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The Ufiiversity of North Carolina at AsheviQe
www.unca.edu/banner
Volume 27 Issue 8
March 12, 1998
Domi phones will gel voice mail over break
By Nicole Miller
staff Writer
A voice mail system identical to the one
Iready used by UNCA staff and faculty
ill be in place on all residence hall phones
hen students return from spring break.
Vlike Small, director of the UNCA book-
lore and head of campus telecommunica-
ons, said that original plans called for
orm telephones to be connected to the
oice mail system in February, but prob-
:ms were encountered when trying to meet
le original goal.
“We had hoped to start sooner,” said
mall. “However, BellSouth had to add
lore phone lines to the voice mailbox, and
me other logistics problems slowed us
)wn.”
mall said that the voice mail will not cost
ic students any extra money over what
ley already pay for phone service,
yministrators had originally planned to
large an additional fee to students who
lose to use the voice mail system, but
edded instead to include the price of the
rvice in the overall on-campus phone
rvice.
The more we got into it, the more we
lought i t was better to offer it as part of the
hone contract,” Small said. “There is no
Itch. It is really free voice mail.”
According to Small, most other schools
th voice mail do not offer it to resident
udents for free.
The purchase of the main voice mail
stem cost UNCA about $95,000, which
mall said “was an excellent price.” That
utial expenditure got voice mail to all
impus offices.
The university spent an additional
31,000 to add residence hall phones to
voice mail system,
art of this amount, he said, is the cost for
24 additional phone lines that BellSouth
ad to add for the voice mail system.
Small said that UNCA purchased and
maintain the voice mail system with
toney that accumulates from a commis
sion the school recieves each month on
long-distance calls made from the resi
dence halls using the AT&T College and
University Systems (ACUS) long distance
plan.
Small said that the university will spend
about $1000 per month on voice mail
service for now, and that may increase as
they add more voice mailboxes.
According to Small, there have been some
misconceptions about the allocation of
money from the ACUS commission. He
said that some people thought the univer
sity could use the money for more educa
tion-related purposes, such as equipment
purchases.
“They don’t understand that it was a
commission off a phone-generated rev
enue and therefore had to be spent in the
phone arena. It could not have just been
spent on anything,” Small said.
Small also said that Chancellor Patsy Reed
felt that since the money essentially came
from students, the students should receive
a direct benefit from it.
“The chancellor saw this as a way to give
value added to the whole campus,” said
Small.
In addition to offices and residence halls,
the university has plans to add all com
muter students to the voice mail system by
the beginning of next semester. Small said.
Voice mail will also be free to commuters,
even though they do not contribute to the
commission received from ACUS.
Small said he does not know exactly how
much it will cost to add commuter students
to the voice mail service.
“The resident students are paying for the
ability of the commuters and the staff and
offices to be on voice mail to make the
system more effective,” said Small.
He stressed that having more people us
ing the system increases its effectiveness.
“For example, if a professor wanted to
send the same voice mail message to an
entire class, it would be helpful for the
entire class to be on voice mail, rather than
having a few that the professor must con
tact through other means,” Small said.
“I think they should have done it a long
PHOTO BY TRAVIS BARKER
Secretary of the Computer Center Freda Cooper (pictured above) has used the UNCA voice mail system since
October, when school offices were connected to the system. UNCA dorms will get voice mail next week.
time ago to save people from having to buy
answering machines if they didn’t already
have one,” said Freshman biology major
Annika Smith. “I think it’s a good idea. I
am glad they’re not diarging.
“If the money is out of the residence
students’ hands and in the university’s, it
no longer really matters that the school is
‘sharing’ it with offices and commuters,”
Smith said.
According to Small, each resident student
will receive a pamphlet about the voice
mail system when returning to school from
spring break. Small also said that students
who do not want voice mail do have the
option of having their mailboxes removed,
or they can simply use their answering
machines instead.
The voice mail will not work if the stu
dent has an answering machine hooked up
to the telephone line. Those residents who
do choose to use the system must follow the
prompts in the voice mail system to set up
their own personalized mailbox.
Residents must also choose a unique pass
word with a minimum of six digits.
Small urges students not to make their
passwords too complicated because, if a
student forgets a password, no one can
retrieve it. The switchboard would instead
have to cancel and then- reinitialize the
mailbox. Resident Assistants have received
training on the voice mail system, and
students may direct questions to them, the
switchboard in Phillips Hall, or to Small.
“The overall plan is that the Resident
Assistants will be able to answer some rou
tine questions that a regular person could
not answer,” said Small.
UNCA rated as safest
college campus in state
By Gene Zaleski
staff Writer
A nationwide study on the safety
f college campuses has ranked
WCAas the safest college in North
arolina.
The study used data from 383
)llege campuses nationwide.
“I think this is the highest nation-
ide ranking UNCA has ever
ached,” said Director of Public
afety Dennis Gregory. We have
proved quite a bit, but we have a
wg way to go.”
UNCA ranked 66th among all
hools nationwide.
