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£>Clark College SPANTHER VOL. XXXVIII NO. I CLARK COLLEGE OCTOBER, 1974 During the first weeks of his fledging administra tion, Stephens has had to deal with the parking pro blem on campus and the congestion of the campus bookstore. “I had a meeting with Maynard Jackson about the parking problem. He ask ed me to draw up a pro posal. I talked to him about what I had in mind and he said it was feasible.” As for the bookstore, the SGA submitted a pro posal to Curtis Gillepsie, dean of students, request ing an extension of oper ational hours during the post-registration rush and SGA President, Andrew Stevens (r) discusses details of office work with Marcia Moore (1), an office assistant. Unity—the 'Message’ Maintains SGA Head By Brenda L. Camp With a spring-like breeze blowing through the open door of his paper-clutter ed office, Andrew Stephens, President of Clark College's SGA, made the cause of unity through communica tion the theme^nLlns ad ministration. ‘‘The main thrust of our administration is center ed around adequate and pro per communication,” Ste phens said. ‘‘Everythingwe do, well that’s what we’re about. “There are a lot of me chanisms of the college that could be useful if stu dents knew about them. All problems evolve from a lack of adequate communi- cation, which breeds apathy.” Stephens has called the year “untraditional.” He cited the meetings with other Center SGA presi dents as indicative of a year of more Centerwide togetherness. “I really plan on the AU Center being more unified before the year is over,” he said. Though unity among Center schools was one focal point, Stephens has included unity in his pre scription for ridding Clark of its ills. The question of open vi sitation, hitherto unsettled, and other concerns of the student body can be remedi ed through the concerted efforts of Clarkites, he maintained. “If we can bring about unity, after we got together, we can say, ‘hey we’re going to have it, ’ and then we can do whatever we want.” Stephens came into the campus limelight during the rash of violence, including a number of rapes, that plagued the Center last year. additional help in the store itself during this time. Though the SGA pre sidency is a demanding po sition, Stephens still finds time to skate, bowl, play tennis and swim. He also participates on the debate team and is a member of a very successful band, The Chaoarrels. Andrew is a 19-year-old senior political science major from Columbus, Ga. His predecessor, Dorris Wright, made his job a little easier, he said. “I did not necessarily want to be president of the SGA. But many problems still exist and others have not dealt with the problems. I had the growing feeling that I would be able to deal with them. “One incident, the vio lence thing, made me or ganize the student body to take care of that problem,” Stephens said. Through his efforts, and along with Diane Stanley, a junior political science major from Philadelphia, he confronted the adminis tration with the inadequate campus lighting and related safety hazards. The administration re sponded favorably, and po lice patrols of the area were beefed up. “I knew that it would be difficult to do it under the same context the next time, so who am I to do this? The SGA should be doing this,” Stephens said. NOTICE ! The “Panther” staff needs a business manager. We are looking for some one who can keep accounts, order supplies and sell ad vertising at a commission. If you are interested, please see Ron Harris or Nellie Dixon for an inter view. PHOTOGRAPHER. The “Panther” wants your best black and white photos to liven up its pages. Send, or bring, us your photo with one or two para graphs about the subject. We will print the best photo essay entry each month and the photograph er will receive a $5 award. We are located in the SGA building on Fair Street. Students are busy with the “hassles” of registration and trying to find the finances to pay for their education. $996,814 Worth Aid Is By Ron Harris As usual the Office of Financial Aids was one of the number one hassles during registration, but ac cording to Mrs. Marion Wilkes, director of Finan cial Aids, the long lines of people waiting to see her during registration wouldn’t be if students would file early and take advantage of the programs which apply directly to them. “Many students, who en countered difficulty in gett ing financial assistance, would’t have had any pro blem if they had taken ad vantage of the programs that directly affected them,” Mrs. Wilkes said. “We can get more mile age out of our money if we can get people to apply for the programs that di rectly affect them,” she said. “For instance, when freshmen and sophomores don’t take advantage of the programs that are avail able to them, they take away from ttye money that jun iors and seniors could be getting,” she said. The bulk of the money that Clark gets for finan cial assistance is from the federal government, Mrs. Wilkes said. This year Clark received $996,814 in federal money for financial aid, a $80,000 decrease, however, from last year’s budget. According to Mrs. Wil kes, federal money goes to four programs, National Direct Student Loan (NDSL), Basic Educational Opportunity Grant (BEOG), Plentiful Supplementary Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG) and College Work Study. “Juniors and seniors are only eligible for SEOG, NDSL, and CWSP whereas freshmen and sophomores are eligible for all four,” she said. “If freshmenirom Geor gia would take advantage of the Georgia Incentive Scholarship, Georgia Tui tion Grant, and BEOG, they could get a maximum of $1900 without even touch ing the money which is eligible to upper class- men,” she said. “And with 70 per cent of our stu dents on some kind of fe deral financial aid you can see why it is necessary for freshmen to take advantage of this opportunity.” “Under BEOG whatever students are eligible for we can get,” she said. “All they have to do is fill out the application and mail it.” Clark received $441,986 under the NDSL, an in crease of about $70,000 over last year’s allocation. College Work Study and SEOG were cut however. SEOG was cut about $100,- 000 to $296,768 and work study was cut about $50,- 000 to $324,166. According to Mrs. Wil kes, the cut in funds should not present a problem to Clark students if they file forms for financial aid early. “The new Parent’s Con fidential Statement form is all ready and we have sent off for them,” she said. Students should be able to pick them up by the second week in October.”