%e 1
ig m
le in
Na-
rings
The Blue
Banner
Sports
rt
r \
Men’s basketball team holds on to first
place in the Big South Conference
■ see page 6
Also inside:
Features
Three UNCA professors share their
experiences in Greece
■ seepage 4
Opinions
“Bringing light to our own miseducation”
by Kelly Genova
■ see page 2
Volume 35 Issue 1
The University Of North Carolina At Asheville
Officials try to keep budget cuts out of classrooms
Kristen Willet
Staff Reporter
This year, UNCA has received
$49.3 million from the state fol
lowing a four percent cut, which
subtracted about $1 million from
the school’s budget.
This reduction is in addition to
permanent reductions to the bud
get required by the General Assem
bly in July 2001.
“We, the administration, have
made a very conscious effort to
keep the costs away from the class
room,” said Steve Honeycutt, uni
versity budget officer.
Honeycutt said the permanent re
ductions, amounting to $523,189,
came from expenditures, such as
cellular phones, travel, temporary
wages, membership dues and com
munity services.
Overall, Honeycutt said academic
departments received a 12.3 per
cent budget cut, while administra
tion had cuts between 18 and 28
percent.
“What the administration was try
ing to do was protect the students,
trying to protect the classrooms as
much as possible,” said Honeycutt.
The maintenance departments on
campus have received a 40 percent
budget reduction over the last two
years, said Honeycutt.
Salaries and benefits, which make
up about 80 percent of the total
budget, were not affected by the
cuts. Only non-salary areas were
affected in the budget cuts, said
Honeycutt.
“We were able to make these cuts
without laying anyone off,” said
Honeycutt.
Instead, cuts were taken from ar-
See BUDGET Page 8
PHOTOGRAi^li
COURTESY OF
GOOGLE.COM
Enron collapses,
stocks and pension
plans plummet
Stuart Gaines
Staff Reporter
Details continue to surface about
the collapse of the Houston-based
Enron Corporation nearly two
months after the company filed for
I' : ikruptcy.
High-level
Enron execu
tives, Wash
ington politi
cians and the
former Enron
accounting
•Irm, Arthur
And; rson,
have all been
implicated in
this growing
scandal, ac
cording to an
Asheville Citizen-Times article from
Feb. 1.
“I ask Congress to enact new safe
guards for 401 (k) and pension
plans,” said President George W.
Bush in his State of the Union
address Jan. 29. “Employees who
have worked hard and saved all
their lives should not have to risk
losing everything if their company
fails.”
“Through stricter accountingstan-
dards and tougher disclosure re
quirements, corporate America
must be made more accountable to
employees and shareholders, and
held to the highest standards of
conduct,” said Bush in his address.
This comment came late in the
speech, which did not mention
Enron by name at all.
Instead, Bush's address focused
primarily on the war on terrorism
and the economy, according to a
transcription of the speech, avail
able on the Asheville Citizen-Times
Web site.
Many Enron employees lost their
See ENRON Page 8
Workers recx)nstuct main entrance
'Kst.
■ i f. :
,.vi' -.A'. m
'r 'SJ
>■
iii"irr!!.■« pinr Tjif
m
v>’
LOU HORI ON/STAl-F PHOTOGRAPHER
W.T. Weaver Boulevard will be under construction until the end of the school year as workers create a roundabout entrance into campus.
Erin Cox
Staff Reponer
UNCA’s main entrance on W. T.
Weaver Boulevard will undergo
massive changes in the months
ahead, as construction begins this
semester to create a roundabout
entrance, extend the greenway and
implement a stream restoration
project.
“I’m not really sure what all the
construction is about,” said Eric
Hamm, ajuniorpsychology major.
“It’s just kind of a hassle driving
and getting around. It slows progress
getting from place to place.”
Most students said they did not
know what renovations were tak
ing place, but they said the con
struction presents many problems
when they try to enter or leave
campus.
“I think they are doing an all right
job keeping traffic going through,”
said Claire O’Brien, a senior mass
communication major. “But, (the
construction) is tearing up my car.
My axles are about to drop off.”
Tom Byers, executive assistant to
the chancellor, said the university is
implementing three separate
projects on the heavily traveled
W.T. Weaver Boulevard, in coop
eration with the city of Asheville
and the North Carolina Depart
ment ofTransportation, to be com
pleted by the end of the academic
year.
Some students said that school
officials should not spend large
amounts of money on reconstruct
ing the entrance.
“I’m sure this is all for a good
cause, but it seems to me that the
money could be better spent else
where, like for the mass communi
cation department or the art de
partment,” said O’Brien.
