Election 2004
Special Section!
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Vol. 70, No.l
October, 2004
Elizabeth City, North Carolina
Pharmacy school set to open in 2005
2+2+2 pro
gram to be
coordinated
with UNC
Chapel Hill
By Toby Tate
Editor-In-Chief
Ever had the urge to
take a course in
Biopharmaceutics or
Pharmacokinetics? Well,
now is your chance. For the
first time ever, Elizabeth
City State University,
teamed with the University
of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, will be offering courses
in Pharmaceutical Sciences.
“The future
employment outlook for
Pharmacists is exceptional,”
said Larry Smith, advisor
for the Pharmaceutical
Sciences program at ECSU.
“According to UNC’s 2003
statistics, the average
beginning salary for
pharmacists from UNC was
$83,372.”
The program,
which takes six years of full-
time study to complete,
begins at ECSU with two
years of pre-pharmacy
coursework. Full-time for
this program is considered
to be 15 to 18 credit hours
per semester. “We are
projecting 10 students in
the inaugural class; and plan
to admit 15 students per
year for the foreseeable
future. The curriculum is
the same pharmacy
curriculum that UNC
Chapel Hill has offered for
some number of years, and
leads to the Doctor of
Pharmacy (PharmD)
degree,” said Doctor
Carolyn Mahoney, Provost
and Vice Chancellor for
Academic Affairs at ECSU.
Out of the 600 to
1000 applications received
every year, only 125
students are accepted into
the program at UNC-
Chapel Hill. Additionally,
students who apply must
first pass the Pharmacy
College Admission Test, or
PCAT, preferably with a
score of at least 350-400,
and must have a cumulative
grade point average above
3.0. The average GPA for
admitted students is 3.40
for the class of 2008.
The pre-pharmacy
portion of the curriculum is
comprised of an intensive
four-semester preparatory
study at ECSU, which
m
i
Dr. Ephraim Gwebu, Chairman of the ECSU Chemistry and Physics Department, stands behind
physics, chemistry, biology and pre-pharmacy students working in biochemistry research lab.
includes general education
courses and the
fundamental physical and
biological sciences needed
to prepare students for
admission to the pharmacy
program. This is followed
by the professional
education program offered
in conjunction with UNC-
Chapel Hill which includes
classes in pharmacology.
cardiology, pulmonology
and neurology as well as
basic pharmaceutics. The
student then transfers back
to ECSU for the final four
semesters to take elective
courses, classes in
pharmacy law and ethics,
and do field work in general
medicine.
for those with a PharmD de
gree include community
and retail, hospitals and in
dustry. Pharmacists nor
mally practice in indepen
dently owned and operated
pharmacies, chain pharma
cies, the pharmacy depart
ment of discount food
stores, and professional
health centers. There are
also needs in nursing
homes, extended care facili
ties, neighborhood health
centers and health mainte
nance organizations. In an
industrial setting. Pharma
cists are employed by firms
which discover, develop
and produce chemicals, pre
scription and non-prescrip
tion drugs, and other health
products, as well as con
ducting research, develop
ing and marketing products,
maintaining quality control,
and administering pro
grams.
Pharmacists in the U.S. can
be attributed to the aging
population and the growth
of retail chain drug stores.
The employment of Phar
macists is expected to grow
faster than the average for
all occupations through the
year 2010, according to the
Occupational Outlook
Handbook. With the expo
nential increase of technol
ogy, research and develop
ment of new drug products
and an increasingly sophis
ticated consumer, the de
mand for Pharmacists will
likely expand even further.
Presently, there is
no building at the ECSU
campus to house the facili
ties needed for the entire six
year Pharmaceutical pro
gram. “The program on
See Pharmacy on page 2
Bush picks HBCU’s for T. A.GS. Team
Professor Johnny
Houston ap
pointed ECSU
program director
By Lucretia White
Stajf Writer
President George
W. Bush, on June 20,2002,
announced his commitment
to improve the quality of
education in Africa,
recognizing that a quality
education is the key to a
higher standard of living in
African countries.
“Education is the
foundation of development
and democracy - in every
culture, on every continent.
