Newspapers / University of North Carolina … / Feb. 24, 2005, edition 1 / Page 7
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February 24, 2005 The Blue Banner Page 7 DITOR n. lation rotecl Juals, )f the :udent ihibit- of the ingto of us lators) n of a cd. “It tatioB would owers epeo ;d and aiding ig the ousljt ;re (at IS for It stn- g ;et 121 eable ant. 1 ;als in I it.” lential I Dec- >eoplc I rtl lenda- nven- ’t tat- It I lestei I le )i th«| stuff.” I offer It stn- plan. [ ; Cit)' -Hall, se the! ren a I It las'I t only! coin-1 to I ited a I sat tit ill r dial I meal I juy *1 otlii: mabli .eat I Campus Q&A with Jenna Gold, co-president of Hillel, UNGA’s Jewish student group by Dusty Hicks Staff Reporter Jenna Gold, undeclared sopho more, is co-president of Hillel, the Jewish student organization at UNCA. Hillel, a national organization for Jewish and non-Jewish stu dents, seeks to create a comfort able atmosphere for religious, cul tural and recreational activities. It is the largest Jewish campus organization in the world. In the following interview, Jenna Gold explains the inner workings of Hillel; What is Hillel? Jenna Gold: Hillel is an on-cam- pus student organization. It is a Jewish organization, but we have members who are non-Jewish stu dents. Sometimes we fund speeches and such along with the Center for Jewish Studies. We do a lot of col laborating with them, because Rick Chess is not only a professor, but also the director for the Center of Jewish Studies as well as advi sor for Hillel. We also have Friday night Shabbat dinners once a month at homes in the Jewish community, which is a nice opportunity for everyone to get together to have some real home-cooked food. It is also to relax and have a good time. What is Hillel’s mission? Gold: It’s really just to have Jewish students come together. There’s not a huge Jewish popula tion on campus, so it’s a way for us to find each other and spend time together. How many members are involved with Hillel? Gold: I would say we have about 15 to 20 members with prob ably about 10 who are active. What does Hillel offer its mem bers? Gold: We have weekly meetings that are really about sitting down and having a chance to talk with one another as well as planning things together. Of course, there are the Shabbat dinners, which are the best part. It’s a lot of fun. Do you receive funding from UNCA? Gold: We receive funding just like any other student group would. We go through SGA and fill out all of the necessary paper work. They allocate certain funds for the specific needs that we have. Overall, we don’t have a lot of funding from anyone. We make do with what we have. How does Hillel contribute to the UNCA campus? Gold: We collaborate with the Center for Jewish Studies. This semester, Scott Sherman, our intern, is planning a Purim carni val with raffles and maybe an entrance fee to raise money for local charities and for Tsunami relief. We will be doing a food drive for that. The Purim carnival will be much like the asian market. Each booth will be a different student organization that will have a chance to raise some money. I think that will be a really big con tribution to the campus once it gets pulled together. Who are the officers? Gold; Myself and Jenna Horrow are co-presidents. Scott Sherman is the intern. We also have Jeff Goldblum, who is our new treasur er. Why did you join Hillel? Gold: I just wanted to meet other Jewish students and get the chance to eat Shabbat dinner off campus and just relax. Also, with Shabbat dinners, it’s a really great chance to make connections in the Jewish community, because there are a lot of older couples from the synagogue. If we need funding for confer OLIVIA KORMAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Jenna Gold, sophomore literature student (left), and Jenna Horrow, undeclared sophomore, co-presidents of Hiilel, tell each other jokes during a discussion about the future pians for the activities and special events the Jewish student group will sponsor. ences, sometimes we can turn to the Jewish community for help. It’s just a nice way to meet people and support each other. What activities will Hillel be involved in this semester? Gold; Well, there will be the Purim carnival. That will be the biggest thing we have on our plate right now. We will be having the monthly Shabbat dinners as usual. Danny Maseng, who is a per former, will be coming in to prob ably do some concerts in the Highsmith University Union. We recently had a speaker come whose name is Michael Staub. He spoke on black power and Jewish radicalism. There are other activi ties that we will be involved in as well. Can anyone join Hillel? Gold; We do have non-Jewish members. We welcome them just as we do anyone else. Where and when does Hillel meet? ’'nr Gold: