All aboard ‘The Polar Express’
features
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„ Women’s basketball falls to Furman
Sports M see page 4
Campus
Drama department receives prestigious award
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MEX)S /
NEWS
briefs
by Sean Robinson
Stajf Reporter
Student dies in kayaking accident
I national
Tom Ridge, the United States’
first homeland security advisor, left
President Bush’s cabinet after only
three years of attempting to reor
ganize American security Nov. 30.
The seventh Bush cabinet mem
ber to decide not to continue on
into a second term. Ridge cited a
desire to move family and personal
matters to a higher priority as a rea
son for his departure.
I international
while promising Canadian
Prime Minister Paul Martin to work
toward easing a U.S. ban on Cana
dian beef. President Bush stood by
and defended decisions on trade
and Iraq that have strained the U.S.-
Canadian relationship over the last
four years Nov. 30.
Even while thousands of anti-
j Bush protesters lined the streets to
I protest his visit. President Bush de-
Inied that his decisions damaged
I U.S-Canadian ties.
In the wake of elections some are
I calling fraudulent, the Ukrainian
I opposition party pulled out of ne
gotiations Nov. 30 that some hoped
might lead Ukrainian President
Leonid Kuchma to back a re-run of
the election. The opposition said
the election for the position of presi
dent had been tampered with, and
Colin Powell recently affirmed a
U.S. position in support of a re-run
I of the election.
ENTERTAINMENT
The longest winning streak in
television game show history ended
Nov. 30 when Ken Jennings lost on
an episode of “Jeopardy!” after hav
ing earned more than $2.5 million
in 74 wins. The record string of vic
tories began in June for the 30-year-
old software engineer from Salt
Lake City and earned him
$2,520,700 in cash while boosting
ratings for the show by 22 percent
over the same period.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Patients treated with radioactive
niaterial are more likely to set off
security alarms because more of
them are being equipped with sen
sitive radiation detectors, according
to a Nov. 30 report. Radioactive
medications can last in the body for
up to three months, according to
the report. It urged patients to in
form security guards of their treat
ment before trying to go through
the detectors.
SPORTS
The University of Notre Dame
fired head football coach Tyrone
Willingham Nov. 30 after a 21-15
record over three seasons. The
school athletic director Kevin
White said that the school has made
the progress of the field necessary
to reestablish Notre Dame as part
of the college football elite under
Willingham’s leadership.
health
U.S. researchers reported Nov.
30 that germs found in dental
plaque can make their way into the
lungs and cause fatal pneumonia in
elderly nursing home patients.
by Kristen Rugger!
Stajf Reporter
Brian Rueff, sophomore mul
timedia major, died in a kayaking
accident over Thanksgiving break.
His body was found Nov. 25.
“He was a really generous guy,”
said Andy Burke, Rueff’s friend
and roommate at University Place
apartments. “His passion was
kayaking. He was on the river
about four or five times a week.”
Kayaking was RuelF’s main rea
son for coming to UNCA, accord
ing to Burke, junior psychology
major.
“He finished his first semester
at (Appalachian State University),
and I think he wanted to come to
Asheville because there’s a tighter
boating community here,” said
Burke. “That was his number one
reason for com
ing here.”
Rueff, 20, was
originally from
Milford, Mich.
“(Rueff) was
a very experi
enced paddler,”
said undeclared
sophomore
Chris Schell
who was
kayaking with
Rueff at Green
River. “What
happened was a freak accident. It
could have happened to anyone.”
■f'
A. -r
■tr-
COURTESY OF SHELLEY BAKER
Brian RuefF (center) and friends (from left to right) Andy Burke, Liz Laxague and Shelley
Baker hang out at a friends apartment in University Place several months ago.
“(Rueff) was a very
experienced paddler.
What happened was a
freak accident. It could
have happened to any
one.”
Chris Schell
undeclared sophomore
Rueff was
boating in the
Green River with
three friends
Nov. 23. Green
River is known as
a Class 5 and can
be very danger
ous, according to
Carl Swain, assis
tant chief of the
Blue Ridge Fire
and Rescue.
As the group
of boaters ap
proached a section of the river
known as the Narrows, Rueff
paddled ahead and was soon out
of sight, according to
Hendersonville County Sheriff s
Lt. Walt Harper. Authorities said
Rueff’s kayak apparently over
turned.
The group, which had kayaked
in Green River numerous times
before, usually got out of their
kayaks and walked along a trail in
order to bypass this section, ac
cording to Harper. Rueff s friends
assumed he had done so, but then
found his overturned kayak below
the rapids.
The group searched for Rueff
until dark and then went for help.
A search party looked for Rueff
until midnight, but the high wa
ters, due to recent rain, delayed the
search until the next morning.
Duke Power, which controls the
water level in the Green River, low
ered it so the search could con
tinue Thursday morning.
Thursday’s search was more suc
cessful. The crews found his body
about 100 yards downriver from
where his kayak had beached, ac
cording to the Associated Press.
Many of Rueff’s friends who
were away visiting their families
See accident on page 8
UNCA salaries lowest in UNC system
by Sarah Schmidt
Staff Reporter
The UNCA administration recently worked
to raise salaries to a more competitive level
through campus-based tuition increases after
finding that faculty and staff salaries trail be
hind other UNC baccaluareate univerities.
