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[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

13-July-1999 
99234 
 
    College News 
 
    by Evan Silverstein 
 
MARYVILLE, Tenn. - The century-old Fayerweather Hall on the campus of 
Maryville College was recently destroyed by fire after lightening struck 
the building. 
 
    Completed in 1898, the structure housed the college's education 
department, student development offices, career services office and 
communications offices, among other departments, according to Mark Cate, 
vice president for college advancement. 
 
    "While this is no doubt a tragedy for a historical campus like 
Maryville," Cate said,  "the campus has rallied behind this unfortunate 
situation to turn it into a positive occurrence with plans to build a new 
and more modern Fayerweather Hall." 
 
    The intense heat of the May 23 fire caused the building's brick front 
to buckle and flaming debris to tumble from the hall. Fire destroyed the 
entire third floor and parts of the second floor, while the first floor 
sustained heavy smoke and water damage. No one was in the building when the 
blaze broke out. 
 
    Fayerweather Hall had also been home to Maryville's education 
department, commuter lounge, bookstore and a snack bar. College officials 
hope to rebuild a new Fayerweather Hall starting in November, with a 
projected completion date of September 2000. The funds for the estimated $3 
million to $3.5 million project will be covered by insurance, according to 
Cate. 
 
 
SPOKANE, Wash. - The 24th annual Whitworth Institute of Ministry will be 
held at Whitworth College July 19-23. The purpose of the institute is to 
serve pastors and their families through worship, theological reflection, 
Bible study, prayer and small-group interaction. 
 
    Keynote speakers include Joanna Adams, senior pastor of Trinity 
Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Ga.; Leanne Van Dyk, associate professor of 
reformed theology at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Mich.; and 
Jerry Sittser, professor of religion at Whitworth College. Steve 
Goodenberger, minister of music at First Presbyterian Church in Spokane, is 
the institute's music director. 
 
    The institute will hold roundtable discussions allowing participants to 
consider key issues faced by clergy today. These discussions will be a time 
for participants to share resources and explore ministry-related ideas. 
 
    Pastor's spouses will have the opportunity to meet together during the 
hour of roundtable discussions. During the institute an experienced staff 
member will guide carefully planned art, music and recreational activities 
for children and teens. Childcare is provided for infants and toddlers. 
 
    For more information or to register, please call (509) 777-3275. 
 
HASTINGS, Neb. -  Hastings College is shunning the paranoia surrounding the 
Year 2000 to focus on the academic aspects of the millennium. Members of 
the student and faculty committees of the Hastings College Artist Lecture 
Series will use the focus on the coming millennium to spur academic 
discussions about relationships among the past, present and future. 
 
    The 1999-2000 academic year will focus on "2001: The Human Odyssey." 
With speakers such as Harvard professor Stephen Jay Gould, performance 
artist Laurie Anderson and Berkeley professor Ronald Takaki, the Artist 
Lecture Series (ALS) will focus on historical and future aspects of 
science, the humanities and education. 
 
    The student committee has chosen to weave an examination of past, 
present and future into several disciplines on campus. Five students from 
the committee will lead "Students and the Human Odyssey," a class offered 
during the college's three-week interim term in January. In addition to the 
student-led course, several professors have used the theme to create other 
interim classes with such topics as: science and science fiction, media, 
"Literature of Time Travel," "Homer's Odyssey and Its Offspring," "History 
of the Future," "Philosophical and Scientific Psychology in the 
Millennium," and "The Book of Revelations." 
 
    The student committee also has compiled a recommended reading list for 
the campus and the community that will prepare readers for lectures and 
discussions about the millennium. 
 
    ALS at Hastings College operates with three objectives: to invite 
nationally-prominent speakers to campus for academic presentations; to 
allow a student committee to organize an academic symposium surrounding a 
central theme; and to fund projects that emphasize the 
interdisciplinary nature of academic fields. 
 
 
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Charlotte native and Florida businessman John H. Sykes 
has given a $10.4 million cash gift to Queens College, the largest gift in 
the school's history. The gift is also the second largest ever to a North 
Carolina institution of higher learning made in one fiscal year by a living 
individual, according to the Council for the Advancement and Support of 
Education (CASE). 
 
    The first half of the $10 million gift, $5.3 million, was made to 
Queens in July 1998 for the construction of the John H. Sykes Learning 
Center. The remaining $5.1 million, which will be used to endow Queens 
scholarships, was announced July 1 by Queens Board of Trustees Chairman 
Hugh L. McColl Jr., chairman and CEO of Bank of America, and Queens College 
President Billy O. Wireman. 
 
    Sykes, 61, was born in Charlotte, the son of a career policeman, and 
attended Queens in the late 1950s during a time when male students could 
enroll under special circumstances at the then woman's college. Sykes is 
now chairman and CEO of Sykes Enterprises Inc., an integrated information 
technology company founded in Charlotte in 1977. Now headquartered in 
Tampa, Fla., Sykes employs more than 11,500 people throughout the world. 

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