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Volume 30 Issue 2
September 9, 1999
New policy cracks down
By Amanda Osteen
staff Writer
PHOTO BY JASON GRAHAM
Sergeant Randy Martin, a UNCA public safety officer, oversees students as they
board a shuttle to the Theta Chi fraternity party.
approach to handle it, (due to) all ruin anyone’s good time,
the negative press coverage about “We understand that a lot of
students dying and getting sick people are away from home for
because they’ve been drinking t ' "
much,” said Adams.
“Anybody that we come into con
tact with who is underage or who
is violating a campus regulation is
either going to get cited for it or
sent to student conduct for it.,”
said Adams. “This is really the first
time we’ve really had a zero-toler
ance approach.”
There are reasons behind the zero-
tolerance policy, according to
Adams.
“It is a safety issue. It is to not
only protect the people we cite,
but to protect other people as
well,” said Adams. “When some
one is drunk to the point when
they want to cause a problem
with somebody, then they are
not only a danger to themselves,
but to the people they are
around.”
Students aren’t as educated as
they could be about drinking,
according to Amy Carpenter, the
residence life coordinator for
Mills Hall.
“It’s about not knowing how to
drink responsibly if you are go
ing to drink at all,” said Carpen-
Students.are going to have a
harder time getting away with
underage drinking this year due
to stronger efforts by the campus
police to curb consumption, ac
cording to a UNCA public safety
investigator.
“We’ve corne up with a zero-
tolerance policy concerning alco
hol violations,” said Jerry Adams,
an investigator with public safety.
Not all students are happy about
the stricter policies, according to
some students.
“The campus police have been
cracking down to the point of
harrassment,”saidCelso
Fernendez, a senior history ma
jor and resident of Mills Hall.
Fernendez, who is in his sec
ond semester of living in Mills,
said things have changed in the
dorms recently.
“You saw the campus police
around only when there was
trouble,” said Fernendez. “Now
it’s different.”
“There’s a lot of reasons why
this year we’ve had to step up
enforcement, especially with al
cohol,” said Adams. “A lot of
college campuses are having
problems with binge drinking,
and it’s a big safety issue now.”
The rise in binge-related inci
dents has prompted the campus
police to take underage drink
ing more seriously.
“The university and our depart
ment have wanted to try a new
“It’s not so much that they are
curbing drinking, they are just
making people be more secre
tive,” said Fernendez.
This should be a learning expe
rience for students, not just a
punishment, according to
Adams. Although the rules and
consequences may be more se
vere this year, he isn’t trying to
the first time, and they \
get a little wild and have some
fun,” said Adams.
There is a hostiliy toward pub
lic safety that was not there be
fore, according to Fernendez.
“Everyone just scatters because
they don’t want to be seen by the
caiirtpus police for any reason,”
said Fernendez. “It kills the spirit
of student life.”
Dealing with problems that
arise in the dorms has been the
concern of the housing office,
but campus police will try to
help deal with the ones concern
ing alcohol.
According to Fernendez, the
campus police are approaching
the underage drinking dilemma
in the wrong way.
“They are showing up outside
(the dorms) with breathalyzers,”
said Fernendez. “That’s no way
to go about it.”
Carpenter said she doesn’t be
lieve the new policies are in
fringing on students.
“I don’t think it really surprises
anybody that sometimes under
age drinking gets out of hand,
and that it’s a major health is-
• sue,” said Carpenter. “When stu
dents have a better appreciation
for their community and respect
: for each other, they have a much
more positive college experi
ence,” said Carpenter. “When
we find that alcohol has such a
negative effect on that, we want
to curb the negative thing and
build up the community.”
Theft increase expected
By Sarah Wilkins
staff Writer
UNCA’s crime rate is expected to
ise slightly this year, according to an
investigator with public safety.
There has been “a slow, but steady,
increase everyyear,” said Jerry Adams,
investigator with public safety.
“There was a big increase (last year),
because during that year we had a lot
of construction going on,” said
Adams.
This year’s crime rate “may increase
little bit,” said DennisGregory, di
rector of public safety.
However, public safety has changed
the way that they report some crimes,
which contributes to the increasing
rates of theft. For example, breaking
into a vehicle now counts as break
ing and entering.
“The way we are reporting it has
made the difference,” said Gre-
gory.
The number of thefts increased
from five in 1997 to 54 in 1998.
