since 1960 “of, by, and for the Wesleyan community.”
September 26, 2008
NORTH CAROLINA WESLEYAN COLLEGE, ROCKY MOUNT, NORTH CAROLINA 27804
Student Government Back with New Leadership
By Joyce Collins
Decree News Editor
New Student Government Associa
tion President Jacob Strickland and
his administration have outUned an
ambitious agenda for 2008-09, bring
ing energy to an organization that was
inactive last year.
Strickland’s vice president is
Juliana Richardson and the treasurer is
Alexis Gallop. The secretary position is
currently open.
In last spring’s election, Strickland
earned 56 percent of the votes in
defeating his opponent, Kathleeen
Penrod, who got 44 percent, according
to Coordinator of Student Activities
Jennifer Evans. Richardson and Gallop
were unopposed.
The SGA Administration plans to:
• Make campus more safe
• Improve food services
• Create an “Earth friendly”
recycling program
• Revamp and maintain SGA
“One of my goals is to improve
security so that students can feel safe,
and feel that their personal property
will be safe in their rooms,” Strickland
said. He has suggested a front gate
and cameras around campus. “I’m not
saying we need cameras all throughout
the residence halls, but some in the
front so that we can see who is coming
in and out of the dorms,” he said.
A sophomore male agreed with
Strickland’s stance. “I would like for
us to have a front gate at the entrance
of the school,” said the student, who
asked not to be identified. “It bugs me
that people can just randomly drive on
our campus. I would be more at ease if
our campus was more secure.”
Strickland has called for improving
the quaUty of food served in the caf
eteria as well as changing the cafeteria
hours. “We’re the ones who eat there,”
he said, “so why don’t we have a hand
in deciding when and what we eat?”
Strickland would also like to set up
a recycling program around campus
to help stop the school from wasting
paper. “I once received three letters for
an Honors Ceremony,” he noted.
Not all students agreed with Strick
land’s priorities. Sophomore Jessica
Jackson said she would focus on hav-
Advice Offered
For Freshmen
By Decree Staff
Upperclassmen, faculty and staff
offered plenty of advice for first-year
students. Most stressed the need for
solid study habits, while others shared
tips for enjoying their time at North
Carolina Wesleyan.
“Remember why you’re here—it’s
all about your education,” said junior
Milani Wilson. “I’ve been here long
enough to be a senior but am still only
a junior; so take it from a student who
has been off the path: Try to have
tunnel vision.”
Wilson’s comments were echoed by
senior Reggie Wells. “Stay focused in
the books,” he said. “Freshmen year
is the most important year because
it can make or break you. If you dig
too much of a hole for yourself, then
you won’t be able to climb out. Start
strong, so it’s easier to finish strong.”
Jehovah Santiago reminded students
about one fact that is easy to forget:
that college is different from high
school. “You’re now on your own
and you came here because YOU
care about your education,” he said.
“College is a lot more responsibility.
It’s the real world.”
Said senior Latoya Pilgreen-Little:
“Stay focused. Be persistent.”
Kiystal Mitchell, a student accounts
representative in the business office,
urged students to "go to class, study
(and pay your bill).”
See FRESHMENon page 4
ing better programs and activities for
students. “One of the SGA President’s
goals should be improving the quality
of events on campus,” Jackson said.
Strickland, a junior, noted the im
portant role that students must play in
bringing about change. “I want students
on this campus to treat themselves and
others, and this campus, with respect,”
he said. “If they expect me to work
hard to try to improve conditions on
this campus for them, I expect them to
work to maintain those changes so that
the changes will stay in place.”
Music Director Gene Heavner has
been impressed with Strickland, a
member of the Wesleyan Singers. “He
has a desire to do whatever he can
to improve student life on campus,”
said Heavner. “He’s always quick to
volunteer his help for projects and is
very easy to work with.”
Carl Lewis, instructor of justice
studies, agreed that Strickland will
flourish in his new role. “Jacob is a
dependable, courteous, and hardwork
ing student,” Lewis said. Students
and administration can always count
on him “to perform in an exemplary
manner.”
A Rocky Mount native, Strickland is
an honors student who is majoring in
justice studies. Besides Wesleyan Sing
ers, he has been involved in campus
life as an ambassador for the college’s
admissions office, a member of the
Psychology Club and a member of the
Refuge Campus Ministry.
