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Page 3 ■ Spelman Spotlight
An Exclusive Interview With Dr. Stewart
By Amanda Seward
Q. After a year at Spelman, do
you think you have overcome
any animosity that might
have heen present as a result of
your appointment?
A. I don’t know. I hope so. I
must say that my wife, and I,
even our children feel a lot
more welcome today than we
did before. People talk to us on
campus, they wave, and we
like that very much. This is one
of the reasons we wanted to
come to Spelman; because it
was a small community and
because we like students and
people in that community.
Now we are beginning to feel
like a part of it.
Q. How would you assess the
internal program here? i.e. the
administrative offices, the
academic department, etc.
A. I think it is still too soon to
say. We are involved in the
Educational Policy and Plan
ning Committee, in a process
of reviewing the academic
programs in the college. We’ve
just begun that process and are
trying to establish criteria by
which to judge the program. So
ask me in another six months.
But we are looking at program
by program, department by
department.
Q. In a previous interview (see
Spotlight Vol. VII, October ’76)
you said that your emphasis
would be on the external
problem Spelman faces i.e.
the changing environment in
which Spelman must fact. Is
your emphasis still on the
college’s external problems?
A. I think I get a better sense
now of how we function
externally. I think colleges like
Spelman must still make a
very strong case for their
existence. But increasingly in
our society people are begin
ning to see the importance of
diversity and to say that in a
country like the United States
with over 12,000 colleges and
universities they all shouldn’t
be the same and that there
should be support for a black
women’s college for example,
because it is a unique
institution in America and it
should be preserved and sup
ported. But I also see other
trends which would indicate
that government support and
foundation support will come
only when there is an em
phasis on qualitative im
provement in the institution.
And so I think we at Spelman
like in many schools must ad
dress the quality of our
program.
Q. What plans do you have for
Spelman next year?
A. At this moment I’m just try
ing to get through this year.
I’m a little tired and I hope to
spend a good part of the
summer thinking about next
year. The important thing is
the EPPC review. I think we
have got to look for more and
better ways to recruit students
to Spelman and I think next
year I have to spend far more
time on raising money. So the
academic review, the efforts to
step up our recruitment efforts
for students, and fundraising
are my priorities.
Q. Have there been any great
surprises or disappointments
this year? Was Spelman like
you thought it was going to be?
A. No.
Q. What did you think it was
going to be like?
A. I didn’t know. That was
another reason I wanted to
come. Spelman is such a uni
que institution. It is so
different from any experience
I’ve had before. I thought that
Spelman was like the college I
had attended as an
undergraduate being a small,
liberal arts college and in
many ways it may be - but
when I was a student I did not
realize these things. I had no
idea how complex an
institution like Spelman would
be. In many ways ad
ministering a university like
the University of
Pennsylvania (Dr. Stewart
serve there as executive as
sistant to the president, Profes
sor of the City Planning
Department and Associate
Dean of the Faculty of Art and
Sciences before coming to
Spelman) is a lot easier
because there, there is a heavy
bureaucracy and there are
systems to work through. At
Spelman, in the case of the
faculty, you are dealing with
95 to 100 unique singular in
dividuals. In an environment
like ours here we can relate on
a one-to-one basis which is so
nice. At the same time, it
means that you don’t deal in
systems; you deal with in
dividuals and people and you
come to know and respect
people as individuals; and so
you can’t be impersonal the
way you are at a large
university. I didn’t know it
would be like that. Other
surprises - Something that has
been really surprising to me is
to find the number of students
at Spelman who have come
through predominately white
educational systems and have
chosen to have an experience
at a predominately black
institution; who have said, not
that we want to be
segregationist but that we
want the kind of educational
environment that is sup
portive of us as black women;
that we don’t rej ect integration
or white institutions but this is
our preference, but at the same
time we demand of our own
institutions the same stan
dards and education we’d get
at a predominately white
institution. But I think many
of the assumptions that people
made when pushing for
integration have proven to be a
little, not false, but not all it
was cracked up to be. I want to
see if that trend continues at
Spelman. I am very surprised
to find that. Lastly, what has
surprised me most is the
diversity of the student body. I
had no idea that it was going to
be geographically so diversed.
I had assumed it would be
predominately southern in
orientation but the fact that it
has so many students from so
many different places gives it
a southern base with a nice
cosmopolitan air and I’ve met
so many students who excel in
various fields, from music to
athletics to areas of
specialization in the sciences.
The diversity of the student
body was the final surprise.
Q. What is Spelman’s most
pressing internal problem?
A. I think we need to improve
some of our systems that are
using computers. We need to
move to computerize more
things in order to speed up
registration, the handling of
bills, the business office, etc. I
have learned this because I see
how difficult it is to get data
processing done here at the
center. So that is one. I have to
give you more than one. I
think we have to improve our
health care delivery. In fact I
would put the infirmary first
and housing second and data
processing third. But they are
all closely ranked. We have got
to improve our capability to
provide health care and we
have found this year, clearly,
that we just don’t have the
capacity to handle all the
problems and to guard
students against problems of
bad health. Secondly a couple
of our dormitories are in
terrible shape. We’ve just had a
Trustee meeting where we
spent a lot of time talking
about that. We are going to
look in every way possible to
Continued on page 8
An Attempt To Squash Apathy:
By Robyn Mahone
An Attempt To Squash
Apathy: The Residential Life
Committee
The Residential Life Com
mittee is made up of ap
proximately 20 instructors ap
pointed by Dr. Donald
Stewart, president of Spelman
College. There are four student
representatives from each
class on the committee, Julia
Dixon, Novice Johnson, Paula
Spence, and Patricia Huff.
The students were chosen as
a result of the interest they
expressed in regards to
dormitory life in informal
talks with Ms. Sadie Davis,
Dean of Students at Spelman.
The committee was created
by President Stewart early in
the first semester of 1976. The
main function of the com
The Residential Life Committee
mittee is to find ways to im
prove life in the dormitory in
terms of academic setting,
program activities within the
dorms and the over-all living
conditions. The committee
also hopes to enhance
student/faculty relations
through closer affiliation.
“We know that what
happens in the classroom is
closely related to what
happens where the (students)
live,” said Dean Davis. “Some
of the faculty have never set
foot in a dormitory.”
The second semester of this
year the committee broke up
into sub-committees to discuss
specifics in regards to
dormitory and campus wide
activities. A question came up,
why are the functions held on
the campus so poorly attended
by students and staff as well?
“We came up with the
answer that it was the apathy
that existed,” Dean Davis
said.
In the last issue of the
Spelman Spotlight (Vol XXX
No. 7) Ms. Monteith Mitchell
reported on the first Town Hall
meeting.
Dean Davis said that the
Town Meeting was called
because the committee decided
that there was a need for the
entire Spelman family to get
together and talk.
The topics discussed at that
first meeting were the in
firmary, the cafeteria, classes
and core curriculum, faculty -
Continued on page 8
Dr. and Mrs. Stewart listen attentively to discussion at
Town Hall Meeting.