PAGE 2 — THE DECREE — JANUARY 27,1989
Mht Beet
OFFICIAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF
NORTH CAROLINA WESLEYAN COLLEGE
Editor-in-Chief ^—Don Rhodes
Arts and Entertainment— Mike Trubey
Contributing Editor — Dell Lewis
Photograpiier — Margaret Culver
TAe Decw is located in the Student Union, North Carolina
Wesleyan College, Wesleyan College Station, Rocky Mount, NC
27801. Policy is determined by the Editorial Board of The Decree.
Republiciation of any matter herein with6ut the express consent of
the Editorial Board is strictly forbidden. The Decree\s composed
and printed by The Spring Hope Enterprise.
Opinions published do not necessarily reflect those of North
Carolina Wesleyan College.
NCWC students
should speak out
Scoop, where are you?
You and the Archbishop
have let us down! We have
a hard time believing that
you are happy with every
thing on this campus.
In case you haven’t no
ticed, Bellemonte looks the
same as it did the day the
tractor pulled it across the
field, and there are still no
condoms available on cam
pus.
We,do have a new pool
table in the game room, but
more than half the students
don’t even know where the
Student Life office is lo
cated.
And what about the
dorms, er Residence Halls
(sorry Ms. Derrick!)? Do
you realize how many mir
rors, windows, and doors
have been broken this year?
All we want is your in
put, so please oblige.
As for the rest of the
campus, we welcome your
input, also.
m40^oFpeiio4L
niHLliY TK& PLO H4S
M W IT!
/
PI.O?
Ninrpw?
Policy on condoms wrong
Dear Editor:
As a North Carolina Wesleyan
student, I was disturbed to discover
the college’s position on campus dis
tribution of condoms. Perhaps the
possibility of AIDS on our campus
seems too farfetched for our offi
cials.
I’d like to f)oint out that in a re
cent study of college students, one in
400 tested positive for AIDS anti
bodies. If this is so, then statistically
N.C. Wesleyan has an AIDS infec-
Remembering New Orleans
By STEVE FEREBEE
So there I was on Bourbon Street,
amidst a seemingly endless crowd of
semi-hysterical, joy-filled party ani
mals. I was trying to remember where
I had been an hour or so before dis
cussing metaphysical poetry with
that woman from Stanford. Or was it
Berkeley? I wasn’t even sure why I
wanted her, but it seemed important
at the time. When I bumped into a
guy with a foot-high purple mohawk
I thought, “I don’t think we’re in
Rocky Mount anymore. Dr. Steve.”
I was in New Orleans right after
Christmas for the Modem Language
Association Convention, or, as
LaLonde’s friend Bob put it, leaning
over one of those ridiculously small
bar tables. I was surrounded by
17,000 identical grey suits with yel
low name tags printed on them.
For some reason my memories of
New Orleans are a bit jagged. 1 do
remember a chocolate dessert which
looked like an abstract painting and
tasted like heaven. I ate this while
LaLonde urged the waitress to notice
his better traits. [We were there quite
a while.] I also recall an Elvis imper
sonator who was suddenly flung out i
I
Dr. Stp^:
r Muses '
of a bar onto Bourbon Street; he
bounced twice and then disappeared
into the carnival crowd.
And I remember wandering
through the packed streets looking
for my lost friend from Stanford, or
Berkeley. I walked past a woman
propj)cd up on two bar stools; she was
singing and sweating the blues and
looking as if she already knew the
Bush presidency’s effects on poor
people. Then this guy with his yellow
card upside dovm [a real rebel] hailed
me, insisted that I had gone to grad
school with him, and pushed me into
a heavy-metal-scene bar where this
very skinny adolescent who was
screaming blue meanies and shaking
his chains. Suddenly, I was elsewhere
dancing to dixieland jazz with one of
my former students who is now a
professor at a college in Rorida.
Next'ji was sitting in a night club
which shimmered with turquoise
New Year’s garlands. I was looking
at a stage — now, I know how this
sounds — where Nancy Reagan and
Reiza Gorbachev were in a ladies’
room powdering their noses and
bitching about each other’s clothes.
Then Barbara Bush sailed in, barely
noticing them, went to the last stall,
and opened the door to reveal the
First Lady’s Royal John, a gold com
mode and red velvet paper. I looked
around the room and saw some of the
most beautiful women in the world; I
suddenly realized there wasn’t a
female in the house. [How long does
it take those guys to do that?] Before
I could ask, I was out on Bourbon
Street again.
It had been a long day LaLonde,
Anderson, and I began many hours
before by interviewing several
people for a job, subtly digging into
their inner-most feelings about
teaching composition. At, noon I
rushed off to hear some papers on
topics such as “Feminist Peace Poli
tics in Virginia Woolf’s Political
Writings.” Another session [on “Cul
tural Criticism”] began as, proceeded
(Continued on Page 3)
Letters to
the Editor
tion on campus. Three practices
known to spread the AIDS virus are
homosexuality, bisexuality, and
intravenous drug usage. It is no se
cret that each of these occur at N.C.
Wesleyan. Imagine how embar
rassed our officials will be when a
documented AIDS case occurs on
campus — knowing that it could
possibly have been prevented by
making condoms available to stu
dents.
Condoms have other benefits be
sides preventing AIDS. They are an
effective method of birth control.
Considering the number of students
from NCWC that have abortions
each year, it is obvious that the col
lege would benefit from condoms as
a means of birth control. Lastly, con
doms prevent other types of sexually
transmitted diseases besides AIDS.
Pregnancy and disease occur on our
campus, two factors our college offi
cials should have considered in their
decision.
Officials gave a few reasons for
their decision against condoms, but
the one fact that was emphasized was
the possibility of a lawsuit. I do not
agree with this excuse. It is highly
imlikely that a student would sue the
college for money. If a student was
interested in money, he would sue
the manufacturer.
If N.C. Wesleyan knowingly dis
tributed defective condoms, then
there would be the f>ossibility of a
lawsuit. Any other scenario seems
unlikely. If providing condoms to
students could save one life, then it
would be worth all the so-called risks
of offering them on campus.
Students views were also over
looked in the final decision regarding
condom distribution. In our college’s
Student Life office, Financial Aid
office, and Admissions office are
signs, proudly proclaiming: Students
Come First. If this is so, then maybe a
student vote should have been taken.
Students pay tuition here and expect
certain benefits, such as having a
voice in the issues that affect them. A
vote would see if there is sufficient
student interest in providing con
doms. If our college is concerned
with students at all, then the least
they can do is consult the students
and incorporate their views in the
final decision.
Students, we are the ones who
make this college. Without us, there
is no college. We should have the
right to be heard, before decisions
directly affecting us are made. Le
gally, we are adults now; why don’t
we start acting like adults and de
mand a more active role in campus
decision making? We have a Student
Government Association, maybe
now is the time to implement it.
Name withheld by request
No point to condoms
on Wesleyan campus
Dear Editor:
What’s all this controversy I hear
about dispensing condoms on cam
pus? Dean Marron has decided not to
dispense condoms on campus, while
others say that those latex life savers
should be free to infiltrate this institu
tion and corrupt the minds of our in
nocent student body.
Come on, wake up, people! Dean
Marron is absolutely right. Whoever
thinks that condoms should be dis
pensed on this campus should be
(Continued on Page 3)