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Senate: move
to I-A not feasible
Anthony DeBetta
- Faculty Senate Beat
Appalachian State
University faculty members have made it overwhelmingly clear that changing
the NCAA Division I-AA football status of Appalachian State University
is not appropriate at this time.
The Faculty Senate made a statement Friday saying, “The faculty
of ASU do not endorse moving to I-A football at this time.”
Dr. Paul Gates, assistant professor of communication and vice chair
of the Faculty Senate, said results of a survey conducted in 1999 showed
98 percent of respondents voted against moving the university’s
official football status to the I-A level.
Gates pointed to the recent passing of the state budget and the fact
that the university is losing $2 million in state funding as another
reason the move would be unfavorable.
“When our academic funding has been cut, there is no room for an
increase in our athletic budget,” said Gates.
Gates said that the Board of Governors has given the authority of determining
the role of intercollegiate sports to the Appalachian State University
Board of Trustees.
Dr. Gale Weitz, associate professor of art and chair of the Faculty
Senate, said, “The issue has been entertained several times by
the Board of Trustees and has been struck down.”
Weitz said the issue would be a major agenda item at the Board of Trustees
December meeting but expects the same outcome.
Weitz said a “small group of vocal alumni” has been pushing
to change Appalachian’s current status.
Dr. Alan Hauser, professor of philosophy and religion, said the transition
would be an unlikely occurrence.
“It would require an enormous amount of financial resources,”
said Hauser. “I don’t even think this move was workable three
years ago when the economy was booming.”
Along with financial roadblocks, Hauser cited several other reasons
why a move to I-A football status would be unrealistic. He said I-A
football status would mean Appalachian State would have to hire more
coaches, incur greater traveling expenses and face possible stadium
upgrades.
Hauser said Title IX implications would come into play as well, meaning
that more funding for male sports programs requires more money for women’s
sports. He also said requirements are getting tighter for schools that
wish to upgrade their status.
Another major issue is attendance requirements. Hauser felt it would
be difficult to consistently have 15,000 people in attendance at a home
football game. He felt it would be difficult to find I-A schools willing
to travel to Appalachian State to face the Mountaineers, said Hauser.
Mayor: Boone
security beefed up
Sean Oakley -
Town of Boone Beat
Boone Mayor Velma
Burnley assured community members “Boone is still a very safe place
to live,” at Thursday night’s Boone Town Council Meeting.
After a moment of silence to honor those affected by the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks, Burnley gave a salute to local and national police and firefighters,
which was followed by a lengthy applause.
“There are many citizens who expressed safety concerns after the
events on the 11th,” said Burnley. “We share in your concern
and have beefed up security.”
Burnley pointed to the water treatment plant as one of the main concerns
and said that plant security has been heightened.
The council also unanimously approved to spend $23,000 on further flood
mitigation projects.
The projects, which would be handled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
would include improvements to the Duverry Davis flood study, updating
the study to new software and training staff members to update the flood
model.
Jim Burns, who presented the issue to the council, said the old study,
which was conducted in 1999, does not include buildings such as the
George M. Holmes Convocation Center, Lowe’s Food Market and University
Highlands. One of the main projects would focus on including these buildings
into the old study.
One of the main advantages is, “we won’t have to update the
study,” said Burns. “The new software will update itself.”
Burns estimated January 2002 as the projected completion date for all
of the afore referenced projects.
“[This] is much better than spending $50,000 on a study we didn’t
even adopt,” said Max Schrum. “That’s what happened last
time.”
In a similar matter, the council unanimously approved a $35,000 budget
amendment for a cost-sharing agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The $35,000 is half of the total cost for a hydraulic model for the
water system.
In other business, the council agreed to the shutting down of Grand
Street between the Jones House and the Watauga County Library for a
short period for this year’s annual “Downtown Boo.” During
the presentation, Pilar Mohr praised Streetfest as a success. “It
raised a lot of money for the Red Cross,” he said.
The council also asked the town attorney to recoup damages from Bare
Brothers Moving for a bill outstanding since November 1999. The $1,500
bill was for damages to a streetlight that was knocked out by a moving
truck belonging to Bare Brothers.
Blake Brown, who presented the issue to council, said there is a witness
to the event and several pleas for payment have gone unanswered.
