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Page 2 The Banner February 18,1999 Opinions The Banner - Editorial Funky beats The lucky contestants The countdown has begun. The list has been narrowed down to 12 candidates, and who the chosen one will be to lead UNCA into the new millenium is anybody’s guess right now. We wait with baited breath to see who will be picked as numero uno, the big enchilada, the new chancellor. Whoever the new chancellor may turn out to be, they will not have the luxury of starting their administration with nothing to hold them back. The new chancellor must know that they are going to have to pick up where Chancellor Patsy Reed has left off, but it is doubtful that they understand just how much they stand to inherit. First, there is the fundraising campaign that Reed initiated in a little over a year ago. This campaign was originally set to raise $13 million for the university. A study by a New York-based consulting firm, however, concluded that $13 million was too high an amount for a university of UNCA’s size. The study suggested $8 million as a more feasible amount for UNCA’s first major fundraising campaign (“Firm suggests smaller fund campaign,” Jan. 29, 1998). Only eight months after deciding to go ahead with the fundraising campaign, putting the goal at $ 10 million, Reed announced her plan to retire at the end of tbfe spring 1999 semester. This unexpected turn of events left many wondering what would happen to the fledgling fundraising campaign. Next, the university is getting ready to increase its student body, as evidenced by the construction of the new West Ridge Residence Hall. This expansion demands that someone who really knows UNCA be at the helm to guide it through what ever obstacles may lie ahead. Yet the person for that job has decided to leave UNCA at this crucial point. A new chancellor may be able to breathe new life into pro grams that have already been implemented at UNCA. The search for a new chancellor, though, will eventually only stall those programs. We can only hope this new chancellor has experience in making sense out of chaos. Illogical Even though UNCA is consistently rated among the safest schools in the state, it now seems students have another reason to fear the athletics department, besides the price tag it carries. Maybe UNCA doesn’t have a set standard or rule book to help it proceed with actions against Nick Perkins, but it shouldn’t need them either. When someone confesses to a crime, espe cially one that involves the exploitation of a minor, there should be no second-guessing or needless deliberation over the next course of action. Last semester, students defecating on book bags and making crass jokes was enough to warrant the attention of both the administration and students. Though it’s hard to quantify or measure crimes side by side, sodomy is indeed an offense that no UNCA student should have in ink on their records. Allowing crimes such as Perkins’ to go without proper and swift punishment sets a dangerous precedent for the university in the future. We applaud head men’s basketball coach Eddie Biedenbach for benching Perkins when questions arose about his innocence. It was the best thing to do for Perkins and the school until the controversy and his trial were over. Now we hope the administration have the same fortitude and judgment to no longer keep such a student as an ambassador of this university. All students are representatives of UNCA wherever they go, whether they be the president of an on- campus organization or just an average Joe. Perkins may not be a danger to UNCA in the future, but allowing students guilty of serious crimes to keep attending alongside the innocent is. Can it In the UNCA recycling program, we see another case of good intentions, progress, and a slew of the same problems. UNCA recycled 73 tons of junk in the last two years, and how much more could have been recycled if only people weren’t so slack? Don’t we live in a day and age where there is a general awareness regarding the importance of recycling.’ It is nice to see that the recycling program at UNCA is pro gressing. However, all the necessary efforts are not being made by both the staff and the students. It defeats the purpose to initiate recycling efforts if the univer sity does not purchase products for campus consumption that cannot be recycled within the system. Also, students who throw recyclable materials in the trash instead of into a nearby recy cling bin exemplify apathy at its worst (or maybe at its greatest potential). Even if you are the type who refuses to join in and be active in the campus community, recycling is at the most basic level of understanding. Perhaps it shoul4 become a general requirement at UNCA in order for everyone to get the hint. Expressing creativity essential Liam Bryan columnist A day or two ago, I was speaking to a friend of mine. We were dis cussing the various problems we had with our Inhumanties classes, when we saw the university walk by. I am not speaking of anything like Lipinsky hefting up its skirts and wandering off I am speaking of the very embodiment of this campus. UNC-Asheville is an artistic school. How many of you love the fine arts? How many of you are per formers? Well, my