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Baseball team sweeps Hartford
Hawks in three game series,
seores total of 32 runs
winging Success
—
Entertainment • I'heater prtxluetion “(^loud Nine” examines sexualiu and gender • 6
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See Sports 8
Volume 44, Issue 7
Setting the Unis ersity of North C2arolina at/Vshc\illc sinee lySz
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Photos taken by Shanna Arney - Staff Photographer
UNCA served as a platform
for students to express all
differing opinions regard
ing the three year anniver
sary of the US invasion of
Iraq. Students gathered on
campus then marched
downtown in the rain to
express their feelings about
the war. Downtown
Asheville was receptive to
the protest as shop owners
along the street came to
their doors and thanked
the Protesters.
AIDS
pandemic
intensifies
WMiiwaiBwuwuMliwt
Protesters take
both sides of the
invasion of Iraq
on its third
anniversary
By Anna Lee
Staff Writer
Students and veterans marched
downtown in cold rain to protest
the Iraq war on Monday, the third
anniversary of the 2003 invasion
of Iraq.
“Our position is it’s the Iraqi
people’s country, and they have a
right to self-determination, they
have a right to throw the occupier
out and we’re going to support
them in doing that,’’ said senior
philosophy student Kostas Harlan
a member of the Sociahst Unity
League, the group which organ
ized the event.
Veteran Andrew Cates, a 29-
year-old senior classics student,
organized a counterprotest on the
other side of the quad.
“We wanted to be here to sup
port our Iraqi allies and to say
that we don’t think that we need
an immediate pull-out like the
Socialist Unity League is calling
for,’’ Cates said. “Donald
Rumsfeld said that an immediate
pull-out would be like leaving
post-war Germany in the hands of
the Nazis.”
Cates, stationed in Kuwait from
1998 to 2000, said he was not
there for any hostilities.
Other veterans attended the
anti-war demonstration and
march downtown.
“We knew that there weren’t
any ties to Al-Quaeda during the
invasion,” said Kenneth Ashe,
Asheville Veterans for Peace
member and Vietnam Veteran.
“There was all this talk of nuclear
weapons. It was all a bunch of
lies, folks. We have a bunch of
liars, thieves and crooks in
Washington.”
There remain ways to deter a
civil war in Iraq, which would
work better than the continued
occupation of Iraq, according to
Elliott Gillooly, senior political
science student.
“I think that the presence of the
U.S. military doesn’t do anything
to stave off civil war whatsoever.
There can’t be a settlement so long
as they are an outside party with
vested interests,” Gillooly said.
“The United States doesn’t have
neutral intentions in Iraq, and that
should be obvious to anyone.
“When we withdraw, we should
withdraw in an orderly manner,
and there are international organ
izations better able to cope with
the situation than the military.”
The U.S. government wants
Iraq to have a civil war, according
to Harlan.
“The Coalition Provisional
Authority under Paul Bremer, the
United States government under
George Bush and the United
Kingdom government under
Tony Blair have been pursuing a
policy from the very beginning of
splitting Iraqis, of divide and con
quer,” Harlan said. “Iraqis had a
strong national identity for the
past hundred years, and it’s only
very recently that we’ve started to
see these sectarian attacks.”
As students and veterans
walked in the cold rain, vehicles
driving down Merrimon Avenue
honked and waved. Shop owners
along the street came to their
doors to watch. Some even waved
and thanked the Protesters.
Asheville resident Clare
Hanrahan, who has been to
Alderson Federal Women’s
Prison in West Virginia for
protesting on the grounds of the
School of the Americas in Fort
Penning, Ga, walked out of the
College for Seniors and the
Center for Creative Retirement.
“I represent that grey-haired
contingent of UNCA’s campus,”
Hanrahan said. “We have to con
tinue generation after generation
to vote with our feet on the street
sometimes.”
Hanrahan said the cold rain
should not have been a barrier to
participation in the walk-out.
“If we can’t stand in the rain,
walk in the cold rain, and make
our dissent visible, how can we
expect change to come?”
Hanrahan said.
Wal-Mart now provides
emergency contraception
By Paige Reinhard
Staff Writer
Wal-Mart lifted its ban and
agreed to begin selling emer
gency contraception starting
Monday, but health centers on
college campuses have been sell
ing the controversial prescription
for years.
“I think it’s important,” said
Caitlin Swick, a resident of
Sarasota, Fla. “Especially in col
lege, if you get pregnant, it can
really ruin your life.”
Emergency contraception, com
monly known as the morning-
after pill, is a high dose of hor
mones found in birth control.
Emergency contraception is
meant to be used up until 72 hours
after unprotected sexual inter
course in order to prevent or end
pregnancy.
According to the American
Pharmacists Association, pharma
cists have the right to refuse to fill
prescriptions if they object on
moral grounds. If they choose to
do this, then they must refer the
patient to a pharmacy that will fill
their prescription. However, some
pharmacists refuse to give the pre
scription to another pharmacist to
fill.
Susan Wilson, a physician s
assistant in UNCA’s health center,
said this behavior is hypocritical
and unfair to the patients.
