iS Banner
Volume 30 Issue 5
September 30, 1999
Students revive Hispanic heritage at UNCA
By Sarah Wilkins
staff Writer
Next week’s Hispanic Heritage celebra-
planned for Oct. 3-7 caused some
indents to question the lack of Hispanic
)tganizations on campus.
“There needs to be a common thread that
ffings them together,” said Garland Moyer,
freshman political science and history
najor.
Some students said they believe that the
iniversity could do more than celebrate
the Hispanic life style for just a week.
“We’re getting help from other organiza
tions, but we need a lot more, because other
organizations that are predominately white
need to understand that the minority stu
dents are here, too,” said Rita Martin, a
senior psychology major and multicultural
student program intern.
This event is “the first time it’s ever been
done (at UNCA) in six years,” said Martin.
“A lot of people didn’t know that there
was such a thing as Hispanic Heritage
Month,” said Martin. “This was my
project.”
The Latin celebration will help Hispanics
bond together and share ideas, according
to Moyer.
The event is “a celebration of Hispanic
culture,” said Martin.
With only 48 Hispanic students enrolled
at UNCA this semester, an association
dedicated to Hispanics is unrealistic, ac
cording to Martin.
“Unless the Hispanic population grows,
that won’t happen, because there’s so few
Hispanics,” said Martin.
A Hispanic group would give the minor
ity students an opportunity to socialize
with other students of their race, accord
ing to Martin.
“A lot of minority people aren’t comfort
able around white people,” said Martin.
“Someone of a different race can feel very
odd and uncomfortable around a swarm of
Caucasians,” said Moyer.
“If they’ve been forced to be with white
people, they’ll accept it, but they want
more of their (own) kind,” said Martin.
“You want to be with somebody that re
sembles you, that you can have some simi
larity with.”
“This Hispanic community needs to act,
and they need to start forming together,”
said Moyer. “Once they get out and want
to be heard, they will be heard, and that’s
when things actually start happening.”
“You have to have a big amount of people
in order to form an organization where
people will be active in it,” said Martin.
Instead of doing the nationwide Hispanic
Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15
to Oct. 15, there will only be a week of
festivities to celebrate the culture, accord
ing to Martin. The events will be held in
the Highsmith Lounge during the eve
nings of Oct. 3 through Oct. 7.
The celebration brings in community
members to interact with minority stu
dents on campus, which will help build
community ties, according to Martin.
The event will also be “an educational
See HISPANIC page 10
Students shoulder debt
.4*5
PHOTO BY SARAH L/
Jeanle Ann Cole, a junior sociology major, makes a credit card purchase.
Students battle credit card debt
By Johanna Luks
staff Writer
Many UNCA students
have credit card debts so
high that they can not pay
them off right away, accord
ing to several students.
More than 64 percent of
college students in the
United States have credit
cards in their own name,
irding to a press release
from Citibank.
‘Carrying high consumer
debt can make you ineli
gible for certain types of stu
dent loans, and can increase
your chance of defaulting
loan if you are unable
to make payments,” said
Carolyn Shanley, public re
lations director of Nellie
Mae, a national student loan
provider.
Many students who have
credit cards also have a high
student loan debt, which af
fects their ability to repay
loans as well as access other
credit after graduation, ac
cording to the Nellie Mae
press release.
“I don’t really worry about
my credit rating or credit
report so much as I worry
about all the money I have '
to pay back eventually,” said
Mya Smith, a senior classics
Most students do not find
the credit card education
materials at the on-campus
tables very helpful, accord
ing to StudentMarket.com’s
press release.
“I think the free stuff given
to students by credit card
companies is bad,” said
Smith. “A lot of freshmen
sign up for cards and then
they get them and they’re
not prepared for what the
APR is going to be or all
they debt they’re going to
get into. Then they use them
for frivolous reasons. It traps
The average student gradu
ates from college owing at
least $17,000 in student
loans, according Melissa
Emmett, office of media re-
lations, who prepered
Citibank’s news release.
The average credit card
debt for undergraduates in
1999 is $1,843, according
to data compiled by Nellie
“We collected data from
over 500 students, includ
ing 250 undergraduates and
300 graduate students,” said
Shanley.
Laura Elmo, a junior soci
ology major, has five credit
“I got two my first year
and then I started getting
other credit cards so I could
transfer my balances to them
at lower rates, so I ended up
with five,” said Elmo.
Many credit card compa
nies try and entice a student
by giving away free mer
chandise or by calling them
continuously, according to
Smith and Elmo.
“The only reason I have a
credit card in the first place
is because MBNA (a credit
card cpmpany) harassed me
on the phone so much that
I finally gave up and said
fine,” said Smith. “I didn’t
even really think they would
give me a credit card, but
they did. Now I have one,
and it’s platinum.”
“I got a free Frisbee with
the second credit card,”
said Elmo. “I was on the
quad that day, and I
wanted to play Frisbee.”
Students are lured by free
merchandise and easy
credit, according to a press
release from Student-
Market.com. These meth
ods have'contributed to an
increase in the number of
college students with credit
cards and debt.
“The Public Interest Re
search Group has found
that students who obtain
their credit cards from on-
campus tables have more
credit cards and higher
unpaid balances than stu
dents who signed up for
their cards elsewhere,” ac
cording to Student
Market.com’s press release.
“Students should visit
StudentMarket.com to get
educated on the impor
tance and implications of
establishing a good credit
history,” said Oren
Milgram, director of stu
dent affairs at
StudentMarket.com.
