America’s new threat
Anthrax scare provides test for
ASU Post Office

Robyn Dailey - Business Affairs Beat

A police officer clad in protective clothing and a breathing apparatus removed a suspicious substance from the University Post Office Friday, said manager Greg Foster.

An employee found a granular, powdery white substance on a rack and alerted officials, but after an examination, the substance was believed to pose no threat, said Foster.

“It was a pretty good test for us,” said Foster.
He said the substance resembled soap powders but was not tested.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we had another scare,” said Foster.

He said post office employees are on the lookout for any substance that could look suspicious.

“Right now is definitely not a good time for people to send soap detergents or anything that might spill out and make people think it’s a contaminate,” said Foster.

All of the university’s mail comes through the Boone Post Office, said supervisor Dale Wilson.

Some of the mail is sorted at the town post office, but much of it is pre-bundled for Appalachian State.

Boone Post Office officials refused to comment on the anthrax situation currently plaguing the nation.

Wilson said a machine is used to separate the letters into categories, and then the first class letters are placed in the post office boxes as quickly as possible.

Foster said the machine sorts letters so quickly that if an anthrax-tainted letter got caught and ripped, it would fill the air with the light powder.

“That automated sorting sort of exacerbates the problem,” said Foster.

He said the university post office is equipped with gloves and bags to handle anything unusual.

Boone and Appalachian officials, along with town police and firemen, had a joint meeting late last week to determine protocol for bio-terrorism attacks, said Foster.

“I think their setup is as good as you can reasonably expect,” he said.

He said every letter, magazine and package is thoroughly inspected by employees.

“Every piece of mail is handled at least three times,” said Foster.

With the coming holidays, the number of packages has increased extraordinarily, which means more material to inspect, said Foster.

He feels the fear factor is the main issue, while actual risks are minimal.

The post office has received literature from the U.S. Postal Service and various other agencies and has been educated on what anthrax is and how to handle it.

“Everybody’s kind of looking a little closer,” said Foster.

He said there is a large possibility a package suspected to contain anthrax will be shipped for testing and never be delivered.

“If we see a package with a powdery substance coming out of it, we’re going to isolate and hold it until we can determine if it’s a threat or not,” said Foster.

He said students should inspect mail they receive for anything unusual as well.

“This wouldn’t be a good thing to pull a joke with,” Foster said.

Employees are instructed to take a second look at strange things within the mail.

“It’s worrisome to be working mail right now,” he said.

“We just kind of go and do our job and keep our eyes open,” said Foster. “Hopefully nothing will come our way.”

As Foster and post office employees heighten efforts to identify potentially tainted letters and packages, Appalachian students expressed differing opinions of the safety of mail sent to Boone.

Ashley Williams, a sophomore from Nashville, Tenn., said, “It’s Boone. I’m not worried. If [terrorists] have it … it’s valuable to them, and they’re not going to use it in small, little areas.”

Another Appalachian student said given Boone’s size, she fails to see the small North Carolina town as a target of terrorism.

“I don’t feel really threatened because Boone is such a small place,” said Martin Moore, a senior from Wilkesboro. “I don’t see the terrorists attacking Washington, D.C., New York City and Boone.”

While Williams and Lund stressed their feelings of safety due to the relatively small size of the Boone area, one Appalachian student offered a different outlook.

“I’m very concerned,” said freshman Nicole Lund from Charlotte. “Just going to the post office, you don’t know if you’re going to get it.”

Forum designed for
groups, individuals

David Forbes - Clubs / Organizations Beat

Representatives from campus organizations and other individuals will fill Plemmons Student Union for the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership (CSIL) Leadership Forum Sunday from 12:30-6 p.m.

Club Council and the Leadership Team organized the forum this year.

The event is an annual forum intended to cover a variety of topics such as “Conflict Resolution,” “Diversity in Leadership” and “Delegation and Follow-Through.”

Speakers will include Dr. John Janowiak, professor of education; Mike Wagoner, director of the Boone Chamber of Commerce; Dr. Sturart Towns, chair of the department of communication; and Phil Arnold, assistant director of Student Programs.

“We’re hoping to draw not only organization members, but also individual Appalachian students as well. Many topics are geared towards individuals as well as groups—conflict resolution, for example,” said Jim Street, associate director of CSIL and a member of the Advisors to Leadership Team.

According to the organization’s brochure, the Leadership Team is “a trained group of students who present workshops on leadership topics to clubs, organizations, professional associations … who want to increase the effectiveness of their members.”

“We’ve sent information about this [forum] to entire organizations, rather than just a few people,” said Street. The Leadership Team decided on the topics and speakers for this year, and handled as well many of the logistics, such as food, for the event.

