Newspapers / Mars Hill University Student … / Sept. 18, 1987, edition 1 / Page 1
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Vol.61,No. 1 Mars Hill College, Mars Hill, North Carolina Friday, September 18,1987 President Launches Development [Campaign sa Starnes liter A five-year, $10 million develop- ent campaign designed to propel ars Hill College into the twenty-first intury was officially laimched Sept, at the President’s Convocation in oore Auditorium. In a shde presentation. President mtley outlined the 15 projects of the impaign, the first phase of which is e construction of a new chapel next the Harris Media Center. Groimd breaking for the new lapel will be October 31, during Dmecoming, with construction ited to begin April 1. During the esentation. Dr. ^ntley annoimced at the Broyhill Foimdation has nated $370,000 to cover material sts for the new building, and the iptist Men of North Carolina have lunteered their labor for the pro- :t. The second phase of the plan in volves the construction of a new cafeteria behind the library. After ex ploring the possibility of renovating the existing dining hall, it was deter mined that a new facility could be build for $1,750,000, significantly less than the cost of renovation. Dr. Bentley said construction was projected to begin next summer, dependent on the availability of fim- ding. So far, $350,000 has been com mitted to the project by approximate ly half of the college's trustees and a quarter of its advisors. The present cafeteria will be con verted into a new hbrary with double the capacity of the existing one. Dr. Bentley continued. Cost for the reno vation, including a 10,000 square foot addition, is estimated at $1,750,000. In addition. Dr. Bentley said that the college wishes to establish a perma nent endowment fund of $1,000,000 to enrich hbrary resources. Included in the present campaign is $500,000 toward this goal. The present hbrary will be con verted into a Continuing Education Center which wih provide adult education students with an on- campus experience as weh as house the Division of Education. The cost of the renovations is estimated at $800,000. Other projects of the plan are: — The renovation of Marshbanks Hah at a cost of $250,000. When refurbished, the building wih house the Division of Business Administra tion and Economics. — A $150,000 parking deck behind Huffman Dormitory. — The conversion of three large music studios in Moore into a perma nent art exhibit area at a cost of $15,000. The construction of the gaUery should start next summer, Bentley said, due to $25,000 received for the project from the Wisenblatt Foundation of Ashevihe. — A fioal of $200,000 for the pur chase of equipment for each acadmic department. — Repairs for health, physical education, recreation, and athletic (HPERA) facilities. Wren CoUege Union, and CornweU Hah at a total cost of $175,000. — A yearly goal of $200,000 from the Annual Fund, the alumni fund drive, needed to meet the cohege’s $175,000 capital debt. — An addition of $3,000,000 in scholarship money. Dr. Bentley an nounced during the convocation that his money was already “in place” through a contribution from an anonymous donor. — The completion of the computer center in Wall Science building at a cost of $40,000. In an interview prior to the con vocation, President Bentley said the five-year campaign marks a new focus for the college. From 1982 to 1986, the college was in a maintenance position due to a I Look at Book Crooks lura Smithwick aff Writer "We have a book theft problem,” ys librarian Kelly McBride. Behind r looms a shocking display repre- nting hundreds of books which are lissing in action” and presumed ad. The problem of book-stealing is costly one, and, McBride adds, omething we don’t expect to solve.” Numbers on tombstones in the li- ary display show book casualties im recent years: 1978- 1979: 578 books 1979- 1980: 574 books 1980- 1981: 578 books 1981- 1982: 360 books 1982- 1983: 572 books 1983- 1984: 375 books 1984- 1985: 310 books st year 412 books were missing, d 314 disappeared the year before. Missing books are only replaced at rate of about five percent. Tuition lesn’t directly suffer; book theft suits in students’ loss. Last year, er two thousand books were new to 3 library through purchases and 'ts. That number is the highest yet e year before having been thirteen fourteen hundred), but McBride hits out that taking missing books o account, last year’s net gain was der sixteen hundred. Sometimes oks are replaced two or three years a row, but they disappear each MlSSlNi; .AM) pui:sr>n:i) DKAl) v.x:y - iDSi; \ Memorial Library's “Dead” Book Display. time. There is no system of replace ment, so even classics may not be available. One sad example: Memorial Library has not had a copy of fane Eyre for two or three years. Ironically, rehgion books vanish more often and faster than any other kind of book. “You expect the religion majors to have more ethics,” remarks