Spring-2012-Upon-the-Past

SGA President Helen Bahnson is at far left in a photo above of the 1921 SGA officers

In the SGA's first year,
'we had our ups and downs'

s ECTTS transitioned to a four-year college in 1920, President Robert Wright wanted to impress on students that he expected them, as members of a higher-order academic institution, to assume more responsibility for their affairs. He worked with them to create the first student government association on campus, and gave it surprisingly broad powers. One year later, the school paused to evaluate this experiment in articles published in the spring 1921 issue of the Training School Quarterly. It was the last issue of that publication before being renamed the Teachers College Quarterly.

President Wright wrote: “This has been the easiest year we have had and I attribute much to the splendid work of the SGA. It is through the SGA that our students have prepared themselves for the responsibilities soon to come to them as citizens in our state and nation.”

Lady Principal Kate Beckwith, the SGA adviser, wrote: “Its council in its activities has been the exponent of the civic consciousness of the whole school. Hence its rulings have met with the hearty support of officers and teachers; though to gray-haired experience the sanity and fairness of its decisions and their sure executions have not yet lost the charm of welcome surprise.”

SGA President Helen Bahnson ’21 wrote: “We have had our ups and downs. There are many times in making decisions that we would much prefer laying our hands on the defendant’s shoulder and saying, ‘Go, my sister, and sin no more.’ But that would neither be right nor just. So, for the sake of the right and justice, we, as members of a Student Government Association, must hold before us that fine thing—personal honor, our neighbor’s honor and our school’s honor. We must look for the best in others and give the best we have. We feel that we have accomplished something in our work; but we realize that much is yet to be done. We have tried to find a way and make a path and we believe it will be easier for our successors. Yet we know that they, in turn, will need to blaze more and more trails and broaden the old paths as the student body grows in qualifies of self-government.”

Footnote: Student interest in the SGA was so keen that electing officers for its second year was difficult. “The mass meeting of the students was like a political convention,” reported the same issue of the TSQ. “Owing to the fact that a deadlock arose it took four and one-half hours to elect the president and two hours to elect the other officers. It was a very interesting meeting.”

ECU Timeline

100 years ago	Girls invade the boy's dorm In the school’s first four years, Wilson Hall for women always is crammed while Jarvis Hall for men sits half empty. A little-noticed provision in the charter amendment of 1911 gives the administration discretion to stop offering a men’s dorm. In 1912 the women occupy both Wilson and Jarvis, and the few men students are left to seek rooms in town. The number of men students declines steadily until 1919, when there are none.
75 years ago	Minor success for PE majors ECTC tries to attract more men students by offering a new major in PE to begin in the fall of 1938. Professor J.D. Alexander (left) arrives from Tennessee to chair the new department and coach football. With more men on campus, it was believed, the football team would have more talent to choose from. But while Alexander’s classes are popular the Teachers win only three games in two years. He is replaced in 1939 by O.A. Hankner, who goes winless. Things finally turn around for the PE department and the football team with the 1940 arrival of John Christenbury, whose teams produce the school’s first undefeated season.
50 years ago	Twisting the night away The patience of a conservative administration is tested when two new fads hit campus in the spring of 1962— the twist dance craze and girls’ skirts that don’t cover the knee. The Women’s Judiciary Council, whose rules require girls to wear raincoats over their shorts while walking to gym class, initially bans the short skirts called “knee-shiners” but backs down when students swamp the demerit system by wearing them anyway. Nothing seems to stop the twist, even warnings that it may cause spinal dislocations. The student paper editorially laughs at a suggestion from the administration that students restrict themselves to a milder version of the dance called the peppermint twist.
25 years ago	Tragedy, then a miracle An EastCare medical helicopter rushing a baby from Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital to Pitt County Memorial Hospital crashes in the Hoffman Forest near Pollocksville on Jan. 8, 1987, claiming the lives of three crew members and the three-month old patient. Five weeks later, a Brody School of Medicine surgeon performs the first successful heart transplant at PCMH. The condition of Malcolm Huffman, a Washington, N.C., auto mechanic, is upgraded to fair condition one day after the Feb. 17 surgery. Images courtesy University Archives