North Carolina Weslevan College Rocky Mount, North Carolina 27804
OPINION
May 5_
And The President’s Job Is...
By Jessica 0. Jones
Decree Opinion Editor
After the Pizza with the President Campaign
that began March 15th-Aprii 5th. I was very-
disgusted with the president of the college. Dr
Ian David Campbell Newbould. To me it .seemed
like the Pizza with the President Campaign should
have been called Pizza with Administration and
•Staff, due to the fact that everyone knew what was
occurring on campus except the President himself
I attended Pizza with the President, March
22nd. the day set aside for Collins and Nash Halls.
That night, every question someone asked to the
"Pres" was quickly redirected to someone else.
If he was asked a question about finances. Dr.
Newbould would redirect the question (after giving
an indirect answer) to Mrs. Belinda Faulkner,
Vice-President of i-inance and Administration,
w'ho would provide a direct answer If a student
asked tor the e.xact amount of security oflicers on
a particular day, the question would be redirected
(Again, jet’s not forget the indirect answer) to Mr
Peter Phaiah. Dean of Students.
To be honest, at first 1 thought it was
ine. being •‘picky-tied" with the “Pres” for his
g(Mxi-gestured-but-late-in-the-year attempt to reach
the students. However, after talking with other
students, I found that they felt the same way that
1 did. It is true that a President should delegate to
stall in particular departments, but one would think
that the President would hold enough knowledge
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to directly answer questions directed to him or her
That’s when it hit me: What is the President’s
job? 1 decided to randomly ask students what
they believe the President’s job involved. One
freshmair, Francesca .Anderson, replied, ‘‘He has
a job?” .At first I laughed at her sarcasin, only to
find that she was not being sarcastic. “Like really,”
Anderson continued, “What does he do? I didn’t
know who he was until Pizza with the President. I
thought he was just another profe.s.sor here.”
Again, I was hit with disgust, a lot on
Anderson’s part and a lot on President Newbould’s
part. Imagine: If the Administration did not
hold the Pizza with the President Campaign,
students like Anderson would not have know'n the
president of the college.
I finally found a legitimate answer, which
came from senior Jamie Lewis. “[I think] the
President's job is to make sure all affairs are in
order so that the college is running smoothly.”
After such a strong analysis of the President’s
job, I could not help but wonder whether Lewis
felt that President Newbould was completing his
requirements. “I don’t think he is,” stated Lewis.
“The school does not nm smoothly. Budgets are
constantly shut down, students are consistently
leaving, and faculty and staff members are either
fired or they quit.”
Sophomore Toby Cochran had this to say. “.All
I .see him do is go to meetings. Rarely do I see him
talk to any students.” Freshmen Bryan Butler added,
“AllI see him do is stick his head out of his office
and tell students to take their hats off.”
At the Pizza w'ith the President meeting. Dean
Jamts Traer did explaiti that the jcib of the President
is to go to different organizations or individuals to
get a donation from them for the gaxl of the .school.
By the way, the new trees in front of Edgecombe
and the two behind Nash are just an example of
where the donated money is being used. I love
the way that the school ties care of the campus
landscaping in order to attract potential students.
Okay-okay, I lied! I don't know w'ho pays for the
landscaping, but wouldn’t it be amusing to see that
that is w'here the money is going?
I decided that since 1 wa.s discussing the
President's job descriptfon, why not ask the
President him.self about his responsibilities. While
sitfing in his oval office (it’s not really oval). Dr
Newbould began his job description as, “It’,s easier
said than done.” I guess you can say that is f^r
considering he “oversees internal affairs of the
college and the vice-presidents who repon to him,
in academic affairs, external activities, alumni,
fundraising,” among many other areas.
As for the students who complain that they
never see the President--this includes my.self—Dr
Newbould responded by saying, “Students that
complain that they don’t see me aren’t getting around
[campus] theiTi.selves.” However in the same breath
Dr. Newb()uld admitted that he does not go to the
Hartness Center and that he “does not 20 [to the
l-.ibiary) verj' often. ’ So who’s avoiding who?
