,!■■■ '•
Super Size Me:’ tales of a McGlutton
^ ■ see page 2
Sports
Cross country confident of strong 2004 finish
■ see page 5
C'nmttnc Student exhibition in new Highsmith Gallery
X ■ see page 6
Volume Issue 1
NEWS
BRIEFS
WWW. unca. edu!banner
September 2, 2004.
BY Sean Robinson
Stajf Reporter
CAMPUS CRIME
UNCA police charged 19-year-
old sophomore Russell Johnson
with a state citation for underage
possession of a malt beverage on
August 25, according to police.
Johnson, along with three other
students, was questioned after a
police dispatch call about a party
in Mills Hall, loud television sounds
and people talking inside a dorm
room. When Johnson came to the
door, his breath smelled of alcohol,
said police.
All four subjects admitted drink
ing, according to police record.
Johnson, however, was the only
student charged with a state cita
tion, and was not administered an
“alco-sensor” test, according to the
report.
UNCA Campus Police, in con
junction with the Woodfin Police
Department, arrested 36-year-old
Thomas Carpenter for felony pos
session of 0.2 grams of crack cocaine
on July 7 on the UNCA campus,
said officer Shannon Green.
Police also charged a woman
identified as Crystal Lynn Tweed
with prostitution and possession of
paraphernalia at the same crime
scene, said Green.
When police on patrol ques
tioned the two, Tweed admitted to
being a prostitute, produced a pipe
for smoking controlled substances,
and told police that Carpenter
would not pay her for services ren
dered earlier, and that Carpenter
had crack cocaine in his vehicle, said
Green.
Carpenter then allowed police to
search the vehicle, upon which time
police discovered the crack cocaine,
and arrested both individuals, said
Green.
ASHEVILLE
The Buncombe County Board
of Elections office is registering or
updating the records of around
1,000 voters per week, according to
the Asheville Citizen-Times.
Some 142,985 Buncombe
County residents are registered to
vote, and a bigh turnout is expected
due to the presidential election this
year, according to the Citizen-
Times.
NATIONAL
President Bush told veterans at
an American Legion convention
that the United States will win the
War on terror, according to the As
sociated Press.
“We may never sit down at a
peace table, but make no mistake
about it, we are winning and we will
win,” said Bush.
The President’s contradictory
statement on NBC, “I don’t think
you can win it,” in reference to the
War on terror, was the catalyst for
his remarks at the convention, ac
cording to the AP.
INTERNATIONAL
A video posted online, allegedly
showing the beheading of a
Nepalese worker and the shooting
to death of his 11 co-workers, led
interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad
Allawi to pledge revenge, according
to the AP.
Freshman class largest in UNCA history
BY Sarah Schmidt
Stajf Reporter
Move on over. UNCA makes room for
incoming freshman class
School official in all departments worked
since May of this year to accommodate the
largest freshman class ever to enroll at
UNCA.
“It was a real challenge, but tbe whole
time we were telling ourselves this is good
news,” said Nancy Williams, director of
housing and residence life. “It as a very, very
difficult summer because of our commit
ment to offer quality spaces to students, but
was also good news.”
The number of enrolled freshmen in the
2003-2004 school year totaled 599 in com
parison to this year’s total of 733 enrolled
freshmen, according to statistics from the
UNCA Fact Book.
The admissions office made changes to
the manner in which it admits freshmen for
the 2005-2006 school year, replacing the
rolling admissions system with two yearly
deadlines for applications.
“All year our applications were running
ahead, and along with that our acceptance
rate was still the same,” said Scott Schaeffer,
director of admissions. “Throughout the
year. Archer Graveley does a projection, and
the number of freshmen
we were going to end up ————
with was in that projection,
but at the high end of that
projection.
“I believe the institutio:
is prepared to keep the class
sizes as we have, which is
one of the reasons why
there is discussion of‘How
big do we want to get?’ I
tbink with us doing with
the adjuncts that we hire
and the way we handle it,
we’re keeping the size of
classes as best we can. We try to keep our
average class size as we have in the past so
PHOTO COURTESY OF DAN MILLSPAUCH
Chancellor Mullen offered some words
UNCA’s annual Bulldog Day. The class
of encouragement to the new freshman class during its community service on
of 2008 is the largest in UNCA history.
“All year our applications
were running ahead, and
along with that our
acceptance rate was still
the same.”
Scot Schaejfer
director of admissions
we don’t change who we are,” said Schaeffer.
