The Nelsonite vol. 20, no. 4

              Vol XX—Issue 4 Thomas Nelson Community College Feb. Ö, 1989
SGA President To Ask
TNCC Board to Close ^
Down Student Press \
Alvin Pettaway, President of
the TNCC Student Government
Association. announced on
Thursday, January 26, 1989, that
he wilt be asking the TNCC Board to
do away with the student
publication known as The Nelsonite.
To replace the student newspaper,
he will suggest a bi-weekly
publication from the Dean of
Student Services office and a
national publication.
This announcement was made
during a meeting with the present
editor-in-chief of the student
press,--Cecelia Elaine Salisbury, lis.
Elsie Lewis. Student Activities
Technician, Carl Stodghill, Chairman
of Student Council, and Beth Burns,
the SGA Secretary. Pres.
Pettaway stated that since this
action will take place after Mrs.
Salisbury's graduation, it should not
be taken as an action directed
against her personally.
The action is more a response to
the difficulty of obtaining a
responsible level of volunteers to do
the work of publishing the paper on
a consistent basis. None of the
positions on the student newspaper
offer the incentive bf a scholarship
Minority Students
Recognized by
National College Board
Recently a national publication from
The College Board listed some
former Thomas Nelson students in
the Talent Roster of Outstanding
Minority Community College
Graduates. Those listed were
Debra harsh from James Store,
6arnell Scott, and Mar dell
Cooper from Hampton, and Ruth
Binns, Agnes M. Bogle-Brown,
Elton A. Clark, Georgia M. Ebron,
6arry Harris, Alvin i . Lankford,
Sherrl S. McAdams, and Dreamle
S. Newsome, all from Newport
Newsi U i k .,'• :, : u'^i
as the offices of president and vice-president
of SGA do. There are no
for-credit classes offered to
support the student press.
Is there a problem? Well, at the
present time The Nelsonite is
without an assistant editor. That
means that no one is in training to
take over the job of Editor-in-Chief.
Eliminating The Neknnifp will
mean that the $5,000 which is
budgeted for the paper's publication
expenses can be used somewhere
else in the $92,000 Student
Activities Budget.
Eliminating The Nelsonite will
also mean that Thomas Nelson
Community College will no longer
offer those students who wish to
pursue communication careers a
chance to gain the valuable
experience available to student
journalists. It could also mean that
the voice of the individuals within
the student body will be weakened.
Unless there is a drastic change
in the number of students who are
willing to show that Freedom of
Speech and the Student Press are
important to them, Thomas Nelson
may be one more place where the
student is quelled.
Photography
Students in
Richmond
Exhibition
Seven of Thomas Nelson's
photography students exhibited
their work in the main gallery of
the Medical College of Virginia, part
of Virginia Commonwealth
University in. * Richmond. The
students are Donna Clark, Richard
Donzell. Sandy Hillerson, Robert
Joyner, < Cathy Layton, Mike
Ray bur ne, and Alice Webb.
The exhibition was held during
the month of December.
Student
Newspaper
Faces Crisis
"It is a very real crisis," said
the Editor-in-Chief of The
Nelsonite. Cecelia Elaine Salisbury,
when asked about the announcement
made by SGA President. Alvin
Pettaway, concerning the closing of
the student press. "If a committed
group of students does not come
forward, the student newspaper
will be in grave danger. You can't
really say that Alvin is shutting
down the Press," the editor said.
"It is more like it is dead and just
waiting to be buried," she added.
Those who read the paper
regularly have been quick to notice
that it is the editor's name that
appears on most of the columns.
What some have not known is that
those stories which carry no
by-line are usually her products,
too
"Having your name in print has
gotten to be no big deal for me, "
Cecelia said. "I just think it gets
boring for people to constantly see
my name on all of the work. It is
the long hours of layout,
typesetting, photography, paper-work,
and other behind-the-scene
work that take the time and
energy." She added, "It's fortunate
that we have had some good
cartoonists, because I don't do
cartoons."
To compound the problem,
Cecelia is a full-time student, a
part-time tutor, and a full-time
parent and spouse who recently
became a full-time grandparent.
But the problem of the press is
going to get worse. Cecelia is
headed for VCU where she has been
accepted as an Honors student. She
said that unless someone comes
forward to train for the next year,
she will not have any encouraging
words for the College Board, and
will have no reason to refute the
SGA's request.
Is it too late? According to
Cecelia it is not too late for the
issue to turn around. "If enough
people come forward who are
really sincere, there is plenty of
time," she said. "Right now it is up
to the student body to show an
interest."
The bottom line is that it is put
up or shut up forever t)me!.
SAU V P f f m l n i
BECAUSE
«
IT'S FREE!
BSU Assists in NNPS
A iter school Program
by Davtd Pirker
The Baptist Student Union of
Thomas Nelson Community College
is currently working in the Newport
News public schoof tutoring
program. Students from Thomas
Nelson, as well as Menchville and
Ferguson High Schools are serving
as tutors at Dunbar-Erwin
Elementary School in downtown
Newport News. The tutors work
with second graders for an hour on
Tuesday afternoons.
According to Mike Haywood, who
is on the staff at the Peninsula
Baptist Association, the program
has been successful for three main
reasons. Haywood believes, "It
helps the second graders improve
their reading skills. It helps us as
volunteers to know that we can
work with somebody and be of help,
and it's fun!"
For more information about this
program contact David Parker,
BSU president at Thomas Nelson'.
The BSU office is in Room *226 in
Griffin Hall, , >