Sarah Sparks Police Beat

Despite the decrease in drug arrests in 2000, local police departments have been busy over the last two weeks with drug-related incidences on the Appalachian State University campus.

According to Steve Peake of the Watauga Democrat, three Appalachian students were arrested on or near campus between Friday, Jan. 19 and Wednesday, Jan. 24.

Ryan Jared Franck, 18, was arrested by campus police on Jan. 19 following several months of investigation. Franck reportedly sold 14 hits of LSD to an undercover officer on Sept. 29 and then sold the same officer an additional 64 hits on Oct. 9.

Franck then sold another unspecified amount (more than 100) hits to the same undercover officer on Dec. 9.

Franck, a freshman at Appalachian, was finally arrested on Jan. 19 in his dorm room in Hoey Hall. He was charged with two felony counts of trafficking LSD, sale, delivery and manufacturing of LSD, and possession with intent to manufacture, sell and distribute LSD.

Franck was taken before the Watauga County magistrate where his bond was set at $25,000 secured and his court date was set for Feb. 14.

Lindsay Alexander Monroe, 21, was arrested on Jan. 23 by the sheriffÕs department and charged with one felony count of maintaining a place for controlled substances as well as a misdemeanor count of possession of hydrocodone, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Monroe, a junior at Appalachian, was arrested at his residence at University Courtyard. He went before the Watauga County magistrate where his bond was set at $2,000 secured for the felony count and $1,300 unsecured for the misdemeanor.

Monroe's court date was set for Friday, March 2. Campus police arrested Ryan Wayne Cook, a sophomore resident of East Hall, on Wednesday, Jan. 24.

Cook, 20, was charged with two felony counts of maintaining a place for controlled substances after he was found selling Ecstasy from his dorm room.

The police were tipped off to Cook's drug activity as early as Oct. 18. The Watauga County magistrate also set CookÕs bond at $2,000 secured and his court date for Feb. 14.

Catherine Quill Business Affairs Beat

Aside from Christmas presents, clean clothes and groceries, students are bringing back something a little more dangerous to Boone when they return from semester break.

"Right now, we're seeing a lot of flu," said Dr. William Derrick Jr., director of the Mary S. Shook Student Health Services. "We are also seeing a lot of things that echo the flu, like mononucleosis," he added.

"Typically, the flu season starts in November or December. We don't have cases until students go home for Christmas," said Derrick, who explained that students are exposed to the virus when they leave the region and spend time in larger towns or cities where the flu has already spread.

According to Derrick, of the approximately 150 students who see a doctor in one day at health services, most are diagnosed with the flu or other upper respiratory infections, characterized by coughing, aching, congestion and a fever.

"It makes you feel absolutely awful," he said.

Although the flu is a fairly common illness among students and rarely fatal, Derrick said some complications can arise, such as sinusitis and bronchitis.

"We've seen a couple people with pneumonia," he added. "What we havenÕt seen a lot of is strep throat."

Although an effective defense against the flu virus is a vaccination, the health services administered the vaccine in November and December.

"It's probably a little late to get it now," said Derrick, who explained that the vaccine takes two weeks inside of the body before it is effective.

The area's last flu season prompted health services to send memos to professors informing them about the high number of students suffering from the virus.

"This year has not been particularly bad," he said. "Last year was probably the worst in 25 years. We had much larger numbers (of students) last year."

Derrick said the flu season should be ending near the end of February, but he and other health officials are still alert for meningitis, an illness that occurs around the same time and is more prevalent among large groups of people.

"Meningitis starts off like the flu," said Derrick. Meningitis can occur in two forms, meningococcal meningitis, an inflammation that affects the brain and spinal cord, or as meningococcemia, the presence of bacteria in the blood.

Although the infection is rare, brain damage, hearing loss, learning disabilities, limb amputation, kidney failure or death can result.

"Freshmen living in residence halls are particularly susceptible to meningitis," said Derrick, who also added that Appalachian State has had about one student every other year for the past eight or nine years with the infection.

However, a vaccine is available for students at a cost of $60 that lasts for 3-5 years and produces mild and infrequent side effects, such as pain of the arm at the injection site.

