Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Volume 53, Issue 2
Off to a running start
UNCA cross country teams begin the season at WCU Invitational meet
page 16
News
Arts & Features
Gulf oil spill impacts Architects show artistic local restaurants side at September exhibit page 4 page 12
Campus Voice Students elect for change in insurance policy page 21
Photo by Natalie Pearson
News
New technology improves classroom experience Page 2
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Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Teresa Linn
tclinn@unca.edu staff writer
UNC Asheville is undergoing technological advances including SMART boards and wireless Internet expansion this school year, something staff and students said they are very eager about. “I am quite excited about the technology expansion on campus,” said junior and teaching fellow Sabine Moses. “I am thoroughly impressed.” UNCA Chief of Information Jim Kuhlman said the school added a new addition to some classrooms this summer. “Over the summer, we put the first SMART boards in,” Kuhlman said. “Rooms in Karpen Hall are beginning to have SMART boards.” The professors enjoy the advanced classrooms with SMART boards and document cameras, said associate professor of education Nancy Ruppert. “On the SMART board we focus on teaching the students how to use the equipment,” Ruppert said. “It is what our student teachers are going to be using when they get in the classrooms, so we need to teach them how to use it.” Ruppert said student feedback has been positive. “The students are very excited about it,” she said. “They are a little nervous about it, but it is going to be able to help them.” According to Kuhlman, the cost makes it difficult to spread the SMART technology to buildings. “Obviously, as you put more and more into each room, the cost goes up,” Kuhlman said. “A basic room is about a little over $8,000. If we put the SMART board and the camera stand in, it is about $11,500.” Kuhlman said the school’s main hesitation of additional technology is the amount instructors who will use it. Not all of the teachers are prepared for the technology yet, according to Moses. “It is hard to use the technology,” Moses said. “If my professor knew how to use a SMART board, and he used it properly, then I would under-
Dustin Stuart/staff photographer
UNC Asheville student Johnathan Gach, 24, works on a computer in Ramsey Library. Jim Kuhlman, UNCA chief of information, said SMART boards have been added to several classrooms.
stand it. Then it would be a lot easier for me to incorporate that in my teaching when I get older.” Kuhlman said the spread of wireless Internet is the next big step he is working to make. “Last year, the students just about tripled or quadrupled the budget we were asking for with the idea that that money go to expanding the wireless,” he said. “I consider that an obligation.” Students said expansion of the wireless Internet would be helpful on many levels. “It would be quite convenient for class,” Moses said. “You could bring a computer and be able to look up your syllabus with your professor, for example. That would also help to lead to a more paper-free and greener campus,
I think.” The wireless will be installed in the main academic buildings by January and expansion will continue into the spring, according to Kuhlman. “During the spring we should be able to finish most of the other academic buildings on campus,” he said. Kuhlman said student technology services have also been added to campus this year to the left of the reference desk in Ramsey Library. “This fall we’ve opened up student technology services,” he said. “We have student workers who have been trained. It’s a free walk-in that is there to help students who may be having problems with their software.” Michael Milano, student and STS technician, said the process for the service is simple.
“Someone brings in the computer and we tell them to fill out the form explaining the problem,” he said. “We decide if we can fix it. If we can, we do, and if we can’t, we’ll call them and let them know. Usually, things are given back in about a day.” Milano said they are not only there to fix the problem, but to also offer preventative help. “When people come back to get the computers we try to give them some tips and educate them so they don’t repeat the problem,” he said. Kuhlman said a major part of looking at what to do next comes from student feedback. “I would love to hear from students any time,” he said. “We want to make what we are investing in really match what students want.”
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
On the Quad
New Police Chief Boyce plans to review policies
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What do you think about the parking situation on campus?
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“I park most every day at the Reuter Center, which is about a five-minute walk down and back up, and it’s pretty steep. I would rather have a parking spot closer.” Mary Ewing Literature student
Emily Rhyne Interdisciplinary studies student
“There is definitely a lack of space. I think a lot of it the past few weeks was people parking without permits, because I was. I finally got a ticket last week and now I walk to school. I can’t afford the parking permit, but luckily I can walk to school.” “Parking is lacking in availability and it seems like there needs to be some sort of construction with another parking deck in order to solve some of the problems.”
Jon Bradley Environmental studies student
Read The Blue Banner next week for more about parking on campus.
Megan Dombroski/photography editor
UNCA’s new Police Chief Eric Boyce plans to review campus policies and improve communication on campus.
Plans to improve safety on campus Trevor Metcalfe temetcal@unca.edu staff writer
Eric Boyce, UNC Asheville’s new chief of police, said he plans to improve communication and review the effectiveness of current policies. “These are all opportunities that I look forward to,” Boyce said. Boyce said both the size of the campus and the sense of family and community attracted him to the position. He compared the campus to his previous employer, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. “It is also one of those unique gems in the UNC system,” Boyce said. Boyce plans to review all university police policies and make necessary changes in order to improve communication between Campus Police and the UNCA community. He said he does not possess a predetermined plan to make major policy adjustments. “As we see that we can be more effective and serve the UNC Asheville community, we will work toward implementing those policies,” Boyce said. Boyce said one of the challenges as a new chief includes getting to know the faculty, students and his own department. He said he also wants to stress
campus safety and security to students and identify issues of concern before problems arise. He cited a planned residence hall officer program which will help improve communication between students and the campus police department. Boyce said this communication begins with police officers talking to students and relaying their concerns back to the campus police department. Boyce said larceny happens more than any other reported crime on college campuses. He said although victims of the crime should report missing items immediately to Campus Police, students and faculty should take precautionary measures. “We have a personal property identification program where you can come in and receive a sheet and log in your personal information,” Boyce said. Junior Drew Glover said the precautions he takes to protect his belongings depend on his location. “When I lived in West Ridge for the past two years, I didn’t feel like I needed to lock my door every time I left,” Glover said. “I think it’s mostly because I trusted the people I lived with.” Glover said he now locks his room in
See BOYCE Page 6
Oil spill affects Asheville seafood restaurants Page 4
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Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Restaurants raise cost of seafood to combat escalated fishing costs Jeremiah Reed jjreed@unca.edu staff writer
Asheville restaurant managers said the demand for quality seafood remains strong despite the BP oil rig explosion in April. “It’s really not affected us in any way,” said Tommy Hughes, dining room manager for The Lobster Trap seafood restaurant in downtown Asheville. “People love seafood and we offer a pretty unique variety of seafood for the mountains.” Although the demand for seafood remains steady, availability of quality Gulf Coast seafood dwindled after the spill, causing prices everywhere to increase. Low availability of seafood from other regions only compounded the problem and drove prices higher. Wayne Talacko, whose family was visiting Asheville from Trenton, N.J., said his father-in-law, a fisherman in Shark River, N.J., saw a decline in the industry during spring and summer, and several local fishing tournaments were cancelled as well. The oil spill hit the oyster population the hardest, and, as a result, saw the greatest price jump. Hughes said the habitat oysters live in makes them particularly vulnerable. “Oysters live on the border of the sea and land, within the tidal zone. So when the species is encroached by pollution or oil spills, they’re really susceptible to that,” Hughes said. Jennifer Boheler, manager of Sadie’s Seafood pub, said that oysters, one of the restaurants best sellers, increased in price as much as $30 per unit in the aftermath of the oil spill. Nevertheless, Boheler said business had not dropped significantly, and people were still coming in to order oysters and other seafood on a regular basis. Tracy Griffin, who owns and operates the Blue Water Seafood Company with her husband David, said although low availability of Gulf Coast seafood caused a price increase, people were willing to pay the difference. “It’s interesting. We’ve had to increase prices, but people will pay. The prices are leveling out now as things calm down a bit, but people were paying the higher prices. They want good
Jessica Mauney/staff photographer
Blue Water Seafood, a local seafood restaurant, was effected by the oil spill in the Gulf. Owner Tracy Griffin said the oil spill caused the restaurant to raise the prices of seafood.
