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Gardner-Webb University
THE PILOT
No. 1 Sept. 23, 1996
The Official Campus Newspaper
Boiling Springs, NC
Vn
A Look Inside...
Page 2
Find out why "The Pilot" is
called "The Pilot"
The problem with parking- a
student's point of view.
Pages 4 &5
GWU sports
Page 7
Old GWU staff in new positions
Page 8
GWU film festival schedule
GWU
Homecoming '96:
Celebrating 90 Years
Oct. 4 and 5—update in
next issue
Admissions
standards rise
by Melody Cannon
contributing writer
Gardner-Webb has stretched itself this
year, both in quality and in numbers , as
departments all over campus can testify.
The school's new crop of students means
higher standards for all, according to Ray
Hardee, director of admissions.
The school has gradually raised its
admissions standards over several years,
Hardee said. This year's group of freshmen
and transfers had SAT scores averaging
nearly 1000. Raising of standards as well
as re-centering of SAT scores has brought
that average up from around 800 where it
was a few years ago.
New students also boast ACT scores
around 20 and high school GPA's of at
least 3.0. Thirty-eight percent of the
Gardner-Webb student body this year is
students that were in the top ten percent of
their high school class, Dr. Gil Blackburn,
dean of academic affairs, said.
See "Admissions” on page 7
Year of the (Scholar
In
Cojfee House Committee
member Matt Norman enjoys a
cup of coffee in front of the
Morgue, the prospective site of
the new on-campus coffee
house being planned as part of
the Year of the Scholar
emphasis.
(Photo by Karen Brower)
CD-ROM allows
GWU students
to orbit Saturn
by Julie Gibson
staff writer
Six Gardner-Web students have been
given the opportunity to orbit Saturn aboard
the Cassini Space Probe late next year.
Professor Tom English and his honors
astronomy class put their signatures on an
index card and sent it to a lab that is going to
scan the signatures onto a CD-ROM. The Jet
Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California is
going to place the CD somewhere on the
Cassini spacecraft during the final assembly
stage.
The six students who will participate in
this journey are Kime Lawson, Jacob Norris,
Linda Sain, Christina Visalli, Amy Willis and
Michelle Wood. GWU President Chris White
and Dr. Tom Jones, Honors Program Director,
also get to include their signatures on the CD-
ROM.
See "Saturn” on page 2
GWU's year
action-packed
by Karen Brower
staff writer
From an on-campus coffee house to
a year-long film festival, the "Year of the
Scholar" is bringing some exciting
changes to GWU. "Scholarship" is the
campus buzzword of the year.
According to Dr. Les Brown, a
GWU biology professor who first
proposed the emphasis for the year, the
Year of the Scholar is intended to "rachet
up the scholarship level on campus." It
began as an idea during Writing Center
Director Dr. Gayle Price's annual Writing
Across the Curriculum faculty seminar,
and has developed into a year-long theme
for Gardner-Webb University.
Several faculty-student comittees
formed last spring to develop ways to
carry out the Year of the Scholar theme.
Many of their plans are already
underway.
See "Committees” on page 8
Jock to scholar;
GWU's Dean of Academic Affairs
wins prestigious Fulbright award
by Janet Jones
"This may sound strange for the academic
dean, but I only came to Gardner-Webb be
cause it had a football team."
These are words from none other than
Gardner-Webb’s own academic dean, Gil
Blackburn.
Blackburn grew up on a tobacco farm in
Surry County, North Carolina. He said that he
had not had a lot of intellectual stimulation
before going to college. However, after gradu
ating from then two-
year Gardner-Webb,
Blackburn went on
to get bachelor's and
master's degrees from
Wake Forest and was
on the dean's list
every semester but
one.
"I did read a lot-reading's been one
of my passions," Blackburn said. "The
highest grade I ever made in high school
was a B minus."
"I had these illusions (when I was in
high school) that Duke or Wake Forest
(See "Blackburn” on page 7)