• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_1983-08-25_Vol48_No04_01

A Brand-New Look, A Brand-New Style Inside Cats Prepare For Purple-White Game Western Carolinian Volume 48 Issue 4 August 25, 1983 Free Training Program Prepares RA 's For Busy Year Larry Woods (left), R A in Leatherwood, and Bill Klages, Head Resident in Reynolds, act out a skit during the Harrill Experiment. (Photo by Mark Haskett) Wanda Crawford Staff Writer A few days before dormitory students moved in for Fall Semester, WCU's residence advisors met on campus for a comprehensive training session. With the help of Area Coordinator Steve Baxley, they covered topics that included how to run their buildings, how to handle emergencies and lesser problems, and how to deal with all the assorted bits and pieces of managemental red tape that will come their way. Baxley had some help in this training mission, a Student Services Panel, made up of representatives from different campus services (Speech and Hearing, Special Services, International Students, etc.) gave talks and demonstrations to familiarize the RA's with the ways they can help during times of special needs. In this way, the RA's could learn more readily where to refer students when the need arises for services beyond their own abilities. Bill Shore, campus Safety Director, conducted a session on fire safety and on the appropriate ways to face emergencies. This included developing the judgement to know whether or not a situation is health- threatening and warrents calling such help as the Student Emergency Care Team (SEC). RA's are selected each spring from a pool of applicants who all must be at least in their sophomore year and have a minimum QPR of 2.0. They must have lived in residence halls for one or more semesters and be familiar with the demands of dorm life. Candidates who meet these requirements are interviewed in person. On the basis of their qualifications and the impression they gave during the interview, selection is made. All RA's, new and old alike, go through a demanding training process that drills into them every detail of the work lying ahead of them. In addition to learning emergency and technical skills, the RA's are trained in basic counseling techniques that will enable them either to give one-on-one assistance or make appropriate referrals. In order to give the RA's the opportunity to practive their new skills, artificial situations were created in which the RA must act in his/ her capacity as advisor. A technique that Baxley found facilitated this practice was role playing, in which one or more RA's could take part. A give student would play the role of RA, while others approached him/ her with a problem and he/she had to come up with a solution. In the Harrill Experiment, a group of RA's made up skits. They divided into two factions, "RA's" and "Residents." The "RA" group was to go to a specified room and handle such typical problems as loud stereos or messy roommates, which the "Residents" had created as a test. The "RA's" would have no prior knowledge of the nature of the problem and would have to come up with an impromptu answer. Then, the two factions would switch sides and enact a new problem. Baxley commented, "The skits give the RA's a better feel for their job." A key function the RA's learned to perform was how to run a hall office, which must be managed every evening from eight to twelve. When RA's are on office duty, they are responsible for emergencies, the check-out of playing cards and board games, and the more than occasional personal problems brought them. According to Baxley, "The RA's learned to help students with such problems as how to manage their time, how to develop study skills and how to deal with their roommates." Baxley designed some of thf training sessions to give the RA' advise and practical ideas on setting up social programs on their floors. Programs to which residents can look forward are special speakers and mini-classes on improving learning skills and finding jobs. Baxley, who has been at WCU four years, is the Coordinator of the Harrill-Albright-Benton Area. Irish, Southern Folk Musicians To Perform During Heritage Weekend OPI—Some of the world's best Irish fiddlers and flutists, ballad singers and bagpipers will perform at Western Carolina University Aug. 26-27 alongside a group of distinguished Southern Appalachian folk artists. The event, sponsored by the WCU Mountain Heritage Center, is billed as an Irish and Appalachian folk arts festival celebrating the "shared roots and divergent traditions" of both cultures. If is scheduled to run from 1 until 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday in front of the center, with a formal concert at 8 p.m. in the recital hall of the Music-English Building. Free to the public, the festival will coincide with the opening of a major exhibition on the migration of Scotch Irish people from Northern Ireland to Western North Carolina. An official unveiling of the exhibition will take place at 3 p.m. Friday, Sept. 2, when Lord Grey of Naunton, the Chancelllor of the New University of Ulster, will join WCU Chancellor H.F. Robinson in making remarks. As part of the opening events, the center will present a free slide/tape show on "Traditional Architecture of Western North Carolina" at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 30, in the center auditorium. During the preceding, two-day festival, there'll be lots of music-making, storytelling and dancing by a stellar list of 17 Irish and Appalachian folk artists. The musicians alone will provide a rich medley of sounds from wailing fiddles and high-pitched flutes to plucked banjos, melodious pipes and old mountain ballads that swell and fall in plaintive tones. Similarily, an Irish stepdancer and a mountain buckdancer will liven the pace with some fancy footwork. Irish born and trained roof thatcher Irish stone hut inside the center, while Jackson County woodcutter R.O. Wilson shingles the roof of an authentic Appalachian log cabin that he built this winter. The daytime events will consist of informal workshops and demonstrations, designed to introduce the performers and give the audience a chance to interact with them. "We hope the workshops will be a time of spontaneity and discovery as the performers and the audience find out