fresh seafood, so they’re willing to pay for it,” Griffin said. Blue Water Seafood, which supplies seafood to several Asheville restaurants, gets a Wayne Talacko majority of its Gulf Coast supply from Alabama. Griffin said in the days and weeks after the spill, they were in very close contact with their Gulf suppliers. “We order seafood every day, so we were in contact with our suppliers the entire time, literally talking to them on the phone from day to day,” Griffin said. Most of the businesses are family owned and were upset and concerned, she said. In addition to availability, Griffin said the quality of seafood Blue Water received from its suppliers is of the utmost importance, and they have taken several measures to ensure that all of their seafood is healthy for consumption. Griffin said one way to ensure quality control is through the Hazard Anal-
“We order seafood every day, so we were in contact with our suppliers the entire time, literally talking to them on the phone from day to day.” – Tracy Griffin, Blue Water Seafood Company owner ysis Critical Control Point, a federal program that requires seafood vendors to have procedures in place to guarantee the quality of the seafood they sell. These procedures include quality and temperature checks on all incoming seafood. HACCP procedures can also help pinpoint the source of tainted seafood if a problem arises. Griffin said bags of oysters that come from the Gulf Coast are tracked from the time they’re harvested until they arrive at their final destination and are served to consumers. The tracking systems allow quicker and more precise detection of poten-
tially contaminated areas. Seafood vendors said both the quality and availability of seafood have improved noticeably since BP successfully capped the oil spill in mid-July. They said as long as quality remains high, customers will keep coming back for more. “The dispersants seem to have worked and a lot of the seafood and shellfish have definitely come back,” said Doug Parsons, executive chef and general manager of The Lobster Trap. “The prices did increase in shrimp and oysters, but quality has made a great comeback.”
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
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Engineering department receives $25,000 Pro-life
supporters encourage changes
Katherine Walker kpwalker@unca.edu
assistant news editor
UNC Asheville’s engineering department received a $25,000 grant from Progress Energy, and, according to department chair Yusef Fahmy, the grant money will not only benefit engineering students, but students from many disciplines. “Engineering can apply to art. Engineering can apply to biology a little bit. This machine has the ability to assist in many ways. So we hope not only will it serve the students in engineering, but it opens the door to other students in other programs to be able to capitalize on the existence of it,” he said. Fahmy said Progress Energy has been a longtime supporter of the engineering department. “This latest infusion has been the biggest, but they have supported our design work for a couple of years,” he said. Fahmy said most of the $25,000 will be spent on one machine for the new engineering lab in Zeis Hall, which the department will move into in one year. “We hope to stretch the dollars to where we get the machine with some leftover that the students will be able to take advantage of. Although, plans for what that net figure will be are still in flux,” Fahmy said. Fahmy said the machine is like buying a new car. There are many different add-ons to choose from that could change the price of the machine. According to Fahmy, the machine can calculate the inherent nature of materials, aid in the design of wind turbines, calculate the bite force capability of a fox scull, aid in the study of pottery shards from ancient civilizations and calculate the torque of an electric motor. “One of the things we’re very happy with the engineering department here is the interdisciplinary connections we can make with other programs. Even students in multimedia might be interested in doing some engineering,” he said. In their most recent senior design project, Fahmy’s engineering students teamed with art students and assistant professor Mark Koven to create the piece of work currently in front of Owen Hall. Senior mechatronics student Sara Sanders said the project is intended to
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Jessie Lovelace jlovelac@unca.edu staff writer
Katie Saylors/assistant photography editor
Engineering and art students built a statue that sits outside Owen Hall. It was instrumental in the department receiving the grant.
be an artistic piece of playground equipment that generates power as people swing on it like a merry-go-round. According to Fahmy, Sanders was one of the most enthuYusef Fahmy siastic driving forces in the collaboration of engineering and art and Koven. “One of the most amazing experiences for me was crossing those boundaries and trying to learn to communicate with people from a completely differ-
ent field,” Sanders said. Crossing those boundaries was not only great for her, but everyone involved, Sanders said. “It was a cool experience for all of us I think. We’re pretty much isolated as engineers. We pretty much all run together and take all the same classes together, so I think it’s definitely a really positive thing to have that interdisciplinary thing going on,” she said. According to Fahmy, this ability to meet new people is imperative to en-
See GRANT Page 6
This year the UNC system will allow students to opt out of abortion coverage through their student health insurance following scrutiny from a pro-life organization. According to Director of Student Health and Counseling Center Jay Cutspec, this fall is the first time that student health insurance is required of all full-time students in the UNC system. Student insurance is contracted through Pearce and Pearce Inc., and last spring 970 students were on the insurance plan. “It’s been almost three years since UNCA decided to adopt the policy that all full-time students would have insurance, and we took the Pearce and Pearce plan that’s reasonably priced and certainly part of that plan was abortion coverage,” Cutspec said. According to Cutspec, abortions are covered with a $300 deductible through the insurance plan. “I think students are definitely aware that it’s covered because I know a lot of students that have used the benefit, and it’s something that when we talk about the plan we let students know that,” Cutspec said. Because of the abortion coverage, a national pro-life group, Students for Life of America, protested against the insurance coverage. “As pro-lifers, we believe that abortion is not health care, neither for the woman nor the pre-born child, so it should never be offered as an elective procedure in a health care plan,” said Executive Director of Students for Life of America, Kristan Hawkins. Cutspec said the resulting compromise from the UNC system was that students could elect to keep or drop the abortion coverage at no change in cost. “What they’ve essentially done is
See PEARCE Page 6
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Grant
gineering students. “It’s very good for engineers to meet and interact with people who aren’t engineers, because if you get a bunch of nerds together for four or five years, they don’t come out like normal,” he said. According to Koven, the departments and their resources also benefit when students learn to work together.
Boyce
Governor’s Hall because of the dorm’s accessibility, especially compared to his previous residence. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 43 percent of youth younger than 17 have had property stolen worth $50 or less. In order to prevent theft, the National Crime Prevention Council encourages students to secure valuables, never leave expensive items unattended and avoid calling attention to important items. Boyce, who began his career as a forest ranger with the National Park Service, said giving a list of an item’s serial numbers and other important information to the police department allows them to deliver it to officers
Pearce
they have one plan and then they sent a letter out to students that said, ‘If you want to take the abortion coverage out of your plan, you’re welcome to do that,’” Cutspec said. According to Hawkins, SFLA is not satisfied with the compromise. “We want the UNC system to take abortion completely out, and they have the power to do that as a paying customer of Pearce and Pearce. They can take the elective abortion procedure out of the health care plan,” Hawkins said. Rebecca Subkis-Fox, a senior psychology student, said she disagrees with SFLA and believes student health insurance should cover abortion. “If a person chooses to not have abortion coverage and it costs the same price for either of us to get the coverage, then I don’t see how it affects me,” she said. “Now, if they were causing us not to have that coverage, that would be a different issue.” Hawkins said SFLA plans to keep
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
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“If we can combine funding from two different areas and have equipment that both art students and engineering students can utilize, then we’ve just increased the capability of two or three different areas, not just one,” Koven said. This is not the first grant Progress Energy has made to UNCA’s engineering department, Sanders said. They
also donated smaller amounts to fund design work she did as a junior. “It came to Progress Energy’s attention that we had a very strong interest over the last several years in students doing renewable energy and sustainable energy senior projects. So, early on, we put together small proposals to see where we could get support for the students,” Fahmy said.
