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SPELMAN SPOTLIGHT
April, 1976
The Manley Years
Continued from page 7
to be in their rooms at 9:30 p.m.
They had to be in chapel five
mornings a week. They had
p-ayer meeting every Thursday
night. And they had summer
school and then they had
vespers. So there wasn’t much
<f a problem with concern to the
students who were coming up
under this New England
tradition. But there was a great
deal of emphasis on scholarship
and on doing things well, tha’s
what I like about this situation.
As a matter of fact I had three
opportunities to leave Spelman
and one was to my own alma
rrater. They were almost ready
to announce my appointment at
A&T when I decided on the
Spelman presidency. I had to
msh and Tell them not to do it. I
went througn the buildings at A
& T and they were beautiful.
But I didn’t see anything
happening. And I zas impressed
with the students. And then the
third offer was from the in
stitution that I had left (North
Carolina Central). And my late
wife was the niece of the man
who founded North Carolina
Central. I was amazed when I
asked her if I should go ahead
and take the position. I let them
consider me, that didn’t mean
that they would give me the job.
But she loved Spelman, and she
said no, 1 don’t want you to take
the position at Central. I gues
the students were of a different
vintage. But I don’t have
problems with the students, I
ddn’t have any then. I did have
a few between 1965 and 1970. I
think today though that they’re
cracking the books more, and
they realize that there are so
many people who are out there
unemployed. People with Ph.
D’s in math , physics, and
. diemistry-you name it.
Newton: What is the biggest
problem the college faces
today?
Manley: Teh biggest problem
the college faces today is the
problem of money-getting more
money. You see we have
rouughly 12oo students and at
least 60 percent of those
students are on some kind of
financial aid. But they’re
promising students that found
Spelman’s gate, and they want
to get an education. But the
majoirty of the students at
Spelman, at least of that 60 or 70
percent, come out of homes
where through no fault of theirs
or their parents - The average
annual income is somewhere
between 7,55 and 9,000 a year.
Aright you have a family facing
an inflation factor of about 7
percent a year, and maybe two
or three more kids, and here’s a
grl who is trying to go to school.
Well we can help her by paying
anational defense student loan,
equal opportunity grant,
BE.O.G. (Basic Educational
Opportunity Grant) and so on.
Aid she can get about 1,800 in
aid, but she still has to get
another 1,800 dollars to pay
what we charge And even when
we charge the 3,600 dollars -
we’re still subsidizing that. But
what I’m saying is that blacks in
general don’t have enough
niddle class people who can
send their children to school and
pay all the expenses. And on the
other hand, what happened
during the student movement, a
billions - could easily say that
they were going* to give
scholarships to two-hundred
Hack students most of whom
were undergraduates. But when
they were still militant, and of
course they were in a hostile
environment from the one they
were accustomed. And those
students began to give them
trouble. They stopple giving all
that scholarship money to black
undergaraduate students. They
will left a little out there- but
they said this money is going to
black graduate students
because by the time they get to
g-aduate students they ought to
know what they want to do. But
they couldn’t handle blacks
students. They didn’t know
what to do with them.
Newton: During your twenty
years have you found that the
inbreeding of teachers has
posed a problem to the
facilitation of positive education
at the college? by inbreed I
mean the hiring of faculty
members who attended the
college as students.
Manley: I don’t think it’s hurt.
Perhaps we’ve done a little
more of it in the last two or three
years because we’ve had so
many more Spelman graduates
who have gone on to the ter
minal degree. But I don’t think
it has hurt the image of the
college. I couldn’t give you the
percentage but I have made it a
Ettle higher than it should be.
But I don’t apologize for that
when you consider the fact that
the graduating class of 1975 and
(he graduating class of 1976 -
50Va of those students went
right on the best fraduate and
professional schools in this
country. 1 mean they didn’t wait
and go out to work a year or two.
They either went into medicine,
cr law, or dentistry, or jour
nalism, or whatever. And that
says something And they have
done well in the best schools in
this country. I’m not saying now
that the instruction is just great
Ml the way, and that their aren’t
some weaknesses. I’m saying in
general, I think that we have a
good faculty.
Newton: In your article on the
“Manley years,” you state that
nursing and that home
economics is the home-making
tradition have been em
phasized. Can you descrive the
pattern or the nature of that de
emphasis and how it might
effect the professional potential
of a student who is a unior in the
home economics department?
Manley: We are de
emphasising the whole home
economics that was concerned
with cooking and sewing, but
we’re still offering the program
that is known as human
resources. In this program you
have early childhood education,
you have child development
which are both offered here.
You have fashion and design at
Clark, along with marketing and
merchandising. Then you have
the methodology courses. What
we’re merely doing is to update
the old home economics, to
make it more relevant to the
needs of students today. We
have not thrown home
economics out. For example, the
student who started in home
economics two or three years
ago, is still going to get a major,
but she wil be getting a major
‘ with courses In these fiel'dfetnat
are much more relevant to the
needs of society and to her own
needs than they were three or
four years ago.
Newton: But she’ll have to go
off campus?
Manley: Yes.
Netwon: Are there any ad
ministrative polciies with regard
to intergrating the philosophy of
the humanities into the natural
science?
