North Carolina Wesleyan College - Dissenter Yearbook (Rocky Mount, NC)

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What type of image will l project? , What is my social code? , How do l react to the church and to the world? , Shall I drink?f', Shall l experiment with drugs? , etc. His uncertainty contributes to his dis- content. Often, the college serves as a catalyst. Take for example, the parking situation. After repeated complaints from the students about a poorly planned parking pattern, the college hired a man to check parking and give tickets. There were howls of protest from students. So we turned the matter over to the S. G. A. They could not solve the problem, and the President of the S. G. A. asked this office to take the problem back. We immediately announced 510.00 fines for parking in the driveways. The problem was solved but do you know what students then said? All this college is interested in is my money. Another example is the men's dorm. The residents complain about the noise but they won't pass regulations concerning it, and the Dorm Council will not take action. l tell them, ltfs your dorm and you have to live there. Do something about the noise. But they seem to think it is someone else's job. These sloppy attitudes are adolescent characteristics and demonstrate that our students are experiencing growth pains. DISSENTER: Do you think your policy of could add to the student's discontent? And what exactly does freedom of respon- sibility mean? -WILDE: The policy of freedom with responsibility has two direct meanings to students. lt means they have freedom: to learn, to participate in the affairs of the college, to help make decisions about the administration of the college, to learn to make wise decisions about their own personal and individual lives, and to benfireie of meaningless and oppressive rules and regulations which the college might enforce upon them. But, it also means that they have responsibility to consider the ethical, moral, and educational con- sequences of their words, conduct, and activity to themselves, other students, and the college, and to be fully accountable for such words, conduct and activity, to

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the college take in matters of academic, religious, and social regulations? What type of image will it project? Socially is Weselyan to be conservative or liberal in such matters as alcohol on campus, dormitory regulations, dress codes, etc,?gAg We going to project a traditional religious atmosphere or are we going to be a mem- ber of theisecular church? Are we going to be a traditional liberal arts college or are we going to be innovative? What courses of study shall we offer? These are only a few of the decisions to be made. Some of them have been made and now we must decide either to live with them or change them. Others are still to be made. Students are frustrated by this indecision, and this frustration helps cause discontent with the policies of the administration. Combine these frustrations with the frus- trations that arise when students realize that their high school had better school spirit, activities and services than Wesleyan, and we have a reason for discontent. I say that their high schools were better because the vast majority of our students come from high schools of TOOO or more students which provided better services. They could see a more exciting basketball game. Their organizations had sponsors and appeared more active than those at Wesleyan. Their school lunches were better than the food in the cafeteria. lviost of them came from high schools which had long-established traditions. This is one thing that Wesleyan doesn't have and won't have for .a ,few more years. The lack of tradition could. be made less noticeable if Wesleyan had luxurious dormitories, fantastic food, a Fine Arts Building, a totally unique approach to education, etc, but we don't. These things -require a great deal of money which we don't have at this time. However the growing pains of the college aren't the only cause of student discontent and frustration. In my study this fall of incoming freshmen, I found that our freshmen, as compared with those from other colleges, seem to be more in a state of Indecision regarding their probable career choice. ln another study last spring I found that a high percentage of Wesleyan students hadn't decided what career to pursue. Wesleyan students are suffering from the same growing pains as the college. They are asking themselves:

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participate actively in the academic and extracurricular affairs of the collegeg and to uphold those rules and regulations which have been openly and democratically decided. For some of our students this policy does add to their discontent because it forces them to decide for themselves what they will or will not do. It means that they must live with their decision - for the first time for some of our students. Our office is not going to snoop around and check to see if they are abiding with the rules or not. VVe're not going to check to see that they have been to class or if they are studying in their room or down at the Retreat. The students involved in the situation must help me decide whether their action was responsible or not. DISSENTER: In your opinion, do students want this responsibility? VVILDE: Quite a few of our students do. Others find it frustrating. In fact, the majority of the crises of this year in stu- dent affairs have been because students wanted to be involved. They have been in conflict with themselves and the college over their role in the college. The President's Proclamation which came in the midst ofy the boycott in Rocky Mount caused students to l question what their role was and how effective it could be. Students and administrators debated what the proclamation meant, how it could be enforced, how it affected off-campus activities, and what students could do