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Page 2 The Panther February, 1970 THE PANTHER Clark College — Atlanta, Georgia 30314 Editor Lillian Andrews Associate Editor Barbara Boone Reporter Carla Bryce Faculty Adviser . Alan Buss el The Panther is published by students of Clark College. Letters to the editors are welcome but must be signed (names will be withheld on request). Math brings on the blues at Clark College The Panther heeds attack The Panther has come come under repeated attack from students who were not pleased with its first 69-70 edition. The editors’ policy has been especially de nounced because most criticizers are under the impression that their items will not be printed unless the staff has the same opinion as the writer. This is not the case. The wording of the policy was somewhat harsh but was only meant to be specific and not clandestine. Any student’s opinion that will help bring about change or will stimulate interest in the college’s worthwhile endeavors will receive ample space in the paper—on the editorial page. The item will only be edited as far as sentence structure goes and will not contain words that the editor feels are vile. Although students have been very generous with concern as to the continuous publication of The Panther, the same type of concern has not been shown as far as the actual gathering of news items. Many students have been extended personal invitations to work on the paper but have refused to give the time. At the present time, the real staff consists of three people out of an enrollment of 1,079 students as of the second semester. Those of you who wish a longer paper should think of this in terms of the time it takes three people to put together a short paper as against a longer paper put together by as many as a dozen needed people. Some of you have voiced a willingness to work with the paper but you have yet to pass in a word of the material that was your responsibility to get. It is somewhat hard for three people to put together a paper that will entice such a large body of various personalities. This editor has found that waiting for help from others is like waiting for a human to give birth to a stone. However, the “staff” is trying harder to present The Panther from the view point of the entire student body. The greeks are to be especially commended for their understanding of the elimination of the greek reports, although the same cannot be said of the gossip column worshipers. Gossip is not constructive and the paper intends to be. A gossip column would give the paper more readers but will give it a shadow of foolishness. You as the majority should not be pleased with letting such a small staff represent you. In fact, you should be displeased enough to want to do something about it, and your something should have results Rumor has it that Clark’s very own math department inspired the writing of the most popular song titles on the charts today. Songs such as: “Some body Please,” “How can I tell my mom and dad?”. . . “Here I go again,” . . . “Gonna Keep on trying till I win,” . . . “Release me” and others are believed to have had their beginning here on the campus. Student sentiments about the math department and its ineffectiveness can easily be expressed, and generally is, in vivid four-lettered words. One stu dent said, “The department expects the students to grasp the theorems and principles as a math student would— and that’s not right.” All the students questioned had basically the same opinion of the department. The concensus of the department was that the high student failure rate was due to factors other than mathe matical material and the effectiveness of the teachers. The department was asked why did they think the student failure rate was so high? Their answers were: unlimited cuts, unwillingness of the student to apply himself, no out side study of lecture material, non- attendance of tutorial sessions and the disinterest of students in securing their own books. The department also re garded the cheating average of the class as second to none. The department provided docu ments and statements written by per sons outside the school. The docu ments and statements were mostly be stowing honors upon the department and some were for honors received by math students that came out of the department. Other documents de scribed the course now being taught to Business and Economics Dept, lacks effective staffing Many students are facing the dilem ma that others before them have al ready faced in the Business and Eco nomics Department at Clark. The de partment is lacking in many areas— worst of all, the staffing is very bad. Presently there are about 192 majors in the department and at one time or another they have voiced complaints about the ineffectiveness of the de partment’s teachers. Besides being un derstaffed, the department has on its faculty people who cannot relate to the students they teach. Students are flunk ing and/or barely passing under people who should not be in classroom teach ing positions. When interviewed about the depart ment’s problems, James Hefner, chair man of the Business and Economics department at Clark had this to say: “The problem is that the administra tion has not seen fit to spend time in getting better faculty members in the department. This department needs at least two PhDs but does not have them. This year marks the first time that the department has had a chair man in 15 years and not an acting chairman. An acting chairman cannot set policies for his staff to follow; he can only suggest. The administration seems not to be conscious of the prob lem that exist here.” Questioned further, Hefner said, “Clark does not bid for its teachers as effectively as it could. Faculty members sometimes get their positions at Clark by contacting the college instead of vice versa.” Students who have spent any time at all in business courses are quick to advise others against taking anything in the department at Clark. When asked the reason for this, a Clark junior re plied, “If you pass