Newspaper Page Text
March 6. 1995
The Panther P3
SGA, Graduate Students Claim
Gap In Communication
By Kimathi Lewis
Staff Writer
Many Clark Atlanta University graduate students said they are
experiencing a break down in communication with the Student
Government Association.
Graduate student Marvin Johnson, a member of the association's
Executive Committee, said graduate students are often excluded
from events on campus.
“Everything is designed toward undergraduate students,” he said.
“The school is not pushing activities to involve graduate students.”
Johnson, a political science major, said the administration needs to
become more involved in the association in order to get a general
consensus about students’ concerns.
He also stated the SGA needs to know the names of all graduate
students enrolled at CAU in order to gain more participation.
“They need to have a list of graduate students on and off-campus
to mail them letters,” Johnson said. “Also, they need to have
monthly meetings with the graduate student body to find out their
problems and concerns.”
However, SGA Graduate President Philip Dunston, said communi
cation is a campus-wide issue and the association should not be held
solely responsible for the problem.
“Students don’t read the flyers or the bulletin boards on campus.”
However, he said reaching off-campus graduate students is the
greatest obstacle facing the organization. According to Dunston, the
SGA has tried mailing information to students but when their
addresses change, it’s difficult to reach them.
SGA Graduate Vice President, Ricky Robinson, said the students’
concerns are at the top of the SGA’s agenda and added the associa
tion wants students to be more involved. Continued P11
National SPJ
President
Cites News
Blackout
By Wendy Isom
Features Editor
It will take the business of bills
in Congress, not the business of
Bill’s in office, the O.J.’s on trial
or the Bobbitt’s on TV to stop the
news blackout, according to
Reginald Stuart, Society of
Professional Journalists' (SPJ)
national president.
At a Feb. 17 lecture and recep
tion in Clark Atlanta University’s
Research Science Building, Stuart
said journalists used to be “the
people’s advocate. They made
Congress move." He added, "Now,
bills are passing through Congress
like lightning” because journalists
are too busy covering the “sizzle”
stories about Simpson, Harding,
Bobbitt and Smith. According to
the SPJ president, journalists are-
blacked-out to the real news.
“Channeling even a little of that
Harding-Bobbitt-Simpson energy
in the direction of the driver’s
license bill, may have nipped this
matter in the bud,” he said.
“Congress passed a new crime
bill last fall that bars the general
public and the press from access to
driver’s license records." He
added, "Insurance companies will
still have access. Tow truck opera
tors will still have access. Private
investigators will still have access.
The doors of access are being
shut.”
Stuart said that the Department
of Education shut another door last
month. “It ruled that disciplinary
records of college students, even
conduct involving allegedly crimi
nal activity, is part of a student’s
‘education record’ if the conduct
occurred on campus and is not
kept solely by campus police,” the
SPJ president said.
According to Stuart, journalists
are not only in danger of having
the last word, but of not having a
word period.
“With hardly a word from the
news media, at least half a dozen
state legislatures (Texas, Georgia,
Alabama, Florida and South
Carolina) seriously considered or
adopted new laws allowing farm
ers to sue news organizations for
damages if we make news reports
about allegedly harmful chemicals
on produce that are not based on
proven scientific data,” Stuart
explained.
Re present at iv^5orftiWBecfWS>
CAU Gives University
Plaza Nursery School
Word To Move
(Photo by Christian Gooden)
Children who attend CAU's University Plaza Nursery School crowd
around the institution's Director, Ernestine Wright, who fears the
proposed closing of the facility.
By Wendy Isom
Features Editor
Part one of a three-part series covering
the reaction of CAU faculty, staff and stu
dents, to the future of the 30-year-old day
care service and school that has been
given a notice to move by June.
Word of mouth is what made
University Plaza Nursery School unique
in the Clark Atlanta University communi
ty and it is also word of mouth that may
destroy it.
Last summer the nursery, inside E.L.
Simon Courts at 635 Fair St., received
word from Lloyd Van Dyke, the head of
Maintenance at CAU, that it would have
to move its 30-year establishment in 30
days.
“It was like a nightmare,” said
Ernestine Wright, University Plaza
Nursery School director. "All of a sudden,
boom! We had to move. The staff was in
tears.”
After the initial shock, Wright
and University Plaza parent and coalition
member, Jane Mosley, contacted Fred
Poellnitz, CAU's vice president of finance,
to confirm what they were told. It was at
that meeting that they found out they had
been misinformed. The nursery workers
were told they did have to move, but they
had one year instead of 30 days. This
June makes it a year and Wright is not
sure whether University Plaza is going to
be ready to make the move.
“We just haven’t found anything yet.
It may take between three or four months
just to get an appointment to look at a
building and inspect it for all the regula
tions of the state,” she said.
In the midst of the pressure to relocate,
the nursery has been operating as usual.
Wright said that with an enrollment of 52,
they are so busy caring for the children
that they have not had enough time to look.
While the nursery tries to take care of
business, CAU staff, faculty and students,
who are also parents of most of the children
at the nursery, said they can't think of anoth
er nursery they want their children to attend.
According to Wright, “By June, if there is no
place to go, the business is subject to close.”
“How do you duplicate this place?" asked
Episcopal Chaplain William Boatright, who
has two children at the school. "The people
are very dedicated.”
“I don’t think people are as concerned as
they should be, putting 52 kids out on the
street,” said Bridgett Wright Madden, who
has worked as a nursery school teacher for
eight years.
“This is an issue of jobs as well as day
care,” said Wright, full-time director of the
nursery since 1970.
Although the “University” is the name
sake of the nursery, CAU and the nursery are
two separate businesses. In fact, that is also
one of the problems. CAU is a not-for-profit
organization, and the nursery is a private
business. Despite legal differences, the pri
vately-owned black business has served as a
site for early childhood education majors at
CAU and the other AUC schools, a volun
teer site for CAU freshman orientation class
es and a learning site for generations of
CAU families.
Dr. Thomas Cole Jr., CAU's president,
said he plans to take as much action as he
can. “We’re not going to leave them
(University Plaza) high and dry. I have
promised to help find options,” said Cole.
However, as June approaches, Wright is
still “waiting for word” from CAU on the
status of the University Plaza Nursery
School.
In Part II: Administration responds to
why the nursery has to move, and the
Nursery School founder, parents and com
munity businesses comment on the issue.