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Volume 33 Issue 5
Spalding Gray
performs
"Morning, Noon
and Night.”
See Page 3
Basketball
finishes third
in
Big South
See Page 5
The University Of North Carolina At Asheville
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UNCA Ranks low in Campus Crime
Keith Cromwell
Investigative Reporter
UNCA has one of the low
est average crime rates in the
nation, ranking 66 among
383 universities nationwide,
according to Dangerous Col
leges' survey. The campus also
has the lowest average crime
rateofanyof21 North Caro
lina universities, according
to the survey.
The result of the survey
“makes me feel good know
ing that it is safe here,” said
Asako Tetsuhayashi, a
sophomore computer sci
ence major. “I don’t need to
worry about walking around
on campus at night and
something happening to
me.”
The report, published by
Healey Roman Associates,
uses data from the U.S. De
partment of Justice.
“Colleges are less danger
ous than most of our com
munities, but some are a lot
safer then others,” according
to the report.
In NC, Appalachian State
University ranked 149,
Western Carolina University
185, UNC-Chapel Hill 192,
Mars Hill College 277, and
Wake Forest University
ranked 357.
Elizabeth City State Uni
versity had the highest crime
rate in the state, ranked at
380 out of 383 universities
nationwide, according to the
report.
In the United States, Loyola
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY WALTER FYLER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Vicki Harris, UNCA police officer and victim advocate, demonstrates police procedures used to arrest a suspect.
University of Chicago, IL
had the lowest crime rate.
Bates University in Maine
had the highest crime rate in
the nation, followed by Trin
ity University in Texas, and
Stanford University in Cali
fornia, according to the re
port.
Crime i"ates for those
schools include less than one
crime per 1,000 students at
Loyola University to 32
crimes per 1,000 students at
Stanford. Bates College had
a crime rate of 35.4 crimes
per 1,000 students.
“A problem with a lot of
crimes is that they happen at
random,” stated the report.
“An active criminal within a
student population can dev
astate the school’s crime rat
ing.”
UNCA reported an aver
age of 1.3 crimes per 1,000
students, according to the
report. In comparison, Eliza
beth City State University
had a crime rate of 25.4
crimes per 1,000 students.
At UNCA in 1999, there
was one forcible sex offense,
one burglary, and one mo-
tor-vehicle theft.
In 1998, there were 56 bur
glaries, two aggravated as
saults, 28 liquor-law viola
tions and 11 drug-abuse vio
lations, according to
UNCA’s annual security re
port.
The 2000 reports have not
yet been released, according
to Jerry Adams, public safety
investigator.
“The reason for the large
jump in burglaries is because
the university was installing
fiber optic cable” for com
puters, said Adams. “A lot of
buildings were left open by
the contractors and things
were taken.”
UNCA saw a large increase
of drug and alcohol offenses
because the university imple
mented a zero-tolerance pro
gram for drugs and alcohol,
according to Adams.
See SAFETY Page 10
nified Solar Proposes Technoloaies
1 Passive Solar Design
Building orientation will utilize direct gain on winter
solar rays to heat the buildings.
I Selective-Use
1 Photovolatic Power
Photovoltaic, or active solar power, will convert solar
energy into electrical energy to supplement the build
ings’ grid-tied system.
1 Solar Hot Water
1 System
Solar radiation will directly heat water.
I Fuel Cell Power
1 Generation
Electrical system will be compatible with fuel cell
technology to integrate the educational technology.
1 Gray Water
1 Recycling System
This system will direct used water from selected
drains to be used in toilets.
1 Phytoremediation
1 System
Gray and black water produced by the buildings will
be cleansed by a phytoremediation program, which is
water treatment using plants.
1 Composting Toilet
1 Pilot Project
For Physical Plant design: education experiment to
test the technologies’ future applicability.
Angela Brock
News Reporter
ANGELA BROCK/GRAPHICS DESIGNER
pified Solar proposed enviornmentally-conscious plans for the new science building
I'd Physical Plant.
A new campus group. Uni
fied Solar, met to discuss pro
posed environmental tech
nologies for the new science
and physical plant buildings,
according to Art vonLehe, a
senior environmental studies
major and member of Uni
fied Solar.