So here is how I see the equation: if the
students and the president do not make an attempt
to communicate with each other, you get confusino
tacts about each other: such as, the president's iob°
description.
I
Stutjents watch as local rescue workers enact a traffic fatality resulting from drunk
driving. The simulated event was held as part of Alcohol Awareness Week proqram';
organized by Alpha Phi Sigma on campus. One dressed as "death" (upper left) to unripr
score the gravity of drunk driving.
Columnist Plunges into Debate
n _ _ ..... . . 1 U do. If the wages tor Americans on m
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Response to: ‘Is North Carolina
Wesleyan a Homophobic Campus?’
In this day and age we are all taught to be considerate ’
accepting, tolerant, and politically conect. We are told early on
that one needs to understand and accept others for who thev
tnily aR', no malter what they may be. Somehow, though 1
have always disagreed with this widely populai- sentiment
I do not believe Wesleyan should te acceptina. much
less '■promoting” a homose.xual lifestyle. Now. betbre
you tear up this article in a fit of rage brought on by my
hardheaded 'close-mindedness,” hear me out. At least
listen 10 my opinion as well is theirs...
When 1 applied here, 1 was told this was a Chiistian
college; Methixlist, yes, but still no less affiliated with the
Church. Now I know I have not spoken personaliy with
the Almighty, but from reading his Wwd, I do tend to get
the impression that homosexuality is out of the realm of
acceptable adions. In fact, the one true living God, that
us -‘Bible-toting fools” (as we were so called in the last
publication) worship does have an opinion on the matter:
*“Do not lie with a mm m one lies with a wonmn ■
that is detestable.’'—Leviticus 18:22.
*“{faiKinlieswithunumasonetieswilhawommL
both of them luive done what is detestable. They mmt he put to
death; their bkxxl will iye on their own heads.”—-Leviticus 20:13
Ixt’s put religion and ttie Scriptures aside for a moment,
ake all biases out of the question and vou still come to the
conclusion that homosexuality is wrong and unnatural. A
ram and a ram will not produce any offspring. Same as a
mare and a mare cannot conceive a foal. Biologically it is
impo,ssible; logically down right disturbing.
So there you have the flip side of the coin ihe
opposite opinion on the subject of honiosexualitv, straight
from .some “Bible-toting fool's" mouth.
Jessica Smith (Smith is a freshman at NCWC)
Decree Editor-at-Large
I thought I would take the time, before
summer break begins, to jump feet first into the
wonderful debate over the illegal immigration
situation. Oh yeah, this one should generate the
hate mail.
First of all, I want to define terms and Fll
make it real simple. If you entered the United
States in any manner other than through an of
ficial entry point, with the proper legal paperwork
fa visa,^ a passport, etc. j YOU ARE .A.N ILLEGAL
ALIEN, and that makes you a criminal. Sorry,
that's just the way it is.
Now, I don’t see why thi.s simple concept
is so hard for people to grasp. These people are
not undocumented workers or unauthorized
immigrants; they are illegal aliens. If that fact
is too unpleasant for some folks to accept, that’s
too^bad. We don’t call methamphetaraine dealers
unlicensed pharmacists; 01^ child molesters ^
non-certified sex education instructors. No, we
call most criminals just what they are. Therefore,
when it comes to people crossing into our coun
try whether it s via the southern or northern
borders, or floating in a bathtub from Cuba—if
you don't come in under the law, you are illegal.
I don t know what disturbed me more
recently, these criminals marching in the streets
of America waving Me.xican flags (They did
switch to American flags when they learned that it
wasn’t going over well with most of the country ),
01 the audacity of some of them to say that their
rights were being violated. Hey, I got news for
you, you have no rights here. Sorry about that,
but we are having a tough enough time holding
on to ours right now and you don’t get any
Another thing that really bothered me about
the protests was that there was no law enforce
ment agency present to check green cards. Some
group—whether the Border Patrol, the National
Guard, or the Marshall Service—should have
been at the end of the parade route, looking at
cards and then gathering and busing the illegals
out of the country. True, it may have taken a little
time, but the highways run to both Mexican and
Canadian borders and we have a lot of aiiports
m the middle for those needing to go to Europe
Asia, and so foith. - ’
Now before someone throws the bigot card
at me, let nte plainly say that my problem is not a
problem with Mexicans. I don’t want any illegals
ere. It just so happens that there are more illesal
Mexican nationals than others, so any attack on
illegal aliens normally gets spun by the low-brow
media typt;s out there, as an attack on Me.xicans.
