since 1960 “of, by, and for the Wesleyan community”
September 14, 2007
NORTH CAROLINA WESLEYAN COLLEGE, ROCKY MOUNT, NORTH CAROLINA 27804
JnS
%
Gender Imbalance Continues
With Wesleyan’s Class of 2011
Incoming Student GPAs on the Rise
Senior QB Cedric Townsend leads the offense as the Bishops set
their sights on a conference championship after 2006's break
through season. Selected as the pre-season favorite, the Bishops
will begin USA South action at Methodist on Sept. 22 and a week
later will host Maryville in their Homecoming game.
NC Wesleyan Welcomes
Five Faculty Members
B.A. from Emory University.
At Wesleyan, Bahnaman man
ages print and online subscriptions to
periodicals and databases, provides
reference and instructional support
to students and faculty, and serves as
faculty liaison in a variety of academic
disciplines. He said he is excited about
having a hand in many facets of library
operations and services, “an opportu
nity for work diversity that is harder to
find at larger universities.”
Outside of work, Bahnaman is an
avid and accomplished card player and
“self-styled trivia expert,” whose life’s
ambition is to be on Jeopardy. When
not pursuing this ambition, he enjoys
the Detroit Tigers, Duke basketball, his
XBOX 360, fast food, Harry Potter,
political poll results, and “most of all,
the company of his wife, Sarah Stanley.”
Dr. Cole, a native of Freetown,
Sierra Leone, is a specialist in African
history. “My research interests are
varied and are of an interdisciplinary
nature,” he said. His interests range
from the history of the Levantines in
Africa, to the nature of colonial health
and medicine and the demographic
impact of disease, to the agricultural
history of peasant societies in Africa.
In recent years, Dr. Cole has taught
at the State University of New York at
Fredonia; The Ohio State University; and
two schools at the University of London,
the School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAC) and Birkbeck College. Earlier
in his career, he taught history, English
and religious education at a secondary
school in Freetown. Dr. Cole holds a
doctorate from the SOAC program,
having completed a dissertation, titled
“World War One and Sierra Leone,” that
he researched while in London.
“A firm believer in the concept of
small and manageable class sizes,” Dr.
Cole said that he was “attracted to the
range of possibilities open to me at
Wesleyan, where I believe I can imple
ment my pedagogical skills, gained
during my studies in education.”
see PROFESSORS on pg 4
By Decree Staff
The student body is not the only
group on campus to see a rise in its
international contingent.
The new faculty includes two
natives of Africa.
Four new tenure-track professors
have joined the Wesleyan com
munity: Steve Bahnaman, reference
and electronic resources librarian;
Festus Cole, assistant professor of
history; Cameron Mathews, assistant
professor of political science; and
Mulugeta Markos, assistant professor
of mathematics.
Wendy Achilles, associate professor of
accounting, has returned to NCWC after
two years at East Carohna University. In
her previous stint, she taught at Wesleyan
for six years. By rejoining the faculty, she
gives the college two full-time faculty
in a popular major and strengthens the
business division as a whole.
“It’s nice to be back,” she said,
noting that she likes the small classes
at Wesleyan and that she missed the
college’s faculty, her business col
leagues in particular.
A native of Elm City, Dr. Achilles
earned undergraduate and masters
degrees from ECU and a Ph.D. from
Virginia Commonwealth University in
2006. Her specialty is taxation. When
she’s not in the Wesleyan classroom,
she often volunteers at her children’s
school in Wilson. Dr. Achilles said
that in recent months she and her
husband, Aaron, have been kept busy
with construction of a new home
in Nashville. She has four children:
Walston, 10; Cam, 8; Nick, 6; and Han
nah, 2. When time permits. Dr. Achilles
likes to exercise.
Bahnaman came to NCWC from the
University of North Carolina School
of Information and Library Science in
Chapel Hill after he finished his M.S.
in library science while working in
reference and instruction at Duke and
North Carolina State. His background
is in religion and theology, with a
masters of theological studies and a
Continuing a recent trend, a high
gender imbalance marks this year’s
incoming class, while SAT scores
remained about the same and the
college increased its total number of
international students.
According to Gary Sherman, vice
president of Enrollment Management,
the first-year class consists of 301 total
students on the main campus—253
true freshmen and 48 transfers.
Sherman’s office reported that the
male-female ratio is 64 to 36 percent in
favor of males. Last year’s figures were
60 percent male and 40 percent female.
The NCWC male-female ratio is in
stark contrast with enrollment trends
across America. In the past two years,
national publications have reported
that females represent 56 to 58 percent
of undergraduate enrollment.
Students, faculty and staff have
observed that the disparity between
males and females has produced a
remarkable dynamic on campus and in
the classroom. When told of the 64-36
ratio, freshmen interviewed for this story
reacted with nonchalance and humor.
Jessica Willis said that the situation
is not an issue for her.
“I don’t think it really affects us,”
she said, although she acknowledged
that she’s attended “female-dominant”
schools in the past.
