WCC Profiles:
Michael Woodruff
The Student Government Associ
ation is an integral part of Wilkes
Community College campus life. The
SGA provides WCC students commun
ication with the WCC Board of
Trustees, an active social environment,
and voice in the community. At the
head of the Student Government
Association is Executive Council
President Michael Woodruff.
As EC President, Michael serves
several functions. He represents Wikes
Community College students at the
WCC Board of Trustees meetings, of
which he is a member. In this capacity,
Michael serves to make the WCC
Trustees aware of student opinions
concerning things like the proposed
building of the new student activities
center and other events around the
campus. Michael's student and
community involvement is busy as well.
Michael belongs to the Wilkes
Playmakers, and the WCC Basketball
team, and is a Special Olympics
volunteer. He also coaches the Little
Tarheel League Baseball team, and
coaches the girls' basketball team at the
YMCA. Michael is a member of Cricket
Baptist Church.
A personal goal Mr. Woodruff has set
for himself as EC President is to
increase student involvement at WCC
events. He feels that a good
promotional effort by the Student
Government Association is essential for
the nurturing of the extracurricular life
at WCC.
SGA has apparently decided to serve
as an example for WCC students as to
how WCC social life should work. Says
Woodruff, "SGA is doing more things
as a group. It has become involved in
fun things that make people feel like
they are important" Each member of
SGA is encouraged to feel self-confident
and self-assured, and this makes group
activities more enjoyable. If the Student
Government Association could have
this effect on other students at WCC,
extracurricular life might become more
exciting.
Michael Woodruff hopes to leave
WCC students not with a lasting
impression of his own personal
importance but with a new outlook on
school life. When asked which mes
sage he would give to WCC students,
he responded, "Get involved - it makes
your college life fuller and you meet
people you ordinarily may not have."
Thanks!
Alpha Kappa Omega would like to
express its appreciation for Mr. Pete
Petrie for making our pamphlet on
endangered species possible. On
Saturday, October 14, Alpha Kappa
Omega sponsored a Phi Theta Kappa
meetng at the North Carolina
Zoological Park in Asheboro for various
chapters around the state. Our chapter
gave Phi Theta Kappa members and
other zoo visitors pamphlets concerning
the rights of endangered species. These
pamphlets contributed to one of Alpha
Kappa Omega's comprehei«ive projects.
Without Mr. Petrie's assisunce, we
could never have published the
pamphlets on time or with such
fantastic graphics. Thank you, Mr.
Petrie.
Alpha Kappa Omega would also like
to extends thanks to Penni Fletcher and
Sherry Dancy in the Media Publishing
Department. They have been
instrumental in making several Phi
Theta Kappa publications successful,
and Alpha Kappa Omega would be lost
without them.
Beauty or Beast?
With the changing of summer's green
leaves to the orange leaves of fall comes
the season of looking back and
expressing our gratitude for the
hopefully, pleasant year behind us.
There are many things to be grateful for
here at Wilkes Community College, and
most of the life on the campus bears
witness to the wonderful atmosphere
the students, faculty, and staff have
created here. An aura of friendliness
envelops our school, and the physical
beauty of the campus lifts even the
most troubled spirits.
There is one recognizable cloud of
unpleasantness evident, however, that
mars the beauty of our campus and
degrades the perceptions of the quality
of our students. The charm of the
quaint set of steps that trail up the hill
from Hayes Hall to the Technical Arts
building has been blighted by litter. The
colorful fall trees and the verdant
greenery of the evergreen bushes that
line the path should provide
eyecatching patches of color to draw
one's view to the lushness of nature, but
more and more frequently, the
fireengine red of Coke cans has been
stealing their glory. The places most
frequented by students have become
depositories for paper cups, empty
cigarette packs, and grafiti. If any
flowers were to be planted around
Hayes Hall, they would have to fight to
be noticed. As it is, the weeds are barely
holding their own.
It is time for the student body of
Wilkes Community College to realize
that the responsibility of keeping the
campus in shape lies not only with the
grounds keepers, but also with the
presumably mature studeents who work
at WCC. WCC students should stop
littering the campus, not to please the
deans of the school, the faculty, the
staff, or even the editors of this
newspaper, but out of respect for
themselves. It is a shame that mature
adults lack the selfrespect to clean up
after themselves. All students should
show some Cougar pride and bring our
campus back to its natural beauty.
Is the
Declaration Dead?