The construction occurring
around campus was the main rea
son behind the increase, according
to Adams.
The construction companies were
responsible for their own security
and the companies were being
slack, according to Adams.
“A lot of buildings were being
left open that shouldn’t have been,”
said Adams.
The companies “were not doing
what they were supposed to do, so
therefore, it resulted in a lot of
stuff being taken,” said Adams.
The number of cases solved is very
small, according to Adams.
“Basically, the only incident we
were able to recover money back
from” was a series of five thefts, said
Adams.
These thefts were connected to a
person that worked for one of the
construction companies. Carolina'
Fiber Optics paid over $6,000 in
damages. Their employee, Robert
Yeazel, had been stealing from both
the company and the students.
Computers and drills were among
the items stolen, according to
Adams.
There are many crimes that are
never reported, according to Matt
See THEFT page 9
Assaultant banned
By Greg Sessoms
staff Writer
A UNCA student was verbally
and physically assaulted in the Belk
Theatre parking lot on Aug. 23 at
10:50 a.m. in an incident that was
classified as a hate/bias crime by
public safety.
The victim, who asked to remain
anonymous, is a minority student.
The supposed assailant, Scott
Hamilton Phillips, an undeclared
sophomore, was charged with
simple assault and communicating
threats. His use of racial slurs re
sulted in the hate/bias crime classi
fication.
The incident began shortly afi:er
the victim and his friend, Emma
Katznelson, a student at Columbia
University in New York, parked
their car in the lot.
“All of a sudden, we heard some
one screaming. We could not hear
what they were saying, but they
were yelling very loudly. We turned
around and the man was grabbing
his crotch and screaming,” said
Katznelson.
Katznelson claims at that point
Phillips began to approach them
while continuing to yell obsceni-
“He just started saying things
like ‘F— you, you darkie. F—
you, you half-breed,’” said
Katznelson.
When Phillips reached the
couple, he reportedly physically
assaulted Katznelson’s friend.
“He stood in front of us and said
‘F— you.’ Then he took my
friend’s hat off his head and
slapped him across the face with
it, quite hard. As he did that, he
said ‘F— you half-breed.’ After
he hit him, he threw the hat back
at him and just started to walk
away,” said Katznelson.
The victim and Katznelson took
down Phillips’ license plate num
ber and reported the incident to
public safety. The incident was un
provoked, according to Katznelson.
“We were not even looking at
him. We were completely going
another direction, and all of a sud
den, he just started screaming. I
have absolutely no idea what led
him to do this,” said Katznelson.
Phillips declined to comment on
the incident.
According to public pafety’s case
statement included with the arrest
report, Phillips was contacted by
telephone the following day and
asked to report to the public safety
office so that two warrants, simple
assault and communicating threats,
could be served to him.
Phillips complied and was escorted
by Vicki Harris, the victim/^^itness
advocate officer with UNCA pub
lic safety, to the Buncombe County
Magistrate’s office where the war
rants were served.
Dennis Gregory, director of pub
lic safety, declined to comment on
behalf of the public safety depart-
An unsecured bond of $600 was
set, and Phillips was released and
taken back to campus. If Phillips is
convicted of the charges, he could
be sentenced up to 60 days in jail
for each offense and could be fined
an amount to be decided by the
judge.
In addition to the charges, Phillips
was suspended from classes and
banned from campus pending a
hearing before the Student Con
duct Board scheduled for Aug. 27.
Phillips withdrew from classes prior
to the hearing and was banned from
campus by the vice chancellor for
student affairs, Eric lovacchini.
“It was a simple decision” to ban
Phillips from campus, said
lovacchini.
“The allegations were serious
enough that I took them seriously
and acted accordingly,” said
lovacchini.
This was not the first time Phillips
had been charged with simple as
sault and communicating threats.
According to Phillips’ arrest record,
he was charged with injury to per
sonal property and simple assault
in 1995. He was also charged with
simple assault, injury to personal
property and communicating
threats earlier this year. All of these
charges were dismissed by the dis
trict attorney.
Despite having witnessed the as
sault, Katznelson does not believe it
is indicative of a significant prob
lem with race relations on campus.
“I believe this was an isolated inci
dent, a very unfortunate one. I do
not believe this all of a sudden
going to become rampant on cam
pus,” said Katznelson.
Katznelson said she also feels that
Public Safety performed well after
the incident occurred.