McBride. Books of all kinds disap pear, however, and students of all majors take them. Mars Hill is the only North Caroli na Baptist college without an elec tronic hbrary security system, but plans are made to have one here be fore the end of this school year. Van dalism may increase when the new system is installed, since it wih be somewhat harder to steal entire books, but library officials hope the system will significantly lower book theft. Vandalism is currently a particular problem with magazines and jour nals, which are the items most dif ficult to replace. Articles are ripped out instead of xeroxed, and some times whole magazines are stolen. McBride says of vandalism, “It’s beyond logic,” and “it shows an in trinsic lack of respect for fellow students.” A few missing magazines wih show up again, and so will some “presumed dead” books, but most of the missing works are gone for good. Some are spotted in trashcans, and some are found in dorm rooms at semester’s end and returned by housekeepers. Some are not missing at all — just covered by other books on the shelf. Then there are those that fall from the library windows for later secret retrieval. Those books presmned dead are artfully listed in the colorful display, which is certainly worth a trip to the hbrary. In addition to the attractive layout, a look at the titles of some dead books wih prove quite interest ing: Introducing Christian Ethics, Behavior Modification, and Delin quent Behavior, to name a few. featuring: Don Bradley a Pardue iff Writer Mthough Mars Hill offers superb truction in a classroom setting, ch learning is done in the outside rid. So many unique opportimities > available to students. And when xirtunity knocked for the summer 1987, Don Bradley, a senior sociol- ' and religion major, answered. Don spent his summer in Cincin- i, Ohio, living in a friary and work- for -Tender Mercies, a home for deinstitutionalized mentaUy ill. h of these experiences left him h a new source of knowledge and ‘sonal power. “When people come to Tender Mercies, they are most likely at the end of their rope. They can’t take care of themselves. We had some residents that had been in jail, but jail is minimized for them. Jail is a warm place to sleep, food in their stomach, and it is free.” Don spent a lot of time working one- on-one with the residents, doing pa perwork, and running errands. “Our job was to provide the residents with a sense of commimity. Sometimes I worked on recreational activities. We went to the zoo one day. That was a lot of fun. At other times, I took the residents on personal errands. I just did whatever needed to be done.” But, the work was only half of Don’s summer. His enthusiasm to learn left him with many new ideas and thoughts. “Living with the friars and working I have learned that we have a great need for community and simplicity. You know, simplicity is a good thing. 't Drawings by Architect John Rodgers of the proposed new chapel. decline in enrollment. Dr. Bentley said. During this period, the financial picture of the college was stabilized, the curriculum organization was changed from departments to divi sions, and a new Vice President was hired who instituted the new General Studies Curriculum. Now that these changes are in place, the college will move ahead in a new direction with the five-year development campaign. On a personal note. Dr. Bentley said he wanted his remaining years at Mars Hill College to be progressive ones. “I did not want to sit on my thumbs for the next ten years. I want my suc cessor to inherit a terrifically fine school,” he said. Community Life Program Underway Allen Kromer Staff Writer 1 Bradley discusses his summer experience. in Tender Mercies changed my goals. I have learned that we have a great need for community and simplicity. You know, simplicity is a good thing. Life is more enjoyable when it is sim plified. That gives you a chance to en joy what is going on inside. We sel dom get to do that. For example, the radio — everywhere you go there is a radio in the background. Why? We don’t need that. It is because people are scared to listen to themselves. Sit ting in a silent room is a difficult thing to do, but some amount of peace can be gained from it. “I discovered the need to moder ate. We don’t need to lift up posses sions as a good thing, because that impUes that less is bad. Poverty is really frowned upon in the United States. We blame the poor for their own poverty. Because they cannot provide for themseves, we see them as losers and we expect them to faU. That strips away their dignity, and they begin to fit into our expectations.” By spending his summer with the suffering and the poor, Don foimd himself being drawn closer to God. “Ghrist came to be among the poor. Today He is present in the suffering. Therefore, we as Ghristians should be associated with what the world calls weak. I tried to do that. Suffering is not a bad thing. Through suffering we find the grace of God. If I was