Newspapers / Gaston College Student Newspaper / Sept. 1, 1969, edition 1 / Page 4
Part of Gaston College Student Newspaper / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
Page 4 The Gas Light September, 1969 College Parallel Gets New Dean Dr. Wimmer Dr. Charles Robert Wimmer came to Gaston College in 1966 to occupy the position of Chairman of Chemistry Department. Dr. Wimmer and his wife make their home in Edgewood Circle in Gastonia. They have two children, a daughter who lives in Charlotte, and a son, who lives in San Antonio, Texas. They also have seven grandchildren. Dr. Wimmer obtained his B. S. degree at Allegheny College in 1923, his M. S. degree at Ohio State University in 1925, and he later obtained his Ph. D. in Organic Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati in 1932. Dr. Wimmer has also done graduate work at Yale and Columbia universities. Dr. Wimmer retired from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, so that he and his wife could come south to Charlotte to be closer to their children. He learned of a position being open in the Chemistry Department at Gaston and applied for it. When his approval came through Dr. Wimmer joined the Gaston College faculty. Dr. Wimmer has recently been made Dean of College Parallel Division. He likes his new position and feels very much at home in it, since he has been in administrative work for around twenty years. Dr. Wimmer also feels that Gaston College has done well in escaping student disturbances. He says, “I feel that the students at Gaston College will not be swayed by a group of troublemakers, I do feel that these disturbances are caused by outside agitators who are trying to destroy our campuses. This is very hard to understand and is very mysterious. No school is perfect, and you can not please everyone, but I feel that Gaston College has done well in the past and will continue to do so in. the future. When asked about the community college movement, Dr. Wimmer replied, “The community college provides an education for those who might not otherwise receive one. It is also very convenient for those who want an education, but aren’t ready or able to go away from home to obtain one. The services furnished differ from those offered at four-year institutions; the community college is a very valuable asset to the community, and there is rapid growth in the acceptance of community colleges. The only danger is that they are growing too fast, we are getting too many too quickly. Tlie important thing is to maintain quality; I’m pleased to say that Gaston has maintained quality. I do feel that some students don’t appreciate the opportunity of an education and aren’t making the most of it. Another observation 1 have made is that some students work too much at other jobs to be able to make the most of their education. Any time is sacred in getting through school. The main thing is doing well and getting through with no special time limit, such as two or four years. Although there is no change in administrative policies, there is a change in the administrative set-up. Dr. Wimmer explained. Dr. George McSwain is Dean of Instruction and each division has its own dean who will be responsible to Dean McSwain. Dr. Wimmer feels that this is going to be a good year for Gaston College as a whole. The enrollment is the highest it has ever been. Although we have lost some of our faculty, they have been replaced by equally capable instructors. Dr. Wimmer expressed the hope that this year will be the best in the history of Gaston college. I' xi ... . i:i- Mrs. DeVaughn ,-n f ' ' William Cole Oliver J. Davis Meet Our Guidance Staff Due to time and space limitations we are unable to deal with all the counselors in this article. In a later edition we will introduce you to the other members of the Gaston College Guidance staff. SERVICE is the key word for Gaston Colleges guidance department. Our counselors work for and with the students; a major portion of rendered services is in the area of academic planning, such as registration, course selection, transfer requirements, and probation-suspension conferences. Personal counseling with individual students is also an invaluable service. The guidance department is concerned with students social events, health, work, activities, — and as Mr. 0. J. Davis puts it “the totality of the individual.” Mrs. Imogene De Vaughn, a member of the guidance staff, attended Athens College for Women and Lenior Rhyne. Her graduate work was done at Appalachian and Florida State University. After “too many years to tell” as sten-bookeeper, she began her teaching career at Decatur, Alabama. She had many other teaching experiences at various high schools- in English, U. S. History, business courses, and lastly guidance. This pattern, of working in an affice and then teaching the above courses in the same order, has repeated at Gaston College. In 1966 Mrs. De Vaughn became a full-time counselor. Mrs. De Vaughn said that she remains in a field until she can do it with her eyes closed, then prefers to change. She went into counseling at the insistence of her higli sciiool principal, who recognized that tiie students turned to her instinctively when needing help. He suggested that as long as she was helping tiie students so much, she mi^it as well receive pay for it. Mr. William Cole has been in our guidance department since August of 1968. He attended Mars Hill College for two years, transferring to U. N. C. for student personnel work. He chose guidance for a number of reasons: all througli college, Mr. Cole liked people and knew that he wanted to work in an area in which he could help and be around people. In his junior year at U. N. C. he met a young woman who was later to become Mrs. Cole. Mrs. Cole had a great deal of influence upon his choice of vocations, and guidance won out .Her father was a guidance counselor, working on a doctorate at this time, and after talking to Irim Mr. Cole became interested in guidance and definitely decided upon this as a vocation. Gaston College was his choice of places to work, because he believes in the principles of the community college. Mr. Cole