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Students' Achievements
Recognized At
Awards Ceremonies
By Siedra Cooper
Contributing Writer
Clark Atlanta University recognized 150 students on
March 22, in the Student Awards for Excellence in
Achievement ceremonies during Convocation Week.
The program honored people in areas of academics, ath
letics and musical and artistic excellence. It was held at the
Virginia Lacy Jones Exhibition Hall in Robert W. Woodruff
Library at 6 p.m.
According to President Thomas W. Cole Jr, acknowledg
ing the students is a "special" part of Convocation Week.
“It’s one of the most important things that we do, and
that’s why I enjoy being a part of it,” he said. “We need to
publicize more of the student’s accomplishments and this is
one way of showing the students how proud we are of
them.”
Juanita Carter, Associate Dean of the School of Business,
said the administration hopes that recognizing these students
will encourage other students to see the importance of work
ing hard.
“We want you to be a beacon of light and shine wherever
you go, to let students know the importance of academic
excellence,” she said.
Scholars such as graduate student, Justine O. Osa,
received a special award for achieving a 4.0 average in
Library and Information Studies and in Education. Osa said
she realizes the challenge of maintaining her grade point
average.
“I’m happy, and it’s also a challenge to keep it -up,"she
said. "It's a challenge to be able to maintain my average,
and next year I want to be here again,” she said.
Janell Hargrove, a sophomore who was recognized for
her performance in Psychology, also said the awards cere
mony was an incentive and challenge for her to do better in
the future.
According to Connie Vinson, a sophomore, it is an honor
for people to be awarded for their achievements, but she
believes that it should occur more than once a year.
“I like the idea of recognizing students more often on a
weekly or monthly basis, for example, in order to award stu
dents for their efforts,” she said.
The ceremony also commended three people for their
achievements in athletic and musical and artistic excellence.
Terry Beckham, Ryan Turner, and Iyabo Shabazz were
acknowledged for their success and persistence in those
areas.
Freaknic
Continued From PI■
months ago in Atlanta to help
plan events and that a number of
city officials and the Mayors
office had been involved in the
initial stages.
ABCSB is a non-profit organi
zation that has no revenue behind
it. The organizational structure
lies under the Atlanta Student
Forum, which was formed in
October of 1993 and was char
tered last January also as a non
profit organization. The Forum is
comprised of students from the
AUC. Part of the students’
responsibilities are to execute and
carry out programs that are to be
a part of the event.
According to Rabun, the
Forum’s goal is to bring together
all participants and its objective
is to maintain a festival and try
and serve as a body that will pro
vide a community service.
Despite the Atlanta commit
tee’s head start, there have been
complaints of poor and slow
planning. In the March 27 issue
of the Atlanta Consititution the
article “Freaknic Planning Slow,”
expanded on the tardy progres--
sion of this year’s activities.
However, according to Rabun
disagreed. “Because efforts were
undertaken late, we were given
roughly three months to plan the
event. Whereas, if we had 12
months to start, we Would have
had nearlyjsvery thing in place.”
Confusion over the name
Many students have com
plained about this year’s event.
A concern, as one student
asked, is “Why has the name
changed this year?” “Freaknic,”
was coined back in 1985 by a
group of students who gathered
in Piedmont Park to barbeque and
have fun.
Over the years, the small get-
togethers have exploded into a
quietly untapped source of major
revenue for the city. It was not
until last years’ complaints from
concerned citizens that the city
and major sponsors began to take
notice of the capabilities and
funds generated from the Spring
break activities.
Some students said with the
economic thrust came the overt
commercialization. Entrepreneurs,
they say, saw Freaknic as a great
investment, hence the rush to
captilize on the name itself. This
year marks the first year that the
name will no longer be exclusive
to one particular entity. Many
students believe this is not a good
idea.
