Redshirt sophomore pitcher Toni Paisley was named the Conference USA Female Athlete-of-the-Year, the first time an East Carolina athlete in any sport has won the award. As a freshman, the Lakewood, Calif., native struck out 15 batters in one game and was first or second in every conference pitching statistic. Injuries ended her sophomore season after just seven games. She will return for her junior season with a record so far of 297 strike outs in 270.2 innings pitched and an earned run average of 1.22. Opponents are batting a meager .177 against her blazing fastball.
Mandatory student insurance coming
An ECU student who isn’t covered under a parent’s health insurance plan can buy a $50,000 policy through the statewide university system that costs $1,294 a year. A similar student at UNC Greensboro can buy $100,000 worth of coverage for just $780. ECU students pay 40 percent more for half as much coverage because health insurance is optional here whereas it’s a requirement at UNCG.
It’s numbers like that that convinced the UNC Board of Governors to proceed with a plan to require students at all 16 campuses to have health insurance, either through a parent or through the UNC system, beginning next fall semester.
Eleven UNC campuses already have adopted the so-called “hard waiver” health insurance requirement. East Carolina, Appalachian State, N.C. State, UNC Chapel Hill and UNC Wilmington are slated to join them next fall. With such a large pool, the state universities will be able to offer students a health insurance plan with a $100,000 maximum basic benefit for as little as $549 a year, according to a report to the Board of Governors.
It’s estimated that 16 percent of the 216,000 UNC system students do not have health insurance of any kind. Officials say uninsured students often fail to get proper health care or seek free care from the campus infirmary—a service that many campuses say they simply can’t afford any longer.
Some observers worry that requiring all students to have health insurance will further drive up the cost of college. Officials said, however, that campus financial aid offices will add student health insurance to the total cost of attendance used to compute financial aid packages.
Lennie Blackley ’78 and Laura Dean Blackley ’82 at the vigil for their slain son
The Pirate Nation grieves
Nearly 200 students, faculty and supporters came together in July to remember rising senior Landon Blackley and Andrew Kirby, a downtown restaurant manager, who were shot and killed while standing outside The Other Place, a nightclub on Fifth Street. Police said Blackley, 21, and Kirby, 29, were innocent bystanders, victims of a drive-by shooting alledgedly committed by James Earl Richardson, 32, who has been charged with two counts of murder and was in jail under a $5 million bond.
The marchers walked from the nightclub along Fifth Street to the cupola in the center of the campus, where they were joined by 15 members of the Blackley family, including Laura Dean ’82 and Lennie Blackley ’78, Landon’s parents. The family lives in Bullock, which is in Granville County.
His father thanked those who came to the memorial vigil, describing his son as “…the most courageous person I know. “Our family will survive this with all of your prayers and help, and this really warms our heart,” he said. “It’s been a blessing in our life, and we love East Carolina.”
“Let’s make a commitment to make something good out of this tragedy,” Chancellor Steve Ballard said in his remarks.
Responding to the incident, Greenville police announced a plan to close the downtown bar area just off campus to vehicular traffic. Barricades will block streets going into the area Wednesdays through Saturdays from 10 p.m. until 3 a.m. Police also increased foot patrols in the downtown area.
Annual statistical reports prepared by the campus police, which are required by law, show a decline in the number of most criminal offenses. There have been no murders or negligent homicides on campus in at least three years, the reports indicate.
Orientation, billing go paperless
East Carolina usually hands armloads of printed materials to incoming freshmen during summer orientation sessions—pamphlets, brochures, catalogues and similar informational pieces. But there was hardly a single piece of paper handed out during this summer’s orientations; instead, the university handed out 5,000 computer flash drives each capable of holding 2 gigabytes of information (above).
Karen Smith, associate director of the First Year Center, said the switch to flash drives will save money and paper. She added that it also should please incoming students who are accustomed to the technology.
“The cool thing about the flash drive is that it will be linked to [various ECU] web sites. As the web site changes, the information available on the flash drive will change,” Smith said. “In that way, hopefully, this is something the students can hold on to and use for their full four years here.”
New student orientation began June 15 and was to continue through July 21 with eight sessions for new first-year students, two sessions for transfer students and two summer school sessions. More than 4,000 incoming freshmen and transfer students had signed up for orientation.
Most of the information given to parents at orientation still will be on paper, but that, too, may change, Smith said. “This year is a transition year. We’ll see how it works, and we’ll be asking parents at orientation how they would have liked to have received information, either on a flash drive or in handouts. In the future, we might make it an option for parents to get a flash drive.”
East Carolina also shifted to electronic billing for student tuition and fees, a move designed to save money and to give students easier access to more information about their accounts. Previously, the university mailed bills to its more than 27,000 students. Officials say converting to electronic billing will save an estimated $50,000 a year. —ECU News Bureau
Lean at the Dougga Roman ruins in the desert outside Tripoli
Guess what I did this summer ...
Nathan Lean ’07, the recipient of a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship, one of the most prestigious language scholarships in the world, spent his summer studying Arabic in Tunisia, which borders the Mediterranean in North Africa. The Goldsboro native, who spent the summer of 2006 in Morocco through a Global Understanding Scholarship from ECU, is studying both Modern Standard Arabic and the Tunisian dialect at the Centre d’Etudes Maghrébines. We caught up with him by e-mail from his “study spot,” a quaint little village overlooking the Mediterranean. At the time he was planning a weekend camping trip out in the Sahara desert.
What’s the hardest part of Arabic to learn?
[It’s] being able to construct meaningful thoughts using the vocabulary and grammatical structures I have learned. It’s like having a thousand bullets and the struggle is to figure out how to get them into the gun. This program, however, has prided itself in placing students in real-life situations where you must think on your feet as you interact with native speakers.
What’s the most interesting thing you’ve seen or done?
I was walking in Sidi Bou Said near the capital city of Tunis when I stumbled into an art shop. I introduced myself to the owner, a pleasant middle-aged woman who showed me around and offered me tea, only to learn later that evening that she was the daughter of [Tunisia’s] revered former president, Habib Bourguiba.
How do you suppose this experience will change your life?
[It will give me] the foundation of language skills necessary to interact in a meaningful manner with Arabic speakers. I hope to concentrate my academic and professional careers in the North Africa region, so the opportunity to live in Tunisia for two months and build relationships through language is valuable. I hope that this experience [will] allow me to understand the Arab world better.
to change the world one school at a time was picked as the summer reading selection for first-year students. All freshmen were asked to read Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin before arriving on campus. The book has sold more than 2 million copies and has been on the New York Times bestseller list for two years.
