Ronnie's Blog

On March 23, the North Carolina General Assembly (NCGA) convened for a “special session.” In less than 12 hours, the NCGA was able to pass a bill called House Bill 2, or formally the “Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act.” This law, HB2, was inspired and written to counteract an ordinance written for the city of Charlotte that protected LGBT rights.

On February 22, the Charlotte City Council passed an ordinance that added legal protections for gay, lesbian and transgender people in many different facets of public life. This ordinance legislated that businesses in the Charlotte area cannot discriminate against the LGBT community if they want to purchase goods or services from said business, regardless of the principles held in their hearts and minds. The ordinance applies to places of “public accommodation.” This would include the gas station, bars, stores, taxis, private means of transport and many other public services.

The most controversial piece of the ordinance, which would incite the name “The Bathroom Bill” later on, was the fact that it allowed transgender people to use the restroom of the gender they identify with.

In response to the controversy, Governor Pat McCrory announced that the NCGA would most likely act immediately to overturn the ordinance.

In North Carolina, the NCGA has power over local municipalities and city councils. The NCGA decided to take action without consulting the public. The Charlotte City Council members much expected Raleigh to respond quickly, as soon as the next Monday, but they felt it was important to pass the ordinance if they indeed had the ability and it passed in a vote, 7–4.

A year ago, this same Charlotte Ordinance failed in a 6–5 vote. The ordinance was slated to take effect April 1, but it would never come into effect due to the passage of House Bill 2.

HB2 nullified every local ordinance state-wide that expanded protections to the LGBT community. For a long time, the state allowed cities and municipalities to create LGBT protections preserving public accommodations, hiring processes, minimum wage standards and other business issues. HB2 eliminated that local power. Among those who originally had such protections were Charlotte, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill.

Under HB2, transgender people must now use restrooms and locker rooms in schools and government buildings based on the sex listed on the person’s birth certificate. It does not matter if an entire community recognizes this person consciously as identifying with another gender. People will have to begin using the corresponding restroom with their “original” birth sex.

However, this bill expands far past just which restroom you will be using if you are a transgender person. The bill takes away the right to sue in state courts for employment discrimination. It prohibits things completely unrelated to the issue of LGBT, including prohibiting municipalities from adopting any type of minimum wage that is higher than the states current minimum wage. Employment benefits for certain jobs are no longer required to be in place, either.

Two days after this bill passed, multiple things happened in respects to law and business in North Carolina including PayPal instantaneously cancelling its plans to open a global operations center in Charlotte. This resulted in a loss of 400 jobs.

PayPal CEO Dan Schulman responded after the announcement, “Becoming an employer in North Carolina where members of our teams will not have equal rights under the law is simply untenable. The new law perpetuates discrimination and it violates the values and principles that are at the core of PayPal’s mission and culture.”

Along with PayPal, 100 other companies have publically protested the law.

Two days after the PayPal announcement, the American Civil Liberties Union, Equality North Carolina and Lambda Legal all filed lawsuits in an attempt to challenge HB2. They all claimed that the bill was violating both the 14th amendment and Title IX.

On April 12, McCrory issued an executive order that allowed private businesses to set their own policies regarding restrooms, shower facilities and locker rooms without the chance of government interference. He also affirmed the right of private businesses to establish non-discrimination policies for employment.

Under HB2, it is legal to post “No Gays Allowed” on the front of your business and deny services if the sign isn’t followed. Forcing transgender people to use facilities that do not correspond with their gender identity or refusing them service in a public location violates many federal protections against sex discrimination. Billions of dollars in federal funds are given to North Carolina schools, but the cash may stop flowing if the entire bill is not repealed.

Apr 02, 2016  |  Written by Ronnie Davia  |

Chancellor David O. Belcher has been the chancellor of Western Carolina University since the year 2011. He has seen the university at all of its most crucial moments as of late and has witnessed how record attendance numbers have affected campus life.

Belcher was asked what the enrollment rate was and how it has come to evolve to this point.