Manley: Yes. For example,
there is a course that is being
taught by Dr. Axelson
(philosophy dept.) on medical
ethics. And perhaps we ought to
have a course on legal ethics,
because most of the Watergate
scandal grew out of the fact that
you had all of those lawywrs up
there in office. What were their
values? And why did they do
some of the things that they
did? We make philosophical
decisions all the time, several
times a day, and it ought to be
part of the process of getting an
education. This business of
trying to tie these disciplines
together is a problem in which
you need the help from several
disciplines in order to deal with
I We don’t do enough of that in
college. We don’t do enough
aiywhere eles in terms of this
concept.
Gebre-Hiwet: But that’s not the
classical concept of being a
human.
Manley: No it isn’t. But I think
that we’re going to have to move
in this direction.
- Newton: Why AREN’T
SORORITIES ALLOWED ON
CAMPUS?
Manley: Well at one time
sororities were just sitting
organizations and social. Adn
it’s just been since 1964 or ’65
when the students were getting
much more interested in getting
nvolved with community ac
tivities. I have never pushed foi
sororities. I know that they have
them around, that they join, at
dark and Morris Borwn, and
that’s alright. But to me the
land of thing that is really
significant if thwy want to make
a attribution, lies within the
community. Sororities are very
social-oriented, or were. I think
there’s a turnover in terms o.
helpipg,.blocks especially, ,
underprivileged. I’m not stirs
that you have to have a sorority
in order to do some of these
things that need to be done.
Newton: Why don’t students
have a vote on the trustee
Board?
Manley: Because the trustee
board dosn’t want it. That’s just
it. I’m not trying to be funny.
Y u see we have a self-
g; petuating board and the
board decides who perpetuates
l. But I think another reason in
both cases-sororities and
student representation on the
board - the students were asked
ty the board. But the student’s
case was not organized. They
ddn’t have their facts straight.
Now the board will meet here in
April to address student
representation on the board.
The student will no have sat
down and thought this thing out
carefully as to why they should
have a student as a member of
the board as a voice and vote.
They will come back, I’m afraid,
now I hope I’m wrong - with an
emotional appeal, it’s not going
to be cognitive, it’s going to be
emotional. I’m afraid, now I
hope they’ll come right back
with some ofthat same garbage.
And that’s what it sounds like
when you’re sitting there
Istening because some of them
are intelligent, most of these
students are. But they won’t sit
down and organize an
argument. AND ONE THING
THAT HAS PLEASED ME
MDST THIS YEAR IS THAT
THE WOMEN OF Spelman and
die men at Morehouse have
gotten toether to form a
forensics society, and they’ve
done most of that on their own.
Very few people have helped
them. Of course I have helped
(hem a little on the side because
I’ve been hoping that this would
happen for years. But we had to
wait until Morehouse was more
amenable to the idea. We have
some young women in the
forensics society who are really
doing things. They went over to
dark and won 14 cups last
week. Well I mean that’s great.
Aid if they begin doing those
kinds of things that help them to
form their ideas and organize
their arguments for sororities
aid or student Representation
on the board unorganized, (the
board) is going to send them
(the students) right out again.
Newton: I understand that in the
past you approved a short term-
loan program for students at the
college who were in need of
financial assistance. The
program is currently not
working due to degaults. Where
did the money come from to
aipport the program, and is
there a possibility the college
Nfey re-instate its operation?
Manley: You see at that time
we weren’t getting any E.O.G.
cr BEOG Grants. Now we are
get over a million dollars in
student aid. We didn’t have that
before. We had a little money,
maybe two or three thousand
dollars and we could give the :
students maybe fifteen, twenty,
or twenty-five dollars.
Gebre-Hiwet: When I was a
student there were unrestricted
funds that were sesidnated as
small loans.
Nfenley: But see now we
received the National Defense
Student Loan where student can
borrow up to maybe 8 or 10
lundreds dollars. I was in
Ethiopia in 1968 and I talked
with many parents who could
send their daughters here and
pay their way and they sent
their daughters. But then there
was a revolution a revolt and
Haile Selassies was displaced.
Aid some of those girls for a
year or more hadn’t even heard
from home. And who supported
them? Spelman. We’re doing
more now in terms of helping
students than we ever did
before, but it’s in a different
way. So we know that these
students, for example, any alien
student cannot get any of this
federal money. I think they did
think they did get a little of it
cnce. But we try to find other
ways, and some of them have
been helped as much as five
hundred dollars per student.
Gebre-Hiwet: But I think you’re
soft-peddling Dr. Manley. Dr.
Manley has personally, not just
for those Ethiopian students but
for African students in general,
to students in general, has gone
ait and found money for them
on his own, he has taken per-
sanal funds and given them to
some students, i have presented
cases to him throughout the
year, though not just recently,
and He has said, “Well, I’ll just
have to find the money
somewhere.” Which means that
he has made a tremendous
personal effort which he tries to
Squelch and not talk about. A
tremendous personal effort to
help people even people go on to
graduate school on dr. Manley’s
personal monies. If they don’t
leceive anything from the
graduate school he’ll must take
a thousand dollars of his own
money and give it to them, so I
think that is something that
should be noted that he seldom
talks about.
Newton: Upon how many
candidates has the search
committee narrowed its
focus?Manley: I really don’t
know. I know three came to the
campus and there was a un
derstanding, but I had heard
feat there would be another
group would be reviewed by the
students, the faculty, the staff,
and the alumnae. Now whether
feat’s going to happen or not I
don’t know, I’ll tomorrow.
There will be an executive
committee meeting tomorrow.
They had originally about two-
hundred applications and so far
they have just had a run of
three, and one person of course,
has been back. He came back
Gmdnaed on page 11
Dr. Albert E. Manley