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statewide in case of theft. He said the police department also offers a free engraving service to students who wish to mark their valuable items. Sophomore Rachel Hyde said she feels safe almost everywhere on campus. From 2005 to 2008, Campus Police reported no murders or sex offenses on UNCA grounds, one instance of robbery and two reports of aggravated assault. UNCA is required to report these figures to the U.S. Department of Education due to the Jeanne Clery Act. “I’ve never felt unsafe on this campus,” Hyde said. She said twice while walking back to campus on Edgewood Drive and from
believe that abortion is not health care.” – Kristan Hawkins, Executive Director SFLA pressure on the UNC system until abortion is completely removed from the plan. “We know abortion is more prevalent among college-age and high school women. This is the demographic that the abortion clinics target for business,” she said. “So this is very, very important for us. Why would you include abortion, something that you know is going to hurt women and obviously kill pre-born children, in a
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According to Koven, as budgets become more difficult to work with on an individual basis, departments will do more cross-disciplinary work. “The great thing about it is that we can utilize the grant money to not only construct something, but also buy equipment that allows us to extend the capabilities of both programs,” Koven said.
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the Vivian Street parking lot she felt slightly uneasy. Campus Police provide escorts around the UNCA campus 24 hours a day. Boyce started his new position in August. His career of more than 17 years includes positions at the Winston-Salem Police Department and as a reserve officer at Wake Forest University. Boyce said he holds almost 2,000 hours in advanced law enforcement training and attended programs Get 10% off all entrees for threat assessment, community po- with UNCA Student ID! licing and Rape Aggression Defense, a self-defense program. “Those are some of the programs that I’d like to begin to incorporate into the community,” Boyce said.
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“As pro-lifers, we
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health care plan?” Junior business administration student Daniel Fryberg said he agrees with SFLA’s belief that abortion coverage should not be offered through student health insurance. “If you choose not to have abortion coverage, it should be cheaper to just opt out of the insurance you have to pay,” he said. “But I guess changing the insurance company’s mind about something is one thing. It would take a lot.” However, according to Cutspec, opting out of the abortion coverage doesn’t change the price of student insurance. “Without going into the intricacies of the insurance business, that really doesn’t add significantly to a cost of an insurance plan,” he said. “So it wouldn’t be like it would reduce the cost.” So far, the number of students who have opted out of the coverage is unknown, according to Cutspec.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
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Fashioning Asheville
Decades define fashion in today’s industry
Chris Kane
cmkane@unca.edu staff writer
Arguably an accurate indicator of the popular culture, economy and politics of a society, fashion can also be considered a gauge by which time is measured. The end of 2010 marks the end of a decade. What, then, did Generation Y wear for the past 10 years and what does that say about the 20-somethings and 30-year-olds on the forefront of a decade that began with the Y2K scare and is ending with the BP oil fiasco? A materialization of some social progressiveness, androgyny has become increasingly accepted. Menswear has evolved and become more feminine. Trends like skinny denim and feminine-colored, pink and purple apparel demonstrate this. Whether it is due to the advancement of the gay rights movement, fashion has become edgier, more sexually charged and less confined to gender roles and stereotypes. Hedi Slimane’s reign at Dior Homme was characterized by an ultra slim, feminine look. The male models sauntering down Dior’s runways looked virtually indistinguishable from their 17-year-old Eastern European female counterparts. During the early to mid-2000s, labels like Hollister took off, selling the easy breezy California lifestyle to teenagers in Michigan. Abercrombie and Fitch Company, which owns Hollister Company and abercrombie kids, reported total sales increased 17 percent to $745.8 million this quarter. High-end designers began a similar and related haute-hippie trend. Paris Hilton, in arguably her best fashion moment, was photographed wearing a vintage Thea Porter dress with a beautifully bohemian paisley print. The T-shirts supporting President Barack Obama during the 2008 election could be seen on everyone, even staunch Republicans. “Yes We Can”-emblazoned apparel became more of a fad than a political statement. Loungewear has also seen a violent upswing, as Americans find it acceptable to wear sweatpants and yoga pants in public. The trend has undoubtedly intensified on college campuses. Soon, we might see an increasing number of students wearing bedroom slippers. Another trend that has an extreme effect on people who call Asheville home is the influx of organic and locally made cloth-
Sally Garner/staff photographer
Creative writing student Preston Brennan wears a graphic T-shirt and trucker hat, a trend made famous by Ashton Kutcher in the late ‘90s. ing items. Spiritex, a sustainable, local and organic clothing boutique on Haywood Street offers a wide variety of organic wholesale fabrics and products. As individuals become more and more environmentally aware of their footprint, their awareness will soon translate into their clothing choices. Fashions in this decade ran the gamut
between effeminate and inappropriately comfortable. The commonality between the two disparate extremes? A staunch sense of individualism and entitlement that is behind the fashion and inherent in society from 2000 to 2010. What the next 10 years will bring for fashion decadence and extravagance can only be witnessed with the creation of designers and the purchases of consumers.
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ond, Bracchitta performed “Concertino for Flute” and “Viola and Double Bass,” composed by Erwin Shulhoff. Poorbaugh accompanied Bracchitta on the viola and Caroline Ulrich played the flute and piccolo. “I’m particular on the viola,” Bracchitta said of the musical combination as he awarded his viola-playing colleague a congratulatory wave. “The viola never gets enough attention,” said fellow viola-player Heather McIalwain, a music technology student from Black Mountain. The Utah native said her attendance is mandatory, but she appreciates the live characteristic of a performance. Even though she favors the viola, McIalwain said she adores the distinctive bass. The double bass looks exactly as named, dwarfing the cello in comparison. “I like unique instruments, and it’s not something you see every day, let alone see a professional play,” she said. The viola student does not study with Bracchitta, but said she knows of his style and professional success. Bracchitta and Eliot Wadopian, a Grammy-winning double bassist and former faculty member at UNCA, performed the final two pieces of the concert, “Lotus Blossom” and “Four,” by William “Billy” Thomas Strayhorn and Miles Davis. Bracchitta and Wadopian modified their duets from the original compositions specifically for the concert. Bass compositions usually include pizzicato, a plucking of the strings. The colleagues also wrote it for the bow as well, changing between pizzicato style, a sound like a deep-sounding stringed harp, and an underlying melodic stream of notes for the bow. Bracchitta and Wadopian met in 1998 when Wadopian filled in for an absent bassist, but the men did not realize they shared history until much later in their friendship. Both men studied concurrently at Berkley College of Music in Boston, shared a love for the double bass and served as faculty members at UNCA. However, their obvious commonality and passion was their love of music. For Wadopian, he said he never questioned what kind of role music would play in his life. He said he knew it would guide his career. “Long before I was really able to take up the instrument, I knew this is where my life path would go,” Wadopian said. He watched a symphony with his father as a child in Thomas Wolfe auditorium and said this early exposure to music led to his success. McIalwain said she loved the midday performance, especially the arrangement including both the bass and viola. “I have never heard any of those pieces before, and it’s always great to hear and experience new and exciting things,” she
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
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Photos courtesy of Dave Obenour
The Dark Star Orchestra will perform their interpretation of the Grateful Dead music Sept. 12 at the Orange Peel. The band formed in Chicago in 1997 and has been playing together ever since. Their name originates from the Grateful Dead song, “Dark Star,” a song that drummer Rob Kortiz said requires the most improvisational skills. They strive to create a sound as close as possible to the Grateful Dead’s music and to give the audience a concert as close to one that the Grateful Dead gave an audiences.