“1 think Vicki Harris is excellent.
As far as I could see, she really was
very supportive and really listened,”
said Katznelson. “Everything
seemed to be expedited very
quickly.”
Although Katznelson speculated
as to how a person with an extensive
arrest record could be permitted to
attend a university, she feels neither
the administration nor Public Safety
could have prevented the assault.
“I do not know if it is fair to say
that a person with a rap sheet should
not be allowed in a university. I do
not know if the school really has a
responsibility to look out for that
student necessarily, but I cannot
think of something else the school
could have done differently to pre
vent the incident,” said Katznelson.
Currently, applicants to UNCA
are asked on the application if they
have been convicted of any crimes.
Criminal background checks are
not conducted by UNCA on stu
dent applicants, although they are
conducted on faculty and staff ac
cording to lovacchini. An appli
cant with a record “may be re
viewed by the admission board,”
said lovacchini.
The information in this article
was verified by the victim.
Mullen stresses involvement
UNCA to become more active in the community
By Holly Beveridge
staff Writer
Chancellor James Mullen plans to
make community partnership and
involvement a central focus of his
administration.
“I think sometimes higher educa
tion gets separated from its com
munity. We start to think we’re a
community unto ourselves and that
we don’t have responsibilities to
the community,” said Mullen. “I
believe that’s completely wrong.”
Although he said he doesn’t think
students should be mandated to
serve, Mullen said he wants every
UNCA student to feel a responsi
bility toward the community.
Many colleges and universities
ignore their responsibility to their
communities, according to Mullen,
who believes American higher edu
cation has been guilty of some “ex
traordinary irresponsibilities.”
As part of this responsibility,
Mullen plans to create mentoring
programs for children in the com
munity, partnerships with local
schools and mentoring opportuni
ties for UNCA students with area
corporate and non-profit busi-
Mullen, who helped raise over
$200 million as director of Project
2002 (a revitalization program for
the community surrounding Hart
ford, Connecticut’s Trinity Col
lege), promised in a recent meeting
to “go to any foundation in the
country and seek support” on be
half of UNCA and its community.
“There’s very little v/e can do
alone,” said Mullen, “but if we’re
partnering in the community and
partnering with other academic in
stitutions, partnering with schools,
partnering across the board, there’s
nothing we can’t do.”
Eric lovacchini, vice chancellor
for student affairs, said he shares
Mullen’s view of UNCA’s role.
“As a public institution, we need
to have a relationship with the com
munity,” said lovacchini. He
pointed to UNCA’s cultural and
special events, the Center for Cre
ative Retirement and humanities
lectures as just a few elements that
help bring the outside community
onto campus.
“I think that’s a part of the
chancellor’s vision,” said lovacchini,
“making the campus available and
making us available outside the cam-
lavocchini cited limited resources,
both human and financial, as the
primary obstacle to greater com
munity involvement on campus.
Although UNCA offers students a
great education, other schools like
Wofford, Davidson or Washing
ton and Lee receive more endow
ments and larger gifts from alumni,
according to lavocchini.
Despite these limitations,
lovachinni thinks Mullen will meet
the challenge.
“I think this chancellor wants to
move us up,” said lavocchini. “He’s
going to charge us up a litde.”
Mullen spoke of the need for new
and more numerous internship pro
grams', allowing UNCA students
invaluable hands-on experience
while giving area companies access
to “North Carolina’s best young
talent.” According to Mullen, both
the business and non-profit com
munities expressed overwhelming
support for partnerships with
UNCA.
Mullen’s vision seems to be gain
ing support among students as well.
“He’s making a huge step to bring
UNCA closer to the community of
Asheville, and that’s going to be a
huge inlet for fundraising, I think,”
said SGA president Wiley Cash, a
senior creative writing major who
attended the corporate luncheon.
Cash, who met Mullen earlier this
year, said he initially felt excited,
but at the same time “a little skep
tical of such a huge promise that
(Mullen) was making.” Since then,
Cash said Mullen has “fulfilled
promises that he made initially to
Mullen has already contacted each
of the major student organizations
on campus, speaking to many of
the groups in person, according to
Cash..
Senior senator Holly Spencer, a
political science major, attended
three student organization meet
ings where Mullen spoke. At all of
the meetings, Mullen initially asked
students what he could do to help
them, said Spencer. Taking pride
in UNCA was another issue Mullen
See MULLEN page 9