Newspapers / University of North Carolina … / Dec. 2, 1999, edition 1 / Page 2
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The Banner • December 2,1999 Opinions The Banner - Editorial Supergig Can't draw on this wall Get out your calculators UNCA, we need more money. However, this lack of funds affects students more seriously than a leaky roof in Highsmith or the need for an expanded multicultural office. Our B.F.A. and B.A. seeking students can’t graduate on time due to gallery and studio space shortages. There can be no hemming and hawing over fund availability- for acquiring new space for the art department. Ladies and gents of the powers that be, if^ the administration does not attack this dire problem immediately, the program is in danger of losing talented art students who are not willing to waste hard-earned money hanging around and waiting to reach the front of the two-year, gallery-space line. Not only that, but potential art faculty might think twice about jumping aboard the UNCA ship when they realize that they will be given no studio space on campus to share their valuable experience with students. But don’t fret, for the bargain price of $2 million UNCA can rent space downtown for its art students, not-so-conveniently giving them gallery space miles from their campus studio (if they’ve been lucky enough to get a corner in one), away from the support of students and faculty who can only make time to see the shows on campus. And when prospective students ask where they can see a student exhibit, we’ll hand them directions to the gallery and say, “Sorry, we just didn’t have quite enough room for their talents.” Off-campus gallery space may be a workable, but expensive, short-term solution, but let’s not allow this Band-Aid to become a tradition for B.F.A. students. Bittersweet After six and a half years at UNCA, Athletics Director Tom Hunnicutt concedes that the student fees levied on students during his tenure here is “the thing that hurt me the most.” The fact is the entire campus community has carried the burden, and its effects have been well-documented in the past. However, Hunnicutt should be commended for improving the caliber of UNCA student athletes, given the fact that, previously, 25 basketball players consecucutively left our school without a diploma in their hands. Now, if only his successor and Chancellor Jim Mullen can find a way to pay a deficit of approximately $200,000, then the Bulldogs truly will have a winning season. Overflow UNCA’s recent advertising extravaganza showcasing our liberal arts haven has incurred an overwhelming response. Already, applications are up 56 percent over this time last year, and minority applications have increased 33 percent. The wave of new-found interest can be traced to direct initia tives taken by the university: advertising and hiring minority admissions reps. This is good news for the university’s efforts to construct a racially-diverse campus within the not-so diverse setting of Western North Carolina, or as one student put it, to create an island in the middle of homogeneity. Dangling our banner of peace, love and liberal values, UNCA s advertising campaign has successfully glossed over UNCA s problems. The administration and faculty have the challenge of fulfilling that idealistic diversity promise to the incoming students, who will have been sold by the pledge to cultural diversity. These hopefuls will already have to deal with the disappointing Highsmith (which by that time may have deteriorated into a classic mountain lean-to), non-existent childcare, and increasing student fees. Although, take comfort, only a small increase is expected in tuition and fees for 2000-2001, according to Philip Weast, UNCA assistant vice chancellor for enrollment services. While UNCA is busy “playing the game of competing and marketing,” the deadline is approaching to “diversify” the faculty and student programs. And as UNCA’s application numbers mount, reflecting aggres sive marketing strategies, we hope the administration doesn’t exploit the UNCA awakening and drastically increase enroll ment figures. Increasing enrollment may pay for the advertising campaign and put a dent in monetary hurdles, but more students would mean less space, a high student to professor ratio, and a longer backlog of B.F.A. majors. Glory, drugs and rock n' roll Andrew Thomasson columnist when I tried to write a “Millen nium In Review” column, I discov ered that my knowledge of the pe riod from 1000 to 1300 A.D. con sisted of the black death, large ven omous super-rats that killed people, and the Vikings, guys with a pansy- sounding names like “Leaf.” I am sure those two topics alone do not come close to honoring those pio neer centuries as they deserve. So, the following is a decade-by-decade review of the past 100 years. The Oh’s: 1900-1909 I know that 1900 was technically part of the 19 th century. However, I am almost certain that people living then thought the new cen tury started when the first two dig its on the calendar changed from 18 to 19. They thought the world was going to end then too, perhaps as a result of the Y1.9K potato bug rav aging the globe. Anyway, in 1903, the Wright Brothers made their historic first airplane flight in Kitty Hawk, N. C. The flight, which made all Southerners