north CAROLINA COLLECTION
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA LIBRARY
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
87514
CROSSROADS
s V #• ti ii
Belmont Abbeij Colle3e
VOLUME II, ISSUE 4
MAY, 1973
Abbot Edmund recently an
nounced the Abbey’s intention to
develop 500 acres of its prime
land. At a time when private
institutions are closing at a rate
of about one a week, when
competition for students is at a
feverish pitch, when fiscal
pressures are overwhelming,
and when the gap between the
costs of public and private
colleges is widening, Belmont
Abbey has decided to meet the
challenges head-on and, as in
private industry, fight for its
survival.
Abbey estates, as the tract is
known, provides for com
mercial, industrial, office,
research, and residential
development. Growth of the
Estates will be coordinated by
the Investment Management
Group of North Carolina
National Bank. Abbey Estates,
Belmont, North Carolina, is
located along 1-85 and U.S. 29 and
74 between Charlotte and
Gastonia, only minutes from
Douglas Airport, and is served
by the Seaboard Coast Line
Railroad. The Benedictine
Monks, believing that people
must have the right environment
to perform well, plan the
development not only to ensure
the continuing productivity of
the College, but also to enrich the
nearby communities by
providing business opportunities
in an attractive environment
offering good schools,
recreational areas, cultural
activities, modern medical
service, superb transportation
facilities and above all, warm
and congenial people.
Abbey Estates will offer three
distinct kinds of opportunities:
residential, light industrial, and
office-research. The Abbey’s
plan calls for a residential
community of approximately
1,800 living units consisting of
apartments, patio houses, and
town houses, all designed to
conform to an open-space con
cept of rural living with urban
conveniences.
The light industrial sites have
sewerage, electrical, and
telephone capability available.
Water will be furnished through
the town of Belmont. The gently
rolling terrain allows each site to
be individually tailored to
requirements.
FROM L. TO R., Rev. John Bradley, President of B.A.C.;
Abbot Edmund McCaffery; Floyd Boyce, Vice President and
Trust Officer, NCNB; and J.P. Smith, Comptroller of the college.
The office-research sites are
assured of large open areas,
adequate parking, and at
tractiveness. Proximity to the
College suggests a labor force at
the doorstep as well as cultural
opportunities and technical
expertise within minutes.
At a time of financial, student,
and social pressures and un
certainties, the decision to
develop Abbey ' Estates
demonstrates an unyielding
determination to continue
providing quality education in
the Benedictine tradition to the
young men and women of North
Carolina, and by so doing to offer
a place where people will enjoy
living and working, thus com
plementing the 'educational
environment of Belmont Abbey
College.
VS.
r
Abbey junior Chris Ritzert, who is
spending the current academic year
studying at the University of Aix-en-
Provence, wrote recentiy to report on
his experiences and impressions in
Europe. Crossroads offers the
following excerpts from Chris’s letter,
believing them to be of generai interest,
as weil as illustrative of the value of
foreign study.
Living in Washington or its
suburbs nearly all my life didn’t
prepare me for United States
politics and government in
Europe. Washington is the
varied governmental
bureaucracies housed in white
marble monuments to the tax
payer’s dollar. It is the stately
embassies and a sampling of
world-wide cultures and
populations. Washington is
where kids learn their ABC’s and
HUD’s at the same time. (“My
dad’s CIA can beat your dad’s
FBI any ole day.’’) And many
learn their G.S. ratings long
before their multiplication
tables. Washington is govern
ment and politics, and the people
know them both. It’s their job.
Living amidst this, however,
did not prepare me for the far
reaches of our powerful
government.
It’s also the airport in Athens,
Greece, “a joint project by the
Greek and United States
governments.’’ Not far away we
find the quarters for the Navy’s
Mediterranean fleet. It’s
meeting the Army corporal who
is stationed in Turkey. He tells a
sourly-amusing story of how a
multi-million dollar memorial
somehow took priority over a
multi-million dollar road project
... compliments of you and me.
It’s the government-employed
telescope technician from New
Jersey working in foreign
government’s observatory. It’s
the many varying opinion that
are often voices, ranging from
awe at such a powerful and
plentiful nation. (It’s so big!)
(Your state is bigger than my
country!) to outright hate
(“Nixon - assassin - U.S. Out.’’)
and hostility.
Being my first opportunity tc
vote in Federal Elections (and
from Europe, no less), the recent
elections were of’particular
interest to me. Following no
American (or English)
publications or broadcasts, I feel
that I suffered no handicap in
keeping up with not only the
elections themselves, but the
preceding campaigns. All
along the campaign trail,
newspapers, radios, and
televisions offered discussion of
issues along with public opinion
and sentiment. The week before
the elections, major newspapers
often reserved several pages for
the latest development in the
campaign, as well as feature
reports such as the American
political system, the election
mechanics (the electoral
college, etc.) and biographies.
Hourly reports from New York
were broadcast throughout the
week.
Often amusing in such reports
was the absence of any mention
of Vice-President Spiro Agnew,
when discussing the “Nixon-
Kissinger ticket.’’ Sargent
Shriver, Senator McGovern’s
running- mate, is well-known in
France since he was the U.S.
Ambassador several years ago.
Most young Europeans are
very knowledgable in world
politics and discuss them
huently (in three languages).
Finding those equally well-
drilled in the U.S. politics can
hardly be called rare.
(See POLITICS, page 6)