since 1960 “of, by, and for the Wesleyan community.”
December 19, 2008
NORTH CAROLINA WESLEYAN COLLEGE, ROCKY MOUNT, NORTH CAROLINA 27804
Wesleyan Community Wants Experienced, Goal-Oriented President
By James Randolph - •' ,
Decree News Editor
During the midway point of Dr.
Stanley P. Caine’s term as interim
president, Wesleyan has intensified the
search for a new leader.
As the committee continues to
push forward with finding potential
candidates, members of the Wes
leyan community weighed in on what
qualities they think the new president
should possess.
Chief among all the qualities
mentioned was experience. When
asked what would be a turnoff if she
were reviewing applications, freshman
Courtney Baggett said “(lack of)
experience would be a big turnoff; we
don’t want a newbie.”
Other students and stalf agreed with
Baggett’s claim that experience should
be at the top of the priority list when
choosing the new president. “We need
someone with a good track record as
Six Chosen
For ODK
By Decree Staff
Six students have been inducted
into the local chapter of Omicron
Delta Kappa, a national honorary
leadership fraternity, it was announced
at recent Founders’ Day activities.
The new student members
include Tiffane Bustos, Meredith
Hester, Brandon Jones, Amanda
Landi, Juliana Richardson and Jacob
Strickland. Rachel Dix, NCWC store
manager, and Dr. Bill Yankosky,
associate professor of mathematics,
were selected as well.
A senior history major, Bustos has
been involved in a number of campus
activities, including Wesleyan Singers,
the Music Club, Club Dramatica,
and the Cinematography Club. She
has served as a peer academic leader
(PAL) and volunteered with the col
lege’s disabilities coordinator.
Associate Professor Jonathan Sarris
praised Bustos’ work in the classroom.
“Tiffane is a bright, creative student,”
Dr. Sarris said. “She goes out of her
way to tackle difficult assignments
and seems to relish the challenge of
dealing with complex issues. She
genuinely enjoys learning more than
any other student I’ve encountered
at Wesleyan. She wrestles tirelessly
over challenging issues or sources,
working them out in her mind and
with other students. And when she has
one of her frequent “aha!” moments in
class, the light bulb doesn’t just go off
over her head, it illuminates her entire
personality.”
Hester, a junior exercise science
major, is a member of the college’s
honors program. She has excelled
on the soccer field as a midfielder/
forward, scoring a team-high 12 goals
this past fall, and as a team captain.
“Meredith has been a captain since
her sophomore year here which is
an extremely high honor coming
from her teammates,” said her coach,
Beverly Biancur. “I take pride in our
program because of its "blue collar"
work ethic and I believe Meredith
exemplifies this quality. Each practice
is at game pace and Meredith leads
this by example. The respect that
she has earned from myself and her
teammates is because each day she
gives 100 percent, A very competitive
player, she was the reason the team as
a whole never gave up and ultimately
beat teams in many overtime matches.
She is not afraid to put the team on her
shoulders and guide them to success,
which sometimes is not necessarily
found on the scoreboard. I can ask
Meredith to fill a role on the field and
she will do it without question.”
Jones, a senior, has been a writing
center tutor and a history tutor and
he’s the current president of
See ODK pg 8
far as previous students and staff are
concerned,” said junior Keith Bertrand.
NCWC Reference and Instruction
Librarian James Parrigin offered a
number of insights from the position
of a former member on a search
committee at another institution.
Parrigin also noted that he would like
to “see evidence of real past successes.
When I was on (the search committee
at his previous school), I served with
a man who had entered the position of
president at a small institution much
like Wesleyan with an enrollment of
slightly over 8(X) students. When he
left, the enrollment was nearly 17,000
students. I would like to see a track
record that shows someone capable of
stepping in and stimulating the growth
of an institution.”
Interviews with more students were
met with similar responses. Junior
David Avsby and sophomore Crysta
Pearse both declared that experience is
a “necessity” for the position. Pearse
said “we need someone who is not a
newcomer, someone with evidence of
success.”
