Business Affairs Beat
Campaign rakes in $83.2 million

Carrie Baker - Staff Writer

Appalachian State University successfully ended its “Campaign for the Second Century” Dec. 31, exceeding the goal of $50 million by more than 66 percent.

“The campaign was created five and a half years ago to develop the best possible learning environment,” said Dr. Siegfried Herrmann, vice
chancellor for University Advancement.

The campaign has received approximately 35,000 gifts totaling $83.2 million since its conception, according to a university-issued press release.

“We did a feasibility study and saw a goal of $45-$50 million. That has now been exceeded by over 66 percent,” said Herrmann.

“Athletics, the library, scholarship funds and each of the colleges will be receiving money from the campaign,” said Herrmann.

Some 350 new endowments to fund student scholarships and various university programs were gained through the campaign, according to the release.

The original goal of $50 million was exceeded after a $10 million endowment gift made by Mrs. Mariam C. Hayes for the Hayes School of Music, said Herrmann. This gift ranks as the largest in the university’s history.

In the final days of the campaign, the total surpassed $80 million with two large gifts. Thomas W. Reese of Hickory made a gift of $2.5 million for the College of Fine and Applied Arts, said Herrmann.

The second final gift was $1 million from BB&T in support of the William R. Hollan Fellows Program in the Walker College of Business (COB), according to the release. The program supports the International Business program in the COB.

Approximately one-third of Appalachian’s alumni contributed $27.3 million, and the Appalachian faculty and staff donated more than $3 million to the campaign, as stated in the release.

John A. Allison IV, chairman and CEO of BB&T, headed the campaign.

Allison stressed how vital the campaign is to Appalachian in the release.

“Such overwhelming support for Appalachian and its mission underscores the important role of higher education in North Carolina.”

Becky DiVerniero - Staff Writer

Officers will begin issuing jaywalking tickets this month, a crime punishable by a $10 fine and $90 in court costs, Appalachian State
University Police recently announced.

This decision was made after five accidents occurred during the fall semester in which students were hit by cars while crossing a street on campus, said University Police Chief Gunther Doerr.

“Everybody has jaywalked in their life; we’re not going to stop jaywalk[ers]. What we want to do is prevent students from stepping out in the middle of the road and getting hit by a car,” said Doerr.

The pedestrian crossing the street was either at fault or deemed responsible for the accident in each incident. No one was seriously injured in any of the fall accidents, said Doerr.

In North Carolina, a pedestrian must yield to traffic when crossing a roadway at any point other than a crosswalk. Also, when crossing at a crosswalk when there have been tunnels or overhead crossings provided, the pedestrian must yield, according to North Carolina law (N.C.G.S. 20-174).

Between adjacent intersections at which traffic-control signals are in operation, pedestrians cannot cross at any place except in a marked crosswalk.

Where sidewalks are provided, pedestrians cannot walk along and upon an adjacent roadway, according to state law.

University Police officers have been stationed at several crosswalks around campus handing out fliers of information about the tickets and the laws since the first week of the spring semester.

Around 150 fliers have been handed out every day since then, said Patrolman Richard Hicks.

“In a couple weeks, we’ll be issuing state citations,” said Hicks.
One student voiced surprise about the new focus on jaywalking.
“They didn’t give [us] much of a warning,” said sophomore Erin Conn.

But another said he believes the tickets are a good idea. “I see students walk right in front of cars all the time,” said sophomore business major Ian Smith. “I can sympathize with the drivers.”

However, pedestrians are not the only problem in this case. With roughly 6,500 cars registered on campus every semester, traffic can get pretty heavy, said director of Parking and Traffic Barry Sauls.

Two hundred and twenty-five speeding citations were issued in the year 2000. A speed radar trailer will be placed on Rivers Street in the near future, said Doerr.

“We hope that will get some people’s attention [and] help slow down traffic,” said Doerr.

University Police strongly suggest both drivers and pedestrians stay alert and use good judgment.

“Hopefully we’ll get through the year without anyone getting hit by a car,” said Doerr.

David Forbes - Staff Writer

Members of three student organizations are planning a campaign for a Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Center (GLBT) akin to the Women’s and Multicultural centers already in place.

The suggested center would probably be located in Plemmons Student Union.

“Ideally it would be located near the Women’s Center,” said senior Chad Wilson, B-GLAAD and ACLU member who has been working on the idea since last spring. “[The center] would be a space from which events would be planned, resources stored, meetings held, not only a safe space, but one that would also work to educate overall ASU populace.”

