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2 North Carolina Wesleyan College, Rocky Mount, North Carolina 27804 NEWS & OPINION May 7, 2010 Dean Williams Reflects on Busy First Year at NC Wesleyan .... •' /• _ f >./hn nhtainpH 2onetDbedatmsiiLThosedavsamrliffinih Randy Williams is finisiiing iiis first year as NCWC’s Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students. The Decree staff conducted a recent email interview with Dean Williams, a-sking him to reflect on his first year as well as the challenges of balancing work, graduate school and family. Williams and his wife, Chiquita, are the parents of two daughters, Zanyah, 8, and Reagan, 3. Q. Because of your many and diverse responsibilities, it’s probably hard for you to describe a “typical day.” So instead, plea.se give us a sen.se of the range of tasks you perform in a given day. And tell us when most days begin and end. A. My work day begins around 6 a.m. each day when I grab the I-phone to read and respond to the emails that I received throughout the night. (By the way, I receive roughly 65 emails a day requiring a direct response from me. When you consider the number of emails I initiate, you’ll quickly see that I spend a lot of time corresponding electronically with people.) During my drive to the office. I’m usually in a ‘preflective’ and reflec tive mode as I consider the .scheduled activities for the day and prepare for the inevitable surprises while gauging the implications of my decisions, actions, and di.scussions from the previous day. Once I reach campus, I’m engaged in a series of meetings with students and staff.. .between re.sponding to emails. On Mondays, I am on campus performing Residence Life duty until 12 a.m. This gives me an opportunity to talk with students on the yard, in the WesSide Grill, and in the residence halls. Q. What’s most surpri.sed you about the job here at Wesleyan? A. No comment. Q. What’s been the most satisfying part of your job? A. I have really enjoyed working with the Student Affairs staff. These people champion students’ efforts for personal and academic success through the meaningful programs and services they provide. I have the opportunity to provide leadership in the accomplishment of their goals. However, working with students individually and in group settings is what gives me my greatest satisfaction. At those moments when I can ignite or develop some understanding, I feel in vigorated. Whether during a discussion about an activity or in a disciplinary case, I approach the students with personal development in mind. Helping them connect dots is an excifing challenge. Q. What’s been most frustrating? A. Failing to reach a student before he or she does something that risks his/ her potential! Too often, students, good students, act without much thought thus resulting in negative consequences. I know that we all have individual will in spite of our child-rearing, but I do sense a degree of failure when a student is not successful here. Q. What are some specific improve ments and changes that we can expect to see in residence life next year? What about student life in general? A. The major noticeable difference in n •' i--' - Wesleyan's ROTC unit raised the college's new American flag earlier this semester. Photo by C. Lewis HiE Decree since 1960 “of, hy, and for the Wesleyan community." STAFF Editor Jarad Brown Senior Staff Writers Joyce Collins Jannes Randolph Staff Writers Jacqie Flynn, Amanda Frimpong, Leila Heinonen, Meghan Herd, Rodney Holley Lorane Johnson, John Kostet, Alyson Matarazzo, Ashley Meadows, Josh Meeks, Bristy Parker, Kathleen Penrod, Melanie Rhodes, Juliana Richardson, Makeda Rose, Gregory Spence, Jacob Strickland, Jesse Tamez Cartoonist Lorenzo Whitley Staff Photographers Raishael Tanner Claudricia Thonnas Lorenzo Whitley . Special Contributors Joshua Cain Matthew Esterline Richie Fender Grace Wallace Faculty Advisor Dr. William Grattan 171 Braswell • Phone: 985-5336 Email: WJGrattan@ncwc.edu The Decree office is on the first floor of the Hartness Center. Copyright Policy The Decree holds the copyright of every article and graphic for one-time and future publication at the discretion of the editorial board. Submission implies agreement with this policy. Editorial Statement Commentary/opinion and letters to the editor represent the individual author's views, and not necessarily those of North Carolina Wesleyan College, the Decree staff or the Decree advisor. Submissions To suggest an article, or submit an opinion piece or letter to the editor, send an email attachment (Microsoft Word) to: WJGrat- tan@ncwc.edu. Note that the Decree staff checks all submissions for accuracy and edits in accordance with acceptable grammar and punctuation as well as AP Style. Corrections The Decree corrects mistakes of substance. If you would like to request a correction, send an email to WJGrattan@ncwc.edu, or call 985-5336 Residence Life will be the presence of a seasoned professional capable of leading the department and cultivating student leadership and ownership. I’m thrilled to relinquish my Interim Director of Residence Life role as we near the end of what seems to be a successful search. Another