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1 he Uecree
VOL. 7, NO. 9 North Carolina Wesleyan College, Rocky Mount, N.C. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21,1992
Candidate
for Dean
pays visit
By JOANNA HOLLADAY
Dr. Margariet Briujn Lacy,
native of the Netherlands, visited
ihe campus of N.C. Wesleyan
College Feb. 10-11 as a^andi-
late for Academic Dean.
Lacy matriculated from the
University of Kansas with both
tier masters and doctorate in
French. She is now at North Da
cota State University where she
iS a professor of French and fills
he position of Associate Vice
i^esident of Instruction.
Lacy was very responsive in
m interview and had many ideas
;o express. The college first im
pressed her as being neat and co-
lesive. While her impressions
ater did not change, they became
nore clear.
“Only so much can be learned
XI two days, however words and
lubjects such as writing profi-
:iency, curriculum development,
ind retention came up repeat-
5dly,” she said, noting that if she
vere offered the position and ac-
:epted, she would'uncofef^tJie
letails and “do her homework.”
(Continued on Back Page)
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‘Gold War’
poses threat
to U.S. role
By CHRISTY SKOJEC
When Dr. Roger Levien lec
tured last week on “Winning the
Global Game: A Tale of Four
Countries” to a standing room-
only crowd at North Carolina
Wesleyan, the audience heard a
shocking view of the United
States’ declining role in the world
economy.
Levien, corporate vice presi
dent for the Strategy Office of
Xerox Corporation, reviewed a
90-year span of the economic se
curity of the U.S., the former So
viet Union, Japan, and Europe as
part of the Spring Symposium.
Levien described this security
in terms of two global competi
tion — the acknowledged and
addressed Cold War and the un
acknowledged and unaddressed
(Continued on Back Page)
Symposium poorly attended by faculty
Spring symposium
Dr. William Fischer, a professor of business at the University
of North Carolina at Chapd Hill, discusses "The World Economy
After Communism” during Wesleyan College’s 1992 Spring
Symposium, held Feb. 12-13 on the flieme, “Understanding Life
in the International Community.” The two-day event included
lectures, demonstrations, and discussions.
By JAMES OAKLEY
and JOHN FENTRESS
A survey conducted by The
Decree shows that faculty par-
tic^tion at last week’s Spring
Symposium was at best only 63
percent and as low as four percent
for any given event.
Of 12 events attended by re
porters, faculty participation
ranged firom 29 membCTS, or 63
percent, at each day’s keynote
speech, down to two members,
or four percent, at some evoits.
“The &culty need to make a
commitment,” said Academic
Dean Marshall Brooks. “If the
symposium is important enough,
(Continued on Back Page)
Debate spirited over King’s significance
By MARION BLACKPURN
A day of tribute to Dr. Martin
.uther King, Jr. ended with a sol-
mn candlelight poetry reading
md spirited faculty-student forum
in the significance of the slain
ivil rights leader and the national
loliday in his name.
The forum proved true to its
Uling as an open discussion of
hat is it about Dr. Martin
ther King that warrants a na-
mal holiday?” Panelists and
i^dience members joined in an
change marked by one
/bman’s memory of a civil rights
[Imonstration and another’s in-
ipht into what those demonstra-
ions accomplished.
UXJ
f:
/iOnr
The rousing consensus was
yes. King’s anti-segregation
campaigns and non-violent tech
niques merited a national obser
vance, but was tempered by dis
approval of the exploitation his
name offers retailers and the fad
ing pursuit of his ideals in the
United States.
Panelist Dr. Steve Ferebee
opened the forum with his own
memories of the segregated South.
To an early query aboutlECing,
Ferebee was rebuffed wifti the
description that King was a “black
commie troublemaker” who “riled
up otherwise h^py negroes and
then left town,” he said.
Ferebee, professor of English,
said his study of King uncovered
the larger goal behind the civil
rights protests.
“I realized that poverty was
the real issue. That was a real
revelation to me at the end, that
Dr. King was saying that’s the
problem all over the world,”
Ferebee said.
One panelist was Janice Silver,
former assistant to the college
president, Dr. Leslie H. Gamer.
King, she said, became and lived
the chiige he sought in others.
“H^ was a prophet who came
into this world to deliver a mes
sage of peace, of love,” she said.
“What gripped the world was not
so much the message but the di
vine, fearless power that sustained
the message.”
The holiday’s significance
notes not just the man but also the
dream of hope he offered, he said.
“This holiday will serve as a
type of glue to bond all societies
of our culture together,” she noted.
“Freedom is not a gift. It is ac
quired if it is pursued incessantly.”
Junior Shindana Bowen said
the King holiday is a yearly re
minder that the country must
continue to work against hate and
prejudice.
“He knew that revenge Was not
the answer. Instead, Dr. King
persuaded this world that the way
was to dissolve all hatred,” she
said. “Everyone knows that there
are still problems in the American
. system. Thepie is still hatred among
us. So now where do we go from
here?”
Senior Alan Felton enlarged
the discussion to criticize continue
class and race divisions based on
poverty, and linked the country’s
global injustices to King’s oppo
sition to the Vietnam War.
Equality has no meaning, he
said, where there is not equality
of access. Felton echoed Ferebee’s
remarks that poverty was King’s
true adversary.
“Dr. King transcended the title
‘civil rights leader’ and addressed
the more fimdamental economic
questions dividing the country,”
he said.
(Con&ued on Back Page)
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