Students rate UNCA highly in teaching ef
fectiveness and quality of instruction, accord
ing to the Spring 2004 UNCA Faculty Sala
ries Report. Students also considered that in
the intellectual environment on campus
UNCA beat out other UNC baccalaureate in
stitutions in all but one of 11 surveys of sopho
mores, seniors and alumni in 2002.
UNCA students also outstrip the other bac
calaureate institutions in SAT scores, with the
average UNCA freshman from 2003 scoring
1166 and other universities scoring an aver
age of 858, according to the report. Despite
these points in UNCA’s favor, the staff and fac
ulty are paid less on average than other peer
institutions.
“UNCA has always lagged in terms of sal- sue,” said Mullen. “We’ve got certain advan-
ary,” said Chancellor James Mullen. “I think tages. This is a great place to live. It’s a won-
wh'at has happened historically is a number of derful academic community and a great inter-
years ago, during the 1980s and 70s, UNCA disciplinary collaboratiori and spirit. But, at
began to trail in terms of its
salaries. The Board of Gov
ernors votes for the budget.
That budget is then taken
to the General Assembly. It
then becomes part of the
state’s budget, a part of the
university system budget.”
Without a competitive
salary to offer and with one
of the higher cost-of-living
areas in the UNG system,
UNGA could face future
problems in terms of hiring
and employing faculty and
“In 2000, our campus-
based tuition was allo
cated towards student
services and equipment
needs rather than faculty
salaries. It turns out most
other campuses used
theirs towards salaries.”
Mark Padilla
vice chancellor of academic
affairs
staff.
“Acknowledging the fact
that we are low, and ac
knowledging the fact that it becomes a com
petitive issue when it comes to recruiting fac
ulty, we need to take steps to address the is-
the end of the day, the salary is
a factor. We’ve been fortunate
that people have come here and
stayed here, but we have to
watch to make certain that’s the
case.”
Some factors that may have
influenced the budget for
UNCA, voted upon by Board
of Governors, include UNCA’s
size and status as a baccalaure
ate institution. Provost and
Vice Chancellor of Academic
Affairs Mark Padilla noted
other factors in UNCA’s bud-
In 2000, our campus-based
tuition was allocated towards
student services and equipment needs rather
See salary on page 8
Study links lack of
sleep with obesity
by Sarah Schmidt
Staff Reporter
BRIAN DAVIS/staff photographer
Erin McDonald, sophomore environmental studies, struggles
to stay awake to finish her homework.
Students at UNCA disagree
with the findings of a recent study
at Columbia University that indi
cates that sleep deprivation leads
to an increase in appetite and obe
sity, saying instead that their ap
petites tend to go down as they got
less sleep.
Researchers at Columbia Uni
versity in New York compared
sleep patterns and obesity rates
from the 1980s to base their find
ings. The researchers made the as
sociation between sleep and
weight from records from a sam
pling of 6,115 people between the
ages of 32 and 59. People getting
two to four hours of sleep a night
See sleep on page 8
UNCA
considers
university
growth
by Rheannon Yokeley
Staff Reporter
The UNCA Task Force on
Campus Size met on the third floor
of the Owen Conference Center
Nov. 18. The group met to discuss
the possibility of increa.sed enroll
ment at UNCA and to talk about
whether UNCA should grow, ac
cording to Irene Rossell, associate
professor of environmental studies
and member of the task force.
“The charge of the task force is
to make a recommendations to the
UNCA Faculty Senate and to the
chancellor about whether univer
sity enrollment should continue to
rise,” Rossell. “If further growth is
recommended, we have to make
additional recommendations about
the nature of that growth.”
Increased growth of high school
graduates in North Carolina, espe
cially the piedmont region, caused
changes in the university system
and in UNCA, according to Archer
Gravely, director of the office for
institutional research at UNCA.
This growth was the reason behind
the $50 million UNCA received
for construction projects on cam
pus.
“Right now we (UNCA) enroll
approximately 30 percent of all of
the high school graduates who en
roll in one of the 16 universities in
the UNC system,” said Gravely.
The headcount for the fall 2004
semester is at 3,485 right now, ac
cording to Rossell. In the past, the
enrollment figures have been de
termined by fall headcount where
everyone on campus in the fall was
counted as a “student.”
UNCA now looks at numbers
by counting the number of people
who represent a full-time student.
This means that part-time students
who used to be counted as indi
vidual students are now considered
part of a full-time student, accord
ing to Rossell.
Increased enrollment at UNCA
could call for increases in state
funding, according to Gravely.
“We’re not funded on the num
ber of full-time equivalent stu
dents, but on student credit hours,
Gravely. “Different programs are
funded differently. It varies de
pending on where the students are
taking those hours. If the size of
the university was to grow we’d re
ceive more funding, but if enroll
ment later dropped we could face
having to give back part of that
funding mid-way through the se
mester. Many institutions have
dealt with that problem recently.”
The face of UNCA is changing,
according to Rossell. We have a
younger student body and fewer
part-time students, with an in
crease in full-time students.
In a 10-year profile of the stu
dent body at UNCA several
changes are clear, according to
Gravely. Full-time students were
See class SIZE on page 8