proud, until they figured out the brothers were from Ohio, was the sole thing asso ciated with North Carolina until Jesse Helms. Also, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series, twice. The Teens: 1910-1919 The Great War introduced the tank as a means of killing large numbers of people at one time, while trench warfare in Europe brought a personable side to the conflict. American soldiers wanted to stay in the trenches because at home. Congress had passed the Income Tax Amendment and the amendment prohibiting consump tion of alcoholic beverages. Prohi bition was spearheaded by Strom Thurmond, who at age 40, was serving his second term as senator of South Carolina. The ‘20s: 1920-well, you get the idea “TheRoaringTwenties” featured a dance affectionately called the “Charleston,” and women, affec tionately termed suffragettes, gained the right to vote in 1920. President Calvin Coolidge’s 188- hour-a-day sleeping schedule in spired young Ronald Reagan to end his silent-film career and be gin a political journey that would land him in Washington, D.C. The ‘30s Actually, the Great Depression began in October 1929, but the bulk of it elapsed during the 1930s. Many in Europe became so poor and disillusioned that they thought Hider had a good idea when he told them to wipe out a large percent age of the European populati Things got so bad that the Ameri can government gave up on their liquor ban in 1933, deciding that a depression was at least worth a couple drinks. The greatest blues man of all dme, Robert Johnson, recorded two records in 1936 and 1938, which re main some of the most profound and soul-searching music to be found. The ‘40s In the ‘40s, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first and only person to be elected to four terms as president and the first president to be referred to by his initials. World War II happened, and the Holocaust was discovered by the United States. When the soldiers returned from the war, they got married in huge droves, creating another industry for Las Vegas and (forgive the word choice) spawning the baby boom. The ‘50s Elvis Presley happened. That’s all you need to know. The ‘60s The Beades invaded the world, as did Motown, psychedelic rock, and an overweight Elvis. It became so cially acceptable to name your band Strawberry Alarm Clockor Jefferson Airplane as a result of massive amounts of psychedelic drugs. John F. Kennedy continued the initial tradition of F.D.R. The Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement allowed protest ers to raise protesting to an art form, and Country Joe McDonald started the profane musical revolution. The ‘70s The ‘70s were the era of disco, perhaps the most oft-maligned form of music. Disco became popular when even the most uncoordinated of individuals (except Richard Nixon) figured out how to do the YMCA. Richard Nixon removed the need to have scruples to qualify for president and ended the era of initialed presidents, leaving us only with “Dick.” The ‘80s On a sad note, Andy Kaufman died. On a sadder note, Ronald Reagan didn’t, thus the accumula tion of a massive U.S. national debt from the Star Wars program (Let’s blow up the world!), and the height of “trickle down economics” or pissing away the money of every working- class individual in the country. Reagan removed the need for a president to be moderately intelli gent or have a memory at all, as long as you come off as a nice grandfather figure. Also, plastic sur gery became a social norm, making the general public feel like bounc ing quarters off the faces of Michael Jackson, Liz Taylor and Cher. The ‘90s The limits oF the First Amend ment were sorely tested with Madonna’s Erotica and 2 Live Crew. But The Starr Report, more tawdry than either, was readily available on every newsstand and TV station in the country. Bill Clinton removed the dignity from the office of president, proving that anyone can b^ome president, if they have a spare quadrillion dol lars. M.C. Hammer went bank rupt while earning $33 million a year, and Ricky Martin exhorted crowds to “shake their bon-bon.” That sounds like kind of a dirty thing to do in public, but if the prez can do it, then why can’t I? Also, the Chicago Cubs foiled to win the World Series for the 91st consecutive year. The past century has been full of hope and guts and glory, sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. However, much has really changed. Strom and Jesse are still wheezing along, everyone thinks 1999 is the last year of the millennium, and the s( of a Reaganite is probably going become president in the year 2000. Humanities lacks overall theme Hugh Kelly columnist The conventional wisdom regard ing Humanities 414 is that stu dents don’t like it because it’s not what we’re here to study—that many students are unable or un willing to engage in the complex task of integrating the insights of various academic disciplines into a general analysis of contemporary culture. But is it possible that 414’s unpopularity with students is due less to their lack of intellectual curi osity and more to the course’s lack of coherence? While it is certain that the archi tects of 414 have attempted to weave the various lectures of the course into some overarching vision, no such vision is apparent. Currently, Humanities 