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Page 2 The Banner March 18, 1999 Opinions 0rch 1 The Banner Editorial Invitation only Automatic As with any institution, UNCA has rules. These rules protect students, faculty and staff from situations that could harm them. Sometimes, these rules protect them from themselves. When the rules are broken, appropriate reprimand and/or punishment is expected. It is a simple and not uncommon way of doing things. In the case of Justin Donaldson, having a loaded handgun, in his dorm room was “a stupid mistake,” he admits. Because possession of a handgun on school property is considered a felony, the decision of what his punishment will be goes to the state and not the university. While the state decides what to do, Donaldson is allowed to stay in the dorms. “If the determination by university officials is that the student or students do not pose a harm to themselves or others, we usually await the decision of the public courts before deciding on university action,” Eric lovacchini, vice chancellor of student affairs, said. So the university waits on the state before it will do anything concerning Donaldson. That is where the problem exists. Students living on Donaldson’s floor have expressed concern about their safety. “I do not think he should be allowed to remain in university housing after having a loaded gun in his room,” said Clint Bergin, a former roommate of Donaldson. Donaldson said that if people get to know him, “they will see I am no threat or problem.” This may prove to be true, but students have made it clear that having Donaldson on their floor makes them uncomfortable and afraid. Who else is a better judge of their safety (or lack of it) than the students themselves? It is possible that the state will decide that Donaldson should leave the dorm. Until then, the best thing for residents who feel their safety is in jeopardy to do is to attend the meeting in South Ridge Residence Hall on March 18. We hope that some representative of the administration will be there to hear and carefully consider the students’ concerns. Perhaps some change or compromise will come out of this that will make everyone feel better. UNCA is always talking about how students come first. Now is the time for the administration to live up to their talk. Make it count If there is one avenue left for people to make their opinions, values, and ideas count, it has to be voting. Make your vote count, rock the vote, whatever slogan you prefer, the simple truth is that voting is the only way an individual can truly take part in a democracy. As of Thursday, the chance to vote in this year’s election for UNCA’s Student Government Association will be history. This means that if you did not vote (whatever your reasons may be), too bad for you. You just missed your chance to speak your mind and have it count for something for once in your school career. Chances are you won’t be losing any sleep over this tonight, though. Voter turnout at SGA elections have been poor for a long time, and it seems everyone and no one is to blame. Perhaps students are just apathetic about SGA. Maybe they just have too much to do, or maybe who is serving in SGA does not interest them. Whatever the reasons, voting is obviously not a top priority for most UNCA students. Trying to find ways to change this behavior takes a lot of time and effort. Contrary to some people’s beliefs. The Banner encourages voting, whether it be for SGA or anything that concerns stu dents. We put heavy emphasis of taking full advantage of the freedoms we have at this school and in this country. So, in an attempt to perhaps make voting more attractive to students, we have just one word for SGA; compensation. Why does every club and organization offer free pizza or some other gimmick at their meetings? Because most students have three priorities: food, beer, and money (not necessarily in that order). Give students one of these three things and they will do what you want, or at least be more open to hearing what you have to say. The pizza thing is a bit overdone, though. Maybe giving voting students soda or even money would increase voter turnout. Another plan of attack would be to follow the lead of newspa pers and magazines across the country and give money to the student who can most accurately pick who will win the election. We are not talking big “Wheel of Fortune” money. Just give the winner $5 and they’ll be happy. Nothing brings out the best in people like competition. If SGA wants to see more voters, they need to get creative and devise new strategies for drawing students in. Fliers on commut ers’ cars are a good try, but they are more likely to persuade students to throw them on the ground instead of encouraging them to research the SGA candidates. Unfortunately, students are not going to make voting for SGA representatives number one on their list of things to do. SGA must make it more worthwhile for the students. By the way, the ideas listed above are not meant to be taken seriously. We would hate to offend or provoke those who feel strongly about SGA and/or voting. , Thinking through humanities Liam Bryan columnist Well, the big discussion these days seems to be the humanities pro gram. What the heck, I shall put in my 3 cents (I have a lot of thoughts on the subject, so I have 3 cents instead of 2 cents). First thought: In the words of Ann Landers, “kwitcherbellyachin.” I do not know who started this trend of beating on the humanities system, but I can assure you that it was not by anyone who was breez ing through the course. This com plaint of not being “globally inclu sive” is something started by a kid who was not mature enough to do their work, so he or she decided to complain about it instead. Let us suppose that the