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^ Brevard College, Brevard, NC
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Volume 54 Number 5
LvJ
Nov. 5, 1986
BC Trustees study four-year proposal
A recent opinion and attitude survey
shows that there is a broad college and
community support for Brevard College
converting to a four-year senior college.
But Brevard College President Billy
Greer says the decision whether or not to
go four-year will take some time. “This is
the most important thing this school has
grappled with in 50 years,” he said. “We
need to take a lot more time, step back.
study all the data and discuss this idea at
length.”
The Brevard College Board of Trustees
meeting at the college last week, began
studying the results of the newly-released
survey conducted this summer by Dave
Skillen of Diversified Consultants, Inc., of
Atlanta.
Skillen, who polled about 100 trustees,
community leaders and Brevard College
faculty, staff and administration, turned
over his findings and concluded: “There
are too many positive signals to be ig
nored. The prospects of converting to a
four-year school should be pursued,” and
that if the growth didn’t occur, Skillen
warned, “five to ten years from now, it
could be a dead-end street. Nationally, we
are looking at a steady decline in private
two-year college enrollment.”
At last week’s Board of Trustees meeting, students Kim Nelson and Heather Chamberlain visit with trustee
Marshall Houts of California.
Big plans made for Parent s Weekend
by April Woods
Parent’s Weekend promises to be a full
one for anyone planning to attend, and so
far 75 reservations have been made. “Tell
her how many stamps we licked,” said
Mark Morre, student assistant to Will
Dunstan. Dunstan, the chairman of the
ceremonies committee, said he and Moore
licked a total of 595 stamps and an
equivalent number of address labels for
the invitations sent out.
Dunstan says Parent’s Weekend is “a
way of letting parents see where their kids
are going to school, and to familiarize
them with school faculty and staff”.
Dunstan added, “It’s comforting for the
parents, I think.”
A variety of activites have been planned
starting at 7 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 7 and
continuing until 9 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9, in
cluding a tour of the campus, perfor
mances by the Collegiate Singers and both
the Concert and jazz bands, an athletic
contest, and a student presentation of
“Cabaret.” Another activity planned for
the weekend is the student talent show.
Parents are also encouraged to attend
classes with their children in order to get a
better sense of understanding of the school
environment.
More reservations are expected to come
in before Nov. 7 rolls around since the pro
gram “has always been very successful,”
said Dunstan.
Craft show scheduled
by Cathy Haynie
The “Patchwork Playgroup” is no or
dinary craft show. On Saturday,
November 8, a group of local homemakers
are getting together for a craft show and
sale at the Student Union from 10 a.m.4
p.m. This is the second annual craft show
to be held at the Student Union on parent’s
weekend.
The women involved in the show get
together every Monday morning and work
on projects which will be on display and for
sale this weekend.
Some features include crafts and
needlearts of heirloom quality, folk dolls,
country items, miniatures, cross stitch,
Christmas items, stained glass, and quilts.
Of the people questioned this summer,
Skillen reported that the respondents were
68 percent in favor of the four-year conver
sion. The breakdown went as follows: on a
scale of 1 to 10 on the question of conver
sion, the faculty and staff registered 8; the
community, 7; and the Board of Trustees,
On general feelings about the college
overall: 63 percent of the board felt “very
good,” 52 percent the community felt “ex
cellent” about the college, while another 37
percent felt “Very good.” “The faculty-
staff was split evenly in thirds in degrees
of “’excellent,” “very good” and “good.”
All three segments said if Brevard con
verted to a four-year school, the col
lege they would like Brevard to do most
like would be Davidson, with Furman,
Wofford and Guilford also ranking high.
Other observations from the Skillen
report: That the school enjoys a reputation
of having high academic standards and a
good overall reputation, that the faculty
sees itself as the key to the college, and
that the college needs to be more involved
with the community.
Skillen also concluded that Brevard Col
lege is in a good physical location to
become “a Western North Carolina David
son.”
Reasons for going four-year mentioned
the most often include: the advantages
gained by continuing of educational pro
grams, reduced recruiting pressure, a
more stable college environment, the abili
ty to attract and maintain higher quality
faculty members, an improved student
body because of the maturity factor, and
advantages gained in fund-raising. Presi
dent Greer said that “98 percent of founda
tion money goes to four-year schools. Most
of them won’t even look at you if you’re a
junior college.”
On the question of the college’s greatest
strengths, the board said the school’s
reputation was the most outstanding fac
tor. The faculty-staff and community both
pointed to the special attention students
get through faculty accessibility. The
Trustees emphasized that the strong link
with the Methodist Church was important
to maintain, and Trustees also voiced con
cern that BC should stay relatively small
without sacrificing Quality.
President Greer said, “If we go to four-
year, we would hold on to the essence of
this place. We would stay small — from
around 900 to 1000 students—and maintain
our quality. We do not want to be like any
other college. We want to be the flagship
of colleges of Western North Carolina
Methodism.
There is no timetable for the Trustees to
vote on this question, and ultimately the
final decision will come before the Western
North Carolina Conference of the United
Methodist Church meeting
Though no target date or cost figures
have been determined, college leaders in
dicate that conversion to senior college
status would be millions of dollars and at
least four to five yef.rs away.