THE REBELLESy Entertainment 5
BIG SOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP, Sports 8
NEW ORLEANS, Opinion 10
The
Blue Banner
Volume 46, Issue 7
Sening the Uni\ ersir\' of North Carolina at Asheville sinee 1982
Thursday, March 22, 2007
The News
in Brief
By Lisa Gillespie
Managing Editor
UNC schools
required to
decrease
textbook costs
The Board of Governors
approved a plan to reduce text
book costs for students that
must be implemented by all
UNC schools, using a book
rental system and bookstore
buy-back.
Western Carolina University
and Appalachian State already
have textbook rental programs,
which some fear may force fac
ulty to use the same book for
several years.
Nationally, textbook costs
have tripled from 1986 to 2004,
iccording to a study by the fed-
ral Government Accountability
Office.
Governor
admits to inad
equate aid
Louisiana Governor Kathleen
Babineaux Blanco announced
Tuesday that she will not run for
a second term. After Hurricane
Katrina, Gov. Blanco received
criticism from politicians and
community leaders that she was
too overwhelmed by the catas
trophe and only helped a small
amount of people with her Road
Home aid program.
Democrat Senator John B.
Breaux is drawing attention
from Democrats because of his
close ties with both parties and
|some hope he will bring more
jsupport to Louisiana from the
Bush administration. The
October primary leaves many
'Unanswered questions, accord
ing to critics. Six candidates
currently bid to replace Blanco.
Film festival brings disability stigmas to light
By Annabelle Hardy
Staff Writer
The month-long Difference as
Disability 2007 Film Series culmi
nates this weekend with the fourth
and final installment of an after
noon of films and conversation
about disability issues.
“The festival is important
because disability needs to be rec
ognized on campus. There are
instances and times when it’s not
and disability is in every person’s
life,” said Garrett Male, sopho
more environmental studies stu
dent and president of Equal
Access, a campus organization
sponsoring the month-long film
series.
Sunday’s film “Best Man" is an
award-wining documentary that
was also included at the disability
film festival at the University of
California - Berkeley. The movie
is the sequel to the Oscar-winning
documentary “Best Boy” and fol
lows the story of Philly Whorl, a
mentally disabled man who transi
tioned out of his parents’ home to
an adult living facility at age 52,
according to film critic Robert
Horton.
Equal Access members decided
a film festival would be a good
way to engage people in thinking
about the issue because the films
create a visual and tangible point
of connection with the concept of
disability, said Male.
Watching the films might also
help people in the campus commu
nity to look, at the issue of disabil
ity and how it affects them person
ally and how it affects the univer
sity, Male said.
Disability awareness is about
reeognizing that disability is
everywhere, according to Male.
People have a tendency to think
about disability as a physical issue,
but scholars in the field of disabil
ity studies maintain that disability
is a reflection of a social system
that is not equipped to adequately
meet people’s needs, Male said.
“If people with physical, mental
and emotional disabilities are con
sidered as a single group, it would
be one of the largest minority
groups in the country,” Male said.
“It’s likely that if you don’t have
some kind of disability, someone
Trey Bouvier - vSiaff hiot(k}rai*mi;r
Heidi Kelley, professor in the sociology department, sits at her desk in her office below the Dining Hall. Kelley teaches a class called “Body,
Disability and Culture,” offering students a different look at disabilities in society. Equal Access is a student organization dedicated to the same
thing, and members hope to get the campus community involved in their cause by showcasing films throughout March. The Disability as
Difference 2007 Film Series includes “Best Boy/’ “When Billy Broke His Head,” “The Wood Diary,” “Escaple Velocity” and “Best Man.”
66
If people with physical, men
tal and emotional disabilities
are considered as a single
group, it would be one of the
largest minority groups in the
country.
Garrett Male
Sophomore Student
you know does.”
Supporting an inclusive and
comfortable environment for stu
dents with disabilities is a key
component of being a diverse cam
pus, according to Grace Silvia,
senior interdisciplinary student.
“There are two parts to making
the campus truly integrated, fair
and friendly to students of all dif
ferent kinds of minorities: recruit
ment and retention. Retention
includes accommodations and
includes attitudes of other stu
dents,” Silvia said.
Senior biology student Sydney
Polak has Tourette’s Syndrome
and sometimes feels disconnected
from students who may not under
stand some of the subtler manifes
tations of the syndrome.
“I would like for people to
understand about me. I have prob
lems with my nervous system, and
when I sit down for too long, I can
have problems with my legs and I
have a hard time getting up. I
don’t want people to say that I’m
just pretending, but I feel like that
is happening sometimes,” Polak
said.
