• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_1997-02-13_Vol62_No18_09

®ij£ H£0t£tn Carolinian Op-Ed Thursday, February 131997 9 Support the Cats and Western TONY J. TAYLOR EXECUTIVE EDITOR Recently, I discovered a great way to start a week: attending men's basketball games at the Ramsey Center. I have to admit that I am a HUGE basketball fan. I love to watch it, play it, and write about it. So you can imagine my surprise when I began attending the games and noticed that very few students bother to do the same—especially since we have a good team which is the defending Southern Conference Champion. My frustration was compounded at the game 'wo weeks ago against ETSU. When I arrived at the Ramsey Center, just before tip-off, I no- PHOTO TERRY K. ROBERTS/WC ticed that the usual four dozen or so students were in attendance. To make matters worse, I overheard.some ETSU fans saying that playing at the Ramsey Center was the next best thing to playing at home because so few Western students show up for games. I started to make a comment, but I realized they were right. During the pregame introductions, the ETSU fans made almost as much noise as the Western fans did. I also noticed thai most of the people in attendance that were supporting Western were from the local community, not Western students, which is a shame because the Catamounts have an impressive pregame introduction similar to that of the Chi cago Bulls. Despite the lack of fan , support, the-Catamounts have lost only one home game this season. Those kind of numbers make me wonder how well the Catamounts would perform if their games attracted the kind of fan support that other schools receive. At my former school, Mars Hill College, students turn out in large numbers to support the Lions. Recently, they had 1,167 fans come out for a home basketball game. Not too shabby for a school with a student population of just over a thousand people. The Catamounts will host UT Chattanooga Saturday night. The Mocs are in first place in the Southern Conference with a 10-1 record and the Catamounts are the defending conference champions. The game will be televised live on Sports South. It's important that a large number of students attend this game. Not only to support our team, but also to support our school. Western's reputation as a "slacker school" will be tested on Saturday. If students do not come out in droves, that will re- enforce our school's negative image. It's time to let everyone know that Western is not the same old Western. Back the Cats on Saturday. Student Praises Career Services Dear Mr. Taylor, I felt compelled to praise Western Carolina's Career Service Office for providing a Mock Interview Workshop on February 20, 1997.1 am a student who has previously been in a career and believe this workshop will benefit students planning for a career. Once a job opportunity is found, there is no concrete way to prepare for the interview that follows. A student can research the company but ultimately there is no way to determine what is going to be asked during the interview phase. I believe the company I interviewed with tried to throw me off balance with some oftheir questions. They asked me questions that I did not feel I could ever answer correctly. The workshop would help students be better prepared to answer these kinds of questions immediately and effectively. It would also allow feedback for the student to know in what areas they needed work. In my experience, the anticipation of the job interview was the most stressful. I did not have any idea of what was to come. During the interview, I trembled so much the interviewer asked me if I was all right. I wish that I had this opportunity to practice my skills before my first job interview. I believe that I would have been more at ease and could have answered the questions more appropriately instead of worrying about how nervous I was. I did not get the job after that interview. I did take what I learned from that experience to my next interview and was offered a job. I believe students can take what they learned from the workshop to their first job interview. This is a tremendous opportunity for the students at Western Carolina University. I hope they will take advantage ofthe workshop that is being offered to improve their skills so they can get the job they want. Sincerely, Jennifer Spear Wqz Wz&Xzxxx (Earnltman Tony J. Taylor EXECUTIVE EDITOR Executive Directors Associate Editors Kyle Shufelt Ads Director Scott Francis Art Director Tracy Hart Copx/ Editor Stacey Ruiz Editorial Assistant Production Staff Office staff Kevin McPherson News Ann Wright Features Bryan Sharpe Sports Jessica Devaney, Adam Riggsbee Environmental Terry K. Roberts Photography Faculty Advisor Kevin Cassels Distribution Gerald McNeely Technical Service Allassandra Rhody Paste-Up Christine Wilcox Seth Sams John Moore The Western Carolinian is an official publication of Western Carolina University, produced entirely by the students of W.C.U. Deadline for submissions is Monday at 5 p.m. preceding the Thursday publication date. Student-written copy is appreciated. f Staff meetings for The Western Carolinian are held on Mondays at 5:30 on the top floor of the Old Student Union. Contact us by phone at 227-7267. Office hours are 1-5 Monda-Friday Send letters to the editor, care of the editor: The Western Carolinian P.O. Box 66 Cullowhee, NC 28723 Keep our campus\ and our planet clean, Please recycle your Western Carolinian J Reader Says the Editor Needs to Tell the Truth Your "Immune to Reason" article was quite provocative. Revealing personal feelings about marijuana can be difficult to do in this era of political correctness. Thank you for your honesty about this controversial topic. When publishing personal beliefs, there is a risk involved. The risk is that newsworthy whole truth will be rejected in favor of misleading, unrealistic soundbites. I feel that your article crossed the line. You claimed to "know firsthand how harmless marijuana is,^' along with how "the cycle of marijuana use is easy to break. " Both of those statements are misleading. Granted, most research into marijuana has resulted in contradictory evidence about its harmful nature, or lack thereof. However, just because some studies have concluded marijuana is harmless, you cannot dismiss the other studies which concluded that it poses significant health risks. Also, if the cycle of marijuana use is easy to break, then why have I seen users stuck in the depths of addiction for decades? The whole truth is that nobody knows for sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, if it is