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THE PANTHER - Page 2 - March 1974
EDITORIAL
By Ronald Harris
April 18th will be an important date for students at Clark
College. That is the day for Student Government elections.
Judging from last year’s non-voter turnout the importance
of SGA elections seems to have escaped the vast majority
of students at Clark. According to various sources not only
was there a minute number of students that voted in last
year’s elections, but the present SGA administration ran
uncontested.
Students, especially those that live on campus, at Clark
have become slaves to the faculty and administration of this
institution. Our basic right to self-determination (which
simply means to live and control your (lives) has been
taken away.
Each day we face educational, indoctrination and syste
matic hassles by incompetent, insensitive faculty and ad
ministrative staff. Those of us who live on campus are con
stantly subjected to invasion of privacy by arrogant, ego
tistical persons known as dorm directors.
Dormitory conditions are horrible. In Brawley Hall
there is only one water fountain for four floors of students
(you give your dog water).
Everyday, three times a day students line up in Thayer
Hall to receive their poison for the day. Feeding students
pork is bad enough, but to give them pig feet, pig ears, pig
knuckles, etc., under the guise of so-called “soul food”
is outrageous. Bad food is bad food. One sister told me that
the reason she never has any money to d o other things
with is because she spends most of it buying food. She
said she can’t stomach the food they serve on campus.
Many faculty members treat students like they are chil
dren, but what is foremost, they are giving out incorrect
information. One instructor, which I will leave anony
mous , not only reprimands students for chewing gum
smoking and coming to class after "roll call” but is tell
ing students that the civil war was fought to free the
slaves. That is an outright lie. That’s right, I said a lie.
Things are so bad on campus that I heard a group of
brothers were peaceably playing the congas when Clark’s
security guards approached them and told them they had
to leave. It seems that our security guards are always
around in time to stop you from doing something construc
tive but they can never be found when you need help. Are
they there to protect us or to plague us. Think on that.
Even Georgia prison guards don’t carry pistols.
I would go on about the Business and Financial Aid of
fices but it makes me too mad to write.
But in light of all these repressive conditions that exist
on Clark’s campus, the blame does not lie on the faculty
or the administration.
The blame falls squarely on the shoulders of the stu
dent body.
If the students want conditions at Clark to change
they are going to have to initiate the change. The faculty
won’t do it, the dorm directors won’t do it, the cafeteria
won’t do it, and you’d better believe the administration
won’t do it.
Students are the most powerful entity in the Clark Col-
lege“family.” If we were not here there would be no
Clark College. If we want co-ed visitation, let’s have co
ed visitation under our rules and regulations. Just as
we didn’t ask white people, if we could celebrate Martin
Luther King Jr.’s birthday, we don’t need an “official”
decree allowing us to have co-ed visitation.
If anyone should be reprimanded for coming to class
late, it should be the instructor. Students have paid for
every class they attend. If they come late they have that
right. Students pay the instructors salaries. He didn’t
pay you to come to class, as some of them would have us
believe.
If an instructor is supplying false or inadequate infor
mation, he or she must be dealt with. An education is not
a game, it is serious business.
Regardless of how many degrees a person has, it’s
what he or she knows that counts in the real world. Don’t
let these instructors play no games on you.
If we want change in the cafeteria set up, we must
demand change, organize change and fight for change.
If we want a Plan A and a Plan B in the cafeteria system,
we must initiate the move for it. The administration won’t
do it. They don’t eat on campus.
The Student Government Association is one vehicle that
students can use to better their conditions at Clark. There
fore April 18 is a very important day for students at Clark
College.
But it’s not enough to elect a progressive SGA adminis
tration, students must make the SGA accountable and res
ponsive to student needs and demands.
Homecoming is nice; “Henderson Day” is hip; but what
has all this done to improve your living, conditions?
The SGA is not the only way that students can bring about
constructive change at Clark College. We must organize
on all levels.
We must organize in our dorms, in our classes and in
the various clubs and organizations that function at Clark.
Right now petitions are circulating around campus to pro
test the outrageous conditions that Clark students live
under. I urge all students to support this activity. Every
thing about you is your personal and collective respon
sibility.
If your house is dirty, clean it. It’s time to clean house
at Clark.
GUEST EDITORIAL
MDpOOOOOOOOOaOOOOOPOOOOOOBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
THELMA SIAS
This is my sophomore
year at Clark. I see very
clearly that to build an
institution such as Clark
College generally takes
more than one man. Speak
ing to the administration,
faculty and especially to
the student body of Clark,
it takes each of us work
ing hard to make Clark
College the proud school
on the hill that we love so
true.
