North Carolina Newspapers

Smoke Signals' Valentine ■.M- MISS JANA HOLCOMB Plymouth, N.C Freshman Women's Lib? Woman Coaches Man's Sport If Chowan College’s soccer dub, in its first year of com petition, continues its early success, a group of international students may become firm ex ponents of women’s liberation when they return to their home countries. The players are from Venezuela, Iran, Korea, and Africa, countries which have been mostly unaffected by the women’s liberation movement. But exposure to American culture, and most recently and importantly, to a woman coach of their soccer team, may have an influence. The lady who dares to break tradition and serve as a coach in an almost totally male- dominated sport is Chowan sophomore, Mrs. Ann Alexander, by temperament and appearance a more likely canidate for cheerleader. Ann’s association with the sport is not an expression of defiance or act of liberation, however. She admits she was pressed into service as a “last resort” but she has taken her duties seriously. The idea for a soccer team began last summer when a group of international students began to play soccer on the front lawn. Ann and her liusband, Clifton, both oi Hampton, Va. became soccer fens. Hector Cuellar of Bethel ANN ALEXANDER Park, Pa., and a citizen of Columbia, suggested forming a soccer club for regular play. Warren Sexton, chairman of the social science department, was asked to assist. He agreed to serve as faculty sponsor but said he would need help with the actual running of the team because of a demanding schedule. Ann, assistant head resident of Belk Hall, women’s dormitory, learned of the need and volunteered her help. “I told them I didn’t know anything about soccer but was appreciation Is Noted By BECKIE WORKMAN Thanks is given to all students who recommended friends, whom they wanted to recom mend to Chowan College. Letters have been written inviting these persons to visit the campus so they can see Chowan’s facilities and talk with a professor in the department of their major in terest. Vistors will also be con fronting Chowan students. According to a survey con ducted by the American Council on Education, students attend Chowan CoUege for the following reasons: Good academic reputation 45.2 percent. Advice of guidance counselor 23.4 percent Offers financial assistance 21.4 percent. Want to live away from home 16.3 percent Advice of a teacher 14.3 per cent. One should be proud of Chowan’s academic reputation. One should take pride in his relationship with the college. The alumni make a contribution to society-that they have benefited from being a part of Chowan College. When recommending a friend to Chowan, one is doing a favor to the individual and giving strength to his alma mater. Thanks again is given to students from Dean Lewis for their cooperation in the never-ending project of enlisting students for Chowan College, one of the top five private junior colleges in the United States. willing to give it a try,” she confessed. Ann, assisted by Hector, assumed responsibility tor scheduling games, tran sportation and other arrangements. But the players soon learned she would be no figurehead. While not pretending to be a qualified coach, she wanted to contribute more. Ann purchased a book on soccer and followed the instructions for training a team. Ann said she stressed conditioning which included running and calisthenics. “I can’t say the players fully appreciated a woman teUing them how to train,” she said candidly, “but they knew it was for their own good and went along with it,” she confided. “She really has the players’ and team’s interest at heart,” Hector explained, “We may gripe a little bit when she tells us to do something, but we do it knowing it’ll help us when we play another team.” Hector said the players, as a measure of respect and affection, now call her “coach” when they see her on campus. Ann is assisted by two co captains, Ahmad Reza Zifan and Shahram Sharanizadeh of Iran. Ann was aware the players were from countries where soccer is the national sport, but the success of the team still was a surprise. She said she first suspected the team’s potential when Chowan tied a team from North Carolina State, 1-1. “The team had some varsity and junior varsity players,” Ann said. Chowan followed with a 4-1 win over Louisburg but had to forfeit because of an ineligible player. Chowan also tied a team from Wilson using players from Atlantic Christian College and the town, 3-3. The team lost to Old Dominion University, 2-0. The action whetted the soccer club’s appetite for more play. This led to an invitation to become a member of a winter league of teams in Tidewater, Virginia. Chowan’s ad ministration has given its ap proval and Chowan will begin competition in January against Old Dominion, Virginia, Wesleyan College, Virginia Beach, Newport News, Peninsula and other teams. Wednesday, February 13, 1974 Murfreesboro, North Corolina STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF CHOWAN COLLEGE Volume 5—Number 6 New Science-Engineering Building in Operation New