Stephen Baxley, UNCA facilities
management and planning direc
tor said money for these projects
comes from state funding, not the
university
“You can’t sit on money,” said
Baxley. “You sit on it, and inflation
takes away your purchasing power.
We’ve got the money and we want
to spend it as fast as we can and as
wisely as we can. This means we’re
going to be doing an awful lot of
construction at the same time.”
While students, faculty and area
residents sit patiently in construc-
See WEAVER Page 8
February 7, 2002
UNCA
recognized
as leader in
landscaping
Elizabeth Moe
Staff Reporter
The National Wildlife Federation
recently released a report recogniz
ing UNCA as a leading school in
campus landscaping.
“It is an ongoing program,” said
Melissa Acker, UNCA’s landscape
architect. “(We want) the students
involved be
cause they have
a lot of good are real
ideas. We are , ,
pleased to re- tO
ceive that des- receive that
ignation and designation
hope to keep and hope to
going in the keep going
in the same
direction.”
same direc
tion.”
“The State of
the Campus . Melissa
Environment: Acker,
ANationalRe- landscape
port Card on architect
Environmen
tal Performance and Sustainability
in Higher Education” is a nation
wide survey of colleges and univer
sities with a graded report of their
performance.
“The survey generated 1,116 re
sponses from presidents, provosts,
and chiefs of administration and
operations at 891 of the nation’s
4,100 colleges and universities (al
most 22 percent of schools),”
acording to the NWF Web site.
As the first ever nationwide re
port on campus environmental
policy, it examines over 20 differ
ent categories of ecological activity.
“The survey and resulting report
will help schools assess, compare
and improve their own environ
mental performance, and will
heighten public interest in this very
key aspect of educational perfor
mance,” according to the NWF
Web site.
Princeton Survey Research Asso
ciates and the N^J(T rated UNCA’s
campus landscaping and grounds
management programs as an exem
plary effort toward maintaining an
environmentally sustainable cam
pus.
For years, the landscaping team
at UNCA, led by Acker, has been
See LANDSCAPING Page 8
Student charged with possession of marijuana, paraphernalia and a weapon
Whitney Setser
Staff Reporter
A UNCA student was charged
with three misdemeanors Jan. 13
for the possession of a weapon, mari-
juana and drug paraphernalia.
“Marijuana is not something we
deal with every day, but it is a
college campus,” said Mike Slaugh
ter, resident director for Founders
Hall. “People do experiment.”
Davis James Goldberg, an unde
cided sophomore was charged with
the three misdemeanors.
He was unavailable for comment.
Slaughter made a call to public
safety when he noticed marijuana
smoke coming out of Goldberg’s
room, according to the public safety
report.
When UNCA public safety of
ficer Steve Metcalf arrived. Slaugh
ter gave him a blue cloth bag con
taining the confiscated marijuana
and assorted pipes.
Metcalf also found two knives in
Goldberg’s pant pockets, accord
ing to the report.
Marijuana is the most frequently
used illicit drug in the United States,
according to the Higher Education
Center Web site.
“It is unfortunate that anyone on
a college campus is using marijuana
because studies have shown that it
isn’t mind furthering,” said Slaugh
ter.
Frequent marijuana use may be
physically and emotionally harm
ful, according to the Higher Edu
cation Center.
It is often associated with other
social and behavioral problems, in
cluding isolation, poor academic
performance and crime, according
to the Higher Education Center
Web site.
“The school takes this situation
very seriously,” said Jerry Adams.
“It is not uncommon, but we usu
ally don’t see a weapon associated
with the possession of marijuana.”
Students who carry weapons re
port more harassment, violence and
a greater perception of danger on
campuses, according to the Web
site for Cornell’s Science News
Report on weapons on college cam
puses.
“I wouldn’t want to carry some
thing like a huge gun around, but
maybe something like mace,” said
Laina Stapleton, an undeclared
freshman.
“I feel safe at UNCA, but I don’t
like walking behind Highsmith
(Center) at night to get to
Founders,” said Stapleton.
Slaughter said that he feels safe
on UNCA’s campus, and he said
the students also feel that way.
“There are few complaints or
concerns about safety,” said Slaugh
ter.
Adams said all students should
be conscious of the laws about
weapons on campus.
He said he wants students to re
port any kind of violation they
might have any information about.
“A lot of students are hesitant to
report their friends. I would en
courage them to at least let us
know,” said Adams.
“Any kind of a weapon on cam
pus is a crime.”
Serving UNCA Since 1982
WWW. unca. edulbanner