The Compass
Friday, November 30, 2001
Professor Profiles
In This Issue, The Compass Staff Selected Professors Of Their Choice To Highlight.
CSC ADVANCES COMMUTER STUDENT PROGRAMS
Lacey House
lacey_cosmi@hotmail.com
If students were to walk into the
University Center and travel along the
hall, go through the double doors, and
go to the office in the back corner, they
would find Willa Lamb, the University’s
Commuter Student Coordinator.
The Commuter Student Coordina
tor position was created in 1998 and Ms.
Lamb is the first to hold the title.
Since assuming her new position,
Ms. Lamb has implemented many
programs. These include an annual
Easter egg hunt for neighborhood
children and commuter students’ chil
dren; Soup and Substance, held in the
winter, and Snacks and Packs, held in
the Spring, in which someone talks to
commuter students about different
events; karaoke nights; different holiday
socials; and toys-for-tots, which runs
this year from November 1 to the sec
ond week in December.
“I do programs in the name of
commuter services under the offices of
student life, but then 1 also advise the
commuter club,” said Ms. Lamb.
Ms. Lamb is interested in letting
commuter students know they are part
of the university. “1 would like them to
take part in the activities held and feel
comfortable attending them. 1 would also
like to host other programs that would
involve spouses and or their children.”
Ms. Lamb is a native of Camden
County and graduated from Marion
Anderson High School.
Before Ms. Lamb became the CSC,
she worked at the university as a clerk for
21 years. While she was a clerk she also
attended the university as a student on
and off from 1969 until she graduated in
1987 with a degree in Business Adminis
tration. Throughout that time she also
raised two children.
Asked how campus life was like
when she attended the university, she
replied, “It was very low key. People pretty
much walked everywhere. There weren’t a
lot of cars. The campus was relatively
small.”
Basketball played a big role in
college life. “We [ECSU] won the Central
Intercollegiate Athletic Association in the
early 80’s,” she said. Ms. Lamb also
belonged to Phi Beta Lambda, a sorority
for business students.
To sum up her personality, Ms. Willa
Lamb is a very friendly woman who is a
little shy talking about herself, but whose
office door and compassionate heart are
always open to students. You can tell by
the sparkle in her eyes that she enjoys
her job.
Ms. Willa Lamb
Photo Courtesy of Lacey House
Talking A Language That Gets
Feedback
The Direct Approach
Jessica Prayer
jstrawberry76@hotmail.com
Slightly after 12:00 on a sunny
Friday afternoon, I interviewed Delbert
Frank Games. The interview took place
in his office, which is unlike the stereo
typical psychology professor’s office,
untidy and disorganized. His office was
immaculate. He has a bookshelf on the
right that is neatly organized; the books
seemed to be in order from descending
size.
I asked Dr. Games how he acquired
his down-to-earth teaching approach, the
thing that makes him most appealing to
me to write about. “My approach devel
oped from the students teaching me,” he
says. He takes what the authors say and
translates it so that the students can
better understand main points, but his
hilarious illustrations help the students
remember much more. “The book is a
symbolic representation of academic
knowledge, the words contained are
certainly understandable to the authors
of the book, but it is up to the students
and professors to interpret,” he says.
I asked Dr. Games, “Why, of all of the
majors he could of chosen in undergradu
ate school, he choose Psychology?” He
said that when he was at Ohio State
University, there came a time when he
need to decide on a major. He said he
always enjoyed people and loved to travel
and that is why he chose psychology,
which has been a perfect fit for him.
Dr. Games has been cited in a
number of professional publications
including Who’s Who in America, Who’s
Who in the South & Southwest, and he
was president twice for the Houston
Chapter Association of Black Psycholo
gist, just to name a few. He graduated
from Ohio State University in 1969 with a
B.A., Xavier University in 1974 with
honors, with a M.A., in Psychology, and
he received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychol
ogy from Saint Louis University in 1980.
I asked Dr. Games what influenced
his decision to move to Elizabeth City. Dr.
Games said that he always knew that he
wanted to be near water because of his
love for fishing.
jT
Anthony Griffin
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Bigtone @ pronomail .com
For 20 years, Shawn Smith has
educated and directed ECSU drama
students in the right direction. Since a
small child, he has always had a love
for drama. “When I was six, during the
polio epidemic, my mother would let
me go out to the movies whenever
there wasn’t a lot of people there. It
was this time when I fell in love with
movies, because there was nothing
else to do. My hero was James Dean,”
said Smith. When Shawn went to high
school, he got his first acting role in
“The Stage Door.” Most instrumental
in Smith’s love for drama was his
undergraduate professor Josephina
Niggli at Western Carolina University.
Smith said, “Professor Niggli had so
much confidence in me. Through her
recommendation and guidance, I
directed my first full-length play during
my sophomore year. The play I di
rected was The Diary of Anne
Franke.’” While attending Western
Carolina, Smith studied acting for four
years.
He paid his way through under
graduate school with a little help from
his mother. “I worked a little during
school and my mom sent me five
dollars every Friday. It isn’t much now
but back then tuition was 50 dollars
per semester,” said Smith. He furthered
his knowledge of drama at University of
North Carolina in Greensboro, where he
earned his master’s in Fine Arts.
Through graduate school, Smith discov
ered his love for teaching drama.
Smith credits famed director Elia
Kazan as the director he admires the
most. He patterns his award-winning
organized style of directing after
Kazan’s. “‘East of Eden’ with James
Dean and ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’
were his most brilliant productions.” 1
Although Smith prefers to direct com- -
edies, Kazan inspired him to love realis- ;
tic drama.
With his new play production, ‘Dark ,
of the Moon,’ Smith chose a different,
’ f
darker type of play to perform at ECSU. ^
“I had always wanted to produce ‘Dark
of the Moon’ but never had the space,
which is why I mainly focused on realis
tic drama with smaller casts and settings
before,” said Smith. Because of the size
that the setting for ‘Dark of the Moon’
required, he could not perform this play -
before. However, with the new Fine-Arts
auditorium, he now has the stage to
produce this play. As far as casting his
play, Smith says, “I try to fit the qualities
of the actor with the qualities of the
character.”
Ryan Caruso, a freshman here at
ECSU said of the play, “It was a well
organized play. The songs matched the ^
theme and all the actors seemed to be
in synch with the characters.”.
Dr. Delbert F. Games
Photo Courtesy of Jessica Prayer
m
HiWiI
f- f
Mr. Shawn Smith
Photo by Inger Parlter