Housing and Residence Life has made
some of the more visible
changes on campus as a re
sult of the large freshman
class. The housing office
notified returning students
in June of the size of the in
coming freshman class and
of the problem of bousing
them all. Some upperclass
men moved to the Wood
land Hills apartments
leased by tbe housing of
fice. The housing office also
converted several public
spaces within Founders and
Mills Halls into dorm rooms and allowed
students to live in the guest apartments.
“Our commitment was to put every stu
dent in a quality place,” said Williams. “We
know that students need a
place to be comfortable, ——
that it contributes to their
academic success here.
When you have three or
four people living in a
single dorm room, that
doesn’t happen.”
Opinions varied from
student to student on these
new housing options after
they moved in.
“At the end of July, the
school contacted all the
upperclassmen with the
Woodland Hills apartment opportunity as
an alternative to living on campus,” said
“I believe the institution
is prepared to keep the
class sizes as we have,
which is one of the rea
sons why there is discus
sion of‘How big do we
want to get?’”
Scot Schaeffer
director of admissions
Caryn Gibson, a senior creative writing ma
jor. “They told us that there was this mas
sive influx of freshmen this
——year and it sounded like a
.good idea. So we went
ahead and decided to move
there.
“When we got to the
apartments, the phone
wasn’t working yet, which'
they have since remedied.
There are only two rickety
desks for four students, and
as of a week into classes, we
only have on Internet con
nection for four computers.
They were considering
See FRESHMEN on page 10
BRIAN DAVIS/staff photographer
College students are recognizing the importance of the youth
vote this fall. Jennifer Watson, a senior psychology major
registers to vote.
Students determined to
make their votes count
BY Rheannon Yokeley
Staff Reporter
This November millions of
people have the opportunity to go
to the polls and decide the next
president of the United States.
President Bush and Senator Kerry
both have their eyes on the youth
vote and the weight that it carries
in a major election like this one.
As the nation saw in November
2000, every vote counts. Voter
turnout in 2000 proved disap
pointing with only 17.2 percent of
registered voters ages 18-24 years
old showing up at the polls, accord
ing to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Young people made up
See voting on page 10
Salary boost from tuition
increase proves disappointing
BY Sean Robinson
Staff Reporter
Despite Chancellor Mullen’s
recommendations to the UNC
Board of Governors, UNCA pro
fessors will not likely receive the
salary increase deemed justified by
students and administrators, said
Bill Spellman.
Spellman, associate vice chan
cellor for academic affairs and
chair of the 2003 UNCA task
force on tuition increases, said the
recommendations approved by
student and faculty members on
tbe task force were approved by
the Chancellor, but were under
mined by the Board of Governors’
final ruling.
“The funding formula for state
employees and faculty in terms of
salary increases comes from the
legislature,” said Spellman.
As conciliation for the reduc
tion, the Board of Governors ap
proved a 2.5 percent increase in
state employee salaries, including
professors at UNC campuses, said
Spellman. This comes to $1000
for professors making $40,000 a
year, approximately base range for
new faculty with “newly-minted
PhDs,” said Spellman.
Such an increase is equal to
$83.33 per month, which equals
$0.52 per hour assuming a 40
hour work week.
While UNCA ranks third in
the UNC system in average SAT
score for incom
ing freshmen,
behind UNC-
Chapel Hill and
NC State Uni
versity, it also
ranked second
from the bottom
in average
teacher salary
last year, said
Spellman.
Students on
the task force,
while under
standably not
“No one likes to see their
tuition increase. I was
really surprised at how
positively they responded
in that they felt the
quality of what they were
receiving was higher than
second in the system.”
Bill Spellman
associate vice chancellor for
academic affairs
tively they responded in that they
felt the quality of what they were
receiving was higher than second
in the system.”
Last year, state employees, a
group that includes UNC system
professors, received a $500 bonus,
according to Spellman.
“But the bonus wasn’t added to
their base sal-
ary,” said
Spellman. “It
was just a one
time thing, and
after taxes it
doesn’t take you
very far.”
The ability to
provide com
petitive salaries
to incoming
professors is
drastically im
portant to the
school’s ability to
wanting to see the cost of tuition
rise, were receptive to the idea of
sacrificing savings for the increase
in salary, according to Spellman.
“No one likes to see their tu
ition increase,” said Spellman. “I
was really surprised at how posi-
recruit the nation’s best educators,
said Spellman. When visiting pro
fessorial candidates have visited
UNCA, they enjoy the area, the
students, and the facilities, but
See TUITION on page 10