Founder’s Day celebration captivates and motivates campus
Workshop reenacts Park’s civil disobediance
Winter term travels take 76 students across five continents
Centre earns positive reviews in guidebooks
Earthquake leaves hundreds dead, injured
MLK Jr.’s birthday highlighted on campus with convocation
Anne Ledford
Cento Writer
On Jan. 14, the eve of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, students were invited to take "A Bus Ride with Mrs. Rosa Parks" in a convocation sponsored by the Diversity Student Union. The program was held for the celebration and remembrance of the legacy of King.
"A Bus Ride with Mrs. Rosa Parks" was performed by storyteller/artist Nana Yaa Asantewa and featured performing artists Elisha Akua Wimsatt and Aminata Baruti and a dance presentation by Centre professor Sara Yarborough-Smith.
The service opened with an assembly singing of "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" and was followed with a dance performance by Yarborough-Smith and student Shayla D. Lynch ’01. The dance, which was choreographed by Yarborough-Smith, was performed to Dr. King's landmark speech "I Have a Dream."
After the interpretive dance, Nana Yaa Asantawa, author and director of the Rosa Parks production, opened up as Rosa Park's mother reminiscing about her daughter. During her monologue she touched on the indignities of being black during the time of the civil rights movement. She commented on everything from the threat of the KKK, the constant bullying and discrimination from whites and even memories of former slavery by older family members.
After Asantawa's monologue, Aminata Baruti gave an interpretive dance to a song about freedom.
Next, Elisha Akua Wimsatt gave a monologue as Rosa Parks on the day she refused to give up her seat on the bus. Her monologue directly addressed the social injustices of her time. "The only crime I ever committed was being born a negro in America," said a handcuffed Rosa. Filled with Dr. King's doctrine, the monologue also promoted fighting discrimination with peaceful demonstrations.
The service was concluded with another interpretative dance by Baruti, this time to a song about the quiet strength of Rosa Parks with the lyrics "She stood up for peace and justice just by sitting down." After the conclusion of the service, guests were invited to President Roush's home for a reception with the performers and DSU members.
"This has probably been the best performance we have had in recent years for our Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration," said DSU member Meredith Mays ’02.
"A lot of people commented that it was the most unique service they've seen of this type and that they enjoyed it thoroughly," said DSU President Morgan White ’02. "It would be neat if we could one day celebrate Martin Luther King's birthday with more convocations like this and special teach-ins like we held for the debate."
Trina McFarland, advisor to the DSU, first saw the production at the Governor's Diversity Day in Frankfort and organized the event for the group to perform at Centre.
The production is on tour with the Kentuckiana African American Arts Series. Nana Yaa Asantewa is a cultural arts educator who has been televised on KET's "Telling Tales" series and is a featured teller at the Gullah Festival in South Carolina. Elisha Akua Wimsatt has performed with the Theater Workshop of Louisville and the Whitney M. Young Scholars Program. Back to top...
Founder’s Day celebration captivates and motivates campus
Stacy Hoehle
Cento Writer
On Wednesday Centre students, faculty and friends of the college gathered to celebrate Founder’s Day. Faculty, dressed in formal robes, processed into Newlin Hall, joining the people who had gathered to hear the keynote address by given William H. Willimon. Willimon is the chaplain at Duke University as well as a widely respected author and preacher.
President Roush preceded Willimon’s speech with a tribute to the founders of Centre College. "All of us are better when we remember where we came from," said President Roush. He also detailed the expansion Centre has undergone in the last 82 years. Centre was founded on Jan. 21, 1819, under the guidance of Isaac Shelby. Initially the college was comprised of two students and three faculty members. Today, by offering an intense, personal and transforming educational experience, Centre has become a top liberal arts school that fosters the intellectual and moral potential of students.
Willimon’s speech followed. Before his remarks, Willimon was awarded an honorary degree from Centre College. He spoke in favor of institutions, such as Centre, where the classical view of education is still embraced. This view combines time investment, a quality environment and interaction between professors and students to help students mature and reach their potential. Willimon sees large universities, commuter colleges and e-colleges as a threat to smaller, more intimate classical settings encouraging deeper intellectual growth.
