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' news from UNC by the sea
Vol. VII, No. 2
OCTOBER, 1982
New Vice Chancellor
For Student Affairs
On January 1, Dr. William Bryan will become the
vice chancellor for student affairs at UNCW. Bryan is
currently vice president of student affairs at the
University of North Dakota. His selection culminated
an extensive search begun in February 1982 following
the resignation of Dr. William M. Malloy.
William H. Wagoner, UNCW chancellor, commented
that Bryan comcs to UNCW highly recommended and
referred to him as a “calm, collected leader with all the
credentials you could ask for. We arc extremely
fortunate to get him.”
Bryan has a broad background in student affairs. He
has been with the University of North Dakota since
1976, first as dean of student development and, since
1978, as vice president of student activities, including
financial aid, discipline and crisis intervention, veterans
services, black and native American student programs,
enrollment services, and alcohol education. At UNCW,
Bryan will be responsible for similar non-academic
student activities, as well as career planning and place
ment, residence life, and health services.
Reached by phone at his office on the campus of the
University of North Dakota, Bryan said, “I look
forward to the challenges of developing certain areas for
the students at UNCW. The institution being relatively
a new one, it’ll be an exciting place to work.”
Bryan said he was “impressed with the warmth of
the staff and enjoyed the student affairs people
immensely. ’ ’
It wai a difficult decision for Bryan and his family to
make. He has three children who all have mixed
emotions about the move. And, he said, he truly enjoys
his job at the university. But coming to UNCW means
moving closer to his and his wife’s families: Bryan is
originally from Georgia and his wife is from South
Carolina. “I won’t be a total stranger to the state of
North Carolina. I lived in Jacksonville when the
Marines stationed my father there,” said Bryan. “We
also own beach property not far from Wilmington,
where we spent three weeks this summer. That also
helped us make up our minds about the move.
“The people I met at UNCW were the biggest
influence on my decision to come. I really can’t wait to
get there.”
UNCW Ambassadors
Gear Up for Action
Starting this fall, UNCW has a student group to
represent the university. Members of the all-volunteer
UNCW Ambassadors will act as hosts and hostesses in
various campus events, escort groups on campus tours,
and assist the Alumni and Development Office in
several areas.
Senior Richelle Bragg, student assistant in the Devel
opment Office, is helping Frank Bowen, alumni affairs
officer, to organize the group. She explained that the
Ambassador group was formed as a public relations arm
of the university. “During their service as Ambassadors,
students will gain leadership skills, experience and
poise in dealing with the public,” said Bragg.
Several other universities in North Carolina have
similar programs, and there has been a growing need
for such a group on the UNCW campus. “With UNCW
Continued on page 3
UNCW Makes Good Copy For Local Media
As UNCW has grown, more and more people are
interested in the activities of the students, faculty, and
staff. Wilmington is not exactly a “college town,” but
the campus docs play a major part in the city’s
continuing growth and development.
As interest in UNCW has increased, the media —
newspaper, radio and television — have reacted with
more stories about the campus and the people who live
and work here.
Wayne Jackson and Bob Waters are hosts of a TV
program called Carolina in the Morning, which airs
every weekday from 6 to 7 a.m. on WECT in Wilming
ton. According to Jackson, they try to present as wide a
variety of topics, events and people as they can find,
focusing on subjects with a broad appeal to their
audience. “We like to show what the university is
doing,” said Jackson. “There is not a subject that we
won’t touch. But we want to appeal to as many of our
viewers as we can. UNCW is a large part of Wilmington,
and there are a lot of stories there.” Jackson and his
crew will be taking a ride on the Research Vessel
Seahawk in November, to find out what it’s like to
work on the boat.
Bob Waters said, “We’re constantly looking for
stories with strong visual impact.” Since television is a
visual medium, he explained, a good story can fall flat
sometimes if viewers have no image to watch. “Your
marine science program is expecially interesting to me
personally,” said Waters.
“UNCW sports is automatic,” continued Jackson.
“Everyone is interested in how the Seahawks are doing,
no matter which sport. We like to talk to the coaches
Former actress Jean Muir talks with Jim Burns on
The Jim Burns Show, WECT-TV in Wilmington.
and some of the athletes at the beginning of each
season. And we’ll probably talk to Mel Gibson about
his trip to Asia when we get a chance.”
Carolina in the Morning is geared toward feature
material. What about the news aspect of UNCW?
What is it about UNCW that interests the media?
According to John Randt, news director at television
station WWAY in Wilmington, “It is an irrational
process at times. We always look for stories with
impact. But many UNCW stories get by us because we
just get too busy with others. An element of the bizarre
or a confrontation will get us there.” But they’re not
always after the negative angle. Randt continued: “We
covered school opening and registration, a people-
oriented peice in which we talked to students and asked
them what they were studying and why. We asked
them what they thought about their chances of getting
a job once they graduated. It turned out to be a good
story.”
Randt said that he would like to cover more and do a
better job on what the station does cover. “But with
only 14 people on the news staff, we’re limited. We
can’t always do what we want to do.”
WWAY has a feature-oriented show on Sunday nights
called Calendar. In September, Randt had Gil Bane,
former SURF director at UNCW, on the show to talk
about the most recent expedition of the Seahawk.
“That was exciting. UNCW can do a lot with that
vessel. We plan to follow its expeditions closely,” said
Randt.
The following week, Jean Muir, visiting professor
and former actress, appeared on the Calendar show.
Laura Mercer covers the university for the Wilmington
Star-News. “We’re interested in the role that UNCW
is taking in the community. The adult programs and
continuing education courses interest a large number of
our readers,’’ Mercer said. “UNCW is big business in
Wilmington. Most of its actions affect at least a small
part of the community. We want to cover whatever
those concerns are.
“Enrollment at the university is a big question.
Businesses in Wilmington are extremely interested in
those figures, because the continued growth of the
campus means better business for them. They want to
capitalize on the increasing number of students on
campus.”
Mark Kruea is news director for WGNI/WAAV, a
Wilmington radio station. Kruea said he always asks
himself, “Will it interest our listeners?” when he is
UNCW registrar Dorothy Marshall talks with TV
reporter Phil Wells about registration.
deciding what stories to cover for the news. “The news
that we cover must appeal to our audience,” said
Kruea, “and a part of our audience is the students. So
we sometimes gear the news items to students as
listeners.”
During last summer there were several rapes in New
Hanover County, which is home for UNCW. Kruea
noticed that the university was running a rape awareness
program at that time, so he interviewed UNCW Chief
of Police Winston Norman about the problem and
what the university was doing to solve it. (Chief
Norman and Abby Hastings, associate dean of students,
also appeared on the Jim Burns Show on WECT-TV to
talk about the ongoing rape awareness program on
campus.)
Kruea also talked with Dr. Syed Ahmad, assistant
professor in political science at UNCW, to get Dr.
Ahmad’s opinion and reaction to President Ronald
Reagan’s suggestions in August concerning the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict. He considers Dr. Ahmad an expert
in the area of mideast politics.
Karen Fox, assignment editor for WECT-TV, said
that her station relies heavily on professors at UNCW to
localize national and international events. “They are a
tremendous resource in that respect,” said Fox. “We
use the school of business extensively to explain and
elaborate on economic stories, because our viewers are
so concerned with what’s happening in the world finan
cially and how it will affect them. UNCW faculty can
answer their questions.”
The stories that the people of UNCW have to tell are
interesting and important to the community around
the campus. The campus is a growing part of the
community, and whatever it does affects Wilmington.
The media have realized that, as UNCW continues to
grow, its importance to the surrounding area will also
increase.