Club Council, the umbrella organization for official organizations on campus, has been more involved in advertising and distributing information. “We’ve visited clubs, requested them to nominate people to go, announced speakers, helped out with other details—generally with the side of the forum more related to organizations,” said Julie Somppi, advisor to Club Council and also an associate director at CSIL.

“I’d say we did most of the advertising,” added Amy Dixon, Club Council communications vice president. “We want to get the word out to people who are campus leaders or just organization members. If someone’s having a problem, they can come here to learn how to deal with it.” Dixon continued that notices had been put up in all residence halls and on Campus Pipeline.

“I hope we’ll get a higher turnout, about 80-90 people this year,” said Street.

“This can be the best six hours of your resume’s life. The forum is packed with things to help you and your organization,” said Jessica Terry, the Leadership Team’s graduate assistant.

Polish president honors Borkowski

Kristina Egger - Chancellor Student Development Beat

President of Poland Aleksander Kwasniewski recently awarded Appalachian State University Chancellor Francis T. Borkowski the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic.

“I knew that I was going to be presented with an award, but the ceremony itself far exceeded my expectations,” said Borkowski.

The medal received by the chancellor during a visit to the Presidential Palace earlier this month is the highest that can be presented to a non-Polish citizen. Borkowski was presented the award for developing academic agreements between Polish and U.S institutions as well as promoting Polish culture and the arts.

The initial purpose of the chancellor’s visit was to present a convocation address to students and faculty at the College of Communication and Mass Media in Warsaw. He delivered his entire speech in Polish.

“My grandparents spoke Polish so I understand the language reasonably well. In conversation, the words come quicker than I can speak, but luckily I was able to read my address,” said Borkowski.

Kwasniewski may be visiting Appalachian State University in the near future and expressed “genuine interest” in seeing the university, said Borkowski.

“We extended to President Kwasniewski the opportunity to receive an honorary degree. It was approved by the Board of Trustees and will be conferred when he is able to be here,” said Borkowski.

Appalachian offers exchange programs with five institutions of higher learning throughout Poland. The purpose of these exchange programs is to create learning opportunities for students as well as staff.

Borkowski said Polish institutions have “asked that we help them to restructure their high school curriculum to include lessons in capitalism and global economy. Polish legislation recently abolished all national standards for the curriculum and teachers now have the opportunity to shape their curriculum as they see appropriate.”

Dr. Nina Jo Moore, a professor in the Department of Communication, said she has taken a group of students to study abroad in Poland for the past few years.

“ Most people don’t think about Poland when they think of visiting Europe. I think it is a wonderful place to visit, to go to school, and to experience culture outside your own,” said Moore.

Robert L. Shaffer, associate vice chancellor for Public Affairs, claims Poland is largely populated, stable and will present itself as an economic force in years to come. “[Borkowski] is being modest about this award; he has done great things to strengthen our international programs.”

SGA Senate passes Liberty resolution
Body supports severing athletic ties with
Falwell-led university

Sarah Newell - SGA Beat

The Student Government Association Senate passed a resolution of support Tuesday evening calling for the non-renewal of athletic contracts with Liberty University by a 41-17 margin, with 14 abstentions.

The legislation, written by SGA senators Ian Mance, reresenting Appalachian Heights, and Paul Funderburk, representing Winkler Hall, was prompted by comments made on the Sept. 14 broadcast of “The 700 Club” by Dr. Rev. Jerry Falwell, chancellor of the
private Virginia institution.

The approved bill now moves on to the desk of SGA President Xan Harrington, who has 10 days to sign or veto the bill. “I’ll probably wait until the last minute to make my decision because there are still some people that I need to talk to about this. There’s still some more information that I’d like to have before deciding,”
said Harrington.

Roachel Laney, director of Athletics, said he believes the resolution was not written as well as it could have been. “There is a Student Athlete Advisory Board, that has about 35 student athletes on it. I hope in the future that that group could be canvassed for their opinions. I think that the board could help in
future situations.”

Laney added the legislation is somewhat shortsighted in the sense it deals only with Appalachian’s athletic contracts with Liberty University, and there are other organizations on campus that are connected with Liberty as well.

“I feel that athletes were used as a pawn in this,” said Laney.
Greg Hipp, an Appalachian student-athlete, attended the meeting and said he was opposed to the legislation because Falwell’s comments were a result of his interpretation from his study of Biblical scripture, and he is entitled to his own opinions.

Hipp said he believes cutting athletic ties with Liberty sends a message that Appalachian is not willing to tolerate all those who are different from us.