Rabun said that he under
stands students’ confusion, but
legalities kept ABCSB from con
tinuing with the event under the
name “Freaknic.” He also added
that sponsors were weary to put
their products behind a name that
is derogatory, particulary to
women. The Director of the
Atlanta Black College Spring
Break 94 said ‘there is a lot of
aversion regarding the name and
that Spelman College President,
Johnetta Cole said the name is
deriding to all black women.” He
added that he believes ABCSB
succintly exemplifies the event
itself.”
According to the Hill, the
name “Freaknic” is being used
by:
•Pactrick Hill (who currently
resides in North Carolina), who
“There is a lot of
aversion regarding
the name (Freaknic)...
Spelman College
President, Johnetta
Cole said that the
name is deriding to
ail black women.”
-Virgil Rabun
Executive Director, The
Atlanta Black College
Spring Break '94
reserved the name “Freaknic”
with a license only to do busi
ness with it
•Ronn Greene, a local Atlantan,
who has a trademark of the
derivative “College Superfest
Freaknic ‘94” that he can only
use for and on apparel. Greene
will bring Freaknic to Coca-
Cola’s Lakewood Amphitheater
in the form of concerts and par
ties.
Some AUC students said the
different names add too much
confusion and are unnecessary.
According to CAU Junior
Political Science Major Geno
Bonner, he would rather the name
stay as Freaknic. “I’d rather it be
Freaknic because that’s the way it
was in the past and that’s how it
should be now,” he said.
Another CAU student Omar
Rowe agreed. “White people
picked (The Atlanta Black
College Spring Break ‘94 and
Spring Feast ‘94), now, it’ll be
bozo-the-clown and a money
maker venture, whereas before it
wasn’t,” the sophomore Political
Science major said.
AUC student Necia Smith
said, “Freaknic brought out the
biggest amount of money Atlanta
has seen in a long time- they
didn’t know black college stu
dents could spend the same
money on events as white college
students.”
According to senior Sociology
major Sirena Herbert the different
names convey different mean
ings. “Freaknic seems like a fun,
full-fledged black college, teenie
boper event. As opposed to
Freak Feast, which seems like a
commercialized version of what
an all black college weekend
used to be with a white and
bourgeise touch. So what was
once a black thing you wouldn’t
understand is a white event,
where (whites) are making
money...and once again calling
shots because of their involve
ment. It is just like everything
else we used to call our own, now
run by white philanthropists,” she
said.
Police Protection
Some concerns about last
year’s Freaknic were the block-
long, two to three hour traffic
jams, students milling on side
walks and in streets, loud music
and inefficienct crowd control.
The city was not prepared for
the onslaught of visitors and the
police department was ill-
equipped to handle all the party-
goers.
This year some Atlanta Police
Officers say they will call a “Blue
Flu” the weekend of Freaknic to
protest lack of overtime pay, long
hours and lack of growth oppor
tunities. 50 or so officers met
with Mayor Bill Campbell on
Thursday, April 7, to air out
grievances. The result was not
positive, many officers left still
set on boycotting the activities.
A flyer that read: “Don’t
worry about being the only one
out, Worry about being the only
one in,” was posted on officers
cars.
Some students said this is a
desperate act formed on the basis
of racism. Calvin Briggs, vice
president of CAU’s Student
Government Association said,
“People are using Freaknic as
leverage for their own purposes
and black students are caught in
the middle. When all those white
people had a (recent) smoke-out
in Piedmont Park, there was no
attention given to it. If the
(police) can’t handle Freaknic,
then what are they going to do
when the Olympics come?”
Scholarships
Rabun said that the Altanta
Black College Spring Break ‘94
committe’s funds will go toward
scholarships for AUC students.
“Proceeds will go into a general
scholarship fund and serve some
of the needs of AUC students,”
he said. He added that it is his
future goal to help students
inherit the 3-day event.
“Hopefully, it will endow and
empowerstudents so that they can
inherit and continue on with the
event and develop it into a for
malized structure.”