The study, titled Dangerous Col-
. based its rankings primarily
n data from the U.S. Department
fjustice’s annual report Crime in
'f United States.
Universities are required to report
ard-crime rates such as murder,
'pe, robbery, burglary, and motor
ctiicle theft, to federal law enforce-
lent agencies. The rankings also
'ctor in crimes which schools are
ot forced to report, such as larceny
fid petty theft.
When a crime occurs we report it
^ the Uniform Crime Reporting
'liich in turn goes to the FBI so
'ey know nationwide what the
fnds of crime are,” said Gregory.
also have to contribute to the
ederal Campus Security Act,
'hich requires schools to offer stu-
^nts, employees, and applicants
SAFETY RANKINGS OF NORTH
CAROLINA UNIVERSITIES
National Ranking in parentheses
1. UNC Asheville (66)
2. Appalachian St. (128)
3. UNC Wilmington (165)
4. East Carolina U. (169)
5. Western Carolina (185)
6. UNC Chapel Hill (192)
7. UNC Greensboro (237)
8. NC State Univ. (243)
9. UNC Charlotte (244)
10. Mars Hill Coll. (277)
11. Queens College (285)
12. Fayetteville St. (291)
13. Winston-Salem State
University (295)
14. Pembroke St. (321)
15. NC Central U. (335)
16. NCA&T U. (341)
17. Davidson Coll. (344)
18. Pfeiffer Coll. (346)
19. Duke University (352)
20. Wake Forest U. (357)
21. Elizabeth City St (380)
SOURCE: DANGEROUS COLLEGES STUDY
statistical summaries of the crimes
reported on their campus.”
According to Gregory, UNCAs
high safety ranking is due in part to
the administration placing great
attention on the welfare of the stu
dents.
“I think security is a real impor
tant issue for the administrators,
faculty, staff, and students, said
Gregory. “The university promotes
security programs that make you
aware of what is going on around
you and how to protect your prop
erty.”
GRAPHIC BY CHRIS BROOKER
Junior biology major Cynthia
Grimsley cited a sense of commu
nity at UNCA as the primary rea
son for the low crime rate on cam
pus.
“I think the major reason for lack
of crime is because UNCA is such a
small, close knit campus,” said
Grimsley. “A lot of people know
each other and that kind of helps.”
Gregory said that the biggest crime
problem on the UNCA campus is
petty larceny, and the frequency of
See RANKING on page 8
New multimedia major
awaits state funding
By Amelia Morrison
staff Writer
A new multimedia arts and sci
ences major designed to prepare
students for jobs in the field of
computer-based communication
may be instituted at UNCA as early
as next semester.
The UNCA administration is cur
rently waiting for final approval
and funding from the N.C, Gen
eral Assembly.
“We are awaiting final approval.
Everything has been submitted,”
said Tom Cochran, associate vice
chancellor for academic affairs.
“The computer technologies and
communication technologies have
merged in ways that were entirely
unexpected and not predicted five
years ago,” said Mark West, associ
ate professor of mass communica
tion and director of the multimedia
arts and sciences minor.
“It’s a gigantic market,” said
Emmye Taft, a sophomore com
puter science and environmental
science major. “There is an empha
sis on what is more visually appeal
ing.”
Archer Gravely, director of insti
tutional research, said that the new
major will be die first bachelor’s
degree program in the nation to be
completely multimedia.
The new major will combine mass
communication, computer science,
art, music, and drama in order to
prepare students for careers which
require extensive knowledge and
skills in print and visual media,
such as Internet web-page design.
West said courses such as media
development, 3-D animation, con
tent and delivery, and program
ming for the Internet will be part of
the new program.
“Our intention is for it to be truly
interdisciplinary,” said West. “To
Director of Institu
tional Research
Archer Gravely
said that the new
major will be the
first bachelor’s
degree program in
the nation to be
completely multi-
media.
train people to work in the new
media, we need to take a different
approach than we have tradition-
allytaken in mass communication.”
The multimedia major will result
in a new multimedia academic de
partment.
The department will consist of
computer labs and equipment, a
new full time faculty person, and
secretarial support.
“This is an expensive, high end
computing project that will need a
lot of funds,” said (jravely.
“We asked for approximately
$250,000 in lab money,” said West.
“This major is going to be heavily
computer based.”
Gravely said that if the General
Assembly does not fully fund the
new program, UNCA will be un
able to get it off of the ground.
“We could not fund the program
out of existing internal money,”
said Gravely.
“Funding for this program will be
new funding,” said West. “I think
that is a major concern on campus
and legitimately so.”
UNCA faculty and administra
tion said that they are confident
that the new major will be approved
due to its unique and cutting edge
nature.
“I think the state is interested in
funding new and different things,”
said West.
“We are almost certain it will be
approved,” said Cochran. “We are
optimistic that it will sell through
unscathed.”
The program has already received
approximately $75,000 as a one
time grant for technological ad
vancement.
“The grant came unexpectedly,”
said Cochran. “We spent it on
equipment that would help launch
the multimedia arts and sciences
See MAJOR on page 8