Meningitis differs from the flu in that it progresses rapidly, usually within 24 hours. Symptoms include a stiff neck, stiff back or a rash. Derrick said the stiff neck would prevent a patient from being able to touch their chin to their chest.

"Most things are pretty straight forward," said Derrick. A blood test or a culture is performed if meningitis is suspected.

"If students have a sudden onset, they need to come in," he said, but explained that this is also because the flu medications need to be administered within 48 hours of the onset.

Thomas Fotta, a pharmacist at the health services, said the most prescribed medications have been Amantadine for the flu virus, Entex Pse for congestion and Robitussin DM for cough.

Derrick said flu symptoms usually last for about one week.

Jason Hoyle Clubs/Organizations Beat

Looking for a resume filler? Seeking new people to meet? Can't decide on a major? Maybe youÕre just plain interested in something.

To satisfy any extra- or co-curricular desires, one of the 200-plus clubs and organizations of Appalachian State University is able to fulfill your needs.

There is a radio station, a newspaper, athletic, cultural, honors, religious, political, fraternal, professional, and student-interest clubs on campus.

A college education is not limited to the classroom. Booksmarts are not the end-all-be-all; there is much more to living than that. Experience teaches.

In every club there is a leader. That leader could be you. My, won't that look good on the resume? Not that you should join a club just to beef up an activity record or a resume.

"There are numerous reasons why students should be involved in clubs," said Career Planning Services Director Jill Sparks in an e-mail interview.

"First and foremost is the personal development that occurs when a student not only becomes involved with an organization but also takes on some type of leadership role," said Sparks. "They need to 'add value' to their membership, to take the initiative and lead a committee or run for an office. It may be hectic, but it will be a great conversational tool with a future employer."

In addition to personal development gained through club involvement, students can develop useful, transferable skills.

Sparks said, "Skills that will 'transfer' from major to major, college to career, and career to career (are imperative). These include communication, leadership, presentation and interpersonal skills.

"Club involvement allows students to research potential careers. Most organizations have guest speakers and have several 'special projects' and this gives the student exposure to various career opportunities," said Sparks.

If graduate school is in your future, membership and leadership in a career club may assist your endeavors by providing a well-rounded education. "Those students who participate in clubs/organizations are often well-rounded and well-grounded students who are more mature, know what they want out of the graduate education, and can handle the rigors of graduate school better than students who do not participate in extra-curricular activities."

Taking an active role in a club or organization makes you a part of what's going on, and can enhance the overall college experience. Some friends for life are made in college through club involvement.

"I remain in contact with many of the people I first worked with while an undergraduate student," said Sparks, a 1991 Appalachian graduate.

Extra-curricular activity is more than a resume filler; it can open doors in life, personally and professionally. On Thursday, the second part of this two-part article will contain more details on specific clubs and genres of organizations.

In the meantime, a list of all the clubs and organizations on campus may be found at www.appstate.edu.

Robyn Dailey Chancellor/Advancement Beat

After experiencing major difficulties accommodating the large freshman class of 2000, the Appalachian State University Office of Admissions is cutting back on enrollment numbers for the fall.

Chancellor Francis T. Borkowski said, "Since we over-enrolled last fall, weÕre actually going to try to hold the freshman class down this coming fall and we will still meet our enrollment projection."

According to Joe Watts, associate vice chancellor for enrollment and director of admissions, there were 255 more incoming freshmen in 2000 than in 1999.

Appalachian State University's housing department faced a huge strain as the incoming class took half of the 5,000 spaces available in residence halls.

The university was unable to provide housing to any transfer students and many returning students were unable to obtain on-campus housing.

Borkowski said, "It was a rough beginning. We just had more students than we could handle or accommodate."

Some students were placed with two other people in a double-occupancy room at the beginning of the semester. "It was hard to find housing for all the students who wanted housing. It was hard to get classes for students," said Watts.

The projected enrollment for fall 2001 is 2,300 freshmen, he said. Even with this decrease, the school is expected to reach their enrollment goals.

The applicant pool is growing, so the admissions department can afford to be more selective when considering new students.

