The Blue Banner Mountain Jam Drop out, quit your job, go on Phish ■ see page 10 Sports Men’s basketball picks BCS win ■ see page 5 Volume 37 Issue 4 The University of North Carolina at Asheville UNCA plans new science building Ginger McKnight News Reporter UNCA’s new science building will house the biology, chemistry and multimedia arts and science departments starting during the 2006-07 academic year. “I think there are perceptions out there that maybe the biology and the chemistry department want to have a brawl to settle this, but that is not the case at all,” said Assistant Professor Herb Pomfrey, coordina tor for the biology general educa tion program and secondary biol ogy representative in the Building Committee. “Both departments are really committed to getting the best building in that parking lot that we can get.” AN.C. bond referendum, passed in November 2000, provided the funding for the new science build ing. UNCA placed the building project on its agenda, and in the fall of2002, formed the building com mittee. The 10 members of the committee represent the biology, chemistry, and multimedia depart ments, along with facilities man agement and UNCA administra- “This project resulted from the bond referendum of November 2000 and is just one of a number of major projects for UNCA that were funded by North Carolina voters,” said Keith Krumpe, associate professor of chemistry and primary chemistry representative on the Building Committee, in an e-mail. The Building Committee makes many different decisions concern ing the new science building. The committee chose an architectural design company and discussed the location of the building, the choice to hire a construction manager and how many departments to bring m DEARBORN MCCORKLE/NEWS EDITOR Leo Klausmann, a sophomore ecology major, dissects an insect in zoology lab. The new science and multimedia building will provide new, up-to-date labs, classrooms and research facilities. into the new building. “We spent several months consid ering many possible sites on the campus,” said Bert Holmes, Phillip G. Carson Distinguished Chair of Science and secondary chemistry representative on the Building Committee, in an e-mail. “Initially the building was programmed to house only biology and chemistry, but it was determined in the spring and summer of 2002 that a third department should be added to the building to better utilize the money from the bond fund.” The committee chose the multi- media arts and science department as the third department to share the building because of its growing en rollment. “There’s a lot of space in the build ing and its important to have inter actions among and between differ ent disciplines,” said Professor Gregg Kormanik, primary biology representative on the Building Committee. “Multimedia was of the size and of a nature that it would be a good addition to the science and multimedia building.” Some students have mixed feel ings on which department should be placed in the new building. Originally, the committee thought the math department would join the biology and chemistry depart ments in the new building, but last semester the committee chose the multimedia arts and science de partment instead. “It would be great if the building made more sense (and) gave the math department some room,” said Lyla Hance, a sophomore who in tends on majoring in biochemistry, in an e-mail. “But as long as the thing doesn’t fall down, no com plaints here.” Many believe the new building will provide much needed space for the presently cramped departments. “I definitely think that the new building will be beneficial for all three departments,” said Renee Hodge, a senior biochemistry ma jor. “Right now all departments are sort of squished in and spread out and we don’t have a lot of space.” The committe plans to build the new science building next to the Ramsey Library, between the Rhoades-Robinson building and the Humanities Lecture Hall. The new building is currently referred to as the new science and multime dia building, but the name could change in the future. “The building will be erected in the faculty and staff parking lot located next to Robinson Hall, Tennent Park and the Humanities Lecture Hall,” said Krumpe. “The building is currently slated to be four stories tali, so as to be some what consistent with the neighbor ing buildings. Some students feel the faculty and staff will not agree with placing the building in the faculty and staff parking lot. “I wouldn’t take up all those park ing spaces,” said Tony Vu Jr., a sophomore who intends on major ing in biochemistry. “The faculty and staff are going to need the park ing spaces.” The committe most recently dis cussed the finalization of how much space and rooms each department will receive in the new building at their meeting Feb. 17. “Basically what we are working on now, is we j ust finalized what’s called the programming, how many labs we want to have, how many offices we want to have, how many class rooms we want to have,” said Pomfrey. “You know, how much does chemistry get, how much does biology get, how much does multi- media and sciences get.” See SCIENCE Page 12 Athletics receives one third of student fee raise Laura Logeman News Reporter Of the recent $33.25 per student raise in student fees, the athletics department received the most amount of money. “The increase was used for safe transportation recommended by the National Highway Traffic