Dark Star Orchestra recreates Grateful Dead experience Auburn Petty alpetty@unca.edu staff writer
Despite what the name suggests, Dark Star Orchestra is not an alternative group of violinists, cellists or bassists, it’s a Grateful Dead tribute band. “There are actually two parts to our name,” said the band’s drummer Rob Koritz. “‘Dark Star’ is a Grateful Dead song that was probably their deepest improvisational vehicle. It kind of epitomized what the Grateful Dead was all about. The reason we chose orchestra after that is because we’re playing a repertoire, just like a classical orchestra might play a repertoire of Mozart. We’re playing a repertoire of Grateful Dead music, which we’re interpreting ourselves, as an orchestra might.” Publicist Dave Weissman said he agrees the band is analogous to an orchestra. “No one can go see the Grateful Dead anymore. They don’t exist. It’s the same way an orchestra recreates Bach or Beethoven. No one can go see Beethoven anymore. He left his gems here, so we can recreate the notes. That’s what Dark Star is doing with the Grateful Dead’s music,” Weissman said. Publicist Dave Obenour said the band exceeds expectations on many levels, especially because of the stigma that comes with being a tribute band. “One of the cool things about them is
that they’re a lot more than a tribute band,” Obenour said. “It’s a lot more like high school history teachers who meticulously study the Civil War and then go out and reenact it on the original battlefields.” The band, which formed in 1997, changed a lot over the years, according to Weissman. “Their performance has been developing and maturing,” Weissman said. “When they started, it was kind of an experiment. They formed in Chicago, and they asked a small club if they could play there for four weeks. The first week, there weren’t that many people, and by the fourth week, the place was sold out. It just kept growing from there.” Koritz said he agreed with Weissman. “We’ve really come into our own and learned how to improvise much better than we did when we first started. Now, we really understand what it’s all about up there,” he said. Koritz started playing drums at age 7 and said being in the band gives him opportunities he dreamed of as a child. “There were so many highlights over the years. One of the first that comes to mind is getting to meet, and more importantly, getting to play with and share the stage with some of my heroes. It was great getting exposed in a different way to these people I grew up being influenced by. I shared the stage with a lot of them,” he said. “Those are dreams when you’re younger.” According to Obenour, original mem-
bers of the Grateful Dead played with Dark Star on certain occasions. Although the band centers around the Dead’s music, both Weissman and Koritz said Dark Star isn’t just for Grateful Dead fans. “The thing I say to everybody is, ‘If you’re not sure about us, give us a chance one time.’ I feel like a lot of people are surprised, and they have a much better time than they thought they were going to have,” Kortiz said. According to Koritz, the band sees a lot of skepticism, especially from Grateful Dead fans. However, Weissman said Dark Star provides a sound similar to, if not better than, what the Grateful Dead produced. “It sounds just like the Dead, and sometimes it sounds better,” Weissman said. “The Dead were under the influence quite a bit throughout their career, so with Dark Star, the music is more clear and clean. It’s the same kind of music, but it’s unique because Dark Star creates their own unique experience.” Weissman said Grateful Dead fans can expect a lot from the performance. “For someone who has seen the Grateful Dead or likes the music, they should expect, at the most, a transcendent experience, and at the least, they should at least have a really rocking time,” Weissman said. “The sound and the music of the Grateful Dead was very dynamic. There would be jazz one minute, rock the next.
“We’ve really come into our own and learned how to improvise better than we did when we first started.”
– Rob Kortiz, drummer of Dark Star Orchestra
Then it could open up and go into some crazy psychedelic jam. Dark Star does all of those things.” Koritz said everyone should give the band a chance. “We take what we do very seriously, and we go up there and try to give you the closest product we can get to what the Grateful Dead might have sounded like,” he said. Asheville residents can see the Dark Star Orchestra perform at the Orange Peel on Sept. 12.
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Top photo: Rob Beckwith gets into the groove at the LAAFF festival. Bottom photo: Ko’alani Deboer concentrates on her lines and design as she volunteers as a face-painter at the LAAFF festival on Saturday.
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Wednesday, April 21, 2010
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Far left: Lisa Zahiya’s Bhangra dance troupe performs in the street. The group consisted of many dancers that performed. At the festival, 82 local artists and plenty of live music performances by rock bands, indie bands and also electronica music. This is LAAFF’s ninth year. Left: Michelle Pugliese smiles while she enjoys one of the events featured at the festival.
LAAFF LAAFF itit up up
Top photo: Assistant professor at Clemson University, Martha Skinner, made the trip to Asheville for the LAAFF festival from S.C. She wore a pink wig for the festival. Bottom photo: Bicycle jousting, a more modern take on the classic medieval sport, proved a crowd favorite last weekend.
LExington AvEnuE ArtS And FuN FEStivaL DrAwS CrowdS and AShevillE TogEthEr Sarah Hinson
sbhinson@unca.edu staff writer
Music and laughter filled the air as Asheville’s free local celebration, the Lexington Avenue Arts and Fun Festival, entered its ninth year last Sunday, bringing the Asheville community together through creative expression. Erin Scholze, entertainment and marketing director for LAAFF and previous board member for Arts2People, the organization hosting the festival, said attendance has increased from 2,000 to about 15,000 as people flock to N. Lexington Avenue to see what Asheville is all about. “LAAFF is a time for people to be able to come together and celebrate and be themselves,” Scholze said. “It kind of feels like a coming together of community to really celebrate all the things we offer.” According to Scholze, 82 local art vendors featured their original work while a number of bands, mostly new, performed everything from rock ‘n’ roll to indie to electronica music. Kids areas allowed children to partake in games like mini golf, local breweries provided beer, and local restaurants and stores, like The Hop ice cream café and Rosetta’s Kitchen, sold their food and products to the public. While eating and drinking, visitors were able to witness various street performances, such as bicycle jousting, while perusing booths that displayed items unique to the event, like LAAFF T-shirts.
Greg Lucas, director of business development for Creative Allies, an online design community, said LAAFF launched their first T-shirt design contest using the site. “People can submit their artwork through Creative Allies, and if the group wants to use their work, they can license it through the site and we run contests for everything from Jack Johnson to Lollapalooza,” Lucas said. “Anyone can post their own contest and choose winners.” The winner for LAAFF’s T-shirt design contest was from La Paz, Bolivia, Lucas said, which shows just how far-reaching these contests can be. Among other events new to LAAFF was the wedding of Rosetta Star, manager of Rosetta’s Kitchen in downtown Asheville. “One of our co-founders is actually an ordained minister, so he’s doing the wedding during the festival,” Scholze said. According to Scholze, Lexington Avenue has not always been a good location for celebrations and ceremonies. He said, 10 years ago, the area was not the safest street to walk down. “I think festivals like LAAFF have really helped bring positive attention to the area and made it really vibrant and draw attention to things in town that people really like,” Scholze said. Kitty Love, the executive director of Arts2People, and co-founder of LAAFF with her husband, agreed that Lexington Avenue’s safety was questionable in the past and she said she wanted to promote its
culture, businesses and artists. Through LAAFF, Love brought self-expression and diversity to the area by highlighting the art and perspectives of locals. “LAAFF constantly provides what is simply a vessel for the creative ideas of individuals who ‘live as art’ to be seen and heard,” Love said. “I think what makes LAAFF appealing is that it inspires creativity and inclusiveness. It says everyone has a unique vision and is naturally gifted with the perfect set of skills to express it, and that we all want to see, hear and feel that unique perspective.” Curiosity and acceptance, Love said, are at the heart of tolerance and promotes diversity and health by keeping possibilities open. “New perspectives are essential to positive evolution,” Love said. “Art embodies this and encourages people to listen to the divine within, which is the wisest voice. If we trust and honor our artists as the shamans of our community, we are informed in our growth by the wisest voice.” Lucas said LAAFF represents the artistic culture and community of Asheville more than any other local event. “It represents the creative grass roots field that has made Asheville what it is today,” Lucas said. Scholze said many people take ownership of the festival and call it their own. “It takes so many people to put it together,” she said. “It’s a great place for everyone to display their stuff and network.”
All photos taken by Katie Saylors/assistant photography editor and Sally Garner/staff photographer.
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Wednesday, September 29, 2010
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Campus Spotlight
Adam Gross/staff photographer
Daniel Kairoff uses his laptop to produce original electronic music during Don Winsley’s performance at the Garage last week.