able to make one person feel better about himself, then I have taken one more small step towards spreading the grace of God.” In spite of the injustice and corrup tion that Don saw this siunmer, he came back to school with a renewed attitude of love and a strengthened sense of grace. “The big thing for me now is Christian love. We aren’t just a collection of individuals responsible only for the betterment of ourselves. We are a community of persons responsible for one another.” As Allan Bloom writes in “The Closing Of The American Mind,” “Every educational system has a moral goal that it tries to attain and that informs its curriculum. It wants to produce a certain kind of human being.” The goal of producing “a certain kind of human being” has not been overlooked by the facidty and admin istration of Mars Hill College, and measures have been taken to instill desirable characteristics in the stu dent body. One of the major changes in the college curriculum is the newly instituted Community Life Program. According to Mars Hill’s Vice Pres ident and Academic Dean Dr. Donald D. Schmeltekopf, “the faculty decided a year ago that we should institute what we came to call the Community Life Program.” The program is de signed to foster a sense of commimity awareness and “to get our students more actively involved in religious and cultural events” he added. One concern of American eduqa- tors is the “overemphasis on the indi vidual pursuit of interests being more important than the overall concern,” Schmeltekopf said. “People are really just looking out for themselves” and colleges and universities, particularly church-affiliated schools, have an awareness and responsibility to work on this, he said. “Since I’ve been here, I have heard many people say that we need to do something to get our students more actively involved in religious and cultural events.” Schmeltekopf said that numerous cultural and intellec tual events had been sponsored by Mars Hill College, but “the fact of the matter is, the students did not show up in very significant numbers.” To generate students’ community awareness and attendance, the Com munity Life Program was conceived. Dr. Larry N. Stern, the coordinator of the program, said that the program resembles programs at Berea College and Meredith College but was mod elled after the program at Furman University. Dr. Stem also provided a basic description of the program. “It involves college academic credit of one semester hour for atten dance at twenty cultural, religious, or intellectual events which have been approved by the Curriculum Commit tee of the Faculty,” he said. Stern also added that “Major pur poses of the program include intellec tual enrichment outside of the class room setting and a building of com munity here at the college by gather ing a significant proportion of the faculty, staff, and student body at events of interest to the campus as a whole.” Students who graduate by Decem ber of 1988 win be exempt from the Community Life Program require ments, Stern said, but can gain an op tional hour of credit for attending twenty events. Current sophomores and juniors must attend twenty events to obtain the one hour of Com munity Life Program credit necessary for graduation. “All students who en tered as freshmen on or after June 1, 1987 will be required to earn two hours of credit through this pro gram,” he added. This means that freshmen will be required to attend forty events during their four years at Mars Hill College. A significant rise in attendance at the first two chapel meetings indi cates an initial success of the Commu nity Life Program, but some students are critical of its implementation. The heart of this criticism stems from the concept that the college handbook, “Emphasis,” is a contract that the college should honor. “I understand the perception that the catalog is a contract, but that is simply not the case,” Dean Schmelte kopf said when confronted with the criticism. He explained that the col lege handbook serves to describe the college’s programs, policies, and costs. He also said that changes are necessary in the college handbook be cause if it were not changed, then the institution would be in a straight- jacket because of all of the different rules. He used changes concerning grading policies, attendance policies, and course and major requirements to illustrate his explanation. While the controversy may con tinue among some factions on cam pus, the Community Life Program ap>- pears to have gotten off to a good start. “I just hope they (critics) can at least see my point of view and that we really are thinking about their wel fare in helping them become responsi ble members of society,” Schmelte kopf said. INSIDE Editorials p.2 Just the Facts 1^00! •••«••••••••••«••■• p. 3 Football Crossword
Mars Hill University Student Newspaper
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Sept. 18, 1987, edition 1
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