The end is in sight for long lines
and congested traffic
Bi
ue
B
College students often fiml it hart!
to get a g(XKl nights rest
Icct
anner
See News 3
See LiFESIYI.es 6
Volume 45, Issue 10
Serving the University of North Carolina at Ashc\ille since 1982
November 2, 2006
Students
begin to take
part in fund
allocation
Wall sparks investigation
Socialist Union Lea
By Kristen MarshafI
Copy EorroR
By Christa Chappelie
Staff Writer
Because of concerns over the
increasing costs of college, the
Student Government Association
gave students the opportunity to
understand the student fees and
tuition process at a pubhc forum
Oct. 23.
“The reason why I had SGA
sponsor the event is that in the past
there really has been no trans
parency about where student fees
are going, how they’re getting
spent,” said John Noor, president
of SGA. “Any information about it
hasn’t been readily available for
students. I wanted to make it possi
ble for students to come by and see
exactly how this money is getting
spent, where it’s going, who’s get
ting it and how they’re using it.”
The forum allowed students to
see what happens with their stu
dent fees and tuition. Led by
Chuck Hawkins, interim vice
chancellor of finance and campus
operations, students received the
opportunity to ask questions and
give feedback to the tuition and
fees committee and representatives
from each fee unit.
This new process allows students
to have a more active role in the
fees process, according to Bill
Haggard, vice chancellor of stu
dent affairs.
‘This whole forum was actually
the idea of the Student
Government Association,”
Haggard said. “We are working on
new procedures this year, and it’s
my intention that we will expand
those procedures next year to make
sure we have a much more trans
parent process for setting our
tuition and fees, a process that is
SEE Fees page 31
A wall displayed on the Quad by
the Socialist Union League last
week remains the center of con
troversy as the university contin
ues to investigate possible acts of
vandalism, harassment and threats
by members of the Student
Government Association and
Campus Police.
‘The Socialist Unity League is
accustomed to threats, most of
which have come from members
of the Student Government
Association,” said Kati Ketz,
chair of the standing committee of
the SUL of Students for a
Democratic Society. “When we
try to lodge the complaints about
these threats, they go unnoticed
by administration. These threats
have not stopped, though. They
are escalating.”
According to SUL, the wall rep
resented the actual wall being
built along the West Bank in
Palestine, and students could
spray paint pre-approved mes
sages supporting Palestine on it
under the supervision of SUL
members.
The acts in question began last
Monday, and by Friday morning,
counter-protesting opinions,
including some threats, covered
the entire back of the wall, Ketz
said.
“We went to Campus Police for
the first time on Wednesday when
10 students came up to us with
spray paint cans and spray painted
the lawn,” Ketz said. “We went to
Campus Police again on Thursday
about the threats. We were told
that we couldn’t really say that
people were harassing a group. It
had to be toward an individual.”
On Friday morning, members of
SUL discovered photographs of
their wall on the Facebook.com
Megan Wildman - Staff Photographer
Sophomore atmospheric science student Greg Goddard, above, looks at the wall that the Socialist Unity League put up representing the wall
in Palestine. Goddard said he wrote messages on the wall after the SUL censored what he wanted to write. Campus Police Officer Brandon
Hunnicutt is on investigative leave while the university looks into his possible involvement in the acts, according to Campus Police.
profile, a social networking site,
of Officer Brandon Hijnnicutt, a
campus police officer, according
to Ketz. SUL immediately filed a
complaint with administration.
Messages on the wall, depicted
in photographs on Facebook.com,
include the statements, “Kill the
socialists,” “Stop SUL,” and
“Destroy Palestine.”
Greg Goddard, sophomore
atmospheric science student and
member of the American Pride
Organization, a Facebook.com
group opposing SUL, said he is
responsible for the messages on
the wall. Because SUL regulated
the messages allowed on the wall
and barred Goddard’s opposing
view, he spray painted his own
messages, first Wednesday night.
“The wall should be about free
dom of speech and not your opin
ion on a certain subject,” Goddard
said. “I originally had a larger
group of people to come do it, but
everyone either fell asleep or did
n’t want to do it, so 1 ended up
doing it by myself.”
After SUL covered his original
messages up, Goddard said he
went back again during the hours
of 1:30 a.m. and 3 a.m. Friday
morning, according to Goddard.
“The American flag drawn on
the back of the wall had ‘burn the
flag’ written on it, and that really
pissed me off even more,” said
Goddard, SGA sophomore sena
tor.
According to Goddard, the wall
.should have encouraged freedom
of speech, not certain peoples’
opinions on certain subjects.
“That really pushed me to do
what 1 did,” Goddard said.
