PAGE 4 — THE DECREE — APRIL 13,1995
OFFICIAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF
NORTH CAMOUNA WESUEYAN COLLEGE
EdHor-ta-Chkr— Patrick Btodimui
Ciqqr Editor — AJaaf^dton
Advertising Manager—Morgan
Stair—Cedlia L]im Casey, KioilMTljr Catseen, Gn«
Purcell, Kevin Cortett, Amy Lynn Brayton, Brett Riggs
Contrttwting Writers—Dr. Stere Ferebee, Ben Hamrick
A4vis(Hr~-Chris LaLonde
Tkt DMref is locateii in Um Hardees BoOding, North CaroUna
Wcsi«gwB CUDtegc, 34W Wcrieyan Bivdn Rocky Mount, PiC 27801.
Wceldty staff Hwetias* arciieid Wednesdagr at ;30 pjOL in the Decree
• Re-pafatka£k» oC any motta- herein wittoot the express «»sent
of die Editmial Board ht strkflljr fiMtbiddcA. Tike 0*me is eonqpoMd
aad printed by the Spmg Hapt Emttrfrise. Opfaiions published do
not necesHufly reflect ttMe tfNorfli CaroHaa Wedejan CoB^ge.
Good journalism
valued by Decree
News is defined as “ma
terial that the public must
have because it is impoitant
and material that is enter
taining, that is fun to read.”
(Melvin Mencher, “Basic
Media Writing”) This defi
nition, of course, is affected
by each media outlet’s audi
ence. For The Decree the
college community is our au
dience and includes students,
faculty, and staff.
Dissension has been a role
the press has played since
the origins of newspapers.
To inform the public of the
important information it
needs to know is at the heart
of all media enterprises. The
sad fact is that our society
has become one which
thrives on sound bites and
USA Today style stories.
The editors at any news
paper structure the tone of
the paper. Why are some me
dia outlets labeled liberal and
other conservative if this is
not the case? Yes, the edi
tors of The Decree shape and
mold the paper; it’s our job.
As we like to say, “That’s
why we get paid the big
bucks!”
Sure, coverage of campus
events is poor, we admit that.
We apologize for the poor
coverage which is given to
events. We, along with the
rest of our small staff, do
not have super powers. We
carry a large number of se
mester hours while spend
ing a minimum of 20 hours
per week working on the pa
per. We have as much work
as other students but still try
to cover as many events as
possible, whether they make
it in the paper or not.
In choosing what will ac
tually go into each issue we
evaluate what events we can
cover that interest our audi
ence. There is also the fac
tor of timeliness to consider.
Because we come out every
other week, we attempt to
cover events which will be
timely when the issue is ac
tually published. Unfortu
nately, the school does not
provide us with the equip
ment to layout and print our
own paper so we can’t lay
out an issue in one night.
It takes about a week for
the entire product to come
together. This includes at
least two trips to Spring
Hope, where the paper is ac
tually laid out, and a trip to
Nashville where it is printed.
No one except the editors
sees the actual makeup of
the paper until it is pub
lished. Our advisor does not
take any role in selecting sto
ries or editing copy. He does
evaluate each issue and point
out our strengths and weak
nesses once it is published.
The problem may be that
the college is not used to the
level of quality The Decree
has achieved in recent years.
Still, we are proud of what
we have done and continue
to aim for higher goals.
G^lteTo
gSTWotoKNOH'
About i'Evvt....
/ ■
Humans out of touch with nature
Do animals have feelings, too?
By DR. STEVE FEREBEE
As I was rinsing pine pollen
from my spring flowers I noticed
an im{Hessive bird eyeing me with
what I can only assume was bird
amusement. It was perched on a
pine tree branch just a few feet
away from me.
I had to notice this bird — an
intelligent-looking stocky brown,
white, and rust-red animal with a
menacing curved beak. Some
kind of hawk, I thought to myself
—later confirmed in my Audubon
Field Guide as probably a Red-
Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)
(though what it was doing in my
pine tree, I cannot say; they pre
fer meadows with juicy mice).
I’m not a bird watcher, though
I am trying to learn a few names
of visitors to my garden. Seems
only polite. But hawks and eagles
are immediately recognizable.
And this one seemed to want
Dr. Steve
Muses
something from me.
I know that’s not true. At most
it must have hoped that I was
about to scare up a small rodent
for its dinner, but at the moment I
really thought we were commu
nicating. I had some old riiythm
and blues playing on the boom
box, so I fancied that we were
about to dance.
Then it screamed. I can’t de
scribe the sound any other way.
It sounded like a child. The birf
hardly moved; it just opened its
beak to emit a ciy — a cry for
what? For help? For food? For
sex? For the love of Roy Brown’s
“Good Rockin’ Tonight?” I
wanted to scream back. But of
course I didn’t know what to say.
We live in the midst of and
yet separated from what we like
to call “nature.” I toil in my gar
den to connect not only with my
ancestors but also with eternity.
Hunters or campers or gardeners
feel closer to some less cluttered,
less complicated existence.
What makes us think we are
so much more complicated than
my hawk visitor? I remember an-
odier time when I was hiking in
the mountains of New Mexico
and I rounded a comer and al
most stumbled over a black bear
sunning itself on the path which
humans had cut in^^ wilder
ness. Or the time 1 was diving for
shells in the turquoise waters of
Puerto Rico and disturbed a mo-
ray eel. These animals are flying,
sunning, and swinmiing through
(Continued on Page 5)
Decree not doing its job well
Dear EditOT;
In the last issue of The De
cree, statements were made con
cerning the events the staff re
ports on. I am president of the
psychology club and spend an in
finite amoimt of time planning
campus events. The psychology
club’s program “Drug Search” on
Wednesday, March 22, was very
well attended.
I personally saw at least three
Decree staff members at this suc
cessful event. Reporters from Lo
cal CNN were there, along with a
reporter from the Rocky Mount
Telegram. Was I under a general
delusion to expect a person from
ne Decree staff to write a few
!
sentences about an event that had
an attendance of over 100 people?
Obviously I was because noth
ing was mentioned about it in the
last issue of The Decree. I realize
that the editors claim that there is
just too much to report on in each
issue and that non-staff members
should write thek own articles if
they want anything relevant to
appear in print. I believe that for
the psychology club president to
write articles about psychology
club events is a conflict of inter
est.
My question is, what are the
six staff members, two editors,
and two contributing writers do
ing while events are occurring?
Is joining the newspaper staff just
an attempt to embellish resumes?
The words “journalistic obliga
tions” are obviously misunder
stood by The Decree staff.
I expect certain things from a
school newspaper^hich indi
rectly receives my money through
SGA. I do not tWnk that it is too
much to ask that campus events
(Continued on Page 5)