“The highest enrollment was actually the 2014–2015 year. We’re just slightly under that. We’re still at record enrollments. Since I got here in 2011, we’ve grown by 11 percent. That’s nearly 1,000 students. It’s a fascinating thing to watch. There’s a sense of incredible momentum here at this university. I think it spills into the student body. People are all energized by it. There’s a tremendous amount of interest at Western Carolina University. Do you feel the same thing?” Belcher chuckled.

He continued, “I think there are several things that are driving enrollment. We have some signature programs that are very well known that people are just wild about. It can be anything from forensic science and forensic anthropology (not everyone has those degree programs) to a spectacular nursing program, to the “Pride of the Mountains” marching band. They’re all known as first rate, high quality programs. A lot of schools will have anthropology, but forensic anthropology is the distinguishing feature here. We’re also the only ones with a body farm, for an example, in the system. But you know, I think students come here because we have a reputation, where students and faculty have relationships, because students know the faculty are going to know who they are and care about their success. That’s a pretty wonderful thing. It’s fascinating to me when I speak to alums from, like, the 1950s and they say the exact same thing as students of today. They say that faculty actually care about the students as individuals.”

Belcher acknowledges that there have been times where there was an element of challenge in some respects geographically with growing at this rate, but insists that quality of life has been retained.

“I want Western Carolina to grow in an intentional way. I mean, if we wanted to have 20,000 students enrolled here tomorrow, we could probably figure out a way to do it. But you know, wait, we probably their mind or a family crisis to where they couldn’t do that. If you want to grow fast you can do that, but I want our university instead to grow in a thoughtful way that will allow us to sustain what makes Western Carolina special. So, back to this issue of the intentional relationships between individual staff and students. I don’t want to lose that. A lot of people come here because it’s incredibly beautiful and it attracts students that love the outdoors. There are just a lot of great things coalescing around our university at this very moment,” he said.

When asked how these target enrollment numbers are calculated, Belcher replied, “A lot of times we have sort of targets. You really don’t know until August how many students are going to arrive. Every once in a while, you’ll have students change all about how we negotiate through that. It’s not can’t come. What we try to do is to project enrollments based on trends over time. So, we have statistics about how many undergraduates we’ve had by major. We’ve had graduate students and online students and transfer students over time. So, we look at trends but not just our own trends, we also look at trends of population. For example, there is a well-known, what we’re calling, a demographic cliff. It’s going to happen between 2020 and 2022. There was a sudden drop in the numbers of high school graduates between 2020 and 2021. What happened was people stopped having children right after 9/11. They stopped having children. There was a fear factor. There’s a drop. We know that’s coming on the horizon. It goes right back up after that. It’s just our own numbers, it’s a piece of it, but we are watching other trend lines as well.”

He also stated, “There is a limit to what we can accommodate well and we’re trying to think strategically about growth. If we don’t have, for example, a second dining hall, we can’t grow. As you may know, this dining hall was brand new in 2010. It’s already out of space. There are all these lines. That’s why we are going into the old Brown Cafeteria, and gutting it, to create a second dining hall.”

UNC president Margaret Spellings visits WCU on '100 Days Tour'

Apr 02, 2016  |  Written by Ronnie Davia  |  

As the former U.S. Secretary of Education under President George W. Bush, Margaret Spellings is not new to the field of education by any means. However, she is absolutely new to the state of North Carolina and the UNC system.

Spellings is a Texas native that hasn’t even had her drivers license a month yet was installed as the President of the UNC System on March 1. Spellings has held many positions and was one of the principal proponents of “No Child Left Behind,” which aimed to reform secondary and primary education.

Recently, Spellings has been on a “100 Days Tour” in which she is visiting all 16 UNC system colleges in the first 100 days of her presidency. She visited Western Carolina University on March 10 and 11. Her visit started with a student leadership conference with the Student Government Association in the morning, continued on to a Western Carolina Board of Trustee’s meeting and finished with a press conference that took place in the old, outdated Natural Sciences Building on campus.

