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  • Publications (documents)
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  • Text
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_2013-02-22_Vol78_No12_A02

A2 Februaiy 22, 2013 NEWS The Western Carolinian WCU construction team fourth in natl. competition Brandy Carl Staff Writer . Western Carolina Uni- versity students in the construction manage- ment program recently won fourth place ina nation-wide home con- struction competition. WCU students came together in September to begin work ona project for the National Association of Home - Builders Residential Construction Manage- ment Competition at the National Association of Home Builders Interna- tional Builders Show in Las Vegas. Students were asked to develop a 118-acre site in Saratoga Springs, Utah. Calling themselves the Poseidon Team, the students opted to estab- lish a waterfront com- munity for 225 homes. Prices varied between $250,000 and $500,000. The plan was estimated to have a gross profit of $100 million over the course of 10-12 years, said team adviser and visiting assistant profes- sor Gary Burke. The property con- sists of raw land once used as a gravel opera- tion along the eastern band of Utah Lake. The property owner judged the competition. It is not clear whether the owner will use any of the plans. The Poseidon Team was responsible for developing a project site plan, land develop- ment plan, construction estimate, estimated schedule, cash flow projections, market and risk analysis, and green building initiative. The . team also secured the necessary finances, ac- cording to Burke. Students met multiple times a week through the bulk of the semester to work on the plans. | Tt was a pretty big commitment, said se- nior Amy. Loring. WCU came in fourth | place in the four-year program division behind Michigan State - University, Califor- nia Polytechnie State University and Brigham Young University. WCU placed higher in the. competition than other big name schools such as Texas A&M and Clemson University. Team captain Alex Hamilton was also hon- ored with an Outstand- ing Student Award. *This year the team was more organized than ever. Team captain Alex Hamilton kept the team well informed and performed like a proj- ect manager would be expected to on any large CM project. Overall they all functioned well as a team, said Burke ina . press release. We're pretty proud. We're making a place for ourselves on the map nationally, said Burke. The National Associa- tion of Home Builders. International Builders Show is held every year and is described as be- ing the largest annual light construction show in the world, accord- ing to the International Builders Shows web- site. WCU students left Sunday, Jan. 20, and arrived in Las Vegas the ~ next day. Presentations for the competition -were. Tuesday. On Wednes- day, awards were given out and by Thursday the students were on their way home. We stayed busy with the convention. It was avery competitive and. busy trip, said Burke. Since the competition, Loring attributes her recent success in ac- quiring to positions to her involvement in the competition. The whole point was to see how what we did in the competition translates into the real world. It made lessons in school that much _more valuable, said - Loring. The construction management program at WCU has housed a student chapter of the National Association of Home Builders for the past five years, compet- ing each year. WCU stu- dents placed fifth in the competition two years ago. > For more information on the National Associa- tion of Home Builders, please visit http://www. | nahb.org/. WCU fraternity helps Scout: clear cemetery on MLK Day By Brandy Carl Staff Writer Western Carolina | Universitys chapter. .- of the Epsilon Tau Pi National Eagle Scout Fraternity recently as- sisted in the clearing of an abandoned cemetery in Macon County. , Boy Scout Andrew Baldwin came across an abandoned slave ceme- tery while hiking around his neighborhood. After seeing the dilapidated state of the cemetery, Baldwin decided to make the clean-up his Eagle Scout project. The cemetery was named New Hope Cem- _ etery in honor of New Hope Church, an 1800s church founded by the black members of the First Methodist Church who were forced to sit in the balcony, said Bald- win's mother, Vicki. The'church disbanded . - inthe 1930s, and the - building burned down i in the 1970s. The cemetery | lays abandoned as a . result, with only seven of the graves marked. The cleanup effort began on Jan. 21, Mar- tin Luther King Jr. Day. Before Andrew Bald- wins Scout Master could give him permission to use the clean-up as his project, he had to find someone to sponsor him. Also, because the ceme- tery had been abandoned for so long, the Board of . Commissioners had to adopt it to. give Baldwin permission to clean it up. WCU geology professor | and Eagle Scout Blair Tormey teamedup with Epsilon Tau Pis Gamma chapter to lend - a helping hand. Tormey ' currently serves as Epsilon Tau Pis faculty - adviser. Tormey said Baldwins mother, who read about his experi- ences using ground-pen- etrating radar to find lost graves, initially contacted him. io The group worked for approximately six, hours over the holiday. Vicki Baldwin described the property as being over- grown to the point where the road was no longer visible. Together, they cleared brush leading to and within the cem- eterys borders. Some of the rhodo- dendron trunks were | thicker than my arm, - said Tormey. Andrew Baldwin hopes that when the cemetery is cleared, relatives can visit their deceased ancestors. For now, the : exact location of the cem- _ etery is not widely dis-. closed for fear of having the cemetery desecrated. The cemetery sits be- tween private properties. The community has showed overwhelming support for the project, | with supporters ranging from Epsilon Tau Pi to 93-year-old Josephine Burgess, the last living member of former New Hope Church. Once the cemetery is fully cleaned up, Toey and WCU alumni Paul . Martin hope to use ca- daver dogs and ground- penetrating radar to locate unmarked graves. As the cleanup will span Photo by: Vickie Baldwin Andrew Baldwin and WCU's Epsilon Tau Pi National Eagle Scout Fraternity cleaned an abandoned slave cemetery on Jan. 21. the next few months, days, provided schedul- etery clean. | the Cowee Baptist Men s ing works out.. Another clean-up oc- Group will join the effort Theresa lot more > cured on Feb..9, justin \ in February while Bald- left to do, said coarone time for Black History ' t -wins troop will likely Once the cleanup is Month. Anyone inter- help in March. Tormey completed, the town of ested in helping should contact Andrew Baldwin at 828-371-8018. said Epsilon Tau Pi will likely aid them on these Franklin will be