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Clarkgate VS Watergate
When one hears the term Watergate, images of in
competency, confusion, and inefficiency come to mind.
It has been charged that in the Watergate episode
H R. Haldeman and John Erlichman had an excess of
power and used it unwisely. They have been accused of
treating individuals who expressed disenchantment with
the Nixon Administration unprofessionally and inhumanely.
A general analogy can be made between the bungling
activities of Haldeman and Erlichman and Clark’s Busi
ness office, Registrar’s office, Admission office, and its
security system.
Freshmen, as well as other students unfamiliar with
the tedious task of college registration, are subjected to
uncongenial and unprofessional attitudes which have no
place on this earth, not to mention at Clark.
The Business Office is supposed to keep accurate fin
ancial records of each student’s account, but most of the
time this does not happen. And when students approach
business officials about incomplete or erroneous financial
record keeping, they are treated in a hostile manner.
The Registrar’s Office has the dubious distinction of
maintaining inaccurate and inefficient student academic
reports. Students must wait weeks before they receive
grades and sometimes the grades are not recorded cor
rectly.
Moreover, senior evaluations for 1974 class members
have not been sent out at the time this article is being
written. This leaves many seniors guessing about the
course requirements they need for graduation.
the Admissions umce is similarly crippled with in-
competency. This year their disorganization was illustrat
ed when they accepted more students than they had
rooms to accommodate. This suggests that the offices
of the Dean of Students and Admissions have uncoordi
nated and incoherent admission policies. As the slang
around the dormitories goes, ‘‘they did the ‘max’ when
it comes to inefficiency.”
The Security guards are not concerned with student
welfare and protection. Students contend that they are
more concerned with hampering students rather than
helping them.
For example: Clark SGA planned a weiner roast for
students in early September. Our diligent security guards
temporarily disrupted this student gala on the lawn be
cause the students did not have a requisition from the
Dean’s Office and also because outsiders might invade
the campus. These reasons are pure malarky.
It is amazing that they became so alarmed at such
an inopportune time because more non-Clark or At
lanta University students can be found at most Clark
College functions. These “outsiders” can sometimes
be found wandering around the campus at night when the
security force is allegedly keeping vigilance on cam
pus.
Perhaps the expressions in this article will bring some
insight to those in charge of these operations and set
them about rectifying their errors.
President Richard Nixon alleges he “slept” through
the Watergate activities.
President Henderson, if you are similarly sleeping
through the present inefficient systems in these offices,
we urge you to wake up. Continuation of these practices
could constitute a mortal wound despite the many other
commendable actions you are taking.
THE PANTHER
Clark College
The Panther is printed monthly by a host of students
interested in disseminating information to the Clark
student body, faculty, and staff.
We welcome letters to the editor and any otner
information of value to the Clark family. All material
submitted must be typed and accompanied by the writ
er’s name.
The staff reserves final rights to print and/or edit
material.
Please send all material to “The Panther,” P.O.
Box 154, Clark College.
All materials should be in by the third week of each
month.
Co-Editors: Ronald Harris, Herbert Lewis
Copy editors: Brenda L. Camp, Robert
Cook, Katherine Hughey, Demetria
Montgomery, Catria Sharpe, Janet Smith
Layout editors: Lenora Davis, Patricia
Freeman, Linda Hunt, Theresa Jackson,
Barbara Massenburg
Photographers: Gregory Spencer
Typists: Diane Arnold, Sylvia Hardy
The following is a
guest editorial from
Dorris W right ,
president of the SGA
What are the real issues
that confront Morris Brown,
our neighboring educatio
nal institution, in its strug
gle to rejoin the Atlanta
University complex?
Is it a power play by
men who are insecure in
their roles as leaders? Do
we still have people today
who would sacrifice their
own Black people for per
sonal gain? Or are the
people we look to for lea
dership caught up in a per
sonality struggle?
Is the role the Ford
Foundation plays in the
development of the center
schools so complex that
some leaders find it impos
sible to understand?
t hope the leadership
suggested inthese questions
is not the leadership we
have in our colleges.
We, as students, look to
our administration, faculty
and staff for guidance. We
have put our educational
lives in the hands of these
people.