On July 4, 1776, a document written
by a man named Thomas Jefferson of
Virginia was passed by the Continental
Congress. This document, entitled the
Declaration of Independence, became a
symbol of freedom to a people later to
be known as citizens of the United
States of America. What does this
document, written over two hundred
years ago, mean to Americans today?
How many Americans can actually say
what the Declaration states or even tell
what is meant by the words that make
up the document’ More importantly at
this time to Phi Theta Kappa members,
how does the Declaration relate to the
International Honors Topic: "Rights,
Privileges, and Responsibilities: An
Indelicate Balance?"
What rights, privileges, and
responsibilities does the United States
government have concerning the
American people? At the time of the
writing of the Declaration of
Independence, this same question was
being asked about the British
government by the prominent political
thinkers of the American colonies.
These colonists, for the most part saw
themselves as British citizens, and
expected the same rights, privileges, and
responsibilities as the British citizens
still on native soil. According to
Thomas Jefferson, the government of
Great Britain, namely Parliament, had
broken its contract with the American
colonists, making the British
government forfeit rights to the colonies
and to the colonists themselves. By
analyzing the relationship of the
government to the people and the
rights, privileges, and responsibilities of
both, Jefferson and other colonists
found the basis for the future country of
the United States of America.
On the other side of the coin, what
rights, privileges, and responsibilities do
the American people have concerning
the United States government' In the
complex interactions between
Americans and their government, each
individual has certain well-defined but
sometimes changing rights as a person,
whether law-abiding or not; privileges
as a law-abiding citizen; and
repsonsibilities as an American.
Jefferson realized this as he wrote the
Declaration of Independence, and he
knew the building of an American
government would tK)t be rest solely on
the shoulders of the few Founding
Fathers. America at the time of the
Declaration did not have perfect justice
and equality; and neither does the
United States now. The Declaration did
leave a challenge tot he founding fathers
and to all future Americans to bring
this perfection of justice and equality to
pass. The fulfilling of our rights,
privileges, and responsibilties to the
United States might bring this closer to
reality.
The topic of the Declaration of
Independence is an interesting one, and
many arguments may be made as to its
validity to modern American people.
This topic was addressed on Thursday,
November 9, by Mr. William Moffett
Mr. Moffett is an instructor of United
States history at Wilkes Community
College.
When Someone
You Care About
Is Depressed
What causes depression?
Depression is believed to have a
biological basis, caused by low levels of
chemical mesenger in the brain,
especially serotonin and norepine
phrine. These natural substances, called
neurotransmitters, carry electrical
signals from one nerve cell in the brain
to another across spaces (called
synapses). Although an imbalance in
levels of these neurotransmitters may be
ultimately responsible for a person's
depressed mood, life events such as the
death of a loved one, change in marital
status, financial problems or job loss
also can trigger, maintain or be a
consequence of depressive feelings.
What are the treatments for
depression?
Antidepressant medications target the
imbalance in specific neurotransmitters
in the brain that is thought to be the
biological basis of depression. For
example, some of these medications
increase the amount of serotonin at the
synapse and help restore serotonin
functioning to normal. Other treatment
methods include psychotherapy
(sometimes called "talk therapy"), which
targets resolution of coexisting life
problems, such as job loss or death of a
loved one. Many clinically depressed
patients experience improved results
when drug therapy is combined with
psychotherapy.
How long doc* depressive illness
usually last?
Without treament, depression may
last two to four years or longer.
Depression can come back after
symptons have disappeared fro months,
or even years. In fact, experts now
believe that for many individuals
fContinued on Page 4)
Attention Poets
Owings Mills, Maryland (USA) - The National Library of Poetry has annourKed
that $24,000 in prizes will be awarded this year to over 250 poets in the North
America Open Poetry Contest The deadline for the contest is December 31, 1995.
The contest is open to everyone and entry is FREE
Any poet, whether previously published or not, can be a winner. Every poem
entered also has a chance to be published in a deluxe, hardbound anthology.
To enter, send ONE original poem, any subject and any style, to The National
Library of Poetyr, 11419 Cronridge Dr., P.O. Box 704-1942, Owings Mills, MD
21117. The poem should be no more than 20 lines, and the poet's name and
address should appear on the top of the page. Entries must be postmarked by
December 31, 1995. A new contest opens January 1, 1996.
The National Library of Poetry, founded in 1982, is the largest poetry
organization in the world.