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UNCA aims
to provide
education
to inmates
The usual homecoming dance was replaced with Highsmith After Dark, which lasted from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Highsmith ushers in new tradition to
replace annuai homecoming dance
PEYTON SHEEHAN
News Staff Writer
msheeha3@unca.edu
In the past, following the home
coming game, there was a home
coming dance. This year, Fred
Tugas, the associate director of
the Highsmith Student Union, and
Christina Jaeger, the associate di
rector of Highsmith Operations, de
cided to do things differently.
This year’s Homecoming and
Family Weekend concluded on
Sunday, with the Highsmith After
Dark event located throughout the
Highsmith Student Union.
“This event is actually replacing
the Homecoming dance. We are
hoping it will draw a larger crowd
of students. We also hope it will be
more appealing and engaging,” Jae
ger said.
Tugas and Jaeger both said there
was a lot of time spent planning
over the summer in finding vendors
and finalizing various details.
“I don’t usually attend many
events on campus, but once I heard
that there was ThinkFast Trivia, I
figured that I would go. It is my se
nior year after all,” Logan Ponder, a
junior political science major said.
On their social media platforms,
Highsmith Student Union released
a promotional video to inform
UNCA of what to get excited for.
The celebration spanned all three
floors of Highsmith Student Union
allowing students and family mem
bers to participate in all the different
activities and socialize with others.
The first level of Highsmith Stu
dent Union featured a caricature
artist, balloon animals, a midnight
bingo game and ThinkFast Trivia
with a $500 cash prize. During the
ThinkFast Trivia, there were about
15 teams with five team members
in each group. Teams were asked a
series of questions for the chance to
earn points.
“The most stressful thing was
coming up with the best bingo prize
packages for the winner,” Tugas
said.
There were four seperate games
with four different prizes for mid
night bingo. The first winner won
a $25 dining voucher. The second
a bookstore package, the third a
$150 grocery store package, the fi
nal game winner won an Amazon
Echo.
The second floor had psychic
readings and a dry-eraseable pho
to board. Each student who made
the photo board was able to email
up to four or five pictures that they
wanted.
BROOKE RANDLE
Contributor
brandle@unca.edu
For nine years, Scott Walters
made his weekly drive to Av-
ery-Mitchell Correctional In
stitution, a mid-security prison
tucked away on the outskirts
of the sleepy mountain town of
Spruce Pine.
Barbed wire-topped fenc
es and ominous-looking watch
towers stood forebodingly as he
made his way toward the prison
each week. But behind the armed
guards and the cold prison walls,
Walters saw something different:
a classroom.
“When you go into your class
the first time, you’re pretty ner
vous,” Walters said. “After the
first night, I was like, ‘This is the
best thing ever.’”
Walters, professor of drama
at UNC Asheville since 1998,
now leads a group of motivated
UNCA professors and adminis
trators who intend to reinstate a
program which would provide
college-level courses to inmates
across western North Carolina.
Walters said the program aims
to supply inmates with skills and
education which may produce a
better chance of finding work af
ter serving time.
“We make it very difficult for
anyone who has been an inmate
to come out and return to any
kind of life at all,” Wallers said.
“We are trying to create at least
a handful of people who are not
going to bounce back into prison
again.”
Education among state prison
populations lags behind national
standards. According to a 2014
RAND report, only 14 percent
of state prison inmates had at
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