Nick Lancise has noticed the effect
that the imbalance has had on the
campus atmosphere.
“The testosterone is very high
around here,” he said.
Taylor Huffman saw one positive
aspect to the situation. “It allows you
to focus more on education and studies,
than studies of the female body,” he said.
The upperclassmen interviewed
expressed concerns about the issue,
with many blaming the presence of
the Wesleyan football program, which
began in 2004.
“I feel as though males are more
attracted to Wesleyan because of the
sports teams, in particular the football
team,” said Sureka Barnes, a senior.
“Females tend to come to Wesleyan
for an education. The school caters to
the football team. It has become the
biggest sports team on campus and is a
major factor in why the male to female
ratio is higher.”
Junior Alecia Butler agreed: “There
are more sports that attract more males
than females; Wesleyan needs to add
more organizations and teams to appeal
to females and balance out the male
dominated campus.”
Said senior Jason Scott; “There
sure are a lot of ugly people in this
neighborhood. I don’t think it’s as
diverse as it should be since football.”
And senior Kevin Parker said: “It’s kind
of unfair, but you’ve got like 400 on the
football team, so it’s not really balanced.”
According to the new statistics,
although the number of freshmen
football players has declined in each
of the four years—from 177 in 2004
to 102 in 2005 and 84 last year—this
year’s 70 recruits still represent almost
a quarter of the entering class.
Wesleyan attracts many students
to plays sports—170, or 56 percent
in this year’s class—and boasts seven
women’s teams and six men’s teams.
But football is by far the sport with the
largest roster, as is true at most colleges
and universities nationwide.
Recognizing the demographics
at Wesleyan, new Dean of Students
Robert Perkins has taken steps to
improve campus life. For one, he has
hired a staff member who oversees the
intramural program on a full-time basis.
“I wanted that done full time, because
we have a lot of men in athletics,” Dr.
Perkins explained. “Not that women
don’t play sports; we want them involved
too. It (athletics) supports leadership,
community, teamwork.”
Sherman’s office reported that
during the past five years one of the
most positive developments is the rise
in average freshmen SAT scores in the
verbal and math sections, from a total
of 857 in 2001 to 935 this year. This
year’s average is one point lower than
last year’s total. Nationwide the verbal
(502) and math (515) scores totaled
1017, The New York Times reported in
an August 28 article, placing Wesleyan
82 points below the national average.
According to Sherman, average
high school GPAs have continued to
rise for incoming NCWC students—
from 2.79 in 2003 to 2.95 in 2006, to
this year’s figure of 3.0.
In recruitment, he said, Wesleyan
has begun to focus on student GPAs,
more so than SAT scores. “Our
research shows that, for us, GPA is a
better predictor of student success,”
Shennan explained, adding that this
is especially true with first-generation
college students. About 75 percent of
Wesleyan students are the first in their
family to attend college.
New NCWC students say goodbye to
family during move-in day. The first-year
students include 253 true freshmen and
48 transfer students.
According to Dr. Fred Grissom,
director of the Honors Program,
this year’s class includes 17 honors
students, compared to 14 last year.
Noting that Wesleyan has tightened
its standards, Sherman said that the
college accepted 62.5 percent (781) of
the 1249 applications it received for
2007-08. That compares with a 70.4
acceptance rate last year.
Total applications were up 148 over
last year, an increase that Sherman
attributed in part to the UNC study,
“There was tremendous interest in
the region” with the possibility that
Wesleyan might become part of the
UNC system, he said. “And our story
was told in many places. The publicity
was helpful in raising awareness of the
college.”
Sherman reported that the number
of black students decreased from 164
to 132 while the number of whites
decreased by one, to 108. The first-year
class includes 13 Hispanic students, an
increase of three; as well as five Native
Americans (four last year); and seven
Asians (five). Three students consider
themselves “multi-cultural,” 19 did not
report their race, and three checked “other.”
Wesleyan has expanded its recruit
ment overseas, this year welcoming
nine new international students from
countries that include Barbados,
England, the Gambia, Germany
(two students), Iceland, Ireland, the
Netherlands, and Sierra Leone.
“We added the opportunity for
international students to receive as
sistance from the college for academic
performance and a new international
student scholarship in 2005,” Sherman
said. ‘The additions have been
helpful in placing the cost of Wesleyan
within the reach of more international
candidates. The men’s soccer program
has really used this opportunity to
attract international students, and
student/athletes account for many of
the new enrollments.”
Sherman added that the college
is pursuing additional recruitment
opportunities with schools abroad. As
an example, he cited an initiative to
attract students from Finland through
an agreement with high schools and
junior colleges in the Helsinki area.
Native North Carolinians make
up 65 percent of the new students.
Campus-wide, the figure stands at 69
percent for the traditional day program.
(Staff writers Joyce Collins, Kelleigh
Jackson and Sean Riccio contributed
reporting for this article.)