)Meredith Herald
Volume XVII, Issue 16
Educating Women to Excel
January 24, 2001
On the
inside:
□ President
Maureen Hart
ford shares her
hopes for the
year.
Page 2
□ Meet sever
al new and not-
so-new faces at
Meredith.
Page 4
□ Meredith’s
basketball team
tackles tough
teams and
wins.
Page 5
Meredith Herald
at
Meredith College
3800 Hillsborough St.
Raleigh, NC 27607
(919) 760-2824
FAX (919) 760-2869
maxwelll @m«redi(h.edu
Fire strikes Heilman again
□ Early
morning fire
breaks out on
Monday
Jenny Costa
News Ediior
At 3:30 a.m. Monday, Jan.
22, residents of Heilman were
jolted awake by the fire alarm.
The Raleigh Fire Depart
ment responded to a fire that
broke out in (he laundry room
of the third floor on the south
end of Heilman Residence Hall
As soon as the fire caught,
the alarm system went off and
notified Campus Police that
there was a blaze in one of the
buildings. Heilman residence
dfrector Kamelah Nelson
called the campus security
office to let them know where
the fire was actually located,
said Campus Police Chief
Frank Strickland.
Students evacuated in three
to four minutes, and there were
no injuries, said Strickland.
They were forced outside
where it was in the mid-twen-
ties that morning. As the stu
dents began to realize it was
not a drill they moved to the
first-floor parlor of Barefoot.
There they waited while the
fire was safely contained.
According to Strickland, the
campus police arrived within
three minutes of the alarm’s
sounding and the fire depart
ment within six.
As students waited, they
feared what could have hap
pened during the disastrous
event.
Lisa Wagoner said at the
time of the fire that she would
rather not think about the like
lihood of losing irreplaceable
items like the hundreds of pic-
Once again, Heilman Residence Hall was the site of a cam
pus fire. A third-floor fire occurred early Monday.
Photo sy Lesue Maxueu
tures she had in her room.
Minutes later, fire fighters
were able to contain the blaze
with hand held extinguishers,
so there was no water damage
to the building, nor was there
any damage to rooms occupied
by students, said Strickland.
However, there was a con
siderable amount of damage
caused by smoke. Strickland
reports that damages will run in
excess of $20,000. The school
has hired a professional fire
clean-up crew, Cary Recon
struction Inc., to repair the
damages.
Strickland said the exact
cause of the fire is unable to be
determined, but it did originate
in a trash can in the laundry
room and they arft, “99 percent
sure it was ignited by a ciga
rette.”
The Raleigh Fire Depart
ment issued a report saying,
“the fire is believed to be acci
dental and is not suspicious."
At 10 a.m. Monday morning
residents of the third floor were
again asked to leave iheir
rooms for the afternoon
because an ozone machine was
Please see
FIRE
page two
Schoettler revels in everyday life
JamieTunneu.
SlaH Wnler
Many people wish they
knew their families better. Gea-
neologists study family trees
and ancestry endlessly. And
Meredith students had the
chance to hear a woman inter
ested in her past recently.
National ly-known fiber
artist Ellouise Schoettler told
an audience on Monday in
Jones Auditorium that what
began as her quest to find out
about her family heritage,
ended in a fascinating lesson
on women's history.
Schi^ettler is an artist who,
several years ago. realized how
little she knew of her family
ancestry.
As she began a search for
her heritage, Schoettler came
across stories of incredible
women about whom she shared
with the audience Monday
morning in the form of
“Uncommon Threads." She
made quilts about each of the
four women she told about.
A fiber artist/storyteller.
Schoettler makes nonobjective
quilts out of small bits of fabric
to display as she tells her bright
stories. From separated sisters
and their homesick letter to a
female Revolutionary War
patron, they all set up a story
that made the audience envi
sion Schwttler's childhc)od as
she related each one. The artist
achieves this vision by merging
each letter with her own life.
In her artist's statement.
Schoettler noted that her quilt
making produces in her a kind
of nostalgia: "As I sort through
the bits of fabric looking for
the just right nexi color. 1 reme-
ber the magic discoveries when
I played with the sewing rem
nants my grandmother kept in a
bag in her closet."
Sophomore Brot^ke Canuday
said after the convocation that
her quilts matched with the dif
ferent personalities of the
woiTien her stories were ahout.
"The research for her heritage
opened her eyes to these letters
that really cover women's her
itage, in general." she said.
Sch(>ettler shared her rich
treasure of letters and closed
with a story of how special it is
to wait for those treasures in
the mail. The artist herself
learned to write letters during
her years at a boarding school
during World War 11.
She noted, “Working with
fabric connects me and my
work to women’s tradition,
most pariicularily to all the
seamstresses I have discovered
in my family lines. In my fab
ric works 1 honor them and cel
ebrate their lives.’’
Schoettler is a nationally-
known artist who grew up in
Charlotte. NC. She now resides
in Maryland and is the former
president of Maryland College
of Art & Design. Her work will
be displayed in the Weems
Gallery on campus until Feb.
18.