“It’s a joy to be here. You have such a unique value proposition. It’s incredible for students to have real world experience,” said Spellings. “I’m in week two on the job. This is my second official visit to a system school. I can’t think of a better way to spend my first 100 days on the job. I want to listen to the challenges each system faces.”

Spellings’ plan for the UNC system, specifically Western Carolina, is to essentially keep the 25year plan the university already has laid out.

“We are in the people business, that is what we do. If we don’t invest in our people and create clear pathways, we’ll lose our folks. Part of it is pay, but it’s not just about pay, it’s about opportunity. We need to think about diversity,” said Spellings.

When asked how she would change the effectiveness of communication from officials to students, she stated, “We can be much more transparent about how the Board of Governor’s do business. We have started to stream the Board of Governor’s meetings and we will start to stream committee meetings. We just recently improved our website. Thirdly, the board will provide some opportunities for the public. This is not something the board has done before.”

Spellings stressed one thing, along with Chancellor David Belcher at the press conference, which was to vote for the Connect NC Bond. This was such a non-partisan effort and has widespread support, mainly due to the fact it is money tied in a “bond.” There is no tax increase, no tuition increase, nothing correlating to monetary expenses that a citizen would have to pay. Many individuals voted for the bond on March 15 and it was passed.

A large amount of individuals in the crowd of the conference questioned Spellings’ stance on teacher pay in the state.

“Shame on us if we can’t come together around higher education. We have to go to the legislature in April. We need to accomplish legislative wins, which are priorities. We want to enhance staff salaries. It is only an advantage to reward those folks appropriately,” said Spellings.

Richard Starnes, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences added at this conference, held in a rusted, stained laboratory, “Western is poised to train the next generation of scientists in Cullowhee. The facilities don’t reflect the high level of instruction that they are providing. This bond will also allow turning investments into intellectual capital.”

Belcher stressed, “When this building was constructed the building accommodated 15 nursing majors; now it services hundreds. This building wasn’t even built to service engineering majors.”

All of this shows why the Connect NC Bond was so important and what positive changes will come from it in the near future. Not only will the outdated Natural Sciences building be renovated but the university will be able to house a much larger group of nursing and engineering majors.

On the Air: Isaiah "Ike" Shedrick FordFeb 29, 2016  |  Written by Ronald Davia  |

http://www.thewesterncarolinian.com/?q=article/air-isaiah-ike-shedrick-ford

   In the Cullowhee Valley, simply due to our geography and our general location in the state, we do not have the most flavorful musical selections to choose from on the radio waves. It is actually not even possible to listen to something as essential as National Public Radio in Cullowhee via the standard FM radio. With this being the case, we can are thankful for Power 90.5, WWCU FM bringing many great shows to the air.

   Students, sometimes faculty or even just Western Carolina University campus employees will host many of the shows that are broadcasted at the station. Among the broadcasting talent at the station is Southwestern Community College student and Burger Studio employee on campus, Isaiah “Ike” Shedrick Ford.  

   “I have two radio shows, one called ‘Whee Talk Exclusive’, which is on Mondays 6 – 8 p.m., and that’s with my co-host David Johnson, we call him ‘DJ’ on the radio. I also have another show on Fridays called the Groove Mix on Friday from 8 – 10 p.m., and that’s just myself, and whoever else wants to come on to open for guests and everybody. This is my second year broadcasting. “

   Ike’s Groove Mix is a live, engaging, multifaceted show that has an incredibly refreshing hip-hop and R&B track list every week, consists of deep guided discussion about pop-culture, music, news, and relevant topics to collegiate and campus life. This show even has a live call-in feature, where you can call in to the station on your phone and contribute to the discussion that’s happening at the time. This line can also be used for requests.

   When asked of influences and reasons to why he started studying Communication and Broadcasting, Ike’s come from various places in the entertainment world.

   “I have to say my influences are comedy, music, and my dad, a passion for sports. I wanted to be around entertainment, so Communication was the way to go, I like to talk, and I’m very musically inclined with different things that I hear. I have been behind the mic my whole life. It’s right that I focus on Communication,” he said.

