ECU report
Timeline
25 Years Ago
Y2K is A-OK
Jan. 1, 2000, came and went without much of a hiccup from the infamous Y2K bug – a prediction that computers worldwide, programmed with two-digit date codes, would go haywire when the calendar rolled to the year ’00. The Brody School of Medicine had no problems after months of preparations and upgrades, said Gary Vanderpool, associate dean for business affairs. “Our people put in a great team effort,” he told the health system newsletter. Not everyone was convinced Y2K was a thing. “I think (the Y2K bug) is all propaganda,” junior Joe Poran told The East Carolinian.
50 Years Ago
Female freshmen gain some freedom
The Student Government Association, followed by the ECU board of trustees, approve what’s known as “Operation Freebird” – a rule that would allow freshman women living in residence halls to come and go as they please, overturning years of curfews and restrictions; ECU was the last school in the UNC System to have such a rule. Wrote The Fountainhead editorial page as the change was being considered: “Why not give freshman women the chance to be treated like everyone else on this campus? If not, then at least lock up the freshman men – and see how long that lasts.”
75 Years Ago
Met star visits ECTC
Metropolitan opera star Eleanor Steber performed Oct. 26, 1950, in Wright Auditorium, singing arias by Mozart and Verdi, “Summertime” by Gershwin and more before an audience of 1,800. The Teco Echo reporter Faye Batten met her that morning at the Hotel Proctor for an interview over a breakfast of coffee and grapefruit. Steber talked about her upbringing in West Virginia, her education at the New England Conservatory of Music, the fact she spoke four languages and liked to play golf and cook. As for college, she told Batten, “Yes, I, too, considered 8 o’clock classes the height of stupidity.”
100 Years Ago
The Y-Hut opens
Since 1922, the YWCA had operated a store in the basement of Austin where students could buy “clean, wholesome groceries, fruits, etc.,” according to Joyner Library archives. In 1925, after students had worked and saved, the Y got its own space: a low, red building in the woods near Eighth Street. The cabin was razed in 1952 to make way for Joyner Library. A second Y-Hut was built to take its place and in 1975 was renamed the Ledonia S. Wright Cultural Center.
Photo courtesy of WITN
Study says ECU boosts state’s economy
A recent report by Meghan Millea and Vera Tabakova, faculty members in the ECU Department of Economics, revealed ECU had a total economic impact of $2.3 billion in eastern North Carolina and $2.5 billion across the state during fiscal year 2023. Here are highlights:
