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North Carolina School of the Arts
Letter to the Editor
Dorm Advisor Questions Student Responsibility
To the Editor:
I believe it is time that some
myths which permeate the
lifestyles prevalent on this
campus be dispelled.
To begin witii, the issue most
immediate for me, if not the most
important; I have just spent the
better part of an hour, and the
greater part of a large garbage
can, picl^g up the debris around
Moore Dormitory. Certainly,
Moore is not the only littered area
on campus, but it is the place onto
which my apartment windows
open, so it particularly concerns
me.
“Pollution” is a tired topic. Yet
some of us still have not gotten
the point. When the fact of trash
being dumped from dormitory
windows onto the bushes below
was raised in a Moore Dormitory
meeting, it was met with jeering,
feigned disbelief, em
barrassment. Those who laughed
the loudest were, of course, the
guilty ones, guilty not only of
material pollution, but of most of
the noise problem as well.
I realize how difficult is is to
make a dormitory into a home;
long glaring halls, rows of doors
opening into room after room
after room, cinderblock, a
roommate one has never known
before: characteristics of dor
mitories which just do not add up
to the warmth and comfort of a
true home, which one might
respect enough to not litter.
The myths seem to go
something like this: “what I do
affects no one but me. I am not
Editorial
NCSA IN PERSPECTIVE
Being a student at N.C.S.A., one undergoes many
changes. If he’s industrious, he broadens and grows. If
he leaves himself hopen and willing to share with
others, he achieves the power of communication and-
expression that can be used to complement his artistic
development. Yet, by the time graduation rolls around
many find that they have lost the enthusiasm and desire
for artistic accomplishment they came here nursing and
hoping to guide to maturity and fullest potential. Is one’s
biggest dependency on oneself or others? Is NC.S.A. all
that one thought it would be? Did he make it all that he
could make it?
Just by the way N.C.S.A. is set up, it is easy to gain or
to lose perspective on things rapidly. Setting one’s own
pace and sticking to it or setting up a pace where one can
function is half the battle. Very often one gets so in
volved with personal artistic achievement, that im
patience, lack of determination and lack of discipline
cause him to get off track. All of these obstacles confront
a student at one point or another. Mustering up the
energy from day to day to fulfill a challenge isn’t easy,
but it isn’t impossible either.
A perfect example of artistic achievement and
balance was seen April 9, when Helen Hayes visited our
campus. Watching her instruct students, bringing
eloquence, beauty, charm and unlimited energy to the
writing of several of our modern and classical
playwrights, made me realize that my stay at N.C.S.A.
really is worthwhile. Helen Hayes at age 73 displays a
warm energy that I have seen in very few performers
here. One readily sees why her name stands out among
the theater artists and burns among the fires of the
extraordinary. One should ask himself here: Do I put
my heart, body, soul and energy into all that I do? Can I
keep it up? Can I light fires?
Accomplishment isn’t something that rubs off by
being around an artistic environment. It is a by-product
of love for your craft, the energy put forth to learn it, the
time and thought to perfect it.
-Sheila Creef
responsible for the results of my
actions. Someone else will come
along and clean up after me.”
Yes, there is a housekeeping
staff, but they are not to be ex
ploited. How supposedly aspiring
artist can create such ugliness as
garbage dumped on trees is
beyond me. How they can be
insensitive to discomfort they put
upon others (eyesores, noise) is
incomprehensible.
NCSA will continue to be the
lethargic, impersonal, quite often
unbearable place it has become
until we tegin to acknowle(^e it
as a community, and untU we
begin to respect ourselves and
our neighbors. We are not each
living in a vacuum, although
sometimes we might like to be.
NCSA often feels to me like a tiny
island whose inhabitants have
been thrown together for better
or worse, with no means of
escape. Somehow we must give
each other psycological space to
teeathe, yet simultaneouslv be
sensitive to each other’s needs:
no one should have to scream to
be heard, either figuratively or
literally.
We share the building, the
grounds; in spite of innate
inadequacies, they are all we
have to work mth, and instead of
bitching, we should work to make
them approach liveability. Most
of us would not consciously
pollute the place in which we live
comfortable.
Somehow pertinent to the issue
of conununal responsibility and
respect is the feeling of some
members that the world of our
art work and the world of our
interpersonal relationships are
two separate entities. For me,
this is a myth. My art work and
my relationships with others are
both expessions of me. I must
take responsibility for both; they
|m|
N. C. ESSAY
STAFF
April Issue
Editor: Sheila Creef
Feature Editor: Henry Pankey
Photographer: David Woolsy
Cartoonist: Duke Emsberger
Advisor: Bill King
DAVID WILSON
MICHAELBURNER
MARK CEDEL
BOBf.AMBRILL
RANDYJONES
RICK SHOENBERGER
MARGARET MCCLEARY
JOHN NEWTON
PAMELA REID
CLIFFORD YOUNG
DAVID MARSHALL
SPRING FEVER
00
One bad thing about any course is that you always
have to do some kind of assignments. So here I am
beating my brains out trying to find a subject for an
article. It’s one that has to be fairly relevant to NCSA.
