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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.