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VOL. 3, NO. 9
NORTH CAROLINA WESLEYAN COLLEGE, ROCKY MOUNT, N.C.
FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1988
PepsiCo head to keynote symposium
D. Wayne Calloway, Chakman of
the Board and Chief Executive Offi
cer of PepsiCo, Inc., will be the key
note speaker at a symposium on
“Eastern North Carolina in a Global
Economy” at North Carolina
Wesleyan College Wednesday, April
6.
William C. Friday, President
Emeritus of the University of North
Carolina and President of the Wil
liam R. Kenan Jr. Fund, will lead a
discussion of strategies for regional
development titled “Education,
North Carolina Wesleyan and the
Future of Eastern North Carolina.”
The symposium will be held from 9
a.m. to 12:15 p.m. April 16 in cafete
ria on the Wesleyan campus.
The symposium is part of the two
days of activities being held in con
junction with the Inauguration of the
college’s new President, Dr. Leslie
H. Gamer Jr.
Gene Lewis, chairman of the
inaugural committee stated, ‘Eastern
North Carolina is going through a
time of great social and economic
change, and North Carolina
Wesleyan College is dedicated to
making a positive contribution to that
transformation under Dr. Gamer’s
leadership. This symposium will ex
amine the impact of that change on
our region and the challenges and
opportunities that it presents to
Wesleyan Colleges.”
He added, “Wayne Calloway,
William Friday and the other distin
COMPUTER DONATION Standing alongside the System/34 in Wesleyan’s computer lab are Dr. Leslie H.
Garner Jr. (left), president of Wesleyan, and Sam Johnson, a partner In the firm of Poyner & Spruill., which
donated the computer for Instructional use.
Law firm donates computer
The Raleigh and Rocky Mount
legal firm of Poyner & Spruill has
donated an IBM System/34 main
frame computer to North Carolina
Wesleyan College, Wesleyan Presi
dent Dr. Leslie H. Gamer Jr. said.
‘This donation does more than
provide Wesleyan with more com
puter equipment,” Gamer said. “It
will enable us to enrich our educa
tional offerings and meet the needs of
the surrounding community busi
ness. By their gift, Poyner and Spruill
have conveyed confidence in
Wesleyan’s ability to meet these
needs and we are delighted to re
spond.”
The arrival of the System/34 co
incided with a community survey
initiated by the Computer Informa
tion Services Department. The sur
vey results showed that RPGII was a
popular computer language in the
Rocky Mount area and that
Wesleyan should offer such a course.
“Our priority is to establish the RPG
program and add the community to
our service agenda,” said Leo
Bishop, director of the college’s data
processing department. “This satis
fies one of the missions of our col
lege, which is to be cognizant of the
community’s needs and expand the
computer arena for our students to
work and opxjrate in. Everyone bene
fits.”
The System/34 mainframe will be
used primarily for teaching the RPG
n programming language, said Bob
Lewis, chairman of Wesleyan’s
Computer Information Systems De
partment, though its capabilities will
be expanded later to teach other
(Continued on Page 4)
guished speakers at our symposium
will provide a valuable perspective
on the future of the college and our
region in a changing world econ
omy.”
Calloway is a native of Elkin,
N.C. and a graduate of Wake Forest
University, where he presently serves
on the Board of Trastees. He has been
with PepsiCo, which is headquar
tered in Purchase, N.Y., since 1967
and has played a major role in its
becoming one of the largest and most
successful consumer products com
panies in the world. At the sympo
sium, Calloway will speak on “ Link
ing Eastern North Carolina into the
Global Economy.”
Since 1983, he has served succes
sively as PepsiCo’s Executive Vice
President and Chief Financial Offi
cer. He orchestrated a major restruc
turing of the corporation’s op>erations
that won both him and the company
(Continued on Page 3)
Success rate up
among students
who took WPE
By RHONDA SHARPE
On March 25, 63 of the 88 stu
dents passed the Writing Proficiency
Exam (WPE), a 72 percent success
rate.
The Goldsboro extension had the
highest passage rate with 88 percent.
Rocky Mount followed with 65 per
cent, Raleigh with 64 pwrcent, and
New Bern with 62 percent. This was
the fifth time the exam has been
given since Wesleyan established the
policy of acquiring and administer
ing the WPE.
The first time the exam was given
this academic year, on Nov. 3, 52
percent of the students passed. Dr.
Emily Meredith, chairperson of the
Writing Proficiency Exam Commit
tee, attributes the increased success
rate to the quality of the question and
the fact that students are taking the
exam more seriously.
The question asked on Nov. 3
was, “Should jiersonal characteris
tics be considered when choosing a
president? IF so, which ones and
why? Or do you feel that such issues
are not important, that only the pro
fessional qualifications matter/ Or do
you have some other view? Support
your position, whatever it is, with
clear examples and details.”
The March 25 question was, “If
you could choose the ideal commu
nity in which to live, what qualities
would be most important to you?
Choose at least three qualities and
give specific reasons for each.”
Meredith cited the following cri
teria for judging an exam paper: Did
the student answer the question? Did
the student state clearly at the outset
what his/her position was and sup
port it with examples? Did the stu
dent write with an understanding of
the convention of the English lan
guage, ie. use of grammar, punctua
tion, and sentence structure? Did the
student write clearly?
Meredith added that students
who pass the test usually plan their
time carefully before they write.
Before each reading session of
the exam papers, the committee goes
through a three-hour training session
to make sure all standards are clear
and that each member of the commit
tee uses the same criteria to judge an
exam paper. Meredith added that
with the assistance of Dr. Chris
Carstens, the committee constantly
checks the validity and reliability of
the reading standards.
Carstens uses a comparison of the
scores of at least two independent
readers to check the level of reliabil
ity. He also compares the obtained
score with the chance score to check
agreement. Carstens added that if
there is no variance in the two scores
something could be wrong with the
judgment of the reader. However, he
stressed that his function was to
make sure the exam tests for things
(Continued on Page 4)