I would like for people
understand about me.
to
Sydney Poiak
Senior Biology Student
Equal Access has existed on
campus for a number of years, but
the group is much more active on
campus this year, according to
Male. The organization seeks to
educate members of the campus
community on issues related to
disability and to provide a commu
nity of support for people dealing
with disability issues, Male said.
With more than 20 members, the
organization already has a number
of events proposed for next year.
which include hosting another film
festival, inviting a disability rights
scholar and activist to campus and
co-sponsoring a broad-based
diversity and anti-oppression
training program in conjunction
with a variety of other campus
groups.
“We’re excited about these pro
grams,” said Male, who is in the
process of submitting budgets for
next year’s programs. “We’re
hoping the university gives us the
money to make it happen.”
The final installment of the
Disability as Difference 2007
Film Series will take place
Sunday at 3p.m. in the Whitman
Room at the Ramsey Library. The
event is free and open to the pub
lic. For more information, see
www.unca .edu/equalaccess.
Students spend spring break rebuilding
By Neal Brown
Staff Writer
Members of the Key Center
[organized a group of about 50 peo-
Iple to travel to New Orleans over
I spring break to help with recon-
Istruction of homes demolished by
I hurricane Katrina.
‘The Key Center has a number
I of functions, the main thing is to
try to encourage and assist stu
dents, and to some extent faculty,
but mostly students in making con
nections in the community and
I becoming involved in civic
I engagement and service learning,”
I said Merritt Moseley, professor of
literature and the professor of the
I Key Center.
Forty-six students went on the
[trip, accompanied by three UNC
Asheville staff members, accord
ing to Moseley. After receiving
their security deposit back, stu
dents only had to pay $35, which
covered lodging, food and a con
tribution to Habitat for Humanity
of New Orleans, according to
Moseley.
“I thought 50 people was just
[right. I was proud because there
Were teams there from universities
like Michigan State that has an
enrollment of about 60,000 and
UNCA’s was the biggest team,”
I Moseley said.
Students took the opportunity
[to take part in various recon
struction activities like land
scaping, painting, roofing and
nrany more, according to Jason
Tuell, junior political science
student and an intern for the Key
Center.
New curriculum
earns grant for
UNC Asheville
By Christa Chapelle
CopyEditmi
UNC Asheville received a
$300,000 grant from a liberal arts
foundation to examine its new
LSIC introductory course, while
also giving students an opportu
nity to give feedback and win
prizes.
“One of the promises that is a
part of creating the new curricu
lum was that we
were not making
the mistake we
made the previ
“We’re looking at a couple of
things,” Katz said. “We want to
see if students’ experiences in
courses that feature active
learning experiences are related
particularly to student engage
ment.”
The Teagle Foundation,
established in 1944 by Walter
C. Teagle, serves to promote
liberal education by providing
financial and
>5 intellectual
resources in
, order to
ous one and 9 s^uueruS j„,prove and
never really tak- experiences in courses that
want to see if students’
^ - enrich college
ing a look at if ii feature active learning experi- students’ edu-
was working or ences are related particularly cation, accord-
needed to be to student engagement.
revised or adapt
ed,” said Lisa
Friedenberg,
dean of social
“So,
Speaker Name
Description of speaker
Contributed by Alana Rade
Junior Lydia Zimmer stirs paint while working on a house in New Orleans. Over spring break, 46 students
traveled down to New Orleans to work on Katrina-damaged houses. The Key Center sponsored the event.
“Each one of us was engaged at
some point with a different proj
ect,” Tuell said.
Student affairs provided a char
tered bus for the trip, which took
about 14 hours to get to New
Orleans, according to Moseley.
Some of the students on the trip
agreed that they enjoyed the expe
rience because it gave them an
opportunity to make a difference
in someone else’s life, according
to Tuell.
“It is a worthy cause and volun
teering is definitely worth our
time,” he said. “When we get an
SEE Katrina 21
sciences,
this is the first in what we hope
several steps towards looking at
components of the new ILS cur
riculum.”
The school plans to evaluate the
effectiveness of the LSIC 179
course using the grant money
provided by the foundation,
according to Edward Katz, dean
of university programs and prin
cipal investigator of the study at
UNC Asheville.
ing to their
Web site. They
usually give
grants to pri
vate colleges,
according to
Katz.
“The Teagle Foundation typ
ically funds these kinds of proj
ects through grants awarded to
private liberal arts schools, so
it’s unusual when UNCA would
be able to participate,” Katz
said. “On a few occasions they
have allowed public liberal arts
schools to become part of a
SEE Grant page 31
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