Richardson, a Roanoke Rapids na
tive, is double majoring in psychology
and justice studies. Among her many
campus activities are tennis, cross
country, and the Campus Activities
Board. One of her primary goals is to
NC Wesleyan
“to rebuild and restore SGA to what
it once was and to allow the students
to once again have a voice on this
campus.”
Cross-country Coach Dominic
Modise praised Richardson as one
of the top student-athletes that he’s
coached in his career. “She will be a
good VP because of her work ethic,” he
said. “She cares about the student body.
She’s really in touch. She wants to see
improvements and I think she’ll make
great impact on campus.”
See LEADERSHIP on page 4
Sees Jump
NCWC to Launch Emergency Notification System
NC Wesleyan is inidating an
emergency notification system to alert
members of the college community of a
crisis or imminent danger.
“The system is essentially operational,”
said Dean of Students Robert Perkins, “but
we want to test it and are waiting until we
have a significant number of faculty and
staff cell phone numbers. We are ready
to upload the student numbers into the
system, and will probably do this soon.”
As of September 20, Dean Perkins
reports, about a third of faculty and staff
has given their cell phone numbers to the
Office of Sttident Affairs.
Dean Perkins has provided the follow
ing overview of the system:
If an emergency occurs, the campus-
wide alarm will be sounded, followed
by broadcast messages on the campus
computer system and voicemail messages
to those individuals who have provided
a cell phone number to the Office of
Student Affairs.
When the alarm is heard, individuals
should expect to receive a message within
minutes of the onset of the emergency on
their cell phones as well as the college’s
computer system and website, provid
ing information on the nature of the
emergency and how to respond.
At the time that a decision is made to
sound the alarm, the Rocky Mount police
and fire department will also be contacted.
An emergency response team consisting
of key administrators, security, and medi
cal staff will assist with the implementa
tion of the emergency response plan both
during and after the event.
Additionally, there will be a first alert
group—comprised of individuals whose
positions on campus or location in spe
cific buildings have been identified—that
will be trained to take specific action and
provide additional information in the
event of a campus-wide emergency.
Decree News Editor James
Randolph conducted a recent email
interview with Dean Perkins on the
origins of the system:
Q. What prompted you to initiate the
new emergency alert system? Incidents at
Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois were
big media stories; did these stories affect
the decision to institute a new emergency
alert system?
A. First of all, let me say that as the
Dean of Students I am always think
ing about the welfare of the campus
community. This goes way back to the
concept of in loco parentis, where colleges
and universities were expected to act in
place of the parents when students were
on campus. I take this role very seriously.
But there is a great deal of federal legisla
tion that I have to pay close attention to
as well, including the Federal Educational
Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA),
the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the
Campus Security Policy and Campus
Crime Statistics Act (otherwise known as
the Cleary Act), among others. The Cleary
Act mandates that colleges and universi
ties publish an annual report of crime that
occurs on the campus and in the adjacent
vicinity. Clearly, however, the tragic
incident at Virginia Tech, followed by
Northern Illinois, as well as the incident
last fall at Ferrum College had an effect
on my decision to speed up the process of
preparing an emergency response plan for
Wesleyan.
Q. Did last year's incident where an
individual was charged with brandishing a
firearm on campus affect the decision?
A. I was already researching and
working on a draft of a policy when this
incident occurred. While the incident
brought the college a great deal of
undeserved publicity, it also created a
great deal of support for the need for an
early warning notification system and
emergency response plan.
Q. Recently, you showed me an email
sent to the faculty and staff (you also
pointed out that there is a condensed
version of the information within the
2008-2009 handbook). Will students
receive an email or some form of direct
contact that further explains the new
system to them?
A. I am planning on providing more
information to the students once we are
ready to do a test of the new campus
emergency notification system. We
talked about this a great deal with new
students during the Summer Start Days
and orientation. Returning students who
went through the administrative check-in
process were asked to provide a current
cell phone number for use in case of a
campus emergency. And in a sense, we
have tested smaller parts of the plan with
the tornado concern earlier this month
and tropical storm Hanna.
Q. To your credit, none of your
predecessors attempted to start anything
remotely close to the new emergency alert
system. Are there any other new measures
of security that you are trying to implement?
