The Research Triangle

One of the first churches my father served was in the little town of Roxboro.  I was too young to remember any of this but Dad told that when they moved there, there was no indoor plumbing in the parsonage so he enclosed the back porch and installed one.  As I traveled yesterday to visit the library at Piedmont Community College, my guide took me there on roads that did little to dispel that narrative.  I passed fields of tobacco and corn and saw little to suggest the progressive community I discovered.

The two previous librarians at PCC have retired but I met a wonderful, young woman named Vanessa Bass who has been recently promoted to the head job.  I was able to visit for a few minutes between groups of students receiving their orientation to the campus.

It was on my way out of town and toward Durham that I saw the town of Roxboro as a thriving community, almost all with indoor plumbing!

Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill are known as "The Research Triangle."  These three cities are home to three of North Carolina's great universities. Durham Technical Community College is one of ten colleges and twelve other universities which serve in the shadow of these "Big Three."  The Library was closed but the door was open.  Both librarians were gone but I had the extremely good fortune to meet Marcia Navarro, the principle of the Middle College High School located on the campus of DTCC.  Her office is in the Library.
"MCHS at Durham Technical Community College is a magnet high school for juniors and seniors. Our student body consists of students from Durham Public Schools, Orange County Schools and Chapel Hill- Carrboro City Schools. Students apply to be part of the MCHS community where they take both community college and honors level high school courses."

Chapel Hill is home to the University of North Carolina.  To say that I am a fan of the school would be like saying my brother is a fan of Arminius.  I was thrilled to go to the Law School Library.  I wasn't familiar with the campus so I asked a young man for directions.  He turned out to be a visiting professor from Vanderbilt University in Nashville and was on his way to the Library!  When I arrived, I met Julie Kimbrough, the Deputy Director and she introduced me to Katherine Orth, who handles acquisitions.  Katherine is a UNC alum and quite obviously proud of her school.  After we had discussed business, Katherine walked me over to the main campus library.  Such courtesy and helpfulness is rare and should be praised.

Lunch was a delightful meal at Jasmin's in Raleigh.  Jasmin's features Mediterranean food including Lebanese falafal and Greek gyros.

Another of those Universities is Meredith College.  Chartered in 1891, the school was the vision of Thomas Meredith, founder of the Biblical Recorder, who called on the Baptist State Convention to establish an institution to provide "a first-rate course of female education."  Long a "female only" school, Meredith began admitting men to the graduate programs and granted four men MBA's in 2002.
My final stop was at another of the ten colleges--Wake Technical College where Julia Meilesh is the Director.  While waiting to see Ms. Melish, I perused a publication by the College of writing, poetry and photography done by students.  It showed real talent and belies the myth that technical schools only produce plumbers and welders.  Plumbers and welders can write too!