UNCA student infuses music with technology and design Alyssa Spencer afspence@unca.edu managing editor
Friends and family know Daniel Kairoff as a UNC Asheville multimedia arts and sciences student by day. By night, they know him as one half of the electronic band Don Winsley. “I first started playing music in middle school. I started messing around with this computer program called Fruity Loops, and I made weird sounds and tried to see what the strangest thing I could possibly do was,” Kairoff said. “I gradually simplified that down to making beats and melodies.” Don Winsley consists of Kairoff and his friend Glenn Yoder, who plays drums. Kairoff’s instrument is a little less conventional. When on stage, he attaches his keyboard to his computer and produces sounds with the use of a synthesizer. “Using just my computer as an instru-
ment on stage is very new to me,” the 20-year-old junior said. “It’s tough to describe exactly what I’m doing when I get up on stage with a Macbook Pro, because for all the audience knows, I could be playing solitare up there. The way I look at it is the computer becomes my band or my orchestra, and I’m conducting it and telling it when to go and what to do. It’s not really a musicianship, per se, but more of a craft.” Kairoff said he started playing bass guitar in high school and has since learned several instruments, including guitar and drums. He writes all of his own music. “I always grew up with music in the house,” he said. “My father is a classical pianist, and so music came really easy to me. I’m just now learning piano, interestingly enough.” Playing in bands is nothing new to Kairoff, who created funk bands in high school with his friends. He said Don Winsley is a newly formed band. “We’ve had two or three shows in Ashe-
ville with this project,” Kairoff said. “I’ve played a little bit in Winston-Salem, and somewhat in Greensboro. Before this (Don Winsley), I was in a band called Gold Bricks, and we did a good bit of shows in Asheville.” Although he enjoys performing multiple shows per month, Kairoff said he is wary of playing in the same city too often. He recently played in Asheville at the Garage with fellow UNCA student Ian Galdy and performed at Signal Fest, a musical festival in Chapel Hill, last weekend. Funk and disco are among Kairoff’s favorite genres of music, although he said classical composers influence him the most. “From a compositional standpoint, I’m influenced a lot by Stravinsky,” the Winston-Salem native said. “I used to listen to him as I would fall asleep as a little kid. I also love the complexity of Bach. I don’t want to compare myself to anything that lofty or incredible, but if I could combine the energy I feel when I listen to Stravin-
sky with the intricacy of Bach, and a lot of Baroque composers, then I think that’s what I would hope to do.” Kairoff, who is pursuing a concentration in animation, said he chose to study MMAS in part because the field has many similarities to music. “Composing music is design, in a basic sense,” he said. “I’m designing a space, especially with music production. It’s not a visual space, but it’s a space nonetheless.” Kairoff’s talent in art extends beyond music and graphic design. He said in his spare time he draws. Additionally, during the summer, he taught guitar lessons to children in the south of Haiti for a month. “I love to do everything with a high level of energy,” he said. “That’s very important to me. I want to continue with music after college, whether it’s promotion or performance related.” Don Winsley’s next performance takes place on Halloween night at the MoogFest afterparty.
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Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Bulldog cross country begins season with a solid start Amari Clements aclement@unca.edu staff writer
The Bulldog men and women’s cross country teams started the season with a respectable fourth place finish on both sides, but they said they want to do better. Racing last Friday in the Western Carolina Invitational at Western Carolina University, UNC Asheville faced teams such as Mars Hill and Western as well as conference rivals Winthrop and Gardner-Webb. This season brings a new assistant coach to the Bulldog cross country team. Former WCU runner Adam Puett joins Head Coach Jesse Norman as the latest addition to the coaching staff. “Adam can give the team someone else to talk to when they are pissed at me,” Norman said. “I can also bounce ideas off of him. We have very similar attitudes and ideas.” Norman and Puett go back further than UNCA, which adds some chemistry to their working relationship. “Norman and I have known each other for a long time,” Puett said. “We were teamJesse Norman mates in college. I know he is a hardworking coach.” Now, they have come together to bring the UNCA cross country team closer to being No. 1, even though they have obstacles in their way. “They picked us to be fifth and sixth in the Conference this year,” Puett said. “We can do better than that on both sides.” For the last few years, the men have come in fifth, but the team has higher aspirations for this season. “I want fourth. We’ve been fifth for years. I’m tired of being fifth. The team is tired of being fifth,” Norman said. His goal for the women’s team is anything better than sixth. “We both understand that we have a relatively young team. We just have to keep working so we can get better,” Puett said. Last weekend showed promise for the women. Racing two miles, the women’s team scored 75 points. Junior Emma Bussard’s third place, 11:52 performance was a highlight for the team. Rachel Carson finished ninth with 12:19, sophomore Alyska Kalmeijer was 15th with 12:39 and junior Erin Putnam took 21st with 13:17. Although Carson is still a freshman, Norman said he is already impressed with her standings. “Rachel Carson is doing great. She is our No.2 runner,” he said. In the 5k men’s race, the Bulldogs’ 94-point fourth place was highlight-
Natalie Pearson/ sports editor
Senior Emma Bussard, junior Alyska Kalmeijer and freshman Rachel Carson in the first mile of the race. ed by junior Carlos Lopez, who came in 14th with a time of 16:23. Freshman Tyler Michael, junior Kent Rankin and freshman Nick Summers were 18th, 19th and 20th, respectively, with times of 16:40, 16:41 and 16.42. Like Carson, Norman said he was happy with freshmen Michael and Summers. “Overall, the freshmen did pretty well,” he said. “Tyler Michael is doing really well, and Nick Summers is doing pretty well also.” Although Puett said he saw positives from last Friday’s race, he said he believes they can only get better. “We did OK, fourth from both sides, but there is a lot of work to do,” he said. “There were some good things that happened on both sides.” The Bulldogs will be in action again at the Clemson Cross Country Invitational on Sept. 17. They will then travel to Radford for the Big South Preview meet, where they will get a chance to race against the other teams in the Conference. On the same course, they will race on for the Big South Championship meet on Oct. 30.
Natalie Pearson/ sports editor
The men’s cross country team huddle up before the start of the meet.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Baseball
him for the final month of the season. In 2010, Mattison began his year at the Class-A Advanced level for Jupiter of the Florida State League, where he stole 44 bases and scored 46 runs in 90 games as a Hammerhead. Mattison quickly earned a promotion to the Double-A Jacksonville Suns for the second half of this season and was even summoned to the Marlins’ Triple-A outfit in New Orleans for a few games. According to Smith, Mattison is one of the Marlins’ favorite young outfield prospects. Smith statistically compared Mattison’s rare speed and power combination to that of Tampa Bay Rays superstar centerfielder Carl Crawford. “With the speed at which he plays the game, he’ll get plenty of chances,” Smith said. “He’s struggled some with the bat, but he has made adjustments and will move through Florida’s system as he improves.” Mattison agreed with Smith, and said his plate discipline, in particular, has been the hardest adjustment for him at the next level of play. “The High-A level and the Double-A level is the big step,” Mattison said. “As you move up to a new level, the strike zone gets smaller and the pitchers have more control of their pitches. I have to adjust to the zones as I move up to be successful.” Mattison said he feels like he has an opportunity to start for the Double-A Jacksonville Suns going into next season, but admitted that he has to keep his expectations in check. “The Marlins have a lot of young guys in their outfield. I just have to prove to them that I can play, and maybe I will get a chance one day,” Mattison said. “You can never get your hopes up on starting the year off in a certain place. All you can do is come into spring training in great shape, compete for a job and earn a spot on to the team.” A sophomore when DeRatt and Mattison got drafted, right-handed pitcher
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Bulldog Scorecard Men’s soccer Friday vs. IUPUI 1-3 (L) Sunday vs. Eastern Illinois 3-0 (W)
Women’s soccer
Courtesy of UNCA Athletics
Alan DeRatt pitches at Greenwood field for the Bulldogs in 2008. and corner infielder Schumer is the most recent former Bulldog to bust onto the minor league scene. The 22-year-old Houston native went undrafted in this year’s MLB June draft, but he was soon inked by the San Francisco Giants in early July to a free agent contract. Schumer has already started to make his presence felt in the lower levels of minor league baseball and, according to Smith, the East Mecklenburg High School graduate was largely overlooked in the selection process upon leaving UNCA after last season. “After his tryout, many scouts were in
Soccer 10 minutes later, thanks once again to the goal-scoring duo of Holzinger and Hagedorn. Finding Holzinger’s perfectly placed corner kick with his head, Hagedorn blazed the ball into the back of the net to settle the score at 3-0 and secured the Bulldogs’ first win of the season. “It was a play we ran in practice,” Hagedorn said about his goal. “We put two big guys on the far post to make the middle open. Connor just floated the ball over the post and I finished it.” In addition to aiding UNCA to victory, Holzinger and Hagedorn were awarded places on the UK All-Tournament team
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trouble with their bosses,” Smith said. “His velocity has continued to improve, and he’s already taken a step up in the organization.” After just three games with the Giants’ Arizona Rookie League team, Schumer was called up to Class-A Short-Season Salem-Keizer Volcanoes in Oregon. Since then, he has appeared in six games for the Volcanoes, and was tabbed as the starting pitcher for four of them. Schumer has yet to give up a homer through 27 pro-innings pitched and finished the season with a cumulative 1.27 ERA. “He has had several quality outings so far,” Smith said. “I expect good things.”
