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United or Divided?
Greeks: Steppin’ on false ground
By A. J. Jackson
Contributing Writer
Today we live in a society that is full
of organizations that are supposed to do
things for the community and people as
a whole— mainly Black Greek
organizations. We are supposed to uplift
and help continue the building process
of serving the black community.
Looking back, my sorority was
founded under one pretext, which
outlined what we need to do to aide our
people. However, we broke away and
created a new pretext of our own.
But today, Black fraternities and
sororities have found a new meaning of
what it is to be a part of a Greek
organization. And it’s not the
community service, not the educational
foundation, not the concern for campus
relations and the student population.
But how to party, how to do the call on
the yard, how to step at the party, how
to fight other Greek organizations, how
to fight each other in public, how to
drag each other’s business to the dirt,
how to intimidate people who want to
just maybe join that particular
organization. As a soror from
another part of the country, the south is
not the only place where this occurs.
It’s going on world-wide. From the east
to the west, we are all guilty and when
I say we, I mean the good and the bad.
Because the good should be checking
the bad and the bad should want to
imitate the good.
Fraternities and sororities have gotten
away from their principles and their
general purpose for existing. We don’t
look at what is going on around our campus
or community, instead we look at how
much we are going to make at this party
and who is going to come.
Now don’t get me wrong, some of
those parties are so that we can give our
sisters and brothers scholarships and
assistance while in school, and for that we
should always be applauded.
But what do we do outside of that?
What else have we stuck our helping
hands in? How many hospitals have we
been to? How many of us go to the
homeless shelters to feed people? How
many of us have clothing drives to help
needy families? How many of us have
organized study sessions for those students
who are suffering in school or for those
freshman just suffering for somebody to
talk to? Pan Hellenic, where’s that suicide
hotline that should be going on during the
weekend that all of the bros and the sorors
can help with? Where’s the leadership?
Where’s the guidance? Where are the
principles we are pledge to uphold for the
rest of our days?
In order to answer some of these
questions, we have to look at those we
choose to be a part of our organizations.
Do we choose hard working people or do
we choose our friends? Do we choose
those who have proven themselves, good
Continued on P13
The Panther
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Registration:
You asked for it, you got it
By T. C. Gunter
Contributing Writer
Why do students, Atlanta University
students particularly, complain about
registration? Each semester you know
what is going to happen, so why even
waste the little energy that you do use to
complain?
“I had to sit in a line for five hours,”
“Man, the computers broke down again,”
“I had to argue with 50 people to get my
classes.”
Yeah, well so what! You bring it all on
yourself, we do together. Simply put: we
get what we ask for-not what we pay for.
Our tuition, we believe, goes toward the
best education over $4,000 can afford. As
opposed to what? As opposed to the best
education less than $4,000 can afford. So
does that mean that since we are paying
$4,000 that we expect to get newer
computer software and faster registration
service than say, oh Georgia State, Atlanta
Metro, Dekalb College or do we just expect
it to be better? Which one, newer or
better?
If we have a completely new software
system that can register you in 10 minutes,
yet, the same way of doing things
permeates throughout the entire
registration process will it indeed be better?
If we structured our whole financial aid
process after Georgia Tech would it be
better?
The answer does not lie within imitation,
moving from line to line quicker, computer
to computer faster, signature to signature
easier. The answer lies in the whole
schematics of the intricate, yet simple
nature of how we view the transactions
between students and CAU, CAU and
CAU. CAU is a business, a corporation
and we are its investors, we are just as
important as the Board of Trustees, Board
of Directors and the rest of the higher-ups
who decide how our investments will be
used in this business. If it were not for our
investments of*** each year Clark Atlanta
University as we know it would cease to
exist. Yet, CAU does exist and it is important
in the role it plays in our professional
development and interaction with the world
and therefore other businesses and
corporations. Clark Atlanta Uni versity sets
the stage, either a dark stage or a well lit
stage. Sadly, many students view it as a
stage minus lights. And, they go into life
walking not knowing and many times never
trying to turn on the lights. We believe that
demands are never met and never heard so
we don’t bother because we consciously, or
unconsciously, remember our CAU
experiences and we react to the professional
world accordingly.
I believe that we fundamentally know
that we can demand better registration
service and professional interactions with
staff, yet we feel CAU is bigger than us, but
it’s not. You get what you ask for. By not
demanding better service we get mediocre
service. Regardless if we have one computer
or 1,000 we should demand better service
because all the money in the world can not
fix 50 brand new, up-to-date computers.
However, the human mind can, just as our
human minds can fix this registration
dilemma. We can realistically achieve that
together. Student Government can devise
a series of workshops on developing
standards for registration and who ever the
head of Registration is can be given a list of
objectives that students want met each
semester. And whatever objectives aren’t
met can be approved upon until the whole
process is a success for students and CAU.
Commentary
Our Voices, Our Power
We often said it’s difficult to get Black people to come together and do anything, but
that statement is false. There is something we do and have done well together— that’s
criticize and complain, often for the wrong reason.
We help the media criticize our past and present leaders. We pick at their shortcomings,
which only make them human, instead of praising them for their courage, strength and
endeavors, which made them our leaders.
We would gather in groups and often compare and classify them as to which one we think
is better, when the bottom line is although they may have deviated in some way from
society’s moral standards, they all did what most of us fail to do- they took a stand.
Also by criticizing and comparing them we are separating them instead of looking at
Continued on PI3