THE MEREDITH
HERALD
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February 27, 2019
IN THIS ISSUE
NEWS
Meredith Through the Years
Food Poisoning Prevention
A&E
Restaurant Review
The Vagina Monologues
Avoiding Roommate Conflict
OPINIONS
Crime and Immigrants
Water is the New Milk
The Sword and Shield of Meredith's Campus, Part 1
By Savi Swiggard, Staff Writer
Founders' Week
By Mimi Mays,
Associate Editor
Wandering into the
Meredith Alumnae House during
this year’s Founders’ Week, Feb.
25-Mar. I, is met with a unique
atmosphere of bustle and excitement.
In part by design and in part by
coincidence, Founders’ Week this
year contains not only Founders’
Day, Giving Day and other Meredith-
themed celebrations, but also the
commemoration of Meredith’s
Beyond Strong campaign.
The Beyond Strong
campaign began in July of 2012
and wrapped in December 2018.
In February 2016, the campaign
had already raised $26 million,
and at that time the college also
announced that the campaign’s final
goal would be $75 million. As of
August 2018, donors had given a total
of $86,355,254. “We well surpassed
our goal,” says President Jo Allen,
“proving how beloved this College
is,” but the final campaign sum has
been kept secret. On Wednesday, Feb.
27 at 10 a.m., Dr. Allen will announce
the number at the Founders’ Day
Celebration in the Johnson Hall
Rotunda, but the campaign is
without a doubt Meredith’s largest,
most successful fundraising effort.
Amidst the flood of stories
of school shootings and sexual as
saults, female students above all
value safety. In order to be Meredith
Strong, we have to question how safe
the campus is, what is being done
to make it safer, and how we as staff
and students can contribute to the
security of our campus. Meredith
College’s soon-arriving improve
ments in security will begin where it
all began: driving by the guardhouse.
The first building anyone
sees when arriving on Meredith’s
campus is the guardhouse, a small
symbol of something much greater.
In an interview with the Herald,
Chief A1 White expressed the impor
tance of this first impression on not
only students, but the community
as a whole as well. White expressed
that visibility is one of the most
effective tools campus security has
in preventing potential aggression
and violence. When the first visible
building reminds visitors that the
campus is guarded by an attentive
security staff, Meredith is flexing its
muscles, and we’re getting stronger.
Over the past few weeks, the first
phases of guardhouse improvement
began. White noted that what may
seem like cosmetic improvements are
already improving the safety of the
campus. “The guardhouse wasn’t in
sulated before now,” he explained. “It
was hard for officers to be stationed
in the hot or in the cold, but we’re
adding thermopane glass and an
HVAC unit. The guardhouse will now
be staffed at all hours.” After this, the
next phase of guardhouse improve
ment will be the addition of fluores
cent guard arms. This addition will
not only increase interaction between
security and incoming traffic at night,
but will also stop outgoing traffic to
monitor who may be on Meredith
campus during off-hours. The final
phase of guardhouse improvement is
the invisible safety technique. White
explained that security cameras will
be added to the guardhouse which
can record every license plate driving
onto Meredith campus. The cameras
will be active 24/7 and will keep a
registry of every car that drives onto
campus for security to monitor.
White explained that the
guardhouse improvements aren’t the
only ways in which campus security
is both visibly and invisibly protect
ing the campus. While many profes
sors and students have expressed
concerns about the public greenway
that runs through Meredith’s campus,
as it allows through traffic that isn’t
stopped by the campus police, White
assured that security is active on
the greenway. They drive along the
greenway during the day, allowing
the campus police to be visible to the
community and the greenway closes
at dusk. It’s not the security risk many
believe it to be, as it is monitored.
White also wanted both students
and staff to be aware that Meredith’s
campus security has an incredible
wealth of knowledge. With over 170
years of law enforcement knowledge
and experience, in addition to the
decade of campus specific work held
by White himself, Meredith’s campus
police are a strong resource for any is
sue occurring in or around campus. If
there are any doubts. White encour
ages students to check the numbers.
The Annual Security and Fire Safety
Reports are available online on the
Meredith website for anyone to see
and the numbers speak for them
selves. Across the board, Meredith
College is one of the safest college
campuses in the Southeast.
To be continued Mar. 20...
Founders’ Day, always on Feb. 27,
commemorates the founding of
Meredith College on that day in 1891.
Giving Day, or Make
It Count for Meredith Day
(#makeitcount4MC), always occurs
on the Tuesday of every Founders’
Week. This year, for Meredith’s fourth
annual Giving Day, we raised $536,877
in donations in 24 hours, exceeding
the goal of $400,000. This year’s goal
is $50,000 greater than last year’s;
but with such a small and devoted
donor and alumnae base, the college
is always expected to be ambitious
when it comes to fundraising goals,
says Erin Cleghorn, the director of
the Meredith Fund, so it wasn’t too
zealous to set a goal much larger than
the last.
Woman of Achievement
By Olivia Slack, Features Editor
On Feb. 19, Meredith College receipt. Dr. Allen interviewed her
President Jo Allen presented the
2019 Woman of Achievement
Award to chef and television host
Vivian Howard. The Woman of
Achievement Award is presented
by Meredith each year to a woman
who is an “inspirational role model.”
Howard joins former recipients
N.C. Supreme Court Justice Sarah
Parker, N.C. Secretary of State Elaine
Marshall, journalist Judy Woodruff
and more. To celebrate Howard’s
about her life and how she found
her way back to small-town North
Carolina from big-city New York
living.
During the conversation,
Vivian Howard shared many a
humorous anecdote about life as a
successful chef and businesswoman.
She talked about handling bad
reviews: don’t always take it to heart,
she said, but “follow the trends”
if they’re there. She discussed her
Donors on Giving Day (or
to any Meredith campaign on any
day) can provide their relationship
to the college, their class year (if
applicable) and their intentions
for their donations. Alumnae of
Meredith accounted for 83% of
donations, parents accounted for 8%,
faculty and staff accounted for 5%,
current students accounted for 3%
and friends of the college accounted
for 2%. Donors’ class year affiliations
(of alumnae, students or parents)
ranged from 1938 to 2024—1985
yielded the most money raised, while
2004 yielded the greatest number
of donors. Donors also chose where
their money would be allocated: the
most popular category was “College’s
Greatest Needs.” “We really push
ambition: “always a whale to chase,”
she mused. She reflected on her
many opportunities: no matter how
small an endeavor, she made sure to
“maintain a kernel of a dream.”
One of the most meaningful
stories was that of when Howard
finally realized that being a strong,
independent, modern woman does
not mean disregarding the advice
of older women like her mother. It
wasn’t until later in life that Howard
began paying attention to (and
for donations of that kind because
they’re the true lifeblood of the
college,” says Erin Cleghorn; they
fund anything the college needs—
everything from scholarship tuition
to facilities improvements.
The best part of Founders’
Week, says Associate Vice President
for Institutional Advancement Cindy
Godwin, is that it encourages and
celebrates members of the Meredith
community working towards a
common goal. “The more the
merrier,” she welcomes. For Giving
Day, donors were encouraged to
donate in the name of the strong
women in their lives, and it is thanks
to their donations that Meredith
College can keep putting those strong
women into the world.
respecting) her mother’s cooking
and, more importantly, her as a
person. According to Howard, it was
an important moment for her to
acknowledge that the experiences of
more mature women are not things
to be disregarded due to them being
“outdated.” Finding inspirational
female role models—no matter the
age—creates inspirational women
like Vivian Howard.