According to Willimon, the scale of a university is directly linked to how well it can benefit students. He questioned whether "vast knowledge factories where faculty spit out data," such as schools with 20,000 or more students, could really transform each student on an individual level. Willimon praised Centre’s small setting and close connection between friendship and education that unites students and professors.
Willimon closed his words with a conversation he had with one of his graduate students. The student, a graduate of Centre College, said that what had truly shaped his development as a person was the Centre faculty. They aggressively molded him into a concerned, conscientious and caring individual. His observations were met with a standing ovation.
"The speaker did a great job and was able to draw on people’s emotions, as well as be humorous," said Sterling Sanders ’01. "Allison Houlihan’s benediction finished Founder’s Day in the best way." Houlihan ’01, reminded everyone to look inside to his or her own light, which is brightened by the Centre College experience.
Students enjoyed the convocation, especially the light and encouraging tone of Willimon’s address. "I was really glad I attended. The speech was captivating and motivating . . . I left feeling inspired to pursue Centre faculty for the wisdom they have to offer," said Katie Harris ’04. Willimon’s emphasis on the value of seeking wisdom from professors and older members of society was clearly embraced by the students who attended.Back to top...
Workshop reenacts Park’s civil disobediance
Amy Sibley
Cento Writer
A workshop celebrating the civil rights movement and the Montgomery bus boycotts was hosted in the Combs Student Center Sunday, Jan. 14. The workshop, "Quiet Strength," was presented by Nana Yaa Asantewa and Zambia Nkrumah-White. The Diversity Education Department sponsored the workshop in recognition of Martin Luther King Day.
"People a lot of times read the information but then to [help] process that information we do a reenactment," says Asantewa. "We hope to arouse some emotional response."
Activities in the workshop included a reenactment of Rosa Park’s civil disobedience and the boycott that followed. Participants made signs that represented the feelings from both sides of the protest and discussed what they believed freedom meant.
"Mrs. Rosa Parks had to get on the bus, pay her dime, get off the bus and get back on from the back. The system kept reminding you of your position," Nkrumah-White told the participants.
Asantewa and Nkrumah-White both participated in the civil rights movement and shared their experiences.
"I was 16 when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. I was totally devastated. I just thought it was the end of the world," says Nkrumah-White.
Asantewa described the afro she sported in her youth saying, "The hair was an act of defiance. You had gone from civil rights to black power; people being able to assert their humanity through defiance."
"Because of the nature of freedom we have to always be on guard to protect those things we consider sacred," said Asantewa.
The workshop started five years ago at the Children’s Museum in Lexington. The play "A Bus Ride with Rosa Parks" developed from the program four years ago and was presented in Newlin Hall Sunday night. Asantewa is originally from Louisville and has been working in cultural arts education for 20 years. Nkrumah-White is a sixth-grade teacher in Jefferson County. Back to top...
Winter term travels take 76 students across five continents
Katie Lander
Cento Writer
Studying topics that range from religion to psychobiology, 76 students are abroad this term. This year’s international programs are led by six professors who will take some students as far away as South Africa.
Phyllis Passariello, professor of anthropology, is leading 21 students through Spain, Portugal and Morocco in the study of "The Anthropoloy of Tourism." Passariello has researched the ways in which indigenous cultures attract tourists for several years. Her work has also shown the impact of tourism on local people and their ways of life.
Brent White, Matton professor of psychology, is guiding 17 students in primate behavior research in Barbados. White is an expert in the field of psychobiology and has taken students to Barbados in previous years. Students work in conjunction with the Barbados Wildlife Preserve, which provides opportunities for field research in the primates' environment.
Rick Axtell, assistant professor of religion and college chaplain, is journeying with 12 students to Nicaragua for a program called "Liberation Theology." Axtell has traveled extensively in underdeveloped countries where he has studied poverty, hunger and homelessness, political oppression and local religious expression.