Continued
“I’m just glad the team won.”
– Jake Hagedorn, junior soccer player along with teammate Jake Sides. “I’m just glad the team won,” Hagedorn said.
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Although the Bulldogs saw a 3-1 loss against IUPUI on the first day of the UK Invitational, they said they are still excited for their upcoming schedule. “We were really happy about winning and the way we played and we are looking forward to playing the rest of the season,” Rossabi said. Kern said he is also looking forward to the rest of the season, but he said there is still some hard work to do before the next game. “We still have lots to work on but I am hopeful that the effort and confidence shown on Sunday will be the norm as we move forward,” he said.
Sunday vs. Tennessee Tech 1-3 (L)
Volleyball
Friday vs. Alabama State 3-0 (W) vs. South Alabama 3-1 (W) Saturday vs. Alabama A&M 3-0 (W) vs. Southeastern Louisiana 2-3 (L)
Ferriss Roberts
Women’s soccer player Ferriss Roberts scored her first career goal Sunday vs. Tennessee Tech.
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Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Volleyball shines at the South Alabama Invitational
Katie Saylors/ staff photographer
The women’s volleyball team practices on their temporary courts in the gym while waiting for the Justice Center repairs to be completed.
Bulldogs blow past three out of four opponents in Mobile, Ala. tournament
Justin Greenwood jsgreenw@unca.edu staff writer
The UNC Asheville volleyball team seems to have shaken off any early season jitters, winning three of four matches this weekend. The Bulldogs traveled more than 500 miles to compete in the South Alabama Invitational, which included matches against Southeastern Louisiana University, University of South Alabama, Alabama State University and Alabama A&M. “Traveling definitely has an effect on them,” Head Coach Julie Torbett said. “It’s hard not to get stressed, because you know that you have things waiting for you when you get back.” Upon the Bulldogs’ arrival, there were less than 24 hours before the invitational started, which cut down preparation time for the matches. To counteract this, Torbett said she made the most of practice last week to get the team ready for unfamiliar circumstances. “We worked on a couple of things specifically,” Torbett said. “I like to go through every possible situation so they will be prepared for anything they might see in a match.”
“We definitely had our nerves at the beginning of the season, but we got those jitters out.” – Cindi Miller,
junior volleyball player The preparation worked, and the Bulldogs stormed through their first match of the weekend with a 3-0 victory against Southeastern Louisiana. The match marked their second win of the season and their first shutout of the season. Setting an example for the young Bulldog team were seniors Kelsey Benorden and Rachel Guinane, who got 13 kills and 32 assists respectively. “We always try to stick together,” Guinane said. “We always try to go over our game plan so that everyone knows where they are supposed to be.” The momentum from the good start continued into the second match against the
University of South Alabama, where the Bulldogs took home their third win of the season with a 3-1 victory. Guinane continued to show her experience by tallying 45 assists in the match. She credits UNCA’s good teamwork to a variety of different players. “We have people on the team who will get up in your face when we need to be motivated, and we have people who try to help everyone stay calm if we’re in a tight situation,” Guinane said. Another upperclassmen who set an example this weekend was junior outside hitter Cindi Miller. She racked up 17 kills in the second game and said good
communication led to the improved performances. “We’re really working on communication,” Miller said. “We definitely had our nerves at the beginning of the season, but we got those jitters out.” On the second day of competition, the Bulldogs added another victory to their record, defeating Alabama State University 3-0 and bringing their record to 4-2. The last time the Bulldogs met the Lady Hornets in action was back in 2007, when they also won the match in three sets. “We had a good positive outlook on things,” Miller said about the game. However, the last matchup of the invitational proved to be the most difficult for the Bulldogs. The team fell in five sets to Alabama A&M. Outside hitter Benorden notched up a season-high 25 kills and Jenna Dover, a senior right-side hitter, boasted a career-high 12 kills but the Bulldogs still couldn’t hold on. Although the match marked the third loss of their season, it was their first fiveset match. Miller and Benorden were both selected for the All-Tournament team at South Alabama. The Bulldogs will be in action again on Friday against UNC Greensboro.
Etc. . . Wednesday, September 8, 2010
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Corrections
Tips from Campus Police
The Sept. 1 article “UNCA lecturer combines dance and academics,” should have read: ‘Ann Dunn has five children and nine grandchildren.’ The graphic accompanying the Sept. 1 article “Statewide tuition increases present at UNCA” should have read: ‘Universities face a 10 percent budget cut.’
Preventing theft on campus Write down serial numbers of items Lock dorm rooms Do not leave laptops unattended in public places
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Campus Events Annual art faculty exhibition S. Tucker Gallery Wednesday, 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. Undergraduate research symposium Highsmith Union Friday, Noon Flute and piano faculty recital Lipinsky Auditorium Sunday, 4 p.m. CRU women’s Bible study Highsmith Union 103 Monday, 9 p.m. Gudger First Year Writing Contest reception Karpen Hall 139 Tuesday, 12:15 - 1:45 p.m. For more campus activities, visit: www.unca.edu/barker
Campus Voice Page 20
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Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Male and female restroom designations cause anxiety Renee Bindewald RMBINDEWA@UNCA.EDU STAFF WRITER
Women’s restroom or men’s restroom seems like an easy decision, but for some the choice is not so clear. “I don’t like the feeling of having to look at myself to see if I pass as male or female just to have to go to the bathroom,” said Lee Doyle, chair of Alliance, an LGBQT advocacy group on campus. People may feel anxious about which door to choose if they worry about whether they look male or female. Because of this, there are now many gender-neutral restrooms on campus. To implement this change, multiple student organizations, including Hispanic Outreach for Learning Awareness, the Student Government Association and Alliance, and faculty and staff lent support. Doyle and Alliance have been very active throughout the entire process of creating these restrooms. Doyle’s involvement started during a HOLA poetry slam where Doyle read a poem about how hard it was to find a restroom on campus to use. “The ball started rolling when the Diversity Action Council and Courtney (Galatioto) got involved,” Doyle said. Between six and eight months ago, the Diversity Action Council began discussing gender-neutral restrooms when they received reports that students were reluctant to use restrooms reserved for only one gender. “I am proud of the UNC Asheville community because they were really supportive of this change,” said Provost Jane Fernandes, who leads DAC. “My personal urgency was from student concerns who wanted to feel safe and welcome at UNC Asheville,” Fernandes said. Some faculty expressed concern that all restrooms would become genderneutral, but according to the DAC this change only applies to single-stall restrooms. When the DAC planned which re-
“My personal urgency was from student concerns who wanted to feel safe and welcome at UNC Asheville.” – Jane Fernandes, UNCA Provost
strooms to retrofit, places with high student traffic were a priority. This change was made with students in mind, but was also made to help the university community as a whole. Deborah Miles, executive director of the Center for Diversity Education, said her experiences showed her gender-neutral restrooms are necessary. She said a woman in a wheelchair, who had a male attendant, came into Highsmith Union and needed a gender-neutral bathroom. Miles said she had similar experiences with her children. When her sons were young, she said she felt they were too young to go alone to the men’s restroom but too old to go with her to the women’s. Miles, a member of DAC, is also aiding in this transition. “We went there because of students’ input. So if there are other issues that students wish to address, then we want to hear from them,” Miles said. “We want the university to be a learning environment that they (students) will take with them.” Retrofitting the public restrooms was relatively easy because many are single stalled. The process involves more than just taking down a male or female
The student organization Alliance, along with SGA president Courtney Galatioto, strive to provide more than a dichotomy on campus.
