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Page 10 • UGA: An Independent Look • May 1990
Yul Holloway, right, chats with freshman Deborah Harrell
Blacks students
make headway
at University
By Mary O. Ratcliffe
Minority matters at the University of
Georgia are not as minor in 1990 as they
were in 1980. In the past decade, the level of
minority awareness, cooperation and
activism on campus has increased
dramatically.
One of the most noticeable differences
between 1980 and 1990 is the fact that there
are more black faces on campus. The
increase in minority undergraduate
enrollment is only slightly more than 1
percent even though African-Americans
make up 25 percent of the population in
Georgia. But the important statistic is the
sheer volume of the increase, from 891
during the 1980-81 school year to 1,429
during 1989-90.
As more black students have entered the
University, they have become an integral
part of campus life. The strength and power
of the voice of minority concerns has become
stronger and clearer over the decade.
Back in 1980, the only non-Greek black
organizations located on the University
campus were the independent Black Student
Union, the Abeneefoo Kuo honor society and
the Institute for African-American Studies.
Today the student union is known as the
Black Affairs Council and operates under the
auspices of Student Affairs. Abeneefoo Kuo
recently pledged a white member and a core
class in African-American Studies is being
developed. The Office of Minority Services
and Programs was created in 1989 in direct
response to the needs of minority students.
The campus radio station, WUOG (90.5 FM),
gives blacks a forum for discussion on its
weekly program “Minority Matters,” started
in 1988.
Statistically, it is simple to chart the
tangible changes for blacks at the
University, but emotionally, the differences
are more subtle and more difficult to
pinpoint. The experiences and perceptions of
a black student in 1980 aren’t he same as
those of a black student today.
“I felt I had in prove myself. ! think some
professors really didn’t want me there,” says
Ollie B. Stephens, a Gainesville native who
graduated in 1981 in computer science.
Stephens, who now works as a computer
programmer for the Southern Company in
Atlanta, has a theory about the subtle
discrimination he received, such as
“patronizing” remarks from professors.
‘That field (computer science) was becoming
prestigious. There was a lot of money to be
made,” he says. “Maybe they didn’t want to
share the wealth with a black man.”
However, he took the attitude as a
challenge. “It gave me an extra incentive to
excel,” he says.
Stephens is quick to point out that he
experienced no discrimination from other
students. He lived in Russell Hall, had
roommates of both races, played intramural
football and softball and was a computer
science tutor. He has fond memories of his
time at the University, and he and his wife
visit the campus often. He says he will
encourage his baby daughter to attend the
University instead of a smaller black
university, for practical reasons.
“It is a very good school,” Stephens says.
“It’s what you make of it. It’s like the real
world, where the work force is a mixture of
races.”
One former student now in the University
administration work force is Yul Holloway, a
1985 journalism graduate. As the assistant
director for minority admissions, he is
responsible for recruiting black students.
Holloway speaks from experience and with
hope about minority issues. Like Stephens,
he remembers his courses as a challenge, but
in a different way.
“Some instructors made it a point to say to
me, ‘Because you’re black, you won’t get
special treatment.’ They try so hard to treat
you fairly, they end up hurting you, ’ he says.
“Instead of being challenged, I was singled
out.”
Holloway says he thinks grading was
“very subjective.” He tells the story of a law
school professor whom some black students,
including Holloway’s wife, Kim, believed was
grading blacks unfairly.
“After some research, they found he had a
history of giving lower grades (to black
students),” he says. The professor was
confronted with the evidence and eventually
“changed his stripes,” Holloway says.
The approach the students took —peaceful
negotiation — is the best way to deal with
racism and discrimination, Holloway says.
He says the “renaissance of black activism,”
in the tradition of Malcolm X, is “positive
from a historical standpoint” but dangerous
in practice.
“It alienates people who don’t think in
negative terms,” he says.
Holloway says he thinks black students
have become more assertive and vocal
because sometimes “it doesn’t seem as if
anyone cares.
“Black students have learned to be
aggressive,” he says, “because there is no
compassion in the system.” The cure, he
says, is to get involved in all aspects of
campus life.
Holloway, a native of LaGrange, describes
himself as a “first generation” black
university student rather than a “Cosby kid."
He was the first member of his family to
graduate from college, but he says he did so
on his own initiative.
“I received no family encouragement,” he
says. “Second generation (black) students
have a real push to get an education.”
Judy Spencer, a 22-year-old senior
advertising major from Augusta, is typical of
many black students at the University today
Her three older sisters all went to college,
and she says she was always taught to value
her education.
Spencer says she has had only one racial
problem at the University. Ironically, it
didn’t nappen until the last quarter of her
senior year.
The first week of this quarter, her new
white roommate moved out of her Creswell
Hall room without saying a word.
“She moved out because I was black. She