Off-duty campus police officer
Brandon Hunnicutt took pictures
of Goddard and the wall and post
ed them on his Facebook.com
SEE Wall page 31
Basketball teams rev up
for season on radio show
By Courtney Metz
Staff Writer
Trey Bouvier - Staff Photographer
Senior forward Amanda Elder, 1310 AM commentator Mike Gore, and women’s Head Coach Betsy Blose
discuss the upcoming basketball seasons. The teams spent the first night of the season at downtown bar
and restaurant Hanna Flannagan’s in order to talk about sports and promote UNC Asheville basketball.
In the final days before the start
of their 2006-07 seasons, the UNC
Asheville men’s and women’s bas
ketball teams hosted their first
radio show of the year Thursday.
“It is an opportunity to talk about
sports and promote UNC Asheville
athletics,” said Betsy Blose, head
women’s basketball coach. “It’s a
fun time.”
The radio station ,1310 AM will
air the show live from 6-7 p.m.
every Thursday for the remainder
of the season. Each week, both the
men’s and women’s basketball
coaches have an opportunity to
discuss their previous games,
upcoming games and the season as
a whole.
“I think the more things like this
that we can do, the better,” said
Nicholas McDevitt, men’s assis
tant basketball coach. “One of the
goals of Athletic Director Janet
Cone is to make UNC Asheville
the Asheville community’s team. 1
think things like this will really
help that.”
TTie players agree that it is a
66
It’s a good opportunity to get
everybody involved.
C.J. WA1.KER
men’s junior center
good opportunity for both teams.
“We have been doing it for a
couple of years now, and it is a
good opportunity to get everybody
involved in it,” said men’s junior
center C.J. Walker.
Hannah Flanagan’s has hosted
the radio show for the past three
years and encourages fans to come
listen to the show live on Thursday
nights. During the show from 5-9
p.m., they are offering anyone with
a valid UNC Asheville ID half off
the price of any appetizer.
In addition to hosting the radio
show, Hannah Flanagan’s also
supports the team in several other
ways.
“We are now members of the
booster club, and we also cater the
Bulldog Club at the basketball
games in the hospitality tent,” said
Mark Sternal, general manager of
Hannah Flanagan’s. “We’re also
members of Asheville’s Independent
Restaurant Association, and AIR is
going to be catering the coaches
club at the basketball games. We
just keep plugging into UNC
SEE Basketball page 21
Asheville leads way in storm hazard studies, technology saves lives
By Anna Lee
Staff Writer
The planned opening of a new
research lab in December will
make Asheville a landmark in
storm hazard mitigation studies
and the visual application of data
to the Geographic Information
Survey, a computer application
used to store, view and analyze
geographic information.
“The lab is going to be looking
at emergency response for natural
disasters very similar to the floods
due to hurricanes a couple of years
ago,” said Jim Fox, a research
associate for the National
Environmental Modeling and
Analysis Center located in
Rhoades-Robinson Hall. “What
we are going to do then is take sci
entific information and really put
that into visual environments so
the general public can interact and
make decisions off of that.”
The Apphed Visualization Lab,
also known as the RENCI-
Asheville Campus, will be a col
laboration of UNC Asheville and
Renaissance Computing
the
Institute, a state-funded organiza
tion that allows businesses and
educational institutions to work
together on research that involves
sophisticated computer technolo
gy-
NEMAC is already interviewing
students, graduates and profes
sionals to do the research at the
lab.
“We are looking for some stu
dents to be working with us on
GIS information,” Fox said. “We
are really interested in how this
sort of data goes across a broad
front, so being at a liberal arts
campus, we’re looking for stu
dents from the multimedia depart
ment to be turning this information
into exciting content.”
The lab will allow UNC
Asheville graduates to stay in
Asheville who might not be able to
otherwise, according to Fox.
“What we’re really interested in
doing with this is setting up a site
where people collaborate, but then
also use these technologies in our
area so the especially promising
UNC Asheville graduates do not
have to move away from our
area,” Fox said. “We can keep that
talent here.”
The Applied Visualization Lab’s
researchers will get their storm
data from the archives of the
National Climactic Data Center
located at 151 Patton Ave. in
Asheville.
“We begin a process, with every
grid space in North Carolina
including every windstorm, hail
storm, mudslide, flood, every
count of every storm, every death,
every traffic accident and every
report of trees knocking down util
ity lines,” said Marjorie McGuirk,
a meteorologist at the National
Climactic Data Center. “Every
report ever is in the archives of the
National Climactic Data Center. It
just hasn’t been identified on the
GIS layer.”
The researchers will then figure
out the probabilities of various
hazards t^ing place and map them
to GIS, according to McGuirk.
Policy and decision-makers will
SEE RENCI ^AGE 2 I
• •
’rj
:
«
• «