News
Honors Students Head West
Sarah Kiser, Associate Editor
This week 70 students, one Honors
alumna, nine faculty members and one
staff person set out for Asheville N.C.
for the annual Honors Fall Trip. They
left Sept. 23 and returned Sept. 25,
having explored Asheville, the Biltmore
Estate, and a variety of topics across
all disciplines.
The overall importance of the honors
trip is “being more well-rounded,” said
Meredith senior Katie O’Dell. “You get
to find something you’re passionate
about and explore it, but also you get
to learn about things you wouldn’t typi
cally learn about.”
After their arrival on Friday last week,
the group took a tour at the Biltmore
Estate. Saturday morning was spent
with faculty in mini-courses. Every year
students do reading beforehand, then
conduct research with the mini-cours
es and make a presentation to share
on that Sunday morning, so they get to
see all the research that’s been done
that weekend. Saturday afternoon
small groups ventured out to explore
downtown Asheville and the surround
ing mountains. Some went to Chimney
Rock, and some to Maggie Valley.
Students could choose from nine mini
courses in topics such as tuberculosis
sanatoriums in 1900s Asheville, home
made Appalachian yogurt, conserva
tion and ecological restoration, or lit
erary adaption of Jane Austen’s Pride
and Prejudice, to name a few.
“Usually I go for the education ones...
but they had one this year that was so
interesting I couldn’t not pick it because
it’s studying the movie Dirty Dancing,”
said O’Dell. The 1987 classic film was
partially filmed nearby at Lake Lure.
This year is O’Dell’s fourth and final
time attending the fall trip, and her first
year on the planning committee. She
helped to plan the activities, especially
what students could do in their free
time on Saturday afternoon. She came
up with mostly free options like a walk
ing tour of architecture, museums, and
a thrift shop with an in-house museum
on ghost paraphernalia, different ways
to explore the city.
“I like how we have free time to go ex
plore on our own because that’s when
most of the adventures happen. I re
member when we went to Charleston
S.C. we stumbled upon this festival
that there’s no way we could have
known about otherwise.”
Meredith sophomore Catherine Jones
participated in the biology/chemis
try mini group with Dr. Powell. It was
“about yogurt making and how it ap
plies to being in the Appalachian area
where everything is self-sufficient es
pecially in olden times,” said Jones.
They learned about the bacterium and
chemical processes that go into mak
ing yogurt. “Because,” explained Jones
“bacterium make acid with what’s in the
milk itself.”
Jones also described her visit to the
Biltmore Estate. “It was huge; it was
gorgeous,” she said. “What stuck out
with Biltmore was the fact that some
one had at some point that much mon
ey. Walking into even their dining room
there was this ...mantel piece. It’s just
a mantel but it reached all the way up
this 20 foot ceiling and there was a
carving of a war scene in it.”
Jones, along with others, explored
downtown Asheville. “There were a lot
of interesting people.” She laughed.
“This guy had a parrot on his arm. I
have no idea why. He was just walking
by and the parrot was just bobbing its
head, a beautiful brightly colored par
rot. Another guy was painted all bronze
like he just came from pretending to be
a statue. There was someone dressed
like Avatar. I don’t know what was go
ing on, a lot of interesting characters.”
As an extra activity on Friday night,
the honors students had a hoe-down
with folk music. They learned several
square and line dances along with the
waltz.
In addition to learning new dances, the
Honors Trip is also an opportunity to
meet more honors students. “The two
big opportunities to meet people in the
honors program are the honors down
town meet up and then the Honors
Trip,” said O’Dell.
Clinton health a non-issue, says Meredith professors
Sarah Smerko, Features Editor
Democratic presidential nominee Hill
ary Clinton has been under significant
scrutiny ever since she became ill at a
9/11 commemoration ceremony, and
her doctor revealed that she had pneu
monia. In a CNN report Clinton’s doc
tor, Dr. Lisa Bardack, said that Clinton
“was put on antibiotics, and advised to
rest and modify her schedule.”
Clinton’s pneumonia diagnosis
has given right-wing conspiracy theo
rists and conservative media a field
day. Conspiracy theorists think that
Clinton’s health is on the brink, and
have even gone as far as to suggest
her team employing body doubles to
keep up a ruse of a healthy presidential
candidate. Conservative blogger Brian
Joondepth of The American Thinker ar
gues, “These health concerns are not a
big deal if they involve the 68-year-old
woman living down the block, but they
do if the 68-year-old woman is the po
tential President of the United States,
Commander in Chief of the U.S. Armed
Services, arguably the most powerful
leader in the Free World.” Joondepth
goes as far as to claim Secretary Clin
ton’s health episode as “the proverbial
straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Is itthough?