just how similar or different Irish and Appalachian traditions really are," said center folklorist Michael Ann Williams. Williams said the folk traditions of both peoples appear to be different but are bound by common roots. Appalachian music and dance, she explained, find some of their roots in the traditions of 18th century Scotch-Irish immigrants. These people were lowland Scots who, in the 17th century, were planted in Northern Ireland to secure the land for the English crown but later fled to America to escape economic oppression and religious intolerence. In contrast, contemporary Irish-American folk traditions descended from native Irish people who came to this country a century or two later and settled in Boston, Philadelphia, New York and other large urban areas, Williams said. Many of the historic events linking the two folk cent, on page 3 Chancellor H.F. Robinson State Leaders To Gather For Robinson Building Ceremonies OPI ~ State higher education and political leaders will gather at Western Carolina University Saturday for a ceremonial naming of the H.F. Robinson administration Building honoring the chancellor of the university. William Friday, president of The University of North Carolina system, will deliver the principal address at the 11 a.m. ceremony at the building. Liston B. Ramsey of Marshall, speaker of the House of Representatives of the General Assembly of North Carolina, also will speak. Dr. Wallace N. Hyde of Asheville, chairman of the WCU board of trustees will preside at the ceremony. Hyde, Mrs. Robinson and Jack E. Abbott, former chairman of the WCU board and chairman of the board's building committee at the time the structure was named for Robinson, will unveil the large letters mounted at the west entrance to the building. The naming and unveiling ceremonies will be held in the Mountain Heritage Center Courtyard. In the event of rain, the ceremonies will be held in the center's Founder's Auditorium. Robinson became chancellor in 1974 and is beginning his 10th year as head of the institution. The Robinson building, originally known as the University Administration/ Mountain Heritage Center, houses the institution's administrative offices and a regional museum of the Western North Carolina mountains. Summer Update A Summer Of Surprises, Sorrows, And Honors James A. Cooper of Cherokee and Carl Wilson, Jr. of Brevard were named to the board of trustees at WCU by the University of North Carolina Board of governors. *** A series of premature deaths shook the campus this summer. Our sympathy goes out to the bereaved families and friends of our classmates who passed on. They will not be forgotten. Academic All-America baseball team selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America. WCU basketball star Ronnie Carr was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in the tenth round of the National Basketball Association college draft. ^„ Anthony James, WCU track and football all-conference standout, was Baseball standouts Greg Johnson and named the Southern Conference's 1983 David Hill were named to the 1983 Athlete of the Year. Local Students Receive Helder A wards Fifteen students from Haywood County have been awarded four-year Helder Scholarships to attend Western Carolina Univer sity, beginning this fall. The scholarships, ranging from $500 to $800 each, will be awarded for four consecutive years to each recipient, makinga total of $10,800 in awards each year. Awarded annually since 1963, the scholarships are given by the Horatio A. and Adah C. Helder Scholarship Foundation, which was established by the will of Mrs. Helder, widow of H.A. Helder. Helder was president and manager of Carolina Division of Champion Paper. The foundation, which is administered by Wachovia Bank and Trust in Winston-Salem, awards the scholarships to Haywood County students on the basis of scholastic achievement and need. This year's recipients consist of 11 Pisgah Senior High School graduates and four Tuscola Senior High School graduates. Scholarship winners who graduated from Pisgah are: From Canton, Yvonne E. Caldwell, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ned L. Caldwell of Route 2; Barry Olin Covington, son of Bobbie J. Covington of 29 Winfield St.; Andrew D. Evans, son of Mr. and Mrs. James D. Evans of 27 Pressley Road; Nick Alan Haley, son ofMr. and Mrs. Ronnie B. Haley of 45 Academy St.; Jessica Renee Hall, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward E. Hall of Route 1; Claude Daniel Jimison, son of Mr. and Mrs. Claude Billy Jimison; Donna Leigh Murphy, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Donald Hawkins Murphy of 9 Haywood Drive; and Paulette Adair Ridler, daughter of Mildred G. Ridler of Route 5. And from Clyde: Janet Christine Harris, daughter of M r. and M rs. Kenneth David Harris of Route 2; David M. Scott, son of M r. and M rs. Earl H. Caldwell of Route 1; and Suzanne Carol Scott, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. WalterC. Scott of 59 Skyline Drive. Recipients who graduated from Tuscola are: From Waynesville, Robert Bryant Conn of 133 Mt. View Drive and Suzanne Noland, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Orville L. Noland Jr. of Route 4. Also, Jeffrey Hayden McClurc. son of Beverly A. McClure of 104 Welch St.. Hazelwood; and Myra LaRue Rogers, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Glenn B. Rogers of Route 4 Clyde.

The Western Carolinian is Western Carolina University's student-run newspaper. The paper was published as the Cullowhee Yodel from 1924 to 1931 before changing its name to The Western Carolinian in 1933.

• Creator
  • Western Carolina University
• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Date
  • Date original: 1983-08-25
  • Date digitized: 2019-01-31
• Extent
  • Dimension: 15" x 11.5"
  • Pages: 14 pages
• Subject - Topic
  • College student newspapers and periodicals
  • Cullowhee (N.C.) -- Newspapers
  • Universities and colleges -- North Carolina -- Cullowhee -- Newspapers
• Location
  • Jackson County (N.C.)
  • Cullowhee (N.C.)
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Source Collection
  • WCU Students Newspapers Collection
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_1983-08-25_Vol48_No04
• Repository
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library