“I feel that when you take the
Hippocratic oath, when you go
into any branch of medicine, you
should be able to put your person
al feelings aside and treat the
patients and their needs, Wilson
said.
University of Florida sopho
more Martha Maule said the
employees at these institutions
should not be forced to sell emer
gency contraception.
“I think that everyone is entitled
to their own beliefs and that if
they feel that they are compromis
ing their beliefs by prescribing the
morning-after pill, then they
shouldn’t have to,” Maule said.
Maule advocates that there is a
struggle between right and wrong
when it comes to taking emer
gency contraception and that sex
ual intercourse should be reserved
for marriage.
“I don’t think the morning-after
pill should be sold on college
campuses because I don’t think
there should be a morning after,
period,” Maule said.
Swick, who attended UNCA last
semester, said although she thinks
emergency contraception is
important, she can understand the
concern.
“I know some people who use it
for their primary source of birth
control,” Swick said.
There is no limit to how many
times a woman can request the
emergency contraception, accord
ing to Wilson.
SEE Wal-Mart page 2 \
UNCA community
brings to light drug
and alcohol abuse
By Jim MacKenzie
Staff Writer
Following an increase in alco
hol violations and a series of
student deaths, UNCA officials
said they fear underage drinking
and drug use could grow into a
significant problem.
‘This is my fourth year here,”
said Provost Mark Padilla. “I
know that students have used
and abused alcohol and drugs,
but we’ve heard this year anec
dotal information that an
increase is on the rise.”
UNCA could be at a cross
roads with drug use, according
to Padilla.
“A variety of individuals have
pointed out to us that it is on the
rise,” Padilla said. “I don’t have
any hard survey evidence. But
the information I was getting, it
raised concerns that we’re get
ting to the tipping point that we
may have or could have a bigger
problem with alcohol or drug
abuse.”
The administration does not
necessarily distribute the rea
sons behind student fatalities to
the campus, according to
Chancellor Anne Ponder.
“We have lost three students
in as many months, each one to
very different circumstances,”
Ponder said. “Student fatalities
are not something we treat as
news. We treat them as personal
tragedies.”
The administration works to
keep all students safe, according
to Ponder.
“If there were circumstances
where foul play was involved,
or other students were in any
way at risk, we would find a
way to address that risk,”
SEE Drugs page 31
By Kristen Marshall
Staff Writer
North Carolina students stand at
the forefront of the fight to spread
awareness and dispel assumptions
about HIV and AIDS, a disease in
which people 25 years old and
younger account for half of all new
infections worldwide.
“One of the things you have to
get around when you think about
AIDS is that it affects the individ
ual. Something like this never
affects an individual. It affects an
entire social structure,” said John
Stephens, junior literature student
and UNCA’s Student Global AIDS
Campaign founder.
Stephens, who lived in Kenya for
several years and witnessed first
hand the devastation of HIV and
AIDS in the poverty-stricken coun
try, said the chapter’s first year was
a success.
A series of events hosted by
SGAC, packed the Alumni Hall
and the Humanities Lecture Hall
each time, according to Stephens.
Five students, sophomore
Maddie Hayes, junior philosophy
student Sasha Doyle-Weiss, junior
literature student Benjamin Cox,
junior art student Elizabeth Morgan
and Stephens make up the chapter’s
leadership board and meet twice a
week for organizational purposes.
When larger meetings take place,
as many as 30 people attend.
“One of our main goals is raising
awareness,” Stephens said. “I think
the student body has AIDS, Africa
and the pandemic in their con
sciousness a lot more so than they
did a year ago.”
SGAC, a nationwide movement
with almost 100 chapters at high
schools and universities, consists of
students dedicated to ending HIV
and AIDS around the world, as well
as in their own backyards.
Carolyn Steele, sophomore com
munication and public relations
student at North Carolina State
University and advocacy chair of
its SGAC chapter, focuses on edu
cating the student population.
“The disease affects everyone on
all campuses because we all have to
deal with it,” Steele said. “People
think they’re invincible, that there’s
no way they can contract it, but
every hour someone under the age
of 25 becomes infected.”
The Center for Disease Control
estimates about one million people
live with HIV in the United States,
including those not yet diagnosed.
According to the 2005 North
Carolina HIV/STD Surveillance
Report, for every 1,000 people liv
ing in North Carolina, 14 are infect
ed with HIV or AIDS.
In 2004, there were 16,041
reports of HIV in North Carolina,
according to Michael Harney, pre
vention educator and street out
reach worker for the Western North
Carolina AIDS Project.
“We have roughly 40,000 new
infections a year in this country,”
Harney said. “Divide that by 50
states, and you get about 800 cases
per state. North Carolina’s number
is two state’s worth. There’s a prob
lem here.”
Since 1983, Buncombe County
reported 605 cumulative cases of
HIV, according to the surveillance
report.
“It’s interesting that AIDS
exploded in the ‘80s, so when it
came onto the scene, most of
today’s students were just coming
into existence,” Stephens said.
Harney, who has been an
HIV/AIDS activist for almost 12
n
SEE AIDS PAGE 31