Watts said they expect 9-10,000 applications for the 2,300 spaces. The average SAT scores will be 8-10 points higher, with a minimum average of 1100.

The incoming freshmen class will academically be the best that Appalachian has ever had, according to Watts.

Because of the amount of new students, the university added 15 sections of English and eight to 10 more sections of history, which puts a strain on the faculty members, said Watts.

He said that classes ended up being bigger and more crowded than the university prefers. Another problem that quickly became apparent was the lack of parking.

Appalachian has always guaranteed parking to any student because of the lack of mass transportation out of Boone, but this year some students were forced to look for parking elsewhere.

To help solve this problem, the university is building a 250-space lot on Hill Street and a 750-space parking deck, but only the Hill Street Parking Lot will be ready for fall 2001, said Watts.

He said, "Twenty-three hundred is about an optimal size, I think. We can manage that."

According to Watts, the university's primary growth is going to be concentrated away from Boone in the extension programs, such as the Appalachian Learning Alliance.

With these programs, they are able to offer higher education classes to nontraditional students outside of Boone while not accepting a huge influx of students on campus.

Watts said, "I just think Appalachian continues to grow in popularity. It has a good academic environment plus a good sense of community here."

Ceremony demonstrates many aspects of culture

Elizabeth Frye Multicultural Beat

The Appalachian State University community was recently given a taste of Chinese culture. The Chinese Club and the Office of International Programs sponsored the Annual Chinese New Year Festival on Saturday, Jan. 27.

This Chinese New Year, which fell on Wednesday, Jan. 24, marks the beginning of the Year of the Snake.

The evening started at 6 p.m. in the Grandfather Mountain Ballroom of Plemmons Student Union with a Chinese dinner. China House Restaurant helped provide the food for the meal. At 7 p.m. the festival activities began. Rachel M. Bowling, president of the Chinese Club, was hostess.

The Chinese New Year Festival consisted of many different demonstrations of Chinese society. The first display was added on the spur of the moment. A former professional singer in Hong Kong took the stage.

She explained that she and her husband moved to Boone four months ago and are staying with her brother-in-law, who is a retired professor of Appalachian State University.

She sang a famous Chinese folk song for the audience and said that the song describes the loveliness of the singerÕs country.

Next up was the Appalachian State Asian Student Association (ASA) which acted out the "Legend of the White Snake."

Bowling said, "For those of you who don't know, 2001 is the year of the white or gold snake so when I found this legend I was very excited to be able to bring an actual legend that goes along with the year that weÕre celebrating now."

Ai Lin Loh, a member of the ASA, was narrator of the tale. She told the audience that the story had many different installments, but was finished during the Ming Dynasty.

The presentation of the legend that the ASA put on was "the shortest abstract of the story," according to Loh.

The "Legend of the White Snake" begins with a white snake transforming into a pretty woman dressed all in white. Lady White meets a man and they fall in love.

The couple sets up a business selling herbal medicines, and at one point the husband and wife together drink a wine that is used to usher off spirits. Because Lady White is a spirit, the wine overpowers her and she returns to her snake form.

Her husband searches for her, finds only the snake and dies. Once the wine gets out of Lady White's system, she becomes human again. She sees her dead husband and goes to get a healing herb for him.

Lady White is able to revive her husband, and tells him that what he thought was a snake was really a dragon from heaven (a good omen for the couple).

The husband accepts Lady White's explanation and they live happily ever after.

Several other activities followed after the performance of the tale. Jinpei Wu, a student at Appalachian State University, played a song on the Er Hu, an instrument with two strings.

The music, Wu said, was from a folk tale in which a wife is crying over the loss of her husband. Some local Chinese children sang two Chinese children's tunes after Wu finished playing.

Then the people who were born in the years 1989, 1977, 1965, 1953, 1941, 1929, and 1917 were asked to stand because these years fall under the Year of the Snake. The audience was taught how to sing "Happy Birthday" in Chinese, and then serenaded the people standing.

Other events of the festival included a Kung Fu display, a performance by eight-year-old flutist Linxi Wu, and the awarding of Chinese door prizes.