Budget cuts,
printing fees center of discussion at first SGA meeting
Sarah Newell
- SGA Beat
Dr. Gregory Blimling,
vice chancellor for Student Development, gave a special report at the
Student Government Association meeting last Tuesday regarding the $2-million
reduction in Appalachian State University’s allocation after the
North Carolina General Assembly trimmed the state budget.
“First of all, let me just say that we’re not planning to
lay anyone off. The school will just not fill some of the vacancies
created by faculty and staff that have retired,” said Blimling.
Blimling also discussed several new campus projects.
Construction on a new theatre in Plemmons Student Union will begin in
January and is tentatively scheduled to open in fall 2002. “The
theater is designed for the students and will show old movies,”
said Blimling.
Six new tennis courts will also be built behind the end zone at Kidd
Brewer Stadium, where the woods presently are, so that they will be
cattycornered to the Quinn Recreation Center.
“We decided to put in six lighted courts because that’s how
many you need for tournament play,” said Blimling.
Green engineers are working with the university to ensure construction
procedures and materials are environmentally friendly on various projects,
including the Living Learning Center. The engineers are also working
to increase the amount of solar energy used in new buildings.
Blimling also said by 2010, enrollment is expected to swell to 13,400
students, compared to the 12,560 that presently attend.
Following Dr. Blimling’s report, Dr. Douglas May, director of Academic
Computing Services, spoke about the overuse of paper in campus computer
labs.
Among figures cited, May stated between 5.5-6 million pieces of paper
were used last year, costing approximately $200,000, which was taken
out of student technology fees. “Fifty percent of that was thrown
away, and a major cause of that is because it’s free, in the sense
that there’s no additional cost to the student,” said May.
The current proposal, designed to reduce paper waste, is to charge three
cents per page beginning in the spring. “Every student will have
a $6 allowance, which equals 200 pages. We’ll encourage double-sided
printing with the same price. It will cost three cents, not six, if
students use double-sided printing,” said May.
“We’ll try six dollars for the allowance initially. The next
semester we may change it to zero or to 10 dollars. We’ll just
have to see,” said May.
“The benefits are that there’s less printing, which is better
ecologically, and is, essentially, ‘a fairer form of taxation.’
With the money from the student tech fees that previously went to pay
for printing, the school will buy newer PC’s and Macs, we’ll
extend lab hours and will have more lab staff,” said May.
Vol.
76 No. 13October
2, 2001
ASU to cut
vacant positions due to trimmed budget
Robyn Dailey -
Business Affairs Beat
North Carolina Gov.
Mike Easley signed a document last Tuesday finalizing the budget deductions
for University of North Carolina schools, said Jane Helm, vice chancellor
for Business Affairs.
“I’m pleased
that we didn’t get any more cuts than we did,” she said.
Appalachian State
University was given a 2.3-percent reduction of its appropriated funds
from the state, said Helm.
Last year’s
appropriation was $86.9 million.
The 2.3-percent reduction
will total $2,009,780, which leaves a total of $84.9 million for this
year’s appropriation, said Helm.
The university will
generate most of the needed funds from position cuts in staff and administration
personnel, slots that university officials left vacant in the months leading
up to the passage of a final budget package by the North Carolina General
Assembly.
“The largest
cuts were in staff salaries and staff positions,” said Helm.
She said that the
school must reduce the budget by approximately 20 positions, with 17 of
those coming out of staff positions and three from the administrative
ranks.
“We will not
cut any position that is currently occupied,” said Dr. Bill Ward,
associate vice chancellor for Academic Affairs.
The Office of Academic
Affairs is responsible for dispensing funds to the deans of the individual
colleges.
The office will meet
with the Deans Council within the next three weeks to determine where
the money will go within the departments, said Ward.
He said they would
do their best to see that no department or area suffers more than others.
“Things should
be clarified considerably within the next month,” said Ward.
After the money is
distributed to the college deans, they will be individually responsible
for distributing the money throughout their respective departments.
During the past year,
the university, under suspicion of the budget cut, has not been filling
positions that are vacant unless they are critical, said Helm.
“We felt very
strongly that we were going to have these cuts,” she said.
Appalachian plans
to only cut vacant positions so that no one currently employed will lose
his or her position.
“No one had
a salary cut,” said Helm.