Alicia Walker, a senator for Hoey Residence Hall who spoke against the legislation during debate prior to the vote, said she later abstained from voting because one of her constituents brought to her attention a disclaimer featured on the homepage of the Liberty Web site. The disclaimer states Liberty encourages students, faculty, staff, and alumni to create Web pages, but the institution is not responsible for the views and opinions of the individual Web page authors.

Walker said the constituent believes the comments made by Falwell that were posted on Liberty University’s Web page were not necessarily opinions supported by Liberty University as a whole, merely Falwell.

Mance and Funderburk wrote the legislation in response to comments that Falwell made on “The 700 Club,” a Christian television show, after the Sept. 11 attacks in which he blamed pagans, abortionists, feminists, homosexuals, American Civil Liberties Union and the People for the American Way.

Mance prepared an opening statement at SGA’s meeting Tuesday night, in which he stated, “We have two choices: we can pass this legislation and send the community a message that we are committed to diversity on campus and committed to taking a stand against intolerance, or we can not pass this legislation and continue to allow for ASU’s financial resources to help give Liberty a soapbox to divide and marginalize the national community, in a time when we, as a school, and as a nation, should be doing just the opposite.”

Mance concluded his opening statement by saying, “As a university, by not renewing our contract with Liberty, we are presented with a wonderful opportunity. We now have a chance to align ourselves with another school who is headed in the same direction as Appalachian, who is just as committed to diversity, who is just as committed to equality, and who is just as committed to athletics.”

Mance and Funderburk were asked how they would handle another university making comments similar to Falwell’s, and whether the duo would be just as passionate about Appalachian cutting ties with such a school.

Mance responded, “This is not just about Jerry Falwell. His comments that he made [on “The 700 Club”] triggered our reaction, but once we started to look at Liberty’s Web site, we saw that it was Liberty that was at fault, as well.”

Mance and Funderburk told the senate they were instructed by Dr. Gregory Blimling, vice chancellor for Student Development, to not contact Liberty University about the possibility of ASU no longer competing against them in athletics.

After the success of passing their first piece of legislation this academic year, Funderburk said he plans to introduce a calling for the creation of a new voting precinct on the west side of campus. Mance said he will not immediately follow this bill up with more legislation, but said he has a few ideas for legislation he is working on that will be introduced within a few months.

Faculty, staff jobs survive latest cut

Kristin Davis - Academic Affairs Beat

No faculty or staff positions will be eliminated due to an anticipated 4 percent budget cut, an additional reduction in state funding expected to be handed down by Gov. Mike Easley, said Dr. Harvey Durham, associate vice chancellor for Academic Affairs.

The North Carolina General Assembly mandated a 2.3 percent budget decrease for Appalachian in late September. The newest expected cutbacks would eliminate $3.5 million from the institution’s state-allocated $84.9 million budget, said Durham.

The September budget reduction and the expected 4 percent cut were made necessary by the current financial crisis facing the state of North Carolina created by an extensive hurricane relief package, untimely tax cuts and the settling of several costly lawsuits.

“The latest cut came by word-of-mouth. It is not a legislative cut,” said Durham. The Office of Academic Affairs, comprising 75 percent of state-allocated funds, is moving forward under the assumption the additional cuts will be ordered by Easley.

“We’re cutting and putting the money aside,” said Durham.
Durham does not know if and when the reductions will come. “We have received no guidelines.”

However, the crunch will not affect current faculty and staff positions. “We’re going to continue to recruit students and faculty. We just have to be fairly prudent about it,” said Durham.
Faculty and staff positions fall under one of two categories:
Subject to Personnel Act (SPA) and Exempt from Personnel Act (EPA), explained Durham. Among others, SPA positions include secretaries, administrative assistants and physical plant crews. They will be hired on a case-by-case, need basis for next year, said Durham.

EPA positions, including faculty members, department chairs and deans will continue to be filled for next year.

EPA slots unoccupied at this time will not be filled, however. Durham added that most necessary EPA positions have been already filled.

Should a faculty position be vacated half way through the year, remaining salary funds would ensure that position be filled, he said.

Students could see larger classroom sizes during the 2002-2003 academic year should the state budget crisis continue, said Durham. “We’ve built a good reputation on small class sizes, with the average being 25 students,” he said.

There may be a decrease in library book purchases and a curtailing of student travel with faculty members, said Durham.

Durham expects to make monetary allocations to colleges in the next few days. The way the money is spent will be left up to the discretion of deans and department chairs. “We don’t try to micromanage out of this office,” said Durham.

Durham said there is a strong likelihood even more budget cuts will come. In that event, Durham said he is unsure if the university will be able to press forward without jobs lost.

