Newspaper Page Text
CLARK COLLEGE, Atlanta, Ga.
MARCH, 1969
VOL. XXXI, NO. 3
A.U. CENTER RECEIVES
TRUST
The first major educational attempt to place the Negro in the
center of America’s technologically based society received a
$265,000 boost Wednesday from the Olin Mathieson Charitable
Trust.
Speaking in Atlanta, Mr. Gordon Grand, president and chief
executive officer of the Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation,
announced the grant to the Atlanta University Center for support
of a newly inaugurated five-year, dual degree program which
allows students from four Atlanta University Center colleges to
obtain engineering degrees from Georgia Tech as well as degrees
from their own institutions.
The Trust funds will be used to support approximately 85
students in the program over the next three years as well as
to initiate an extensive search for potential engineering talent
among the South’s lower income groups. The dual degree pro
gram joins the resources of two Atlanta educational complexes -
one with the world’s largest private cluster-college black student
enrollment and the other with the third largest undergraduate
engineering enrollment in the country.
Under the dual degree program, scheduled to begin this week,
students will attend one of the undergraduate schools at the Atlanta
University Center - Clark College, Morehouse College, Morris
Brown College or Spelman College - for three years and then
transfer to Georgia Tech for an additional two years.
Upon successfully completing the program at both institutions,
the.student will simultaneously receive two degrees-a Bachelor of
Science or Bachelor of Arts degree awarded by the Atlanta Uni
versity Center-affiliated college attended and one of the bachelor’s
degrees in engineering awarded by Georgia Tech.
In announcing the $265,000 grant, Mr. Grand said: “We view this
program as a particularly appropriate way to achieve three
major objectives: It will enable Negro students to receive their
technical training at one of the nation’s finest engineering schools
without severing their relationships with their undergraduate
colleges; it will bring the white and Negro institutions of higher
learning into much closer collaboration, to the advantage of both;
and it will significantly increase the number of highly qualified
Negro engineers available to industry.”
Tech has had a similar arrangement with other liberal arts
institutions in the South since 1954. The institutions presently
associated with Georgia Tech in the so-called 3-2 program are the
University of the South, Davidson College, the University of Chatta
nooga, Southwestern at Memphis and the University of Georgia.
The primary difference between Tech’s previously established
programs and the new one with Atlanta University Center is the
fact that it is the first one to put emphasis on placing the Negro
in an engineering environment. Another important difference is that
the institutions involved in the program are located within a mile
and a half of each other and the dual degree program students
at the first three grade levels may be jointly enrolled at Georgia
Tech as special students taking pre-engineering courses not offered
by the University Center colleges.
The Olin Mathieson Trust grant will be used in two ways. First
it will support an adequate administrative staff at both Atlanta
University Center and at Tech to the end that every high school
student from the low socio-economic areas of the region will
learn of the opportunities of engineering, and that those students
with basic abilities for engineering will be sought out and en
couraged to plan for engineering careers. Adequate time for
undergraduate student guidance toward engineering on the part
of the Atlanta University Center coordinator will be essential
to sustaining the students’ interest developed at the high school
level.
The second area of use for the Trust funds will lie to provide
scholarships to qualified students. The scholarships will be part
of a financial aid package which will allow students who can qualify
for state and federal aid programs to do so. Then the funds from
Olin Mathieson Trust can be used to supplement governmental
aid, or replace it when the students who do need aid cannot
qualify' under governmental programs.
contd p. 10
Religious Emphasis
Observance Week
Sunday, March 2,1969, marked
the beginning of Religious Em
phasis Observance Week at
Clark College. The many pos
ters displayed around campus
suggested a week of both in
teresting and inspiring events.
Clark again extended a welcome
to one of its favorite people,
Dr. C. Eric Lincoln. Dr. Lin
coln served at Clark from 1964
to 1964 in various academic
and administrative posts. Pre
sently he is profossor of so
ciology and religion at Union
Theological Seminary in New
York. He is also the author of
the international best seller,
THE BLACK MUSLIMS IN AM
ERICA and four other books
on the Black experience.
Monday, a film, “Nothing But
a Man”, which stars two of
our greatest Black actors, Ivan
Dixon and Abbey Lincoln, will
be shown in the lower lounge
of Kresge Hall at 7:30 p.m.
The film is a moving drama of
the personal struggle of a south
ern Black man and his wife in
a hostile society.
Tuesday, inDavage Auditorium,
at 11:00 a.m., Dr. Evans Craw
ford, dean of the chapel at
Howard University will deliver
a message. Much in demand as
a speaker, Dr. Crawford has
appeared at many of the leading
colleges around the country. He
is a close observer of the chang
ing Negro church..an interest
which is reflected in his re
search and articles.
Wednesday, in the lower lounge
of Kresge Hall at 7:30 p.m.,
Rev. Marvin Chandler will open
his recital, billed as “A Night
of Soul,” with spirituals and
close with contemporary protest
songs. Rev. Chandler, who en
tered the ministry after a car
eer in vaudeville, radioand tele
vision, is the associate direc
tor of the Rochester, N.Y.Area
Council of Churches.
The student body is encour
aged to attend as many of these
intellectually stimulating ac-
tivities as possible.
Campus Spotlight
‘69 Series
Collegiate Broadcasting
Group, producers of educational
and informational programs for
radio, has announced that the
four undergraduate schools in
the Atlanta University Center
have agreed to participate in
the ‘69 “Campus Spotlight” se
ries. The colleges are Clark,
Morehouse, Spelman, and Mor
ris Brown.
DR. VIVIAN HENDERSON
Speaking before a group of students, faculty and staff Monday
night at a Clark College Free Thinkers’ meeting, school Pre
sident Dr. Vivian Henderson told them, “If white capitalism hasn’t
solved white problems what makes us think that Black capitalism
will solve Black problems? I think someone is trying to throw
us a curve.”
Dr. Henderson told the group that Black capitalism was not the
panacea or cure-all for all the problems of the Black ghetto and
that “If you think starting a few Black businesses is going to
correct our problem, you’re wrong.”
The group heard Dr. Henderson say, “We talk about Black
capitalism as if it were magic. Mr. Nixon talks about it as if it
will change the lives of millions, when, in reality, we must realize
that Black capitalists will exploit you the same way white ones
will.”
Instead of concentrating our entire energies on Black capitalism,
Dr. Henderson suggested that the true answer to many of the
problems of the Black ghetto lay in public policy is the quickest
way to get to this.”
In the way of answers to ghetto problems, Dr. Henderson said
that new forms of development might include guaranteed demand,
guaranteed jobs and community development agencies. Guaranteed
demand, he said, is a system in which the government or other
agencies guarantee or promise that a certain business will per
iodically receive orders from them for a certain amount of goods.
This insures that the business will be able to continue to function.
In speaking about the market for Black businesses, Dr. Hender
son remarked, “Frankly, it is very evident that today there is
only one market place. Years ago when Black people were only
allowed to go a few places, the wall of segregation produced the
few capitalists among Black people.” The President said that he
thought that Black people thought “toosmall.” We need new forms
of business ownership,” he said, “not only in the ghetto, but
also down on Forsyth Street.”
In summary, Dr. Henderson said that Black people should be
cautious of the term “Black Capitalism” and people’s sudden
willingness to help the Black businessman. “People who didn’t
even want you to have peanuts a few years ago, all of a sudden
want us to have businesses. This appears to be diversionary to
me. Someone is throwing us a curve.”