bain or boon. Furthermore, your experi ence of observing marijuana as being an easily broken dependency, may be valid for some users. Nevertheless, not all uses have this experience. I have seen whole families torn apart because of the parents' marijuana addictions. Children went hungry, bills went unpaid, and utilities were shut off as a result of addiction to this "harmless drug". This is another aspect of marijuana use not often featured in the campus media. In the future, please attempt to show both sides of an issue, so that all Carolinian readers have the opportunity to encounter both sides of an issue. Sincerely, Rachel Denise Ostronic Immune to the Facts: The Editor's Response to Ostronic TONY J. TAYLOR EXECUTIVE EDITOR One of the many difficult things about this job is having to provide an editorial for the university that will be read by people who have no concept of what I am writing about. In fact, the only thing worse than that is having those people respond to you in print. This week, I had two such letters. I will respond to the one written by Rachel Ostronic. Let me begin by saying that editorials' are not meant to divulge the "newsworthy whole truth." Instead, they are one individual's opinion about a certain subject. That person then backs up their claim with facts. I backed up my claim when I mentioned my former professional experience as a substance abuse case manager and when I quoted the DSMIV. Ostronic, in her letter, said, "I have seen whole families torn apart because of the parents' marijuana addictions." My question to Ostronic is: Are you a clinical social worker or psychologist? If so, please mention that in your next letter, because some credibility is necessary when you are trying to pass yourself off as a expert on human behavior. If you were a social worker, you would realize that marijuana, alcohol or any other drug is not the primary problem. The problem in cases like the ones that you are writing about occurs because of a communication breakdown within the family. Dysfunctional families—the term used to describe families mat allow "children \"to go] hungry, bills [to goj unpaid and utilities [to bej shut off"—are complex. If I were to do a comprehensive article on this subject, it would fill the entire newspaper—and I don't think most of our readers would like that, do you? I cannot say why you have "seen users stuck in the depths of addiction for decades." The only explanation I can offer is that, perhaps, they have no desire to change. If you had any clinical knowledge of substance abuse, you would realize that no one can break an addiction—big or small—unless he or she wants to. As a former substance abuse case manager, I saw people • come into treatment time and time again and never recover from their addictions because they had no desire to do so. I must admit that most of those individuals suffered from cocaine addiction and alcoholism. The fact of the matter is that marijuana is NOT PHYSICALLY ADDICTIVE. But don't take my word for it; ask your doctor, or better yet look, it up in various medical journals. Therefore, it's hard to show this unrealistic "aspect of marijuana use ... in the campus media" because, technically, it doesn't exist. Perhaps you could have persuaded me and our readers that it does but, once again, you failed to provide any facts in your letter. In the future, please attempt to place facts with the letters that you send to editors so that the readers, and the editors, have the opportunity to encounter and understand your argument. Reader Says Carolinian Needs to Be More Careful Dear Editor, First, I would like to say I am student [sic] who has read the Carolinian faithfully since I came to Western in the fall of 1993.1 like the professional look of the paper. It doesn't just look like a bunch of college students threw it together, like previous years. But in the January 30th edition of the paper, in part of the advertisement section it looks like someone got a little lazy. The advertisement was for Blue Square Restaurant. It look like someone forgot to put a picture with the ad. Therefore it made it look bare and not very flattering for the business. I feel that this was a big mistake because the Blue Square Restaurant contributes money to the paper and they want to be represent [sic] in a correct way. This also affect [sic] the paper in that the Blue Square may pull their ad and no longer advertise in the Western Carolinian. Advertising is the life line for any paper and they count on the revenue to keep the paper going. If the mistakes continue and the Carolinian does loose [sic] advertising revenue they may be forced to charge students for the paper. That will cut down on readership and could lead to the demise of the paper. I know this is a college paper and the consequences for mistakes aren't great. But this should be an opportunity to learn skills for the real world. If this mistake would have been made in the real world, they may have been fired. Hope Reeves Dear Ms. Reeves, Thank you for your letter concerning the Blue Square ad that appeared in our Jan. 30th edition. It is apparent that your concern for the paper, its staff, and the student body go well beyond the call of duty. For the record, Tim Roberts, the proprietor ofthe Blue Square, requested that his ad appear as it did with only the name, address, and phone number. Mr. Roberts' reasoning behind this was to "make the ad stand out." And apparently he met his objective. By the way, our costs are cov ered by a combination of student fees and advertising sales. Or, put another way, you already pay for the paper, at least part of it. Sincerciy, Kyle Shufelt Ads Director

The Western Carolinian is Western Carolina University's student-run newspaper. The paper was published as the Cullowhee Yodel from 1924 to 1931 before changing its name to The Western Carolinian in 1933.

• Creator
  • Western Carolina University
• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Date
  • Date original: 1997-02-13
  • Date digitized: 2020-01-13
• Extent
  • Dimension: 14" x 11.25"
  • Pages: 12 pages
• Subject - Topic
  • College student newspapers and periodicals
  • Cullowhee (N.C.) -- Newspapers
  • Universities and colleges -- North Carolina -- Cullowhee -- Newspapers
  • Western Carolina University -- Periodicals
• Location
  • Jackson County (N.C.)
  • Cullowhee (N.C.)
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Source Collection
  • WCU Students Newspapers Collection
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_1997-02-13_Vol62_No18
• Repository
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library