Thomas McCullough, professor of religion, is leading eight students through Rome and parts of Turkey in a program entitled "The Bible in Context." This program explore several geographic regions significant to the New Testament. An authority on Biblical archaeology, McCullough travels with students to Israel every summer in a program focusing on the archaeology of the Holy Land.
Beau Weston, professor of sociology, is directing 11 students on a trip to South Africa for an exploration of "Race and Ethnicity." During their travels, the group will meet with recent Centre graduate and Fulbright Fellowship winner John Goodman, who is currently teaching and studying on the French island of Reunion off the southeast coast of Africa.
Godfrey Gibbison, a former visiting assistant professor of economics, is hosting five students with internships in Jamaica, which is where Gibbison now teaches. Gibbison has arranged for the students to stay at the University of Kingston and has helped each student set up an internship with a local government or trade agency.
Next winter will bring several more opportunities to study abroad. Each trip during next year’s Centreterm will last three weeks and will count for three hours of academic credit. Students who wish to participate in the 2002 trips can pick up a complete list of opportunities in the International Studies Office. Anyone interested in going on a trip must deposit one-third of the cost of the trip with Judy Bowell at the Business Office no later than noon on Mon., March 12. Some proposed destinations include India, The Bahamas, Chaco Canyon, Thailand and Tahiti. Back to top...
Centre earns positive reviews in guidebooks
JP Catenza
Cento Writer
Centre College has received favorable reviews in two recently published college guidesbooks. The Fiske Guide to College 2001 compiled annually by Ted Fiske, former education editor of The New York Times, includes Centre among its top picks. The school is also in the Princeton Review 2001, which writes about its selection of the nation’s top 300 colleges.
The Fiske Guide calls Centre "a David among Goliaths" in reference to the comparative size of this liberal arts institution to others. This guide also gives descriptions of college campuses, comments from students and faculty and statistics on enrollment. When speaking of Danville, The Fiske Guide describes the town as a "romantic backdrop." The book looks further into the Centre environment with a student quote about the dorms, which says they are "big, clean and well kept." Student Life is well reviewed, citing that Lexington is nearby and that all fraternity parties are open. In addition, the book describes the student population as "preppy and conservative." Finally, the strong words are capped off with praise for the "improvements in Cowan." To say the least, the academic report in The Fiske Guide is outstanding, reading as if it has common knowledge of the high educational standards and traditions at Centre.
The Princeton Review, which builds itself as a student-oriented review, also has high praise for Centre. The academic rating is the highest of any Kentucky institution. It cites Danville as "one of the most beautiful areas on the planet," while also mentioning "Wal-Mart is a popular destination." The cultural opportunities of the Norton Center are given attention, as well as the arts program at the school with special recognition of the glass blowing facilities and department. The Princeton Review says the students are "just plain swell" and has kind words for the social scene.
After reading these reviews, a prospective student will be hard–pressed to find another diamond in the rough. Back to top...
Earthquake leaves hundreds dead, injured
Thom Kelly
Cento Writer
Recovery and rebuilding loom large for the future of El Salvador in the wake of a major earthquake that left more than 270 people dead, 2,000 injured and as many as 1,200 missing. Red Cross officials appealed Sunday, Jan. 14, for equipment and monetary donations.
Most of the missing lived in the buried Las Colinas neighborhood just west of San Salvador with at least 79 people reported dead across the country according to the country’s National Emergency Committee. The national police estimated the death toll around 234.
Pope John Paul II also urged other countries to send assistance to El Salvador and Guatemala, also hit by Saturday's quake.
With a magnitude of 7.6 at its epicenter, about 65 miles (110 kilometers) south-southwest of San Miguel, El Salvador, tremors from the quake were felt from Panama to central Mexico. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered in the Pacific Ocean about 65 miles southeast of San Salvador. The quake was felt in Honduras, Nicaragua and the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. It even rattled windows in Mexico City, 700 miles northwest of San Salvador. There were no immediate reports of injuries or serious damage in any of those places. A 1986 earthquake centered near San Salvador killed an estimated 1,500 people and injured 8,000.
