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ITic Blue Banner — Serving the University of North (Carolina at Asheville sinee 1982
Thursday, February 15, 2007
$35 M building in planning, causing recent controversy
By Neal Brown
STA/r WuTEa
The North Carolina General
Assembly voted to fund a $35
million appropriation for a new
building, which will house the
North Carolina Center for Health
and Wellness, as well as the aca
demic department for the health
and wellness promotion major
here on UNC Asheville’s cam
pus, according to Chancellor
Anne Ponder.
“This is the largest appropriation
in our university’s history,” Ponder
said.
Along with the $35 million from
the general assembly, the universi
ty plans to rai.se an estimated five
to seven million dollars in private
funds, according to Ponder. Joe
Kimmel, a local entrepreneur,
gave the university a two million
dollar gift and Ray Elingburg,
UNC Asheville alumnus, gave a
giftof $100,(XX).
“Additional funding is required
because the appropriation did not
cover everything that the universi
ty wanted to do,” Ponder said.
Along with the building’s health
and wellness purpo.ses, it will have
11 classrooms, teaching and
research labs, group aerobics
room, a dance studio, a wellness
caf€ with an outdoor terrace, con
ference room for meetings and
seminars and a teaching kitchen
for classes on healthy dining and
cooking, according to Ponder.
“It is a highly functional multi
purpose area,” Ponder said.
Though the university has not
named the new building, it will be
located up the hill from the Justice
Center and connected to the health
and fitness center by an enclosed
walkway, according to Merianne
Epstein, director of public infor
mation for UNC Asheville.
Trey Bouvier - Staff Photographer
Chancellor Anne Ponder discusses the new health and wellness build
ing, which might cost the university $35 million and will include sever
al classrooms, research labs, aerobics rooms and a new cafe.
The building contains a multi
purpose convocation center,
named Kimmel Arena, seating
about 3,600 people, according to
Ponder. Graduation ceremonies,
major speakers, especially on top
ics of health and wellness and
men’s and women’s basketball will
be held in the arena.
“At UNC Asheville, we can
never afford to do anything for
only one reason,” Ponder said.
As excited as students are about
the new building, some have
voiced concern over the building’s
purpose, according to Ashley
Gray, graduating senior and inter
disciplinary studies student. Gray
said she is concerned athletics will
take priority in the building
because basketball will share the
space.
“The space is not being effec
tively and efficiently used to the
best of its ability to foster healthy
living for all of the UNC Asheville
community,” Gray said.
Other students are not con
cerned about athletics overshad
owing the buildings purposes,
according to Omar Ahmad, a
junior health and wellness pro
motion student, as well as a
member of the track and field
team. He does not see basketball
dominating the theme of the
arena because its uses are
diverse.
The building itself and the other
components located within have
many uses, according to Bill
Haggard, associate vice chancellor
for student affairs.
“The academic research and
service components are extremely
important,” Haggard said.
Some students are concerned
that a climbing wall is not
included in the new facility,
because members of the univer
sity promised her and other stu
dents a climbing wall, according
to Gray.
“I was promised a climbing wall
during my freshman orientation
here,” Gray said.
It would be easier if a climbing
wall was on campus because it
saves the students from making a
trip to a downtown facility,
according to Ahmad.
“I see our outdoors program and
how much of an impact they have
on the community, and it seems
that a climbing wall would have
been appropriate to put in the new
facility,” Ahmad said.
The university provides students
with transportation to downtown
facilities where they can climb,
according to Ponder.
“There are available climbing
venues in downtown Asheville
and in the surrounding areas,
both inside and outside,” Ponder
66
At UNC Asheville, we can
never afford to do anything
for only one reason.
Anne Ponder
Chancellor
said.
Students can go downtown to a
facility, but climbing downtown is
expensive, according to Gray.
“I personally pay a $10 member
ship fee and an $80 fee every three
months for an unlimited boulder-
ing pass (climbing without a rope)
at the Climax facility,” Gray said.
“If a person needs full instruction
in order to climb, it costs $35.00 a
session.”
The reason the climbing wall is
not in the new facility is because it
is an issue of priority, according to
Haggard. The climbing wall is
important, but the university and
the administrators must make
66
99
The space is not being effec
tively and efficiently used to
the best of its ability to foster
healthy living for all of the
UNC Asheville community.
Ashley Gray
Senior Student
responsible decisions about how
resources are allocated, according
to Haggard.
“I know that what always hap
pens is that the vision for the facil
ity is bigger than the budget”
Haggard said.
Another point of tension with
students is the role that the student
body’s voice has played in the
building’s process, according to
Gray.
“Everybody that is involved in
this new building is considered a
stakeholder, and I believe that one
of the stakeholders should be the
student body,” Gray said.
The more informed students are
the more they have a voice in the
process. If administrators had held
a forum it would have helped
according to Ahmad.
“I think it saves the problem of
students having to figure it out
when it is honestly too late to do
anything about the plans,” Ahmad
said.
The university should have done
a better job of updating students
and faculty about the building,
Ponder said.
“If there was one thing that I
would have wanted us to do better,
it was that we could have updated
all of our constituencies more fre
quently,” Ponder said.
However, the building is turning
out nicely and will change the life
of this university, according to
Ponder.
“I imagine with a combination of
research, fitness components and
multi-purpose spaces that this will
be a part of every student’s experi
ence here,” Ponder said.
The building is turning out just
as planned, according to Keith
Ray, chair and associate professor
of health and wellness.
“I feel like it is even better,” Ray
said. “We have really started to
fine tune the whole project.”
