Newspapers / Chowan University Student Newspaper / Feb. 5, 1975, edition 1 / Page 6
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PAGE 6 - Smoke Signals, Wednesday, February 5, 1975 Best Christmas Gifts Are Not Always Wrapped In Brightly Colored Paper Sue Wynns knows that the best gifts are not always the ones given by others and wrapped in tinsel and brightly colored paper. This Christmas, Sue enjoyed a gift provided by her own faith, courage, determination, and assistance of her most faithful and almost constant companion — her mother. After six semesters of college, when most students are preparing to enter their senior year, Sue will be finishing her freshman year at Chowan College. Her achievement is not as modest as it appears at first glance. Almost four years ago in February, 1971 Sue suffered a near-fatal injury that left her in a coma for nine months. She was a passenger in a car struck from behind by a truck in front of Bertie Senior High School, where Sue was a senior. All four teenagers in the car were injured but none as seriously as Sue, who suffered brain damage. She clung to life by a thread. As the months ticked by and Sue remained in a coma, recovery was ruled hopeless by her doctors. But Sue’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Leo Wynns of Colerain, her brother and two sisters, relatives and friends turned to God and prayed for a healing miracle. They were joined by many different groups and individuals including strangers who visited, wrote and called the Wynns. Then, nine months to the day and date of the accident. Sue regained consciousness. For the past seven and a half months she had been tickled daily without reaction. Now, she made a response. “We bombarded her with questions about past and present people and events until we were sure her mentality was intact,” said Mrs. Wynns. Sue answered yes or no with a shake of her head. “Thanksgiving was truly a day of thanks for this miracle,” Mrs. Wynns noted. By Christmas she greeted family doctors over the phone with “Merry Christmas.” TTiroughout 1972 she relearned how to eat, talk, write, dress herself — “almost everything” — in Sue’s words. With her mother as tutor, she completed her high school studies and received her diploma in June. During the summer she relearned how to make the alphabet letters. Ad ditional progress was made in the fall through twice weekly therapy sessions at a rehabilitation center. Sue and her mother now turned their thoughts to Sue’s college education. Ironically, before the accident she had been accepted by Peace College in Raleigh to prepare for work in rehabilitation of the handicapped and retarded. But after a delay of one and a half years. Sue started instead at Chowan in January, 1973. She paced herself carefully. For the first three semesters she selected only one course each semester. Tlien she increased her load to two subjects for two semesters. Sue’s selection of subjects was limited to those offered on the first floor of Marks Hall. She was unable to climb the steps to the second and third floors and did not have the time be tween classes to travel the distance to the new science-engineering facility. Mrs. Wynns received help from male students who volunteered to lift the wheelchair up the steps. Once inside Marks Hall, Mrs. Wynns wheeled Sue to the classroom door and then helped her on crutches to her seat. Mrs. Wynns used the time during classes to shop downtown or run errands. “I have to use the time when I can,” she remarked of her demanding schedule. Sue and her mother agree that the Chowan professors have been “most kind and cooperative.” Sue said the last thing she wants is pity and noted she doesn’t ask for any favors. But she said she is appreciative of the concessions her professors have made. Warren Sexton swapped classrooms with another professor to move his Western Civilization class from the second to the first floor to accommodate Sue. She is hampered by an inability to write with normal speed. To compensate, Sue’s professors have allowed her to type the answers to her test questions. Students are also ^owed to make carbon copies of their notes for Sue. &veral professors have tutored her in dividually. Sue credits a speech course, tutored by Miss Anna Belle Crouch, professor of English, with improving her articulation of certain words. Sue’s relearning has been helped by several other courses. Before the accident, she loved to water ski and swim. Now, under the instruction of Mrs. Janet Collins of the physical education department, she is relearning how to swim. During her first year at Chowan, Sue began to relearn French, which she studied at Bertie, under Eugene Williams. This semester she is taking French, Western Civilization, and sociology as her three academic subjects in ad dition to swimming. Sue reserves time each week to visit Whitaker Library where she uses refffence books to research papers and carry out classroom assignments. She has also used the microfilm reader. Mrs. Wynns checks out books for her to read at home. Her mother reports that Chowan’s librarian, Mrs. Geraldine Harris, has been very considerate and helpful. The red-headed, 21-year-old Colerain native says she also appreciates the friendliness of her fellow students. “When I’m going down the hall people speak to me whom I don’t even know,” she reported. Sue Wynns, with the assistance of her mother, has overcome her handicap. Although confined to a wheelchair after suf fering a near-fatal injury, she completed her freshman year at Chowan College prior to the Christmas holidays. Weekly visits to Chowan's Whitaker