In El Salvador, which was hit worst by the quake, President Francisco Flores has declared a state of emergency. Salvadoran radio stations have transformed themselves into a public service, broadcasting messages for family members trying to locate one another.
Getting aid to some parts of El Salvador has been difficult because of roads blocked by mudslides. The international airport was also closed due to damage to the control tower and concerns about structural damage to the runways. A future challenge will be bolstering the country's infrastructure so that further aftershocks will not cause more damage.
Hundreds of emergency workers and volunteers worked alongside huge cranes to shovel dirt from around collapsed homes in a sea of mud, tree limbs and rubble while dazed survivors milled around the mounds where their homes once stood.
Many people spent Saturday night outside their homes. About 1,340 people have been evacuated to shelters and hundreds were injured. The quake also knocked down walls at some hospitals, forcing doctors and nurses to move the injured outside.
About 40 or 50 local and international tourists are believed to be trapped on a volcano on the outskirts of the city where rescuers are trying to reach them.
The United States, Mexico, Switzerland, Spain and Venezuela were among the first countries to mobilize relief efforts for El Salvador. International aid, including money, medical supplies and wool blankets continues to arrive daily.
The United States sent a Disaster Assistance Response Team and critical supplies Sunday. The emergency aid, coordinated by the U.S. Agency for Development, included 25,000 pounds of blankets, medical kits, drinking water and plastic tarps for makeshift shelters.
The U.S. Embassy in San Salvador is making helicopters available to help with flyovers. Switzerland has sent an initial contribution of emergency aid worth $100,000. The Swiss Red Cross said it would provide an initial 100,000 Swiss francs ($61,650) for emergency aid to help its sister organization in El Salvador, and the Caritas Schweiz aid group also pledged 100,000 francs. Back to top...
Compiled by Tara Metts
Congo president shot, officials say
Congolese President Laurent Kabila was shot during an attempted coup d'etat on Tuesday, Jan. 16, according to senior officials in Congo and neighboring countries. It remained unclear whether Kabila had been killed during the intense 30-minute shooting at his palatial residence in the capital. A member of Kabila's security entourage said that a bodyguard had shot the president in the back and right leg, but was alive. However, intelligence officials in Rwanda, which supports rebels battling Kabila's government, said they had received unconfirmed reports the Congolese strongman was dead.
Officials set McVeigh execution date
Federal officials set a May 16 execution date on Tuesday for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted of murder and conspiracy for the bombing that killed 168 people in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. McVeigh, who is on death row at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., has said he doesn't want any more appeals, but he has reserved the right to seek executive clemency.
High-level talks resume amid attacks
Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators resumed high-level peace talks Tuesday, but they failed to resolve key disputes despite a looming weekend deadline. They agreed to keep talking, and the leader of the Palestinian team said the session was ''serious and deep.'' At the start of the three-hour meeting, the Palestinians protested Israel's renewed blockade of the Gaza Strip, imposed in response to a Jewish settler's weekend death at the hands of Palestinians, said the chief Palestinian negotiator, Ahmed Qureia.
Kuwait court rejects women's suffrage
The country's highest court rejected a case Tuesday in which activists had pleaded for women to have the right to vote and run for office in this oil-rich state. Frustrated with the 50-seat legislature that voted down an emiri decree and a bill for suffrage in 1999, women activists and their male supporters took their case to courts. Liberal lawmakers have proposed a new women's political rights bill. The house has a large bloc of Muslim fundamentalists that joined forces with conservative tribal representatives to kill a similar bill in 1999.
Cop's dummy partner not deductible
A police officer whom voters let patrol with a 10-pound wooden dummy partner can't deduct the campaign costs as a business expense, a court said. Robert Geary spent nearly $11,500 of his own money to get the measure on the 1993 ballot, a move designed to counter the brass who ordered the ventriloquist dummy to remain in a locker because they said it made the department look silly. San Francisco voters, though, approved of using the Howdy
Doody look-alike, Officer Brendan O'Smarty, to calm children. Now, Geary must pay the Internal Revenue Service $3,500 in back taxes. u
Source: USA Today Back to top...