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Page 8 Clark Atlanta University Panther October 19, 1990 Student Wins Battle To Start Physics Club By PIERCE W. HUFF Sports Editor Four years ago Quinton Watson, entering the second semester of his freshman year at Clark, had a problem. Being an upcoming physics major, there was no outlet for him to learn more about physics in his spare time and have a little fun in the process. “When I first got here there was no way for a person to express himself in science, especially physics,” Watson said. “There was no science fair or scientific contests. I wanted to learn the practical side of physics and build machines based on the laws of physics besides just working word problems.” Having graduated from Atlanta’s Henry W. Grady High School, Watson longed to be a part of extracurricular scientific outlets. In his freshman year at Grady, he won an egg-dropping contest sponsored by the Geometry Club. In his junior and senior years he won the Geometry Club’s paper airplane and sailboat contests. In an effort to bring scientific extracurricular activities to Clark, he created The Society of Physicists. “I just thought that Clark needed to do things like we did at my high school,” Watson said. “So 1 created The Society of Physicists to give physics majors,, and other students interested in science, a place and an organization that allowed people to express themselves scientifically.” Watson and the three other members of The Society of Physicists decided to make a charter in order to be recog nized by Clark as an official club. But the group ran into an obstacle. They failed to come up with 10 club members to satisfy club guidelines. “We just weren't able to get the number of people willing to become active members,” Watson said. “But we were told by the administrators in the Physics Department to wait for a year, because they said that they were working on a department sponsored club.” The year followed and nothing happened. Meanwhile, Watson had joined the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and the idea of starting a physics club lost momentum. Last year, just when it looked like there wouldn’t be a physics club, in stepped Domenica Boswell. A sophomore physics major from Birmingham, Ala., Ms. Boswell, not knowing about Watson’s previous attempt at starting a physics club, talked to administrators in the Physics Department about starting a physics club. The administrators introduced her Watson, and together they worked on getting a charter for a new physics club called The Physics Club. “When I got here I didn’t know about what Quinton had gone through trying to start a physics club, but when 1 found out, I decided to help him work on getting a charter,” Ms. Boswell said. After two months of working with Ms. Boswell, Watson was able to make his dream of creating a physics club a reality. On Jan. 10, the club received its charter. “Getting the charter and being an official club was a great feeling,” Watson said. However, The Physics Club’s battle is not over. Despite the fact that the club is chartered, it lacks the financial support that it wants from the Physics Department. “We do need funds and we would like them from the Physics Department,” Ms. Boswell said. “They have helped us in terms of advise ment and the little things like clerical work in terms of letting us use the copier to copy papers, but I expect more from them in the future.” According to Dr. Charles Brown, chairman of the Physics Department, the department is behind The Physics Club, but getting the financial support from the department will take time. “1 think the club is good, because as a department we try to convince students to join the club and use it to help further them in their course work,” Dr. Brown said. This spring The Physics Club plans to hold a city-wide model rocket building contest for Metro Atlanta high school students as a way to bring in funds and is confident that the contest will be a success. “There’s always a strain when you first start an organization, because you have to wait and get dedicated members,” Watson said. “Eventually when people see how good the organization is going, they’ll want to jump on the bandwagon, it’s always hard at the beginning.”