improvement win be a more intentional integratkxi of tt)e fiesh- mai with upperclassmen, a pradice tiiat already exists. However, we will dedicate freshman spaces throughout all residence halls except for Boddie and Centura. This change, whidi always causes anxiety for s«ne upperclassmai, will have an oyexall positive effect on how ourietuming students will become change agents. At the time of this interview, we are aggressively pursuing some of the townhouse units behind Food Lion. If acquired, these units will provide students a mature residential experience in very attractive college student housing. I have my fingers crossed! Some of the bathrooms in Edgecombe and Petteway Halls will be redone to update fiinctionality and appearance. Nice bathrooms are great to have in community settings. With the valuable input of Atilla Szekes, the director of facilities, we will continue to identify viable methods to upgrade the residence halls. With regard to other aspects of Student Life, we’re really excited about: our new student program consisting of a pre-orientation, orientation, and extended orientation; building on the community engagement foundation led by this year’s VISTA Volunteer Cara Cox-Steiner, the resurrection of Greek Life, which may result in three sororities and two fraternities by the end of the fall 2010 semester; the implementation of the new Honor Code and the initial stages of a Student Honor Court; enhancements in the Student Suc cess Center including a stronger Freshman Advantage Program; and more great activities and things to do. Q. What have been the results of the measures implemented early this semester to curtail crime and mischief? Are you pleased with the results? A. The Community Standards Board has returned to this campus and made a strong statement that disrespect of others and their belongings will not be tolerated. We have removed several problem-causing students by way of campus suspensions and expulsions. The heightened presence of the Rocky Mount Police has helped to create a stronger sense of security, and the Wesleyan com munity has expressed its appreciation. The camera surveillance system was pivotal in recovering a stolen television and removing the culprits from our community. The homed plastic fire alarm pull station covers almost completely deterred the false fire alarms; there was only one false event since the installation of the equipment. So when you consider these and other outcomes not shared, I am pleased that we are moving in the right direction. Above all these initiatives, I would be most pleased with students taking ownership of their college experience by erasing the “no-snitch” culture and acting on the good values that I know they possess. It’s a high aspiration, but I would love to see residence halls led by student leaders like Resident Advisors rather than professional staff like Resident Directors. Q. How have you changed as a person in the past year? A. This has been a transformative experience for me, but I have honesdy not had a chance to be reflective about the change. My immersion in family, work, and school has not left much time to take an introspective look at myself. The sum mer, I hope, will provide that opportunity. Q. Describe for us your graduate work—the topic of your dissertation, the expected date of finishing your degree, and the difficulties of balancing your school work with family and a time- consuming, often stressful job. A. I’m always happy to discuss my dissertation topic focusing on the concept of resilience. I will examine an amazing group of people who obtained doctoral degrees in spite of their parents being locked out of their public school education for five years. I will conduct a qualitative study from an inter- ptetivist paradigm that will allow me to gain a deep understanding of the factois that contributed to the resilience and academic success of these peq)le. My goal is to identify those factors with the intent of reaching logically generafeable conclusions. These conclusions may be helpfiil in guiding current educators who serve students with significant risk to compteting their college education. This sonester, r ve lavekd to the Cdk^ rf William & Maiy almost weddy to meet wiSi aademic colfcagues as I draft di^jteis 1 and 3 for my disseilalioa On these days, I make the 2'/2 har drive to Williamsbuig for this class and then return to Rodo'Mount late that night You may imagine that I k)se a kt of femily time be cause there have unlbttunaldy been days where I kave hane before my kids wake up in the morning and anive home well after they have Photo by C. Thomas gnie to bed at ni^ Those days are diflicult because my kids have so mudi urconditional tave, and they oase a tot cf my stess. My wife, however, has b^ the person who has made my j uggling act possible. She assists our 8 year old with homeworic, supervises the building of our house, and takes care of several other daily tasks, but she’s not amodelofthe 1940s domestic stay at home wife. She also takes the lead on issues and advises me on a number of wok and school related matters. Soon, she’ll be returning to weak in a lab setting to use her talents and skills in chemistry as a