Photo illustration by Brittany
Goldman - Contributor
A’s that semester when I was
prescribed it. Since being off
of it I have gotten B’s and a
C but I definitely did bet
ter for sure,” Coulston said.
Adderall includes a com
bination of amphetamine and
dextroamphetamine and is
used to treat Attention Defi
cit Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD) and narcolepsy.
The NSDUH reports ap
proximately one-third of
college students have used
stimulants non-medically.
Partnership for Drug-Free
Kids found 1 in 5 college
students report abusing pre
scription stimulants at least
once in their lifetime, com
pared to 1 in 7 non-students.
“Students buy medication
from other students because
it’s simple and easy. It would
be much more difficult and
costly for students to make
appointments with a physician
and get the medication in the
usual manner,” Cutspec said.
A study conducted by the
Journal of Addictive Diseas
es revealed out of 81 college
students with ADHD, an
alarming 62 percent divert
ed their medication to some
one without a prescription.
“I have never had to buy
stimulants. I have sold mine
because it is so readily avail-
SEE ABUSE ON PAGE 5
VOL. 62, ISSUE 5 1 WEDNESDAY, FEB. 18, 2015 I THEBLUEBANNER.NET
Prescription
stimulant abuse
worsens
BRITTANY GOLDMAN
bgoldman@unca.edu -
Contributor
Partnership for Drug-Free
Kids reported academic
pressure among college stu
dents increases the demand
for prescription stimulants,
and their illegal distribution.
“Students take stimulants
that are not prescribed to
them because they perceive
that it generally improves
their ability to focus and
makes them more productive.
Therefore, it allows them to
complete papers and study
for exams during periods
of heavy work loads,” said
Jay Cutspec, director of
the Health and Counseling
Center at UNC Asheville.
In 2010, the National Sur
vey on Drug Use and Health
found 11.4 percent of young
people ages 12-25 used pre
scription drugs non-medical
ly within the past year. The
study also found full-time
college students between the
ages of 18 and 22 were twice
as likely to abuse prescription
stimulants than those of the
same age and not in college.
“The benefits for students
who are legally prescribed
stimulants by a physician is
that it generally improves their
ability to focus and maintain
attention and reduces impul-
sivity and may also improve
overall mood,” Cutspec said.
Partnership for Drug-
Free Kids estimates nearly
two-thirds of college stu
dents who report abusing
prescription stimulants in
dicate that doing so helped
them obtain a higher grade,
improve work performance
or gain a competitive edge.
Rodney Coulston, 24, a se
nior at UNCA, said he took
the prescription stimulant
Adderall since third grade.
“I got higher grades and
felt more motivated and more
productive. I felt no desire
to be social and I got all
,, , „. . u..-I- , , Photo by Leslie Frempong, Contributor.
(trom left to right) Fran Teplitz, John King, John Pierce, Dan Pungell, and Carolina Arias discuss the topic of divesting UNC Ashe
ville’s endowment from fossil fuels.
Student led mevement fuels
envlrenmental discussien
EMILY RIES
eries@unca.edu -
Multimedia Editor
UNC Asheville’s Di
vestment Coalition urged
UNC system leaders to
divest from fossil fuel
companies and reinvest
in sustainable green tech
nologies during panel
discussion on Feb. 12.
“We started as a bunch of
student leaders from vari
ous student organizations.
Once we came together,
our focus was on building
student and administrative
support and educating our
community about these
issues,” said Dan Pung-
ello, panelist and co-di
rector at UNCA’s Student
Environmental Center.
Concerned investors,
both individual and in
stitutional, are aligning
and realigning their as
sets to meet social and
environmental goals
alongside their financial
goals, according to envi
ronmental professionals.
“While I understand
the divestment may not
be what brings down the
fossil fuel industry, they
are responding, and they
are responding with fear,
and they are responding
with anger and that makes
me happy,” said Carolina
Arias, panelist and envi
ronmental studies student.
According to university
officials, UNC Manage
ment Company controls
the university’s total en
dowment fund of more
than $38 million, along
with 14 other schools
in the UNC system.