applauds Gaston’s “open-door policy.” Senior colleges, he feels, are to selective to be effective. To him, sometimes the very ones who really need an education are turned away at these colleges. On the other hand the students who have their choice of colleges and would attend any institution are usually sought by the larger schools. The community college offers everyone an education; if the student scores appropriately at this level, he may then go to a four-year school. Mr. Cole strongly supports this line of reasoning. Mr. Oliver J. Davis has also been at Gaston for one year. He received a B. A. from Hampton Inst., a M. A. from N. Y. U., and he did his graduate work at Catholic University. He has had teaching experience in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. For one and one-half years he taught at the State School for the Blind and Deaf of North Carolina. In the Charlotte Mecklenburg system, Mr. Davis was in guidance counseling. He organized the guidance dept, at West Charlotte High School and the departments for two junior-high schools. For six summers, he taught graduate students in the field of' counseling at Petersburg, Virginia. He spent many summers as camp counselor for dirfcrcnt organ iza I ions. At The State School for the Blind and Deaf, Mr. Davis began to feel that these unfortunate students had a great need for guidance, lie realized that those students arc by-passed and that they would soon face the adult world virtually unprepared. Students came to talk over their problems with him, and Mr. Davis felt inadequate to assist them. Since he was just out of collcgc and unprepared: this is what prompted him to pursue a career in guidance. Mr. Davis believes that every part of the student comes to col lege; therefore it is the guidance department’s duty to deal with every aspect of the students scholastic life. GC Art Instructor Spends Summer In Europe Mr. Frank Creech, Gaston College art instructor, recently returned from six weeks in Europe. The purpose for this trip was an arts and crafts workshop in Denmark. There were about fourty-three people in the workshop, and about one half of these were Americans, with others from Iran, West Germany, France, England, Norway and Sweden. The philosophy of the school was not to impost Danish design and culture, but to have a place for people to communicate. Many people from different countries expressed their ideas on many different things. Mr. Creech said, “One nice thing is, no matter where you go, art is always there; even the smallest towns have museums which are very well kept and maintained. Florence looks very grubby during the day but at night it takes on a different light, to become a very beautiful place. London has the best museums, with the Tate Museum and the National Museum being tops. The British Museum is the best in regards to classical art, there is Frank Creech even Cherokee art from North Carohna there.” “Paris didn’t impress me very much. There was much grandeur of course, but the French people were very short and gave you no chance to communicate, which makes a big difference. Other countries were much more friendly.” “The best Museum was the Kroller-Muller in Arnhein. The Kroller-Muller is located in the middle of a national forest with nothing else in a five mile radius. A one lane cobbled road leads to this very modern museum. The art there ranges from 1850 to 1969. The museum has the greatest Van Gogli, which can’t really be appreciated until it is seen. This museum was really the most enjoyable as far as modern work.” “In the art work shop, there was no pressure to produce. The people there were of professional quality and competition was very stiff.” “We had a chance to see many cultures. The Danish culture is so tied up in itself, that they resist any new ideas. Most people have a culture so old that they don’t really care what you do as long as you don’t disrupt the culture. America has no one culture that everyone accepts. America has many cultures and this is good. They believe if you deny others the right to be themselves that they are also denying themselves their rights.” “All Danish designs seem similar. It is a small country and every artist knows every other artist. There is mixing action which influences others, therefore similiar designs. This has it’s advantages and disadvantages; when there is common cultures, designs don’t change much. Danish designs haven’t changed in ten years.” “The really radical designs, pop and optical, were mostly by Americans. The United States has more innovations, while Europeans are very hard on tec-nique. Their philosophy is that once you learn a technique you can be creative. Americans feel that one should be creative first and then learn the technique.” “There are deep feelings of mistrust of the United States in Europe. The European countries and the individuals are envious and fearful of the power which the United States has. They feel they have no say-so in what goes on in the world, especially in the smaller countries. One European told me that the United States should beware, because within ten years there will be a Hitler on the scene, lie feels this Hitler won’t come from old conservatives. But from the young rebels, lie feels that the United States seems to be a football which is being kicked around all over Europe. One tends to become very patriotic whether he really is or not and one tends to take the opposite point of view in general. On the other hand, Soren Sass, the leader of the workshop says that ‘I feel much better after having talked to you (Americans). I seem, to have more confidence in the United Stales now’.” Mr. Creech felt that once in Europe, he could tell Americans from anyone else; however, he found that not to be true. As Mr. Crcech puts it, “There are no characteristics by which to tell people apart. We should look at people tor the individual person. This is very important for us, not only as individuals, but also for the entire world.”
Gaston College Student Newspaper
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 1, 1969, edition 1
4
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75