International program looks to increase student involvement 
Caitlyn Payne SGA Beat 

Appalachian State University has one of the best international programs in the area and is looking to increase student involvement, according to Assistant Director of International Programs Bob White.  

At Tuesday’s SGA meeting, White encouraged student leaders to take the opportunity to study abroad in one of ASU’s international programs. Last year, the school spent an estimated $1 million to send more than 400 Appalachian students abroad.  

“We are nationally ranked for our (study abroad) program,” White said. So far, ASU has 33 direct exchange programs, and plans to develop five or six more.  

The ASU study abroad program is broken into four available time periods of study: a semester, full year, Christmas or Spring Break.  
Students can travel abroad to one of 150 places around the globe to study during one of those time periods.  

According to White, three to six percent of American college students graduate having studied abroad.  “It doesn’t matter what the major is,” according to White.  “We had one young woman who wanted to be a vet ... and we sent her to a Scottish institute.”  

White has challenged students to get involved with the exchange program and to spread the word about the program around campus. “You live in a reality that was unimaginable a few years ago,” White said.  

“ASU ... is a real model in international development,” he continued.  If people ask about the program early, ASU can send a student in an exchange program by their junior year.  

White enjoys his job as the assistant director of these programs. “I like to tell Chancellor Borkowski I have a better job than he does,” he jokes.  
However, White is in earnest about getting students into these programs.  

He has spoken with freshman seminar classes to encourage students to study abroad.  He hopes that students take advantage of all that the ASU study abroad programs have to offer. 
 

Be counted; the census is coming 
Hathryn Booze Police Beat 

Tired of the millennial hype yet?  Doesn’t it seem like every major event is happening this year? 
The latest 2000 event is preparing to take shape in Boone: the 2000 Census. 

According to Val Porreca, the Census 2000 liaison, students who live in residence halls will be counted automatically in the information the Town of Boone census bureau will receive from ASU.  

However, according to Porreca, students who live off-campus are going to be more difficult to track down. 

Reminder notices for the census will be placed in professors’ boxes so they can remind students to register. “We are going to use whatever means to make students understand that they need to fill out the Census forms here,” said Porreca.  

A Census form will be mailed to each 911 residence on record in Boone and a few in the Watauga County area.  

Porreca and town council member Jimmy Smith are providing presentations to any group or organization wanting to understand more about the census and how it operates and benefits our citizens. The census committee in Boone has planned a few events to attract students.  

Students can pick up census forms at local libraries and Blockbuster Video.  The forms will also be distributed by several local pizza restaurants on deliveries. 

The surveys will be mailed out Mar. 15 and are due on Apr. 1. 
 

SGA to cut back on smokers' waste 
Caitlyn Payne SGA Beat 

SGA plans to place cigarette receptacles near the doors of residence halls to cut back on the amount of waste left by smokers. 

The receptacle idea, introduced by Sarah Clay, Michelle Sullivan and Jenn Dowd was brought to the attention of SGA by other students. 

“Someone mentioned the flower boxes outside the residence halls were full of cigarettes,” cabinet member Michelle Sullivan said. “And that all the academic buildings were provided with brand new cigarette disposals.” 

Sullivan, with cabinet members Clay and Dowd, looked into getting receptacles for the residence halls. 

An advantage of the receptacles is a cleaner, healthier atmosphere around the campus. “The (receptacles) will help with campus beautification,” Sullivan said. 

Cabinet member Cary Harris expressed concern about only some halls having a place to dispose of cigarettes.  It is especially a cause of concern on “open house and move-in days,”  according to Harris. 

Harris hopes that if the receptacles are installed, it will promote efforts to keep the areas around residence halls clean. 

Cabinet member and project co-sponsor Sarah Clay said cigarette disposal will “help clean the university.” 

She hopes a cleaner campus will entice perspective freshmen to attend Appalachian in the future. 

The bill has been sent to the rules committee and will be examined by the senate this week. 
 

GPA, year in school requied  to register? 
Caitlyn Payne SGA Beat 

Seniority will not necessarily be a priority if SGA passes legislation to include GPA in the requirements for academic registration. 

A rising senior with a high GPA would get top priority, then rising juniors with a high GPA, and so forth. 

On Tuesday, the committee also considered raising the limit for drop/add to six instead of the current four, and increasing the office hours of professors. 

Other changes involving coursework would be to post a course syllabus on the web before and during registration, so students would have a general idea of what is involved in a particular course. 

External affairs improvements that were discussed included greater student participation in local government and having local candidate debates on campus so students could get a better idea of what their local representatives have to offer. 

For on-campus residences, committees suggested parking flexibility and more places where ID cards could be used to gain entrance to buildings or make purchases. More flexibility in registration options and time limits were also discussed. 
 

Utilize campus resources; visit Laura Petterson at LAP today 
Tiffany Fant Multicultural Beat 

Some may know her as the assistant coordinator for Student Support Services; others may be familiar with her because she taught their Learning Skills class in the fall; and still others may know her as an academic advisor. 

Even though she wears many hats she is still one person: Rhonda Peterson. 

Though Peterson may be unfamiliar to some, she is no stranger on ASU’s campus. She completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology with a concentration in Childhood Development, as well as a graduate degree in Community Counseling with an emphasis on expressive arts. 

