I 299S
V^olume 30 Issue 12
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December 2, 1999
Art department
short on space
By Greg Sessoms
staff Writer
The UNCA art department’s fa
cilities have not kept pace with the
irowth in the numbef of art ma-
and has left students and fac-
ilty with insufficient space to cre
ate and display their work, accord
ing to faculty and administration.
‘There is not sufficient gallery
space, nor is there the sufficient
workspace for students to paint or'
work collaboratively with their fac
ility. This is not acceptable given
the extraordinary character of our
faculty and the bachelor of fine
s (B.F.A.) program,” said Chan
cellor Jim Mullen.
One of the problems, caused by
the lack of adequate facilities that
students in the program have had
I contend with, is a lack of gallery
space on campus to display their
work. All bachelor of arts (B.A.)
and B.F.A. students must exhibit
their work in order to graduate.
“B.F.A. candidates cannot declare
until they have taken 24 hours of
courses, so they are pretty confirmed
by the time they declare their ma
jor,” said T ucker Cooke, chairman
of the art department. “They can
not sign up to do a show until they
have declared that they are B.F.A.
inajors.
“Sojne students, particularly trans
fer students who are ready to de
clare right away and only have 35
kours to complete the degree, often
)t get space in the gallery be-
it has been assigned two years
ij advance,” said Cooke.
This problem has contributed to
iome students’ decisions to seek a
B.A. instead of a B.F.A. because the
lit for gallery space is shorter.
Right now, I am a B.A. major
because I do not want to wait three
years to get through the B.F.A.
program,” said J.P. Ammons, se
nior ceramics major. “There is only
one B.F.A. gallery, and each B.F.A.
major has two weeks in that gallery,
so space is short. Those people try
ing to get into the B.A. program
have a one year wait for a gallery
versus a two year wait for B.F.A.
majors.”
With space already inadequate for
the needs of the students, there is
litde space left to expose them to
the work of professional artists, an
important component of an arts
education, according to Cooke.
“Our students are not being ex
posed to outer art, and we need
that. We do not have time in the
gallery for outside work because
you have got six B.F.A. shows a
semester, plus an alumni show and
the student annual we do every
year,” said Cooke.
“One of the problems we have is
that students need to see other art
ists’ work,” said Hague Williams,
senior multi-media arts and sci
ences major. “But because we are so
cramped with gallery space here,
we do not have the opportunity to
invite professional artists here to
show their work. We are selling the
students short in that sense.”
Studio space is also at a premium
and has forced the art department’s
faculty to create much of their own
work off campus, denying students
access to apotentially valuable learn
ing resoirrce. *
“There are no longer any faculty
studio offices where faculty have
space to work. I think one of the
most valuable teaching experiences
is for students to see faculty work
ing. They can come in, look down
and say, ‘Oh, that is how you do
See SHORTAGE page 10
Cyders battle course
'
PHOTO BY TRAVIS BARKER
The Cyclocross race, held on and around campus Nov. 20, combined obstacles and
different terrains to challenge its participants.
UNCA to
teach at
A-B Tech
By Holly Beveridge
Staff Writer
UNCA Chancellor Jim Mullen
and K. Ray Bailey, president of
Asheville-Buncombe Technical
Community College (A-B Tech),
recently signed an agreement an
nouncing a humanities bridge pro
gram between the two schools.
Under the new program, certain
A-B Tech students planning to
transfer to UNCA may enroll in a
UNCA humanities course during
their final semester at A-B Tech,
according to a press release.
“Right now, it’s just between our
two humanities programs, but the
door is open for further connec
tions,” said Peg Downes, director
of UNCA’s humanities program.
“I think that’s one reason we’re
calling it the bridge program rather
than ‘we’re offering a humanities
course on your campus.’”
According to Downes, UNCA will
offer Humanities 324 at A-B Tech
this spring.
“The students won’t be attending
the large group lectures,” said
Downes, “but it will be taught the
way that humanities is taught in the
evening course or in the summer.”
Downes said some of the lectures
on videotape might be incorpo
rated into the course. A-few teach
ers may ch||pse to teach the kc;tures
themselves rather than use the taped
lectures.
“We hope to be able to get (the
students) over here for events so
that they’ll get used to the campus
as well as to this course,” said
Downes, “but it’s impossible for us
See BRIDGE page 10
Natiorial search begins
for new athletic director
By Phoebe Hicks
staff Writer
Tom Hunnicutt’s decision
6 retire effective April 15,
ifter serving as UNCA’s ath
letic director for over six years,
las prompted the university
to start a national search for a
Mw athletic director, accord
ing to the chancellor’s office.
“Tom Hunnicutt has been
land enough to give me until
April before he leaves. We are
; to use that time to re-
the organizational and
operational needs of the de
partment, probably drawing
on the expertise of an outside
Jdvisor,” said Chancellor Jim
Mullen in an e-mail.
When that process is com
pleted, the search will begin.
If necessary, I will consider
an interim appointment to
«rry us through that search
process,” said Mullen in the e-
mail.
Hunnicutt came to UNCA
® 1993 and is credited with
'ncreasing fundraising.
We have come a long way
(with fundraising). I’ve been
I'sre for 14 years, and before
Tom came here, a goal of ours
'^as raising $50,000 in one
y^ar, and now we’ve raised
more than $200,000 in the
last couple ofyears,” said Mike
Gore, associate director of ath
letics.
