DECEMBER 6,1991—THE DECREE —PAGE 3
Center works hard to put students first
By CECILIA LYNN CASEY
North Carolina Wesleyan
College has seen many changes
this year from last year. There
are new professors, improvements
in the residence halls, a large
freshman class, new classrooms,
and a whole new center for stu
dents designed to add to the qual
ity of the education offered here
at Wesleyan.
The new Student Services
Center is new in operation and
location. Several previous de
partments have combined into (»ie
complete service and has beai
located in what used to be class
rooms. When a student walks
through the doors, he or she can
tell this is a place designed for
students.
Tina Jones, secretary for the
center, smiles at students and lets
them know from the very first
Shopping at mall
no place to foster
Christmas spirit
(Continued from Page 2)
then down; the walking kid pulled
his mother down on top of him;
and the couple toppled back
wards, hardly breaking kiss.
Wrapped packages spread out
and fell like shr^nel. nie crowd
of shoppers barely noticed, surg
ing around the pile on the floor
and closing rank just beyond. The
mother expertly checked the well
being of her kids, dexterously
regathered packages, and heatedly
berateed the couple.
The coattail kid interrupted his
mother by saying, “Mom, you’re
yelling at Uncle Clyde.” The
woman paused, suspiciously,
eyeing the lovers now rising from
the floor. “Clyde? What the hell?
Hey, your present is in here
somewhere. Get away, close your
eyes, who is this tramp you’re
with?”
Clyde calmed his sister, pat
ted the kids on their respective
heads, and advised them to chill
out. Wasn’t Christmas supposed
to be fun?
“Fun?” his sister scoffed.
“Only for those of you without
kids and responsibilities. Now
what have you bought Mom?”
The crowd swiftly carried them
away.
My friends and I left the mall
and went looking for some pine
cones.
that those working in the center
are genuinely happy to see stu
dents there. She is quick to let
someone else know that visitors
are there and will be happy to
chat with them while they wait.
The first parson a visitor might
see could be Pat Ceijan, who is in
charge of running the center. Her
many jobs include overseeing the
early assessment program, mak
ing freshmen contact, helping
students with learning disabilities
get the help they need, and just
simply being there to direct all
students to departments and ser
vices that wiU enrich their col
lege careers.
“I assist students with finding
help for their needs. I talk with
them and find out where they need
help or just a service to get
ahead,” she said. “Most students
think that the center is just for
students who having trouble,
which is not true. The center is
for everyone.”
A few offices away, Sarah
Shutt is the director of orienta
tions and in charge of helping
students become great students by
improving their study skills. She
will see where students strong
points are in their study skills and
where they can improve. She of
ten has workshops on test-taking.
(Continued from Page 2)
cultural events and functions.
In any small community that
is separate from a major commu
nity, it is vital to keep a lifeline
open to the larger community so
that the smaller one can keep up-
to-date with current trends or
ideas, or else the small commu
nity will grow stagnant and die.
N.C.W.C. meets this need by se
lecting entertainers that are in ac
cord with present trends. This se
mester there were several bands,
a few comedians, and one men-
talist. Student turnouts to these
events were fair, but not in any
way proportionate to the numbers
enroUed here. In fact, these events
showed the best turnouts of the
semester.
At the other events, Wesleyan
has had, the number of those who
turned out were only a couple of
dozen people. This should be
surprising when one considers the
number of cultural events and
college functions there were this
year. There should have been
Spotlight
time management, and studying
for exams. Though she works
with many freshmen because of
Spotlight, she works with anyone
who would like to improve their
study skills.
The next door over is LaRue
Elliott, who mostly works with
freshmen and sophomores in
helping them discover a career
after college. She will give sev
eral tests and introduce them to
Discover, a computer program
which tells !^ut the many jobs
opened to different majors. Thra
she will sit down and work out a
career nu^, which is looking at
the college’s curriculum and see
ing what would be most helpful
to students latCT on in their ca
reer.
After students have decided
what they would like to do, Kathy
Smith sees to it that they have a
chance to start doing it before they
leave college. She will find in
ternships and jobs for students to
see if that is truly what they want
to do in life.
“We will sit down and talk re-
many people flocking to these
scant occurrences, all eager to
enjoy the diversity of these events.