subscrib- , ers to these thoughts have a genuine complaint. For a moment, let us say that they truly believe that the courses need to include more of the eastern cultures. This is a valid view point; I myself share it. But, in stead of complaining about it, I decided to go and study these cul tures on my own. If you naysayers out there truly are grumbling just about the fact that you want to study more cultures, get off your duffs and do it yourself Ofcourse, why wouldanyonecom- plain about something like this? Fley, it is something to complain about, which is reason enough for most. I sincerely doubt that, if the humanities program were to in clude more of these cultures, that these students that are now com plaining would end their berating. Do you think they would enjoy studying even more information? Having to do more work? The only reason these students complain about this exclusion of eastern cultures is because they are trying to overhaul the humanities program. Second thought: Many students are calling for an overhaul of the humanities program. Listen here, wimps. This is a 1-i-b-e-r-a-l a-r-t- s school. That means culture. That means that you are going to have to learn where ideas, morals, and inspirations come from. This is not some technical school that will teach you how to operate a deep fryer, this is an institution that teaches you how to be a human being. How many of you have read ideas of the truly great minds of the world? Confucius? Socrates? Descartes? Machiavelli? Now, how many of your friends at Western, A- B Tech, or Appalachian can say that they read and understood those thinkers? This is a school for inspi ration. You should be reading these works for an understanding of dif ferent cultures and ideas, not to do a book report. Sixteen hours ofhumanities. Is that so bad? It is just one semester’s worth. Would you rather end up taking six to nine hours each of history, literature, philosophy, an thropology, classics, and sociology? If you would rather take two years’ worth of these classes, be my guest. Third thought: I do not like hu manities. No, that is not entirely accurate. I do not like my humani ties class. There is a major danger (or flaw, depending on your view point) of our humanities program. Every department has a representa tive that teaches humanities. Even the mathematics department (scary thought). As a result, you get people who have their own agenda and their own pace. This leads to a large number of students who do not get the same coverage of important ar eas, and, in some cases, complete ignorance of some subjects. I enjoy the humanities lectures, not to catch up on sleep, but because I hear differing viewpoints. Humani ties is essentially a class on ethics, philosophy, and history. Those three things are probably the most debat able topics in human society. You cannot learn ethics from a single source. The lectures are the most impor tant part of humanities. The only way that I could see to improve them is to change them to more of a debate forum; we could have two speakers debating a topic. Impracti cal and costly, yes. But, think of the intellectual results of this. Like it or not, our humanities program is still somewhat one-sided. This forum style of lecturing would introduce viewpoints that could not be found in a single lecturer. Do I personally think that stu dents should take a semester’s worth of courses to find out where their culturecamefrom? Sadly,yes. Have any of you out there ever tried to learn something in public schools! It is downright near impossible. As anyone who has had to spend a year or longer in public schools can attest to, public education does more harm than good. Here are some genuine examples, takci straight from my physics, chemis try, and history classes from higli school: “Penguins at the south pole! I thought it got warmer the farther you went south.” “You mean the sun doesn’t go cut at night?” “Socrates? Oh, yeah, he was in ^hat movie, um. Bill and Ted! That movie was cool! It had Keanu Reeves in it!” Behold the enlightenej masses. Well, advocates of anti-humani ties, would you prefer this existence ofignorance? Granted, mostofthe students in my humanities class art already at this state, but that is no reason for you to be there. You cannot get around the ha- manities program at UNCA. Thr' program is a part of this school When some of you finally graduate and become semi-productive mem bers of society, you will need to know why people react the way that they do. You will need to know how to read through the lines of literature. You will need to be cul tured in order to fit into a culture Now, for sake of humanity (nyul nyuk), go and finish the readinj St Gk As (Sigh of fn I have triec re out wha eek’s SGA hnner. In tl Everal colles ised this sp be non-inv litical how 'olved and r he differen ot making SGA stands rnment As Fighting against a chip mill threat Genera eview )ear Editoi While the Dntentoftf udents we eneral edt jecifically, light lead umanities llThumbs I you have been assigned. Maybe yoi [brave enoug ley feel, re ons; this i hile debar udent pop )r itself a r( lizing the lanities in ave a glimp tration an ;verely lim will finally find out why this worlJ works the way it does. Candice i| Carr columnist On Tuseday, we have a chance to make a positive difference for our whole region. The 19 high-capac- ity chip mills constructed in West ern North Carolina over the past decade pose the number one threat to our forests and communities. Chip mills are highly mechanized, unregulated facilities that grind whole logs into quarter-sized chips for paper, particleboard and other products. The average chipmill in North Carolina chips 10,000 acres of forest every year and employs four people per eight-hour shift. Since 1985, over 100 