UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA ASHEVILLE The Blue Banner 'I'hursday, September 11, 2008 www.thehliiebanner.net Vol. 49, Issue 2 First-time delegates Photo courtesy of Bradley hardy Junior student Bradley Hardy poses at the Democratic National Convention, representing North Carolina and UNC Asheville. It# Junior student, second-youngest N.C. Democratic delegate Jonathan Waiczak News Editor JMWALCZA@UNCA.EDU Junior student Bradley Hardy walked onto Invesco Field on the evening of Aug. 28 to hundreds of flashing cameras and an energetic crowd of 85,000 waiting for Sen. Barack Obama to ac cept the Democratic nomi nation for president. “When you’re looking around and seeing all these people, all 85,000 of these people, you can’t help but think ‘This is an incredible movement,’ said Hardy, 20, the second youngest dele gate from North Carolina to attend the Democratic Na tional Convention this year. A series of entertainers and speakers kicked the eve ning off, but crowd members kept quietly talking amongst themselves. That changed when Obama took stage, ac cording to Hardy. “Everything was quiet. You could hear a pin drop in the stadium of 85,000 people,’’ he said. “Then the crowd was just so turned on by him, so excited. 1 think everyone realized at that point that he was giving the most historic speech of this election.’’ Obama’s speech finished a busy week for Hardy, who arrived in Denver early to at tend the national convention of the College Democrats of America, which took place the weekend before the Democratic National Con vention. Hardy became involved in politics his freshman year of high school and traveled across North Carolina on be half of several Democratic organizations in the years that followed, striking a bal ance between school and politics. In June, while Hardy was studying abroad in England, he made use of his connec tions and hard work to win an election as an at-large statewide delegate. “Instead of having to an swer to my congressional district, I was answering to every single person in the state of North Carolina who wanted Barack Obama to be See hardy Page 2 | Sophomore student Nelia Hamby, right, poses with NBC Political Director Chuck Todd at the Republican National Convention. Sophomore student, youngest N.C. Republican delegate Annika Reinert Staff Writer ANNIKA.REINERT@GMAIL.COM Sophomore student Ne lia Hamby attended her first political meeting before her first birthday, and this year, she is the youngest delegate from North Carolina to at tend the Republican National Convention in Minnesota. Hamby was one of the three delegates to represent the Eighth Congressional District at the convention last week. “I have been involved in politics longer than I can re member,” she said. “The old er I got, the more interested 1 became.” Hamby’s mother, Vichele, took her daughter to politi cal meetings when she was a baby because of health con cerns that made it impossible to leave her with a baby sit ter. Hamby first considered running as a delegate four years ago as she followed the 2004 presidential election. “1 was only 14 years old, but I could understand what was going on,” Hamby said. “1 thought that it would be a fun adventure to get involved in the next election.” Hamby’s mother said she is proud of her daughter’s appearance in a close-up spot on television shortly before Sen. John McCain of ficially accepted the Repub lican Party’s nomination for president. “On Tuesday, I was inter viewed 16 times. I talked to Japanese and Italian journal ists, Reuters and of course a lot of media from North Carolina,” Hamby said. “On Thursday, 1 was on the Daily Show; the first time I was on television in such a spot.” Hamby said she is unsure whether she wants to enter a career in politics after she graduates. “I like to keep my options open,” she said. For now, Hamby said she hopes to inspire more young people to get involved in politics. “We can have our say, too,” she said. “Our opinion counts just as much as that of older delegates.” See HAMBY Page 2 | Asheville’s LAAFF keeps it local Sam Hunt Staff Writer SCHUNT@UNCA.EDU The seventh annual Lex ington Avenue Arts and Fun Festival (LAAFF) hosted more than 30 bands from the Asheville area on Sunday amid dozens of other locals in the visual and perfor mance arts. “The idea is for everyone to create and be rewarded from that creation,” said Kitty Love, co-founder of LAAFF and executive di rector of non-profit arts pro moter Arts2People. “Culture inspired by personal expres sion can be an economic en gine. Amassing to the maxi mum number of dollars for