Peterson graduated in 1997 and left ASU to achieve some of her career goals. “My goals after graduation was to get at least two years of experience in two different areas of work,” she said. 

After graduation, Peterson’s first stop was at the Children’s Home in Winston-Salem, NC. There she worked with young males who were considered to have behavioral and social problems at home and school. 

Next she went to Centerpoint in Winston as well, where she was a classroom therapist and was able to use her knowledge of expressive art to reach the children. 

“These experiences allow me to employ a lot of what I learned from college,” Peterson said. 

Now that Peterson is no longer a student, and is a faculty member, she now has a different perspective of Appalachian. 

“I absolutely love working here,” she said. She credits her positive experience with already having established relationships within her department. 
Though she enjoys working with the Learning Assistance Program, she would like to see a more diverse staff. She would like to see her department have more staff from “different cultural backgrounds, genders, and a greater age range.” 

Peterson interacts with students academically and personally on a daily basis. “On average students come and see me three times a week,” she said. During these times she emphasizes what she wished she had known when she was an undergraduate, which is “utilize the campus resources such as the tutorial services and the writing center.” 

“I would have used them more then, now that I know how important they are,” she said. 

From the time when Peterson attended Appalachian she has noticed some changes in the multicultural student population. Peterson said, “the students here now are brighter, but we lose them because of the things we don’t have available, and because students feel they don’t fit in.” 

Since Peterson has been on both sides of the relationship of black student to black faculty and staff, she has noticed changes there. “My relationship with black students is good ... but If feel more faculty and staff need to be more involved,” she said. 

She would like to see the Black Graduate Student Association, the Black Student Association, and the Black Faculty and Staff Association come together monthly to build a better relationship. 

Peterson has a lot of goals and aspirations for the black population on campus. She also has career goals as well such as to become “director a TRIO program preferably Upward Bound.” To help her achieve these goals she is in the process of working her Ph.D. Education Administration, Educational Research or Counselor Education. 

In the meantime, Rhonda Peterson is extending here invitation for students to come meet and greet her in the LAP. 
 

Leach paint a dark area: civil right era struggles  
Tiffany Fant Multicultural Beat 

He will not be the next Picasso or the next Van Gogh. 

Not because he does not have the talent, but because he will make his mark as the very first Randy Leach. 

Leach has been working to be an artist since the second grade.  His original inspiration for wanting to know more about the world of art can be given to his second grade teacher.   “She came at the beginning of class and drew a picture with colored chalk.  One day she drew a hula girl with this colorful skirt, and from that day on I was inspired by the colors of art,” he said. 

Though Leach was inspired in the second grade, he did not begin producing serious work until the seventh grade.  His first work was “a pastel painting from a National Geographic magazine of a deep-sea tropical fish.”  

Now that Leach is older, he gets his inspirations in a different manner.  “My inspirations come from the experiences that I go through and from the observations of the world going on around me,” he said.  These inspirations cannot happen just anywhere, he said. “I like more of a closed area that does not have a lot of distractions ... and whatever aspect of the painting I’m dealing with is the kind of music I like to listen to.  I usually listen to hip-hop, R&B, or whatever the mood is.” 

Many people like to use famous artists such as Monet or Dali as their role models.  Leach, however, has a different set of artists.  He says that he has been inspired by Allan Rohan Cryte, the Biggers family, and Romare Bearden. 

He “likes narrative work ... but all work does not portray a story on canvas as these artists do.”  Leach also said that Cryte “has paintings called neighborhood paintings, where he paints the African-American in America as he sees it.”  Leach tries to do this as well. 

Being one of the few minorities in the art department, Leach admits that his work has been affected.  He said, “I’m not trying to let my work speak for all African-Americans ... and I don’t know where the line is of them thinking I’m obligated to paint black art.” 

“I paint what I like, which happens to be black art,” he added. 

When Leach began doing work in the art department, he had the same experience that many black students have when they are the only minority.  “I did not feel comfortable.  It was a tough transition to find confidence in myself,” he said. 

As each project was turned in, Leach said, “I felt I was being watched more closely to see what I was going to do next.”  At first he viewed it negatively, but he changed his mind, saying, “I used that to make me feel more comfortable, because the object of an artist is to have people anticipating what you are going to do next.” 

After four years in the art department, Leach feels that his work is much more accepted.  “I’ve gotten a real good response to my work.  It’s exciting having people wanting to know the inspiration of my pieces.  People are interested ... and aren’t afraid to question me about it,” he said. 

Leach has submitted his work for a show in Looking Glass Gallery with the theme of the Civil Rights Movement.  For Leach, this is a very touchy subject because he feels the “Civil Rights era is a dark area to our generation ... it was only thirty-plus years ago.” 

“History is repeating itself ... and you must know your background,” he said. He also feels that he has an obligation to act upon the rights that were fought for during the Civil Rights Movement. 

“I am taking the Civil Rights Movement to gain knowledge for myself and to express it to others.  I consider myself to be a role model,” Leach said about the theme of his show. 

His show is “my portraits of the past, without the bias that our society, media and cultures put on it.” 

Return To Top