Aside from experience, the
Wesleyan community suggested
looking for everything from a sociable
extrovert to a fundraising genius. The
new president’s relationship with the
college community and his or her
improvement of Wesleyan’s reputation
were key concerns.
“The students should be able to
socialize and make a real connection
with him,” said Baggett.
Bertrand agreed that approachability
is vital. “This is a small college,” he
said. “We need someone who is willing
to walk around and meet students and
really sell himself.”
NCWC Student Account Represen
tative Allison Moss said “I’d like to see
a people person, one who takes time
to get to know faculty and staff and
students.”
Parrigin added that the Wesleyan
search committee should look at the
policies of the candidates and choose
the candidate whose vision for
Wesleyan most matches their own.
Parrigin said “(the new president)
should be dedicated to helping the
college reach financial stability. And
increasing the endowment of the school
and communicating honestly with the
faculty and staff are important.”
Parrigin noted that not all presidents
have been willing to share information
with the campus community in order
to keep up appearances to the outside
community. “Transparency is essential
to trust,” he said.
Junior Ivan Butler declared
“trustworthiness, relationships (with
students), and accountability should be
the new president’s top priorities.”
The consensus within the Wesleyan
community was that the new president
should be a visible, experienced pro
fessional whose goals include growth
in the endowment and improvement
of Wesleyan’s image within the
community.
Dr, Kim Martin, faculty chair and
an associate professor of psychology,
explained that the search committee
was appointed earlier in the summer
by the school’s board of trustees.
Dr. Martin is a member of the com
mittee along with Associate Professor
of Business Dr. Stan Smedley, Student
Government Association President
Jacob Strickland, Dunn Center Direc- -
tor Sheila Martin and NCWC Trustee
Board Members Nana Mah’moud,
Thomas Betts, Dr. Paul Leeland, Dr.
Will Pitman (committee chair) and Vel
Johnson (vice chair).
The search committee is assisted by
RPA Inc—a company that specializes
in aiding higher-learning institutions
with acquisition of resources and
personnel. “(RPA) has provided
assistance in helping (the committee)
to decide which are the most important
qualities that we’re looking for in a
president,” Dr. Martin wrote in an
email, “There are many character
istics that are important for the next
president to hold, but I think there’s
a consensus in the committee that
chief among them is commitment to
creating and implementing a coherent
vision for Wesleyan, and energetically
articulating that vision for the purpose
of community relations and develop
ment of resources for the institution,”
Dr, Martin explained that the search
committee was still really in the earliest
stages of beginning to narrow down
the field of potential candidates, “Right
now,” she said, “the search committee
is in the process of reviewing candi
date’s resumes and will go through
several stages to reduce the number to
those that are the closest match to what
we are looking for. After that, we will
begin interviewing candidates. I am
very optimistic about the potential of
many of the candidates,”
Current Interim President Stanley
Caine offered his insights in choosing
his successor, “The new president
should be someone who believes in
a small liberal arts college and has a
commitment to the community and
region,” he said, “We have a great
relationship with the community and
the next president needs to maintain
that relationship,”
Students Exult in Election of Obama
By Jade T. Johnson
Decree Staff Writer
With the election drama dying
down throughout the nation, the results
bring a wide range of emotions out
of Wesleyan students. For months the
nation was captivated by the possibil
ity that the first African-American
president would be elected. With that
November night came the hope that
for the first time in history everyone
in this country could truly be seen as
equal and capable of accomplishing
anything.
On election night, a crowd of elated
students jammed the road in front of
Collins Hall in celebration of the new
president-elect. The victory for Obama
seemed to resonate with all black
students; there were shouts of “we did
it” for days after the election.
“I feel that it was important to a lot of
African-Americans because he is the first
African-American to become President,”
said junior Earnest Richard. “He is a nice
change to what we have now.”
Dissatisfaction has been hanging
over the heads of many Americans
for the past eight years of the Bush
Presidency.
“If ever there was a doubt about
the importance of exercising the most
fundamental right of citizenship, it
became clear when Obama won,” said
junior Moses Kamga.