personal equity is the goal of life.” i Katie Bachmeyer - Staff Photlxirapher Saxophonist Greg Hollowell and trombonist Derek Johnson of the Asheville horns played a nighttime set on the main stage. The all-local street fes tival blocked off Lexington Avenue from beneath the 1-240 bridge to the Col lege Street intersection. The street was packed with lo cal artists, fans and families, some of whom wore zombie and circus costumes. “It’s great to see 400 or so artists come together be cause all of their work is weird, quirky and unique to A.sheville,” 21-year-old Mo- raea June said, Joel Hutcheson, owner of Static Age Records on Lex ington Avenue, said the festi val is healthy for Asheville’s music scene and record stores. “It’s a response to the Bele Chere festival in the sense that it spotlights local Asheville bands only,” Hutcheson said. “(LAAFF) also helps the re cord stores out. We don’t sell See LAAFF Page 8 | News Features Parkside Controversy Page 5 New Professors Page 9 Iftl. New UNCA transit alternatives Jason Howell Staff Writer jdhowell@unca.edu Sophomore music student Casey Sellarole stands on top of the Zageir parking deck and points at the fenced-off gravel lot across Campus Drive. This construction area (former ly commuter parking lot E) is where the 20-year- old used to park. “1 was so mad when I came back this semester and saw that,” Sellarole said. This fall, Sellarole, who commutes to UNC Asheville, says it can take five to ten minutes to find a free space in the remaining commuter lots. “It’s like fighting for parking downtown,” she says. “Then, I have to walk to class and carry my trum pet, my backpack and my bag. That’s another five or ten minutes.” Sellarole says she is skeptical of using alternate transportation, wondering how she will adapt. “I don’t have a bike,” Sellarole said. “So what can I do?” Chris Miller, the safe ty officer with Campus Operations-Facilities management, works with associate Vice Chancellor for Campus Operations C. Stephen Baxley on transportation issues for UNCA. They face questions like these as the schtwl introduces new transporta tion programs, new incen tives to go green and the older problem of parking on campus, according to Miller. Baxley says the big gest change this year is the separate parking fees. This semester, students can pay $70 for parking permits, valid until next spring. They can also buy parking passes on a daily basis, for $1 each, an approximate $240 expense for both se mesters. Baxley said he fees go toward paying for other transportation programs.. “We also have a Face- book site where students can get online with each other in order to carpool,” Miller said. See parking Page 2 | New fitness program energizes UNCA Katie Bachmeyer - Staff Photxxiraphhr Dominique Ennis, who supervises the Health and Fitness Center staff, leads an Ah Blast class. Moveabout pushes students to make exercise a habit Cassidy Culbertson Staff Writer CJCULBER@UNCA.EDU UNC Asheville teams up with the Worksite Ac tion Team of Healthy Bun combe for Moveabout, a program to facilitate physi cal activity and exercise as a weekly habit through providing incentives. Moveabout participants are encouraged to aim for the recommended 150 minutes of physical activ ity weekly at least three days a week for about 30 to 50 minutes a day, accord ing to Leigh Wright, senior health and wellness student and coordinator of UNCA’s Moveabout program. The program empha sizes breaking up workouts into manageable incre ments, like taking ten- minute walks during lunch breaks, not shooting for one 150-minute workout every Sunday afternoon. “It seems like a good idea, but really, it’s going to be hard for regular non active students to keep up with, even though it said only 30 minutes most days a week,” freshman student, Trevor Hall said. Approximately half of young adults in North Carolina (ages 18 to 24) re ceive the proper amount of physical activity and exer cise, more than other adult age groups, according to 2007 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention re search. After tracking activity for ten weeks, participants become eligible for prizes related to healthy, active living, like water bottles, sports apparel and mas sages. “Tracking workouts would make exercising See HEALTH Page 2 I Weather THURSDAY 75 62 1 -J i - 1 J FRIDAY 76 61 SATURDAY 78 62 SUNDAY 79 61 !r 1 • V;

Page Text

This is the computer-generated OCR text representation of this newspaper page. It may be empty, if no text could be automatically recognized. This data is also available in Plain Text and XML formats.

Return to page view