“We would like to see the
new science building, as well
as the new physical plant, be
the most environmentally sus
tainable buildings possible,”
said vonLehe.
The new buildings will be
constructed from some money
from the bond referendum
that UNCA will receive, ac
cording to vonLehe.
However, the technologies
will initially cost more than
buildings without the tech
nology, according to Zev
Friedman, a freshman envi
ronmental science major and
member of Unified Solar.
The school has not pro
vided money for the initial
costs of the technology, so
we are going to have to get the
money from grants,” said
Friedman.
Environmental technologies
utilized in the new buildings
will fulfill their practical ap
plications, and be used as edu
cational exhibits for the uni
versity and community, ac
cording to Unified Solar.
“Unified Solar started out
with the idea of trying to get a
sustainability initiative incor
porated into the guiding con^
cepts of the school, thinking
that would be the most effec
tive way to have the school
build all of its buildings with
sustainable ideas in mind from
now on,” said Friedman. “If
we are able to get sustainable
building initiatives shown by
students, it is going to be very
influential.”
“We realize that there are
already people who are con
cerned with sustainable build
ing techniques, but that stu
dent opinion carries a great
deal of weight with it,” said
Friedman.
“Our main focus right now
is writing grants and helping
to facilitate the project,” said
vonLehe.
"It Feels Good
to be the King,”
a column by
Josh Day
See Page 2
March 1, 2001
Robots Race to
the Finish Line
Thad Eckard
News Reporter
Robots raced across the
Owen Conference Center,
while students hurled marsh
mallows, built and broke
bridges at the UNCA robotics
competition Feb. 20.
“It was stressful,” said Brent
Little, a junior engineering
major. “We worked some last
semester, and then worked a
few more weeks before the
competition. We still had to
make some final changes a
few hours before the event.”
The robots had to stop at
different points in a neigh-
borhood-like maze with
houses and roads. Engineer
ing students from UNCA
built and then programmed
the wheeled gadgets.
Little and his partner Drew
Perkins, a senior engineering
senior, placed first as Team
Alpha.
The robot, Louie, came in
last. Louie suffered from ei
ther “a hardware or software
problem. We were really frus
trated that it didn’t work,”
said Paul Trinks, a senior en
gineering major and one of
Louie’s engineers.
Little said he and Perkins
chose a simple programming
language, but they wrote ad
vanced program script with it.
“It was programming one
might actually see in the real
world using infrared transmit
ters and receivers,” said Little.
Competitors programmed
their robots’ chips through
computer ports.
The robots tested both hard
ware and software expertise,
accordingHo Little.
“Sometimes you have the
program written right, but you
may not have a connector in
the right pin,” said Litde.
Coordinators hoped to re
cruit aspiring engineers, said
Cheryl Alderman, associate
director of the North Caro
lina State University Engineer
ing Program at UNCA.
See ROBOTICS Page 10
Studies Reveal
Smoking Effects
WALTER FYLER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Mike Sears, a senior economics major, takes a moment to
smoke a cigarette.
Claire O’Brien
News Reporter
There is a higher rate of
smoking among college stu
dents than among the Ameri
can population, said Dr. Rick
Pyeiitz, director of student
health services.
According to an on-campus
survey from 1999, 68 percent
of UN CA students choose not
to smoke cigarettes.
It would not be uncom
mon for a college student to
want to try smoking for the
simple act of rebellion,” said
Mike Sears, a senior econom
ics major. “They’re away from
home, they have money, and
they know people who can get
them what they want.”
Over 84 percent of UNCA
students have never tried
smokeless tobacco, another
11.8 percent have used it in
the past, and less than 1 per
cent report using it on a daily
basis, according to Winter.
The 30 percent of students
who do smoke daily is an in
crease from the national aver
age of 12th graders surveyed
by the American Lung Asso
ciation. About 22.4 percent
of those students smoked ciga
rettes daily. This indicated that
a least a few smokers begin the
habit during their college
years.
However, 26.96 percent.
See SMOKING Page 10
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