■And I don t want to hear any of the crap about
them being here because Americans won’t do
the work they do. Sure. Americans will do the
vvork; you just have to pay them to do it. But whv
should they do it, when employers have what
boils down to indentured ser\'ants doing it for
next to nothing? The illegals should be angrv at
these cheap bastards who only want to pay $2
an hour, but they can’t repott them because the
workers don’t want to Iw deported, “But ” you
say, J the farmers pay top dollar for employees,
then food will be too expensive for us to buy ”
Oh, right, I guess keeping illegals in poverty,
and Americans in the unemployment line, so that
we don’t have to spend too much for cabbage
and corn, makes it all just fine. Sorry, but if^vou
believe that, you're an idiot.
I say this: if the cost of making sure that
the people m this country are here legally is that
have to spend more for groceries, that’s what
I’ll do. If the wages for Americans go up because
they are doing the tough jobs and being paid
fairly for it, wages will increase all the way up
the ladder. It will lessen unemployment, help the
economy over all. and level the field a bit. That’s
not to mention the savings in Welfare and Medic
aid and countless other social service dollars that
are being paid out to illegal aliens from our tax
dollars. I am sure that this simple way to look at it
will be ripped apart by the economists, but it just
doesn’t seem all that complicated.
Finally it gets down to some simple things 1
do not want when it comes to this issue.
1 do not want to live in a bilingual nation,
and everywhere you go, most everything is
written in English and Spanish. Look, if 1 wanted
to speak another language other th^n. my native
tongue, I would do so. Don't force.it-on me. If
you go to work in almost every developed naiion
m the world, you are expected to speak the lingo,
eveiywhere but America, that is.
I don t want people, who don’t legally
belong here, to act like I owe them something
other than direction.? to the border. Sorry to pick
on Mexico but didn’t we buy the border states
from you.' You are not USA Americans, we owe
you nothing. If you think you got a bad deal, just
talk to the Cherokee or the Sioux; there are some
folks who got screwed on land deals.
But most of all I don’t w'ant the bleeding
hearts in Washington to provide an anmesty for
those illegals who are here now. However, if lhat
is what happens, and they do get to break this law
and get away with it, then all we natural-born citi
zens get to pick a law to break as well. Isn’t that
fair? As long as the law' we select to break will
not physically harm someone else, the sky’s the
limit. So think about it, what would you choose?
As for me, I will choose the one that is, I
feel, closest to the one the illegals are getting to
break. I figure it like this: they want to come here,
it is said, to better their lives and support their
families. That is what makes them break the law:
it s not they don t have any respect for our sov
ereignty and laws. So, I want to be allowed to.
prior to receiving my amnesty, grow a great big
field of marijuana and sell it, free from prosecu
tion, to consumers who w'ant my product. I want
to do this So that I can earn the kind of money 1
W'ant, and provide a higher status of life for my
family. Breaking a little law like that is no worse
than illegally entering a foreign country, and I
would be working and taking care of my family,
and paying taxes. So what’s the difference?
Of course the one that I heard recently was
that all natural-born and naturalized citizens,
along with the legal immigrants here, stop paying
taxes, not just yearly income taxes, but food tax,
gas tax, etc. Just keep a calculator handy and
subtract the tax due from the bills to be paid. That
might make it fair.
I guess this sounds angry, and some parts
even sound a little silly. It is because I am tired
of having my rights whittled away, while people
who I would welcome in legally are taking
greasy little shortcuts around the law. I believe
m a strong border (without 10 ft. high walls) and
a strong immigration policy, where the law's we
have are enforced. And I guess that’s the main
problem here, w'hen it comes to many issues
(gun control to littering) in America today. We
have the law's on the books to deal with them; the
government just won’t enforce the law's. It’s not
politically healthy, especially in an election year.
• • and that’s what’s real