friend and I saw someone who was both the pin nacle of performers and the sim plest of people. For those of you who spend all your time in the basement of Robinson, allow me to enlighten you as to what happens on the quad. For about a week now, Mr. Sing has been wandering the quad. I really do not know who Mr. Sing is. This name that 1 have given him is not his real name. 1 have not even bothered to ask him what his name is. To understand who this man is, all you have to do is watch. As most of you know, Mr. Sing has been wandering the campus for the last week or so. He shuffles about, climbing trees once in a while and occasionally doing a cart wheel. But what anyone remem bers of him is the singing. It is not quite discernable, at least not to my ears, but it is distinctive. Imag ine Arabian chant, African tribal, and Native American ritual sing ing all rolled into one. Before you go off calling public safety about some crazy singer climbing trees, know that this man completely embodies our univer sity. Where else but here could someone express his or her creativ ity so boldly? Like it or not, this school is full of performers - Actors, artists, sing ers, musicians. Pick out a person on campus, and I’ll giveyou two to one odds that they express them selves artistically. So, what will become of Mr. Sing? Will public safety write him a ticket? Or will they be so bold as to call the police? If they take any kind of action against him for what he does now, know now that I shall stand with him. Now, far be it from me to criticize any administrative group, but this man is more impor tant than that. This man is our uni versity. If we had to wear school uniforms from now on, would you embrace them? If all of our sched ules now had to fit from eight to noon, would you allow it? If our lives and our creativity were restricted to what we were told to do, would you even consider attending this school? Please do not think of me as a liberal from this view. I am a conser vative, and likely to remain so. But more important than my political standing is the welfare of people, and no one benefits from confor mity. Expression is more than a privi lege, more than a right, it is a di- vinely-inspired necessity that no hu man can live without. Mr. Sing is pure expression. Have you seen Mr. Sing? Have you talked withhim, maybe watched him dance or sing for a while? Now that you have heard my little spiel, go out and watch him. Just think about what he represents to you, and the campus in general. Do not be surprised ifyou find yourself sing ing or dancing with him. Now, I cannot fully endorse Mr. Sing. While he may be expressive and artistic, I do not find him enter taining at all. His voice carries quite far, which can be annoying, to say the least. I was once exiting the theater when I heard his vocaliza tions, and thought that the weedwacker had finally gotten its revenge on its user . It turned out not to be that case, instead Mr. Sing, dressed in his khaki pants and sport ing dreadlocks, was just singing to a tree on the other side of the library. Not to mention the fact that I cannot understand a word he is singing about. For all I know he could be rhythmically reciting his grocery list. While it may sound really keen, it is still fairly senseless, I must admit that I do not even know if he is a student here or not, While he does wander in and out of the buildings occasionally, I have never seen him enter a building for the length of time it takes to have a class. What is he doing on campus, anyway? Now I have completely confused you, I have gone from endorsing this man to everyone and his uncle to railing him as untalented. Know now that I have not once contra dicted myself I support his expres sion, I cheer him for it, but I do not care for it, A person can respect a 1 r religious figure for being devout, even if the people are not of the same faith. The same holds true here. I respect him for being an artist, I cheer him for his expres sion, but he sounds like a long tailed cat trapped in a room full of rocking chairs to me. So, I herald this man and his brav ery. He embodies our campus, and he has a vibrance for life not easily found. When is the last time you ex pressed yourself, reader? When is the last time you felt an inspiration so strong that you had to sing, right then and right there? Go watch Mr, Sing for a time, maybe you will also be inspired, as have some. Go express yourself somewhere, let it all out. But, please, if you do sing, make sure that you have some thing more interesting than gro cery list to sing about. The ad campaign for individuality Teresa Calloway columnist As far as I can tell, the only phe nomenon that can supress the nag ging suspicion that human life is totally insignificant is collective identity, usually but not always in volving a higher power. In other words, to gain an en hanced sense of importance, most people will have to compromise individuality to a degree. For the most part, what we are surrenduring is potential to deviate, and this goes largely unnoticed; because the quan- tity and quality of what we relenquish will never be something we face. Our behavior is shaped by what collective identity, or society, has deemed acceptable. For