Newspaper Page Text
SPELMA N
THE VOICE
OF BLACK WOMANHOOD
SPOTLIGHT
VoL 31, No. 6
Atlanta, Georgia
February, 1978
Will There Be?
Sororities On Spelman’s Campus?
by Avy Long
Over the past four or five
years, the issue of establishing
sororities on this campus has
been more and more em
phasized. The most recent of
ficial action taken on this issue
was a forum held January 17
of this year in the Fine Arts
Building with Dr. Pauline
Drake, director of the Institute
for Teaching and Learning
and associate professor of
education, acting as
moderator. The purpose of this
forum was to give the faculty
some idea as to how students
feel about the issue. The
faculty, in turn, would use the
feedback received from the
students to make a recommen
dation to the administrative
committee which would make
a recommendation to Dr.
Stewart.
At this forum students were
invited to give pro or con
statements, not neutral, on the
question of the establishments
of campus chapters of
sororities. Faculty members
made remarks about the es
tablishment of campus
chapters as well as the present
appearance of sororities on
campus.
“The sorority as it functions
now is detrimental to the
academic climate. It
undermines the main purpose
for which the students are
here. They do not follow
guidelines established by the
national organizations, but
instead, the whims and foolish
ideas of individual
personalities,” said Dr. Joyce
Johnson, professor of music.
professor of nutrition and
director of the Biochemis
try/Nutrition Program, asked
the faculty and student body to
consider the responsibilities
and commitments involved in
the presence of chapters on
campus before making a
decision. She feels that at this
time the college does not have
the adequate facilities to ac
comodate sororities—such as
sorority rooms.
The prevailing opinion of
the student body at the forum
was pro sororities on campus.
Some faculty members felt
that the presence of sororities
on campus would improve
students’ grades. Others were
concerned about advisors fin
ding enough time to dedicate to
the sororities, and the pos
sibility of discriminating
against students who could
not financially afford to pledge
in a sorority. Neither faculty
nor student body attendance
was very high at this forum.
The following are some
opinions of various students
and teachers concerning
sororities:
“People who are not active in
a sorority have formulated
negative opinions about them
because they do not know exac
tly what goes on inside of a
sorority.”
In their existing form, “some
acts of sororities are ridiculous
and impair students’ abilities
to function in the classroom.”
“The argument in the past
was that Spelman was too
small to handle all these
organizations, but that is not
the case now.”
“Spelman is always talking
about the money it needs.
Sororities would bring money
to the campus.”
“Since there will always be
discrepancies wherever there
are women, we may as well
have sororities.”
In the fall of 1977 the Board
of Trustees asked Dr. Stewart
to discuss the issue with the ad
ministration and faculty.
Recommendations from the
faculty and the administrative
committee have been made to
Dr. Stewart who will make an
announcement of the decision
of the college soon.
Freshmen Seek Unity
by Sheron Covington
Through misconceptions, stereotypes and outright lies, the
Atlanta University Center. (AUC) Colleges have existed in the
heat of intense rivalry. The intensity of the competition has
caused dissention to spread rapidly like a cancer, eating away at
the ties that bind us. It is ironic that four black institutions can be
so close in location, but so distant in kinship. Compelled by these
reasons and others, the freshman officers from all of the AUC
colleges put their heads together and have arrived at a very
timely effort towards a solution: Atlanta University Center
Unity Week.
“AUC Unity Week will be a variety of events, designed
exclusively for the purpose of unifying the entire center and will
hopefully include something for everyone,” stated Clark
College’s Donna Witherspoon.
“The purpose,” added Tony Dawson of Morehouse College, “is
to begin to develop unity at an early stage, to pull together all of
the AUC students as one.”
“As for the idea of Unity Week,” replied David Ferguson, also
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Photo by K.F. Hodges - Ly Bensons
Anthony Hawkins has become quite a celebrity within the
Atlanta University Center. He was most recently heard at
the opening of the Spelmolette Discotech. He has the
women oohing and ahhing every time he opens his mouth
to let out one af his seemingly magical notes of song. For
more on the man with the beautiful vocal cords see page 4.
W CLK/WSTB Bump Heads F or Power
by Pamela James
Radio station WCLK of Clark College has
put in an application for higher wattage with
the Federal Communications Commission.
This wattage proposal is for an increase from
54 to 3400 watts of power, enabling WCLK to
expand their listening audience to the
Georgia-Alabama state line, or about eight to
twelve miles more in signal distance.
Presently, the application sum bitted by
WCLK is on hold because of another ap
plication submitted by Southern Tech’s radio
station WSTB in Marietta, Georgia. Ac
cording to J.D. Wise, general manager at
radio station WSTB, the school has an AM
station which serves the campus area, but
filed for the FM station in order to reach an
audience outside of Marietta.
The conflict comes because WCLK filed for
channel 220 and WSTB for channel 219. Ac
cording to WCLK, Southern Tech claims that
an increase in power for WCLK would
interfere with the radio station’s channel
signals. Wise maintains that the only way
“to get through to a solution is for the ad
ministrations of both schools to sit down at a
conference table and say ‘let’s both try to
look at what we’ve got.’”
According to Wise, some concessions have
to be made on someone’s part. He said that
WSTB could amend their application and
shoot for a new channel. Or, perhaps WCLK
could not go to full power. Other alternatives
could be determined and discussed according
to Wise.
Gary Flannigan, station manager and
program director of WCLK said the radio
station has made many new modifications in
their programming. According to him, the
station is attempting to incorporate more
structure into their programming. He says
that they are “maintaining their com
mittment to jazz programming, but also
making committment to our education
license.” Flannigan says that they are struc
turing their programming where listeners
might learn something from the music they
play.
The station manager also said that they
are using more “innovative programming to
Continued on page 3