UNC Asheville, like all the UNC institutions, is facing reduced funding from a GOP-led General Assembly that is eager to send public money to private K-12 schools but not so willing to fund the higher education institutions critical to our state’s future.
To generate revenue, the UNCA chancellor wants to raze one of Asheville’s last urban woods and replace it with what she thinks will be a cash cow 5,000-seat soccer stadium to host a future semiprofessional soccer teams and dozens of large-scale events like outdoor concerts. In addition, there are new retail sites that we don’t really need and market-rate housing, which is needed, but could be built in lots of other areas of Asheville. While UNCA’s need for additional funding sources is real, building a stadium that’s not necessarily needed and may well not be the revenue generator that’s hoped for is not the best solution to this problem.
We should all be promoting UNCA as a great little university that punches above its weight in terms of varied, high-quality course offerings and smaller class sizes with more personalized instruction. It’s a beautiful, wooded campus. The university itself, along with all Asheville has to offer, should be reason enough for students to want to attend…