Safety Board, increased insurance premi ums and a required piece of equip ment in the training room,” said Joni Comstock, director of athlet- The athletics department will re ceive $11 of the $33.25 raise per student this upcoming year. The athletics department had the high est fee before the raise, according to the UNCA Web site. Mike Gore, associate director of athletics, declined to comment when asked about the budget situ ation. Several coaches and student athletes declined to comment as well, saying that they did not have permission from the department to discuss the budget. Athletic Department Over Budget in 2001 Volleyball Recruiting $ 1905 c Women's Cross-Country $ 741 over Men's Cross-Country $ 2884 over February 27y 2003 Enrollment rises, state funding falls Becky Reese News Reporter ED FICKLE/PHOTO EDITOR Seven areas within the athletics department overspent their budgets for a combined total of $37,456. The athletics department receives most of their funding from student fees. This year the athletics depart ment expects to get $1,195,725 from student fees alone, according to their 2002-03 budget. Despite the large amount of money the athletics department receives from student fees, they have run on a deficit budget in years past. Although the current budget does not project an overdraft of their account, the athletics depart ment has had trouble in the past. In 1998, the athletics department overdrafted their account by $ 172,674 and had an overall deficit balance of $220,887. They received an audit for the balance deficit, according to Steve Honeycutt, uni versity budget officer. The athletics department had five years to correct the deficit balance. They corrected the balance before the end of the five year period, according to Honeycutt. The athletics department paid their deficit by the summer of2001 by using its own savings and auxil iary accounts from the Chancellor’s office. The department did not use any money from student fees or from the state, according to Comstock. Despite the budget not having an overall deficit currently, some areas of the athletics department spend more than their allotted amount, while others spend a fraction of their original budget, according to transactions made as of June 2001 in the 2001-02 budget. In 2001, the volleyball team spent 192 percent of their allotted budget for recruiting, or $ 1,905 more than they budgeted. “Combined sala ries and benefits” overspent by $15,682. The training room fol lowed with $8,815 over budget and sports information with $4,608 over budget, according to the 2001-02 budget. Various athletics department ar eas spent a total of $37,456 over their allotted funds as of J une 2001. Areas such as men’s and women’s While enrollment and tuition have steadily increased at UNCA over the past 10 years, state funding for the school has steadily declined as a percentage of total revenues. “As the economy gets worse there are more pressures on all state ser vices, not just education,” said Steve Honeycutt, university budget of ficer. “You’ve got more people out of work, more people on welfare rolls, more people on unemployment. It’s just a fact of life. There is more pressure on the state, but the rev enue coming in starts going down.” In actual dollars, state appropria tions have increased in the last 10 years. However, the percentage of state appropriations in the university’s total revenues has de creased dramatically since the 1991- 92 budget year, according to Honeycutt. In 1991-92, state appropriations totaled 58 percent of UNCA’s total revenue. However, in the 2001 -02 fiscal year, that total dropped to 49.9 percent, less than half of UNCA’s total revenues, said Honeycutt. “The tuition and fees have gone up as far as a percent and as far as actual dollars are concerned,” said Honeycutt. “So basically the stu dents are paying more for their education.” The downturn in the economy has created the shift in revenues and funding in recent years, which began just before the Sept. 11 ter rorist attacks and decreased dra matically after that, according to Honeycutt. “An economist|W(iuld say that the pressure on a university is inversely proportional to the economy,” said Honeycutt. “In other words, be cause of the downshift in the economy, the state cannot give as much money to universities, yet more people enroll due to the lack of available jobs. During bad eco nomic times people have a ten dency to stay in school because there are no jobs.” The economy has affected the re cent rise in enrollment. However, if the economy were to shift into an upswing, enrollment will likely de crease, according to Honeycutt. “I think what you will see is that fewer non-traditional students will get fewer transfers from the com munity college system,” said Honeycutt. Actual enrollment of full time equivalency students has risen from 2,490 in 1991 -92 to 2,773 in 2001 - 02, according to the UNCA Insti tutional Research Web site. The university determines full time equivalency estimates by tak ing all the hours of all enrolled students, then divides that number by 12 hours, which gives a rough estimate of the amount of students enrolled full time at the university, according to Honeycutt. “I don’t want to paint a picture that UNCA is unique, becausewe’re not,” said Honeycutt. “The com- See ATHLETICS Page 12 See BUDGET Page 12 Serving UNCA Since 1982 WWW. unca. edu/banner

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