the n.c. essay
An Essay “First” With 14 Reporters
Page 3
A News G>nference With Dean Hyatt
“I think we are fairly visible; more so than, let’s say Reynolds
High School. We are more visible because we perform....”
N.C. ESSAY: WHAT DO YOU
FEEL IS YOUR SPECIFIC
GOAL AS DIRECTOR OF
STUDENT AFFAIRS? WHAT
ARE YOUR GOALS AS AN
ORGANIZATION, AND DO YOU
FEEL THAT YOU ARE
ACHIEVING THESE GOALS?
DEAN HYATT: WeU, I think in
the area of student affairs, we
have several goals that we hope
to achieve. I think one goal
clearly is the health of the school
community. I think we are ap
proaching the situation, where
we may achieve that goal. I think
that we are near the adequacy of
the staff, we now have.
When I came here four years
ago, there was only one person
doing counseling; now we have
two fulltime counselors and one
part time counselor, specifically,
in the area of counseling,
students with whatever type of
emotional or health problem,
they may have.
We now have an additional
nurse, on our staff, and we have a
doctor, who now comes on
campus, which was not the case
four years ago. Last year was the
first year, we could make an
arrangement that we could
regularly have a doctor on
campus, even though, it be only
for four hours a week. We've
noticed that the number of
students, as patients, who were
seen by the doctor last year, rose
enormously over the previous
year, when we were sending
students who wanted to see a
doctor off-campus. ..which
means students were probably
seeing a doctor before thongs got
as bad as they might have gotten
in previous years medically. So
therefore there is a higher degree
of preventive medicine, being
practiced, as a result of our
better staffing. From that
standpoint I think we have come
a long ways in four years toward
being able to respond ap
propriately on both the
preventive medicine level and
the treatment of emotional and
physical problems..
Another area where I think,
this year for the first time we are
near to achieving one of our
goals is in the area of student
activities. This is the first year,
we have had a full time director
of student activities. And cer
tainly one of the goals that I have
had since I have been here, and
we have carried out partially,
and now on a full scale way, has
been to provide a variety of
ouUets for students in which they
could let off steam, relax,
recreate themselves after having
gone through rather heavy,
tense, kinds of pressure fill^
arts and acadenuc programs.
It is awfully important for
students to be able to relax, it’s
important for students to have
persons around who can assist
them in this regard, by helping
plan activities, and so on.
You are probably aware that in
a community like this, where
there are such heavy arts and
academic involvements; there is
relatively less time for students
to plan their own activities, as
there might be in another setting.
More importantly, we now have
adequate staffing, and so only
this year do we have a fulltime
person directing student ac
tivities, but we have a person on
the college level.Mrs. Shortridge,
who works at least half-time in
the area of assisting with student
activities, especially desiped for
college students. So both in terms
of the number of staff members
and the concentration of the staff,
I think we are coming close to
adiieving a major goal there.
The facilities, in terms of
student activities, are another
major area we are concentrating
on. The addition of this building,
the commons building, and with
addition ot another staff mem
ber, in part of the recreation
director, Mosel Duncan, who
has made a great contribution to
the successM operation of this
building. I don’t really see how
the students, who were here in
the first years of the school, kept
themselves together emotionally,
with the few facilities they had to
recreate in.
Altogether, I say that this
building and the staff has finally
come to a point, where I think,
they are coming close to be able
to achieve their goals in the area
of student activities.
I think another area which has
been a goal of mine, is to see that
the student council involved in
the decision making process in
the school and that would mean
at every level where it would
seem to be appropriate, and
certainly be involved in the
communication process. I
couldn’t pretend that I was solely
responsible for this-Qiancellor
Ward has made a major con
tribution at this point, I think in
terms of opening up channels of
communication and decision
making for the students. The
student government on its own,
through leadership, especially
beginning with Tommy Williams
and coming forward— has made
major conMbutions of its own in
this regard. It seems to me that
now the channels of com
munication are clear and are
relatively open to students and
that seems awfully important to
me as a goal, that I would have
desired four years ago and I see
being realized at the present
time.
Q: IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE
SOME SORT OF POINTS FROM
WHERE STUDENTS CAN GO
AND CONTACT THE
SECURITY GUARDS?
A: I think again that most
security operations that I know
about have a central office, out of
which the security officers work,
but at which, point there is
always one person on duty, who is
in touch with the other security
guard by walkie-talkie and can be
contact^ by anyone else by
fdione.
