Editorial
Walking on the Wild
Side
Meredith students are in to fitness!
^und every corner you can find a
/oung woman pacing around the
:ampus, headphones plugged in to keep
jp a steady pace as she bums off those
anwanted pounds. It’s an accident
siting to happen.
It may come as a surprise to some
ihat there is a speed limit of 20 miles per
hour on Meredith campus roads. How
many of us actually obey it^ Grarued,
you almost have to put on the brakes
and co^t to maintain that speed. Yet
here we all are, dashing around comers
and curves at 35 - 40 mph in an attempt
to arrive at class a few seconds earlier or
leave just a smidgen sooner.
Around one of those comets you'll
likely find a student walking or jogging
on the road, plugged in and oblivious to
)Tour approaching vehicle. Do you want
to hit her» even at 20 miles per hour?
Please take a moment to think about
letting up on the gas pedal when you
pass the gates onto our campus.
And about those oblivious walkers
and joggers. What are you doing all over
the road? Didn’t Mom teach you to walk
6acing trafHc’ Are Meredith’s roads your
personal jogging track? How can you
expect to be seen at night if you’re
wearing a black t*shirt and shorts?
Do the drivers a favor and step oiT
the road when you see an approaching
car - way off the road. Wear white or
light colored clothing, even during the
day, so drivers can see you. Better yet,
put reflective tape on your Nikes. Take
the headphones on* so you can hear
oncoming traffic • or at least turn down
the volume.
It’s frankly amazing that we haven't
had a serious accident on this campus,
what with drivers and pedestrians both
trying to occupy the same space.
Meredith does not have a pedestrian
campus — yet (although commuter
parking spaces have been so
carmit^Uzed, they might as well park at
the State Fairgrounds and hike over to
campus. But thafs another editorial!).
In the meantime, let’s all remember
that the roads are for cars and the
sidewalks and grass are for .everyone
else. Wlih all the beautiful acreage that
makes up our campus, it would seem
likely that those who want to stay in
shap>e could find somewhere else than
a roadway to exercise.
What do you think - anyone support
a jogging trail on campus?
Letters to the Editor
To the Editor:
The title of tlie editorial which
appeared in the August 27th issue of the
Meredith Herald—“Let's CaH a Spade a
Spade” — should have warned me of
the banality and inappropriateness of
the opinions that wouldfoUow. Foolishly,
however, I read on. The writer displays
both a contempt and flippancy —
comfortable, thoughtless stances for
those who seek to avoid rational debate
and profound insight — with re^rd to
the uses and abuses of women and
language. She ridicules as nonsense
whai is, in fact, crucial to our perceptions
of ourselves and our worth. She is tired
— tired of thinking, wrestling witti, and
working to change offenses and habits
so deeply buried in our psyches and
souls that we are daily demeaned and
diminished by them She calls us ladies,”
grows querulous about what she calls
“all this fuss about equality,” wishes (o
abandon small alterations in the language
to produ(£ dramatic transformations in
our behavior and attitudes. She even
bo^ out at the start, abrand new editor
who declines to grapple with the simple
editing tasks that would produce a non
sexist language.
I use shock to remind my students
of the subtle influence of language in
forming our opinions of ourselves. About
the rule — 6b in the Harbrace College
Handbook— I remind them that with
the indefirute pronouns they have always
been required to use the masculine
pronoun, unless, of course, the gender
of the group is 'Nearly female. Now,
students are obliged to use “everybody"
, “she/he" or “ people/they. “ But I invite
them to experiment. For example, they
can write, “Everybody attheTupperware
party gleefully burped lus plastic lettuce
hoWer." And they can write. “Anybody
who performs brain surgery must be
sure tosterilizehfi£ScalpeL"They laugh.
They get the poiru. I hope this editor will
do the same.
More significant, however, than my
. (personal objections to such an editorial
are the misconceptions and outrage it
produces among those who know little
or nothing about Meredith College. The
founders of Meredith dared to “make a
fuss about equalily“—and did so with a
vengeance. They sought to provide
women with educational opportunities
equal to or exceeding those provided
the "boys" at Wake forest. Ours was a
“university," designed to educate women
in every competitive way. The editor
would be wise tostudy Meredith's history
and to leam the substantial and lofty
expectations that inform our views of
women and women’s issues to this day.
A re-entry student in my English 111
class felt a thrill of aw>rehension as she
read this editorial. Perhaps she had
come to the wrong sdiool. Perhaps
Meredith was not the place she needed
to be. I've been around MeredUh long
enough to know that she is, on the
whole, “safe." She will encounter
professors, students, and administrators
who share her ongoing commitment
both to the proper use of language and
to the respectful treatment of women.
But vriien this student's introduction to
Meredith consists of reading such a
careless, frivolous diatribe from the editor
of our sdiool newspaper, the student
has a right to be a bit jittery. We expect
our newspaper writers, editoi^, and
reporters to be savvy, intelligent,
compassionate, literate, and reasonable.
I hale all the talk about public relations.
Meredith is not, after all, a product to be
marketed to some amorphous mass of
consumers. But first impressions, as our
mamas always told us, matter. And so
do words. And so do womea
Sincerely,
Suzanne Britt
(English faculty member)
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EdItorln-cUef Julis Haakett
Adrerttatng Staff Muffett Brinkman
Kelly Underwood
Kathlieen Thomu
Copy Editor* Jane Kennedy
Xa^een Thomas
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Allison Hodges
Sophomore Editor Kelly A. Phillips
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VING5 Editor Kathleen Thomas
GriKtuate School Editor OPBN
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hii*nvuknal Studies Janie MuUb
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Rtl^ion&nUoscpify OPEN
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ADMINISntAllON SECHON
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StvdentScrriccB Editor OPEN
STmxNr UFE sEcncm
dute/OrguilzatlOfM Editors Kim Peeples
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Becky Bradshaw
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Jh» Umrmid
Meredith College
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Raleigh, NC 27607-9296
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coU^
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