9
n
o>
Volume 30 Issue 7
October 21, 1999
I
Marijuana petition gains support on campus
Ordinance would ban enforcement of laws against cultivation, possession or use
By Johanna Luks
staff Writer
“I don’t know if getting students’
signatures would hold a lot of
weight,” said Steven Ingram, a se-
Over 200 UNCA students signed
petition on Oct. 15 that could
cad to the creation of an ordinance
campus don’t live in Asheville.’
In order for the referendum
pass, 15 percent of registered
ihat prevents the Asheville police Asheville city voters, about 7,500
lepartment from enforcing laws people, would have to sign the pe
tition. The
Ashville City
The ordi- council is then
would “We know a lot of required to
enforce- adopt the or-
within 10 days
or place it on a
ballot and
hold a special
iccording to
he petition.
‘UNCA has
“We know a lot of
medical patients
that benefit from
smoking maijuana,
and it is also eco
logically compas
sionate.”
-Dixie Deerman, member of
Community for Compassion
types of things,” said Dixie
Deerman, a contact for and mem-
of Community for Compas-
1, a group of citizens whose main
is is hemp awareness. Members
)f the group have come to UNCA
everal times to get student signa-
for a referendum petition.
“We’ve been going to UNCA a lot
tely, and it’s been very positive.
Three Fridays ago we must have
registered close to 200 students in
hours to vote and subsequently
sign the referendum petition,” said
Deerman.
:ordi
Deerman.
“Decrimi
nalization of
would attract
a lot of pot
Asheville,” said Andrew Hauet, a
senior creative writing major. “I’m
not saying that’s a bad thing, but
the city isn’t interested in that. The
city’s goal right now is positive eco
nomic growth. That’s not going to
happen if something like this goes
through.”
“I would be surprised if it passed
in Asheville. In many ways, Asheville
is too conservative,” said David
Hopes, professor of literature.
“We felt like Asheville was the
perfect place and had a lot of sup
port for this sort of thing,” said
Deerman.
The decriminalization of mari
juana would not effect UNCA stu
dents’ academic performances any
more than underage drinking, ac
cording to Nick McGinty, a junior
psychology major.
“It might attract a different kind
of student here,” said McGinty.
The referendum petition, if passed,
would enact three significant
changes, according to Deerman.
“It would establish a watchdog
committee of citizens whose sole
interest is in monitoring the police’s
activities and the harassment of citi
zens in the drug war,” said Deerman.
The ordinance would redirect
funding away from drug related
programs and allow for the recre
ational, spiritual, medical, and in
dustrial uses of marijuana within
the city limits, according to
Deerman.
“It doesn’t change the law, but it
does institute a city law on top of
pre-existing laws that in effect makes
marijuana arrests the lowest prior
ity,” said Deerman.
“I don’t know if (the referendum)
will pass. If it happens any place, it
will probably happen here,” said
Ingram.
The ordinance, if passed, would
not necessarily cause more students
to start smoking pot, according to
Ingram.
“I think there would be a big
uproar about the whole thing, but
I don’t think it would cause any
problems in the end on campius or
in town,” said Ingram.
“Those students who want to
smoke pot already do,” said Hopes.
PHOTO REPRESENTATION BY TRAVIS BARKER, MODEL JOHNNY ZIEM
The city ordinance would allow the use of marijuana medicinally and
recreationally within the city limits, if the petition is signed by 7,500 people.
If the police stop enforcing mari
juana laws, a student’s academic
performance wouldn’t be any more
affected by smoking marijuana than
it already is, according to Hopes.
“The majority of the teachers at
this school can, somewhat, tell what
someone looks like when they are
stoned, simply from going through
the college system at the time they
did,” said Hauet.
“If (smoking pot) is an open issue,
and you’re going to start coming to
class stoned, (the professors) should
be allowed to say ‘get out of my
class, you’re high,” said Hauet.
“Most freshmen are not legally
old enough to buy alcohol, but
that doesn’t prevent drinking,”
said Jim Michaels, a UNCA alum
nus and psychology major. “The
ability to legally obtain something
doesn’t factor in (to performance).
It gets done. It doesn’t matter if
it’s legal or illegal.”
Community of Compassion
holds protests against the drug
See DRUG page 10
Flood relief effort falls
short of expectations
PHOTO BY TRAVIS BARKER
As Hurricane Irene threatened more flooding on Oct. 17, the Outer
Banks began to evacuate the islands. The Hatteras Island town of
Waves was already under inches of water as more rain set in.
bucks, but just people giv- my class and said‘I;
ing a little something. So
over $3000 out of4000 stu
dents and faculty is not bad
for a week,” said Pam
Laughon, associate profes-
By Greg Sessoms
staff Writer
Organizers of UNCA’s
Hurricane Floyd Flood Re
lief fundraiser for East Caro
lina University (ECU) are
pleased with student and
faculty contributions to the
effort, despite falling short
of its $5,000 goal, accord
ing to the organizer of the
fundraiser.
