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Page 8 - Spelman Spotlight
Stewart’s Opening Convocation Speech
continued from page 7
the College. This means look
ing at enrollment, the cost of
programs, the cost of everyth
ing we do in order to try to
make some determination, in a
financial sense, as to what we
do best, what we can afford to
do. what we can afford not to
do. Yesterday I launched what
I think will be a three-part
planning process to bring us to
a point where we can make
realistic choices about our
future direction in financial f
terms. A small committee of
the administration will be,
looking at and making formal
projections. It will bring in a
report in the next two months,
which will be made available
to the entire College com
munity and to our trustees and
will detail the present finan
cial picture and a projection for
the next five years for the
institution. Once this report
has been released'to the com
munity, I hope it will be widely
discussed and criticized and
challenged in every way.
I would expect from this
process to have a second
document emerge which would
spell out the options facing the
institution. At the moment, the
options are rather grim.
Should we think about merger
with another institution, as
many outsiders have tried to
pressure Spelman to do?
Should we think about becom
ing a public institution if the
State would take us? Do we
think about becoming a coed
institution? Do we think about
becoming an integrated
institution along racial lines in
the student body? All of these
are very serious options which
I. at the present time, reject. It
is my aim to keep Spelman as it
has been, and build on the
strengths of the past as we
move into the future, but I am
looking to the options that fall
out of this kind of analytical
study that will take us to the
point of a third report, which I
hope to have ready after our
trustees’ meeting.
In the College community,
we will be involved at looking
at all facets of the College,
from the faculty to how we
organize and administer, to
our research activities, to our
student services. Every part of
this is being looked at by
various committees that are
part of the self-study effort.
Drs. Faulkner and Aldridge
are the directors of this self-
study, and an able steering
committee is developing the
process with them. This is
simultaneously involving all
parts of the community. It is
important that these two ef
forts run parallel to one
another, so that we are very
sure at the end, when we have
the very difficult decisions to
make, that there has been full
involvement an input by all
members of the College com
munity, and that educational
decisions or factors and not
purely financial ones have in
fluenced the final decisions.
I ask your cooperation, since
many of you here are being
called upon to help in this ef
fort and work with us as we try
to move through what
promises to be, on the one
hand, for me, anyway, the very
best of years, but at the same
time the very worst of years.
The very best because I have
had a good honeymoon, I have
confidence in the institution
and in our ability to work
through our problems; the
worst of years, however,
because it is going to be tough
to bring all of this off in such a
short period of time, to raise
the new money that we need, to
bring about the kind of
savings internally that I am
sure we will have to make and,
at the same time, not alter, but
strengthen, the character and
programs of the institution.
While all of this is
happening, other processes
will be feeding into it. The
Inauguration taking place on
Sunday, October 23, will be
preceded that Friday by a
symposium that addresses the
larger issue of the future of
women’s liberal arts colleges
in this country. Papers are be
ing prepared for this to which
students and faculty and all of
us can react. One has already
been written by our associate
dean and a Spelman alumna,
Dr. Kathryn Brisbane. The
second one, “What All of This
Means for Black Women,” is
being written by Dr. Jane
Smith Browning, also an
alumna. Meanwhile, a Centen
nial Committee has been
regrouped and it will carry on a
study of our freshman class. It
will also look at a directory
search of our alumnae so that,
as we move towards the
Centennial celebration in
1981, we have a very good
sense of what we do here at
Spelman. We will know how
our alumnae are functioning
as a result of having had a
Spelman education, and how
the class that has entered this
September fares as it moves
through its four years of
education at Spelman. I have
discussed that study at some
length at this past Sunday’s
joint Morehouse-Spelman
Convocation (Freshmen). I
hope the speech will be
published and that all of you
will read it, because it was as a
former colleague said, a
blueprint for my own blueprint
of the educational
development for Spelman and
much of its success will depend
on how we move and work with
the class that entered in 1977.
In all of this, our concern is for
the academic, extracurricular,
interpersonal, vocational, and
religious life of our students.
While we have unleased, so
to speak, these processes, we
have the ongoing concerns of
our educational policy and
planning committee that will
be working closely with
trustees and looking at
programs across the College.
We have an administrative
committee that works closely
with me on day-to-day matters
of the College. And, of course,
we have our regular faculty
meetings where issues and
concerns to the College as a
whole are discussed. We have
our Student Government As
sociation. All of these are the
structural pieces that hold this
College together and that, in
working together, bring about
the kinds of decisions that we
need to take us forward.
As I have said, this means a
year of hard work and
uncertainty, as we search
through for definitions and
alternatives of how we do
business at Spelman. As we
search for an identity, or a new
identity, or perhaps a
strengthening of the identity I
think we already have, there
will be unhappy times, I fear,
this year. I have seen this
process take place across the
country in colleges and
universities and particularly
private colleges and
particularly private black
colleges. It is going to be a time
when we may lose a sense of
the institution and worry
about our own particular self-
interest, about our particular
program, about our jobs. I
would like the College com
munity to understand the
spirit in which we are moving
in this self-study and analysis,
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SPELMAN COLLEGE S. G. A.