Members of Bisexuals, Gays, Lesbians and Allies Associated for Diversity (B-GLAAD), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Student Government Association (SGA) are involved in efforts to make the center a reality.

Wilson’s plan includes the center having a staff, full-time faculty member and an annual budget capable of booking speakers, concerts and events.

Asked about the possibility of this in the university’s current budget situation, Wilson replied, “I certainly think it’s a pressing concern. It may not be feasible now, but it’s something the university needs to make feasible. The university talks a lot about diversity, and the gay community is important enough to that.”

Ian Mance, ACLU co-president and SGA senator representing Appalachian Heights, is in the preliminary stages, along with Paul Funderburk and Christen Nechin, senators from Winkler Hall and B-GLAAD respectively, of drafting legislation in support of a GLBT Center. “I think it goes along with the ACLU’s goals of equality,” said Mance. “This was not originally our idea, but we’re doing whatever we can to help.”

“We’re still in the beginning process,” said Wilson of B-GLAAD’s part in the initiative. “Our main goals are to be visible, to raise awareness of the need [for the center].”

The group is planning events such as a Same-Sex Handholding Day, as well as circulating petitions in favor of the upcoming SGA legislation at the already planned Second Chance Prom and other events.

Wilson had been proceeding informally, asking administrators how they felt about the idea, until last Monday, when he met with Dr. Gregory Blimling, vice chancellor for Student Development. “The suggestion was to develop a facility with staff and a budget,” said Blimling. “We have neither the resources nor the space to provide that.”

Blimling suggested names be submitted for a task force “to look at this and other issues related to the GLBT community. Normally speaking, issues like this are addressed by a task force.”

Blimling also said his reaction would depend on the written proposal. “I really can’t comment on a proposal that’s not come forward,” said Blimling.

Tracey Wright, director of Multicultural Student Development, said she had advised Wilson to construct a written proposal before meeting with Blimling. “Space as well as resources are a major issue here; space in the union is at capacity,” said Wright.

“There are more issues than just the center. I’d love to see the task force appointed within the next month,” said Wilson. “I haven’t seen this sort of excitement in a long time. It looks possible and positive.”

Kristina Egger - Staff Writer

Appalachian State University officials will seek an $150 tuition increase for the 2002-2003 academic year in an attempt to offset the North Carolina General Assembly’s 5 percent cut in the Appalachian State budget, said Dr. Gregory Blimling, vice chancellor for Student Development.

If approved by the university Board of Trustees (BOT) and the University of North Carolina Board of Governors (BOG), student tuition would climb some $300 next year.

That total could climb if the BOG moves forward next month with an expected 4.8 percent statewide tuition hike.

The BOG has already given the go-ahead for the second installment of a two-year $300 tuition increase at Appalachian to bolster faculty salaries. That hike will be implemented next fall.

Administrators unveiled the additional $150 hike to the Student Government Association (SGA) Senate last Tuesday.

If the administration-spawned $150 increase proposal is approved, the money would provide salary increases for Appalachian’s lowest-paid employees, some of whom make $16,700 a year.

“We are faced with a problem that we don’t know how to solve,” said Blimling. “Many of our lowest-paid employees can’t live on what we are paying them, and people who work 40 hours a week at Appalachian shouldn’t be on food stamps.”

There were 1,128 State Personnel Act (SPA) staffers employed by the university as of Jan. 25, according to data provided by Len Johnson, director of Human Resources.

The salary for the lowest-paid SPA employee is right above the poverty level for a family of four.

With the projected enrollment set at 12,300 for the 2002-2003 academic year, the proposed tuition hike would provide over $1.8 million to be distributed among SPA employees, said Blimling.

“We are simply trying to insure that people who work at Appalachian don’t have to be subsidized by the county,” said Blimling. “Due to the fact that the state wasn’t able to provide salary increases for next fall, coupled with the fact that insurance premiums went up, the situation has suddenly hit a critical level.”

For those students who legitimately could not afford an increase in tuition, the university would be willing to credit their accounts as the school did this fall, said Blimling. However, only 20 percent of the students who applied for financial aid in 2001-2002 were able to take advantage of this situation.

Of the aforementioned $1.8 million, SPA employees would actually only receive about $1.4 million, taking into account those students who would be exempt from the increase by financial aid, said Blimling.

The proposed hike would provide a 10 percent increase for the university’s lowest-paid employees, said Blimling.