Although a strain,
state budget-cuts happen periodically depending on the economics of the
state, according to Helm.
“It’s not
an emergency situation,” she said.
She said if state
revenues are still too low, they could ask for more money from the UNC
system.
“It’s very
hard to take a cut because everything’s going up,” said Helm.
All of the funds
that must be reverted back to the state will come from the operating budget,
she said.
The university is
not required to cut the positions, but it is expected to pay the state
government the money equivalent to those positions, said Ward.
“We got some
idea of the magnitude months ago,” he said.
When the North Carolina government began to produce the numbers of their
financial shortfall, the university realized it would be the recipient
of the consequences that followed, said Ward.
Appalachian has not
yet determined the exact means by which it will handle the budget cut,
he said.
The university estimated
what the accelerated costs would be and added the extra into student billing
at the beginning of the year to try and eliminate any extra billing, said
Helm.
The university was
correct within a dollar for resident students, but estimated short for
out-of-state students, who were recently billed for the additional amount.
In-state students
paid $50, while out-of-state students paid $412 for the 5-percent increase
that was across the board from the General Assembly, according to university
records.
“It’s going
to be a relief, in a sense, to us even though we’re losing some money,
to know where we stand,” said Ward.
Student
gives perspective to nation linked to attacks
Kristin Davis -
Academic Affairs Beat
Appalachian State
University junior Matt Johnson has created a map of Afghanistan to be
used by newspapers in Wilkes and Transylvania counties.
The map was created to assist readers in visualizing the country the United
States has pointed to as a main harborer of terrorists connected to the
Sept. 11 attacks.
Johnson, a geography and geographic information systems major from North
Wilkesboro, spent much of last week honing his skills on mapmaking software
to produce the detailed map.
The idea to create a map of the Middle Eastern country came from Johnson’s
professor, Dr. Neal Lineback, author of the weekly column “Geography
in the News” on maps.com. Johnson creates maps for the column, which
are distributed to public schools and regional newspapers.
“Afghanistan is an area most people aren’t familiar with,”
said Johnson. China, Iran, North Korea and Iraq are relative areas to
Afghanistan, he said.
“It’s important to see where our troops could be going,”
said Johnson.
In his weekly Saturday morning radio address, President George W. Bush
called the war on terrorism a war that “will be fought wherever terrorists
hide, or run or plan.”
Johnson, who spent the summer interning for Trails Illustrated, National
Geographic Society’s maps sector, called Afghanistan a rugged place,
with more than 75 percent of its terrain mountainous.
“It could make a ground war difficult. There are lots of caves and
underground wells where terrorists could hide,” he said.
Lineback echoed Johnson’s thoughts. “Not only does the mountainous
core of the country rise to over 24,000 feet, but deep gorges and valleys
are separated by high ridges,” the instructor said.
Lineback said the nation’s mountains are filled with human-made caves
that generations of Afghans have hidden in and fought invaders from. “Consequently,
[Afghanistan] has never been conquered by outside forces,” he said.
Both Johnson and Lineback spoke of the country’s difficult roads
and infrastructures Johnson adopted in his map of Afghanistan.
Even some of the major roads are one- and two-lane dirt roads.
“Steep grades and numerous switchbacks slow motorized traffic to
a few miles per hour,” said Lineback.
New technologies in cartography have raised the awareness and speedy production
of maps to the general public, he said.
Debbie Poulos, adjunct instructor in the Department of Communication,
described the importance of maps to the visual process of communication
as talk of war circulates.
Maps are useful tools in conjunction with a story on television or in
the newspaper, giving viewers a closer interpretation of the area, said
Poulos.
“People of this age are visual learners,” she said.
Johnson’s map of Afghanistan is also available online at www.appstate.edu/www.doc/news/releases/092601johnson.html.
Organizations
look to expand Chancellor-For-A-Day program
Kristina Egger
- Chancellor/Student Development Beat
Appalachian Student
Ambassadors and Campus Residence Student Association (CRSA) are sponsoring
the fifth annual Chancellor-For-A-Day fund-raising program.
The winning student will switch places with Chancellor Francis T. Borkowski
for an entire day.
“We are so excited to be working with CRSA this year. Together, CRSA
and Student Ambassadors can expand the Chancellor-For-A-Day program to
record size,” said Erin Wade, Ambassador and Chancellor-For-A-Day
coordinator.