   When asked of his major broadcasting influences and general inspirational figures, Ike has a broad range of people he looks toward for ideals and guidance in life and profession.

   “Oh man, there’s so many. So many. I’d have to say some of my influences are Kendrick Lamar, of course my dad, Cory Holcombe, Will Smith, Bernie Mac and I’d have to say, Kobe Bryant,” he said.

   Ike touched on something essential to hook in an audience in the field.

   “In radio you have to have a certain personality, tell a story, and have the audience actually be able to see what you’re talking about. You have to be able to relate to multiple different audiences,” he said.

   When asked if he had any classical musical training on instruments, Ike could not justify with saying that he did, although he did have minimal experience.

   “I only touched one instrument in my whole life, and that is the piano. I only really know one song on the piano. But other than that, I’ve been in front of the microphone, or behind the scene, but just recently I picked up a new talent with cutting, and editing, and mixing songs and everything like that. That’s really to come soon as far, increasing my radio DJ arsenal in that aspect. Because with the field of communication, it’s a competition, you have to do whatever you can to stand out,” he said.

   Ike was born and grew up in Charlotte, NC. He attended Victory Christian Center for High School. Through his grade and high school career, he had no audio projects, broadcasting thoughts or communication ambitions at all.

   “I was into sports. I had every black kids dream, trying to make it to the NBA. I had hoop dreams, but then it all changed after high school, when I didn’t get a scholarship for basketball. Then I looked at psychology, but psychology wasn’t ‘me’. Communications was ‘me’. There are moments in my middle school and high school career that I did realize I enjoyed being in front of the mic, the TV, and I realized that when I won the talent show in fifth grade. My talent was rapping. I can’t remember what the rhyme was about but I won it man!” Ike chuckled while talking about his early life. “It was at a church so it wasn’t anything too bad. Maybe it would be about Basketball? Nonsense.”

   When asked of a 5-year plan for the future, Ike has some very specific, tangible goals to meet.

   “Honestly, I want to start out in radio, then I want to go into television. I want to have my own talk show. Kind of like Arsenio Hall’s or similar. Where I’m interviewing celebrities and everything, although I hope to be one myself. When that all happens, I want it to happen on MTV. MTV is the most diverse television network. Diversity is key. We live in such diverse culture,” he said.

   Ike admires HOT 90.7 and the Breakfast Club in regards to radio.

   When asked of incoming projects, Ike stated “In due time, in mid-march, the Whee will get to hear some of my mixes.”

   He intends to move to Texas, Florida, or California after working radio in Charlotte, NC, at “the QC” after graduating from SCC.

   If there’s one thing he would like to convey in life, it’s “Keep God First”.

   Ike added “I’m thankful for my mom and dad.”

Track and Field prepares for upcoming SOCON Conference ChampionshipsFeb 29, 2016  |  Written by Ronald Davia  |  

http://www.thewesterncarolinian.com/?q=article/track-and-field-prepares-upcoming-socon-conference-championships#comments

   Western Carolina University’s entire populace is absolutely nuts about Catamount Sports in general, especially Chancellor Belcher. Among these sports we love is Track and Field, which is currently in its indoor season. The sport is, as a whole, so mechanically different from any other.

   Hailey Cook, an Entrepreneurship major in her junior year here at Western Carolina, competes in throwing events, shot-put, weight throw, discuss, and hammer. She informed me of how the season was playing out.

   “Currently we are neck and neck with two other teams, Samford, and East Tennessee State University. We are fighting for first place in the Southern Conference. This season we have a very young team, and learning to compete with so much young talent has been a challenge, we should hopefully be strong within the Southern Conference (SOCON) ratings. Hopefully, we will have a few people going to junior regionals, in Oregon, or regionals, in Florida,” said Cook.

   Among this new talent that the track and field team has been able to acquire and scout out is Kennedy Williams, a freshman pole vaulter on the team.

