Newspapers / University of North Carolina … / March 31, 2010, edition 1 / Page 5
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Wednesday, March 31, 2010 {The Blue Banner} Page 5 Adjustments to art major change entry curriculum and raise concerns from students By Chris Fish Staff Writer CAFISH@UNCA.EDU Majoring in art may be more difficult due to curriculum changes for the next academic year, according to art stu dents. Beginning this fall, the art department will introduce a new course, the Applied Media Program, where students will at tend a lecture, and then a lab that empha sizes the general individual entry courses for the department. Sculpture, ceramics, drawing, printmaking and photography will now be included in one entry level course, according to UNCA’s Web site. “I don’t think that some of the teach ers are going to take it easier,” said Nikki Smith, a UNC Asheville sopho more who considered majoring in art. “I dropped my drawing class because I did not know a lot of the basics, and I needed to learn them. I don’t know how they are going to cut that down, because not everyone knows all of the basics. If they cut it down, I get less time to work on my assignments when I need a lot of time to do them, and I don’t see how it will work out.” Hanna Trussler, a sophomore art stu dent, said the new changes may be dif ficult for someone who wants to begin the art program. “There is just a lot you have to learn, and this will be giving you less time to learn it,” Trussler said. “The lectures could be a cool idea, but it may end up being like humanities, and everyone will just dread having to go to it.” Trussler also said some of the courses may require a full semester of dedication to fully understand every aspect of each class. “I feel like drawing would almost need a whole semester dedicated to it because there is a lot to learn in it,” she said. Other students who want to take a spe cific art class, but do not want to major in the field, said the new course changes could actually benefit those only inter ested in learning a specific art subject. "/ think the whole idea may be to change it from being a five-year degree into a four-year degree. ” - Marla George, art student “I think it could be cool if you just want to do ceramics, and you don’t want to have to take all of the prereq uisite courses for it, you can now just jump right into it and learn the basics of it,” said UNCA student Drew Glover. “I also think it would be a better idea to not make non-art majors take the intro courses, because I don’t see what draw ing has to do with ceramics.” Marla George, UNCA art student, said the change to the curriculum might help those who want to complete their degree at a faster pace. “I think it’s a good idea, and I hate that I missed it,” George said. “I think the whole idea may be to change it from being a five-year degree program into a four-year, because right now it would be a five-year degree. I kind of want to go all five years, though, because I like being able to take all of the classes.” Trussler and George also said they would like to see new classes added to the curriculum so they can experience things they have not had much of be fore. “I want to take a glassblowing class, but I think they may be getting one in the next year or so,” George said. “I would like to see more oil classes, because oils are awesome,” Trussler said. Dorm Continued from Page 2 suggested various common rooms, kitchens, study rooms and laundry space to improve the personal interaction and campus experience within Governors Village, and wireless access to improve inter-dorm communications. “One of the things we learned, from the students, is those students living in West and South Ridge feel like they’re really, almost, living off campus,” he said. “It may be a 10 or 15-minute walk, which isn’t very long, but for some students living there, that seems like a great distance.” Possible floor plans for the residence halls included linking bedroom suites via common rooms, placing kitchen ettes in the bottom floor of each build ing and improving the bathrooms to allow more use and better privacy, ac cording to Huberman. “We actually learned two things from students. The two demands that they had were adequate bathrooms and wire less connections,” he said. The new residence hall, offering more students a chance to live on cam pus, presents no challenges to campus parking and a smooth transition should occur, according to Bill Haggard, vice chancellor of student affairs. “When it comes to the new residence hall, we believe we’ll be replacing some commuter student cars with resi dent cars,” he said. “We currently have many empty residential spaces down along Campus Drive.” Huberman said they plan to make the windows more energy efficient, and construct handicap-accessible en trances that do not open into a stairwell and require security cards to enter the building. “By creating a new entrance, you would now be coming into a living room or a common area instead of a stairway,” he said. Along with card entry and improved security measures, the aesthetics of the residence halls remains central to the project, according to Jim Buch ner, chair of the board of trustees and UNCA alumnus. “My personal opinion is, I think the floor plans look nice, but the exterior is disappointing,” he said. “I would hope that we would do more to change “UNCA’s ability to borrow for self-supporting projects, while not completely limitless, is substantial." - John Pierce, vice chancellor of finance and operations the look of those buildings from what they were in the ‘60s when I was here. They’re not very attractive.” Huberman and his team conducted several surveys among UNCA students concerning their wishes for Governors Village. The study showed students enjoy the ambiance and landscape sur rounding Governors Village, according to the architect. “The fact is, they have more privacy, and with the scale of students living there, they appreciate it,” he said. “I think it really was a great decision to try and save these buildings. Not only is it sustainable, but the students like them so much.” According to Pierce, who is in charge of finance and development, the funding for improving the exterior of Governors Village exists if spending is done prop erly. “I think when we were first presented the concept for this building, we had rough schematics that basically changed the exterior of the building significantly,” Buchner said. “And we were all excited about the possibility of doing that.” According to Huberman, he attempted to look at roof changes, such as install ing a pitched roof, to make the halls look less like giant boxes, but several of the buildings’ roof systems proved expen sive and difficult to change. “We felt the feasibility of doing that, and then the cost to the overall budget, wasn’t really the direction to go in,” he said. “It’s an extensive amount of work to just get the systems upgraded.”
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March 31, 2010, edition 1
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