Newspaper Page Text
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From The Editor
Debbi Newton
Editor-in-chief
The beginning of a new academic year often signals potential
productivity for those who choose wisely the priorities of their time.
Whether wc expect to participate or not, 1975-76 will be a year of
decision-making.
Should black celebrate the bicentennial? Should graduating
Spel.nan students seek graduate studies, or the alternative of
practical on-the-job employment? Which presidential candidate
should the National Student Association or the National Black
Congressional Caucus endorse? Who will be the next president of
Spelman Cohere?
Hi: hlv skilled personnel-staff, faculty, and administration can
aid in the extent of participation which takes place within this
i olleee community. However, it will be the students themselves
w ho do ide the roles they will assume in shaping their futures, the
future of Spel.uan College, the future of the Atlanta University
Center, and the future of the society at large.
For the first time in Spelman's history, an entering class of more
than four hundred y6ung women have been enrolled, forty-four ot
whom are upperclassmen and returning students. These women
represent thirty-seven states including Hawaii, and six foreign
, ountries includin'; the Bahamas, Vietnam. Nigeria, the Republic of
South Africa. Kenya, and Rhodesia.
Three are National Merit Achievement Finalists and two are
exchange students from Wcllcsly and Smith Colleges. All of these
will be involved in decision-making for the first time, from
Spelman ‘•yard.’’
To aid that decision-making, the Spelman Spotlight becomes a
public forum—your forum as students as well as the forum of the
surrounding black West-End community. Our position is to initiate
exchange and to facilitate the flow of response among our readers.
The issues presented here are challenges that each of us must
confront. They reflect new and urgent dilemmas of the day that
compel us to communicate and to become more collectively in
novative in discovering the means to their possible solution.
Presented here are the ideas of yet another human being sket
ched in black and white. It is an attempt to record the historical,
political, artistic, and social experience emerging from within the
.uecca commonly considered the Atlanta University Center com
munity.
You will discover during this new year that mutual decision-
making generates from a common source. You will discover also
that the source is a common history. A history Mozambique.
Ouinnea-Bissau. and South Africa - home to New York, Watts. Los
An: cles. and the Atlanta University Center.
Fortunately, it is also a history that can neither- be usurped by
A morn a. nor by it's counterpart - the American uream.
To the Spelman Community on behalf of the Spotlight staff 1
i hallenge you to develop new and creative energies for the 1975-76
a< adc in \ ear.
Support The
United Negro
College Fund
Spotlight Staff
Editor:
Debbie Newton
Associate Editor:
Valory Mapp
News Editor:
Rita Ford
Political Editor:
MargretLee
Science Editor:
Miesa Patterson
Featured Editor
Nancy Hite
Reporters:
Mary Conklin
Jann Williams
Angela Pendergrass
Angela Haifide
Stephanie Nelson
Lei Chariton
Sharon McGahee
Sylvia Wofford
Robert Jemisen
Kojo Owusu
Clarence Williams
Michele McCDough
Faculty Contributors:
Anne Hornsby
Dr. Steven Goldfarb
Advisors:
Ms. Judy Gebre-Hiwet
Ms. Brooks
Spelman S.G.A.
Angela Pendergrass
Reporter
The 1975-76 Student
Government Association
proudly announces that this
will be a dynamite academic
year ior all Spelmanites. The
S.G.A. is determined to
provide quality in both social
and cultural activities
throughout the year.
The student government
officers who have pledge to do
their very best for all Spelman
Sisters are; President Yolande
Herron, a senior Psychology
major from Minnesota; Vice-
President Janice Robinson, a
junior Political Science major
from Florida; Social Chairman
Jetta Edwards, a senior
Philosophy and Economics
major from, Connecticut;
Recording Secretary Debbie
Hall, a junior Political Science
major from Pennsylvania;
Corresponding Secretary
Donezella Harris, a senior
English major from Missouri;
Advisory Board Chairman
Ravmone K. Bain, a senior
Political Science major from
Georgia. Parlamentarian is
Zenora Mitchell, a senior
Political Science major from
Washington, D.C.; Treasurer
Helena Humphrey, a senior
Economics major from Texas;
Editor of the Spotlight, Debbie
Newton, a senior Political
Science major from, Illinois;
Associate Editor of the
Spotlight, Valory Mapp, a
junior English major from
Georgia; Editor of Reflections,
Jann Washington, a senior
Sociology major from Texas;
Associate Editor of Reflec
tions. Diedre Yarborough, a
junior Music major from
Illinois; and Angela Pen
dergrass, Publicity Chairman
and senior' Child
Development major from
Ohio.