“I think that it’s great that I was able
to witness a great change and I hope
that the future holds
great outcomes,”
commented fresh
man Matthew Ellis.
Not all students
felt the same about
the results.
“I wasn’t really
surprised by the
outcome of the
election. Person
ally, I don’t like
Obama, but I’m
kind of excited to
see what he does
in office,” senior
Jimmy Vincent
said. “Hopefully he
comes through on
a lot of his political
promises,”
A few still feel
that the election of
Obama will cause
nothing but attacks
on the nation
because of Obama’s
Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has
been chosen as secretary of state by the
Obama camp, so voters who were once
divided in the primaries can now have
the best of both worlds.
ana
NCWC Political Scientist Reflects on Obama Win
By James Randolph
Decree News Editor
In a decidedly lopsided election,
Illinois Senator Barack Obama earned
365 electoral votes which was more than
double that of his opponent. Senator
John McCain with only 173,
Although many were amazed at the
result, experts including Wesleyan’s
own Dr, Cameron Matthews were not at
all surprised to see the Illinois Senator
elected the 44th president.
In an interview after the final
presidential debate. Dr, Matthews made
several predictions that turned out to be
Homecoming
accurate including the national outcome
and the outcome in many so-called
swings states.
In a recent follow-up to the first
interview, when asked if the election
matched his initial predictions. Dr, Mat
thews replied “It happened pretty much
as I thought it would. President-elect
Obama won easily,”
Dr, Matthews noted that after
Pennsylvania was called for Obama, it was
practically impossible for the Republican
candidate to win, “The election was over
shortly after 8 p,m, when Pennsylvania
went his way. After that, there was no
Queen& King
Latoya Pllgreen-Little and Quinderra Spellman were honored as NCWC
Homecoming Queen and King on a day that saw Spellman and the Bishops
football team dominate Greensboro College, For sports, see pages 4-5,
Decree staff photos.
realistic way for Senator McCain to get to
270 (electoral votes),” Dr, Matthews said.
When asked about the few swing
states he called incorrectly in the last
interview, states that included North
Carolina and Indiana, Dr, Matthews
replied, “I said I was likely to be as
wrong about North Carohna as I was
right. It w^ fifty-fifty either way, so I
chose Republican because of the state's
history.” Dr. Matthews said that the
fact that the state went Democratic was
not really surprising at all. “It will be
interesting to see if this is a long-term
trend or an Obama-caused outcome.”
In the long-time Republican state of
Indiana, Dr. Matthews admitted that
he was not expecting Indiana to turn
blue. “I was surprised about Indiana,”
he said, “It is a Republican state. The
fact it didn't go for McCain right away
(and eventually not at all) meant he was
going to have trouble with working-
class voters. He needed them to win, so
Indiana was an early sign of Obama's
(national) win.”
Dr. Matthews compared the current ‘
election to the election'in 1980 when
the “in-party” was replaced by the
“out-party” in a landslide election where
economics was the paramount focus of
voters.
With the current administration
moving out of the White House and the
new one attempting to stabihze itself in
preparation. Dr. Matthews also weighed
in on the challenges facing the new
president-elect.
Dr. Matthews identified several issues
he would like to see Obama tackle
in the early going. “Personally, I'd be
unhappy if he did not address the budget
deficit and the national debt, which is
around $10.6 trillion dollars,” he said.
“I'd also like to see him address the
trade deficit while embracing free trade.
Deficits, debts and trade imbalances are
all inflationary and there are few things
worse than inflation, especially for the
poor and working class.”
When asked what he looked forward
to most in the executive cabinet. Dr.
Matthews said “fresh blood and fresh
ideas.. .he did promise change, after all.”
Officially, inauguration day is Jan
20th, 2009, when one executive reign
will end and another will begin. When
asked if there were any final words
he’d like to share about the incoming
or outgoing presidents. Dr, Matthews
replied “Don't write President Bush off
yet. If, in 20 years, Iraq and Afghanistan
are functioning democracies friendly to
the US, history might vindicate him,”