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Page 2 THE PANTHER OCTOBER 4, 1979 EDITORIAL COMMENT... The First Amendment Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people... Fellow Clarkites, We are well aware that the student body has been impatiently awaiting the arrival of this year’s first issue of the Clark College Panther. Due to circumstances beyond our control, the reason for the delay was because of various technical difficulties. We hope that we will not encounter similiar perplexities with our upcoming issues. The 1979-80 Clark College Panther has broadened its perspective of campus life at Clark College. In the past there has been a lack of student participation as far as submitting editorial comments, letters to the editors and public opinion. We strongly encourage you to voice your opinion. This is your paper as well as the Panther staff. We feel thatthe more student input, the better the makeup of the Panther. make this newspaper the best in Clark College’s history. By Marcia E. Jones Lillie M. Lewis Panther Editors In the future we plan to have a special Homecoming issue, a Thanksgiving and Christmas issue, and others that will arouse your curiosity. Not only will we be producing the Panther, we hope to sponsor Journalism Workshops featuring local media oriented professionals for interested students. We plan to incorporate news on the local and national level. We also plan to feature some of Atlanta’s best entertainment. We have qualified staff members who are willing to UNTO Atlanta Crime Rate Soars The Atlanta homicide rate may continue to rise without the help of area residents and others who may witness an ac tual occurrence of a crime. As of Sept. 28, the homicide toll climbed to 174 compared to 144 during all of last year, ac cording to Phyllis George, Public Information Officer at the Department of Public Safety. The 50 state patrolmen who are on loan to Atlanta Police Department will con tinue to assist them for an indefinite period of time. Their duties include: traffic en forcement, traffic accident By Lillie M. Lewis Panther Editor investigation and traffic con trol at special events. The Atlanta force concentrates on the more serious and complex crimes. Currently, there are 53 of ficers in training at the Atlanta Police Career Academy. These men spend 12 weeks in the classroom and eight weeks in the field training. According to Governor George Busbee these men are scheduled to join the Atlanta Police force at the end of November. According to the Atlanta Journal (Wednesday, Sept. 19) Public Safety Commissioner Lee Brown said that if no in formation or leads are com piled, “it complicates the ability of the police to bring a case to a successful con clusion.” If the residents would lessen their complaints and become more concerned about criminal activity occurring in their area, then there would probably be no need to request more patrolmen to walk through or cruise through their particular area. Ms. George suggested that if anyone has any leads or in formation concerning the local crimes, report it immediately to (emergency) 658-6666 or the confidential tipline at 659- COPS. The PANTHER is published twice monthly by the students at Clark College Editors Marcia E. Jones Lillie M. Lewis News Editor Michael H. Cottman Feature Editor Benjamin S. Lumpkin Entertainment Editor Rozell Clark Sports Editor Veverly Y. Byrd Photography Editor Tyraun Patterson Copy Editor Charles D. Anderson Business Manager Jack Jenkins Faculty Advisors Denise Johnson Osker Spicer All articles, poetry, photographs and other contributions to the newspaper may be dropped off at our offices in Thayer Hall. Address all correspondence to: PANTHER Newspaper, Box 154, Clark College, Atlanta, Ga. 30314. Colleges Lack Funds By Marcia E. Jones Panther Editor Have you ever wondered about how government funds are distributed among black schools, especially in the Atlanta University Center (AUC)? This is a rhetorical question that may be asked by many AUC students. Well, a junior Business Education major at Clark, provided The Panther with some useful information concerning this issue. Angela Cotton did an internship in Washington, D.C. at the U.S. En vironmental Protection Agen cy’s (EPA) Office of Civil Rights. She was a student as sistant and among her duties were to find out the amount of funds given to black colleges and universities for the entire year of 1978 through June 1979. Ms. Cotton began obtaining her information by first sen ding out a Federal Interagency Committee Education (FICE) report to all interagency of fices. This report was given to these offices to obtain correct figures of black college fun ding through the government. “The agencies, however, did not give factual information.” said Ms. Cotton. “Therefore, I had to' resort to the agency computer division’s computer print-outs.” Through the computer print outs, Ms. Cotton found thatthe monetary figures were highly discriminatory in comparison of black and white colleges. Ms. Cotton said that black universities received ap proximately $1 million in government funds as opposed to white universities receiving $30 million. As an AUC student, Ms. Cotton deemed it necessary to investigate government funding within the Atlanta University Center, noted “I found that Atlanta University dominates more government funds than any other AUC school, due to the Environmental Protection AGency’s (EPA) lack of knowledge of the other schools’ capabilities in various departments,” said Ms. Cotton. She also noted that Atlanta University received more government funds because of special projects. Clark Unorganized By Joyce N. Caldwell It is pathetic that a college having an approximate enrollment of 2000 students lacks organization. Clark College’s staff has been negligent in solving problems caused by collapsed regis tration procedures, the student’s financial status, and a drastic population explosion on campus. Registration time is hectic for both the students and college staff. For the most part, preparing a schedule and receiving course cards is relatively easy. Students prepare themselves to spend approximately two hours at that particular time. The humidity rises and frus tration occurs when a student attempts to pay his bill. Suddenly, one learns that his financial aid has been delayed, or not yet processed. The student then attempts to seek information as to whether or not his aid will arrive at a later date. In some instances, the student is unable to register. Some of Clark’s students have concurred this problem caused by the financial aid of fice. These problems could be alleviated if this office evaluated students yearly, and notified them of their financial status before a certain date. This procedure will run smoother if the student knows before hand exactly what his financial status is. The population expolsion of students should not exist on Clark’s campus. The Housing Director knows the precise number of rooms available for students, and therefore begins excepting housing deposits during late April. By June 1st, all dorms and the Clark College Courts are basically filled. The problem of housing occurs when the Admission of fice continues to accept deposits knowing that their is limited space on campus. The Admissions office should only accept deposits until all the rooms are filled. This would alleviate students sleeping in basement dormitories, young women would not be crammed four and five per room and they definitely would not be living secretly in Brawley Hall on a hope and a prayer. There is definitely a need for the re-evaluation of'Clark’s staff and students. If these problems are not dissolved, the staff will continue being the abusers, and we the students will continue to allow ourselves to be the abused. Clark’s staff must take heed to this article and realize that the problems we the the students are facing must be concluded in some manner, soon.