Raising tuition might be the university’s only way to relieve the burden felt by many university employees, said Blimling.

The public should see higher education as an investment in the state, but said he does not think taxes will increase in the near future, he said.

“There is virtually no chance that we will see additional taxes next year and a very, very small chance that anyone will receive a salary increase,” said Blimling. “I don’t know if raising tuition will fix the problem, but it will certainly help it.”

Xan Harrington, president of the Student Government Association, is opposed to the proposed increase.

The proposed hike is in direct opposition to one of North Carolina’s mission statements, which is to provide “affordable” higher education, said Harrington.

“I am in complete support of taking care of the staff at Appalachian, but it is the responsibility of the taxpayer to make sure that happens,” said Harrington. “If we raised tuition as a means to fix our current situation, then the government may see it as higher education taking care of itself so the taxpayers won’t have to.”

Harrington said he is also concerned about the trend in tuition increases which has been developing at Appalachian in the past few years.

The total tuition for students at Appalachian increased by 9 percent from 1997 to 2000, according to a document provided by Blimling at Tuesday’s meeting. Tuition increased by 24 percent in 2001, jumping from $922 to $1,222 for in-state students.

“The chancellor [Dr. Francis T. Borkowski] feels that it is his social responsibility to take care of his staff members because the state isn’t,” said Harrington. “I think the more pressure we put on government [by not raising tuition] the more they will see it as their responsibility.”

Harrington holds a non-voting seat on the university Board of Trustees, which will meet on March 1 to discuss the proposed $150 increase.

If that panel gives its approval to the plan, university officials will then take the $150 tuition increase request to the BOG, which is scheduled to meet March 22.

“In the meantime we will be writing legislation in SGA in attempt to find a more feasible solution to this problem,” said Harrington. “If I was representing the staff, I might feel differently, but my responsibility is to the students.”

Chris Bohle - Staff Writer

Daniel Hawley, a double major in health education and Spanish, earned one of Appalachian State’s premier scholarships several years ago and did with it what nobody else before him had done.

Hawley won the Reich Undergraduate Scholar award, which gave him a total of $6,000 to design two trips, one during the summer of his junior year and the other for the summer of his senior year.

The Reich is a unique scholarship that puts leadership in students’ hands, letting the recipients in a sense design their own education.

The scholarship, offered through the Reich College of Education, is a $6,000 per academic year award available to current sophomores for their junior and senior years.

“[The Reich] is not as much as the Morehead [Scholarship], but it is similar to it,” said Dr. Charles Duke, dean of the Reich College of Education.

The scholarship, funded by a generous endowment left by Ed and Lois Reich, is awarded annually to a student with a declared major in the College of Education and a minimum GPA of 3.25 in all of their major courses.

Once a student receives the Reich Scholarship, they design their own summer enrichment program, which is then subject to Duke’s approval.

“The student will present the idea to me and as long as it looks reasonable, then I give them the go-ahead,” said Duke.

Duke has seen students go such places as Australia, Germany, China and New York. Nearly all of the recipients of the award have done something creative and original, said Duke.

Hawley was no different—wanting to do something with his money that nobody had done before. So he planned out his two trips and approached Duke with his proposition.

“I went to [Duke] and told him my plan, and he said ‘Well, nobody has ever done that before’,” said Hawley.

Hawley’s plan was to go to Omega, a holistic health center in the Catskill Mountains, for his junior trip, and to Mexico to learn more about Spanish marketing, as well as the language in general, for his senior trip.

Once Duke approved Hawley’s proposed ventures, he was off to the high country of New York to spend two weeks at the oldest holistic health resort in the country.

“The Omega trip was amazing,” said Hawley. “I took some classes, did some meditating, and learned an incredible amount from the teachers there.”

Exactly one year later, Hawley set off again, this time to Cuernavaca, Mexico to take classes in Spanish marketing and business.

“The caliber of the teachers [in Mexico] was amazing,” said Hawley.

In his spare time, Hawley visited ancient Mexican temples and took side trips to Acapulco and other nearby cities.

However, there was still work to be done when Hawley returned to Appalachian. To fulfill the requirements of the scholarship, Hawley had to write a report on his adventures that he would later present to the dean and other faculty members.

As three new Reich Scholars begin to plan their summer trips for this year, Hawley reminds them how useful and unique the scholarship truly is.

“That’s definitely the best part about the scholarship—you can study what you’re interested in and do what you want to do. It is an unbelievable experience.”