The Uniwrsity of North Carolina at Asheville
www.unca.edu/banncrl
February 5, 1998
Volume 27 Issue 3
Late closing strands commuters
By Catharine Sutherland
Contributing Writer
Many students and faculty were sur
prised at the administration’s failure to
cancel classes before 11 a.m. on Tues
day, Jan.27 when roads were already
under nearly six inches of snow after a
unexpected winter storm hit the
Asheville area, resulting in over a foot of
accumulation by midnight.
“It is unusual for the administration to
wait until you can see six inches of snow
on the ground before canceling classes.
They’ve never done this,” saidjudi Leffe,
secretary of the math department, who
has worked at UNCA since 1986. ,
“In a sense, it just tricked us all,” said
J ames Pitts, vice chancellor for academic
affairs and the administrator respon
sible for canceling classes.
Under normal snow procedure, Pitts
consults with facilities crews before 6
a.m. to determine what conditions are
like on campus, and he also considers
the weather report.
When facilities personnel had not con
tacted him by 6 a.m. on Jan.27, Pitts
assumed campus conditions were satis
factory and left his home for a 7 a.m.
dental appointment.
It was not until he was forced to walk
the last stretch of University Heights in
the snow at 10:30 a.m., leaving his car
stranded in a traffic jam at the university
entrance, that he realized there was a
problem.
The problem, in this case, was not with
the university’s snow policy, but with
the unexpected change in the weather,
Pitts said.
“The snow policy’s pretty clear. The
timing of the storm and the difficulty of
determining what was going to happen
is what threw it off,” Pitts said.
Facilities personnel trusted the weather
reports, which claimed the snow would
turn to rain by noon, and therefore did
not contact Pitts before 6 a.m., he said.
In the future, such communication
problems should not arise, according to
Pitts.
“We still have no control over when
the storm comes, but we worked it out
in greater detail who would make the
call if I am not available and if the
associate vice chancellor’s not available,”
Pitts said. Due to the large commuter
population at UNCA, many consider
the snow policy of special importance.
“If there are at least two
inches of snow on the ground,
classes should be canceled,”
said commuter Ben Tiller, a
freshman history major. “The
snow policy should be very
lenient, especially with com
muter students,” Tiller said.
Tiller, who commutes to
classes from Black Mountain,
awoke to six inches of snow
on the ground Tuesday morn
ing and did not attempt the
drive to Asheville, despite the
regular class schedule.
Sophomore Amy Waldrep
did make the drive to campus,
and spent the night paying for
it.
“Me and my roommate came
because class was not canceled
when we called. Then class
was canceled when we got
here,” said Waldrep, who left
her home at approximately
11 a.m. to commute to school
from West Asheville. “I called
as soon as I woke up about 8
a.m., and the roads were al
ready really bad.”
After spending the night on
a friend’s couch in a residence
hall to avoid the treacherous
drive home, Waldrep ' was
without her snowbound car
for two days following the
storm.
As for future snow days,
Waldrep hopes the adminis
tration has learned a lesson
from last week’s incidents.
“I think they’ll do better from
nowon,” Waldrep said. How
ever, she said she will not at
tempt to make it to class in
the snow again, despite the
class schedule.
Some professors agree with
this thinking.
“No matter what the policy
is for the whole school, indi
vidual people have to have
leave to use their own discre
tion,” said D. James, associate profes
sor of literature.
James said that, while she lives close
enough to walk to campus in bad
weather, she always tells her students
to use their own judgment on snow
days, and not to risk life and limb to
attend class.
“It is a hard call,” James said.
m
PHOTO BY PRESTON GANNAWAY
The unexpected snowstorm brought construction on campus to a halt.
Her colleague in the literature depart
ment, Peggy Parris, agreed. “We are
never going to have a perfect solution,
Parris said. Since some people live within
walking distance, some live on campus,
and others, like herself, live on the sides
of mountains, the university’s snow
policy will not be able to accommodate
everyone’s needs, she said.
“It seems to be a lose-lose situa
tion,” said Nancy Williams, assis
tant director of housing.
“I wish there were a way to gauge
what the majority of the faculty were
going to do, because I ache to see
students work hard to get here and
then their teachers aren’t here,”
Williams said.
Power outage
leaves Village
In complete
darkness
By Catharine Sutherland
Contributing Writer
Residents of the Governor’s Village resi
dence hals may have experienced the dark
est hours on campus during the power
outage last Tuesday night, which left the
eight residence buildings without hall or
exit lights due to the lack of an auxiliary
generator.