chipmillshave been constructed in the Southeast as the timber industry has shifted from the over-cut forests of the Pacific Northwest. Local family- owned sawmills lose raw materials and labor, and the many-faceted life of forest ecosystems suffers tre mendously from the acceleration of industrial-scale clearcutting. When they clearcut for chipmills, they take anything and everything chippable, leaving barren, ripped up and road-scarred dirt to dry in the sun. An estimated 1.2 million acres of forests are cut every year to feed the 150 chipmills currently operating in the Southeast, and that’s just the chipmills. When you add in the pulp mills and the oriented strand board plants use, it amounts to a staggering 5 million acres a year. That is outrageously unsustainable. This region is the largest pulp producer in the world, with 106 pulp mills producing about 25 percent of the world’s paper and paperboard. Should this be the fate of the forests of South ern Appalachia? Because these mountains were not frozen in the last ice age, it boasts the world’s most biodiverse temperate forest. Have you seen the clearcuts in Pisgah? Around Shining Rock? Western North Carolina is home to more species of salamanders than any other place in the world. They don’t do well in clearcuts. Last year, the stink raised by sawmillers and environmentalists reached the nose of Governor Jim Hunt, who ordered along-awaited and unprecedented “assessment of the environmental and economic impacts of chipmills.” Hundreds of concerned people packed meet ing halls across the state to voice their concerns, with high hopes for a study with results that would protect our state’s natural heri tage. Now, fervor has dwindled and the study is becoming a pathetic excuse for research in order to pro tect the interests of the industry because they fund the university con ducting most of the study, the N.C. State University School of Forestry (NCSU SoF). The research was sup posed to be divided evenly between Duke and N.C. State, but only two of the 10 scientists are from Duke, while N.C. State holds the other eight positions. The study lacks evaluations of the impact of clearcuts on forests, water quality, plant diversity or aquatic species. “The wildlife impact analy sis relies exclusively on computer modeling at the expense of site-spe cific field research!” said Danna Smith, the executive director of the Dogwood Alliance, a network of more than 50 grassroots organiza tions defending our watersheds, wildlife habitats, and quality of life. There is already documented evi dence of the significant cumulative impacts of clearcutting to feed chipmills in the Tennessee Valley in the Tennessee Valley Authority En vironmental Impact Statement, but this is not being emphasized. “Dr. Fred Cubbage, lead re searcher for the study and dept, head for the NCSU SoF, is a vocal advo cate of increased intensive forest management ofboth pines and hard woods, leading many to wonder if questions relating to the potential negative impacts of intensive forest management will be dealt with ob jectively,” said Smith. Cubbage’s crew is conducting rnost of the eco logical impact studies as well as eco nomic studies! If he publishes a re port that suggests there should be less wood-chipping in the south east, his department would most likely suffer economically, and his superiors would be dismayed. The industry has its claws around the institutions, but it doesn’t have to be that way! With enough publit support, we can change things. Of the 11 sub-parts of the studyl) only ONE will use actual field re search as a source for data! (A Duke] soils expert, Dan Richter) The oth ers are using outdated information from past research texts and re- crunchingindustry-approved num bers. George Hess, the wildlife bi ologist, readily admits that $15,000, “Using existing data am models, we can make general start ments about the ability of the state forests to support particular wild life species or guilds.” General state ments don’t do a whole lot fe migratory songbirds looking fa their tree in a clearcut that was forest last spring. This is our only chance for regu lations that matter. If this stud; the direction it ents on thi )avid Mar; enior, histi ivisiol eeds \ ear Editoi continues in headed, and the industry is ableti Jiepjy entre conceal the the greater parts oftk damage that chipmills have cause" and could cause to southeastetf| forest ecosystems, we could wit ness the explosion of these fores' eating facilities on our state, and will be too late too do anythir about it. Just look at what the i® dustry has done to the forest! economies, wildlife and water qual ity of Maine, Oregon, and Wasl .ington. It’s up to us to change tb thing. It may be our last chance. 1> certainly our future. “The public doesn’t care abouj or the pas ith the que e universi from the p order to fun^ ifs program th sides o ust say th; [, at the vet t, more i Motional, n saying th f ige that al >me secon ■ve to be ti hat I wot NCAadm ue which ndiculouslyi ■'ot asking f submission ( of how mui ^d whethe number is I and I Ste required l ■n order to status. l-et’s get tl this!” said a member of the N-(^|l%ical decis chip study advisory commit® seeing who when asked if meetings could k^and then m recorded. Let’s prove that g^pssuebehind wrong on Tuesday by attenditr tipn to more the public forum for the study at^ as the anator p.m. at MacDowell East Junif school masc High, 700 State St., Marion, {o'-. #86 from Interstate 40, directio»iNate Peaty on the ASHE bulletin in the En'f Senior, Che ronmental Science connecting hall
University of North Carolina at Asheville Student Newspaper
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March 18, 1999, edition 1
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