Science-Engineering Facility Student Suffers Freak Finger Blunder In Auto Ann reported soccer is gaining many fans among the Chowan student body. Three Americans are members of the team and more recruits will be needed as the team enters the winter league, Ann said. “Soccer is a demanding, tough sport, and we need some reserves. As it is, most of the players have to play all the way and when you’re exhaused you can’t give your best,” Ann noted, sounding like a coach. At Ann’s insistence, the team is looking for a qualified man on campus or in the community to serve as coach. “The team has come this far, now I believe it’s time for a man who is ex perienced in the sport to take over,” Ann declared. She’ll continue to help in any way she can, she offered. But there is no betrayal of the woman’s touch in the name Ann suggested and the players have adopted for the team. Since the team is not an official part of the athletic program, it will not be known as the Braves, the school nickname, “We’ll be known as the ‘Winged Warriors,”’ Ann said proudly. Optional Chapel Optional chapel-assembly tours of the new science building will be conducted February 11 and 13; February 18 and 20. Such tours will begin at 10:00 a.m. in Tyler Hall on the ground floor of the science building. These guided tours may be taken by students as an optional chapel- assembly program. To avoid possible congestion, the Department of Science and the Chapel-Assembly Committee suggests the following schedule: Freshmen whose last names begin with A-M, tour on February 13. Freshmen whose last names begin with N-Z, tour on February 20. Sophomores whose last names begin with A-M, tour on February 11. Sophomores whose last names begin with N-Z, tour on February 18. Occasionally a newspaper reporter is in the right place at the right time. That was the case with this reporter at 2:30 Saturday afternoon. During a routine visit to the Police Department which developed into an informal in terview with Sgt. Jack Brett on another story, two Chowan College students rushed into the station saying a friend needed help. The two young men had run from just north of town limits on Wynn Street to report their friend had a finger caught in his steering wheel and all efforts to free it had failed. Sgt. Brett grabbed a can of lubricating foam and a file and was oft to the scene, after issuing an invitation for the reporter to come along. Henry Tang, victim in the freak accident, greeted the patrol car with a smile and wave with his right hand. His left hand was securely lodged into the spoked racing steering wheel of his small sports car. “This is fantastic — I can’t believe it is happening to me,” Tang laughed as Sgt. Brett evaluated the situation. “My black in karate doesn’t mean a thing to me in this situation,” Tang told the group that gathered. Tang and two friends, Larry Gill of Columbus, Ohio, and David DeBoer of Richmond, were riding around town and had backed into the dirt path to turn around with Tang’s when Tang’s finger became lodged in a hole in the chrome spoke of the steering wheel. Getting Degree Urged; Advantages Are Listed By D. H. NICHOLSON With more than 50 percent of the first time Freshman enrollments in higher educational institutions now being recorded (Fall, 1973) at the junior and community college level, it is evident to even the casual observer that the two-year college is an important and a vital component of the total academic scene today. It is also evident from the preceding tact that there is an increasing awareness by students, by of ficials in both the two-year and four-year colleges and univer sities, and by officials in industry that the associate degree is both a practical and a viable measure of a student’s progress. It he holds such a degree from his stay at a junior college, he has demon strated that he can achieve prearranged goals. The associates degree, for this student, has become tangible proof of earned recognition for the completion of a particular program or curriculimi in the various disciplines, and this proof (or evidence) states much about the student’s own stamina and motivation. It also states that the student has been tested under tire and found to be able to meet the initial challenges encountered in his efforts to become as productive an individual as ac cidents, abilities, and cir cumstances will allow him. Of course, another clear ad vantage of the associates degree has already been discussed earlier in this column: that of easier transfer to senior college and universities. When a student earns his two-year degree, he has a clear-cut advantage over his peer in the two-year college who has not earned it. For instance, grades and courses, generally, transfer with greater ease, and the degree holder is more con fident of receiving the best ad vantage in an increasingly competitive college market. He is in a more flexible position when he talks with a senior college or university admissions officer. In essence, the advantage of holding the associates degree so much outweighs the disad vantages that the student should not