Usually we meet on Thursdays around 8:30 p.m. in Highsmith University Union. Sometimes that changes. It’s not every Thursday night, just when we have something important to talk about. What do typical meetings consist of? Gold: At our last meeting, I was doing some promotion for a free, 10-day trip to Israel for Jewish stu dents. Students disagree on the effectiveness of the UNCA eBarker by Natalie Jones Staff Reporter Students have divided opinions regarding the importance or nuisance of the UNCA eBarker and they give numerous suggestions on how to make it more appealing. “I receive the eBarker in my e-mail account, but I hardly ever check it, because I see it as just another piece of junk mail I have to erase,” said Jake Crouch, sophomore atmospheric sci ence student. Other students think it is useful and informa tive. “I think the eBarker is good ■ because my e-mail is the one thing I actually pay attention to, and it is helpful to know what is happening on cam pus,” said Rachel Byers, ‘T receive the eBarker in my e- pub, SdlU xxdCIlci Jjycia, ^ .. -|- sophomore psychology stu- rnail aCCOUnt, DUt 1 hardly ever check £7 The eBarker is the best way for UNCA’s Campus Life to communicate with students, according to John Bucher, the associate director of campus life. “The eBarker’s purpose is to be a one-stop click access for students to know what is hap pening on campus and, some times, off campus too,” said May Wahdan, programming assistant for the department of campus life. “It is just another way for us to keep UNCA stu- dents connected to extracur- ' ricular activities and programming events that the different campus departments and organiza tions sponsor.” The eBarker is very useful for campus organ izations, according to Bucher. “I am on the UNCA club softball team, and we used the eBarker to promote a Valentine s Day fundraiser we were having,” said Heather O’Dell, senior business administration and marketing student. “I don’t know if it helped, but it was good because now people might know we do have a softball team. The eBarker can be a great promotion^ tool for organizations in need of advertising, according to Stacy Clore, sophomore psycholo gy student. “My organization. Alpha Xi Delta, used the eBarker to promote our recruitment for this it, because I see it as just another piece of junk mail.” Jake Crouch sophomore atmospheric science student semester,” said Clore. “I check the eBarker almost every time I receive it, so I think it def initely helps organizations promote their events.” The eBarker is the main form of communica tion for students that spend a limited amount of time on campus, according to Wahdan. “It is pretty easy for on-campus students to know what events are going on because we do on campus promotions in the Dining Hall and on flyers,” said Wahdan, who compiles infor mation for the eBarker. “For commuters, who are only on campus for class, the eBarker is an easier way for them to know what events are happening on campus.” Some commuters do appreciate the effort UNCA puts into trying to keep them informed. “I think the eBarker is informative, because a lot of commuters come to class and then leave,” said O’Dell. “At least with the eBarker, they have the opportunity to find out about events and what is happening on campus. I am a commuter, and this makes me feel more connected.” Byers, commuter student, suggests the eBarker include more information for off-cam pus students, such as when there are free dinners in the dining hall. Flashy design and other attention-grabbing strategies could improve the eBarker, according to Crouch. “I think catchy subject lines — would help attract my atten tion, because it just says eBarker. That is the first thing I see, and I delete it,” said Crouch. The eBarker staff welcomes any suggestions for improvement, according to Bucher. “I think it would be a little more appealing if we have better headlines or subject lines,” said Bucher. “We are open to feedback, good or bad, because sometimes the bad is more useful than the good.” Improving the appearance and making the eBarker more appealing to the eye is another suggestion. „ j “I think the layout could be better,” said Byers. “It is very boring and plain, so I will just scan through it or just read the first two things.” Students say the bleak appearance takes away from the information provided by the eBarker. “I think the eBarker is definitely informative but it doesn’t exactly catch everyone’s eye because it is in black and white,” said Clore. “It is pretty boring to read.” Bucher addressed the issue of a poor layput and explains there are plans of improvement. “What we would like to do is improve the formatting,” said Bucher. “For some reason the way the information technology is set up the nice formatting we put the eBarker