Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

j$Urrg (Etiristmas Anb A Happg Hear Proficiency Exam Back on Roster BY ANGELA ESANNASON Panther Staff Writer Clark College’s class of 1981 will have to take the English Proficiency Exam as a graduation requirement said President Elias Blake Tues day. At the President’s forum held on Clark’s campus, Blake said that the English Proficiency Exam will be instituted again as a graduation requirement for students. “Our young people have to be able to write...if you have to learn to write, you have to write,” Blake said. The English Proficiency Exam was not being ad ministered from the first semester in 1979. The class of 1979 was not required to take it as a graduation requirement and the class of 1980 does not need to take it in order to graduate either, Blake explained. Blake also discussed some of the different problems Clark is now facing. Those that were mentioned and discussed were: *Housing space for students entering Clark *Classroom space for students *Late work study checks ■"Financial aid and the *Phone answering system. Blake told about 30 students present that the Board of Trustees will have an engineering firm to review space avalability, what problems maybe developing in existent space and what the cost may be for possible renovations. Blake also said that classes will be stretched out during the day until 6 p.m. to alleviate the classroom space problem. He said that if one should tour the classroom buildings after 3 p.m. there will hardly be any classes in session during that time. Blake also mentioned that he is aware of the students that work late in the afternoon, but said that “maybe something can be worked out with those studednts.” In Janswer to a question raised about why work study checks were late getting to students, Blake said that although the checks should have been delivered on time, “the students do not have a strong amount of knowledge as to the ground rules of work study, grants, Basic Education Opportunity Grants (BEOG). Blake said, “It is important to know who runs the (finan cial aid) programs because one tune we might nave to fight for these programs.” He added that “there is a sense of personal responsibility that students must learn.” Students will begin filling out financial aid materials in January during registration for the fall of 1980, Blake said and added that “a lot of work has to be done to give students a level of understanding of how the system works.” The phone answering system has also been a major problem. Blake said the system might be “ripped out and a new one might be put in.” He also said that the situation is a “very frustrating thing” but the decision will be made “in 30 days as to whether a new system will be installed or not.” Blake discussed some of his political views during the forum on the Iranian situation. “My view is that we have to support policies that are being follows now. We just have to hang with it and express views until it is over,” Blake said. “It will be dias- trous if most of the people (hos tages) were killed, but we have enough problems and we don’t need another one.” In addition to Blake, Curtis Gillespie, dean of Student Af fairs; Clifton Rawles, director of Admissions; and Alfred Wyatt, president of the Student Government As sociation (SGA) were present. Good Luck on Finals! STATISTICS REVEAL # Blacks Assisted in U.S. History A major statistical report tracing the experience of the Black population in America from 1790 up to 1978 was published today by the Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce. The report presents a sweep ing demographic perspective of the Nation’s Black population, unique in that it assembles in one volume his torical information about Blacks previously published in many different reports. Some of the data are specifically tabulated and presented for the first time. The result enables a better understan ding of the experience of Black Americans. The report shows that in almost every area, progress has been noted. Some however, such as income, employment, and health have followed an erratic pattern of development, with significant interruptions of upward mobility. The ninth and longest in a series on Blacks in America, the report shows that while the Nation’s largest minority group shares a common his tory with the American mainstream, Blacks have become a people whose progress toward fulfillment of the American dream has been erratic and uneven. The report shows that the 1790 Black population total was about 757,000, of whom 92 percent were slaves; by 1978 the total was 25.4 million. Blacks made up their highest proportion of the United States population in 1790 (19.3 percent), but then dropped because of the impact of white European immigration, the end of slavery, and declining fertility, to their lowest proportion of 9.7 percent in 1930 and 1940. Rapid Black population growth occurred from 1790 un til 1860, resulting from high birth rates and the im portation of slaves. This was followed by a downward trend from 1860 to 1940; then rapid growth again took place after World War II, peaking in the 1950’s. Finally, a declining trend has occurred in the 1970’s. The report shows that in the mid-and late 1960’s, Blacks made major social and economic advances. Unlike the upward mobility pattern of the 1960’s, the 1970’s present a mixed picture characterized by lags in income and em ployment, but progress in some other areas such as education. The report is presented in two parts - the first covering statistics from the time fo the first census in 1790 until 1975 and the second covering developments from 1975 to 1978. The unevenness of Black progress is noted in economic areas, the report shows. Blacks have shared in the rise in in come levels but progress has not been steady. (Reliable data on income became available only after World War II.) Black median family income more than doubled from 1947 to 1974. There is some evidence that the most rapid rise in median income for Blacks occurred in 1964-69, but they experienced little or no progress during 1953-59 and 1969-74 after ac counting for inflation. Also, there has been no progress in the most recent years (1974-77) for Black families. By 1977, median family income for Blacks was $9,560; for Whites it was $16,740. Black advances in education have been more impressive than in most other areas of their experience, according to the report. Blacks have moved from a highly illiterate to a literate population, have made steady improvement in school attendance since 1890, and even more impressive progress isn oted inthe proportion com pleting high school. Prior to 1890, only small numbers of Blacks received any educational instruction, and illiteracy was widespread. In the 1890 census, 61 percent of all Blacks were found to be illiterate (the measure then was the ability toread and write in some language); in 1969, only 4 percent of Blacks (14 years and over) were illiterate. Single copies of the report, The Social and Economic Status of the Black Population in the United States: An Historical View, 1790-1978, P-23, No. 80, are available for $4.50 from the Superintendent of Documents, U.s. Government Printing Of fice, Washington, D.C. 20402,