[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 11 (Thursday, February 12, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E173-E174]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HONORING DR. NORA KIZER BELL

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. SAXBY CHAMBLISS

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 12, 1998

  Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. Speaker, I have the distinct provilege today to 
honor a remarkable woman and the newest president of Wesleyan College 
in Macon, GA, Dr. Nora Kizer Bell.
  On December 23, 1836, the Georgia legislature ratified the charter of 
the Georgia Female College and empowered its president to ``confer all 
such honors, degrees, and licenses, as are usually conferred in 
colleges or universities''--making it the first college in the world 
chartered to grant degrees to women. The college was founded through 
the efforts of a group of Macon citizens and the Georgia Conference of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, expressing their commitment to the 
higher education of women.
  The Georgia Conference assumed responsibility for the college in 
1843, and by an act of the state legislature changed its name to 
Wesleyan Female College. The ``Female'' was eliminated from the name in 
1917, but Wesleyan has remained a women's college throughout its 
history.
  Wesleyan is also the birthplace of the first two Greek societies for 
women, the Adelphean Society in 1851 (now Alpha Delta Pi) and the 
Philomathean Society in 1852 (now Phi Mu).
  In 1928 the Liberal Arts College was moved from its original College 
Street site to the new Rivoli campus in north Macon. The historic 
College Street building continued to house the School of Fine Arts, 
which consisted of the Conservatory of Music and the departments of 
art, theatre, and speech. In 1953 the School of Fine Arts, too, was 
moved to the present campus.
  This is the extraordinary history of the institution that is about to 
inaugurate an extraordinary new president. In 1997 Wesleyan College 
named Dr. Bell its twenty-third president, to succeed Robert Kilgo 
Ackerman. Dr. Bell is a Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of 
Randolph-Macon Woman's College. She earned the master of arts from the 
University of South Carolina and the doctor of philosophy from the 
University of North Carolina.
  In 1998, one hundred sixty-two years after the college's founding, 
the president who confers degrees on the graduates of Wesleyan will 
also be the first woman to serve in that capacity. This is a great day 
for post-secondary education, women educators, Wesleyan College, and 
the City of Macon.
  I am proud to represent Wesleyan College and I commend Dr. Bell and 
her faculty and administration on their commitment that Wesleyan 
College continue to provide the best education for tomorrow's leaders.

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