However, there were not many
people nor were the events di
verse.
Because this is a liberal arts
college, the students should be
exposed to as great of a range of
plays, authors, artists, concerts,
and intellectual gatherings as this
college’s money can secure.
There should be more cultural
events than guest entertainers, and
the cultural events should cover a
wide range of things. If there is
not enough money for all, the en
tertainers should be considered
only after the cultural events have
been arranged.
Dr. Smith and Vaughn Shultz
have done an outstanding job at
providing cultural events this se
mester, with Dr. Smith organiz
ing the Visiting Writers Series and
Shultz directing the only play
along with the dinner theatre. But
even the wonder job they did
cannot make up for the fact that
there just was not enough for this
alistically about your skills, per
sonal interests, and how well
you’re doing in college and what
this will mean when you’re look
ing for a job,” Smith said.
Not doing well with studies
even after Sarah Shutt’s help? No
problem. Dr. Margee Morrison
and her team of tutors is more
than willing to help work with
students to reach their potential.
Morrison directs 25 tutors who
tutor in 26 subjects. This semes
ter, Peer’s Tutors Crossing is
helping 1 IS students and will start
we^end tutoring next semesta:
because of the great demand stu
dents have for tutors.
Morrison is currently recruit
ing students to become tutors and
take her tutor training, which will
offer theories, philosophy, and
pedagogies which is tutoring
techniques. So students who are
there to tutor or be tutored cannot
help but learn.
Connie Hinsley is administra
tive assistant for the center. She
works with students and lends a
hand to other persons in the cen
ter. “I work with LaRue and Dis
cover, College 101, Spotlight, and
I give tours of the center,” she
said.
The one overall thing that
strikes visitors about the whole
college to truly educate its stu
dents.
It would have been equally as
bad to have had only events and
functions with nothing to help
students have fim and relax, but
for every one cultural event
planned there were three enjoy-
ment-based events planned, and
this is far worse than having it
the other way around. (Although
this is in no way meant to suggest
that cultural events are not fun
and there is nothing to be learned
from many entertainers!)
N.C.W.C. needs to rethink its
policy and balance out the two.
To all the staff who woric very
hard to see that these entertainers
were engaged there should be a
hearty round of applause; their
efforts have been great and the
entertainers have been top-notch.
Thank you. It cannot be easy to
meet the needs of an entire cam
pus, though this is what has been
done in the entertainment depart
ment I don’t mean to criticize
them in any way, and really there
should not have to be a choice
center is that even though it is
new, it has done very well this
semester. This is because every
one working there enjoys their
job and loves working with the
students.
“You always get the feeling
that every little thing that hj^)-
pens here will make a difference,”
Pat Ceijan said. “It’s great to see
that you’re really helping stu
dents.”
LaRue Elliott noted about the
center that “what we are learning
is that this service combined
beautifully, because everyone
here wants what students want,
which is that when they leave
Wesleyan they’ll be ha^y and
well-adjusted to their lives and
careers.”
Sarah Shutt and Connie
Hinsley said the newness of the
center also gives them a chance
to be creative and work with new
ideas.
But mostly Kathy Smith and
Margee Morrison summed it up
best when they both said that, “I
love working with students.”
So as things settle down and
everyone looks forward to next
semester, among the new things
at Wesleyan remains something
old which stills hold true, which
is that the student comes first
between entertainment or culture.
But as long as funds remain,
rather accounted for, shall we
say?, there will be the hard deci
sion of who gets them.
HopefWly, with the new the
ater house and the theater major
that will be offered here, there
will be no need for anyone to
want fcff either light entertainment
or enjoyable culture. But if these
two things are not soon in com
ing, the overall quality of educa
tion here must be questioned.
N.C.W.C.’s students need the el
ement of education that can only
be obtained by crying at a sad
play, or wondering about an au
thor, or smiling at a new paint
ing, or even humming along widi
a concert for this to be a true
liberal arts college.
This year these things were
offered and experienced by some,
and this was good. What is bad
and cannot be allowed to con
tinue is this one last thought: what
things in terms of cultural possi
bilities did Wesleyan’s students
not experience?
Put more emphasis on culture