"QUtyje ^IjecTjeje
OFFICIAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF
NORTH CAROLINA WESLEYAN COLLEGE
Editor-in-Chief — Jessica Brown
Copy Editor — Kevin Corbett
Advertising Manager— John Morgan
Staff — Greg Purcell, Kimbeiiiy Curseen, Teaqula Moore, Marcy Stover,
Alan Felton, Jessica Cohoon, Charlotte Pettitt, Karolyn Braun
Advisor ^ Chris LaLonde
The Decree is located in the Hardees Building, North Carolina
Wesleyan College, 3400 Wesleyan Blvd., Rocky Mount, NC 27801.
Weekly staff meetings are held Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. in the Decree
ofTice.
Re-publication of any matter herein without the express consent of
the Editorial Board is strictly forbidden. The Decree is composed and
printed by the Spring Hope Enterprise. Opinions published do not
necessarily reflect those of North Carolina Wesleyan College.
Foreign language
courses important
The recent decision to drop
the foreign language program
temporarily seems to have
left a large percentage of
Wesleyan’s student body out
to dry.
Because of financial rea
sons, the foreign language
classes have been stopped
until next year when the pro
gram may be reviewed. The
announcement was made the
week after registration, leav
ing those who had registered
for such classes a few credit
hours short.
Of course the money to
fund the courses has to be
there, but why did the deci
sion wait until after registra
tion? Now many students are
left picking through whatever
classes may be available next
year.
To some students, the for
eign language requirement
meant simply more classes
to get through, but for others
the classes were a fun expe
rience, teaching them about
other cultures.
Most importantly, how
ever, what kind of college
graduates its students with
out any foreign language ex
perience? In today’s world,
everyone should know at
least one language other than
English. Such a move to cut
the program sets back many
students from the rest of the
college world. Many gradu
ate schools require foreign
language on the college level.
In the end, Wesleyan many
lose more than it bargained
for when its graduates lose
out to more bilingual people
in the work place.
Foreign language is an ex
perience that everyone should
have. No matter how weak
the program was, it still ex
isted, and students still
learned. Bring it back as soon
as possible, or we may all
drown in this great Ameri
can melting pot.
wnmm.
TUEISSHUZRIWOF
jasraBHVKste.
' ^
Summer luxury
Time now for some reading
By DR. STEVE FEREBEE
“Summer” has different mean
ings for each of us. I can remem
ber (vaguely) when it meant days
and days of freedom. When
you’re a kid, the shoes come off,
the bathing suits come on, and
time is endless. Later it means
jobs, seemingly mundane at the
time, but important for the people
you meet and the experiences you
confront.
Now my summer is a time to
pound and scrape and clean
around the house; the garden
grows lush, then needs help to
withstand the mugged-out, bug-
infested waves of heat.
But summer also means read
ing. I sometimes think my stu
dents think I do little else but read,
but during the school year, I am
yoked to my classes and other
duties. So when graduation is
over, I always have a stack of
books to read.
Dr. Steve
Muses
This summer 1 have a Horror
Literature class to prepare for, so
I will spend a lot of mornings in
the company of ghouls and clank
ing chains. I also have a bunch of
contemporary British fiction to
read because 1 didn’t finish it last
summer. And the literacy criti
cisms, histories, and biographies
are ever-present. But I also try to
consider contemporary American
fiction as well, because, after all,
this is we. Let me presume to
suggest a few you might try.
Russell Banks writes face-
paced entertaining stories of mis
fits like Chappie Dorset, aka “the
Bone” in Rule of the Bone.
Chappie is a 14-year-old home
less Holden Caufield type. He be
gins, “You’ll probably think I’m
making a lot of this up just to
make me sound better than I re
ally am or smarter or even luckier
but I’m not.” Kicked out of his
home, the Bone, accompanied by
a wise, organic gardening Rasta
named I-man, seeks his father
who deserted him years ago. No
one in the crazy cast of charac
ters is predictable, the plot swoops
and plunges, and the Bone faces
his demons and wins. Banks suc
ceeds at creating a believable and
original voicc.
One of the oddest books I have
read is Susanna Moore’s In the
Cut^ and you have to be in the
mood for some very perverse go-
ings-on. How could I pass up a
novel that begins: “I don’t usu
ally go to a bar with one of my
students. It is almost always a
mistake”? Plus the narrator is a
writing teacher whose students
often call her at home with ques
tions about their writings; and she
(Continued on Page 3)
^Music Man’ shines in new Dunn Center
By KEN RIPLEY
^ Meredith Wilson’s “The Mu
sic Man” was brought to full life
at N.C. Wesleyan College by stu
dent and community actors in the
first major performance in the
college’s immense Dunn Center
for the Performing Arts.
The largest production ever at
tempted by the college’s drama
department fit comfortably within
the l,2(X)-seat auditorium, and the
result was an evening area resi
dents thoroughly enjoyed.
The Broadway musical play,
made famous by the movie star
ring Robert Preston and Shirley
Jones, is the story of a con sales
man, “Professor” Harold Hill,
who convinces an Iowa town to
form a boys band (changed in this
production to a children’s band)
— and then gets caught up in his
own spellbinding magic through
the emerging faith and love of
the town’s initially skeptical li
brarian, Marian Paroo.
Review
Nobody can outperform
Preston and Jones in their defin
ing roles, but Wesleyan’s Clay
Jackson and Melinda Harden put
their own stamp on the characters
through a solid display of local
talent in a cast of more than 60
residents and students.
The two leads were more than
capably backed by Kevin
Corbett’s limber dancing and
hamming as Hill’s local sidekick,
Marcellus; Charlotte Petitt’s
broad Irish accent as Marian’s
mother, Mrs. Paroo; Jim Single
ton as the fumble-tongued mayor;
and the luscious harmonies of the
feuding school board, played by
the Rocky Mount barbershop
quartet of Charles Rose, Stephen
Krall, Jim Wiggs, and Joe Will
iams.
The younger performers did
particularly well in a cast that is
full of children of all ages. Max
Miller was a beguiling Winthrop
Paroo, lisp and all.
The town’s proper ladies —
the mayor's wife, Sara Schutz,
joined by Gail McWithey, Patsy
Carter, and Jennifer Morse —
were likewise hilarious, whether
gossiping or forming a rather bi
zarre Grecian um.
Directed by Vaughn Schutz
(Continued on Page 3)