To enter the Chancellor-For-A-Day drawing, students must donate either
a canned food item or $2 to one of the many drop-off points around campus.
The proceeds from the contest will benefit the Hunger Coalition for the
third year in a row.
The program started yesterday and will end Friday.
Donations may be made between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. in Trivette Hall and
between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. in Plemmons Student Union.
With the help of CRSA, resident assistants will accept canned goods in
individual residence halls between 9 p.m. and midnight.
Halls that collect at least 100 cans will earn points for Appalachian
State University’s Homecoming competition.
Ambassador Wade Nagy, Chancellor-For-A-Day assistant coordinator, said,
“We raised around 850 cans last year, and this year we expect to
raise around 2,000 with the help of CRSA. We are all really excited about
the program this fall.”
Students can contribute as much as they would like to increase their chances
of winning. The winner of the Chancellor-For-A-Day contest will be announced
during the Homecoming football game against the University of Tennessee
at Chattanooga on Oct. 27.
Chancellor Borkowski will then switch places with one lucky student, attending
all of his or her classes and activities on Nov. 6.
In turn, the winning student will perform all of the duties routinely
performed by the chancellor.
Last year’s winner was Jamie Leigh McConnell, then a freshman.
When she and Chancellor Borkowski switched places last fall, the chancellor
went to her classes, ate lunch in the Food Court and did research in the
library.
In return, McConnell opened the chancellor’s mail, met with the vice
chancellors and answered telephone calls dealing with university business.
For more information about the Chancellor-For-A-Day program, contact Student
Ambassadors at 262-2542, or advisor Patrick Setzer in the Office of Admissions
at 262-2120.
Greek organizations
to hold Leadership Conference
Carrie Baker -
Greeks Beat
In an effort to educate
its officers and mold them into stronger leaders, Appalachian State University’s
Greek-lettered organizations will hold the 2001 Greek Leadership Conference
Sunday from 12:30 p.m. - 8 p.m. in Plemmons Student Union.
Coordinators Marlee Glass, corresponding secretary for Panhellenic Council,
and Gary Juliano, corresponding secretary for Interfraternity Council, said
the events will be open to members representing each Appalachian fraternity
and sorority.
Glass hopes the goal of equipping students as leaders within their respective
organizations to in turn be leaders on campus and throughout their lives
will be met by keynote speaker J.T. Thomas’ message and by “breakout”
sessions to be led by different Appalachian State staff members, many from
the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership (CSIL).
This is the first Greek Leadership Conference (GLC) to be held in two years.
“The individual in my position before was not able to coordinate this
event last year,” said Glass.
The setup for GLC will be similar to that of the 1999 conference, with the
addition of a three-course etiquette dinner to be led by Dr. Patricia Kirkpatrick,
said Glass.
“We are using suggestions brought up last year and honoring their wishes
by holding the etiquette dinner,” said Glass.
Thomas will speak about how Greek organizations have changed over time and
how to work with the changes, said Glass.
After the keynote speaker, breakout sessions are scheduled to take place.
Topics will include leadership, diversity and community
service.
“The breakout sessions will hopefully give the different Greek organizations
a chance for integration,” said Juliano. “We have good speakers
scheduled, and this will give great opportunities to students.”
Julie Somppi, assistant director of CSIL for Organizational Leadership and
Greek organizations advisor, will hold a presidents’ roundtable meeting
and a “Getting to Know Your Advisor” session.
These sessions will show members ways to utilize advisors and give everyone
a chance to brainstorm about leadership opportunities, said Somppi.
Other sessions will be led by Jenny Koehn, community service coordinator
for Appalachian and the Community Together (ACT); Anwar Cruter, assistant
director of CSIL for Multicultural Education; and Jim Street, assistant
center director of CSIL.
Another highlight at the conference will include vendors selling Greek merchandise.
“There will be three different vendors represented, and everyone is
invited to check these out in the Roan Mountain Room from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.,”
said Glass.
Coordinators hope to have all Appalachian sororities and fraternities represented
at the conference.
“Being a part of a Greek organization gives an opportunity to grow
as a student and, as with any other organization, it is important to foster
these skills,” said Somppi. “We believe this conference will provide
this opportunity.”
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