tho -r 't
Serving UNC-Wilmington Since l 948
VOLUME l_lll , Number 17
Inside
This
issue...
Speaker discusses
Islamic extremism/ 3
's explodes on
Thursdays/ 6
Softball season on the
way/9
INDEX
News
3
OP/ED
4
UNCW Life
The Scene
6
Classifieds..
8
Sports
Master parking plan brought to university
Jason Rollins
Students who circle the paiking lots
in hopes of finding an empty space may
see an improvement in campus park
ing starting next fall.
Due to the increasing growth of
UNCW and the static number of qaces
available, the university administrators
have put together a master plan to alle
viate some paridng problems. Univer
sity officials hired Mike OMmor, a paik-
ing consultant from Desmond
Associates in Vuginia, to suggest fiiysi-
cal and (^rational changes to imjrove
parking on campus.
The physical changes that the
Connor suggested include re-striping
certain parking lots, making spaces 8.5
feet wide instead of nine feet wide and
aisle ways 18 feet wide instead of 24
feet wide, said Dick Scott, associate vice
chancellor of business affairs.
‘This couW easily create some ex
tra space. However, we have to be \ay
selective about which lots are chosen
to be re-striped,” Scott said. “Some lots
are heavily travelled (and) can’t afford
to be made smaller by re-striping.”
One of the operational
changes suggested was creat
ing students-only parking kits.
This will eliminate the need
for faculty to park in student
spaces when spaces are not
filled.
“I don’t think it is fair that
students can’t park in faculty
spaces, but they can park in
student spaces,” said Heather
Thomas, senior, ‘1 have never
heard any faculty member
comfiain there weren’t ample
spaces for staff.”
“This (change) would
help the current situation of
students hunting and waiting
for spaces to become avail
able,” said Scott.
There will also be desig
nated overflow parking lots
Anew master parking plan examined by university administrators as well, ifno spaces are avaii-
could alleviate some problems for next year’s drivers on campus. see parking, Page 3
Rises in enrollment leads to overcrowding
JiDHN White
Overorowding will continue to be
a problem at universities across the
nadoa as enrollment rates are jao-
jected to increase significantly within
the next decade.
Post-secondary enroUment is ex
pected to climb 16 percent by 2011.
Current enrollment rates will grow by
2.4 million students, pressuring
schools to accommodate even larger
student populations as campus space
remains liinited, according the Ameri
can Council on Education.
UNC schools have already shown
a steady increase in student enroll
ment over five years but wiU have to
make room for the future surge. Of
the UNC system schools, UNC Char-
university’s student population of
15,831 students in 1996 jumped to
18,308 in 2001, acoHiding to annual
reports.
UNCW also has seen a steady in
crease fiom 9,232 students in 1997
to 10,599 in 2001. Last fall, the uni
versity had its highest show rate for
incoming freshman at 47 percent,
bringing 1,996 new students to cam
pus.
UNCW admimstrators are now
seeking ways to curtail imUmited
growth and improve facilities.
“What we are feeling right now is
the pressure to accommodate as many
stu^nts as possible but to also main
tain the level of quality at the univer
sity by not increasing class sizes,
keeping student and faculty ratios at
a reasonable level, giving fiieshman
tenured professOTS and keerang the in
timacy on campus,” said Bob Fry, as
sistant to the chancellor fcM' planning.
However, accommod^ing stu
dents is becoming increasingly diffi
cult with limited space.
“Growth has h^ dramatic impact
on space. Ten years ago, most classes
were scheduled fw the early morn
ing. Now classes go into the late af-
temoon and evening,” he said.
There has also been an increase in
part-time professors to meet student
demand, he said.
“(At UNCW) we have one of the
highest utilization rates for facilities
in the UNC system,” said Nanette
Manning, director at the office of in-
Current strategies to deal with the
space crisis include offering more
See Enrollment, page 2
January 3 1, 2002
Virus hoaxes
causes problems
LORRIE LALIBERTE
With all the problems computer vi
ruses can cause, savvy e-mail users do
not take warnings about viruses lightly
However, some warnings may do more
damage than good.
Last month, Denise Pinson, a recent
student at Cape Fear Community Col
lege, received a forwarded e-mail warn
ing that she may have received an e-
mail virus that sends itself to everyone
listed in her address book. The e-mail
gave iastructions to locate the virus
sulfhbk.exe on her hard drive and de
lete iL The message also asked her to
forward the e-mail to everyone in her
address book. Not thinking the mes
sage could be a hoax, Pinson deleted
what she thought to be a computer vi
rus. Later, she discovered that what
she had actually deleted was a neces
sary Wmdows system file used to re
store long file names.
Pinson was not the only one. In the
past year, thousands of people around
the worid have also made the same mis
take. Lycos, a widely used search en
gine, noted in early June 2001 that
sulfhbk.exe was the second most popu
lar search phrase. The Web site http://
vmyths.com contains information on
computer virus hoaxes and legends, atxl
it has traced the sulfiibk.exe warning
back to April 2001.
A resource for investigating e-mail,
http://www.svmantec.com offers to
check any suspicious e-mails submit
ted for inspection. The site references
other e-mail hoaxes commonly encoun
tered by e-mail users. One message
about the postal servkx trying to charge
a fee for sending e-mail has been circu
lating for years.
Users should visit http;//
www.symantec.com or a comparable
site with credible information about vi
ruses before deleteing, said Laurie
Patterson of the computer science de
partment .
“(Virus hoaxes aren’t really on the
rise). It may feel that way because
(more) viruses are making news,”
Patterson said.
There are signs an e-mail vims
threat is a hoax, with the first being
See Mo ax, page 2