The Decree
since 1960 “of, by, and/or the Wesleyan community.” April 3,2015
NORTH CAROLINA WESLEYAN COLLEGE, ROCKY MOUNT, NORTH CAROLINA 27804
VP Naylor Wanted to Be Part of ‘Something Bigger
Bv Katie Beeman *
9
By Katie Beeman
Senior Staff Writer
Edward Naylor has returned to his
first calling, education, after working as a
lawyer in Rocky Mount for over 22 years.
As Wesleyan’s new Vice President for
Student Affairs and Legal Affairs, Naylor
wants to be an advocate for the students.
Naylor, 49, started in his new
position before the 2014 fall semester.
He is in charge of security, residence
life, food services, student activities,
the health center, and student discipline.
When Naylor started his new job—he's
commonly known as Dean of Students—
some students were unsure about approach
ing him, according to SGA President Isaiah
Morrow. "I kept encouraging students to
just go and talk to him,” Morrow said. “As
soon as the first few saw how personable
and caring he was, more and more students
were going to see him.”
Both Naylor and Morrow stressed
that it’s important for students to voice
their concerns. “I have to know their
concerns, so that I know how I can best
help them," Naylor explained.
Student Aubrey Motley emerged from
a recent meeting with a positive vibe
about the dean. Motley went his office
to talk about some problems on campus.
“He gave really good input,” said
Motley. “He cares about the students.”
Junior Chavonne Jones shared a
similar opinion of Naylor. “I see him
around campus all of the time,” she
said. “He’s always involved with what
the students are doing.”
Starting this position, Naylor found
no major problems within his division.
“Student Affairs was left in really good
shape by Dean Williams,” he said,
referring to his predecessor Dr. Randy
Williams who left the college to take a
position at Elon University.
Naylor stated that he viewed his first
year as an evaluation period and not for
making major changes. After the start of
this semester, Naylor began to compile a
list of goals that he wanted to achieve.
Student safety is at the top of
Naylor’s plans. “This is their home and
students need to feel safe here,” he said.
Around campus, the college has
already placed new security lights, which
are a lot brighter than the old ones. Naylor
wants to install more. He also plans to add
more security cameras and, eventually,
emergency boxes. Mounted on poles, the
emergency boxes would include a button
that members of the Wesleyan community
can press to call police.
Along with safety improvements,
Naylor would like to see a greater
number of students involved in activi-
Science Club Initiates
Recycling on Campus
By Decree Staff
The reaction has been positive so
far to the campus recycling program
instituted by the Wesleyan Science Club.
According to club officers, 12 sky-blue
bins have been placed around campus,
one on the first floor of all five residence
halls, five in academic buildings, one in
the Hardees Student Union and one in the
Hartness Center. The cardboard bins were
obtained with the help of local businesses
and painted by club members.
Club member Lucrezia DePascalis
reported increased usage of the bins
as the semester has progressed. In one
recent week, she said, the collections
yielded two large bags of soda bottles
and other plastics.
“We’ve been getting a lot of positive
comments about the recycling bins,”
DePascalis said. “The staff and faculty
love the idea and they’re using the bins
regularly. The students received the
change well.”
Recyclable materials include aluminum
and steel cans, paper, newspaper, card-
board and plastic with the numbers 1-7.
Science Club President Karishma
Patel said that several inappropriate
materials have been found in the
ties, like clubs and student government.
“I want to improve upon the existing
clubs and add a wider of variety,” the
dean said. Also, Naylor will strive to
increase job and internship opportuni
ties for students on and off campus.
As for long-term goals, Naylor
noted that the administration hopes
to have 1,000 students enrolled at
Wesleyan in three years. With this
number, Wesleyan intends to build two
new residence halls and new classroom
spaces, according to Naylor. Increased
enrollment should not mean lowering
admissions standards, he said. “We
want to maintain quality as we grow,”
he said, reflecting the ideals of Presi
dent Clark, whose philosophy for the
college is “consistent improvement.”
Naylor came to Wesleyan after work
ing as a lawyer, primarily in litigation. He
feels that his law background is an asset
in his new job. “Getting a law degree is
like a liberal arts education,” said Naylor.
"It encompasses a lot of different areas."
His law background helps him when
it comes to law enforcement matters,
contracts with outside companies like
Sodexo, and student conduct. “The
student conduct hearings are basically
a mini court system,” said Naylor.
New Chinese Student Talks about American Education, Asian Food, Taylor Swift
Zhijie Liu is one of five Chinese
students who have enrolled at Wesleyan
for the 2014-2015 school year.
