DATE: Saturday, August 30, 1997             TAG: 9708300423

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   67 lines

WESLEYAN'S PRESIDENT HOSTS READING GROUPS

The first reading for Virginia Wesleyan College freshmen was assigned this year before they even arrived on campus.

At the behest of school President William T. Greer Jr., Wesleyan mailed 300 paperback copies of Maya Angelou's ``Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now'' to the new crop of students.

The book is a collection of Angelou's personal experiences and life lessons.

In groups of 20, those who read, skimmed or blew off the reading assignment on Friday congregated in the president's office to discuss the text.

Some had dog-eared paperbacks, others' books seemed barely touched. Greer, with dark hair slowly graying and retreating a bit, looked through narrow glasses and gestured with his hands.

``Welcome to college,'' Greer told them.

He explained why they had summer reading.

Though, he said, he had known of the poet who opened President Clinton's tenure in the Oval Office, Greer first encountered the power of Angelou's words at a dinner in Norfolk in March. She was the keynote speaker, and he was nearly blown out of his seat.

Greer said: ``I thought to myself, `If this woman writes half as well as she speaks . . .' ''

So he grabbed a copy of ``Wouldn't Take Nothing.''

``I like that word `journey,' '' he told a group of students in his office. ``Because that's y'all. In a sense, y'all are beginning a new journey in your life.''

New journey or not, he had a tough crowd in the afternoon.

Washington, D.C., native Gerald D. Toles, 17, was not blown away by the book. Neither was Virginia A. Franco, 17, of Portsmouth. Neither related with Angelou's strong opinions on the opposite sex.

``I thought it was quite sexist,'' Toles said.

``Quite sexist, yes,'' Franco agreed, adding that much of what Angelou said was ``a lot of complaining.''

``Quite demeaning toward men,'' Toles added.

``I love her poems, though,'' Franco said.

Greer brought up sections of Angelou's prose dealing with complaining and style. He said that of the hundreds of students he met that day, those sections garnered the heaviest attention in his talks.

``I hope you'll keep this book,'' Greer told them. ``Take it back to your room and pitch it back on your bookshelf.''

He was preaching to the choir when it came to M'Shende Randall, an 18-year-old who came to Wesleyan from Philadelphia because she felt like she fit in at the campus. She arrived with her own slightly beaten, hardcover copy of the book, and waited for her turn to talk to the president.

She loves the book.

``Absolutely,'' she said.

There are parts about virtue and the spirit - parts that appeal to her.

She read it some years ago, reread it this summer for Greer and hopes to read it again in a few years. Hopefully she'll have her degree in theater and English from Virginia Wesleyan by then.

Her group of students went into the president's office. Randall had plenty to say after William Greer welcomed her to school. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

IAN MARTIN/The Virginian-Pilot

Virginia Wesleyan College President William T. Greer Jr., right,

discusses Maya Angelou's ``Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey

Now'' with members of the freshman class. After hearing the author

speak in March, Greer was so impressed he had copies of the book

sent to the students.

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