As I see it, there is a
need for financial resour
ces to promote programs
for the schools in com
munications, religion, edu
cation and other areas. We
need people in adminis
trative positions who can
bring these resources in
to our colleges.
We also need the leaders
of our colleges to work
around the concept of ope
rational unity--bringing
everybody together, not in
uniformity, but in coopera
tion.
Our college presidents
within the center may be far
apart in their rhetoric. But
when it comes down to the
real projects, goals and
directions, we expect them
to become more practical
and realistic.
We Black folks had a
strong “mouth” revolution
going for the last decade.
We have sold “wolf” tickets
all over America and some
people are beginning to buy
them at an alarming rate.
The time has come for us
to move out of the rhetoric
program.
There have always been
some so-called leaders
among us who were coun
ter - revolutionaries in
every sense of the word-
willing to jeopardize an
institution because of their
own insatiable hunger for
C,
om m u n i t
^fyenen Js On 'll
This year, we, as students at Clark College, will be
in an educational process which will have a major effect
on our lives and the lives of others in the years to come.
As is usually the case each of us originates from diverse
backgrounds and of various sections of America. Although
varied personal experiences seperate us as individuals,
we are bound together by one trait that is characteristic
to us all; we represent the intellegensia of the Black
community.
As the intelligensia of the Black community we repre
sent the future leaders of the liberation struggle. As
leaders we must evalute our responsibilities and role at
Clark College, and in the larger society upon our de
parture.
What is the purpose of our education at Clark College?
Are we here to “get a degree” so we can “make it”
in dog eat dog society called America. Should we turn
our backs on the community in our endeavor to get rich
quick. I should think not. Too many Black people have
struggled and died to insure our opportunity to a quality
education. The sit-ins, boycotts, beatings and murders,
all symbolize the struggle that enables us to be here
today.
It is our responsibility to insure that previous victo
ries have not been in vain. It is our responsibility to
take the knowledge that we receive at Clark College back
to the Black community. We must always remember
that we are Black people first. Our professions are only
nomeclature for our particular skills. We must become
lawyers, doctors, chemist, scientist, teachers, and tech
nicians who are Black instead of lawyers, doctors,
teachers, etc., who happen to be Black. We must ask
ourselves how we can channel our skills to serve the
community.
If this is our goal, the question we must ask is, What
can we, as student expect from Clark College. The an
swer is relatively simple. We can expect the output of
Clark College to be equivalent to student input. The fac
tors that will determine the productivity of Clark College
will be student, faculty, and administration, partici
pation and determination. These three factors will deter
mine whether Clark College will be a progressive edu
cation institution or one of inadequacy and backward
ness.
As a major force in a coalition with faculty and ad
ministration, the students must take it upon themselves
to check inadequacies in the functions of faculty and
administration that hinder our education.
We have the responsibility to help define the direc
tion of educational and social processes at Clark College.
We have the responsibility to enforce students rights
for clean, sanitary campus housing. We have the res
ponsibility to initiate the types of curriculum changes
that will push Clark out of a medieval past and into a
progressive future that would best, serve community
interest.
In essence, we have the responsibility to determine
whether Clark College will be an institution of correc
tive custody, or one of collective community.
We must address ourselves to the question of whether
Clark College will be an institution which indoctrinates
the student body with elitist, middle-class values of
phony bourgeois individualism and fantasy Americanism,
or whether it will be an institution whose programs are
designed to educate the student body as to those things
which are beneficial to and necessary for national liberation
of the Black community.
These are the alternatives to which the student body
at Clark must- address itself. If Clark College is to be
a viable institution for community development, we must
work together with faculty and administration to bring
about needed changes.
The buildings are not Clark College. The people are
Clark College. We must not fail to bring about the up
lift of this institution. The community is depending on us.
power and publicity.
In our quest for educa
tional excellence, we do not
need to be guided by such
superficial, egotistic, para
sitic thinkers or leaders.
Education is our basic
aim, and that aim should
not be jeopardized by any
one or two persons.
I hope all concerned will
work in good faith to bring
Morris Brown back into the
Atlanta University Center
so that the students there
can reap all the benefits
that this great complex has
to offer.
The
PANTHER
Needs:
Cartoonists
and
Writers