Lifetime Membership Awards were given to those who have helped the Chinese Club. John E. Thomas, professor in the Department of Management, Bob A. White, assistant director of International Programs, and Tomas Tauchman, acting treasurer of the Chinese Club, all received awards.

A dragon then entered the room, ate lettuce, and spat it back out at the audience to distribute wealth among the people.

The festival ended with a fireworks display outside of Plemmons Student Union. Kim Li, a resident of China visiting Boone for the winter holidays and graduate of Appalachian State University said, "(The festival organizers) did a very good job. They kept people's attention and it is always good to include the children."

Loh said, "I feel like the presentation went really well. I think that Rachel did a really good job organizing it and I'm glad we didn't run out of food.

I'm glad there was such a great turnout. "It's really great that they were able to get permission to have the fireworks, too, because they were really neat."

Travis Pierce Academic Affairs Beat

By some estimates, the number of people whose standard of living is comparable to that of the average American is likely to expand from 2-8 billion within the next 50 years, according to Dennis Scanlin, coordinator of the Appropriate Technology program at Appalachian State University.

Considering the current problem our own country is having providing power to its residents, the added strain of providing energy and commodities at such a level for 6 billion more people would put a tremendous strain on the worldÕs natural resources.

The Appalachian State Technology department, in conjunction with private initiative, is doing its part to see that attention is brought to this issue and something is done to remedy a foreseeable problem.

Phil Mayrand Jr., a retiring contractor from North Carolina, has donated $5,000 to go to the winner of a design competition that emphasizes "green" and sustainable building practices.

According to Scanlin, green technology is "an approach to technological development that tries to minimize environmental and socio-cultural problems that arise from technological development" while satisfying the needs of the culture.

In order to educate students about the need for sustainable development, Mayrand has proposed a competition in which Appalachian students would design a building using sustainable technology.

The design would be for an addition to a residence that Mayrand has at Topsail Beach, near Wilmington N.C. The winning design will be incorporated into the structure that is to be built.

The winning team will also receive $5,000, with the second place team receiving $1,000. Mayrand has high hopes for the competition, saying that he hopes it will have a positive impact on new construction products and methods.

His desire is that "this design mindedness will cause the development of guide specifications for four zones in North Carolina (coastal, coastal plain, piedmont, mountain) and that this model (based on climate zones) will spread throughout the United States."

Appalachian State is a great fit for Mayrand's plans, considering its commitment to sustainable and environmentally friendly practices.

The Appropriate Technology program is one of the oldest continuous running program's in the country, and Scanlin, the programs director, said the university's commitment is "laudable."

Mayrand and Scanlin both emphasize the importance of sustainable technologies in building practices in order for environmental and ecological conservation.

According to Scanlin, "buildings account for almost half of all materials and energy used world wide and one-sixth of all fresh water."

He also added that experts estimate that "30 percent of all new and renovated buildings today have serious air quality problems that can make people sick."

In introducing the purpose of his proposed design competition, Mayrand said, "Little has changed with how we build our buildings in the last one-hundred years."

This is in spite of the fact that we can now build buildings that use one-half or less of the energy and water of conventional buildings using technology that is readily available, according to Scanlin.

To demonstrate how readily available this technology is, Mayrand specified that the submitted designs should consist of materials which would be "available on an Ôoff-the-shelfÕ basis from your local building supply store."

Scanlin pointed out that exemplary green buildings can be built for the same amount of money as conventional buildings, but that even those that require a larger monetary investment quickly recoup any additional cost through energy savings.

Scanlin said that the United States must lead the way by showing the world that "we can do more with less." As for the competition itself, Scanlin said that any and all Appalachian students are invited to participate, not just students in the technology department.

In addition to the prize money, Scanlin also said that students interested in competing can get three hours independent study credit in the Department of Technology by participating in the competition.

There will be mini-seminars offered throughout the semester in order to help those interested. To participate, students must submit an application and must work in teams of 2-4 individuals.

The deadline for entries is Feb. 5. If interested, contact Dennis Scanlin at 262-6361 or stop by his office in the Kerr Scott Building.