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Volume 36 Issue 8
New student
group aims
to promote
diversity
The University Of North Carolina At Asheville
Features
Haunted Threatre brings scares and
thrills to campus
■ see page 2
j Sports
^ Bulldog volleyball wins BSC games on
the road
■ see page 8
October 31, 2002
Christina Clayton
News Reporter
Nucleus, a multicultural organi
zation committed to promoting di
versity at UNCA, will hold its first
interest meeting Nov. 5.
“Nucleus aims to recruit minor-
it)? and multicultural students, ” said
founder Sean McDonald, an unde
clared junior. “There’s an incred
ible amount of people on this cam
pus just waiting to do something,
and we want to give them some
thing to do.”
A student led organization,
Nucleus aims to bring together stu
dent organizations, specifically
tliose for minority students, to dis
cuss how UNCA can improve cam
pus diversity.
Sai Vue, a junior multimedia arts
and sciences major, attended the
Asian Students in Asheville (ASIA)
meeting when McDonald first in
troduced the idea for Nucleus to
them.
“When Sean came to propose
Nucleus to ASIA, he did an great
job of describing what the purpose
of it is. It sounds very promising to
me because we, minority students,
are tired of hearing about the ways
of improving diversity: we want to
see it happen soon,” wrote Vue in
an e-mail. “I think Nucleus can
make this happen with the help of
everyone and anyone who is inte
ested.”
McDonald stresses the need
work with students and faculty
improve diversity.
“We have had requests from the
faculty to bring together an area
where they can share information
and ideas beyond curricular devel
opment, such as student interac
tion ideas, self development ideas.
See DIVERSITY Page 8
Student dies after fight with cancer
Some people come into our lives and quickly go.
Some people move our souls to dance.
They awaken us to new understanding
with the passing whisper of their wisdom,
and make the sky more beautifiil to gaze upon.
Some people stay in our lives awhile,
leave footprints on our hearts,
And we are never, ever the same.
UNCA student Amanda Massey meant for this
poem to inspire a cheerleadingsquadshe coached.
Amanda didn’t know at the time that these
words would be prophetic of her short, but ful
filling life.
Jessica Hensley News Reporter
COURTESY OF WWW.CAR1NGBRIDGE.COM/NC/AMANDA
UNCA student Amanda Massey, pictured above with her mother, died of complications from leukemia Oct 19.
Amanda Lynne Massey lost her
10-month battle with leukemia due
to heart complications from treat
ments Oct. 19.
“As a cancer survivor, I think it is
hard for others to understand how
difficult the last year must have
been for Amanda and her family,”
said Penny Brunner, management
and accounting professor. “Their
strength and grace will serve as an
inspiration for others always.”
Although she successfully beat the
cancer, her heart was too weak to
continue functioning. Massey was
a courageous fighter.
She was a dancer, coach and stu
dent; a daughter, sorority sister and
friend.
To all of her relatives, she was so
much more than just a cousin or
niece, and to her close friends, she
was a true sister. Even in the face of
death, she remained brave and held
on to her faith. Her love for family
and friends was evident to everyone
who knew her.
In the fall of her junior year at
UNCA Massey first noticed her
declining health. In February 2002,
She was diagnosed with leukemia.
Because of her illness, she was un
able to return for the spring semes-
When doctors suggested Amanda
Massey would need a bone marrow
transplant, 350 friends and neigh
bors flocked to Woodland Hills
Church in Weaverville to be tested
for being a possible donor.
After finding a suitable donor,
Massey’s treatment occurred at
Duke University. Her parents, Gary
and Kathy, moved to Durham to
be with her. During Massey’s long
days of treatment she wrote journal
entries on her Web site,
www.caringbridge.com/nc/
amanda.
Friends and family contributed
daily to a guest book to lift Amanda
Massey’s spirits. Through her per
severance and courage, she instead
lifted everyone else’s spirits.
“I also appreciate that even during
the darkest days of treatment,
Amanda lived with hope: a plan to
return to friends; a plan to return to
school and classes; a plan for a nor
mal life. She was truly remarkable;
I feel blessed to have known her
even for a short time,” said Brunner.
Massey was a sister of Gamma Phi
Beta sorority and a member of the
dance team while at UNCA.
“I was glad and touched that she
made the effort to help me make
this campus home,” said Lindsey
Galloway, a sophomore manage
ment major. “Shortly thereafter, she
became my sister through the bonds
of Gamma Phi Beta. She is the
reason that I signed my bid and
took the pledge.”
Amanda Massey was born Dec. 1,
1980, in Buncombe county, where
she lived all of her life.
“I only knew Amanda for a short
time when she was my suitemate in
Mills Hall, but I’m glad that I got to
know her,” said Kjisten Willett,
junior psychology major. “She was
a wonderful and friendly person
who always made me feel welcome.
I can’t think of a single person that
i would have rather lived with than
her.”
Massey was a former cheerleader
and a 1999 graduate ofNorth Bun
combe High School.