   When asked of her experience at WCU so far with the team she responded, “I love competing with WCU, we are a closely knit team. We are known for preforming the way we do for each other, not ourselves. At meets, we are always cheering everyone on, pushing them to be the best they can. My hopes for the remainder of the season is to win both indoor and outdoor conference, but watch my teammates grow and do all they can to perfect what events they’re involved in. We are all in this together, and watching my team thrive, not only makes me want to do better for myself, but for all of them.”

   During this indoor season, the Cats have been to Tennessee, Virginia, and Alabama.  

   When asked how the team had improved in the last year, in any way, sophomore Mateius Brown, a Criminal Justice major and Communication minor with a focus in public speaking, participating in heavy implements, and throwing events, said “This season has been a strong season for me individually in the throwing events compared to the previous year. The team is at its all-time highest level of performance than ever before. The team has stayed closer in distance, compared to last year. The team has grown stronger competing in small meets that allowed for full effort performances. The team is stronger than ever, I believe because of the amount of effort put into smaller meets this year.”

   There are many Catamounts on the team that hope to come out on top in the SOCON Conference Championships taking place in Birmingham, Alabama on February 27th. Among them, is freshman Business Management major, Tyrie Adams.  

   “We have had a lot of excellent individual performances by many people! We have freshman breaking school records, seniors breaking school records, and many people placing first in their events! All of these which help us win as a team!” said Adams. “This season helped me as a person more than anything, because I can now see how hard I have to continue to work to be able to maintain grades, football, and good performance in track. Its helped me become a better person overall!”

Visiting instructor Underwood involved in music program

Jan 30, 2016  |  Written by Ronald Davia  |  

Dr. Margaret “Margi” Underwood may be new here on Western Carolina University’s campus, but by no means is she new to music.

Underwood is the Visiting Director of Bands and an Assistant Professor of Music here at Western Carolina. Her responsibilities with this title consist of guiding all aspects of concert band programs, conducting the Wind Ensemble and teaching a multitude of music courses at the university.  

Underwood was born at Andrews Air Force Base and grew up in New York. She started along her path as a musician in the fourth grade and continued her passion through all of her grade schooling, graduating from Corning East High School in Corning, New York. She would then go on to study at the State University of New York at Fredonia, focusing primarily on piano and horn to complete her bachelor’s of Music Education in 1994.

After her time in New York, she attended The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio to achieve her Master of Music in conducting in 1999, studying under Dr. Russel Mikkelson. Continuing on the path of conducting, she earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting from the University of Minnesota, where she studied under Craig Kirchhoff.

Prior to her appointment here at Western Carolina, Underwood has served as a director for other collegiate band programs. For some time, she worked as the Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Music at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. Further back, she was the Assistant Director of Bands at Mansfield University in Pennsylvania, and she taught middle and high school band for several years in New York.

When asked about how she heard of the position, she spoke of the importance of connections.

“It was such a good surprise. I actually got in touch with David [Starnes] through a mutual friend out of the University of Miami, Gary Green. Gary gave David my information. I was contacted about the position in April of 2015,” Underwood said.

Although Underwood is technically a visiting director, she does not let a simple word in a title put any sort of limit on making plans for the future of the music program.

When asked about her title as a visiting professor, she responded, “As a visiting professor, it means I have applied for the job. I’m making plans here. I’m not treating this as simply visiting.”

“It’s been so refreshing to come here, not just for the place, or the geography of it. The geography is like home, except without the -30 degree cold that’s in New York State. The sub zero temperatures, they can keep that. I can honestly say, I’ve never worked for a place where I just loved the administration, and on top of that, the students are so engaged. This has been one of the best years of my entire professional life, and I can’t say enough of how much I love this place,” said Underwood about things she loves about the Cullowhee Valley.

Even as a visiting professor, Underwood is deeply involved in the music program.

“It’s an entire band program. The only separations I have from other faculty are the actual names and positions. David and I conduct, but Matt Henley and Jon Henson are great creative consultants. They’re so great about formulating ideas. Sometimes it feels like hanging out it’s so natural, but we’re all working for great things,” she said.