You know this thing about always writing about
beauty and all of those other nice things around us never
lasts a whole year. Always, around spring you get this
stagnant feeling about your mind so strong that it could
wilt a field of daisies.
So now for two paragraphs I’ve said pretty much what
is on my mind...NOTHING!
Some great someone said somewhere sometime ago
that our minds should never become stagnant. I think
that I just found a wonderful topic for this column.
I would say that the worse thing about a stagnant
mind is that your mind is stagnant because you don’t
care about anything, so your mind has nothing to think
about and becomes rusty. (Bet you thought I was going
to say stagnant!)
When you don’t care about anything you (if
you’re like me) don’t do a thing all day but sit around.
Not getting anything done won’t bother you; the same is
true with wasting time.
One day when I had plenty of things to do, I went to
Washington Park and made a terrarium. (I think one
reason this is turning out to be such a boring article is
because I can’t concentrate because someone is playing
Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” so loudly that I’m
sure my ears will rings for days.)
That brings up another interesting topic: Why should
people have to wait until quiet hours to start studying?
That might be one reason why people hate to get up in
the morning. Another is facing that breakfast tray, but
that’s another subject.
One element of good writing is that you should deliver
in such a way that the reader’s mind won’t wander from
the material. That’s very hard to do when
my mind is doing just that.
Many people when questioned would have no feelings
on their own lives or anything that touches them. These
people are very boring for they really have nothing to
relate to in normal conversation. Have you every
counted how many times you give your own ideas in a
conversation? If you don’t have any opinions, so much
for your conversation.
You know something? If this article were taken to the
right people (some of which are in our school) it could be
pushed off as a masterpiece of contemporary literature.
True, you would have to dig pretty deep to find all of the
hidden meanings. It’s funny in most English classes
when that ever beloved subject of poetry comes
around. Here is a classful of students bored to tears
trying to remember what the teacher says about each
gem. To memorize a teacher’s interpretation of a poem,
how stagnating!
Well! I’ve touched on so many things, how could I ever
end a mess like this? I think that some of it makes
sense; the other...
Oh, by the way, the plants in my thing are turning
brown. I bet its because I watered them with water from
a stagnant pen.'. Marl Cedel
certainly belong to no one else. I
am the same person in both
worlds, although I may express
myself differently in each, ^^at I
do in my art touches upon and is
touched by what happends in my
social life. Each realm of my life
feeds off of the other. Ballet
teachers are not just training
bodies, they are dealing with
whole persons, as are music
teachers, drama and design
instructors, etc.
Likewise, teachers also are
whole persons, not merely
automatons filing in the rolls of
teachers. The same applies to
dormitory supervisors, janitors,
administrators, secretaries.
None of us are stereotypes.
Students are not merely
“Students,” they are people,
individuals. Stereotypes never
ring true; we are all people who
can, for the most part, be
reasoned with, bargained with,
reckoned with, talked with; none
of us are untouchables.
The myth is that we must all be
parties to different camps,
working at cross-purposes:
houseparents are prison guards,
and students are merely trying to
be free; administrators work for
different goals than do faculty. In
separation is the easiest- and
least productive - way to live.
Members of the faculty and of
the administrative staff are just
now beginning to discover that
talking with one another as
mutually respectable human
beings eases tensions and makes
possible creative working -
together - with - differences.
(Cont. on Page 8)
In Memoriam
All of us do not make torrents in
the Stream of Life, some make
quiet ripples. Fred Marshall was
one of these, but the ripples he
made are stilled... by death, on
Sunday afternoon.
His death will not touch the
entire campus population. Many
of you are unaware of the man
and his contribution to life at
N.C.S.A. Those of us who knew
Fred, grieve at the loss of a loyal
friend.
Fred began his work here as a
Security Officer and later joined
the Student Affairs Staff as a
Dormitory Assistant. An humble
position for an humble man who
believed that beneath the callous
outward appearance there was
some good in every man. He
realized the human need for love
and understanding. Student
Affairs personnel will miss his
frequent comment when
discussing problem students,
“They need our help.” He gave
them his help generously in his
quiet, unassuming way. He still
had faith in those that he and
others could not help. When our
efforts failed, he still would say,
“One of these days that student
will straighten out and make a
fine person, he’s just mixed up
now.”
Work on this campus was his
contribution in the lives of others
Physical impariment following
heart surgery and lung com
plications should have causec
him to retire years ago. Fred did
not want this, he said he loved the
students and wanted to stay on
He had planned to retire in June
and “d9 some fishing.” He did not
want to leave. Fishing would not
replace the emptiness of leaving
here.
To those of us who knew him,
he has left an emptiness, as well
as a hope that his dedication may
inspire others. To those of you
who never knew him, your loss is
greater than ours. By his quiet
ripples among us, he has lived a
fitting epitaph:
He Gave His Life For Others
- Margaret Porter, R.N.