CONSTRUCTION
Barnwell wants his department to ac
commodate not only students, faculty,
and staff, but also visitors. Universal de
sign means all people should be able to
use products in an area.
“One of the things our administration
has set as a goal is that not only do the
buildings need to meet code, but we need
to go a step further because with what’s
called universal design,” Barnwell said.
Examples of universal design on cam
pus include the handicap button near
doors, which are not required by ADA
standards.
Improvements for accessibility on
campus started before the construction of
Highsmith and the new residence halls.
The Director of Accessibility Services
and ADA coordinator, Carolyn Ogbum,
acknowledged the university also built
more accessible routes in the past year.
“The new sidewalk across from Brown
was made to provide wheelchair access.
There were formerly some stairless routes
that led up there, but it was way too steep
and narrow to be fully accessible,” Og
bum said.
The creation of new routes on campus
makes getting around easier. Ogbum as
sisted in the opening of the new location
MONUMENTS
thor and military historian Mark Felton
said the World War II bunker in which
Hitler committed suicide was blown up
in 1947, but no effort was ever made to
restore it. Its remnants are now buried be
neath a parking lot which remained un
marked for many years, so as to eliminate
the risk of providing a gathering ground
for Nazi-sympathizers.
“I do a lot of thinking about history,
seeing as I teach it,” said Leigh Hum
phrey, a high school AP history and civil
liberties teacher in Winston Salem, North
Carolina. “I used to believe... History
can’t be erased and the statues should re
mind us not to ever do it again. Howev
er, after some conversation with others, I
now believe they should be removed and
placed in or around a museum, or at the
number of Civil War battlefields.”
Many Americans, including myself,
think similarly to Humphrey. While these
monuments do indeed stand for old ideals
which have changed with the passage of
time, they remain important as a remind-
of the Disability Cultural Center in the
lower level of Ramsey Library. The cen
ter hosted information sessions to wel
come new members and let people see its
space. The previous location of the Dis
ability Cultural Center was in Carmichael
Hall.
“It was not accessible, and it was not
well-known enough. The general stu
dent population would never just stumble
upon it,” said Kat Durham, a senior psy
chology student at UNC Asheville.
The current Disability Cultural Cen
ter has a large space with a table, comfy
chairs, posters and a library. The center
was not accessible in the past because
their location did not meet ADA stan
dards.
Christa Mullis, a senior psychology stu
dent, said she thinks students who have
disabilities visiting the campus should
feel welcome, then they would be able to
connect with others on campus.
Mullis said she hopes people will feel
welcomed at UNCA by building a sense
of community through the Disability Cul
tural Center. The center plans to host peer-
to-peer Introductions on Sept. 7 at 5:30
p.m. at their location in the lower level of
Ramsey Library. Peer-to-peer introduc
tions will allow students with disabilities
who have attended for a semester to help
er of what has changed and how far our
nation has come. These statues and mon
uments stand for many different things,
and not all of them good, but if we erase
them then we are risking erasing token
pieces of our nation’s history. While I do
not necessarily believe these monuments
should be left as everyday reminders, I
would like to see them moved safely to
museums or, as proposed by Humphrey,
battle grounds where citizens have the
freedom to chose whether or not they
want to see these things.
Hopefully, an educated decision will
soon be made by elected officials, lest
these monuments are left to illegal defa
mation and destruction.
AVLFILM.COM
local resources like avlfilm.
com as crucial.
“It is critical that we all
support each other,” Tay
lor said in an email. “The
more we can come together
as media makers, the stron
ger our community will be.
The way Ryan has it set up
so that folks can continually
add or update information is
critical to this.”
Taylor and her colleague
Lisa Sousa founded the Me
chanical Eye Microcinema
five years ago as a com
munity filmmaking space
because they felt a missing
link between film and art in
Asheville, Taylor said.
“I think access is a fre
quent barrier to production,”
Taylor said. “I find that my
students often feel isolated
from the larger community
or struggle tapping into the
network of other filmmak
ers to collaborate with and I
definitely think the website
can help with that.”
DuVal said he hopes peo
ple will start their own film-
making journeys with his
website.
“I would love for it to be
responsible for people find
ing the same thing that I
found in doing film, having
the same love for the work
and the art,” DuVal said. “I
didn’t want it to be one of
those things I wish I tried
and never did.”
^ S
8ta-iSM8S