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The Blue
Banner
Features
‘The Sitcom Experience’ showcases
student talent
■ see page 2
Sports
Bulldogs run in Big South tournament
■ see page 4
Opinions
One-way road trip into awestruck
parenthood
■ see page 7
Volume 36 Issue 9
Public Safety
helps protect
university
The University of North Carolina at Asheville
Jessica Hensley
News Reporter
With ever-increasing reports of
crime on educational grounds,
UNCA’s department of public
safety helps provide a secure cam
pus for the UNCA community.
“The UNCA public safety system
is very secure,” said Michael Beck,
an undeclared sophomore. “I’ve
noticed a lot of stationed police
men in certain areas that might be
of concern.”
UNCA’s department of public
safety makes crime prevention one
of their main goals.
Nine out of the 11 staff earned law
enforcement certification, and
trained for every sort of potentially
dangerous situation.
“We are able to do our own inves
tigations, obtain arrest forms and
occasionally we will serve arrest
warrants for outside agencies,” said
) cards" Caliendo, director of public
“We enforce all criminal arid
tor vehicles laws of the state, and we
get the same training as city and
county ofFicers,” said Caliendo.
The uncertified public safety of
ficers take care of building security
and escorts, while the certified po
lice officers investigate and check
on suspicious people or vehicles,
according to Caliendo.
Public safety does a lot to make
the campus safe, such as constant
patrols, escorts to and from parking
lots at night, weekly lighting '
spectionsand providing emergency
phones located in several parking
areas, according to Investigator Ser
geant Jerry Adams.
Public Safety also depends on other
UNCA faculty, staff and students
to report suspicious activities.
A good relationship with the fa
cilities management and the resi
dence life staff is necessary, accord
ing to Caliendo.
See SAFETY Page 10
Student voters scarce at polls
It!
7
STUART GAINES/ NEWS EDITOR
The voting booths in Montford tor the Oct. ^ elections were mostly vacant even during the lunch hour on a cold and rainy Tuesday
Apathy^ confusion and laziness contribute to poor student turnout in elections
Michelle Dean
News Reporter
The voting record for people be
tween the ages of 18 and 24 vary
from state to state, but usually re
main significantly lower than the
national average for older voters
over the last five years.
“I feel like a lot of people, espe
cially at our age, complain about
politics,” said Leslie Klein, an un
declared freshman. “But for 18 to
25 year olds, only about 18 percent
of us actually vote. A lot of people
act like they’re very active, but then
they say, ‘What’s the point of me
voting?’ It really is important, (and)
if we could get a larger percentage
of people our age to vote it would
make a big difference.”
In Buncombe County, approxi
mately 12,343 people between the
ages of 18 and 24 are registered
voters. But, according to the Bun
combe County Board of Elections
Web site, many of those registered
voters do not vote.
“I’m just lazy,” said undeclared
freshman Steven Anthony. “I
haven’t gotten around to it. I feel
like it’s important to vote, but I’m
just too busy doing school work
and stuff like that.”
Aside from laziness, many stu
dents feel they lack the information
they need to be informed voters.
“With the last election, I didn’t
know it was happening until after
the fact,” said Alex Williams, an
undeclared sophomore. “I do vote
for presidential elections, but a lot
of times, you just get bombarded
by so much information that you
don’t really think about it. You just
get used to it. The slander that goes
on between the candidates really
turns me off
“It seems like you can’t really fig
ure out what the truth is because all
political ads ever talk about is the
candidates’s pasts, and you don’t
know if they’re telling the truth or
not. But that’s politics. It’s all a
dirty game.”
Political campaigns target certain
core and high percentage voting
groups, according to a study done
by Curtis Cans, director of the com
mittee for the study of the Ameri
can electorate.
“This practice leaves many out of
the political dialogue,” said Cans in
an interview with CNN.
Some students feel that politicians
don’t address issues of particular
interest to students.
“The issues don’t really affect me
as much,” said Brunilda Rodriguez,
a junior management major. “All
you hear about are school vouchers,
social security, taxes and prescrip
tions. I don’t like the mudslinging
either.
“To be honest, I probably won’t
vote because I don’t feel like I know
enough. What you hear from the
politicians is not so much about
what they can do, as it is about what
the other guy can’t do. That’s pretty
sad.”
Over the years, several organiza
tions formed to combat the high
rate of voter apathy among stu
dents between the ages of 18 and
24. Web sites like Project Vote
Smart, Election.com, Rock the Vote
and MTV’s Choose or Lose cam
paign introduce political issues and
cover campaigns from a younger
perspective.
On a local level, some publica
tions distribute election editions
that bring information about all
the candidates together.
