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Students
left out of Winkler decision
James
Nix
Winkler
Residence Hall will be going to single occupancy next fall to accommodate
students’ request for single rooms.
In the deal, the university will be losing a tremendous amount of money
and housing space. This raises the question, why?
Winkler Hall, which is located in the Stadium Parking lot, is suite-style
living that holds eight students to a suite. Each suite has four rooms,
two bathrooms, a kitchen and living room.
Students enter Winkler through a lottery system.
The decision to change Winkler came last year when Housing and Residence
Life looked at new renovation plans. Winkler will be kept, but changes
will be made, said Rick Geis, director of Housing and Residence Life.
According to Geis, there is a lot of difficulty in finding eight people
who want to live together. When eight people are found, most of the
time they do not all get along.
Also, many people would get into Winkler and then move off campus, leaving
a vacancy. These vacancies would then be filled with freshmen.
With a number of students now requesting single rooms, Winkler seems
to be the perfect spot.
But there is a problem.
If half of the students currently living in Winkler will not be able
to return next year, where will the rest go?
Obviously not all students currently living in Winkler will return,
but a lot certainly will want to return.
Geis said he would be shocked if the number of people returning fills
up Winkler next fall.
Several Winkler residents disagree with Geis’ thought.
As a resident of Winkler, I am perfectly content with the eight-people-per-suite
style.
Winkler’s Student Government Association representative, Paul Funderburk,
is upset with the decision.
“I don’t want anyone to have to leave,” said Funderburk.
“And I’m not sure the level of student input they got in making
the decision [was adequate].”
“The rooms are built to hold eight. I think they should hold eight,”
said current Winkler resident Josh Brown.
Geis mentioned the possibility that if students must leave Winkler,
they are given first priority to Newland Residence Hall or Appalachian
Heights.
That is not etched in stone yet, however.
Another problem with the decision to switch Winkler to single occupancy
is the fact that the university will lose money.
In the midst of all the budget cuts going on right now, it is not a
good idea to cut the income coming in from one residence hall, said
Funderburk.
Geis said they would charge students room-and-a-half to live in Winkler.
The university will now only make 75 percent of what they’ve made
before.
Some students do not have the money to pay room-and-a-half to continue
to live in Winkler.
Funderburk says the university should encourage students to live off
campus if they want to have a single room.
As of now, however, the only facts are that Winkler will go to single
occupancy.
It seems like the university has gotten itself into a mess. The already
crowded campus is about to get even more crowded.
Vol.
76 No. 13October
2, 2001
Our Perspective ...
True test to come
Showdown with Georgia Southern will challenge effort
to curb game day drinking
The debut of an initiative to eliminate drinking inside
Kidd Brewer Stadium was an apparent success for Appalachian State University
officials.
The effort to cut down on the number of fans consuming and possessing
alcoholic beverages at home football games was implemented along with
tighter security measures at the Kidd Brewer gates.
A number of Watauga County Sheriff deputies joined University Police officers
in searching any item that could have been used to bring alcohol into
the stadium. These measures did, however, leave many students standing
in line to enter the stadium for most of the first quarter.
The system used by the university was not efficient in handling the number
of students who arrived just before kick off, causing a hoard of students
to miss the Mountaineers’ first two scores.
By the time a majority of those students reached the stands, Appalachian
was leading 10-0 with little drama to come in a 33-14 Southern Conference
victory over East Tennessee State University.
Chancellor Francis T. Borkowski told The Appalachian this effort to cut
down on drinking would be “a long campaign.”
That said, we warn the true test of the Borkowski-initiated plan was not
Saturday afternoon’s win over the Bucs. We feel this campaign against
game day drinking will be severely challenged Oct. 13 when the Mountaineers
play host to the Eagles of Georgia Southern University.
The 16,567 Family Weekend fans who packed Kidd Brewer Stadium Saturday
afternoon will differ considerably in make-up than the die-hard football
enthusiasts – students, community members and alumni alike –sure
to be in a pre-game party mentality as two of the nation’s premier
NCAA Division I-AA football programs battle in a game that could decide
the SoCon Championship.
Frankly, it won’t be Family Weekend – it will be Football Weekend
in Boone.
A Mountaineer victory Saturday in Greenville, S.C., against SoCon-title
contender Furman University would only add to what will already be a festive
atmosphere Oct. 13.
With this in mind, we caution administrators against hastily throwing
their arms up in victory.
America:
myth of the 'Evil Superpower'
David Forbes
As anyone reading
these words can no doubt attest, the past few weeks have been a swirl
of images and emotions. As initial shock has faded, views have been shaped,
formed and expressed.
One of these views in particular has struck me.
I have seen it scrawled on tunnel walls and in bold letters on fliers
as I open my mail.
The slogans vary: “U.S.A. are the true terrorists” or “We
are the oppressors.” The particulars may change, but the basic message
is the same.
Yet contrary to what these various protesters say, I believe the United
States is one of the most free and least oppressive countries the world
has ever seen.
Perhaps there is a world somewhere out there where everything is as black
and white as these critics would like it to be, where force is never necessary
to bring justice, where people are never greedy, racist or short-sighted,
or where governments never have to choose between the lesser of two evils.
But that world is not this one.
Yes, racism is present in the United States, as are greedy corporations
and corrupt politicians.
Yes, our government has made mistakes, at times horrific ones, both here
and abroad.
Yes, this will probably continue as long as we are a nation made up of
flawed human beings and not angels.
Yet this is also the country that not only liberated Europe in World War
II but put billions of dollars into restoring the impoverished nations
there and forgave billions more in debt.
This is the nation that is the world’s single largest contributor
of humanitarian aid, even to Afghanistan.
We have helped control floods on the Ganges, the Niger, the Nile and the
Amazon rivers, bailed out the economies of France and Mexico, sent our
rescue workers to haul the wounded out of rubble in India and Central
America, our peacekeepers into Bosnia, Kosovo, and Somalia, and tried
to broker peace settlements in conflicts around the globe.
At home we have fought to expand and maintain through more than two centuries
a relatively liberated and democratic form of government, one that assures
that the protestors currently calling it the worst terrorist nation on
earth have the right to do so without persecution, that a woman can get
an education, and that one can vote no matter their race or religion,
all rights which are in short supply or non-existent in many parts of
the globe.
Yes, some rescue workers in New York were found looting the scene, yet
this pales in comparison to the thousands of others that did their job
at great risk to their own lives.
A final note — it was ironic that some of the protestors on Sanford
Mall wore bandannas to cover their faces, saying this was a solidarity-building
gesture and referring to the Zapatistas.
Yet the Zapatistas cover their faces more for survival than solidarity.
They are members of a rebel movement, and if their true identities were
uncovered, they would probably be killed.
Whatever the reaction to protesters at Appalachian, I seriously doubt
Chancellor Francis T. Borkowski will call in jack-booted soldiers to drag
them from their beds in the middle of the night and execute them if their
identities are known.
For despite all its flaws, this nation is still the land of the free.
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