by Catherine Quill

Despite an award letter being issued a month ago for the construction of the Rivers Street Parking Deck, excavation of the site will not start until sometime within the next three weeks. According to Clyde Robbins, director of Design and Construction, the delays were caused by a failure to apply for the necessary permits. "The fault comes right back to the architects," says Robbins. In order to commence the clearing of the site, builders were required to apply for a permit from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. However, the process of attaining this permit proved to be more complicated than anticipated. Builders had to hire engineers to measure watershed and make erosion calculations for the site that the cleared material would be delivered to. "They lost a good six weeks in getting this permit," says Robbins. "It's a slow process to start the construction," he says. The first task in the project will be to mobilize the logging, and Robbins is "fairly confident" that the permit from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources will be issued by Friday. Robbins points out that the building area, the Kerr Scott and old ATM parking lots, is "a tough site with about 80,000 cubic yards of rocks and dirt that have to be excavated and moved off campus. "I'm sure the delays have not made those people (who currently park there) unhappy," he says. The length of the construction will depend on the weather. Currently, the contract calls for 395 days. However, Robbins feels the construction will last for 18 months if there is a mild winter. The Rivers Street Parking Deck will have 750 parking spaces and house offices for campus police and campus parking. Total construction costs total $11,623,301 and will be paid for using borrowed money. The debt on the loans will be financed over a period of 20-30 years. Robbins says that money to pay for the project will probably be generated by registration, fines and event parking, but he adds that this depends on the policy that will be established, which has yet to be determined. The parking deck will feature the same design elements as some of the newer buildings on campus. The project was a multi-prime award between four companies. T.A. Loving has been awarded General Contractor, while other work will be completed be Tommy Strigo, Holcom Brothers and Port City Electric Company. Robbins says no other major problems have arisen. "Our biggest problem has been trying to get the project started," he says.

Conley to open visiting writers Series

by Ai Lin Loh

The Fall 2000 Visiting Writers Series begins Sept. 14. The series starts with historical novelist Robert Conley. Conley's writings focus on the Cherokee. His most recent work, The Cherokee Dragon, is a story of a Cherokee chief who tries to protect his tribe from English settlers. Conley has written more than 30 historical novels, including the "Real People" saga. Barbara Neely will visit Sept 26. Her fictional character Blanche White is an African-American maid who in four separate novels deals with the issues of race and class. Robert Morgan, novelist and poet, will be the featured writer for Oct. 19. His recent work Gap Creek hit the best-seller list after its appearance in Oprah's Book Club. Morgan will be a visiting professor for the Appalachian English department this fall. Fiction writer Peter LaSalle comes to ASU Nov. 2. He is a professor of creative writing at the University of Texas at Austin. His work Hockey Sur Glace is a collection of short stories about ice hockey. Appalachian graduate Stephen Dubner reads from his memoirs Nov. 16. He is the author of Turbulent Souls, a book that covers the return of a Catholic son to his Jewish family. Poet Phillip Shabazz will read from his works Nov. 30. Shabazz's most recent work, XY Zoom, will be released in October. His writings explore relationships, the world, nature and the idea of myth. All of the writers' readings will be held in the Linville Falls Room of Plemmons Student Union at 7:30 p.m., unless otherwise noted. Book sales and signings will follow. The Visiting Writers Series is free. Call Susan Weinberg at 262-2871 or Jade Huynh at 262-2313 for more information.

by Jenny Trest

In a severely underprivileged tribal area of the jungles of Maharashtra tanhe, India, many people suffer the death sentence of bilateral cataracts. The people there cannot afford the procedure that corrects these cataracts that appear simultaneously in both eyes and they are likely to live only three more years with this condition. With the help of Laura Ives and 500 volunteers from around the world, an "Eye Camp" was established in 1994, setting up a temporary hospital to provide care for 10,000 patients in four days and completing over 1,000 surgeries in six days. "We were working with the most humble people, who felt so much generosity and so much appreciation that they were having their eyesight, their lives brought back, it was an extraordinary experience," said Ives. Laura Ives, the new art department chairperson, has spent the past 15 years overseas. She left her educating position at a San Francisco college to join the Peace Corp. in 1985. "I decided to go overseas because I felt it was a time in my life that I really wanted to get outside the academic area and see the world, see what the world had to offer me and what I could offer the world." She became a volunteer and ended up working on the National Curriculum for the Arts in India and Botswana. While in India, she worked in conjunction with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). There she worked with the Adwasi (indigenous peoples of India) developing a cultural arts program. Combining traditional arts with sustainable income, Ives helped develop a program to help the people of this area obtain income and practice traditional arts. "We were focusing on revitalizing the traditional crafts of the area, with a particular emphasis on sustainablity and income," said Ives. "When I left India, we had built a building, set up a youth initiative program and all the staff there were local artists and craftsmen." In Botswana, Ives worked for the Ministry of Education. At that time, the first college in art education was being established in the village of Molepolole. Ives trained the first art teachers of Botswana and helped develop the art curriculum for secondary schools. She was the principle editor and writer for the teacher's handbook "Art: A Curriculum for the Junior Secondary Schools of Botswana." This 400-page book established a nationwide curriculum for art classes as well as documenting the artwork student teachers were doing across the country. "When I left, 10,000 Batswana children were studying art as a timetable subject. It was very interesting and very rewarding to work on these projects in these countries," said Ives. Originally from Boston, Mass., Ives was turned on to ceramics as a junior in high school. "I was going to be a potter and that was it," she said. However, taking a fundamentals class in three dimensional design in her undergraduate studies at Mass College of Art in Boston, she found that sculpture was her true passion. She received a masters degree in Fine Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. She worked at Ohio State University for four years developing a graduate program and studios for students there. In 1985 she resigned from her position at San Francisco College and joined the Peace Corps. After fifteen years overseas, Ives was interested in returning the states. A year ago, she found the position at Appalachian for an art department chairperson in the "Chronicle of Higher Education." "I was longing to come back to the US. My greatest love is higher education and the arts and I was really missing that focus of being with the students and doing my own research and also I wanted to be at least by a phone to call to my family." With her experience in administration and management and a background in art education and the fine arts, Ives traveled to ASU to interview. She was impressed by the student work and how highly the faculty spoke of the students. Now the Department chairperson, Ives will be teaching one class per semester and working with the faculty of the Art Department to address some issues addressed in the five year plan. "There is a desperate need for space, and we are looking for support wherever possible." There isn't adequate studio or storage space for the students in all levels of the Art Department, according to Ives, and they are looking at temporarily using the new museum in the back of the Methodist church. "I see myself as a facilitator, working in partnership. My goal is to create a bond of trust and respect, for myself and the faculty and us as a whole so that we can work together as a strong community. Ives brings years of wisdom and experience to ASU, from around the world as an artist and an educator. "There is a strong art community here and a vision for the future. I hope to have a partnership, and through collective wisdom work together to make this one of the best art programs in the region."