Newspaper Page Text
STUDENTS
are busy dealing with their
classes. But I do believe
our main problem is that no
cares.”
Jones said another pro
blem hampering the chan
ces of a Trinity success
was the lack of student back
ing for his administration.
He also pinpointed the
time he believes Trinity
lost their support.
‘‘We lost the support of
the students who voted us
in office right after the
election. I don’t know how
or why we lost them, but
we did.”
According to Jones va
rious methods were tried
'last semester to rally the
students behind their pro
grams. He said that Tri
nity’s attempts were futile
and that student apathy re
mains intact.
In referring to one exam
ple he said, ‘‘we try to get
an idea of what was on
everybody’s mind by placing
TCB boxes around campus,
but there were no construc
tive responses placed in any
Marc Lawson
of them. For the most part,
we either got obscene notes
or ones that did not make
any sense.”
The program referr
ed to is Taking Care of
Business (TCB), which cal
led for black and red boxes
being placed in strategic
areas around the college’s
campus. A letter above the
box requested students to
submit suggestions pretain-
ing to changes they would
like to see made no campus
and, or opinions about exist
ing conditions. A Panther
survey revealed that some
of the boxes are Still in
place.
Jones also added that the
adamant refusal of the col
lege’s administration to re
cognize himself and Lawson
as student leaders also pla
gued Trinity.
In a chilling manner Law-
son told The Panther that
students ‘‘deserted” the
Bruce Merchant
BETRAY TRINITY
THE PANTHER-APRIL,1973 Page 3
Continued From Page 1
Trinity. ‘‘I mean treason
was committed by the peo
ple who were appointed and
elected to our immediate
administration. Lawson ad
ded, ‘‘the success of all our
programs depended upon the
amount of support we re
ceived from the students.
We called three student
council meetings and there
was never an instance of a
quorum present to transact
business.
‘‘At student body meet
ings there would be about
50 students present out of
more than a 1200 enroll
ment. Nothing constructive
ever tended to be accom
plished in these meetings
because the students who
attended either got too emo
tional over issues to agree
on anything, or we couldn’t
effectively organized to im
plement suggestions.”
Regarding the results of
their futile attempts in im
plementing programs Mer
chant told The Panther that
presently he ‘‘has become
discouraged.
‘‘We could only go in the
direction of the masses, and
while doing this we would
have been the steering agent
or catalyst. Well we are not
gods, and our problems de
veloped because we couldn’t
get the backing needed to set
off the reaction necessary
to implement our pro
grams.”
For the most part mem-j
bers of the Trinity Board
maintained that class work
is taking up a great por
tion of their time. The mem
bers of the board are Jackie
Allen, a junior, Linda Hey-
wood, a junior Kennis Har
rell, a junior; Thomas Flan-
nigan, a senior, Gerald
Syrkett, a junior and Sted-
man Southall, a senior.
One member of the board
admitted that he ‘‘didn’t do
flnH that ho
didn’t think Trinity leaders
were ‘‘together” themsel
ves on how they wanted to
implement their programs.
‘‘I don’t really thinkany-
one did their part,” said
Thomas Flannigan, a sen
ior political science major
and one the college’s quar
terbacks for the 1972 sea
son. ‘‘I know I didn’t do
anything. Last semester I
didn’t have time because
of football andnow, well no
one is doing anything now.”
When told some of the rea
sons Trinity members gave
for their failure Flannigan
said, ‘‘they are just pass
ing the buck.
‘‘If you are going to be a
leader, I think you should
show me what you are going
to do first. Like anything
else I believe leadership
comes from the top, and
then it is distributed. From
what I saw, the Trinity didn’t
seem to be able to work to
gether.
‘‘Marc was the only one
doing anything. That is, he
seemed to have been the
only person students could
really depend upon, and he
was fighting a losing battle
because the administration
would not recognize him or
Ronald.”
Sources close to the Tri
nity confirm that ‘‘ideologi
cal differences among the
leaders may have creat
ed “problems,” which may
have played a role in the
“failure” of the bold new
student governmental struc
ture to implement its pro
grams.
The source added, how
ever, that these “pro^
blems” will probably not
reach such a proportion as
to formally break the Tri
nity structure.
Jones and Merchant hint
ed that there might have
been some internal disa
greements on policy, when
questioned by The Panther
Lawson evaded the ques
tion..
“Internal relationships
within the Trinity are stead
fast and holding, even though
they are not concrete and
solidfying,” Merchant said.
While using gestures to
symbolize the unity of the
Trinity.
Jones said, “nothing is
wrong internally with Tri
nity. *1 think we are all
just paying more attention
to our classes. We tried to
get into a lot of things last
semester and didn’t get
much support from the stu
dent body.”
Trinity leaders appear to
have little hope of imple
menting their major pro
grams, however, they main
tained that each of them
is working on separate pro
grams to be initiated this
semester.
But Lawson warned, “lit
tle can be done if we don’t
get support from students.”
All you smokers
who plan to quit
someday:
Can you
throw away that pack
right now?
it s not easy, is it.'
In 20 years, after 146,000 more cigarettes,
you think it’s going to be easier?
Don’t kid yourself.
Quit now. You’ll never get a chance like this again.
U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
This space contributed as a public service.
SORORITY ATTACKS STUDY
Taken from the Atlanta
Constitution
The largest sorority of
Black women in the Unit
ed States Thursday
criticized the Tuskegee
Study, calling the experi
ment which withheld medi
cal treatment from hun
dreds of Black men in
fected with syphilis, an act
of scientific genocide which
is morally wrong.
In a statement issued by
the group’s national board,
meeting in Atlanta, Mrs.
Lillian Benbow, president
of the 60,000 - member Delta
Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.,
said the organization would
attempt to round up other
Black groups and “any
agency” to work with the
sorority in bringing pres
sure to bear on those res
ponsible for the studv.
The U. S. Department of
Public Health admits that
hundreds of Black men with
syphilis were denied treat
ment over a period of 40
years to study the effects
of the disease.
News of the study and its
consequences brought an
avalanche of protests from
Black organizations, all
calling for an investigation,,
punitive action against those
responsible, and compensa
tion for the victims of the
experiment.
Delta Sigma Theta Soro
rity took the same position
in its statement issued
in Atlanta and added that the
forces of control in this
country should honor the
humanity of Black people
“The fact that this na
tion has not responded with
anything other than a kind
of puzzled, slightly embar
rassed reaction dramati
cally indicates a total in
sensitivity to the human
dignity of the individual.
This also indicates our
willingness to sacrifice hu
man lives in the interest of
scientific experimen- -
tation,” said the sorority.
Mrs. Maynard Jackson,
wife of Atlanta’s vice mayor
and chairman of the soro
rity’s National Projects
Committee, said leaders of
her organization hope to
meet with the Congressio
nal Black Caucus and dis
cuss what actions that can
be taken, against the Tuske
gee Study, and also what can
be done to make public all
federally subsidized ex
periments involving human
.beings.