scientist As for my timetable, I plan to defend my research {Kpjsal by September 2010, collect and analyze data by summer 2011, and defend dissertaticxi by eariy 2012. Q. When you do get some free time, what are your hobbies? A. Hobbies?!?!??? Q. How well have you, your wife, and daughters adjusted to life in Rocky Mount? A. They are resilient and adjust to change quite well. We loved our time in Williamsburg, VA and look forward to increasing an akeady growing fondness for Rocky Mount. Viewpoint: A Point of Contention with ‘Christians’ on the Wesleyan Campus— The Bearing of False Witness By Jesse Tamez At Wesleyan, we are a community of friends and neighbors, right? Or at least that is what guides tell you when they take you on your tour of campus the day you come to visit the school. Well, let me tell you the real truth of the matter: we aren’t very friendly to everyone. As with any school there are social misfits, miscreants, and outsiders; but the key difference here is the issue of scale. Any volume of poison can vary in its lethal ity depending upon one very important factor, the size of the victim. Our school is small and like many small organisms is somewhat frail when compared with larger institutions. As you might imagine, rumors and gossip have a somewhat different effect upon such a small student body than they might at a larger institution such as ECU. Within the smaller student body of NCWC, rumors and gossip tend to cause “social cell death.” What I mean by this is that every person in this campus is like a cell in a much larger organism. Now whether you are a brain cell (Honors Students), muscle cell (Student Athletes) or even a bone cell (Administration), you can still be affected by the malady of rumors. Rumor in small volume is something one can overcome. But at this school, the volume of gossip feels astronomical in relation to the size of campus. I have often joked that at NCWC you can hear rumors about the things you plan to do before you even do them. Sadly, I almost believe that now. Although I do not know the exact percentages for the faiths of our students (Hell, with our PC society, is it even legal for a school to ask a student’s religion anymore?); based upon simple observations one can assume a majority of our students proclaim that they ad here to the tenets of the Christian faith. Although rumors and gossip are always a source of revulsion for me, to see our so-called Christian students engaging in these things takes my distaste a step further. Most of these people feel zero guih about spreading lies and false hoods yet they go to church on Sunday and feel so good about themselves. It’s hypocrisy of the worst variety. The Old King James Bible says ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” Well gee, that’s damn interesting. All that talk of Wesleyan being a community must mean we are all neighbors of a sort. And if we are all neighbors then we mustn’t go around bearing false witness against one another, right? But, what if you are the victim of someone bearing witness against you falsely? Then I guess you should do as Jesus said and turn the other cheek and forgive your enemy. But no, we see none of that here. All we see is anger, and a continual perpetra tion of social injustices done via the mouth and tongue (Romans 3:13 KJV). But you know, if people would just tuni the other cheek and forgive then there could be no furthering of any of these problems. A minority of students cannot long maintain a trend, and to find gossips and whisperers of secrets in the minority would extinguish the flame of this particular issue. Alas, I do not believe it will be something I see in my tenure as a student here. Perhaps this treatise expects too much of the average collegiate mind. Perhaps I am demanding a standard of ethical maturity that is too far beyond the average Wesleyan student. Still, one does not act out of a sense of ethics to be accepted; one acts ethically to preserve society. 2010 HONORS ACADEMIC SERVICE AWARDS Internship Award Shakelia M. Johnson PASS Leader Award Alexis Johnson Tutor of the Year Ashley Meadows HUMANITIES AWARD Freshman Writing Award Taylor M. Jackson SCIENCE & MATH AWARDS Biology Award Malynda Jones Mathematics Awards Ben Lilley Tiffany McCord Exen^ Science Award Alex Ivey Donald Scaif Scholarships Desiree Driver Kasie Edwards Patrick Laffin Arkadiusz Trochoswki EDUCATION & SOCIAL SCIENCES AWARDS John Paul Jones History Award Joye Ellington Outstanding History M^or Award Joshua Akers Allen S. Johnson Scholarship Martha Hernandez Corbitt B. Rushing Scholarship Jacqie L. Flynn Criminal Justice Award Juliana R. Richardson Psychology Award Juliana R. Richardson Sociology Award Jessica Ashley BUSINESS AWARDS Accounting OutstanAng Senior Award Elena Pisarik Business Administration Outstanding Senior Award Elena Pisarik CIS Outstanding Senior Award Shakelia M. Johnson ADULT DEGREE PROGRAM AWARDS Outstanding Adult Degree Program Students Goldsboro Campus Melissa Thames Rocky Mount Campus John “Richie” Fender Triangle Campus Maureen Frazer-Monroe
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May 7, 2010, edition 1
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