in is removed when it is sent to the students.” This problem is the root of the eBarker’s drab appearance, according to Bucher. “It just ends up looking like a regular plain text document,” said Bucher. “That makes it more difficult for us because it doesn’t look as interesting when students receive it after the formatting has been changed.” UNCA could utilize other forms of communi cation to inform students instead of filling up their e-mail accounts with unwanted messages, according to Crouch. “I think that the most effective way to com municate is on the UNCA Web page at the bot tom where it lists all the events for campus that day,” said Crouch. “I always check it because it is so readily available. I would rather just check there on my own instead of having another email every week.” Some students suggested communication tac tics such as flyers and newsprints instead of the eBarker. “Originally the eBarker was called the ‘Bulldog Barker,’ and it was a newsprint pam phlet,” said Bucher. “Last year we started doing it in e-mails instead of newsprint. The newsprints were not getting picked up and it didn’t make since to invest all that money and time when people weren’t reading them.” Unfortunately, students who do not like receiving the eBarker will have to endure the e- mails regardless. Some students ask to have their name taken off the list, but the only way to avoid the email is to label it on your browser as spam, accord ing to Bucher. “The eBarker goes out to three lists; the stu dent list, the faculty list and staff list,” said Bucher. A student cannot be taken off the student list because they would not get the official emails about registration, payments and cancellations, according to Bucher. “If a student really does not want eBarker they could label it as spam before it comes into their inbox and would never see it,” said Bucher. Market option was designed for the Dining Hall, where they can con trol who comes in through the cashier, according to Nagorka. “When we moved over to Highsmith we lost some of that kind of control,” said Nagorka. “You have an open eating envi ronment that anybody can come into. It isn’t accessed through a cashier, you can just come in sit down and eat.” Another advantage to City Market is the disposable utensils that make student theft irrelevant, according to Nagorka. “In the Dining Hall we go through about 1.7 portions of food, which means for every per son who walks in, on average, will come up 1.7 times to a sta tion to eat,” said Nagorka. “It jumped much greater at the Highsmith, up to 2.6 or 2.8 por- , tions, which means one person is eating three portions of food.” Students were using the City continued from page 6 Market as a convenience store, coming in and shopping, and sometimes taking enough food out in their backpacks to feed their friends, according to Nagorka. “Students were getting a siz able amount of food and using it as grocery store for their dorm room, which we’re not designed to do,” said Nagorka. “It’s all you can eat, but you can’t eat, then load up a shopping basket and walk out. When we saw we were getting into a lot of that towards the end of last semester, we came back and did several things.” City Market officials posted the rule changes in the “Resident Times” newsletter before imple menting the changes at the begin ning of the semester, according to Nagorka. “Then we had an extra person put on staff, just to watch and help educate students, and also to look out for violators,” said Nagorka. Events continued from page 6 Held Me Grand.” Tennis Match: UNCA tennis team will play N.C. A&T at 11:00 a.m. in Greensboro, NC. Women’s Basketball Game: UNCA women’s basketball team will play Coastal Carolina at 2:00 p.m. in Conway, S.C. Baseball: The UNCA baseball team will play a double-header against Samford University. The first will start at 2 p.m. and the second at 5 p.m. The games will be held in Birmingham, Ala. Men’s Basketball: The UNCA men’s basketball team will play Radford at 7 p.m. in Radford, V.A. Feb. 27 Baseball: The UNCA baseball team will play Samford at 2 p.m. in Birmingham, Ala. Feb. 28 Great Decisions Series, Russia: David Dorondo will present the Great Decisions lec ture from 7:30 p.m. until 9:3C p.m. in the Chestnut Ridge Roorr of the Reuter Center. Natalie MacMaster: Gramm> and Juno award winning fiddlei will make two performances Feb 28 and March 1 at 8 p.m. in tht Lipinski Auditorium. Tickets art $25 general admission and $1( for children under 12. Women’s Basketball Game The UNCA women’s basketbal team will play Charlestoi Southern at 7 p.m. in Charleston S.C.
University of North Carolina at Asheville Student Newspaper
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Feb. 24, 2005, edition 1
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