ECSU CELEBRATES 90th
DAILY ADVANCE REPORT
On March 3,1891 North
Carolina Representative
Hugh Cale’s Housie Bill 383
was enacted into law, and the
Eliazabeth City Colored
Normal School was brought
into existence.
Elizabeth City State
University’s 1981 Founder’s
Day marked the year the
name of the illustrious four
term black legislator and
pasquotank County com
missioner was restored to the
marble plate in the
Pasquotank County Cour
thouse, where it had been
defaced years before.
Commissioner Raleigh
Carver, the man responsible
for restoring Cale’s cour
thouse inscription, was one of
a number city, county, and
state officials present to help
the 90-year old institution
celebrate its birth.
Student Government
Association President Helene
C. Knight, Class of ’81, one of
the first speakers at
Tuesday’s Founder’s Day
ceremony, described the
school’s history as “hardship,
hard work and success.”
Memorial wreaths standing
before the audience at the
front of Jasper Moore Hall
Auditorium had been placed
to give mute testimony to the
lives of Cale, first president
Dr. Peter Weddick Moore and
second president Dr. Henry
John Bias-all men who fought
an uphill battle to get the
fledging “school for the
colored race” off the ground.
“Man’s inhumanity to
man,” specifically the
Reagan administration’s
perceived deafness to
“human rights” and a recent
statement by former State
Department spokesman
Hodding Carter III that “a
growing economy alone will
not help blacks” were all
touched on in the Founder’s
Day Address.
But as the school
celebrated its 90th an
niversary as a full-fledged
university and constituent
institution of the University of
North Carolina, success
outshone hardship.
Focus on Qualities
The qualities which brought
the university up from its
meager beginnings as a two-
teacher, 23-student “normal
school” were the major focus
of distinguished alumni and
friends who were the plat
form guests.
Charles White, WGAI News
Director and a 1976 alumnae,
said “it’s growth within the
individual that makes ECSU
what it is. (The university)
gave me growth and un
derstanding of my fellow
man.”
Gwendolyn Maddrey Bell, a
summa cum laude 1979
graduate, said she had been
“grateful for the opportunity
to attend ECSU,” stating that
her program had been
“demanding yet extremely
rewarding.”
“ECSU students are warm
and receptive, alert, capable
and eager to be challenged in
any academic situation,” she
said, adding that her in
structors were “ highly
competent” and “always
ready to help.”
Dr. Albert W. Thweatt,
Class of ’65, assistant
professor of education at the
University of Virginia and
staff specialist for the tri
state school district Con
sultative Resource Center,
said “ECSU provided the
background and the kind
of leadership and direction
necessary to tackle any
responsibility before me.”
“ECSU exists as an op
portunity for the black
student where he still doesn’t
have a chance to leave close
ties,” Thweatt said. “A black
institution needs a place
where raw material can be
found and developed into the
kind of person we all want to
be.”
The university’s founders
“decided to plant a
miracle...in Northeastern
North Carolina,” said ECSU
Chancellor Marion D.
Thorpe, “one that would
provide the vision of ex
cellence for all mankind.”
Keynote speaker William
A. Clement, Durham civic
leader and retired vice
president of the world’s
largest black-managed in
surance firm, also stressed
tha university’s “belief in the
essential growth of each
individual human being.”
Clement told the audience
that ECSU founder Hugh Cale
was like Socrates and Christ
as he strove for “universal
uplifting of each individual.”
Clements said Cale “sought
to help people acquire
knowledge though education
to understand and improve
life for everyone” of any
race.
“The university faces
difficult challenges, or should
I say opportunities in the
future,” said Clements, but
he added “the only reason not
to achieve more is not to
attempt more.”
Founder’s Day “should
have deeper significance to
the students,” Clements said,
stating that the trials of the
university’s founders should
“stimulate students’ thinking
today and in the future.”
Laying of wreath on Hugh
Cale’s grave is Mrs. Velma
Williams Butts(not pictured)
and Mr. Billie Joe Reid.
BERNADETTE CARVER
Staff Writer
The 1981 ECSU Summer
School Department an
nounced in January a bigger
and better program in the
school’s history.
The 1981 Summer School
program will be divided into
the following terms: eight-
week, six-week, and two
three-week sessions.
The first session will began
June 1st and end July twenty-
fourth. The classes will be
held Monday through Friday
for one hour and fifteen
minutes. The six-week term
will get on the way during the
week of July 15 and end July
24. The classes will be in
session for one hour and
thirty minuter.
The two three-week terms
will be held for three hours
everyday. Many freshmen
Looking on are Mr. and Mrs.
William A. Clement, speaker
for the Founder’s Day
program.
students will enroll during the
eight-week and six-week
sessions, because they are in
the General Studies Depart
ment. Classes that have labs
will also be offered during the
six- and eight-week terms.
Students may take a
maximum of twelve semester
hours if enrolled in the eight
week summer session. The
six-week term allows a
student to take six hours and
a total of three semester
hours during the three-week
session.
The workshop courses are
open to all students as elec
tives. They should obtain
approval from their depart
ment or advisor prior to
enrolling in a workshop.
Students will be able to pre
register for Summer School
at the same time they pre
register for the Fall
Semester,1981.
A NEW SUMMER SCHOOL