Dr. Whitney Manzo, associate
professor of political science, weighs in.
Manzo says that “the whole issue with
Hillary’s health has been blown wildly
out of proportion. She was sick, she
kept going because it’s an important
time in the campaign, and unfortunate
ly it fed into odd conspiracy theories
that the far right had been circulating
about her.” Manzo continues, “I would
also say that the debate over her health
is entirely sexist. Donald Trump (70) is
older than her and claims he’s entirely
healthy, Bernie Sanders (75) is quite
a bit older than her and some people
have suggested he replace her, and
Ronald Reagan was older (69) than
she is now (68) when he was elected
and no one questioned his health. The
common factor must not be age, then,
but gender. The undertone is that a
woman can’t handle the rigors of the
presidency without getting sick, and is
therefore unfit.”
Republican presidential can
didate: Donald ;Trump:.-has ^promoted
conspiracies about Clinton’s health, of
ten commenting on her health himself.
During Monday’s first presidential de
bate, Trump said that Clinton “doesn’t
have the look [and] doesn’t have the
stamina” to be president. How has
Secretary Clinton responded to con
tinual debates around her health and if
she is fit for the job? Clinton’s response
to Trump last night says it all. She ar
gued back, “As soon as he travels to
112 countries and negotiates a peace
deal, and a cease fire, a release of
dissidents, an opening of new oppor
tunities in nations around the world, or
even spends 11 hours testifying in front
of a congressional committee, he can
talk to me about stamina,”
Dr. David McLennan, profes
sor of political science points out that
health concerns have posted legiti
mate concern in presidential elections
in the past, citing Franklin D. Roosevelt
as an example, but are not an issue
of concern in this election. McLennan
comments, “Hiftary Gilinton’sJiealth is
sues are not significant and, for about
a week, it was a media frenzy, fueled,
in part, by the Trump campaign and
conservative bloggers. Her past and
present medical issues are not unusual
for her age and would not cause her
difficulties in performing the duties of
president.”
Based on last night’s debate
performance, it is safe to say that Clin
ton isn’t backing down anytime soon.
http://www.vox.com/2016/8/18/12505078/hillary-
clinton-health-stroke*conspiracy-fake
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar-
chive/2016/09/hillary-clinton-health-conspiracy-
hysteria/501293/
http;//www.cnn,com/2016/09/11/health/hillary-
clinton-heaith/
A Little Leap for a Big Species: Giant Pandas No Longer Endangered
Katrina Thomas, Staff Writer
Animal lovers, rejoice: on September
4, the lUCN (International Union for the
Conservation of Nature) announced
that giant pandas had been bumped
down from “endangered” to “vulner
able!” The uplifting news also hap
pened to follow the birth of twin cubs
at Zoo Atlanta the day before. Pandas’
new status is the result of hard work
to breed them, reforest destroyed habi
tats, protect their remaining homes,
and increase the number of reserves.
Additionally, in 1981 and 1988, China
passed legislation banning skin trad
ing and poaching (respectively), which
used to be large problems (officials
looked into 115 illegal fur trading cases
in 1988). From 2004-2014, the wild gi
ant panda population had increased by
17% to a total of 1,864. As of now, re
serves are home to nearly 1.4 million
hectares of habitat and about 67% of
the wild panda population.
However, people still need to
do their part to keep conservation go
ing, It took 26 years to take this species
from “endangered” to “threatened,”
habitat fragmentation is still an issue,
and climate change is predicted to
wipe out over 35% of giant pandas’ re
maining habitats within 80 years. Addi
tionally, many animals are still endan
gered, and some, including four of the
six great ape species, are at the even
worse “critically endangered” level. In
summary, giant pandas no longer be
ing endangered is good news, but it’s
also important to continue supporting
conservation organizations and main
(Photo from www.huffingtonpost.com)
tain the environmentally conscious
perspectives that got the animals here.
Information for this article was found
on wwf.panda.org, cnn.com, national-
geographic.com, and worldwildlife.org.
To learn about how animals are classi
fied as vulnerable or endangered, visit
iucnredlist.org.