414 seems to be like a raft drifting unguided down the river. While there’s a lot to be said for aimless travel, the participants in 414 might get a lot more out of it were we to somehow unite the scattered lectures into a more delib erate course. Many of the topics in 414 point to a general trend in American culture, a trend towards which the lectures repeatedly glance, but never actually envision. America is falling asleep at the wheel. Americans are acquiescing to the dissipation oftheir individual spirit and to the fragmentation of their society. Three excesses central to this acquiescence are the demise of duty, compulsive commercialism and technological distraction. While the threat of absolutist tyranny is by no means dead in contemporary American govern ment, an equal but unnoticed dan ger to our freedom is the demise of duty. Our political culture has become too rights-centric, de manding the rights secured by lib eral democracy without recogniz ing that such a government de pends on an informed and partici patory citizenry. This attitude manifests itself in an unrealistic preference for legal remedies over political ones, an uninformed and cynical mistrust of government and politicians, and a deterioration of civil discourse. Like a snake about to deVour its own tail, this distortion of indi vidual liberty threatens the foun dations of democratic society. It takes more than the mere de sire for liberty to secure liberty. The liberal democracy also de mands a certain level of dutiful vigilance from its citizens. If Mar tin Luther King, Jr. had not recog nized his duty as well as his rights would he have bothered to lead the Civil Rights Movement? Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, many in the West have been feel ing particularly smug about capital ism. However, while Adam Smith (who also wrote a book on moral philosophy) recommended laissez- faire economics, it is doubtful that he ever dreamed of the extent to which our lives would become satu rated with market transactions. From a purely economic stand point, free-market capitalism is good because it gives individuals strong in centive to produce, and generally re sults in a higher material standard of living. However, as capitalism and industrialization have come to domi nate production and consumption across the globe, they have crowded out important social values. For example, consider how much more time could be spent with femily and friends during Christmas ifwe weren’t so busy shopping for presents, decora tions, and ^cy food and working our tails off to get enough money to buy all this unnecessary stuff. What started out in “The Wealth of Nations” as a simply a system for producing and allocating goods has become an obsession with money and the consumption. Disney, AT&T and Microsoft spend billions of advertising dollars promoting the wonders of motion pictures and TV shows, the tele phone, and the networked computer, but, for obvious reasons, the voices that point out the negative effects of these tools are only faintly heard. The manufactured diversions de livered by these communications tools can rob us of our self-aware ness. Televison, idle phone talk, or web surfing distract us from our Are modern Americans afraid of what they might here if they spend time listening to their inner voice? Perhaps having virtually immediate access to all of one’s wired friends, no matter where they’re located on the globe, means that face-to-face communication is cheapened since the gravity and the reality of the moment is undermined by the knowledge that we can always “reach” these people remotely at any time in the future. The three excesses of contempo rary acquiescence have their roots in essentially good ideas developed during the Age of Reason. The de mise of the public duty entered our culture in the shadow of individual rights; compulsive commercialism entered in the shadow of laissez-feire economics; technological distraction would not have been possible with out the Scientific Revolution. However, the simple act of awak ening to television’s dangers allows us to use it as a tool instead of losing ourselves in its beguiling diversions. Awakening allows us to view ideas as simply intangible tools. Perhaps reason itself is a tool. Locke, Smith and Bacon all devel oped good ideas, but the applica tion of these ideas must be carefiil, humble, and organic so that they do not destroy existing relationships, tra ditions, values, and systems that, while never perfect, also contain older good ideas. Once we realize that reason itself is a mere tool, we will be more careflil, respectful and aware of how I consider my idea a process for becoming more aware of various as pects of our culture touched on 414.1 know my idea is not the truth but an imperfea tool to be used and eventually discarded. If the diverse architects of 414 cannot agree on an overarching theme, perhaps the lectures could be presented as a dialogue, or even a series of profes sorial debates that respond to pre ceding lectures and refer to forth coming ones. Even if the resulting product is a raft that leaks here and there, the process of building it may make students both more in terested and more confident in their ability to wield ideas.
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