Newspapers / Meredith College Student Newspaper / Sept. 30, 1981, edition 1 / Page 1
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THE TWIG JVewspaper of the StudenU of Uteredlth College VOL. LX, NO. 4 RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA 2761! SEPTEMBER 30, 1981 Betty Brewer stands for English and Energy by Kathy Seeger As I walked into the small office, I took my usual seat beside the desk of the energetic lady who has guided me through my first year here, at Meredith. I am one of Mrs. Bet^ Webb Brewer's priviledged advisees. Mrs. Brewer Is the new head of our esteemed English department, but she is many other things too. Mrs. Brewer and her husband, John, are the proud parents of two adopted children; Alan, 14, and Mishelle, 22. The Brewer family resides in Apex, where they restored a seventy year old home. Not only will you see Mrs. Brewer all over the Meredith campus, you may also observe her doing one of her many extra-curricular activites. From running 10 kilometer races, although her illustrious career has been hampered by ailing knees, to her modern dance class, which she started at thirty, to cooking and entertaining in her home. Mrs. Brewer is definitely a lady of varied interests. Upon meeting her. one immediately notices the unlimited energy she possesses. This bundle of kinetic and potential energies has evidently solved her own personal energy crisis. Mrs. Brewer is a 1967 graduate of Meredith. She holds a Master’s degree from North Carolina State University and is currently working on her doctorate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A member of the Meredith faculty for five years, Mrs. Brewer is presently steering our English department through what she terms an “assessment period.” Though this is a transitionary period for the English department, Mrs. Brewer says she does not anticipate any “sweeping or dramatic” change in the basic structure of the department. At this point, the department has established three committees which will determine the future possibilities for its program, not only for majors, stresses Mrs. Brewer. The first of these committees will be examining the English curriculum of Meredith by surveying its graduates and inspecting the curriculums of surrounding universities. The second Betty Brewer committee will be concerned with the courses offered, especially at the 200 level. Mrs. Brewer says they are primarily intereted in appealing to the woman interested in English but not as a major. Some examples of these concerns would be the October Convocation by Lisa Sorrels How is the Justice Department infringing upon your First Amendment rights? In the October Convocation you can hear the experiences of someone who is fighting to maintain our Prank Snepp III freedoms of religion, speech, the press, assembly, and the right to petition the government. Frank Snepp, III, a native North Carolinian, will speak on October 5 at 10 a.m., in Jones Auditorium, on the subject “National Security in the Wake of the Snepp Case.” Snepp was stung by the February 1980 Supreme Court ruling which barred his book, Docent Interval, from publication and opened a path for government-wide censorship. Decent Interval was Snepp’s report on the CIA’s and the United States’ performance in the final two years of the Vietnam War. Because the CIA refused to issue its own report, Snepp wrote his own account (being one of the best CIA officers to be evacuated from Vietnam) and was promptly sued by the Justice Department. This unprecedented civil suit claimc^ that he had breached a security agreement and an obligation of trust for publishing the report without the agency’s approval. By contending that Snepp has “irreparably harmed” the national security, the government won the suit and prevented him from ever writing -- without “official approval” -• about anything he’d learned as a CIA agent. Snepp has recently finished a novel and also a book on this experience. Both of these works must be cleared by the CIA. Education: Columbia College in New York: undergraduate degree, and master’s degree in international affairs specifically in nuclear strategy & NATO. Work: I year with CBS as a researcher and promotional writer, CIA (1968) • resident specialist in European security matters, then CIA’s principal analyst of North Vietnam’s political affairs with 2 tours of duty at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon 1969*71, 1972-75). Wliere lias my money gone? “Where has my money gone?” is a question that echoes across the Meredith campus. The concern is not only about personal checking accounts, but about the way the four thousand dollars in tuition, room, and board is being spent. Meredith is currently operating on an eight million dollar budget which is comprised of Educational and General expenses. Auxiliary Enterprises, and Student Aid, The tuition of $2750 pays for 73.6 percent of the cost of Educational and General expenses: 26.4 percent must come from other sources such as unrestricted gifts and investments. These E & G expenses include the following: (1) Administrative Expenses, (2) Student Services (Student Development division); (3) Public Service and Information (Institutional Advancement); (4) General Institutional expenses (Central Services, Concerts and Lectures series); and (5) Plant Operation (utilities). The cost of Room and Board is $1250, which pays the total cost of Auxiliary Expenses: dining hall, dorms, snack bar, bookstore. No part of the total $4000 is used to fund new construction on campus. Although there was a recent $300 increase in tuition, (raising it to $2750), Meredith's tuition remains substantially lower than almost every other independent college in North Carolina and Virginia. Queens College (Charlotte) is $3750; Randolph Macon Woman's College (Lynchburg, Va.) is $5100. However, a 10 percent increase in tuition is projected for the near future. depiction of working women in 19th century American literature, film review classes, and a special block of journalism classes. The third committee is Mrs. Brewer’s personal favorite--a professional communications curriculum committee. This course of study would cover a broad area of communication skills and would draw from several courses already offered. It is Mrs. Brewer’s hope that this t)^ of program would develop into a possible minor or some other type of certification which would specify that a student has certain credentials in the field of communications. Any changes made from the recommendations of these committees will be made by the department as a whole. I asked Mrs. Brewer about some of the area activities, both on and off campus, which she would like to see Meredith students participate in. She. seems especially interested in the upcoii^ appearances of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Dudman, on November 8, and a visit by Black poetess Gwendolyn Brooks in March. However, Mrs. Brewer also feels that theater opportunities, such as Stewart Theater and the Play makers’ Repertory Company, provide young women with beneficial exposure to the stage. As a student discussing the English department, I could not help but ask Mrs. Brewer how she feels about Meredith’s reputation for a demanding English program. She said that she “likes the toughness” of the department. She feels that “old writing habits are harder to break than other academic habits” and this is how she explains a student’s “painful” reaction to the department. Despite this, Mrs. Brewer said that the opinion expressed in the Spring 1981 English Evaluations was that students tend to be appreciative to the faculty for what they have taught. For Mrs. Brewer, the reading of these comments was very "gratifying.” Finally, I asked Mrs. Brewer to tie her thoughts together for me. “What we do will be departmental,” she said. She does not want to be presumptuous about her position. This year of transition is one of learrung for Mrs. Brewer. She wants to “facilitate” the department’s desires; however, she does not mind learning the ropes of her new position. Mrs. Brewer says she feels she is “repaying (her) own experiences at Meredith’ ’ by doing her best in the new position. GROUNDBREAKING FOR SHEARON HARRIS BUSINESS BUILDING! From left to right - Dr. Lois Frazier, Mrs. Shearon Harris, and Dr. John Weems.
Meredith College Student Newspaper
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Sept. 30, 1981, edition 1
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