The 0ct.30 to Nov. 5 edition of
November 7, 2002
Larceny
dominates
UNCA crime
Tabitha Nowak
News Reporter
See VOTERS Page 10
Larceny remains the most com
mon crime for UNCA’s public
safety department to investigate.
“We take anywhere from two or
three larceny reports a week on
average,” said Investigator Sergeant,
Jerry Adams. “Larceny is our num
ber one problem. It’s reported far
more than any other crime.”
Some students said larceny on
campus does not concern them.
“I’m sure people get stuff stolen
occasionally,” said Allison
Daugherty, a sophomore literature
major. “But (larceny) is not a big
Adams said he wished he could
solve every larceny case and return
the stolen items, but that doesn’t
happen often.
“Sometimes, we get information
where we can solve a case. Some
times we don’t, but that’s some
thing we spend a lot of time on,”
said Adams. “In some cases, we are
able to recover the property, but I
would say more often we don’t.
“In (some) cases, we do get addi
tional information, and are able to
solve (the case),” said Adams.
“Then we usually get that prop
erty back. But most of the time,
it’s gone.”
Many different items are stolen
from students and professors, but
easily accessible items are more of
ten the target; of the crime.
“They usually consist of small
items form dorm rooms, items taken
from motor vehicles and items taken
from faculty and staff offices around
campus,” said Adams. “Usually,
(targets include) electronic equip
ment, such as CD players, (or) any
thing that can be sold quickly to get
cash. On occlasion, we have wallets
taken that are left in plain view or
left somewhere where somebody
could get to them easily.”
See LARCENY Page 10
UNCA welcomes diverse new faculty to campus
Melissa Doyle
News Reporter
UNCA hired many new faculty
members this semester. Some new
faces include Brian Hook, an assis
tant classics professor; Joseph
Berryhill, an assistant psychology
professor and Richard DeLuca, a
visiting lecturer in the foreign lan
guages department.
Brian Hook
Hook, the new assistant classics
professor, grew up in Columbia,
South Carolina and attended Uni
versity of South Carolina as an un
dergraduate with a major in En
glish. He went on to Duke Univer
sity for graduate school.
Hook’s first interest in classics
came while attending USC. He de
cided that he wanted to read the
New Testament in Greek, so, he
enrolled in an Ancient Greek course
during his first semester.
“The first year was the basic intro
duction to the language, and I loved
it,” said Hook. “It was hard, but it
was really great. It made sense to
The next semester. Hook took a
course on Plato.
“It was very hard, and it was in
toxicating. It was fantastic,” said
Hook. “The dialogue that really
grabbed me was The Apology of
Socrates.’”
Despite Hook’s interest in the clas
sics, he stayed with his major in
English.
He then decided to attend Duke
University andstudy classics. Ittook
him six years to complete graduate
school, and during four of those
years at Duke, Hook also taught
classes.
“I taught one class (per semester)
L
STUART GAINES/NEWS EDITOR
Richard DeLuca, a visiting lecturer, appears teaching a Spanish
class. He is among several new faculty members this semester.
to a small amount of undergradu- I love. This is rewarding. I’d do it
ates. It was a very broad class. Once everyday.”
I got into the classroom, then I After graduate school. Hook
knew that this is what I (wanted),” taught at Creighton University in
said Hook. “This is what I want to the midwest. But he wanted to be
do for the rest of my life. This what closer to home, and this led him to
Asheville.
Hook has actually been teaching
at UNCA for two years. He taught
here as an adjunct professor, and he
also taught at Christ School.
Hook enjoys teaching at the col
lege level because the students are
in a transitional period of their life.
He likes witnessing and helping
this transition in student’s lives.
Joseph Berryhill
New assistant psychology profes
sor Joseph Berryhill also likes this
transition period. He feels that most
people attending college are at a
time in their lives when they are
developing their own identities and
developing a sense of who they are
as people.
Berryhill first got involved in psy
chology in the early 1990s. He
wanted to join the Peace Corps,
and pursue volunteer work. After
looking into it more, he decided
the Peace Corps was not the route
for him, but he still wanted to vol
unteer somewhere.
He found a place in Arizona,
taught English as a second language
to Hispanic boys, and decided to
pursue that. He taught in the school
for two years.
The following year, he took a po
sition as director of an all-male dor
mitory in Mexico, caring for 54
nine-year old boys. This position
pushed him in the direction of psy
chology.
“I wanted to help them, and some
times felt powerless to do that,”
said Berryhill. “That is what made
me crazy enough to go to graduate
school for five years.”
Originally from Charlotte,
Berryhill attended UNC-Chapel
Hill as an undergraduate, and
earned a BA in journalism. He
worked as a reporter for four years.
See FACULTY Page 10
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