example, most of us don’t feel we re being deprived of the “freedom” to mo lest children. In a moral vacuum, who knows? Of course, more than one collec tive identity is made available to us. There are collective religious, cul tural, economic, and political iden tities, to name a few. I am a registered Democrat, but I don’t support all Democratic pro grams or bills. I have given up a part of my individuality in the interest of maintaining political power. Different groups, then, compete for allegiance, compete for the pieces of individuals that those individu als were willing to give up. As a reasonable person, I want to give away the least valuable parts of my individuality to get the most po litical representation I can. Thus, I am willing to give up my freedom to molest in exchange for protec tion of reproductive rights. I have exchanged a less valuable “free dom” for protection of a more valuable one. In looking for a collective iden tity, I scour for legitimacy. For me, tradition is a very important source of legiti macy. For example, imagine reli gions A and B. Religion A is a better “fit” for me, that is, I will have to sacrifice less of my individuality in exchange for religious identity. Affiliation with religion B will require me to sacri fice more individuality, but its rites and rituals are hundreds of years old. I wouldbewillingto exchange larger quantities of individuality for the legitimacy ofestablishment. The only method I can see for altering this situation is to create a different criteria for “legitimacy.” If I considered harmony with pre existing beliefs a source of legiti macy, then clearly the outcome would change. However, these “pre-existing be liefs” which serve as my new criterium for legitimacy are llargely the result of lifelong contact with other forms of collective identity, so how valid are they as expressions of individuality? Based on this theory of relenquishing individuality, or po tential individuality, in exchange for collective identity, the relationship between society and the individual 1C wlrK f«=*nclnn It is only fair to stop here and note that I have been disagreed with on this point. I have spoken with people, whose criteria for religious/political legitimacy are different than my own, who testify that they have suffered no loss in individuality in exchange for said legitimacy. An easy solution would be to say that all the individuality they gave up was potential individuality (pref erences that would have been dis covered at The relationship be tween individual and collective identities is characterized by tension. some point in the fu ture), and so they didn’t no tice it waving goodbye. However, I have to say that this is not the case. These are some of the most individual people I know, I leave that for another time, I return to my hypothesis: the rela tionship between individual and collective identities is characterized by tension. The collective seeks ex istence in the form of membership, and furthers its interests by convinc ing the individual to sacrifice as much as possible, while the individual seeks existence through non-conformism. Think of individuality as a cur rency, and collective power as a prod uct: consumers of legitimacy, be it religious, cultural, or political, seek the best deal in exchanging their hard-earned individuality for power. while those who produce political, cultural and religious power want to get as much individuality for their service as possible. What do they do? What does Nike (TM) do? They advertise! Why are most of us convinced that brand name products are bet ter tasting, fitting, smelling, look ing, and feeling than generic? Because they have spent money to malfp IIS hplipvp in rheir nmrliirrs. i.e., to gain legitimacy. Institutions which produce collective identity will also use every means available to them to alter our individual cri teria for legitimacy. If you were to pick shoes in a vaccuum, you would look for the ones that best fit your feet. If you were to pick collective identities in a vaccuum, you would pick the ones that best fit your individuality. Nike, however, has most of us convinced a swoop (I guess that needs a trademark now, too) is a rational criteria for the conferral of status, and the Republican party has us convinced that economic Darwinism is a good criteria. In short, through the process of socialization (a.k.a. advertising) col lective institutions are able to con trol the means by which individuals determine the criteria by which col lective identities are chosen. Cor porations command the resources to change minds, and I for one have no proof that it is used with wisdom and kindness. The conclusion to which this leads us is this: there is no such thing as an individual in the original sense of the word. Wherever there is soci ety (two or more), there will soon be a power gradient which will cause some to relenquish individuality in exchange for power. As soon as sufficient resources are available, these resources will be employed to alter the criteria by which the pow erful are judged, and this will occur at the expense of individuality. Yours. Mine. Never mind.
University of North Carolina at Asheville Student Newspaper
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