)Meredith Herald
Volume XVIII, Issue 29^^
Educating Women to Excel
August 29, 2001
□ Get comput
er help without
leaving your
.m?.
dorm
On the
inside:
□ The Bee
hive Cafe isv
expanding in
space and
choice
Page 2
□ Jesse Helms
is out. Is Eliza
beth Dole in?
Page 8
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U.S. Under Secretary of Educa
tion visits campus, talks reform
Christina Holder
Editor in Chief
U.S. Under Secretary of
Education Eugene Hickok told
an audience of students and
educators that leaching doesn't
happen at the U.S. Department
of Education but begins in the
classroom at a meeting yester
day sponsored by the North
Carolina Teaching Fellows
Program.
Hickok, who was confirmed
as the Education Under Secre
tary in June, was touring
Raleigh yesterday to promote
President Bush’s education
reform program, No Child Left
Behind. The program focuses
on implementing higher
accountability standards for
schools and calls for local con
trol of the system.
“The farther you get away
from the classroom, the further
you get way from the needs of
the classroom,” said Hickok
commenting on the need for a
community effort in reforming
the education system.
“This is not a national stan
dard system,” said Hickok.
“States develop their own
plan.”
Hickok addressed issues
concerning the Teaching Fel
lows who had traveled irom
NC State, UNC-Ch, NCCU
and Peace College to join
Hickok called the latter
“wooden teaching,” telling the
audience that while testing is a
necessity, what is lacking is
“teaching to standards.”
Eugene Hickok, U.S. Under Secretary of Education talks
about the Bush Administration's education reform plan.
Meredith students in the dia
logue.
Many were concerned with
issues on teacher’s salaries,
low-performance schools and
the danger of an education sys
tem that only teaches students
to pass an end-of-grade test.
“The standard should drive
the test,” he said.
Hickok also explained the
four principles of the Bush
education plan which include
raising standards of account
ability, providing flexibility in
the system, giving more
options for students to attend
charter schools and conducting
more in-depth research on the
education system.
‘The Department of Educa
tion needs to do a better job
researching what works and
what doesn't,” he said.
Yvelte Heider, a Meredith
student who will be certified to
teach secondary English in
December, said that as a
prospective teacher, “what
seems daunting is the whole
testing and aqcountability issue
because it means teachers are
being held accountable for the
success of students who come
from diverse backgrounds over
which we do not have control.”
Heider thinks that the commu
nity needs “to evaluate our
standards and who sets them.”
Altonia Moore, a sophomore
and Teaching Fellow majoring
in elementary education at
North Carolina Central Univer
sity, wants to take part in
reforming the education sys-
See
EDUCATION
page two
Meredith welcomes Class of 2005
JONl Smfth
Managing Editor
The class of 2005 began a
new chapter in their lives on
Saturday, Aug. 18. This year's
freshmen class came to Mered
ith with anxieties, expecta
tions, energy and determina
tion.
Freshmen Orientation can be
a strenuous and frustrating
time, but the Orientation Crew,
a group of student leaders who
had been preparing for fresh
men arrival a week in advance,
tried to make it into a helpful
period of transition from high
school to college. This transi
tion was made a little more fun
with the upbeat theme, “Surfm'
MC: Catch the Wave.”
To help make move in day
less stressful, the Orientation
Crew played music in the
courtyard to keep the spirits up
of the students and families
lugging boxes and furniture
into the dorms throughout the
hot day. Also, the Alumnae
Association served refresh
ments outside of Vann Resi
dence Hall. Parents were
happy to see the addition of a
tool booth in the courtyard,
convenient for hanging all pic
tures and assembling all of the
bookcases that adorn dorm
rooms on campus.
Many Meredith students will
remember the agonizing Regis
tration Day of freshmen year
spent standing in lines for sig
natures to get their classes of
choice and then rushing to the
Registrar’s Office before the
class closed. This year, howev
er. the walk to the Registrar’s
Office was eliminated with the
help of computers in Weather-
spoon Gymnasium where
freshmeri could officially regis
ter.
Another first for Freshmen
Orientation was the distribu
tion of IBM wireless laptops.
Freshmen attended an hour-
long session given by Technol
ogy Services on how to hook
up printers, install software and
how to maintain the condition
of their laptop.
The Class of 2005 also
reflected on their summer read
ing book. In the Time of the
Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez.
“I enjoyed the book because
I felt } could actually relate to
its meaning," said freshman
Julie North. “1 think it was a
good experience and kept me
in the mode of doing school
work throughout the summer
so I didn’t get lazy.”
Orientation can be a trying
time for newcomers to the
Meredith community, but this
year’s freshmen class had few
complaints about the experi
ence.
“We really kept busy
throughout Orientation, but it
See
FRESHMEN
page two