GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Library Donation

Professor William Coleman of the Anthropology Department has donated a collection of books on linguistics and African culture to the Strong College Library. These are now on view and available for use in the Library; soon they will be stamped and shelved and made available for check out. The College is very grateful indeed to Prof. Coleman for this generous gift.

Cultural Potluck Tea

Our own Durenda Johnson will be sponsoring a special Tea this week: Cultural Potluck Tea! If you have a special kind of food that you like from some part of the world, why not cook up a batch and bring it down to Tea? Any type of food from any region of the world is welcome—we want a big variety for everyone to sample. All the CAs will be helping out, and if you want to mark your own contribution on the sheet on your CA’s door you can help everyone avoid duplications. Everyone is welcome to come, of course, whether bringing a special contribution or not! (Dr. O’Hara is rumored to be bringing Pepperidge Farm cookies, a traditional food eaten by the people of Suburbia, his native country.)

Spring Break is Coming!

Spring Break is almost here! When you leave at the end of this coming week don’t forget to turn off all your lights, close your windows, and unplug any unnecessary electrical appliances. Moore-Strong Hall will remain open during the break for those students who need to stay, but the dining hall and some University offices will be closed. Want to keep in touch with your fellow Cornelians over the break? Then join Strong-L!

Recruit for Your College!

When you go home for Spring Break, be sure to encourage your high school friends and relatives to come to UNCG next year and to apply to Strong College! We build our community carefully, one person at a time, and we need your help to bring new members to us. We have plenty of applications and flyers in the College Office—pick one or two up and give them to your friends at home!

Ad Astra

Our own Christina Caltagirone will be appearing in the UNCG Lab Theater production of The Psychiatrist on Monday, February 23rd, at 3:30 p.m. in the Curry Auditorium. It’s free, so stop by and see!

Strong College Fellow Pam Bulgin donated three history texts to the College Library. Thank you!

Thanks again to everyone who helped with the visits of the Merit Award candidates last week. They all had a wonderful time, and we are sure that many of them will be joining us next year.

The Bible study group formed by Stephanie Hoover and Jon Buford is now meeting on Thursdays at 7:00 p.m. in the Star Chamber. All interested Strong College members are welcome to join them!

Bob O’Hara and Jon Buford made presentations about Strong College for the University’s Black Student Visitation program this past week. We hope some of the students they spoke to will also be joining us in the fall!

Poem-of-the-Week

The Strong College Poem-of-the-Week is posted on the bulletin board outside the College Office and is usually reprinted here. This week’s poem is Derek Walcott’s “A Far Cry From Africa” (1962), for African-American History Month:

A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt
Of Africa. Kikuyu, quick as flies,
Batten upon the bloodstreams of the veldt.
Corpses are scattered through a paradise.
Only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries:
‘Waste no compassion on these separate dead!’

Threshed out by beaters, the long rushes break
In a white dust of ibises whose cries
Have wheeled since civilization’s dawn
From the parched river or beast-teeming plain.
The violence of beast on beast is read
As natural law, but upright man
Seeks his divinity by inflicting pain.
Delirious as these worried beasts, his wars
Dance to the tightened carcass of a drum,
While he calls courage still that native dread
Of the white peace contracted by the dead.

Again brutish necessity wipes it hands,
Upon the napkin of a dirty cause, again
A waste of our compassion, as with Spain,
The gorilla wrestles with the superman.

I who am poisoned with the blood of both,
Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?
I who have cursed
The drunken officer of British rule, how choose
Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?
Betray them both, or give back what they give?
How can I face such slaughter and be cool?
How can I turn from Africa and live?

STRONG COLLEGE CALENDAR

24 February (Tuesday), 4:30 p.m., Junior Common Room — College Tea! It’s the social event of the week.

24 February (Tuesday), 9:00 p.m., Committee Room — College Council Meeting. (Scott Thomason)

25 February (Wednesday), 8:00 p.m., Star Chamber — Star Trek: Voyager! (Michelle Marcelais and Bob O’Hara)

25 February (Wednesday), 10:00 p.m., Star Chamber — South Park. (Ryan Kelly and the College Players)

26 February (Thursday), 4:30 p.m., Senior Common Room — Cornelian Literary Society. (Laurie White)

26 February (Thursday), 4:30 p.m., Star Chamber — Bible Study Group. (Stephanie Hoover and Jon Buford)

27 February (Friday), 12:00 noon, Strong College section in the Caf — Fellows’ and Students’ Lunch.

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