Nicknamed Zelia, the 19-year-old
Nantong native is majoring in business
administration and accounting. Back
home, her mother is a court official and
a former judge, while her father works
for the State Taxation Administration.
Last month she was interviewed by
Decree staff, over email, about life in
America and her impressions of Wesleyan.
Q: Describe your hometown, the
climate, and the residents.
A: Nantong is a city near Shanghai. I
usually tell Americans that I live in Shanghai
because it just takes one hour to drive there
and it’s much more famous than Nantong.
It has about seven million residents. The
climate is just like the weather in Rocky
Mount, which is a main reason I chose to
study here. Residents have different occupa
tions in Nantong. I know that there are some
cities where most residents have the same
occupation, but people in my hometown do
not. They work in diverse areas.
Q: How did you discover NC Wesleyan?
A. My mom has a friend in Rocky
Mount who also came from China. She
is working in education, so I applied to
NCWC on her recommendation.
bins; such materials include nap
kins, paper towels, wax paper, paper
lined with plastic, groceries bags,
plastic tableware and Styrofoam
containers. Patel said it "was disap
pointing” to find garbage—such as
chewing gum and discard fruit—in
the bins. “It would be nice if the
recyclables would be somewhat
clean,” she added. “Bottles should
be emptied before putting them in
the bins: it makes it easier and faster
to sort them and it doesn’t ruin the
cardboard bins.”
Once a week, club members empty
the bins and sort the recyclables into
paper, plastic and cans. The materials
are then deposited in a large container
located near Boddie and Centura halls.
From there, the City of Rocky Mount
picks up the materials.
Dr. Daniel Stovall, a first-year biology
professor and the Science Club advisor,
said he’s proud of the work done by club
members. "They’ve shown tremendous
initiative and dedication with this project
that fulfills a much-needed service to the
school,” he said. “I’m excited to see how
far they’ll take it.”
Together with his student affairs
responsibilities Naylor will be handling
the college’s legal affairs.
Before receiving his juris doctor
degree from North Carolina Central
University, Naylor’s passion was educa
tion. He earned his undergraduate degree
in business education from East Carolina
University and then taught and coached
baseball at Edgecombe County schools.
Naylor said that he had missed educa
tion and decided to return. “I wanted a
field where I was a part of something
bigger than myself and would help
people on a large scale.” said Naylor.
He expressed his excitement at working
with college-aged students. "I was
surprised at how engaged the students
here were,” he said. “They really have a
passion for this school and their futures.”
As for Naylor’s daily schedule, he
stated that there is no typical day. The
dean said that he spends a good amount
of time answering various emails and
telephone calls, as well as attending
meetings with students, staff, and other
members of the Wesleyan community.
Naylor and Morrow meet every
Wednesday. The SGA President brings
the students’ concerns to the dean and
the two try to find the best solution.
Q: Why did you elect to pursue your
college education in the U.S. and not at
home or in Europe?
A: The reason is very complicated. First,
in China, I was in the best high school in
my city, so I experienced great competition.
China’s high schools are known to be very
hard. Everyone wants to attend a better
college and the only chance to achieve that
Freshman Zhijie Liu is one of
Wesleyan's first Chinese students.
G. Wallace photo
goal is to get a high grade on the Gao Kao,
the final college entrance examination,
which follows the three year's of senior high
school. There is a saying in China: “One
exam determines one child’s life.” Unlike
the SAT, the Gao Kao can only be taken one
time per year and most students will take
it just one time in their fife. The Chinese
population is so great that not everyone can
get into the college they want to enter; some
even fail to get the grade that would qualify
them to apply to a college, and the number
of good colleges in China is very limited.
The competition is too intense. Like many
parents, mine hold the opinion that rather
than let me put so much effort into getting
accepted at a decent college in China, they
were willing to send me to the U.S. Many
Chinese believe that an American college
education is better. And many Chinese
students choose to study in the U.S. to
improve their English, since English is
becoming more and more important in the
global economy. It’s best to be around native
English speakers, immersed in the language.
As a final point, I have relatives in the U.S.,
and none in Europe. My parents will feel
relieved knowing they have people they can
trust to take care of their child.
Q: How much previous training did you
have in speaking, writing and reading English?
A: Chinese students take English classes
beginning in primary school. We have English
Dean Edward Naylor meets with student Karishma Patel. G. Wallace photo
Morrow explained that sometimes
the administration might not be aware
of particular student concerns. As an
example, he noted that the college is
now working to install coin machines in
the residence halls to help students do
their laundry, after the issue was raised
in one of his meetings with the dean.
