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Exhibit To Feature The Ordinary By JEFF ABERNATHY IiOngwood professor Marilyn Simpson-Johnson and 1980 LC graduate Lynne Swann are working together on a project which will celebrate the ordinary in Prince Edward County. The project will feature the women of Prince Edward County from Depression times to the present, but its focus will not be on the more affluent women of Prince Edward. The project will study "the ordinary rather than the extraordinary," according to Simpson-Johnson, the originator of the project. Mrs. Simpson-Johnson, an assistant professor of social work, will coordinate the project's three phases. In the first phase, recordings will be made of selected members of the community for permanent history of Prince Edward County. The women will be selected for their contributions to the community on the basis of family life, religious and civic involvement, work history and education. The second phase of the project will be an exhibit entitled "Feminist Self Expression: A Portrait of Private Lives in Prince Edward County". The exhibit will consist of photographs and artifacts from women and women's groups throughout the county. Lynne Swann will coordinate the effort as part of her work towards a master's degree at Virginia Commonwealth University. The
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LONGWOOD COLLEGE, FARMVILLE, VIRGINIA TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 1984
final collection will be catalogued and presented at the Wynne Building this fall. The culmination of SimpsonJohnson's project will be a series of presentations on WFLO by humanities scholars. The scholars will interpret the value of the project as a whole and address the universality of the exhibition. "The ordinary person really forms the backbone of most American cities," SimpsonJohnson noted in an interview last week, "but these are the women who perceive their lives as being unexciting and uninteresting. We hope that this project will enable these people to see that they have made a real contribution to society." The project is supported by a $6,300 grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy and tying in with the Virginia Women's Cultural History exhibit which will tour the state later this year. Numerous Iiongwood faculty will be assisting SimpsonJohnson on the project, and she sees the effort as an opportunity for assisting the Prince Edward community as a whole. "It is an excellent opportunity for longwood College to become involved in a project which goes out to the community. The College usually caters to the educated elite. Here is a project which goes and celebrates the people who are the unsung heroes of Prince Edward County."
VASA Forum By W. W. EDWARDS A feeling of vitality and optimism pervaded the 1984 Virginia Student Association Forum which was held in Fredericksburg, Va. on March 30-31. Throughout the two-day gathering, which was filled with seminars and talks by prominent, legislators and state government personnel, the student leaders present consistently displayed a "can-do" attitude and a sense of accomplishment about the work of VASA. VASA is a nonprofit group that contains representatives from institutions of higher learning from across the state, forming the organization's General Council. This council directs the programs of VASA and also elects an Executive Committee, which performs most of the nutsand-bolts work of the group. VASA has been very active in the
General Assembly as a lobbying group for student interests, and have lobbied on such issues as financial aid, voting laws affecting students, and opposition to the raising of the legal minimum drinking age. The forum drew over 100 representatives from colleges and universities in Virginia, and also many members of the State government who spoke and sat on panel discussions. The panel discussions were very informative and covered such diverse topics as "Students and the Media," "Students and the Board of Visitors," and "methods of Voter Registration." Credibility was added to these panels by the presence of people like Susan Fitz-Hugh, head of the State Board of Elections (on the Voter Registration discussion), and Ray Ashworth of the Virginia Highway Users Association and Barbara Bolton of the Virginia
Nurses Association who both spoke on the topic of lobbying techniques. State Senator Richard Sasslaw headed up the impressive group of guest speakers that addressed the forum on matters dealing with Virginia's education system. Former state legislator Wyatt Durette spoke on Saturday morning and was followed by Virginia's Secretary of Education John Casteen. While all three speakers were generally optimistic about the direction of education in Virginia, they all expressed the same ideas about one of the main problems in Virginia's school system; the lack of money. The forum ended with a general session in which the new Executive Committee was announced (the vote had been taken earlier in the morning). (Continued on Page 3)
State Secretary of Education John Casteen confers with student delegates at Fredericksburg VASA Forum.
Gene Cotton To Appear At Longwood
Gene Cotton will be In the Gold Room Thursday, April 12.
The Longwood College Student Union will present Gene Cotton concert on Thursday, April 12, at 8 p.m. in the Gold Room, Lankford Building. Cotton also will give an informal lecture on "The Music Business" at 1 p.m. on Thursday in Wygal Auditorium. Both the lecture and the concert are open to the public free of charge. A native of Ohio, Cotton grew up in Columbus, one of nine children. He attended Ohio State University and then began his
musical career playing small clubs and colleges in the MidWest. He has recorded seven albums and has had numerous hit singles over the past few years. He has appeared on Midnight Special, Dick Clark's American Bandstand, Merv Griffin, Dinah Shore, Mike Douglas, and several TV specials. In 1979, he was voted one of the three top male vocalists by Cashbox Magazine. Cotton's first Top 10 hit was "You Got Me Running," released
in 1975. Other hits were "Before My Heart Finds Out," "You're A Part of Me" (with Kim Carnes), and "Like A Sunday in Salem." His latest album is ECLIPSE OF THE BLUE MOON. There were two chart singles from the album - "Bern" Here With You Tonight" and "If I Could Get You." Cotton has a heavy touring schedule in this country and abroad. He has played at colleges and universities throughout the U. S.