Having only two security
guards at most on this campus at
one time, and trying to patrol in
any way like an adequate
fashion, means that you can’t
have one person in one place
waiting for calls, which I see
again, is mainly a lack of per
sonnel. I think we need three
security guards in the evening
and two during the day, if we are
going to maintain an adequately
organized and effective security
system.
Q: DOES THE SCHOOL HAVE
ANY KIND OF POLICY CON
CERNING VANDALISM OF
STUDENTS, FURNITURE,
DORM ROOMS, AND WHAT IS
IT?
A: Yes, the policy of the school
with regard to vandalism, or the
unwarranted breakage of fur
niture or destruction of property
is this: if it occurs within the
residence halls, whether in a
hallway or lounge, and if we can
not find out who damaged the
property, then the entire dorm
shares the cost, of replacing or
repairing the item which was
destroy^ or damaged. That cost
is deducted from the $25.00 room
deposit, which each student
makes when he pays his fees at
the beginning of the year. Also,
that is the same policy with
regard to damage, which may
occur inside the dorm rooms. If a
student, lives in a private room,
double or single, then the
damages are presumed to be his,
so he is then assessed for the
damages, if the room was cleanly
painted and in order when the
student moved in. If there are two
people in the room, and if it can
not be clearly determined which
one is responsible, then they both
will be assessed.
Now in the case of students who
are apprehended, in a situation
like tWs, not only must they
restore or replace what has been
damaged or destroyed, but also,
they are subject to go before the
JucUcial Board for disciplinary
proceedings.
Q: WHAT ABOUT CASES
WHERE A STUDENT COMMITS
EXCESSIVE NOISE?
A: The excessive noise
problem is just that a problem,
which we have tried to address in
a very specific way thSs year. I
recently sent out a rather
detailed memo along with
Richard Buckley, which outlined
a procedure and a policy for
dealing with people, who make
excessive noise. Now we are
talking in particular about noise
within the residence haUs and the
immediately surrounding
area,ril just give you the gist of
that policy, but you can get the
details from the memo I sent out.
The procedure is this, for a
student in the resident halls, who
he^s excessive noise, and at any
point, and certainly after quite
hours, he has the alternative of
speaking to the person making
the noise and if that solves the
problem fine. If it does not solve
the problem, or if he doesn’t care
to take action, he can go to his
Resident Advisor, who has
agreed to follow this policy, then
they will go together or the R.A.
may go alone and ask the person
to stop making the noise. If the
person stops making the
noise,then obviously, there is no
problem; however, LE the person
continues to make the noise, he is
told if he is warned again, then he
will have to be brought to the
Dean of Student Affairs office. If
he has to be brought to my office
and admits that he made the
noise, then he is placed on
[X'obation. If he violates that
(X’obation by making excessive
noise another time, then he is
automatically suspended for a
week from school.
Q: YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS
CONCERNING CAMPUS
SECURITY?
Dean Hyatt: I think that there
is a great need for a security
force We during the day time. I
think that it is very important for
us to have our own security
people and as much police
IX’otection from the town as we
possibly can get, but I think in
particidar we have a major
responsibility here to provide
security of our own during the
day as well as during the evening.
I ttok then with this security
force present on campus, then we
can achieve an effective security
system. Currently we have a very
solid system, but we lack in the
numbers of our staff.
I think that the kinds of in
cidents would decrease if people
knew that we had security of
ficers on duty at all times that
could apprehend them.
Q: WHAT DO YOU THINK
ABOUT THE DRUG SITUATION
ON THIS CAMPUS. DO YOU
THINK THAT IT HAS GOTTEN
OVER THE PAST FOUR
YEARS?
A: I think that the drug
situation got rather difficult here
a couple years ago, and over the
last year and a half, I would say
that there has been a decided
improvement. Let me say what I
mean by that.
I think, first of all, we have
never had a serious heroin
problem, which does not say that
students have not tried heroin
here. But I’ve known of no one
certainly in the last few years, I
can’t recall anyone prior to that,
who had been hassled by drugs.
Certainly no one in the last couple
of years, who remained a student
here, had a significant problem
with heroin.
LSD, amphetamines, and some
of the halucinigens, have been a
rather consistent problem, but I
feel this year and probably
towards the end of last year,
fewer and fewer students seemed
Continued on Page 8
“We are getting all kinds of publicity and some of it we
bring on ourselves.”
On Vandalism, School Image . , .