LoveFest
Castrovinci said. “We wanted to
do something a little catchy.”
Castrovinci also hppes to make
LoveFest an annual tradition, sim
ilar to GreenFest.
For the third consecutive year,
condom fairies from PAWS, the
peer education program on cam
pus, handed out free condoms. In
the past, the activity is always in
conjunction with Valentine’s Day,
and this year the condom fairies
were present during LoveFest.
This aspect of LoveFest resulted in
mixed reactions from students.
To Joe Wilkerson, a sophomore
environmental studies student,
LoveFest means free condoms.
Though Wilkerson personally
does not take offense to the prac
tice of giving out free condoms, he
understands the concerns of oth
ers.
“Some people might say that
giving out free condoms is like
giving clean needles to heroin
addicts,” Wilkerson said. “It’s an
enabling habit.”
For many students, moral values
play a role in their objections to
LoveFest.
“There are people who think
we need to encourage abstinence
until marriage,” Wilkerson said.
“They feel strongly that by giv
ing condoms to irresponsible
teenagers, we’re encouraging
irresponsible behaviors.”
66
99
It’s important at our age to
know about condoms and
different birth control options.
Bobbi Gasttrovinci
LoveFest Organizer
Randy Cockerell, freshman
student does not find LoveFest
offensive to his personal beliefs.
“It’s something that can’t hurt.
I mean, it hasn’t been a huge
presence on the UNC Asheville
campus,” Cockerell said. “I got
a Facebook message from one of
the organizers, an offhanded
message about it. It’s not a bad
thing, it’s just not a big thing
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
either.’
Other students echoed
Cockerell’s sentiments, saying
that they did not feel very
informed about LoveFest.
“(Condom fairies) ran by and
threw condoms and wished every
one a happy Valentine’s Day, and
they sat in a booth in Highsmith,”
said Dylan Moore, freslunan stu
dent.
Other than that, he did not
know much about LoveFest’s
purpose.
Despite some lack of knowl
edge about LoveFest, many oth
ers showed up to the activities.
The various campus organiza
tions who sponsored LoveFest
includes SGA, ASIA, GSA,
NSCS, UMCM, ASHE and
PAWS.
Wilkerson managed to enjoy
the fun that LoveFest hoped to
present.
“If a fairy handed me a con
dom, I’d want to have sex with
the first thing that walked in
front
said.
of my eyes,” Wilkerson
Shanna Arney - Staff Photographer
Mass communication students junior Ashley Horne and senior Courtney Willis try to convince Mark West,
a mass communication professor, to try on the Jimmy Hat, a condom-shaped hat during the LoveFest kick
off on Monday. SGA members and condom fairies instructed students on how to properly use condoms
during the Condom Olympics. Winners of the contest received free pink LoveFest shirts.
Climate
page 1
earth’s atmosphere, preventing
heat from escaping and disrupting
natural climate cycles. The prob
lem lies in where these gases
come from, she said.
“Our entire society is based on
industrial processes that emit
greenhouse gas emissions,”
Singer said. “Our systems of agri
culture and manufacturing are
extremely oil intensive, as are our
systems of transportation, con
struction and energy production.”
Others agree with Singer, say
ing humans cause much of the
known attributions to climate
change.
“Emissions of carbon dioxide
and methane are very thermally
active. They absorb a lot of
infrared radiation and keep it in
the atmosphere, radiation that
would otherwise leak out into
space,” said Jason Schmeltzer,
chemistry lecturer. “Human activ
ities generate a lot of these gasses.
The greenhouse effect being
caused by these gasses is very real
and pertinent and attributed to
humans.”
Other factors that contribute to
global warming besides humans
are not as well known, according
to Schmeltzer.
“There could be natural cycles
in the Earth’s orbit or other terres
trial natural cycles that we as
humans don’t know anything
about,” Schmeltzer said. “It has
only been in the past several hun
dred years where we have been
taking accurate and reliable meas
urements.”
The rising temperatures affect
more than just melting ice.
Weather conditions worsen as the
planet becomes hotter, according
to Schmeltzer.
“More severe weather events
like hurricanes and heavier pre
cipitation are thought to be linked
to global warming,” Schmeltzer
said.
The extreme changes in weather
constitute the largest threat,
according to Masi.
“Drought in areas like Africa
that are already prone to drought
is one extreme. The other extreme
would be more intense hurri
canes,” Masi said. “With the
drought, you are leading to a
problem addressing hunger in the
long run.”
In 1906, the global average sur
face temperature spiked from 56
degrees Celsius to 92 in 2005 and
the average global sea level rose
at a rate of about 3.1 mm per year,
from 1993 to 2003, up from about
1.8 mm per year in 1961, accord
ing to the IPCC.
Despite the growing eonsensus
on climate change and the dangers
around it, many remain opposed
to the idea.
“Large and politically-powerful
corporations like ExxonMobil
have executed a very successful
disinformation campaign around
global warming, similar to the
efforts of the tobacco industry in
questioning the links between
smoking and lung cancer,” Singer
said.
Economic incentives make
slowing or stopping global warm
ing difficult, according to
Schmeltzer.
“The more industry you have,
the more money that can be trad
ed back and forth and more goorh
and services can be provided,
Schmeltzer said. “If that is the
cause of global warming, to sim
ply stop on a dime or to even cut
back on it on a major scale could
lead to economic downfall.”
For more information about
climate change, visit
wwwj'isingtidenorthamericaxoff
To read the most recent IPCC
global warming report, visit
http ://wwwipcc.ch/spm2feb07 -P®