sign and putting up a new one. All buildings must meet state codes and pass inspections. This summer, residence hall bathrooms underwent these modifications. “It hasn’t been something most folks have even noticed, but a person who would like to use a gender-neutral
bathroom now doesn’t have to ask,” Dean of Students Jackie McHargue said. McHargue is also working to remove gendered pronouns from the studen handbook. “Some of the things tha can be done to help those not in the gender binary are fairly easy,” she said
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
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Pro-life supporters contend Pearce & Pearce student policy Alicia Adcox
aradcox@unca.edu staff writer
Tuition fees at UNC Asheville cover classes, student activities and athletics. Now, required insurance also covers abortion. The student health care plan used at college campuses in the UNC system includes coverage of an elective abortion, an option that should be reassuring to many college students. Mistakes can happen no matter how careful one is and, in most cases, a baby just does not fit into a college student’s plan. According to Jay Cutspec, the director of UNCA’s Student Health and Counseling Center, UNCA began to require that students have insurance coverage in the fall of 2008. Students who were not already insured under another plan were required to enroll in the plan from Pearce and Pearce, an insurance broker company that specializes in insurance coverage for college students. The UNC school system implemented a change during the past year that requires all college students within the
UNC system to have health insurance. This change was met with controversy when a student at North Carolina State University read the Pearce and Pearce plan and found that it covered elective abortion. An organization called Students for Life of America was alerted and a grass roots campaign began to change the insurance plan. “Well, we were initially really upset when we found out the UNC system was only offering one health care plan to UNC students this year and that plan includes the elective abortion,” said Executive Director of SFLA Kristan Hawkins. SFLA encouraged its supporters to e-mail and call the Board of Governors of UNC and pressure them to change the plan. Two days after the campaign began, the Board of Governors decided to give students the option to remove the elective abortion coverage from their plan. This should have been enough to satisfy pro-life supporters like Hawkins. The opinion of one particular group of people should not be reason enough
to eliminate a part of health care that some people may need. Hawkins said SFLA, however, is not finished challenging the UNC health care policy. The insurance plan particularly offended pro-life supporters like Hawkins and other members of SFLA because UNC school systems were automatically enrolling students into this plan. UNCA students must now decide whether they want to end elective abortion as part of their health care plan. Some students do not share the same opinions as Hawkins or other pro-life supporters trying to eliminate this coverage. “I think they should keep it the way it is because some people are going to need it,” said UNCA junior Ashley Junk. “If something happens, you’re going to want that to fall back on. Just because one person doesn’t believe in it doesn’t mean it should be taken away from everyone.” Cutspec said the Student Health and Counseling Center has not received any feedback from students about the abortion issue. SFLA plans to continue its campaign
to remove elective abortion from the UNC school system’s health care plan in the following months. “We’ve got some things coming up in September. We’ve got a congressional meeting next week with some North Carolina members because we are going to be doing more stuff in September, especially when everyone is getting back to school,” Hawkins said. It is possible that SFLA will be wasting its efforts to change the health care policy. Pro-life students now have the option to remove the abortion coverage from their health care, but how many students will actually take advantage of this new option? Having a child is a big change in a person’s life, and eliminating the option to have an abortion covered by a student’s health care plan will force this change on people who are not ready for it. Maybe pro-life organizations like SFLA would do better to spend their resources educating college students on ways to prevent the need for an abortion instead of wasting them on taking away students’ right to choose.
American box office determines fate of Japan’s Studio Ghibli Josh Robinson jrrobins@unca.edu staff writer
Hayao Miyazaki is a name few Americans were familiar with just 10 years ago. Even less recognized was Studio Ghibli, the animation company Miyazaki helped found 25 years ago. That all changed during the past decade. Even people who don’t consider themselves anime fans find themselves watching movies such as Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle and My Neighbor Totoro. But the magic of Miyazaki could soon be extinguished. In an interview with the Japanese publication Cut magazine, Miyazaki said it is possible Studio Ghibli may never make another movie again. Whether or not that actually happens all depends on the success of Ghibli’s newest movie, The Borrower Arrietty, which is loosely based on Mary Norton’s fantasy novel, The Borrowers. The film has already been released to high praise in Japan, but it remains to be
seen how well the film will fare at the American box office. And, therein lies the problem. As popular as Miyazaki has become in the United States, Studio Ghibli has yet to see its films released in mainstream theaters. Luckily, for those in Asheville, the Fine Arts Theater typically shows Miyazaki’s movies when they are released theatrically. Unfortunately, for the majority of Americans, Studio Ghibli films do not debut in mainstream theaters, which means less revenue for Ghibli. John Lasseter, the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, is also a very good and longtime friend of Miyazaki. Lasseter has overseen the production and voice acting of the American adaptations of most of Miyazaki’s films. In an open forum at San Diego Comic-Con International 2009, Lasseter talked about the theatrical releasing of Miyazaki’s films. “Frankly, it’s a simple fact that the box office equals the number of theaters
it was in. I mean, Spirited Away was in 100 theaters nationwide. So now we’re going to be in 800 theaters (referring to last year’s release of Ponyo). It’s a nice medium-sized release, so we’re excited about that,” he said. “I believe in this one thing. I’ve been a big advocate within the Disney company of trying to get Miyazaki’s films out there for the DVD releases as well as for the theatrical releases, because I believe that once you see a Miyazaki film, you get hooked. You keep thinking about it well after you’ve seen it and you want to see it again,” he said. Miyazaki is the heart and soul of Studio Ghibli. Miyazaki and Ghibli have garnered a huge following in Japan and in the United States. So how is it possible the dissolution of Studio Ghibli could even be considered? That these movies don’t see nationwide theatrical releases, with their popularity and the backing of Disney, just doesn’t make sense. Studio Ghibli has a number of movies still lined up for production, should they stay in business.
Many Asheville residents, including UNC Asheville alumnus Matt Metcalf who graduated in June with a degree in multimedia arts and sciences, don’t even want to think about the possibility of Ghibli shutting down. As an animator, Metcalf said he appreciates Miyazaki’s work. “I look to Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli as a role model – something to aspire to. Their work is the pinnacle of animation genius as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “If Studio Ghibli closes, it will be the end of an era – the sad end and death to one of the largest purveyors of traditional 2D animation.” It is vital to stress the importance of this form of art. Hopefully Miyazaki’s fans will do what they can to help keep Studio Ghibli doing what they do best: pioneering the frontiers of imagination. Whether it’s the price of admission or the cost of a DVD, every little bit shows Studio Ghibli and Disney that Americans want more of what they’ve got.