The power loss occurred during a surprise
snow storm that knocked out power in
over 50,000 homes in Western North Caro
lina.
“There are no fire exit lights when the
power goes out here, and it is pitch black,”
said Craig Hall resident Amy Douglas, a
sophomore psychology major.
“It was pretty scary. 1 am on the third
floor, and if something had happened I
could have fallen trying to get down the
steps,” Douglas said.
Residents all over campus lost power at
approximately 6 p.m. and did not regain
electricity until 8:20 a.m. the next morn
ing.
Those living in the Founder’s, Mills, and
South Ridge residence halls were able to
gather in lit hallways thanks to the build
ings’ auxiliary generators.
“We all brought games and congregated
in the hall. It was like a major hall social,”
said South Ridge resident Chris Martin, a
sophomore psychology major.
“I would hate to live in the Village. I feel
so fortunate. I feel kind of spoiled,” Martin
said.
“There is an auxiliary generator in South
Ridge, our newest residence hall,” but the
Governor’s Village, the oldest residence
hall area on campus, has never had a gen
erator, said Chancellor Patsy Reed.
“The safety of our students is very, very
important to us. I do not know if that
means we should have an auxiliary genera
tor, or more discussions at the RA (resident
assistant) level [about how to handle emer
gency situations in the Governor’s Vil
lage], or consider alternatives to an auxil
iary generator,” Reed said.
Students living in the Governor’s Village
felt more strongly about the generator.
“It should definitely be a priority. It should
be pasled, it should have already been
See VILLAGE on page 8
Adjunct positions cut
By Greg Sessoms
staff Writer
A budget crunch caused by the state
legislature’s delayed 1997 budget report
forced university officials to cut 15 class
sections due to a lack of funds available to
pay adjunct professors.
According to Thomas Cochran, associate
vice chancellor of academic affairs, the
adjunctbudgetwas reduced from $290,000
to $260,000.
Originally, the administration had
planned to cut the adjunct budget to
$230,000.
“We pulled it down as tightly as we though
we could get away with,” said Cochran.
According to Cochran, most academic
departments were forced to enlarge class
size or cut class sections. “There are not
many departments that did not have to do
something,” said Cochran.
The music, humanities, and foreign lan
guage departments were among those hard
est hit by the cuts due to their heavy reli
ance on adjunct professors.
“Essentially, we just could not serve any
body new, ” said Charles Knight, chairman
of tbe music department.
Students majoring in music or continu
ing studies from previous semesters were
given priority over other students when it
was decided who could enroll in a course
and who could not.
In addition to limiting the availability of
classes, some music classes were overloaded
from a prior limit of 12 to 15 students to as
high as 24 students, said Knight.
The humanities department had to cut
several class sections and the class size limit
was raised from 22 to 23 due to the cuts,
according to Margaret Downes, director of
the humanities program.
Downes said that there were some stu
dents who were not able to enroll in a
humanities class, and that others were forced
to change their schedules when the sections
that they had enrolled in were dropped.
“It made a significant alteration in my
schedule and plans for the semester,” said
freshman philosophy major Mike Sears.
The foreign language department had to
cut three sections of classes and move Rill-
time professors into classes previously taught
by adjuncts.
“It was painful,” said John McDonald,
chairman of the foreign language depart
ment.
However, some departments were only
forced to make minimal changes to course
offerings. The health and fitness depart
ment only canceled one class due to the
adj unct cuts according to Keith Ray, chair
man of the health and fitness department.
According to Cochran, the adjunct cuts
did not result in an dramatic increase in
class sizes. “We may have tried to push
some classes up by two to five students,”
said Cochran. “In most cases, the decision
to allow an increase in a class size was left up
to the instructor.”
Cochran said that courses taught by ad
juncts with low enrollment numbers were
the first to be cut.
In cases where there was low enrollment
in a course taught by a regular faculty
member, that course would be cut and the
full time professor would be used to replace
an adjunct.
According to Downes, some of the money
needed to pay adjunct professors this se
mester was taken from a fund provided by
the National Endowment for the Humani
ties for faculty development.
“I try to do whatever I can to keep ad
juncts employed. What we pay them is bad
enough,” said Downes.
Adjuncts are paid about $1,700 for each
three-credit-hour course they teach.
“I do not think anybody disputes that we
are not paying our adjunct faculty a suffi
cient wage,” said Cochran.
See ADJUNCTS on page 8
Road closed
PHOTO BY NATE CONROY
The service entrance to UNCA was closed on Jan.27 due to
the snow. It was reopened to traffic early on Jan.28.