University of North Carolina Asheville — Local services in Asheville

I was drawn to UNCA because of the natural beauty and enjoyed spending time in the contiguous woods. I graduated over twenty years ago and it is extremely unfortunate that a public school is considering developing the woods when the public does not want the development to happen. It is not fair for the few stakeholders at the top to presuppose that this misguided development will behoove the student body when considering their full life experience. The people who come to this area simply to spend time in these woods, including the writer herein, are deeply disappointed and the loss of their presence and benefit to the campus area will hurt the community. Both Warren Wilson and Montreat have thriving campus communities with a lot more preserved natural areas and it would be unthinkable for them to develop their natural areas as they know how beneficial they are. As a former UNCA soccer player I can attest that destroying the last remaining nature corridors in the area will not increase the competitiveness of the team and will only lower the health and wealth of the community and student body. Alumni and parents please consider sending your donations and adult children to a public system that serves the public and doesn’t embellish an appointed hierarchy of disregard. I respectfully and adamantly disagree with anyone who opines that Hurricane Helene-related damage can be fixed by destroying more natural areas that actually mitigate anthropomorphic climate changes to our environment. Nature does not exist simply to monetize. Moreover this decision disregards the swell of mental health issues facing society and the student body including the worst scenarios that have happened in the UNC system in recent years. Numerous studies link more time spent in natural settings with better overall wellbeing. Streamlining UNCA into another unsustainable developed area is not what the alumni want. People will now have one less convenient area to enjoy and the natural highlights of the campus will be forever lost. Good long-term planning and public sentiment should transcend the putative outcomes of this...

I was a student here until 2021. There is a lot of good community, but it's a small school. I struggled immensely. I'm very sad to hear about the cuts to liberal arts and concerned about the impact on the staff I knew there, as that is the UNCA reputation. Also, the 25% drop in enrollment. For me at least, the shift from virtual back to in-person was very aggressive and I could not handle it.

There are some big problems in the very small science departments. Good instructor:student ratio is nice to have but did not help me in the long run. When I did finally figure out I needed accommodations, they were not able to work with me and only suggested I should find courses at different times, and overall were not helpful. School-related issues were about 1/3 of all the reasons I had to leave after 3 years and did not complete my degree.

If I could have chosen differently I would have gone to AB-Tech for an A.S. first rather than trying to commit to a program at a school with

Sorry, I don't care how beautiful the campus is like many of the others here. I find that this school lacks in so many ways that I have officially reached the point where I will refer to A-B Tech as my alma mater. My chief grievances are in how this school treats its non-residential students. They never enforce parking, allowing residential students to park in our lot at all times, every day. I have been late to class because of this, wasted my time and gas because of this, and my car has been nicked in the overfilled parking lot, yes, I believe, because of this. I pay $220 every year for parking that I am not guaranteed and that is insane. Parking was free at A-B Tech and they still enforced the hell out of parking, so what's UNCA's problem? There are no cameras in the parking lots either, which would have been great to have when my car was hit and the person left without leaving a note. Bottom line, if you are a nonresidential student, a parent, and/or a non-traditional student, you are second class at this school. I have loved my professors, and do find that the education has been excellent overall, but I think that should be expected. If it's not expected, I don't count on UNCA to handle it, whatever the...