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Wednesday, September 8, 2010
{THE BLUE BANNER}
Letter to the Editor
Mosque proposal in NYC ignores residents’ emotional concerns
With the arrival of fall colors and students, new and old, on the UNCA campus, a look inside the news sources of our nation quickly reveals a similarly altered shade of events which affect us. Although the hot topic issues of this past spring – immigration and the tea party movement among others – remain divisive and important to us, for the curious students, new issues have risen which demand attention. Our first article for the semester is a predictable one: the now wellknown controversy over the plans of a group of Moslems who want to build a mosque near the site of the 9/11 tragedy in New York City. In an attempt to preempt the expected hate-filled emails of our friends from the left, we would like to explain that neither of us see anything inherently wrong with the idea that a religious group, even one whose fringe members were responsible for the terror of September 11th, can build a church wherever they want. While some Americans have exceeded their own rhetoric by aggressively campaigning against the permission from New York City for the Islamic Center to be built, their opponents have been similarly impassioned to claim that, however insensitive to the thousands who were affected on 9/11, the Islamic Center building project should be allowed to move forward. President Obama has publicly backed the building of this Islamic Center, raising concerns from some that the “Islamic” president was allowing one religion sway his opinion. President Obama is not at fault – one of the few times I can honestly write that – for his Islamic heritage. Though he claims Christianity as his religion today, it is accurate when voters noted that his family’s roots are linked to the religion of the Prophet. However, it is hypocritical of my few fellow conservatives who insinuate that Obama’s support for the Islamic Center is based upon an Islamic bias which relies on those ancestral roots. By assuming a president cannot make a decision regard-
ing any religion merely because he has one of his own, we are falling into the same political rut as many liberals who have, for most of the past decade, denied the Republican president his valid, legal opinion on matters of education and religion because they were predetermined that religion precludes objective arbitration. This generalization is easily reputed as all humans bear their own biases, from Joe the Plumber to the President of the United States. Atheists are biased – to varying degrees – against religion, yet they still believe themselves capable of objective decisions on important social topics. President George W. Bush made many objective decisions regarding religion in his tenure and we should allow Obama the tolerance which was not given to Bush when he made similar decisions: presidents have the obligation in their job to have ideas, faith, and beliefs which will guide them in making, we hope and pray, wise decisions that inevitably affect all Americans and many others throughout the world. If the president allows his beliefs to get in the way of the office, vote him out of office. Bush didn’t invent Christianity, just as Obama’s family were not the first Moslems, so we should give them latitude that the religious issues they support or oppose are not intrinsically linked to religious bias. Beyond the Obama discussion, we are still left wondering why the Islamic Center needs to be built so near the location of emotional and patriotic importance, an importance that bore the undeniable marks of Islamic extremism. While we applaud the claims of the Islamic Center developers to include a 9/11 tribute within their walls, the natural inclination of any developer who wants to build a safe, profitable, or useful institution would be to avoid the resentment that the proposed location of this Islamic Center has raised. The Center’s proposed inclusion of a monument to the dead of 9/11 seems a hollow symbol when the concerns of victims’ families are disregarded
President Obama is not at fault – one of the few times I can honestly write that – for his Islamic heritage. Though he claims Christianity as his religion today, it is accurate when voters noted that his family’s roots are linked to the religion of the Prophet. However, it is hypocritical of my few fellow conservatives who insinuate that Obama’s support for the Islamic Center is based upon an Islamic bias which relies on those ancestral roots. – Stephen and Daniel Bava so this Center can be created. With the numerous mosques in NYC and across this country which operate peacefully, what imminent need is this Center’s creation fulfilling? Why is the religion associated with the 9/11 terrorists so insistent on building a prominent building near the heart of an American tragedy? In this nation, students are chastised for praying in school, veterans cannot have crosses on their graves, and our forefathers’ motto “In God We Trust” is a feared slogan upon American currency. This politically correct atmosphere in America seems only focused on preventing Christians from “offending” (using the word very loosely) others, while the offensive and controversial actions of other religions – the Islamic Center project in particular – are condoned and even supported by our elected leaders. This accepted one-way censorship is especially relevant when considering the under-reported status of a Greek Orthodox Church which shares a goal with the Islamic Center: to build near the 9/11 Memorial location. Unlike the Islamic Center, St. Nicholas’ Greek Orthodox Church is a historic landmark which existed near the World Trade Towers, and unlike the Islamic Center, this church does not have outspoken
support from NYC leadership or the American president. While city and church officials disagree over who is to blame for the lack of progress towards rebuilding the Orthodox church, the creation of a new Islamic Center in the same location has been spurred on by support from politicians and civic leaders. If a mosque had been crushed by the falling towers, would we have seen ten years of largely passive inaction by the NCY Port Authority or our president? We feel that opponents of the mosque are misguided when they reject this project’s validity merely because of the supporters’ religion. The Center’s proposal should be rejected because to approve its construction would be a denial of the rights – emotional for the victims’ families and fiscal to the owners of St. Nicholas’ Church – of those who already claim the Memorial grounds as their own. -Stephen and Daniel Bava’s response to campus voice articles published in The Blue Banner Issue 1 on Sept. 1.
Editor’s note: In an effort to preserve the original intent of this letter, it ran unedited by the Banner’s staff members.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
{The Blue Banner}
Page 23
The Blue Banner’s View
BP faces undue scrutiny from America’s consumers Mistakes are inevitable, a part of life and, occasionally, they are people’s favorite thing to gather around and point out. Prior to the oil spill, the BP logo connoted reliability on a national scale. However, after wreaking havoc on the environment, the local economy and their own reputation, BP’s Gulf Coast oil spill proves at least one thing – the loyalty of American consumers is both fickle and treacherous. Given the undeniable damage still unfolding in the Gulf Coast, many consumers have quickly demonized the global entity. Organizations sprouted almost overnight to boycott BP, hoping to bring down the energy giant before it can do any more harm. One of the first such efforts, a Facebook group titled Boycott BP, boasts almost a million online friends that are encouraged to stop buying anything associated with BP. Another anti-BP group, found at boycottbp.org, hopes to inspire potential followers by claiming “Giant, multinational corporations speak one language and one language only: money.”
BP has paid almost $500 million to 160,703 individuals and businesses with legitimate damages claims. To date, BP has spent more than $8 billion correcting their mistake. This statement, in essence, is the type of generalization that leads to ignorance and prejudice. The stereotype is, however, absolutely correct. When turning over billions of barrels of crude oil in order to meet the ever-increasing needs of insatiable American consumers, money is the beginning, middle and end of any formula for success. This is not a good or a bad thing – it is reality. Another thing to consider is that BP executives incorporated into their formula not just the needs of consumers or their wallets, but also environmental needs, health-related needs, the need for technological advancement and the need for new forms of energy, all re-
layed in the language of currency and backed by capital. In response to the oil spill, BP allocated $500 million to the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, a 10-year program researching both the environmental and health issues emerging from the disaster. Additionally, The National Institute of Health received $10 million from BP to conduct their own research regarding the spill. This investment of more than half a billion dollars does not include the Gulf Coast cleanup or economic reimbursement funds. BP currently has roughly 25,000 employees, 3,000 ships, 34 aircrafts and almost 1.5 million feet of boom cleaning up or containing the spill. BP has
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paid almost $500 million to 160,703 individuals and businesses with legitimate damages claims. To date, BP has spent more than $8 billion correcting their mistake. Before the oil spill, BP gained recognition as one of the world’s largest researchers and producers of renewable energy sources. In league with the renewable energy company RGE Energy AG, in 2008 BP began construction of the biggest wind farm to date, capable of producing enough energy to power more than 100,000 homes. Yet, American consumers still purchase more than 15 billion gallons of gas from BP every year, making it the nation’s largest producer of petroleum. Despite easily accessible information regarding BP’s efforts for a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable future, it seems people would rather rally around BP’s big mistake. Instead of blindly hate-mongering under the guise of being environmentalists, people should stop and think once in awhile about the scale of efforts necessary to keep an entire country’s wheels turning.
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send to emmcwhor@unca.edu The Blue Banner is UNC Asheville’s student newspaper. We publish each Wednesday except during summer sessions, finals week and holiday breaks. Our office is located in Karpen Hall 019. The Blue Banner is a designated forum for free speech and welcomes letters to the editor, considering them on basis of interest, space and timeliness. Letters and articles should be e-mailed to the editor-in-chief or the appropriate section editor. Letters should include the writer’s name, year in school, and major or other relationship to UNCA. Include a telephone number to aid in verification. All articles are subject to editing.