respon- sible for keeping the cem- Recent school shooting ignites gun control discussion Logan Porter -Staff Writer In the wake of the tragic massacre in Newtown, Conn., that left 27 inno-. cents dead, many of them . children, local and state - authorities, along with the federal government, are considering changes to gun control policies. Shootings on college campuses have appeared more frequently, alarm- ing policy makers and --/ ordinary citizens alike. Along with Newtown, ~ recent campus shootings at Lone Star College, the University of Southern California and the Uni- versity of Pittsburgh, left three, four and seven in- jured, respectively, with one fatality reported by Fox News on the shoot- ing at Pittsburgh. In response, several states, most notably New York and Colorado, have either introduced or . passed new gun control measures and legisla- tidn meant to further regulate assault weapons and make it more dif- ficult for the mentally ill to acquire firearms. New Yorks bill, the first signed into law since the massacre at Newtown, according to CBS, was strongly supported by. the governor ofthat | state, Andrew Cuomo. Prior tothe bills pass- ing, Cuomo called gun violence in America a scourge on society and claimed gun control a public health issue, the Associated Press reported. Southern states, known for often hav- ing the opposite reac- tion, have passed or introduced legislation to - further deregulate the Ae and use of firearms in their borders. Arkan- sas, Texas and Georgia, Republicans, largely in reaction to Obamas federal gun bill, have put forth legislation in their states that would allow those with concealed carry permits to carry their firearms on state and private institutions of higher education. Educators and univer- sity administrators have _denounced the new legis- lation, with a spokesman for the-University of Texas President William Pow- ers Jr. telling The Daily Texan [The UT presi- dent] is not in favor of leg- islation that allows guns on campus, as it would not enhance safety. Liberty University, a , private Christian col- lege in Lynchburg, Va., has set a precedent by being ohe of the first to | allow concealed carry on campus for those over the age of 21 with a valid concealed carry license and training. Federally, on Jan. 16, President Barack Obama _announced new proposals that his administration believes would help curb gun violence. In addition to the legislative propos- als going before Congress, which include a ban on assault weapons and extended magazines, the Obama administration also executed 23 executive orders that largely deal with how the government and its agencies collect and share background check data, as well as _ when background checks are performed. However, two of these orders deal directly with an issue some have called the real issue behind mass shootings: a lack of, funding and education regarding mental health and its respective services. Some conservative groups, chiefly the Na- tional Rifle Association and the Heritage Founda- tion, have met President Obamas proposals and executive actions witha degree of consternation. The serious work to make society saferand | stronger after events like the December 2012 New- town massacre requires that constitutional and complex cultural factors be taken into consider- ation and that policy be based on a serious study -, of all of the evidence, Heritage experts John Malcolm and Jennifer Marshall stated in a pub- lished report. According to their _ report, the Constitution | guarantees citizens access to firearms, and, while mental health treatment is under-emphasized, it should be considered a responsibility of state and | local governments, not the federal government. The report references - a 2000 New York Times study that analyzed the profiles of 100 rampage murderer and found that 48 of the 100 had a formal diagnosis of some sort of mental illness, schizo- phrenia being the most common, while over half had histories of serious mental problems. The Heritage report . goes on to note that, according to the Na- tional Institute of Mental Health, of the 7.7 million Americans who qualify for diagnoses of schizo- phrenia, schizoaffective. disorder and bipolar dis- order, 3.5 million are not receiving any treatment at all for their illness. A conglomerate study cited - by Heritage found schizo- phrenics to be more than 10 times likely to commit a homicide. Western Carolina University student Mi- chael Branon, a senior, agrees on the need for a renewed emphasis on mental health services. . - T think its a safe cor- relation to make, mass shootings and mental health, said Branon. Mental care is essen- tially preventative care. It can help prevent trag- edies from occurring. Branon thinks con- _ cealed weapons on cam- pus is a bad idea. You hear talk about: how teachers should have guns, now the students. Thats just ridiculous, he continued. Branon con- ceded that home defense is a legitimate issue and said he supports the right to bear arms. Sophomore Bunny De- schain had more specific reforms in mind. People dont need access to high powered assault rifles and ex- tended magazine elips, - said Deschain. Thats unnecessary. We need more regu- lation on production. Theres hundreds of millions of guns in circulation. Maybe there shouldnt be so many, said Deschain. There is a lack of funding for health - services in general, espe- cially mental health. _ Law professor David Hoch also weighed in on the issue. First of all, before we address the issue regarding guns, we need to examine why we are such a violent society, said Hoch. Hoch said there is acultural element in place that contributes Photo by Jamie North /STAFF What are your feelings about professors carrying guns on campus and in classroms? to episodes of violent gun crime. He also feels increased gun control measures are essential and those in Washing- ton who disagree do so because of the powerful gun lobby. T think it is very detri- mental to our society how _ much politicians cant have a career or get re- elected without kowtow- ing to the National Rifle Association and other lob- bying organizations that dont care much for the individual rights of the everyday citizen and are only lobbying on behalf of the gun and ammunitions industry, said Hoch. _ Hoch went on to call concealed weapons per- mits on college campus- es a horrendous idea. It seems other states will continue their public battles over gun control. For now, North Carolina _ will stick with its own status quo on guns.

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)
  • Text
• Type
  • Text
• Date
  • Date original: 2013-02-22
• Extent
  • Dimension: 22.75" x 11.5"
  • Pages: 12
• 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_2013-02-22_Vol78_No12
• Repository
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library