MEMBER
'THE STUDEWT VOICE AT GASTOIM COLLEGE'
VOL. IV NO. 2
GASTON COLLEGE, DALLAS, N. C.
DEC. 8, 1968
G.C. Fund Drive:
Full Speed Ahead
Future
Buildings
Planned
On M onday, Nov. 25, Gaston
College officially turned to local
re^sidents for $2.4 million in
building funds.
E>r. W. B. Sugg, president of the
college, told the board of trustees
that nearly $1 million in
contributions and pledges have
already been received. Although
Dr. Sugg did not single out any
donors, he did hint that some
individual contributions have been
large. At least one contribution
from a local firm is reported to be
about $250,000.
Funds raised will be used to
construct an arts and activities
building, a physical education
plant and an industrial laboratory
building. The money will also be
used for an 840 square-foot boiler
plant, additional sewer facilities
and paving walks, drives and
parking areas.
The proposed arts and activities
building would provide
much-needed auditorium
facilities. Cost of the building is
estimated at $1,214,078.
The health and physical
education plant would cost about
$779,298. There are currently no
indoor physical education
facilities.
The industrial laboratory
building is estimated to cost at
$196,698. The building will make
possible additional skill-teaching
programs.
Boiler plant construction,
equipment and steam lines are
expected to cost $80,626 with
$78,300 in water and sewer
construction and a $35,000
paving project expected to bring
the total cost of the expansion to
$2,384,000.
After obtaining bids from all
five Gaston County banks, fund
drive officials invested $80,000 of
the contributions received at
nearly a six-percent interest rate.
Officials added $20,000 to the
contributions in order to obtain
the maximum rate, but the funds
will be transferred out when
additional contributions are
received.
Insurance executive James
Comer is the chairman of the fund
raising campaign. Community
leaders have been established
throughout Gaston County as well
as in Lincoln and Cleveland
counties.
The college hopes to begin
construction within two years.
GastO}7 Oiuckle
\ short story entitled “Three
Generations”; grandfather had a
farm, father had a garden, son had
a can opener.
i-rn -rivi-r
rfiHHi
Proposed Health and Physical Education Plant
Vocational Division
Offers Job Placement
The Vocational Division of
Gaston College has estabhshed a
pro^am in which the vocational
curriculum is offered during one
calendar year. The four quarters
of courses are offered each year
and job placement service is also
rendered for graduates.
Diplomas are awarded in such
fields as Air Conditioning,
Refrigeration, Automotive
Mechanics, Building Materials,
Management, and Sales. Also
offered are Drafting, Electronic
Servicing, Machinist, Tool and
Die, Welding, and Electrical
Installment and Maintenance.
The Vocational Program began
in Gastonia during 1957, at which
time the program was introduced
throughout the state. The
Vocational School was first
located in the I.E.C. (Industrial
Education Curriculum) Building
across from Ashley High School.
Then it was moved to the Old
Technical Building in Gastonia on
July, 1965. This division has now
been on the Gaston College
campus for one year. Before
moving to Tech., high school
students were able to take
vocational courses and also
take the high school curriculum.
Now the Vocational Division does
not allow this joint program
between high school and vocation
courses.
Mr. George S. McSwain is Dean
of the Vocational Division of
Gaston College as well as Dean of
the Technical Program. Mr.
seek vocational graduates but no
official survey has been made on
this because many students are
employed while taking vocational
courses. Students sometimes take
courses to improve the work
which they are now engaged in
performing. Also, a promotion
may be in the future for someone
completing a course or courses in
the vocational division.
The assidijous Vocational
Division has shown that people
throughout the county have
grown more and more interested
in this program by the evidence of
increasing enrollment by high
school students as well as adults.
Sophomore
Officers
Appointed
by John Eaker
The vacancies in the offices of
President and Vice-President of
the sophomore class were filled
during the last official meeting of
the interim council of the Student
Government Association. The
vacancies were created when
Vice-President Gary Billings failed
to return to school for the fall
quarter and upon the resignation
of President Larry Champion in
anticipation of his transferring
from Gaston after the fall quarter.
Champion and Billings were
elected in the elections of last
spring. The offices of President
and Vice-President were filled by
Bill Walker and Miles Weathers,
respectively. Both are students
from the Technical Division who
were elected as sophomore class
Senators of the Student
Government Association last
spring under the old constitution.
In other action the remaining
three senators were placed in the
Senate of the New Student
Government Association
according to Article IV, Section
10 of the new constitution which
states that Senators who hold
office when this constitution is
ratified shall be assigned to the
Senate of the new Student
Government Association. Ronald
Terry Queen, a Technical Division
student, was assigned to serve as a
Senator from District 5. Lynn,
Price, also a Technical Division
student elected last spring, were
designated to fill the Senate
Dositions from the sophomore
class.
The interim council is set up to
handle the necessary actions of
the Student Government
Association between the regular
terms of office.
Bible Translator Visits Campus
Mr. Manuel Arenas, famed
Mexican translator of the New
Testament, came to Gaston
College during the Fall Quarter as
a guest speaker. His purpose, he
said, was to emphasize the need of
education and hopefully to inspire
and recruit students to work with
Wycliffe Bible Translators. Not
only are linquists- needed, but
teachers, engineers, radio
technicians, secretaries, and
num erous other personnel are
needed to fill vacancies.
Manuel Arenas and his family
lived in the state of Puebla,
Mexico. His parents were old
before their time and bent from
years of hard labor and their faces
wrinkled by constant hardships.
For his people there was no hope
in the future. Then two
foreigners, missionaries, came and
set up a school near his village.
Manuel went to school there
for three years. Then it became
necessary to come home and help
his father earn their meager living
by farming another man’s land.
He received four pesos a day 33
cents in U.S. currency.
A change came to Manuel’s life.
He became a Christian. He was
given the choice of renouncing his
new faith or leaving home. Manuel
left home. The missionaries who
had taught him, Mr. and Mrs.
Herman Aschmann, were in the
process of translating the New
Testament into his native
language, Totonac. Manuel gave
them valuable assistance and
eventually learned to read and
write in Totonac and thus
completed his education through
high school.
Mr. Arenas worked with the
Aschmanns in the United States
and learned English. He graduated
from the Dallas Bible Institute
and studied for a year in
Germany. From there he went to
work with the Whcliffe Bible
Translators, Inc. Through his
work he has preached around the
world including some
communistic, areas and has
mastered six languages. Mr.
Arenas has also served on the staff
at the Pavillion of 2,000 tribes at
the New York World’s Fair.
For the future Mr. Arenas’
plans include going back to his
own village and teaching the
farmers there modern farming
techniques. “They are still living
in the Stone Age,” says Mr.
Arenas, “Education is the only
way to bring about a change in
this world of hunger and
d’siUusionment.”