Hunnicutt said he also has
recruited a different caliber of
student than what was at
UNCA when he first arrived.
“When I got
here in 1993,
because we
competiti
scholar ath
letes were
doing well
the classroom,”
We had 25
basketball play-
Tom Hunnicutt
come th
he department
scholarship.
graduated. It
extremely well in the class
room,” said Hunnicutt.
Hunnicutt said he is proud
of the differences he has made
at UNCA, but he sees there
are still challenges for his suc
cessor, such as lifting some of
the athletic funding burden
off the rest of
the student
“The thing
that has hurt
me the most
during my time
is the fact that
we’re having to
tax our student
body higher
than any other
school in the
North Carolina
system. Of
small, and this is the price you
pay, but I don’t like to see the
rest of the student body taxed
much. So my advice would
: of whom
s probably the
most dismal academic record
in America,” said Hunnicutt.
“Right now, we have one of be to work as hard as they (
the better academic records,”, to generate additional rev-
said Hunnicutt. enues,” said Hunnicutt.
“The thing I am most proud Gore said that fundraising
of is the fact that our student will be an emphasis in the
athletes have really done well, future but that the
exemplary young letic director will not face the
d men. They have challenges that Hunnicutt did.
“Fundraising is always going
to be important. That’s a chal
lenge for the Tarheels and a
They
women and r
done the job
only a competitive athletic
program, (but) they have done
challenge for every athletic
program in the country. That
certainly is the case here, and
we have come a long way. It’s
certainly a much, much better
program now than it was when
Tom came in,” said Gore.
Hunnicutt cited the deficit
in the athletic budget as an
important issue facing
UNCA’s next athletic direc-
“During my six and a half
years I’ve been here, we’ve had
a negative balanceof$200,000
in our budget. To a lot of
schools that’s not a drop in
the bucket, but to us, because
of the size of our school, that’s
a lot of money. I would like to
see my successor be able to
pay that off and come up with
a plan to retire the deficit,”
said Hunnicutt.
Hunnicutt said he looks for
ward to spending time with
his grandchildren and time
on his farm in Yancey County.
“I’ve really worked hard to
build a quality athletic pro
gram which I’m very proud
of It’s a tough job, and now,
I think it’s time for me to step
back. My energy is pretty well
gone after six and a half years.
It’s been a wonderful oppor
tunity forme and my family,
and I have a lot of great memo
ries,” said Hunnicutt.
Ramsey acquires
YWCA archives
By Breandan Dezendorf
staff Writer
The YWCA of Asheville re
cently donated its archives to
UN CA’s Ramsey Library Spe
cial Collection. The collec
tion of materials have been
part of the history of Asheville
for the past hundred years,
according to a YWCA repre
sentative.
“As a non-profit with mini
mal resources, serving chil
dren and youth, and having
an aquatics department, we
don’t really have a safe place
to store such valuable materi
als,” said Ami Worthen, the
director of marketing at the
YWCA.“The special collec
tions is a great place where we
can have our stuff preserved
in a proper manner and also
have it available to our com
munity.”
“The YWCA of Asheville has
been in this community since
1907,” said Worthen. “That’s
definitely a significant part of
the community and have a
very important history here.
We have a lot of old newspa
per clippings, photographs,
documents and correspon
dence. We wanted to make
sure it was preserved.
“There are scrapbooks of
newspaper clippings, minutes
to meetings and photograph
albums,” said Besty Murray,
assistant to Helen Wykle, the
librarian in charge of special
collections. “It is a very eclec
tic collection.”
Murray is helping to cata
logue and file the records into
UNCA’s special collections.
“It is a very personal thing,
like looking at a family scrap
book,” Murray said. “It takes
digging, but it is the kind of
primary source students need.
It is not all digested. It will be
really good for the history stu
dent who wants to do re
search.”
“There are a lot of people in
the community and also stu
dents at UNCA that I am sure
would be interested in using
our materials in their own re
search,” said Worthen. “It is a
benefit to us by having our
archives preserved, but it is
also a benefit to the commu
nity by having them available
to the general public.
“The reason the YWCA was
formed was that it was a safe
haven for women who were
coming to the community
looking for jobs and educa
tion, especially single women,”
said Worthen. “As it evolved,
we began offering more pro
grams and also formed a sort
of hostel for women.”
Worthen said that history is
tied up in these archives dat
ing back the years of segrega
tion in the South.
Initially, the YWCA “was
two facilities, a black one and
a white one,” said Worthen.
Worthen said that the sepa
rated facilities started working
together in the 1950s and held
an interracial forum to discuss
integration. She said that this
forum led to the creation of
the Asheville-Buncombe
Community Relations Coun
cil, which still is in existence
and funded by the city.
“They work with job dis
crimination and housing dis
crimination,” said Worthen.
“We were instrumental in get
ting that started off.”
“The oldest scrapbooks are
from the 1930s,” Murray said.
“There are powerful photo
graphs and a petition from the
times of integration. One rea
son that we are really glad to
have the collection is that it
will supplement other materi
als we have from that time in
Asheville.
“All that history is here,” Murray
said. “We are trying to make it
accessible.”