40 Belles walk for AIDS
More than 40 Belles
participated in the Win
ter Walk for AIDS, Dec.
1. Belle walkers' raised
more than $1,090.
EDrrORIAL: Racism or reasoning
Page 2
NEWS: Free party proves too costly.
Page 3
SPORTS : McNair won't get the trophy
Page 5
FEATURE: New astrology column
Page 7
REVIEW: New eatery.
Page 8
SBOK
The Bennett Banner
The Newspaper by the Phenomenal Women of Bennen College
VOL XVII, N0.4
Decembers, 1994
Bennett College, Greensboro, North Carolina 27401
Centenarian Belle celebrates birthday
W
One-hundred-year-old Belle Grace Donnell Lewis
Campus phone system
baffles, angers callers
Stephanie McCorkle
Banner Editor
It was a clear, cold, crisp afternoon on
Nov. 30.
The balloons were in place, the crystal
bowl on the refreshment table was filled
with punch. The narrow white folding chairs
were set in place before the historic Bennett
bell. Everyone was ready and waiting to
celebrate the 100th birthday of a Bennett
graduate.
Dr. Charlotte Alston, vice president of
Academic Affairs, stepped up to the podium
and introduced the special guest of the hour:
Grace Donnell Lewis.
Lewis, the oldest living Bennett Belle,
graduated from the college in 1915.
Since graduation, Lewis co-founded the
Metropolitan Day School with Dorothy
Height for children of working mothers dur
ing WWII. After this milestone, she became
an elementary school teacher in the south
eastern area of Greensboro.
When Lewis was asked about what
Bennett was like during the early days be
fore it became a women’s institution, she
offered a humorous response.
“Bennett was a nonnal schcx)!, or what
you would call a high .sch(x)l now,” she siiid.
“ Then, it h;id a college dep;irtmeni. The
young men were attending the ,sch(K)l, so ii
was a very differeni experience. I'hey were
supposed to be on on one side |ol the cam
pus] and we were on juiothcr,” Lewis sjiid.
niroughout the pmgram, the quick wil
ted centenarian offered words of wisdom
and guidance for the audience.
Lewis relayed the secTet of her longev
ity saying, “1 just U7 to live the best that I
can. That is all you really can do. Live the
best you can, and as well as you can as long
as you don’t step on anybody else.”
After remarks by 1>. Gloria R. Scott the
presentation of gifts, Lewis pnxlaimed “1
feel like living another 1(X) years!”
Continued on Page 6
Christine Lewis
Banner News Editor
Numerous complaints about the
telephone systems, have raised many ques
tions around campus.
The telephone system or switch
board system is operated by Delores Shaw,
assistantcashierof the business office. Shaw
is assisted by four student workers.
Many of the complaints have come
from students, faculty, and others who call
to reach them.
“People have told me that when
they call and ask for me, that they’re told
that I don’t even work here,” said Sally
Alverez, an instructor in the Mass Commu
nications, Speech and Theatre department
“I’ve been working the switchboard at
Bennett for five years and I have a list with
names andlocations to be transferred,” Shaw
said.
“If the names appear on the list, they
will be transferred correctly.”
There is a list located near the
switchboard with all the names and depart
ments on campus. This is the list that Shaw
and the student workers follow when calls
come in to be transfered. The switchboard
is operated from 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. All calls are
transferred to the seciuity station at mid
night for the staffs lunch.
Shaw says that she has other obli
gations to the college other than the tele
phones.
“I am the cashier, I answer the business
phones, I handle the students accounts and
take in students money,” Shaw said.
“I also take in other monies from
the campus, such as money from the differ
ent organizations.”
Shaw said that she has suggested
that someone come in to handle the tele
phones full-time.
Student workers were brought in
from the work study program to help.
One student worker said since she
started operating the switchboard in the
September, she has never received any axn-
plaints or left anyone on hold.
“I have called the l-800numberon
several occasions,” Elizabeth Battiste, jun
ior math and physics major from Beaufort,
S.C. said.
Continued on Page 3
Dorm residents
work up a sweat
Stephanie McCorkle
Banner Editor
There is the old saying,”If you can’t stand
the heat, get out of the kitchen,” but in this
case its the dram rooms.
The heat in the drams is causing prob
lems and the opinions of other people on the
subject vary as much as body temperature.
“Most of the time, the heat tends to come
on in the hallway, and other parts of the
building,” said Tracy Bedford, a junior so
cial work major from Savanna, Ga.
The Memer Hall resident continued to
say that there is a different temperature
outside her room, than in her room.
“ It‘s usually hot in the hall, and every
now and then, it will get hot in the rooms,”
Bedfwd said.
“One night it was so stuffy, I had to sleep
with my window and door open and my fan
on.
But most of the time I’m pretty com
fortable in my room as long as the heat is not
blasting.”
Erika Johnson, a sophomore biology/
pre-med major from Washington D.C. said
“The heat is terrible. It gets so hot in here 1
can’t breathe, I can cut it on or off, but 1 still
get some heat. “
A Bennett maintenance worker, Charles
Scales who is in charge of heating the dorms
said that there is not much that can be done
about the problem.
“Right now, we are between hot and cold
[weather]. It’s just that time of year,” he
said.
“Theoretically, the heat is computerized to
Continued on Page 6