teacher X, it will be because you cheated, cheezed. or because he wanted you to. However, you won’t learn a damn thing.” He went on, “I found out kind of late that I should have taken all my courses in business on some other campus. The teachers on everybody’s campus except Clark's are heavy and their heavyness benefits their students because the teachers take an interest in whether their students are learning or not. A teacher at Brown even allots part of his free time for off-campus study sessions. Around here you have to catch these people when you can. Also I feel that the part-time teachers should be on a no-time basis. People that are so caught up in affairs elsewhere don't have time to be a teacher. They don’t give a damn who passes or who doesn’t, or if anyone does for that matter!” When asked if he felt that govern ment funds would help the situation in his department in the way that they have Clark's science departments, Hefner said, “In the first place the department has always been very un derstaffed. This one of the few years that teachers have not been teaching five or six courses by themselves. We are still understaffed, but not as much as wc have been. The Henderson ad ministration has given the department as much as it has some of the other departments. But everybody likes to further scientific knowledge. I wish there were government grants available for this business department. Maybe in the future there will be. But to get better teachers, the college must offer more and better pay: the college has to get in the mainstream and become competitive.” The Business and Economics de partment needs revamping and an al most entire restaffing. Students pay too much money to have to take courses from people whose educational capabilities are questionable. Students should not be the victims of non-teach ing instructors. They should not be crippled by some new teacher's first efforts in a classroom. The main objec tive of students under these pressures is to pass, not necessarily to learn. This kind of situation has also stimulated some of the cheating in which so many students engage. Lately much emphasis has been placed on black people getting into business. Clark will do much to hinder its own if the wrong being done to its future black managers, accountants, economists and salesmen is not cor rected. in-coming freshmen as remedial — documents provided by the State of Georgia equate the course to that pres ently being taught seventh graders. The math department should also be cited for being the only department in the school to have met the requirements set by the state accrediting committee. The math department does enjoy certain academic credits that other Clark departments have failed to ac quire—and the department can take a bow for the quality of math students they have turned out. Also granted the department is their sincerity for the better interest of the student, in meet ing the requirements of the institution and the State of Georgia. But, if on the other hand, Clark students aren’t being stimulated by the present teaching method it may not be the most efficient method for Clark. The administration—not the depart ment or the students—is burdened with the responsibility of carefully examining the situation unbiasedly, without pressure from either side, and effecting a workable plan for the good of Clark College. In other words, if the student is in default, do not lower Clark standards to accommodate them they could only be hurt by such an act. If the department is failing the students by using standards and methods that do not work best for this institution, modification of the present method might be a solution. However, if modi fication of the method does not bring about the desired results, then con sideration of a different and more suit able method should be employed be fore too much money is invested and too many students sacrificed. Clark’s reputation could suffer from the lowering of standards as well as from detrimental records reflecting the high failure rate of its student popula tion. It is for the administration to take command and follow through. Clark first, foremost and forever should guide the minds of those who govern, teach and attend the North Star of the A.U. Center. Volumes missing from Clark The Panther has learned that Clark has several missing volumes of black history from its poorly organized library. The volumes represent a very well documented historical background of the black man in America. The author is a black former slave. The Panther has reason to believe that the library staff does not know the books are gone even though they have been for several months. The missing reference material em phasizes the need for organization in' the library. The black answer Students involved in changes by 3Js The answer to our dead school is SIC-students involved in change. We, the students of Clark College, walk around our campus saying “Clark is dead,” It’s nothing. But Clark is no more than what we make it. If we do not have any place to go it is not the college’s problem, it is ours, for we— the students—must bring on a social change. You say that there is nothing to do at night. The “rec” is open from seven to ten but very few people go. You want beer and wine to be sold on campus. You must let the school know that you want beer sold, not just one or two people, the masses must show that they want beer sold. Movies on Sunday? You must make it known in the masses that you want movies on Sundays. You want co-visitation privi leges on Sunday in your dorms? You must write a proposal saying that you want this with two-thirds of the resi dents of the dorms signing it. Black people of Clark, your main purpose for coming to Clark is to get a good education. Are you? Just think of the many nights that you haven’t studied, or the assignments that you didn’t turn in. You say you are “getting over”, but the people on Hunter Street are “getting over.” The days of a college student are full of “changes." A black student has (Continued on page 3)