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Friday, November 17, 1989
BENNETT COLLEGE, GREENSBORO, N. C.
VoL XLXI, No. 2
Maya Angelou receives degree
by Yvette N. Freeman
Maya Angelou is now a
Bennett Belle after receiving
an honorary degree of humane
letters, Oct. 15, during
Founder’s Weekend.
“. .. I am honored by its
very existence to doubly
hono'r me by making me a
part of the Bennett commun
ity, and since I live nearby, I
already see so many things
I’m going to do as a new
Bennett Belle,” stated Ange
lou in her acceptance speech.
One thing that she men
tioned doing was seeing that
the ‘E’ on the front of the
Annie Memer Pfeiffer Chapel
is repaired.
During the program, Ange
lou said, “You will t^ke us
into the 21st century. You
will take our dreams, our
triumphs, our failures. You
will take all our hopes. You
are indeed the dream of the
slave woman who came here
in 1690.”
The renowned writer also
promised to return and talk
to the students, stating that
“we will all graduate in 1990,
and ’91, and ‘92, and ’93.”
Also during her speech,
Angelou performed her popu
lar poem, “Phenomenal
Woman,” which she explained
was written not only just for
black women, but for all races,
types and sizes of women.
During an interview before
the convocation, Angelou
stated that she was honored
to receive the honorary de
gree from Bennett because,
“The history of Bennett is
tied with the history of the
black American, and so, al
though this was not my
school, in its own way, it was
my school, as it was the school
of every black woman in this
country, whether she went to
college or not. And whether
she went to Harvard or to
Bishop . . . Bennett is her
school. So, in a strange way,
when Bennett honors me like
this, it is doing me a double
honor for just being itself,
being a hub of black female
education striving for excel
lence. It has already honored
me.”
Angelou also commented on
her feelings about education
in the black community. “I
was recently in the company
of a few black educators, and
they remarked with surprise
at the wealth of talent in the
black community, and I al
most broke down and cried.
Because it means that they,
their children, and the chil
dren that they have educated,
have gone through a period
of not trusting us very much,
not liking ourselves very
much, imitating whites to our
detriment, almost in toto. So
here now . . . they’re talking
about . . . can you imagine
we have so much talent in the
black community ? That means
for 35 or 40 years, they have
miseducated themselves and
their children and the stu
dents who came under their
care. Because of this abysmal
sacrifice of our history, to try
to imitate whites from the
’40s, ’50s on, we have lost
control of our lives, and con
trol of our children.
Until the ’40s, black people
were as anxious for educa
tion. The excitement toward
education in the black com
munity rivaled the excitement
of Asians today. We strove
for education in the ’20s, the
’30s, the ’40s, in the teens.
Last century, people could be
whipped for trying to get an
education. Black people took
a chance. And then we came
along in the ’50s and started
imitating somebody else, and
we lost our hold on our future.
And as a result of that, the
generation and the next
mumble around the street
without any focus, and here
we sit three generations later
saying, ‘What are we going
to do about the children?’ We
have obviously stopped loving
the children and they know
it, because we’ve stopped lov
ing ourselves. And it’s vulgar.
It’s obscene. And it just
might be genocide. That’s
what’s scary,” she stated.
Angelou says that one way
to correct the situation is to
begin recruiting students for
graduate school as early as
the eight grade, to make them
think ahead.
As for students on campus
who may be interested in be
coming writers, Angelou ad
vises that, “The first thing
any potential writer must do
is read, read, read, read, read,
read, read, read, without ceas
ing. If the person chooses
poetry as her or his medium,
then the person should read
aloud. It’s very important to
hear the music of the lan
guage, to hear it, to speak it,
feel it in the mouth and then
to hear it, so that the person
doesn’t write what is called
‘concrete poetry,’ which is
so distant, and so alienated
from human dreams that . . .
it’s an intellectual concept.”
So, if the person is interested
in prose, read.
She also says that “no
body . . . can really teach a
person to write. You can teach
the language, and the person
should have such fluency in
the language in which she is
going to write that she is
never at a loss for putting a
few nouns and pronouns and
adverbs and verbs together,
and achieving some sort of
harmony in a sentence.”
Angelou, herself, will be
coming out with a new book
in the spring of 1990. It will
be her sixth book of poetry,
“I Shall Not Be Moved.”
Bell given 1989 teaching excellence award
by Shavaughn Neal
Bennett College can boast be
cause its 1989 teaching excellence
award, more formally known as
the “Bennett College National
Aiumnae Association Faculty Ser
vice Award for Teaching Excel
lence and Faithful Service to
Bennett College” went to an
alumna, Mrs. Queen Hester Bell.
Bell is an assistant professor of
home economics and family life
education and has spent, by her
own proclamation “a number of
years” teaching at Bennett.
To list the awards and achieve
ments of Bell would take a
long time but it should be known
that the list is remarkable. Her
favorites include the 1973 Out
standing Educators of America
Award, the 1988 award for Out
standing Years of Service to
Fennetit College and the honor of
being chosen as the Visiting Scho
lar for the North Carolina De
partment of Public Instruction for
the Greensboro Public School
System. Mrs. Bell had this honor
for two consecutive years.
