PAGE 2 — THE DECREE — APRIL 24,1992
The Decree
OFFICIAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF
NORTH CAROLINA WESLEYAN COLLEGE
Co-^ . Jitors — John Fentress and James Oakley
Staff — Cecilia Casey, Nicole Cox,
TifTaoy Page, John Pernelt
Delinda Lee, Joanna Holladay
The Decree is located to the Student Union, North Carolina
Wesleyan College, Wesleyan CoHege Station, Rocky Mount, NC
27801, Policy is determined by the Editorial Board of The De
cree. Re-publication of any matter herein without the express
consent of the Editorial Board is strictly forbidden;
is composed and printed by Ripley Newspapers of Spring Hope.
Opinions published: do not necessarily : reflect those; of North
Carolina Wesleyan College.
Treat education
like investment
As the 1991-92 school
year draws to an end, it is
necessary for us to re-exam-
ine one of the first questions
we had to deal with at Wes
leyan. Every student has
taken the LSS class here and
has been confronted with that
classic question: what is col
lege and what does it mean
to you?
Probably not much
thought was ever really put
into answering that. Every
one felt obliged to say, “Oh,
college is that great leap,
preparation for the real world,
a maturing stage,” and a
whole bunch of stuff like that,
because we knew that was
what the professors wanted
us to say.
Those ideas are not neces-
sariJy untrue, but there is an
alternate perspective in an-
sweruig that question. What
is college? CoUege is a busi
ness transaction. That’s how
we should view our time here
at Wesleyan,
Why should we think of
our education as being any
different from buying a car?
We’re putting loads of cash
into this school in order for it
to perform a service for us.
When you buy a car at a
dealership, you hunt for the
best car that suits your needs,
one that you can handle, and
one that you can afford. After
putting your money down,
what you get is your car, with
a warranty that gu'it-a»^tfefes’ '■
that it’s not going to break
down any time soon.
Our education is the same
thing. We should be putting
our money down on this in
stitution expecting the same
kind of service. What we
bought was an education, or
at least a chance to receive
an education. What you do
with your purchase is yoar
choice. The most inteUigent
shoppers take aU that they can
get out of it, milking all the
benefits out of it.
Others, by choice, may
sometimes not feel like us
ing it as often. These people
should not be condemned,
though; they shouldn’t feel
like they have to hide from
their professors in the cafe
because they missed his class
that mommg. They should
feel like they made a poor
decision, but don’t be sorry
and feel guilty about it. It's
your education — do what
you want to do with it!
What you have to remem
ber is that the large amount
of money you’re putting into
the school can be given back
to you. That money has
brought some quality profes
sors and faculty here, and we
should be using them as
much as we can. Because
when you think about it,
they’re ours —: we paid for
these people to work for us.
So get out and use them,
and hurry up (before the
wOTanty ■mns out): •
7 *
M
ti eucii^
imEfiQunies.wuiis
Only one rings true
Novels differ in world view
By DR. STEVE FEREBEE
I read a couple of novels dur
ing Easter break, and I’ve been
wondering what we look for in
novels.
Brian Stableford’s The Em
pire of Fear is subtitled An Epic
Vampire Novel, so I should have
known that it would be one of
these contemporary hybrids of
horror and fantasy.
Evil in vampire novels is un
ambiguous. Dracula is a horror
who can wind liis way into us
only by pretending to be what he
isn’t. Vampire novels reassure us
tliat we aren’t really to blame for
evil; but if we are eternally vigi
lant and put the gailic up every
night, we can avoid ii — even
though we cannot destroy it.
Stableford’s stor}' is about a
world in which vainpires are a
mean but accepted part of life. In
fact, his vampires seem much like
any despotic rulers. His hero dis
covers the source of vampirism
in Africa, sets about destroying
the bad ones, and offers the
vampire’s real gift to us aU: im
mortality. And this comes with
out the evil of drinking blood; his
vampires take a pill. I find his
novel a boring cop-out.
I also read Sara Maitland’s
Three Times Table. Maitland is a
young British writer who wants
to find v.ays for her women chai-
acters to come to grips with
themselves witiiout losing their
sense of self.
The storj' is about three
vomen who live on different
floors of the same old Victoria
Iiouse in London. Rachel is an
aging paleontologist who has long
been famous for discovering a
fossil and reconstructing the di
nosaur. She has realized that she
misread the evidence and in her
hurry to establish herself in a
male-dominated occupation, she
reconstructed a being that never
existed: a fantasy “dragon” rather
than a historical dinosaur. Her di
lemma is whether or not to ex
pose herself, to publicly state her
entire career is a sham.
Rachel’s daughter Phoebe is a
gardener and a rebel from the
1960’s generation. She left col
lege and wandered the world for
a couple of years. She returned to
London and had a child without
marrying the father. She drinks
secretly, and she has a lump
her breast that she cannot tell
anyone abC'Ut.
The granddiiughter Maggis
also has a secret. She is 15 ar I
hai been fiving nightly since sne
was eight: flymg witli Fenna, her
(Continued on Page 3)
Insider issues final challenge
'i 'i
HeUo out there, all you happy
campers. The semester is almost
over and here before you lies the
last Insider article of the year, and
not only the last of the year but
the last forever.
Sob! Sob! So what will the
students do without the Insider?
Who will open their eyes to the
atrocities, the disillusions? If you
haven’t guessed by now. Insider
fs gradu'atirii^;-’it- is- Mth dfeffpfest '
regret and sorrow that I leave you
without a caped avenger to battle
for justice.
I now throw down the gaundet.
Who Will ‘ be the- brkve sb'ul' to'
pick it up and carry on my legacy?
Oh, woe is me! Wesleyan, thou
art a sight to behold. But as the
old clich6 goes, “Don’t judge a
book by its cover.” What looks
sweet on the outside could taste
like cat dung on the inside. So
who will have the testicular for
titude to carry on my struggle for
justice? On with the matters at
hand.
(Coittiniied’ oh Page 3)