We’ll work to give Africa’s
children the advantages of
literacy and learning so they
can build the future of
Africa,” Bush said.
With a quality
education, Africa will
experience economic
growth and eventually
greater stability. To achieve
this milestone [improving
the quality of education].
Bush implemented the
Africa Education Initiative
(AEI), which will provide
$200 million over five years
to the continent of Africa.
These funds will be used to
[inny tlouston, Ph.D. looks
on as a Senegalese girl studies
from a donated book.
train 160,000 new teachers,
provide in-service training
for the 260,000 existing
teachers, and to provide
250,000 in scholarships for
African girls, AIDS orphans
and other vulnerable
children. Another
important aspect of the
Initiative is that the US will
provide 4.5 million
textbooks and much needed
educational materials for six
sub-Saharan African
countries, which are
overwhelmed by a shortage
of funds, teachers,
textbooks and other
teaching aids.
President Bush
opted to use Historically
Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCU’s) to
implement the textbook
project. Six primary
HBCU’s were chosen and
Elizabeth City State
University was one of them.
The United States Agency
for International
Development (USAID)
designated Hampton
University (a private
institution) and Elizabeth
City State University (a
public institution) as project
leaders to operate the sub-
Saharan Textbook Project:
Textbooks For A Global
Society (T.A.G.S.). The
four other HiBCU’s are
Alabama A&M University,
Albany State University,
Dillard University, and St.
Augustine’s College. Each
of the six HBCU’s are
paired with a sub-Saharan
African country. Those six
countries include: South
Africa, Senegal, Ethiopia,
Namibia, Guinea and
Benin. ECSU, known as
T.A.G.S. Center II
collaborates with the
Republic of Senegal, a
French speaking country in
West Africa, which borders
the North Atlantic Ocean
between Guinea-Bissau and
Mauritania. Senegal
currently has a literacy rate
of 39.1%.
On June 23, 2004,
ECSU Professor and
T.A.GS. Center II Program
Director, Johnny L.
Houston, Ph.D. aided in
distributing 270,000 books
to Senegal during the first
year of the project in 2003 -
2004.
“We are hoping that
these books will bring about
a systemic change in
reading habits and learning
among the Senegalese
children. Teachers can
carry the books in boxed
libraries between
classrooms and allow
students to take individual
books home on the
weekends to read” Houston
said. Aquality education for
the Senegalese children is
the final desired outcome,
leaving all who collaborated
on the project ecstatic. ^
Not only
does the African Studies
Program - T.A.GS. Center
II strive to improve the
education and way of life in
Senegal, it attempts to
connect the students of
ECSU to the “motherland”.
Coordinating and
sponsoring numerous
activities to demonstrate the
unique aspects of the
countries, traditions, and
cultures of Africa will
achieve this connection.
One such activity is African
See T.A.GLS. on page 2
ECSU proposes scrapping
book rental program
By Marshall Goatley
Stajf Writer
Classes are back in
session, which means one
thing: students have to buy,
or in the case of ECSU, rent
books; but how long will
that last?
The book rental
program has been at ECSU
for many years. Mr. Pedro
Holley, the ECSU
Bookstore manager said
that the administration has
proposed discontinuing the
book rental program, so
students may have to start
buying their books as soon
as the fall semester of 2005.
Holley also said that the
administration wants the
students to be able to “create
their own personal library.”
The book rental program
helps the students save
money since they only have
to pay a flat fee of $155 a
semester for books, instead
of $300-$500 a semester to
purchase books.
If the book rental
program is discontinued,
students will have to apply
for more financial aid,
which means they will have
to pay more back when they
finish college. Having to
pay back five to six
thousand dollars is not
going to be an easy chore
straight out of college when
students may have to
relocate to find a job in their
chosen field.
The positive side to
doing away with the book
rental program is that it will
help professors find a book
that will fit their teaching
style. Under the book rental
program, Holley said,
“Professors have to keep
their text for a minimum of
three years.” If the book
rental program is
discontinued, professors
can change the texts that
they teach from every
semester if they wish. This
will be harder for students
at buyback time because if
teachers are not going to use
See Books on page 2