“It depends. Our goal is to protect the academic integrity of the classroom,” he said.

While the potential of additional budget cuts remains a reality for Appalachian State and all other state-supported entities, a pair of university employees said the expected 4 percent cut did not strike any fear of losing their respective jobs.

Tina Parlier, office manager in the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership, said she never worried about losing her job during the latest round of cutbacks, with administration establishing open lines of communication with faculty and staff.

“They did a good job to alleviate our fears. Maintaining our positions was a top priority [to administration].”

Lisa Lalla, administrative assistant in freshman seminar, echoed Parlier’s sentiments. “[The Administration] made it pretty clear that job cuts would be a very last resort.”

Greek-sponsored 5K to benefit victims

Carrie Baker - Greeks Beat

Appalachian State University’s Pan Hellenic Council (PHC) is sponsoring a 5K race to benefit the orphaned children of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in New York through the Twin Towers Orphan Fund.

“We saw the need there and brainstormed about a way that we could help,” said Julia Bernatovitz, treasurer for PHC.

The race will be held Nov. 3 at the State Farm Cross Country Track. Registration is $8 and open to the public.

According to the official Web site for the Twin Towers Orphan Fund (TTOF), it was established on Sept. 13 to benefit children orphaned by the national disasters of Sept. 11.

All donations received by the TTOF go toward the “long-term well-being of those children, including educational assistance and mental and physical health care.”

“This is a wonderful opportunity for people to show support,” said Julie Somppi, Greek advisor. Amanda Guld, a member of Sigma Kappa, and others worked closely with this project to organize and schedule the event, said Somppi.

The groups chose to work with TTOF after looking for an official charity for the children who lost parents in the World Trade Center attacks, said Somppi. “This is another example of the service that our sororities continually strive to provide,” said Somppi.

Prizes will also be given to first place winners, said Bernatovitz. “The first 75 participants to sign in on race day will be given a free T-shirt.” The PHC also plans to provide refreshments to race participants.

Registration and number assignment is 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m., and the race will begin at noon.

Participants can pick up forms on the Pan Hellenic office door on the second floor of Plemmons Student Union.

Somppi said the forms should be turned in by Friday at noon to either the Pan Hellenic office or to her office in the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership, also on the second floor of Plemmons Student Union.

Hispanic club fights to obtain members

Chris Bohle - Multicultural Beat

As the Hispanic Student Association (HSA) enters its fourth year on the Appalachian State University campus, it continues to make great strides for Hispanic awareness and community involvement.

Founded in 1998 by a group of Appalachian upperclassmen, the association has since grown to a dozen members of Hispanic as well as non-Hispanic backgrounds.

“As long as they were interested, then I thought we should have non-Hispanics in the organization as well, ” said Cecilia Torres, president of the HSA.

With the number of Hispanic students on campus dropping steadily, this rule is almost necessary to keep a sufficient membership level, said Torres.

“Increasing membership is always our main goal,” said Torres. “That big drop this past year in Hispanic students certainly did not help that goal, however.”

Despite the struggle for membership, the association usually has good turnout at its social events, including a recent dance and its “El Centro” event, said Torres.

“The dance was a great success because so many people showed up,” said Torres.

The El Centro event gives the opportunity for Hispanic students to mingle with other Hispanic students, she said. The event is held at the Catholic Campus Ministry, a house owned by St. Elizabeth of the Hill Country Catholic Church.

“[El Centro] is great because everyone gets together and has some food, watches TV and just gets a chance to talk with other Hispanic members of the community,” said Torres.

The association has already accomplished several of its goals this year, including getting more involved in the community.

“This year, we are focusing on doing more community-related work than in the past,” said Torres. “We have already been to the Hospitality House several times to cook food for everyone.”

Torres said she is also trying to organize something for Thanksgiving, possibly a program modeled much after the Adopt-a-Family program, in which members would take up a needy family for the holiday.

Torres said she has her sights set on the upcoming Hispanic Panel. The panel will consist of any Hispanic student interested, and those students will answer questions posed by young migrant farmers interested in the university.

“Cynthia Wood, who works with these migrant farmers, will bring them to campus so that they can talk to other Hispanic students and see what life is like on campus,” said Torres. “We did this last year and it was a big success.”

Torres said the association meets each Tuesday evening at 6:15 p.m. in the Mountain Laurel Room inside Plemmons Student Union.

The panel will take place Saturday at 1 p.m. in Plemmons Student Union.

Torres said she is pleased with the way the association has grown in recent years and is confident about the future.

“Everything so far has turned out the way I want. I’m very pleased with what we’ve accomplished.”