“What I was really hoping
high participation
doing anything like this
again. If I get anymore hare
brained ideas, talk me out
of it.’”
However, as of Oct. 11, the
of psychology and the flood relief effort had raised
primary organizer of the $3,055 and garnered praise
from the administration.
“I was very pleased both
by Dr. Laughon’s initiative
and by the student response.
With all the demands on
their resources, our students
fundraiser.
The fundraiser took some
time to gain momentum
and worried her initially, ac
cording to Laughon.
“We started on a Monday,
and as of that Wednesday again showed their willing-
)t necessarily a lot of Laughon. “I w
s had $600, at which point
I was totally depressed,” said
} help c
See FLOOD page 10
Lack of on-campus childcare
frustrates students, professors
By Holly Beveridge
staff Writer
A UNCA professor asked a
student to remove her 5-
month-old son from Lipinsky
Auditorium during a humani
ties lecture on Oct. 1, bring
ing the issue of childcare at
UNCA to the forefront once
Jan Hinson, a senior indus
trial and engineering manage
ment major, said she was asked
to leave the lecture hall by
Garland Kimmer, visiting as
sistant professor of literature.
“This kid made one tiny little
peep,” said Hinson. “It really
hurt my feelings.”
Hinson said she was stand
ing in the rear of the audito
rium holding her baby, when
Kimmer asked her to leave.
“It’s not a single day issue,”
said Kimmer. “We asked a
couple of folks to leave the
lecture that day because, for
whatever reasons, they had
migrated toward the back of
the room over the course of
the semester.”
Kimmer said noises from
Hinson’s baby and the child
of a male student, who also
stood at the rear, interfered
with his students’ abilities to
hear the lecture.
“It was simply really distract
ing. The kids were making a
lot of noise, and my students
who sit in the back three rows
were starting to turn around
and stare,” said Kimmer.
According to Kimmer, he
just asked the students to step
outside with the children un
til they stopped making noise.
Hinson said that her hu
manities professor, Mark
Gibney, encouraged her to
bring her son to the lectures.
“He didn’t have a problem
with it, and I really didn’t
think anybody would,” said
Hinson, “so it was really a
shocker when it bothered
Kimmer said he could sym
pathize with the students.
“I would have been really
angry if I had been in their
shoes,” said Kimmer. “I un
derstand it completely from
their point of view.”
According to Kimmer, no
official policy regarding stu
dents ^bringing children to
class or lectures exists at
UNCA.
“I don’t see why it should be
up to each individual profes
sor to decide whether they’re
going to be nice to you or
not,” said Kelley Lane, a jun
ior mass communication ma
jor.
Lane, who has a 20-month-
old daughter, said she has en-
See CHILD page 10
Students rate teachers online
By Breandan Dezendorf
staff Writer
A new national Web site that
allows students to log in
anonymously and rate teach
ers and classes has prompted
reactions from both students
and faculty.
The Web site, at
www.teacherratings.com, has
had close to 1,500 visits since
June 6, 1999, and has 1,233
schools indexed from all the
states of the nation, according
to John Swapceinski, opera
tor of the site.
The site allows students to
comment on teachers, and
their respective merits. The
system allows ratings from one
to five on easiness, friendli
ness and quality.
“With any evaluation of fac
ulty, I am always concerned
by numerical ratings,” said
Gwen Ashburn, assistant pro
fessor of literature . “I am
interested in the fact that of
the three parameters, two have
to do with personality rather
than what is being taught and
how it is being taught.”
Some students, however, feel
that this Web site looks prom
ising.
Casey Jackson, an undeclared
sophomore, commented that it
is good to have an outside
mechanism to rate professors
and get a basic feel for them
before taking their class.
Professors have said they
have approached the site with
“I’m surprised it hasn’t hap
pened sooner,” said Leigh
Atkinson, an associate math
professor.
“I can see how there might be
some real benefits, but also, it
certainly lends itself to abuse.
Student criticisms are useful,
but not always,” said
Atkinson.
Much of the concern about
the site comes from the ano
nymity of the reviewers. There
is no method available to find
out who is rating the profes-
Margaret Downes, the di
rector of the humanities pro
gram, said she is wary about
the unknown nature of the
reviewers, as well as the small
quantity of them, as compared
to the mandatory in class stu
dent evaluations conducted at
UNCA.
“I think that’s not quite right.
I think in the same way that a
letter to an editor has to be
signed, they need to have the
name of the person who is
expressing the opinions,”
Downes said. “This system
allows all kinds of abuse to
take place. I am all for a sys
tem where someone expresses
an opinion and says who they
Alison Sweetser, an unde- .
See RATING page 9