“Then, after they are edu
cated about responsible
credit management and are
familiar with credit card
terms, they are provided
the opportunity to make
an informed decision.”
There are advantages to
having a credit card, ac
cording to Smith and
“They’re good for emer
gencies and books. I can’t
afford books at school un
less I have a credit card,”
said Smith.
“You don’t need cash. If
you have an impromptu
purchase you want to
make, like taking your
friends out to dinner, or if
you find a really great
sweater, you can just buy
it, even though you don’t
have money,” said Elmo.
“I’m not glad I have five,
but I’m glad I have credit
cards.”
The disadvantages of
credit cards are plenti
ful.
“They sneak up on you,
said Smith. “When you use
See DEBT page 10
Key Center facili
tates service
By Greg Sessoms
Staff Writer
UNCA’s Key Center for Ser
vice Learning has helped hun
dreds of students provide ser
vice to over 40 non-profit or
ganizations since its creation
last semester, according to the
center’s director.
“Our job is to encourage
UNCA students and faculty
to take what they are learning
in the classroom out into the
community, and put that
knowledge to work serving
people in need and the envi
ronment,” said Dale Roberts,
director of the Key Center.
The center was established
through a $500,000 donation
from local philanthropist,
Adelaide Key, in May of1998.
The center’s goal is to help
organize and facilitate service
learning for students.
Roberts and other Key Cen
ter staff members work with
students to find service
projects they are interested in
that relate to their major.
“Our goal is to meet with
each student individually and
find a service learning project
that meets his or her academic
interests, personal interests
and long term vision, so the
project helps them not just in
Humanities 414 or Humani
ties 124, but in their major
and with whatever they do
after UNCA,” said Roberts.
The center also works with
faculty and their classes as a
whole to help select projects.
“If a professor says, ‘I want
my students to work together
on a project,’ we will go and
meet with those students as a
group, help them choose a
project, and help them make
that project happen,” said
Roberts.
Although some faculty had
service learning requirements
for their classes before the
opening of the center, faculty
now have a resource to help
them organize projects and
provide contacts to students.
“The way the service learn
ing was set up in my Humani
ties 414 course before the Key
Center was established, was
that I just asked students, in
dividually, to identify a project
that they could work on,” said
Charles McKnight, chair and
associate professor of the mu
sic department. “They were
responsible for doing it them
selves. We could steer them
in a couple of directions, and
there were some contacts, but
people basically found their
own project, and everyone did
something different.”
This way of setting up
projects presented some prob
lems and did not benefit stu
dents as much as it could have,
according to McKnight.
“Many students found
things to do to fulfill the time
requirement, which was not
necessarily beneficial,” said
McKnight. “You could stufi"
envelopes for six hours and be
done with it. The regularity
of doing the project was ab
sent, and I felt that was a bad
thing.”
With the creation of the Key
Center, McKnight and other
professors were provided an
alternative way to setup projects
that addressed these concerns.
See SERVICE page 10
E-mails clog system
By Breandan Dezendorf
Staff Writer
Mass e-mail messages threat
ened to clog UNCA’s bulldog
system after the computer cen
ter failed to suppress the head
ers on a campuswide e-mail
Sept. 27.
“We wanted to get out to the
campus the request Chancel
lor James Mullen had received
from the Governor’s Office
that we be a backup site to
help with Hurricane Floyd
victims,” said Kern Parker, the
director of the computer cen
ter. “Mullen wanted everyone
to get the information as
quickly as possible. We have
always had faculty and staff
mailing lists, and have had a
need for a student (list), so
that during special circum
stances we could get email to
all the students.”
The failure to suppress the
headers of this message
showed all the recipients in
the top of the message, as well
as allowed individuals to “re
ply to all,” propagating an ad-
ditional 3,782 messages
through the system.
Parker admitted that it was
the computer center’s mistake
in the creation of the student
distribution list. They needed
to distribute the information
quickly, and did not properly
test the list.
“We had some issues,” said
Parker, “not with the original
message going out, but with
some of the student’s attempts
to reply to it. When it was
replied to, it consumed most
of the resources of the bull-
dog.”
“It burdened down the sys
tem with literally thousands
of messages,” said Richard
White, systems manager for
the computer center, “and it
was saturating the system,
delivering all that e-mail.”
The bulldog system received
and delivered over 15,000
messages in a few hours as a
result of the error, bringing
bulldog to a virtual halt.
“I certainly can’t attribute
malice to the people who re
plied,” said Parker. “They
didn’t know the effect they
were having.”
White added that the stu
dents that were contacted
seemed to be genuinely con
cerned, not realizing the dam
age they were doing. As far as
he is concerned, he said, the
A message was posted to all
people logging into bulldog
Sept. 27, informing them that
a reply to the messages would
be construed a malicious mis
use of the computer center’s
resources.
After this point, anyone
caught replying would have
his/her account locked tem
porarily, and the computer
center would have a meeting
with the offending party, said
White.
“That’s our ultimate weapon
for making sure nothing else
happens from that point on,”
added White. “We treated this
fairly lightly. We really didn’t
do anything but call and no
tify people about the problem
they were causing. We also
sent them an e-mail saying
that this was not appropriate.
Ifthis had been a more serious
case, if someone were to be
deliberately belligerent about
it, we have a process of cutting
their account off until we meet
with them, resolve the situa
tion, and make sure they un
derstand what is right and
what is wrong.”
The computer center now has
a distribution-list with the e-
mail addresses properly sup
pressed that will function as a
powerful tool for selective
mailings to students, accord
ing to Parker.