More than Death and Taxes

The old adage is wrong - death and taxes are not the only certainties. There's also lack of parking spaces at UNC Asheville, and complaints about the university's snow policy. Or, that is the impression gleaned from looking through forty years of student newspapers for the ruby anniversary of Special Collections.

Firstly, since this blog looks at things that happened in January, we'll mention snow. On January 23, 1986, the Blue Banner reported that students received an extension to their holiday break when, on the first day of the semester, classes were delayed due to snow and icy roads. Delayed start equals longer lie in bed and happy students, right? Not according to the Blue Banner editorial, which considered the roads "quite passable", complained about the "inconsistent snow policy", and that whilst some students would enjoy the additional relaxation, "the more pragmatic, money-mind students [would] see it as a loss of their investment in the institution".


Err, maybe.



The Banner, Jan. 29, 1998

However, there were seemingly no complaints in January 1998, or they went unreported, when the Banner (during a period of its life when it wasn't Blue) had a front page story about a surprise snow storm that caused cancelled classes, and damaged cars.





From damaged cars to parking cars.

Blue Banner, Jan. 26, 1995

As noted previously, lack of parking spaces is a perennial cause for compliant, and additional spaces seemingly don't always lead to peace and harmony. In January 1995, the Blue Banner had a front page lead about the opening of the new parking deck, and although some seemed happy there were additional spaces, there were complaints about still having to park "way down below Owen [Hall]", whilst others just saw student "laziness".


There's no pleasing some folks.




Blue Banner, Jan. 25, 2007

To wrap up this month's retrospective blog, a mention of blogs, and a reminder of how quickly things change.

Way back in the days of yore (i.e. January 25, 2007), the Blue Banner reported that, "Gone are the days when people protested in city streets with fists and picket signs, They've packed up and headed into the blogosphere."

After explaining what a blog was, the Blue Banner quoted several student bloggers, who advised that blogs be "read as a secondary source of news", and that by bloggers "eliminating false reporting", the blogosphere was more credible than the New York Times.

So, blogs or the Times? There may be some bias here, but if you want a credible information source, see a librarian. Or an archivist.