The Decree
VOL. 5, NO. 6
North Carolina Wesleyan College, Rocky Mount, N.C.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14,1989
Rapes lead
to banning
of program
After hearing reports of the
fourth rape of the semester, Uni
versity of Missouri at Columbia
officials in mid-November
banned all “little sister” programs
at campus fraternities.
“The environment surround
ing the little sister programs
makes it more conducive for sex
ual abuse or alcohol abuse to
occur,” said Don Graham,
Missouri’s associate director of
residential life.
Fraternity members were
charged in all four of the inci
dents.
One victim is a little sister,
and another had been invited to
become a little sister. Three of the
rapes occurred during or after
fraternity parties.
Greek leaders say they are
getting a bad rap.
“The rapes weren’t because of
the litde sister program. Guys
would have been drunk anyway
and would have done it regard
less of a party or not,” said Julie
Andersohn, president of the
Sigma Pi Little Sister program.
“The problem of date rape
(Continued on Page 4)
Student says
rape occurred
on campus
FOOD DRIVE — Wesleyan students Jay Quigley and Adam
Ipock load boxes of food for transport to the Crisis Ministry
Center. The food items were collected by the Student Activities
Committee and the ROTC program during the Wesleyan Com
munity Food Drive. (Photo by Kevin Davis.)
By TERRIE ROBERTS
An alleged rape of a North
Carolina Wesleyan College stu
dent by another Wesleyan stu
dent occurred on the North Caro
lina Wesleyan campus at ap
proximately 2 a.m. Sunday, Dec.
3.
The alleged rape was reported
to nurse Janice Stump at approxi
mately 5 a.m. by Edgecombe
resident director Patricia Grieco,
who wanted to know the proce
dure for such an incident, re
ported Stump.
Stump then contacted Nash
General Hospital to inform them
the alleged rape victim was being
transported to the hospital. The
nurse also notified Chaplain Car-
leton McKita of the incident.
At the hospital, the alleged
rape victim was given a rape ex
amination and then returned to
the Wesleyan campus. Stump’s
main concern was that the alleged
victim, “go to the hospital.”
Tim Millerick in Student Life
and Deborah Pittman, head of
campus security, were unable to
be reached for comment on the
alleged rape.
When asked how to deal with
a rape situation. Stump said,
“Students should be aware and
careful and should learn all they
can about the subject of rape.”
She also added that rape is a “sad
situation for everyone involved.”
Stump offered some precau
tions to avoid being raped. A
woman should never walk alone,
she should stay in well lit areas,
and when walking to her car at
night she should have her keys
ready.
The nurse added that the most
important precaution a woman
can remember and practice is to
“always be aware of what is
around her.”
Students find ways to cope with exams
By DHANA CHESSON
Relax! It’s exam week. This
should be the easiest week of the
semester. In theory, all papers
and revisions have been written,
all homework has been turned in,
all assignments have been read,
and learning new material is
over. The only thing college stu
dents should have to do during
this week is eat, sleep, exercise,
study/review a lot, and then take
the finals. No problem.
But in reality, most students
on the NCWC campus don’t feel
this way about exam week.
Many students do not view
exam week as a time of relaxa
tion but more as a time to panic
and become stressed out. This
mainly happens because many
feel they haven’t mastered the
materials in their courses. Ac
cording to Janice Stump, campus
nurse, college students become
stressed out because they manage
their time incorrectly, and mostly
due to the fact students put so
much pressure on each other and
themselves.
The students on campus view
exams in various ways. Some
' have plans of intense preparation
for their tests, while others are in
tensely preparing for their Christ
mas vacations.
Loren Segura says, “It de
pends upon the class, but usually
I study pretty hard,” while sopho
more, Eddie Pollock, feels more
confident when he says, “I’m not
worried, I figure if I haven’t
learned it during the semester, I
won’t learn it during exam
week.”
There is some concern for the
freshman who haven’t yet experi
enced final exams on a college
level. Senior William Sasser Jr.
feels “exam week must be harder
on some of the freshman, who are
weaker in time management
skills.” Freshman Tina Gupton,
seeing reason for concern, says,
“We are going to find that exams
in college are different from the
ones taken in high school.” But
over all, both freshman and up
perclassmen agree that exams
should not be taken lightly and
this can lead to stressful situ
ations.”
During this week we will see
students with black circles under
their eyes from staying up all
night studying, people with noses
stuck in books without any
breaks, and some pouring copi
ous amounts of coffee in their
system in hopes that caffeine can
pull them through the week. To
combat stress, none of these are
recommended.
Janice Stump recommends the
basics to help us all get through
exams: a well balanced diet,
enough sleep, fresh air, exercise,
and taking breaks during study
ing. She also reminds Wesleyan
students that exam week is not a
good time to party because the
brain is not going to function well
with alcohol in the body.
Both Dr. Carleton McKita, the
school’s chaplain, and Dr. Evans
Harrell, the school psychologist,
agree that alcohol is something
that should be avoided during
exams. Unfortunately, some stu
dents try to relieve the stress of
being ill-prepared for exams in
the form of alcohol abuse. Dr.
Harrell suggests that instead of
using caffeine pills or even “up
pers” that exercise is a much
healthier and wiser way to stay
alert in order to study.
So, if stress is a factor during
exam week, the best way to com
bat it is to maintain healthy eating
habits, get an appropriate amount
of rest and exercise and plan your
study time in advance in order to
fully prepare for each exam.