Naylor has been connected to Wesleyan
for years through his wife, Sheryl, who
graduated from Wesleyan in 1992. Back
in high school, Naylor was even accepted
classes throughout our educational career. But
what we’re taught in the classes is very basic
and the English education in China focuses
more on grammar and spelling but not so
much on speaking or listening; I think this is a
shortfall of English education in China. If a
Chinese student intends to study in the U.S.,
she will stop going to her high school and find
other educational institutes where the only
focus is on improving speaking, listening,
reading and writing in English without other
subjects. I studied in this kind of institute for
about seven months. English has become the
mostly wide used language in the world. In
China, an employer will be more likely to hire
an applicant with English communication
skills over one without those skills.
Q: Wliat are some of the differences between
the Chinese and American education systems,
in the ways teachers run their classes, etc.?
A: I don’t know how the Chinese college
teachers run their class. If I were to compare
Chinese high school teachers and the
American college professors, I would say
that what the Chinese teach in class is based
more on the textbook. They’re supposed to
explain every specific point in the textbook.
It seems like American college professors
are more likely to let the students learn most
of the information by themselves. In class,
they like to hold activities, like debating and
presentations, which can help students to
communicate with each other.
Many Americans think Chinese college
students are cleverer than Americans. I
don’t agree with this (When we discussed
cheating in a recent English class, an
American student said that Asian students
don’t need to cheat, because they’re so
clever.). I think the Chinese primary and
high school students are challenged more in
their classes, especially math and sciences.
In China, a teacher may teach "1+1=2"
in class, but then give a more difficult
question— 1 ‘What is 34+65?’ ’—on the test.
American teachers seem to give test ques
tions on the same level as the ones in the
lesson. When the Chinese students come
to America, they're much better prepared,
at least in some subjects, than many of
their American counterparts. The Chinese
students have been trained to think about
more difficult problems than Americans.
And before college, the Chinese students
face a large amount of homework every
school day, which helps them figure out
math and science problems much faster
than others. At the same, Chinese students
have many more tests in their senior and
junior high schools, which allows them to
get better grades in college.
Most Chinese students learn well in their
high school (I say most because China
also has many students who are very poor
at studying, and they come to the U.S.
because their parents are wealthy enough
for them to study abroad and it's easier to
here with plans to play baseball, but he
decided instead on East Carolina Univer
sity. The Naylors have two children. His
daughter is a high school senior in Rocky
Mount at Faith Christian School and his
son is a senior at ECU.
Naylor still likes to coach and watch
baseball and he enjoys spending time at the
beach. He is an active member of Rocky
Mount’s Englewood Baptist Church,
where he serves on the board of directors.
enter a decent college in the US than in
China). Most Chinese students don’t need
to spend much time in American college
classes to pass the exams because what
they have learnt in high school was already
much more difficult than what the Ameri
can teachers are teaching in the class. As I
say, many Americans say Chinese students
are so clever that they can get a better grade
on a test, but these Americans don't know
about the Chinese high school life. This
leads to a question: Since the education in
China can make a better student than the
U.S., why is there an increasing number
of Chinese students who opt to study in
America? This is because most Chinese
recognize the true practical abilities of the
American college graduates. This is shown
in their workplace and social life, much better
than with a student who graduated from a
Chinese college. We attribute this success to
the ways of the American education, to be
specific, the way American teachers ntn their
classes. We think that it’s better to let the
See ZELIA pg 2
Williams Is Next
SGA President,
VP Candidates
Face Run-Off
Freshman Emanuel Williams will
become the new president of the
Student Government Association,
after running unopposed in the
elections held March 23-26.
The only contest was for vice president,
but, according to SGA officials, there will
be a run-off because the two candidates,
sophomores Kelly Cranick and Raymond
Bryant Jr., finished in a tie in the initial vot
ing. The mu-off was scheduled for March
30 through April 2, with balloting to take
place in the school cafeteria for two hours
at lunch (11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.) and two
hours at dinner (5:30 to 7:30 p.m.).
Current SGA Treasurer Deontae Swain
helped oversee the election with President
Isaiah Morrow. Swain declined to provide
vote totals from the vice presidential election.
Williams has been active in SGA as the
chair of the security committee. Cranick
is the current secretary, while Bryant is the
representative for the student group Refuge.
The run-off winner will succeed two-
term Vice President Sarah Olsowski, who
resigned her post earlier in the semester.
SGA is attempting to recruit candidates
for treasurer and secretary, Swain said.
Last year, voting occurred in the cafeteria
And on-line voting was introduced, but techni
cal problems led SGA to abandon that process.
(Note: The Decree will provide
complete election results and a profile of
the new executive hoard in its next issue.)