“We want to be a
positive contributor,
we just don’t think di
vestment is the way to
do it,” said Jona
thon King, president
and CEO of UNC Man
agement Company.
The board of trustees
of Chapel Hill passed a
resolution in September
2014 requesting UNC
Management Company to
research targeted invest
ments for the university’s
endowment assets that
advance environmental-
ly-friendly clean ener
gy strategies, according
to university officials.
“UNCA is in Appala
chia, which means that the
fossil fuel industry, coal
extraction specifically, op
erates in our backyard,”
Arias said. “Mountaintop
removal has been used for
decades as a strategy for
taking out coal and then
bringing it to Asheville
and burning it in local
coal-powered plants. This
sue, it’s a personal issue.”
According to the U.S.
forum for sustainable and
responsible investing,
more than $6 trillion is
under professional man
agement in the U.S. and
engaged in at least one
form of a socially respon
sible investing strategy.
“You see change, and
you see seeds of change
and you start to see things
happening. This is a
wonderful beginning of a
long, long road, but it’s a
very, very important road
for society to go down,”
said John Pierce, vice
chancellor for finance
and operations at UNCA.
Professors at the Univer
sity of British Columbia
voted to urge the univer
sity’s board of governors
to sell the school’s fossil
fuels stocks over a
issue is not a distant is- SEE DIVESTMENT ON PAGE 3
Students still discontent with parking conditions
EMMA ALEXANDER seem to be enouirh nark- i« ano —^ 1 j T.T , ,
EMMA ALEXANDER
naiexand@unca.edu-
News Staff Writer
Students, faculty, staff
and visitors experience
parking frustrations, es
pecially in the beginning
of the semester. Although
still a problem, the num
ber of parking spaces has
increased in past years, ac
cording to campus police.
“At first I felt confi
dent in the parking at
UNC Asheville, but that
didn’t last long,” said
Joan Mandeng, soph
omore resident. “I re
alized that there doesn’t
L
seem to be enough park
ing for everyone. Some
times I don’t like parking
down hills, walking in the
dark and cold, because
my dorm is far away.”
UNCA has 2,629 total
parking spaces for faculty,
staff, visitors, residents and
nonresidents. In the fall se
mester, 2,763 applicants
applied for permits and the
police department issued
3,030, said Eric Boyce,
assistant vice chan
cellor of public safety.
“The reason applicant
and issued numbers are
higher than the amount of
parking spaces available
IS because people don’t
always come at the same
time,” Boyce said. “Park
ing ebbs and flows. For the
university environment,
some come in the morning
and Some in the evening.”
The police department
will sell applicants a per
mit, but that will not guar
antee them a space. Typi
cally the campus provides
enough parking spaces
for everyone, Boyce said.
As of Nov. 21. the de
partment of public safe
ty issued 2,018 citations
during the fall semester. Of
those citations, students,
faculty and visitors ap-
pealed 398, and the board
of trustees waived 52 per
cent of them. Boyce said.
“Our employees en
courage students to appeal
tickets so they have an op
portunity to be heard in the
process,” Boyce said. “We
like to apply the good-
faith standard. If a student
makes an effort to park in a
space, not illegally, we try
to get the ticket waived.”
Boyce said many stu
dents think his department
is trying to get money
for the police department
or university. However,
80 percent of the money
collected must go to the
K-12 public school sys
tem. The rest goes to po
lice department operations.
“The money students
pay for parking permits are
kept for the police depart
ment, which are still only a
fraction of what we need,”
Boyce said. “Citations are
not a big revenue generator
for us. We carefully allo
cate any money we get.”
During' the first week
of school, many students
try to figure out locations
of classes, buildings and
parking lots. Sometimes
they do not have the time
to pick up their park
ing decals, Boyce said.
^
Tt seems like there ar^
more parking permit
given out than there ari
spaces available,” said A1
lison Widner, senior res
ident. “I think we couli
add more parking or givi
out less permits and givi
upperclassmen first ac
cess to buying them.
Of the four parkin;
decks around campus, con
tractors did not build then
with the capacity to holi
more tiers. Boyce said
He said he was unsure o
why they built them tha
way, but that Asheville res
idents prefer green spac^
SEE PARKING ON PAGE 6