PRESENTS
THE ATLANTA UNIVERSITY CENTER
FASHION PRODUCTION
“PICTURE TAKING FASHIONS”
Directed by U.W.F. (Unique with Fashions)
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1977 7:30 P.M.
READ HALL SPELMAN COLLEGE
DONATIONS:
A.U.C. Students $1.00 Adv. $1.50 Door
A.U.C. Fac. & Stf: $1.50 Adv. $2.00 Door
For Further Information Call Spelman S.G.A. - 524-4653
Tickets Can Be Purchased In Your College S.GA. Office Or
In Spelman S.G.A. And Bookstore
Get a sneak preview of “Picture Taking Fashions” Watch
“Dialogue”
Oct. 22, 12:30 pm on Channel 2.
which are doing because of
financial or potential financial
difficulties. We are also doing
it, because it is time to do it. We
are almost one hundred years
old and we anticiapte at least
another one hundred years
and, I hope, far beyond that.
So, it is a time to challenge and
to think and to question openly
what it is we are doing as we
look, too, at the larger society
in which we must place our
graduates and in Which we
must be competitive with all
institutions, black or white,
public or private. The only way
we can be competitive is by be
ing strong and, as I have said
to the faculty many times, by
doing what we do very, very
well. Because if we don’t do it
very well, we should not be do
ing it at all. I wish we were
entering this period talking
about growth, but we are not.
We are talking about, at best,
steady state, which means
some changes within the
present corpus of the
institution. But I hope this
process will release creative
energies because, in the final
analysis, it is you who are
gathered here and those who
are not here but are part of the
community, it is you who will
determine the future of this
institution.
I happen to be a dedicated
and deeply believing Chris
tian, but I also believe that the
Lord cannot do it all. It is going
to be incumbent upon us to pull
together, to try to understand
our problems, to try to think
new thoughts and new direc
tions that will enhance the
quality of the institution, that
will make what we do more
visible externally. It is not the
time to be timid; it is the time to
speak out and to think hard
about everything that we do. I
think it is going to be, although
tough, exciting. I hope it will be
a process in which all
constituencies, including our
trustees, will participate.
Maybe I should say someth
ing about our trustees. I have a
feeling that has been con
firmed, based on some
research I did this summer at
the Rockefeller Archives up at
Pocantico Hills in New York. I
went back and read through
every shred of paper I could
find that had anything to do
with Spelman College and its
relationship with the
Rockefeller family. (I think
most of you are aware of the
historical relationship).
Throughout Spelman’s his
tory, the College has had a
series of crises. It has constan
tly fought for survival and as it
has moved onward from crisis
after crisis, it has gotten
stronger and stronger as an
institution. The trustees are
not going to bail us out,
however, nor are the
Rockefellers. Hopefully, there
will be continued support and
effort in that area, but, fran
kly, what is going to put
Spelman over are the good
ideas and the distinctiveness
that we project as an
institution. I have already
found, as I have moved across
the country visiting
corporations and foundations
and talked about Spelman,
that because we are so unique
as an institution (how many
colleges dedicated to the
education of black women of
this quality exist in this coun
try?—only one) there is sup
port for our effort, but we have
to go out after it, and we have
to sell it. Foundations and
corporations are tired of
hearing, “Well, we just don’t
have enough money to support
us and so we need help.” That
is not good enough. We have to
sell our thoughts and our ideas
as they relate to the College.
During this period, I would
like to just ask for one
thing—that this be a year of
sharing and caring about our
College. Sharing because it
means moving beyond the one
job that you have to do, or
yourself as a student and just
one person, to thinking about
the whole community. Caring
about the total institution,
even if it means in a particular
instance that it might not
exactly be what you want as
an individual. Please think
about the whole—and not just
a part. I have seen here in my
first year terrible things
happen just because someone
got mad at somebody. For
example, I found that someth
ing wasn’t working in the
College because two people
were angry at one another and
had been angry at one another
for ten years or so. When I
talked to them, they could not
even remember why they were
mad, but they still were, and it
meant stopping a very im
portant piece of work in the
College. We cannot have that.
This has got to be a year of
sharing and caring. It has got
to be a year of working
together and of doing every
thing possible to strengthen
this college financially. Ad
ministratively, it means being
more efficient. It means work
ing harder and it means that
we have all got to work harder
and do it lovingly because an
institution like this is like a
person. I f you do not care about
it, it will die.
That is all I have to say. I ap
preciate those of you coming
and listening to what I have
said. You will probably hear
more of this in greater detail as
we move through this process.
We are moving to our Centen
nial year. It is my aim that we
go into our second hundred
years strong and viable and I
do not think there is any ques
tion that we can do it if we
share and care. I have talked
too long. I had planned that
there be questions, but as usual
I talked too much. I don’t want
to hold you. It is hot and it is
lunchtime and other things
need to happen. I would be
happy to just sit around after
we end today’s convocation
and talk with whomever wcfuld
like to. There will be many oc
casions in forums and other
things through the year when
we can ask questions, but I
have run over time. Thank
you.