
unsupplemented salaries to compa
rable levels of supplemented salaries.
It is also an effort to phase out
unsupplemented salaries,” said
Worthington.
Chancellor Patsy Reed, who earns a
salary of $127, 605, is not the lowest paid chancellor in the
UNC system. Chancellor Mickey Burnim at Elizabeth City
State University receives $ 125,770, according to Worthington.
“While my salary remains one of the lowest for chancellors in
the state, I consider it to be adequate. My prime motivation for
serving as chancellor isn’t monetary,” Reed said.
The North Carolina General Assembly provided 4 percent of
the salary base for raises for 1997-98, said Reed.
“The Board of Governors increased all chancellors’ salaries
this year, following an extensive study by outside consultants.
The Board of Governors approved guidelines that defined
eligibility for state employees, and provided the basis for our
distribution of these funds,” Reed said.
The Board of Governors is the governing body for the
university system, and decides UNC policy. The General
Administration is the central executive unit that administers
policy for the 16 universities under the direction of the presi
dent of the system.
“The Board of Governors receives guidance from the outside
consultants on appropriate salaries for chancellors. They use
national comparisons of other chancellors’ salaries, and then
make recommendations of what each chancellor should re
ceive,” said Worthington. “All chancellors received a salary
increase, but it was not an across-the-board increase,”
Worthington said.
“The overall goal was to provide salaries that are competitive
See BOOST on page 8
Donation brings four-year engineering program to UNCA
By Mandisa Templeton
staff Writer
JNCA will soon offer a “unique”
ngineering program made possible
" 25,000 donation from the
D Company, a division of
chneider of North America. The
loney will go toward the develop-
lent of a teleconference center that
enable UNCA to offer a four-
year engineering degree through
North Carolina State University in
the future.
“We are very proud to take a lead
ership role in helping establish this
program in the Asheville area, said
Mike Adams, the manager of the
Asheville division of the Square D
Company, a company that makes
on-off switches and buttons.
“It will pay dividends for our com
pany, as well as for the community,
since people will have the opportu
nity to pursue a four-year engineer
ing degree locally.”
Currently, most UNCA students
pursuing an engineering degree
participate in the 2+2 Program,
which involves two years attendance
at UNCA, followed by two years at
NCSU.
The new program will be geared
toward UNCA’s largest population,
non-traditional students.
Since most of these students work
full time and attend school part
time, the new four-year program
would take more than four years to
earn, said Cheryl Alderman, assis
tant director of the engineering pro
gram.
According to Alderman, the new
engineering degree will be a ‘gen
eral’ degree covering several differ
ent kinds of engineering, but spe-
cializing in mechatronics.
Mechatronics, a combination of
mechanical, electrical, and com
puter engineering, is a concentra
tion rarely offered in the United
States, and will make the engineer
ing program at UNCA unique, Al
derman said.
The first two years of the program
will be taught by UNCA professors
who currently teach in the 2+2 Pro
gram.
The last two years will be taught
by professors at NCSU through the
use of the new teleconference cen
ter, which will be located in Room
011 in Ramsey Library. Currently,
the space is furnished, but un
equipped.
Students will be able to get help
with their studies, even though their
professors will be in Raleigh.
“First, there would be some type
of a local monitor who would be
their first resource,” said Alderman.
“Also, the new students are going
to have to work together in study
groups. That will be one of the best
See CENTER on page 8