Martin Luther King Jr.,
said after the March on
Washington that he had a
dream. I am certain that
those who were connect
ed with the birth of Clark
College had a dream also,
a dream that Clark College
would someday develop into
an outstanding institution
of education.
The administration and
faculty must help the stu
dents to contribute use
fully to that development.
Administration and facul
ty have the words on the
approach to help some stu
dents to become important
people in their lifetime. As
students, we are often will
ing, but a strong and am
bitious student leader is
always needed.
If we, the students and
members erf the Clark Col
lege family do not make
the first step to respect
our growing family, no one
else will.
We realize that we are
born into this world to be
happy and secure. We are
given a name and as time
passes we strive to earn the
moral principle of respect.
I used the phrase “we strive
to earn respect.” Because
this is a moral principle
that every man and woman
desires to have. Respect
is not limited to the male
or female, wealthy and so-
called middle class or to the
Blacks or whites.
Webster’s Dictionary de
fines respect as the qua
lity or state to set a high
value on: there are a
number of questions to be
answered regarding this:
what do you want out of life?
What are your goals? Are
you man or woman enough
to struggle when many are
against you. And do you have
the desire to want better
and greater things for
other sisters and brothers?
The “Staple Singers,” a
singing group states in
a long entitled “Respect
Yourself” that if you don’t
respect yourself no one
else will. Is it possible
that the change of life
style of the 70‘s , the fash
ion fads, or the rap of
Barry White has put us in
such a state that we can no
longer see past the need
forself? Has Watergate in
volvement on televison and
in the newspaper left us
dazed? Have the happen
ings of the 70’s made us
forget such things as the
killing of four little Black
kids while they were attend
ing Sunday school; the
killing of James Chaney,
because he wanted to teach
the Black people how to
vote; the killing of our
great leaders suchasMed-
gar Evers, Malcolm X and
others and the killing of
Dr. King because he suc
ceeded in leading his peo
ple to the promise land
of strong survival. These
were tragic things to hap
pen but they gave us the
strength to carry on.
Is the Clark College
family going to give up and
settle for what we have.
Forget everything others
have done for our institu
tion and not strive to
make Clark College shine
far above others? Do we
have the strength to get
up after being knocked down?
Do as Ralph Emerson said
in his essay ‘Self Reliance,
nothing is at last sacred
but then integrity of your
mind, that nothing can
bring you peace but your
self, that nothing can bring
you peace but the triumph
of principles.”
If not let us as the
Clark College family start
over. Let’s start as George
Washington Carver sug
gested that when you can do
the common things of life
in a uncommon way you will
command the attention of
the world.”
READER’S FORUM
Dear Editor,
I knew that wnite folks
were weird and did some
crazy things, but I never
conceived of such an out
rage as “streaking.”
Personally I don’t see any
satisfaction in seeing some
Dear Editor:
I would like to com
ment, complain, or just
rap about Clark College.
If you ever get a chance
you should walk down Law-
she Street right next to
the old gray building call
ed Tanner Turner - Tur
ner Tanner or what ever
they call it and check out
all that old junk they have
piled up next to it. I’ve
been wondering what in the
Hell is ole C. C. gonna
do with all that mess.
If Clark is starting a
junk yard, then that’s al
right, but I haven’t heard
anything like that.
I noticed that there was
a water fountain about five
face bowls, a fan, refri
geration, wheel barrels
and other kinds of junk.
Clark has enough junk al
ready with Brawley and
Pfeiffer Hall and she doesn’t
need to start another junk
pile.
freaked out honkey running
throughout the campuses
with no clothes on.
But the way someBlack
folks are, I wouldn’t be sur
prised if AU joins the lo
cal nudest colony. Black
folks, for over 450 years,
have been identifying with
our white oppressor. What
ever is alright for white
folks is alright for us.
That is the philosophy of
a slave people with no value
system of their own.
Black people are going
to have to come to the real
ization that white people are
a wild, barbaric people and
they are used to going a-
round naked.
If it were up to white
folks I feel that they would
be much more comfortable
if they were back at home
in their caves in Europe.
Yours in the Struggle,
Nneka Tene Mariama
PANTHER STAFF
The Panther is printed monthly by a host of students in
terested in disseminating information to the Clark College
student body, faculty and staff.
We welcome letters to the editor and any other infor
mation of value to the Clark family. All material sub
mitted must be typed and accompanied by the writer’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 and Ronald Harris
Layout Editor....Barbara Massenburg
Photographer Kenneth Hodges
Typist Sylvia Hardy
Staff Writers Brenda L. Camp, Robert Cook, Bruce
Fletcher, Fannie Flono, Ronald Harris,
Vernard Howard, Kathye Lewis, Barbara
Massenburg, Carolyn Wade, John Cole
man.