According to S.G,A. cabinet
members, there is hope that
support and assistance from
the Spelman student body will
be accessible.
UNCF Summer
Jann Washington
Contributing Editor
For the past few years, the
United Negro College Fund,
Inc. has given students from
its member institutions a
chance to work in the field to
observe and become
knowledgeable about its
functions and objectives.
Many of the students in
these 40-member institutions
are not aware of the many
diversity of UNCF involvement
as for example: fund-raising
functions for operating ex
penses and scholarships,
increasing faculty and ad
ministrative personel and
bolstering library holdings for
these institutions.
This summer, as a UNCF
intern, 1 became aware of the,
history of the United Negro
College Fund and its major
fund-raising projects. I worked
in the Houston area office as a
“fund raiser” in the Summer
Internship Program. The
experience, besides being
rewarding, helped the intern
to understand the functions
and skills required of a fund
raiser. I examined where the
monies originate, how to raise
the needed funds, and how the
fund are distributed and
utilized for each of the UNCF
niember institutions.
In the Houston campaign, I
was involved in a fund-raising
Radiothon. In a Radiothon,
money can be pledged by
phone to the sponsoring radio
station. There is also a UNCF
Annual Golf Tournament in
Houston, where golfers pay an
entry fee which goes to the
College Fund and winners are
awarded throphies and prizes.
Also sponsored in Houston
was the Fred D. Patterson,
(funder of the UNCF), Awards
Night Banquet, where awards
were given to distinguished
persons in the city for out
standing contributions to the
black community. These were
the major fund-raising projects
1 experienced during the
summer along with exposure
to direct-mail and corporate
strategies to raise money.
The internship was very
rewarding. There „ is con
fidence in knowing that UNCF
is trying to keep our black
college alive, functioning and
able to withstand the rising
pressures resulting from the
nation’s depressed economy.
1 would recommend this
internship program to any
sophomore or junior student as
an excellent' opportunity to
work and at the same time do
something constructive for
your college and other UNCF
institutions.
Institute Of The
Black World
Margaret Lee
Political Editor
Located on the corner of
Chestnut and Beckwith, is a
viable institution that often
goes unrecognized by A. U.
center students. Housed in a
medium-sized frame structure
is the Institute of the Black
World more commonly
referred to as IBW. Founded
in 1969 by a group of
prominent black scholars like
Vincent Harding, the director
of IBW; Stephen Henderson;
Gerald McWorter; and A. B1
Spellman, the Institute was
born out of the belief that only
when blacks "understand and
know their past and present
can they ultimately begin to
deter their own destiny. The
Institute of the Black World
was at first a part of the Martin
Luther King Jr. Memorial
Center. However, after a year
of working together the two
groups decided to form
separate organizations. For
the past five years IBW has
been working independently to
re-define the educational and
political direction of the Black
community.
The dominant concern is the
need to know and understand
the political, economic, and
cultural history of the struggle
of Black people. IBW is
dedicated to preserving the
“long tradition of politically-
conscious black scholarship
that W. E. B. Du Bois
established-in Atlanta at the
turn of this century.”
According to Howard
Dodson who is program
director of IBW, it is projected
that “the institute will be a
catalyst in raising the level of
consciousness of the students
in the A. U. Center in regard
to their own history of
struggle.” The institute also
hopes to expose the ways in
which the struggle has in
fluenced the development of
American society and the
potential that blacks have in
creating a more humane
society in America.
In reference to the black
man in America and his
association with Africa,
Dodson said: “Our struggle
doesn’t operate in a vacuum
but it operates in a world-wide
struggle of oppressed
people.” Black Americans and
Africans have basically two
things in common, according
to Dodson. They are a common
heritage and a common
tradition of the struggle
against racism on a world-wide
scale.
Dodson further stated that
IBW hopes to “instill in
students a much deeper ap
preciation for the respon
sibility that rests on their
shoulders as they pursue their
education in the A. U. cen
ter.” The institute hopes to
provide some sense of
direction to the students
beyong the values of in
dividualism and the pursuit of
materialism as an end in itself.
Of foremost importance, the
institute hopes to “instill in A.
U. center students a sense of
responsibility to the black
community.” There are also
expectations that the students
will develop a deeper level of
understanding of themselves
and of the world in which they
. will be living.