Newspapers / Methodist University Student Newspaper / Sept. 25, 1992, edition 1 / Page 2
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Page2 SMALLTALK September25,1992 Does Methodist College Have A Co-Ed Dormitory by; jeannie denman If Methodist College gets such an unbalanced mix of men and women each year, why is there a wall separating Gabber Hall into two distinct halves? Would it not be more practical (and better allow for expansion) to make Gabber Hall truly co educational? Even if men were placed on one side of the dorm and women on the other, were the population of either sex suddenly to rise, the ratio of men to women in Gabber could fluctuate with it. Instead of building a wall and installing another alarm system, the college might have better spent those funds by fixing air-conditioners and plumbing, improving the basements of dorms to iise as meeting places, or updating equipment for the science departments. This is not to say that Methodist has not made many improvements over the summer, such as the purchase of new computers and the addition of WordPerfect 5.1 on hard drives, but couldn't more computers have been purchased with the funds spent on the Garber wall? True, if there were no wall, men and women would live on the same floor, and a visitation policy would be almost impossible to enforce—then again, in a co-ed dorm, is a visitation policy necessary? In the defense of the college and of parents who send their sons and daughters here, there should be places at a "good Christian college" where a father can be sure his daughter won't be harassed by "boys" in the middle of the night. Let those places be the single-sex dorms-Mr. Smith, ask your daughter to live in Weaver if you are worried about her safety. However, for those of us with friends of both sexes, who study and play cards at odd hours, and who would like to be able to work with a friend about a personal problem without having to walk up and down a dozen flights of stairs, we would like people to realize that many of us, students though we may be, are mature enough to handle living on the same hall as someone of the opposite sex. Yes> there may be some problems, but if the college questions the ability of sev- enteen-year-olds to handle a co-ed dorm their first time away from home, assign rooms in Garber on a seniority basis to those persons with "clean" college records. Some people may worry about privacy in a co-ed dorm: it should not be an issue- -Garberrooms are ananged in "suites" of two rooms connected by a bathroom. Students won't have to walk down the hall to showers and risk being seen by members of the opposite sex. Besides, from noon to midnight, persons of both sexes walk down the halls of the dorms; if a female wants ice she has to go to the males' laundry room to the only ice machine; and, in order to work in the publications' room, the editors (all of them female) have to walk across the male first floor to get to the Publications room located in the basement. To be fair, there are probably a myriad of political problems about which 1 am ig norant which would stand in the way of Methodist College doing anything so progres sive as having a co-ed dormitory. However, from a practical standpoint, the Garber wall seems to be an unnecessary (and probably an expensive) addition to the campus for which the funds could have been better spent elsewhere. SMALL TALK Editors-in-Chief; Theatre and Arts Editor: Last Word Editor: Manager for Advertising and Business Affairs: Staff Writers: Contributing Photographers: Faculty Advisor: Technical Assistance; Martine Lowry and Kim Shackleford Sarah Shew Jeannie Denman Joy Godwin Kirkpatrick Annette Hall Tim Benfield Crystal Grizzard Joy Godwin Kirkpatrick Bill Billings Cathy Clayton Dr. Michael Colonnese Dr. Robert Peikins Published monthly by the SMALL TALK staff during academic sessions of Methodist College. Advertising rates available from the SMALL TALK advisor, T-231 in the Trustees Buildirig, 630-7085. Opinions expressed herein are those of the respective writers and do not necessarily re flect official college views. Methodist College does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, national or eth nic origin or religious denominations in the administration of its educational policies, scholarships and loan programs, athletics, or any other college-administered program. LETTER TO THE EDITOR... METHODIST COLLEGE 5400RamseySirect. • Fayctieville.N.C2S3Il-l420 August 18, 1992 The Editor Small Talk Methodist College Dear Editor: Here are two pieces of information which may be of interest to your readers. (1) Analysis of grades for introductory courses in Philosophy and Religion taught by regular department members in the day program for 1991-92 shows a slight increase in the Grade Point Average over the same figures for the previous yeai. This finding should help allay the fears of some students that the new 13-point grading system would bring about a decline in GPA's. (2) The same data reveal that no regulcr rmmber of the department varies as much as one- tenth of a letter grade from the departmental average. Popular notions that some instructors are tougher than others are misconceptions, unrelated to the facts. Sincerely yours, Garland Knott Chair, Philosophy and Religion Hurricane Hits Close To Home by Annette Hall More than 9 years ago I lived on Homestead Air Force Base. This past August I turned on the television to find that Hurricane Andrew had leveled southern Florida and that Homestead was gone. "Gone? You're kidding," I said to myself. As scenes flashed on the screen, I found there were buildings I could actu ally recognize, despite the fact they were half destroyed: the triangular building which must have been the Chapel we used to pass on the way to the BX (Base Ex change); Coral Castle; the tropical pink houses located north of Cutler Ridge on the way to Dadeland; the hospital where Dad used to work. What 1 was seeing on television was what could have happened to me years ago if Hurricane David had unexpectantly taken the shortcut to the Gulf of Mexico, instead of running along the coast. My emotional experience with Hurricane Andrew from a physical dis tance can be summed up in one phrase: 1 am stunned. For Mrs. Rorke, an English instructor here on campus. Hurricane Andrew hit a little closer to home. Her sister-in-law's family (not military related) lives in Homestead, in a neighborhood across the street from the Air Force base. Needless to say, their house was totalled-barely anything is left to be salvaged. To really appreciate the violence of the storm, a person needs to be there, as Mrs. Rorke's husband was after the hurricane hit. She said he described the damage as a "war zone," and, as she was telling me this, I could imagine him standing in that end less sea of rubble looking for items that may have survived the hurricane. Every thing in the southern part of the state has disappeared. The "old Florida charm Mrs. Rorke liked so much is gone forever, along with the houses of cypress wood and Florida pine which were once a part of it. Her sister-in-law's family (one of the lucky ones) now lives in Kendell, a sub urb of Miami, where they have relatives. Kendell was also affected by the hum- cane-in early September the electricity was still out and the mail service had just revived. Insurance money is too slow in coming and it will be days, weeks or months before even the luckiest of South Florida residents have the semblance of a normal life again. Mrs. Rorke's biggest concern is that the rush of aid will dwin dle away to nothing as people start think ing that everything is under control and that aid is no longer needed—which wiU be far from the truth. So what can we, the students and fa culty of Methodist College, do to help the hurricane victims? There is a box in the Student Union by the Student Affairs of fice, labeled, "Hurricane Help." If the box is not there when you bring your dona tions, take it elsewhere; the Texaco sta tion just off campus is taking canned goods and clothing. Pitch in a little bit every week, and keep it comingl Help make the approaching Christmas season and the year 1993 in southern Florida a special one of hope.
Methodist University Student Newspaper
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Sept. 25, 1992, edition 1
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