consider leaving Chowan College unless he first earns his ‘sheepskin’. For a student to transfer without such a degree is analogous to the person climbing a ladder who cuts off the rungs under him. He has nothing to step back to it he encounters troubles further up. SO, GET THAT DEGREE! Lubricating foam — no suc cess. File — no success. Sgt. Brett radioed police headquar ters for a hacksaw — success. The finger was dislodged from the steering wheel by removing a portion of the wheel. But the “square ring” was still on the finger, which continued to swell and turn blue from lack of cir culation. Oft the group of five went to Fram Corporation where Sgt. Brett secured the piece of metal in a vice while he filed it tree from the finger. “Thank you so much officer — by the way, what is your name,” Tang asked. “Brett — Sgt. Brett.” “Thank you Sgt. Brett.” Leaving the Fram building, Sgt. Brett remarked to Your Home Newspaper reporter, “You see, we are not here just to arrest people. We are here to protect and serve.” Nation Must Find Answer LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) — A top federal energy official says the nation must find an answer to the energy problem without rationing fuel, which he termed “very inequitable and totally unworkable.” Deputy Administrator John C. Sawhill of the Federal Ener gy Office said Tuesday the agency was pressing “^oject Independence” aimed at elimi nating dependence on foreign oil, keeping American workers on the job and developing more gas and oil reserves in the United States. Sawhill was among panelists speaking to some 3,000 dele gates at the convention of the National Automobile Dealers Association. Call Me Sir PHOENIX, Ariz. (AP) — BiU Masters, manager of a Union 76 service station here, remem bers when he was trained to push tor top gasoline sales by asking every customer, “Shall I till it tor you, sir?” “That’s all changed now,” Masters said Tuesday. “And you’d be surprised at the num ber of drivers who call me ‘sir’ now.” MURFREESBORO — Chowan C)oUege faced the opening of its spring semester Wednesday, Jan. 23 with a mounting air of excitement that bordered on “opening night” jitters. After 126 years of operation, one would not expect the tran sition from fall to spring semester to cause hardly a ripple. But that was no ordinary occasion. The reason was that the long- awaited new science-engineering facility was opened for the first time, foUowing its recent com pletion. The glittering classrooms and laboratories lied ready for Chowan’s students thanks in part to the science and mathematics professors who made trip after trip over the holidays moving equipment from Green Hall, the old science building, into the new $1.3 million three-story structure. Chowan’s president. Dr. Bruce E. Whitaker, also paid tribute to the efforts of volunteer leaders who served as program area chairmen. These included Charles L. Revelle, Sr., Ollie Brown, and A. W. Tayloe, Sr. Chowan’s chief administrator said many different individuals, businesses, churches, cor porations, foundations and other organizations had supported the campaign with their gifts and donations, which at present have topped the one million mark. TTie main topic of conversation on campus is the new building and the multiple uses it will af ford Chowan students. “Already, Chowan has assembled an ex ceptional faculty in the fields of science and mathematics and the new building will strengthen one of the strongest programs offered by a junior college in the nation,” commented Dr. B. Franklin Lowe, Jr., academic dean. Visitors also appear star- struck with the handsome red brick building. “It will mean a lot to Chowan and its students,” commented one, who had wat ched the progress at every stage. Other first-time visitors have marveled on its functional design and well-equipped facilities, noted Bobby Cross, director of developnent. For Chowan’s president, the new building represents the fulfillment of a long-cherished “dream,” in his words. He said the new facility will complement Robert Marks Hall in providing classroom space and equipment and laboratories for experiments and the enhancing of the student- teacher relationship. How long does it take to transform a dream into a reality? Dr. Whitaker answered that while groundbreaking ceremonies were held almost two years ago in February, 1972, the actual “Mission Possible” campaign was launched in September, 1971. And well before that, he stated, the project had been mapped as a vital need on long-range plans. Maintenance personnel and faculty continue to add the final touches. If one detects an extra willingness and lightness to their work, it can be explained as all part of the ceremony leading up to “opening night.” But unlike the uncertainty of most opening nights, the results are already predictable judging from campus response to date. The conclusion of college officials is that the building is going to be a smash hit with everyone, and in particular with the students who return not to an outmoded and overcrowded facility but to a spacious, gleaming, new structure.