Before her illness, she served as the
varsity cheerleading coach at
NBHS.
“Massey was a great person, coach,
friend, and most of all, Christian.
She set an example on how to live
and how to die, trusting in the
Lord,” said Alice Powell, senior
cheerleader from NBHS.
“Massey had the strategy of life we
all search for. She perfected the way
to survive in a dying world. She
assisted so many in finding the good
ness of living and of dying. Never
will we forget her strength. It is
living through us.”
During her two years of coaching,
Amanda made a tremendous im
pact on the lives of the cheerleaders.
“‘Little is much if God is in it,’
Coach Massey always told me. She
was considered a little person, barely
reaching over five feet tall,” said
Tiffany Honeycutt, senior cheer
leader. “She lived for such a short
time. But life is a vapor that seems
to pass us by like the wind. One
thing I will never forget of our
Massey is how anything could be
brought to her feet, and she would
simply pick it up and smile with
resolution.”
There is no possible way to cap
ture her essence with words.
Amanda Massey will be loved and
missed by many people for many
years.
Powell summed it up well when
she said, “Massey will live on, and
in time, our tears will turn to smiles,
and we can tell others about this
incredible person who touched so
many lives. We truly believe you
can only take with you what you
have given away.”
Campus protests help affect change
Sara Miller
News Reporter
Sodexho, UNCA’s food service
provider, faced controversy in re
cent years concerning stocks owned
by its parent corporation in Cor
rection Corporation of America
(CCA), a private prison industry.
“Sodexho in North America, the
company that provides your
(UNCA’s) food service, never
owned any stock or had any direct
link with CCA,” said Leslie Aun,
vice president of public relations
for Sodexho. “Our parent company
did own the CCA stock, but that
stock was sold before they purchased
all of our company.”
The French-based Sodexho Alli
ance owned shares of a company
formerly named Marriott Manage
ment Services, according to Aun.
During this time, Sodexho Alliance
owned stock in CCA.
This spurred controversy because
CCA is the world’s leading investor
in private prisons, also known as
for-profit prisons.
Private prisons are meant to re
lieve the overcrowding of public
prisons, but others see how the
under-trained and under-qualified
staff maximum capacity filled cells
and poor treatment of the prison
ers in private prisons led to es
capes, murders and rapes, accord
ing to a Web site for a student
activist group. The group, from
Northwestern University, opposes
the unregulated expansion of the
prison industry.
Activists see these for-profit, pri
vate prisons as a modern day slave
trade, according to the Northwest
ern activist Web site.
“Private prisons tend to be poorly
managed and largely unregulated,
while private prison guards are un
derpaid, unorganized and mini
mally trained,” according to the
Northwestern activist Web site. “As
a consequence, mistreatment of pris
oners and escapes are all too com-
Sodexho holds contracts with uni
versities across the country.
In April 2000 when students heard
UlLRiLbK-VOGb. bl.Ul PHOTOGRAPHER
D.C. Chapman, pictured above, works in the UNCA dining hall.
The university recieves food services comes from Sodexho.
about the Sodexho ties with CCA,
sit-ins, boycotts and protests up to
1,000-strong occured according to
www.socialistalternative.org, a po
litically-charged, socialist Web site.
Protests occurred at some schools,
including Oberlin College in Ohio
and Ithaca College in New York.
Four Sodexho contracts were re
voked as a result of student protests
according to
www.transnationale.org, a global
rights activist Web site.
Some students believe that re
quired meal plans brought them
into the private prison industry un
willingly, according to the global
activism Web site.
Sodexho became concerned about
student action.
See PROTESTS Page 8
Former drama professor
shared positive legacy
Melissa Doyle
News Reporter
A retired UNCA acting professor,
died from heart complications in
September.
Elaine Hunter Myers, also a
UNCA alumnus, suffered from
heart problems since birth.
“It was always startling to see. Out
of this tiny, petite person would
come this booming voice, and re
ally high expectations for doing
well,” said Pat Snoyer, associate
drama professor. “(She was) kind of
like a friendly drill sergeant.”
A small person, barely 5 feet tall,
Myers was full of life and enjoyed
living it. She had a great sense of
humor and liked making people
laugh.
An Asheville native, Myers gradu
ated from UNCA with a BA in
drama in the early 1980s, and re
turned to UNCA to teach drama.
She retired from the university in
1997.
That school year (1996-1997),
Myers won a teaching award as a
distinguished non-full time faculty
member. She always demanded
good work from her students and
from those around her.
“She had a lot of students who
really epjoyed her and her hon
esty,” said Rob Bowen, associate
drama professor.
Myers was around acting and the
ater for her entire Ofe. Her parents
were very active in the local, com
munity theater, and as a child, she
acted, directed and produced many
local plays.
She continued this level of in
volvement in theater her entire life.
In her 20s, Myers moved North to
Boston and New York to gain pro
fessional experience. She acted with
the Henry Street Playhouse, a re
nowned playhouse in the profes-
See LEGACY Page 8
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