Library are part of her campus routine. Sue is now preparing for another major step. She will attend St. Andrews College in Laurinburg, a private senior college, the summer of 1975. She is also considering applying for the fall semester. She said the college’s facilities were planned with handicapped students in mind. All classrooms are on the floor level with big doors. The college also has an excellent physical therapy department. Sue explained. At present, St. Andrews has 35 wheelchair students. The move to St. Andrews will mark a turning point in Sue’s life. She will be going alone. Sue’s separation from her mother will not be easy. Mrs. Wynns has not only served as Sue’s “legs” at Chowan but she has smoothed her course in many ways. But both agree the change is important to Sue’s continued development. “She needs her independence,” Mrs. Wynns declared. Sue said she is anxious to proVe she can make it on her own. She will reside in a dormitory and take care of herself as would any other student. Mother and daughter believe that Sue’s recovery is the result of a miracle. They have the faith to believe that Sue’s future is also in God’s hands. Family Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 Changed (Continued from Page 1) which do not fall within those kinds of information considered academic and which are not made available to persons other than law enforcement officials of the same jurisdiction, (3) those records of individuals who are employed by an educational institution but who are not in attendance, i. e. records main tained in the normal cburse of person’s employment and which are not available for any other purpose, and (4) “records on a student who is 18 years of age or older, or is attending an in stitution of postsecondary education, which are created or maintained by a physician, psychiatrist, psychologist, or other recognized professional or paraprofessional acting in professional or paraprofessional than persons providing such capacity, or assisting in that capacity, and which are created, maintained, or used only in connection with the provision of treatment to the student, and are not available to anyone other treatment; provided, however, that such records can be per sonally reviewed by a physician or other appropriate professional of the student’s choice.” The amendment goes on to state that the educational in stitutions are not required to make available to students in institutions of postsecondary education the following mater ials; (1) “financial records of the parents of the student or any information contained therein, ” (2) “confidential letters and statements of recommendation, which were placed in the educational records prior to January 1, 1975, if such letters or statements of recommendation, which were placed in the educational records The amendment goes on to state that the educational in- stitutiions are not required to make available to students in institutions of postsecondary education the following materials; (1) ‘ ‘financial records of the parents of the student or any information contained therein,” (2) “confidential letters and statements of recom mendation, which were placed in the educational records prior to January 1, 1975, if such letters or statements are not used for purposes other than those for which they were specifically intended,” and (3) if the “student has signed a waiver of the student’s right of access” (as specified in another section of the act), “confidential recom mendations a respecting ad mission to any educational agency or institution, (b) respecting an application for employment and (c) respecting the receipt of an honor or honorary recognition.” Another important section of the act for the college student concerns that one describing what is included in “access rights.” The right of access is to include; (1) the right to be provided a list of the types of education records which are maintained by the institution and are direcUy related to students; (2) the right to inspect and review the content of those records; (3) the right to obtain copies of those records, which may be at the expense of the parent or eligible student (but not to exceed the actual cost to educational institution of reproducing such copies; (4) the right to a response from the in stitution to reasonable requests for explanations and in- terjretations of those records; (5) the right to an opportunity for a hearing to challenge the content of those records under subpart 3 of this listing; and (6) “if the material or document in the education record of a student includes information (rf more than one student, the right to inspect and review only such part of the material or document as relates to such student or to be informed of the specific in formation contained in such part of such material.” The preceding paragraphs represent at best a brief sum- mary-interpretation of some of the highlights of the revised Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974. In later issues of Smoke Signals there will be more elaboration of some of the specifics of the act. The reader is encouraged to follow this column. The preceding paragraphs represent at best a brief sum- mary-interjH'etation of some of the highlights of the revised Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974. In later issues of Smoke Signals, there will be more elaboration of some of the specifics of the act. The reader is encouraged to follow this column.
Chowan University Student Newspaper
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Feb. 5, 1975, edition 1
6
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