Bell has published articles
and poems in many publications
and has presented numerous pro
fessional writings on home econo
mics as well as other topics.
Some of her most recent papers
were presented to the North
Carolina Home Economics Asso
ciation and at the International
Home Economics conference at
Ohio State University on the
topic of “Analytical Thinking and
Problem Solving.”
Bell is a member of many
professional organizations, among
them the National Council on
Negro Women and the American
Home Economics Association.
Bell has also taught at Barber
Scotia College where she was
chairwoman of the home econo
mics department.
With all of her recognition,
Bell says, “I’m just an individual
and I’d like to be remembered as
a parent, full-time worker and
someone who cares about others.”
Bell concedes that she is
is very concerned with the depth
of education at Bennett. She says,
“If students just learn one thing
a day from each class attended,
then their time here at Bennett
will have been well spent.”
Accepting the faculty service
award. Bell expressed similar
sentiments. She stated that she
“will continue to work unselfishly
and sacrificially to the best of
her ability in order that Bennett
will continuously grow and be a
viable institution. The underlying
principle of my work at Bennett
has been and shall always be to
help students become productive
and successful citizens in life and
in the world of work.”
In typical Bell fashion, she
turns the talk away from herself
to point out that she has obtained
$2,700 in matching grants from
NCNB, AT&T, IBM and friends
of the NAACP organization of
which she is life membe:rship
chairman. The money given to
Bell upon receiving the teaching
excellence award was added to
her personal money donated to
match the grant in the same
amount. This money has been
earmarked for home economics
majors.
Bell poses a challenge to the
faculty, “Each of us must realize
that the life of service is the Ufe
that counts. I think it is incum
bent upon us as a faculty to pro
vide the best service we can for
Bennett College and its students.
Let us pledge today to give our
best in service and I am positive,
when we least expect it, the best
will come back to us,” she says.
Campus safer
Scott crowned
by Shavaughn Neal
Students should feel safer
now that there have been
major improvements in secu
rity and the securing methods
of the campus. This realiza
tion, however, doesn’t change
the fact that the improve
ments were needed and wel
comed.
Along with Bennett secu
rity the Kimber Guard se
curity force is now present on
campus. This combination
means that there is more ef
fective security.
Recently, Bennett pur
chased a club car to be used
by security for transportation
around the campus. The cars
will cut security response
time from five minutes to
three. Only one car is in use,
but another will be purchased
by the college. New radios
have also been bought and se
curity will be able to monitor
other police action through
outside channels.
Other security improve
ments include the posting of
a guard at each section of the
campus. The Kimber Guards
patrol the campus, and Ben
nett security is usually sta
tioned at the desk. There are
three or four Kimber Guard
members on duty every shift.
Two female guards work with
the Kimber guards and they
patrol the campus residence
areas. At any given time there
are three, four or five secu
rity guards patroling the
campus.
Security measures will also
be enforced on faculty and
staff, who will be asked to
wear identification badges
similar to student identifica
tion cards. These badges
should be worn and presented
upon request from security.
New gates and locks will be
put up around campus in
addition to the ones that have
already been installed. There
have also been improvements
in the lighting around the
campus.
When asked about the new
gates, junior Pamela Davis
(see page 4)
The reigning queen: Kenyalta Scott,
Miss Bennett 1989-90, credits her
mother with being the greatest in
fluence on the formation of her
character and her drive to serve
this college, (photo by Cherryl Floyd)
by Cherryl Floyd
She says that a true beau
tiful person is the person on
the inside and that queens are
mentors and role models. She
is Kenyatta Scott, Miss Ben
nett College.
“I decided to run for Miss
Bennett because I wanted to
represent a positive image of
the women here. Also, stu
dents have concerns that don’t
reach the student affairs
(office), and since I’ve been
in the position. I’ve taken
them there,” Scott says.
Scott feels that her great
est responsibility to Bennett
is to let people know about
the college and to convince
people to enroll here.
“My greatest concern is
that Bennett gets the credit
for what it deserves. Dr.
Gloria Scott takes care of that
on the outside but I am res
ponsible for it on the inside,”
she says.
Scott feels that her corona
tion was the highlight of her
reign as Miss Bennett.
“It was like planning for a
wedding. It was my day!” she
says.
Scott admits that the fear
was always present that
things would fall apart. She
says that she received com
fort from Dr. Jacqui Wade,
Ms. Jean Humphrey, Ms.
-Jimmie Gravely, Mrs. Sheliah
Farmer and many faculty
members.
As she took her royal stroll
on coronation night, Scott
recalls that her escort was
more nervous than she was.
“But I thought, ‘All these
people are looking at me.’ My
mind went blank,” she says.
The senior biology major
from Washington, D.C. wants
her Bennett sisters to see
someone who is easy to talk to
when they look at her.
“I’m not your etjual, and
I’m not better than you,” she
says.
Scott credits her mother
with being responsible for the
woman she has become.
(see page 4)