Meredith Herald
Volume XVIII, issue 2
Educating Women to Excel
September 5, 2001
On the
inside:
O There are
23 new faculty
on campus
Page 2
□ Silk paint
ings on display
in Gaddy-Ham-
rick
Page 5
□ It’s the year
of the shark—or
the shark
attack. Can we
blame more
than just the
sharks?
Page 6
Meredith HerdM
' at■
Mereditii College
3800 Hillsborough St.
Raleigh, NC 27607
(919) 760-2824
FAX (919) 760-2869
holdenr®meredith4!du
Task force meets, discusses
changes to general education
Stephanie Jordan
Copy Chief
On Friday afternoon, Aug.
31, 2001, as most of the
Meredith community slipped
off for their holiday weekend,
about 25 faculty and staff gath
ered in the Chapel Commons
Room to discuss a heavy topic
—general education reform.
Dr. Betty Webb, chair of the
General Education Review
Task Force, facilitated the
meeting. Prior to beginning.
Webb explained that Meredith
is joining a national movement
among colleges and universi
ties to re-evaluate general edu
cation requirements.
"The world is a much differ
ent place than it was when the
current plan was drawn. We
don’t feel that our system is
bad, but we feel that we can do
better,” said Webb.
The task force feels that gen
eral education at Meredith has
moved to more of a “check-off
system”than a continuing, cul
minating. four-year experience,
and the task force’s goal is to
reverse that trend.
They distributed a draft for
the framework of the new cur
riculum.
Currently, general education
rests on four core classes or
experiences in which all stu
dents participate: ENG 111,
ENG 201, REL 100 and either
HIS 101 or 102.
The idea for a new set of
core classes drew the most dis
cussion at Friday’s meeting. A
class or possibly a series of two
classes temporarily referred to
as a Cornerstone would begin a
student’s general education
experience.
Broadly speaking, a Corner
stone course will be a multi
disciplinary, foundational
experience.
Task Force member Dr.
Rebecca Oatsvall said her view
of a Cornerstone course is one
that will “help the student
locate herself, give her a dislo
cation experience and then
bring her back.”
Oatsvall's explanation
applies on a larger scale to the
purpose of general education as
a whole, many committee
members added.
Following the freshman
Cornerstone experience would
be one or two Steppingstones,
multi-disciplinary courses that
are similar to ^e foundation
but still take the student a step
further.
The core requirements
would culminate in a Capstone
course in the senior year.
Webb was quick to point out
that this new model is. not the
same as what the college now
offers as a Capstone course.
Several faculty voiced con
cerns about this model.
Dr. Carolyn Happer of the
history and politics department
questioned having “the whole
of general education rest on a
model that isn’t widely used on
our campus.”
Currently the only courses
similar to the prq?osed core are
Honors Colloquia and Cap-
See
GENED
page two
New ‘chiller’ will even out temps
Kristen Thompson
StaH Reponsr
Students and faculty have
learned that one weather fOTe-
cast that is never predictable is
the one inside the buildings on
campus. Perhaps the only thing
predictable is the unpredicata-
bility.
In Joyner, for example, it’s
not unusual to feel warm and
stuffy in Room 111 and be
reaching for your cable knit
next door in Room 113. And
that happens every-day.
However, temperatures will
become more predictable this
year as the College installs new
chilled water and steam lines
across campus to replace old
lines that were installed in the
1960s.
The project which will
improve cooling campus-wide,
was initially driven by the
needs of the new math and sci
ence building.
However, Greg Ahrendsen,
the project manager, said that
the “administration saw this as
a great time to fix soiik prob
lems that we are having now
and to prepare the campus for
the future beyond the new math
and science building.”
“We have had to watch the
weather reports and then spend
one to three days changing
With the help of the CAT excavator and a few shovels,
workers dig a trench seven feet deep for the new pipes
between Strlngfield and Vann Residence Halls.
Photo By Chkistina Holdgr
In past years, the old lines
were able to provide steamed
or chilled water but never both.
over from one to the other
manually.” said Ahrendsen.
The new system will allow
heating and cooling measures
to be switched whenever the
weather demands.
New pumps will be installed
in all buildings on campus that
do not already have one. This
will allow the individual cool
ing and heating of buildings
and a more uniform tempera
ture within rooms of tfte build
ings.
From now on the chillers
and boilers will be turned on
year round so that on hot fall
days or cold spring days the
Meredith community can work
and study with heating or cool
ing.
So clip-on fans and sweat
shirts are not quite relics yet.
However, the Meredith com
munity can expect more regu
lar temperature in buildings
when the new chillers are
installed this winter.
The majority of the project
will be completed by May
2002.
‘This [M-oject should greatly
enhance the comfort level of
building occupants.” said
Ahrendsen.