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Fayetteville, NC Vol. XXXVII, No. 3 Monday, November 1,1999
"Be All That You Can Be" At Methodist College
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Soldiers can take a few months off their regular
soldier also receives the North Carolina
Legislative and Contractual Grants, and
Methodist College offers the Albritton-
Hurley scholarship to cover the rest of the
expense.
Boyd Parsons, the director of the Ft.
Bragg branch of Methodist College, stated
that 40 soldiers are currently taking advan
tage of this reenlistment “bonus” at Meth
odist College.
Staff Sergeant Ricky Nagrampa, stated
that he chose Methodist College to pursue
his civilian education simply because the
dates when the courses were offered did
Photo suhmiilet/ hy Cindy S. Bridges
"job " to attend college as a reelistment bonus
not conflict with his military obligations.
He is taking advantage of this program be
cause it was the only reenlistment bonus
offered to him. SSG Nagrampa is in the Spe
cial Forces and this makes it difficult to find
the time to attend college. “This is the first
time that I have been in-country more than
three months at a time. I am usually de
ployed somewhere within two months af
ter returning home. Being able to attend
class now is pure luck!” SSG Nagrampa is,
however, obligated to his team if they need
him. He stated, “I have to check in once a
week or call to let them know I’m still alive.”
MC Website Refreshed
By Cindy S. Bridges
Editor
“I. [state your name], do solemnly swear
(or affirm) that I will support and defend
the Constitution of the United States
agamst all enemies, foreign and domestic;
that I will bear true faith and allegiance to
the same; and that I will obey the orders of
the President of the United States and the
orders of the officers appointed over me,
according to regulations and the Uniform
Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
In order for the Army to convince their
soldiers to repeat that phrase more than
one time, they often have to offer a “reen
listment bonus.” Choice of station, mon
etary rewards, and stabilization are a few
bonuses that the Army offers soldiers to
reenlist for a specified period of time. The
military has a poor retention rate so these
bonuses are utilized as incentives to keep
the soldiers in the military.
Soldiers who reenlist under the provi
sions of AR (Army Regulation) 601-280,
Current Station Stabilization Reenlistment
Option, may elect to participate in an edu
cation incentive program. This program
provides the soldiers up to one semester
of duty-exempt time to pursue civilian edu
cational goals. While AR 601-280 does not,
in itself, provide for continuing civilian edu
cation as an additional reenlistment incen
tive, Fort Bragg, along with many Army
bases, authorizes soldiers to undertake ci
vilian education programs designed to en
hance their professional development in
conjunction with their commitment to re
main in the Army with a stabilization guar
antee prescribed in AR 601-280. Under the
provisions of this option, soldiers at Fort
Bragg are able to pursue full time civilian
education requirements. They are able to
take vocation courses or up to one semes
ter of college-level studies with the guar
antee that they will not be transferred within
the one year “stabilization.”
To guarantee that they “reap the ben
efits” of this incentive program, soldiers at
Fort Bragg must take advantage of their
chance to pursue a civilian education within
one year of the date of reenlistment. To
even qualify for AR 601 -280, soldiers must
reenlist for a minimum of three years.
Although there are a variety of reen
listment bonuses, the semester of college
tends to be the most popular one. Many
soldiers like the idea of taking a “few months
off’ from their regular job to go to school.
Some soldiers with demanding military jobs
are often unable to attend evening classes,
so this opportunity enables them to take
college courses. This is important in the
Army because civilian education is an in
tegral part of the promotion system! Each
credit hour that a soldier completes equals
one promotion point. This may not sound
like much, but soldiers will tell you that one
point can make a difference in being pro
moted to the next rank.
There are many soldiers taking advan
tage of the educational incentive program
at Methodist College. As long as the sol
dier registers for 18 credit hours, his or her
tuition is paid in full. The only expense the
soldier incurs is for textbooks and supplies.
The Army pays a portion of tuition, the
By Jonathan Joy
Contributing Writer
The term “webmaster” is something
that has evolved during the last decade. In
fact, the word sounds like something that
came from the game Dungeons and Drag-
ons\
A webmaster is someone who main
tains a website. They delete outdated ma
terial, add new information, and update and
refresh existing information. Since the de
velopment and success of the Internet,
webmasters have sprung up everywhere
as companies compete to have the best and
most exciting websites.
Methodist College has maintained a
website since 1996. An off campus com
pany provided this service for two years.
In 1998, Danielle Crawford was hired as a
part-time webmaster. This year, Methodist
College decided to make the webmaster a
full-time position.
Michael C. Molter, a 1994 graduate of
Methodist College, is the new webmaster
on campus. He accepted the position in
August and has made considerable
progress in improving the college’s website.
He has created a new home page, a clickable
campus tour, and a PGM website, to name
a few of the additions. Mr. Molter is also
responsible for getting the Monarch Mes
senger online.
Mr. Molter’s future projects include
maintaining a campus calendar online, add
ing a business affairs site, and adding
checklists fot students’ majors.
Molter stated that he would like the
website to be “more usable for current stu-
Continued on Page 2
Bumpy Ride Ahead
By Cindy S. Bridges, Editor
and Chuck Heaton, Staff Writer
Don’t speed on Methodist College cam
pus. That is the message that students got
when they returned from Fall Break to dis
cover that nine new speed bumps had been
placed around campus.
The vice president for business affairs,
Mr. Gene Clayton, stated that “the college
administration felt that there was excessive
speeding by vehicles on campus.” He em
phasized that President Hendricks re
quested the speed bumps to be put in place
“to reduce the speed of vehicular traffic for
the safety of students and staff”
Mr. Clayton said that the Department
of Police and Public Safety conducted a
survey to determine where there was speed
Photo bv Cindv S. Bridges
Speed bumps get a coat of paint.
Continued on Page 3