A. Many do not know that I spent a
great deal of time last year preparing the
college's new “Gender Discrimination and
Sexual Harassment Policy” for the Office
of Civil Rights. Katie Akers (former direc
tor of residence life) and I also revised the
Code of Student Conduct and Standards,
and published an updated student
handbook, which was last done in 2006.
We have also improved the security in the
residence halls and have been reviewing
external lighting on campus.
I am currently in the process of
establishing a Campus Safety Committee
comprised of faculty, staff, and students
to assist me in finalizing the formal Emer
gency Response Plan. Please understand
that this is a large, very complicated
plan that endeavors to cover all types of
emergencies, from acts of violence and
storms to health-related emergencies and
computer viruses. This takes time, but we
are moving as quickly as possible. In the
meantime, our current campus secu
rity procedures. Student Affairs on-call
procedures, hurricane procedures, and
the soon-to-be-tested campus emergency
notification system help to make our
campus a very safe place to be.
Q. Currently, as outlined in the "Emer
gency Response Plan Brief Description,”
community members who feel that the
system should be activated for whatever
reason are instructed to contact campus
security. Will campus security be solely
responsible for activation of the system?
Will anyone else have the authority to
activate the system?
A. The current plan is for the campus
emergency notification system to be
activated by the dean of students or his/
her designee, in consultation with the
president of the college.
Q. What challenges, if any, have you
faced while instituting the new system?
A. Finding the funds to pay for the
alarm system, developing the protocol for
activating the campus emergency response
system, getting the campus community to
provide cell phone numbers, and finding
the time to get all of this done while
successfully handling everything else.
Q. Some staff members have stated
that tests were run of the emergency alert
system during the summer? What were
the results?
A. We did not actually test the campus
emergency notification system during
the summer, but merely the alarm (siren)
component of the system. This did not oc
cur until August, and we are still working
some things out with it.
Q. Lastly, is there anything additional
that you would want facuhy, staff, and/or
students to know about the new system?
A. I do not believe that there is anything
more that I can share about the new system
at this time, but I would like to request the
assistance of the campus community:
If you have not already done so, please
provide my office with a current cell phone
number to be put into the new system.
If you have ideas as to how the college
can improve campus security, please do
not hesitate to send them to me.
Should you be in possession of
information about the conduct of others
which may endanger the welfare of others
or the campus community, please do not
hesitate to share that information with me,
a member of the Student Affairs staff, or
campus security.
The most important thing that we can
do to ensure the welfare of our campus
community is to function as a community,
what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. referred to
as the "Beloved Community," by talking
with each other, sharing ideas, and con
fronting the thoughts and actions of our
friends and colleagues when such thoughts
and actions might be potentially harmful
to others as well as the community.
SGA will be led this year by, from left, Jacob Strickland, president, Juliana Richardson,
vice president, and Alexis Gallop, treasurer. photo by Decree stak
In New International Students
By Jessica Autumne Smith
Decree Senior Editor
The gender imbalance remains
high on campus while NC Wesleyan
has seen a sharp rise in the number
of international students and a
slight improvement in overall grade
point average among this fall’s new
students.
This year’s freshman class consists
of 260 students, along with 42 new
transfer students. There are 16 new
honors students, 5 valedictorians,
and 31 new first-year international
students, up from only 9 last year.
There was a record application pool
this year, according to Gary Sherman,
vice president of enrollment. Of the
1631 applicants, 72 percent were
accepted. Also, the residence halls are
currently at 98 percent capacity, which
allows for a more lively campus life.
stated Sherman in a recent interview.
The gender imbalance remains
unchanged from last year; the freshman
class consists of 64 percent males and
36 percent females, as compared to
the overall college population of 57
percent males and 43 percent females.
Native North Carolinians make up 60
percent of this new class, as compared
to 64 percent of the overall college
population. This supports a recent trend
toward the acceptance of out-of-state
and international students, Sherman
said.
The racial makeup of the fresh
men was listed as follows; 42
percent African American, 37 percent
Caucasian, 3.5 percent Hispanic, 12
percent non-identifying, and 5.5 percent
“Other.” Wesleyan’s campus is
See STUDENTSon page 4