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South Wire: Civil rights group
embroiled in fight over its future
By LOUISE CHU
Associated Press Writer
ATLANTA (AP) -The
Southern Christian Lead
ership Conference is inex
tricably tied to some of the
civil rights movement’s
greatest accomplishments,
from the 1963 March on
Washington to the
“Bloody Sunday” march
that led to the Voting
Trombonist nurtures the next generafion
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Photo by Theresa Minor
International trombone sensation and Waynesboro native, Wycliffe Gordon, announces a scholar
ship competition for students interested in the arts. A SSOO award will be given to the winners in
eight different categories; instrumental, vocals, dance, visual art, writing, sculpture, photography
and film/video.
“Having grown up in the CSRA, | know how it is when students need art supplies, instruments and
music books. It's not a whole lot of money but it can help them to go forward with their interest
in art,” Gordon said in announcing the competition.
Submissions will be accepted beginning September 1 through November 12. Submission applica
tions and details on competition rules are available on line at www.WycliffeGordon.com or by
requesting via email at pr@redwolf-inc.com
Gordon will raise the scholarship funds with two separate events. On September 24, there will be
a VIP Concert at the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame Botanical Gardens. Gordon will also perform in the
Christmas in the Garden City Concerts on December 17 and 18 at the Imperial Theatre.
For more information call 651-8712.
Benedict fires two professors bucking effort-based grading
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -
Benedict College has fired two
professors who refused to go
along with a policy that says
freshmen are awarded 6O per
cent of their grades based on
effort and the rest on their
work’s academic quality.
Benedict President David
Swinton says the Success
Equals Effort policy gives
stnfi!:g freshmen a chance
to to college academics.
He expects students to
improve —the formula drops
0 50-50 in the sophomore
R
senior year. But he says he’s
Rights Act of 1965.
Under the leadership of
co-founder Martin Luther
King Jr., the organization
became a leading voice of a
generation galvanized by
sit-ins, protests and free
dom rides.
In recent years, with the
group’s biggest victories
decades behind it, some
have been left trying to
reconcile its illustrious past
they are when they get here.”
Students “have to getan A in
effort to guarantee that if they
fail the subject matter, they can
get the minimum passing
grade,” Swinton said. “I dont
think that's a bad thing.”
Science professors Milwood
Motley and Larry Williams
defied that policy and Swinton
dismissed them. Neither had
tenure, which could have pro
tected them from firing,
Motley, a veteran five years at
Benedict, said he didn't like
concept from the beginning
but went along with it grudg
ingly. Then he faced an aca
demic dilemma of passing a
student he thought had not
AUGUSTA FOCUS
with its current status
plagued by internal con
flict and financial prob
lems.
The group has moved
away from its founding
mission as an activist
organization for nonvio
lent social change, said
Georgia state Rep. Tyrone
Brooks of Atlanta, a for
mer SCLC staff member
who worked under King.
learned course material. In his
case, giving a C to a student
with a high exam score of 40
percent was too much.
“There comes a time when
you have to say this is
wrong,”he said.
Motley said he started in the
Spring awarding grades strictly
on academic performance. But
the historically black college
*told us to go back and recal
culate the grades, and I just
refused to do it,” he said. A let
ter in June, informed Motley
and Williams they were fired.
Williams would not comment
to The State newspaper for its
story on the situation.
A faculty grievance commit-
“In recent years, SCLC
has been too busy implod
ing from within,” Brooks
said.
The latest implosion
occurred this month at the
group’s annual convention
in Jacksonville, Fla., where
the election of its president
erupted into shouting
matches and protests. In
the end, one candidate,
television Judge Greg
Budget board delays housing
money for S.C. State
By PAMELA HAMILTON
Associated Press Writer
COLUMSBIA, i
(AP) — The state Budget
and Control Board put
off giving South Carolina
State permission to begin
a $36.2 million project to
build an apartment com
plex that would house as
many as 750 students.
The delay Thursday,
August 12, came as state
Comptroller General
Richard Eckstrom, one of
the board’s five members,
raised questions about
the university’s book
keeping practices. The
board’s chairman, Gov.
Mark Sanford, asked to
schedule a special meet
ing to address Eckstrom’s
concerns.
“The governor simply want
ed to make sure that those ques
tions had been resolved,” San
ford’s spokesman Will Folks
said. “That’s something
he would have wanted to
make sure of with any
request from any state
agency.”
But state Rep. Bobby
Harrell, R-Charleston
Nuwaubian’s request for new trial is denied
MACON - A federal
judge has denied a request
for a new trial by the leader
of a quasi-religious sect
convicted of child molesta
tion and racketeering.
Malachi York, head of
the United Nuwaubian
Nation of Moors, has been
serving a 135-year sen
tee voted 4-3 vote to reinstate
Motley, but Swinton overruled
that, dismissing Motley’s claim
that his academic freedom had
been violated.
“The record makes it abun
dandy clear that Dr. Motey
has committed this infrac
tion,” Swinton wrote in a July
13 letter to the committee’s
chairwoman. “Moreover, the
transcript of the hearing reveals
that he admits to refusing to
comply with college policy and
states that he would not com
ply if reinstated.”
The professors “were not dis
missed because they did not
follow the policy,” he said.
“They were dismissed for
Mathis, withdrew his
nomination and walked
out, and another candi
date, Ralph David Aber
nathy 111, alleged vote
manipulation. The group
unexpectedly called on its
82-year-old interim presi
dent, Fred Shuttlesworth,
to keep his position for
another year.
“The board decided that
we got the knowledge, we
and another board mem
ber, said the state should
not hold a health and
safety project like this
one hostage in order to
force them to deal with
financial issues.”
In 1998, a student died
and three dozen were
treated after carbon
monoxide leaked from a
malfunctioning hot water
system.
Many of the college’s
dormitories are “anti
quated,” South Carolina
State board Chairman
Maurice Washington said.
Two were built in 1916,
Washington said. Several
are not wired for comput
er labs; some are not
wired for cable television,
he said.
“I believe that the com
mon position that we all
share is that we send our
children to college for an
education,” Washington
said. “We don’t send our
children to college to die.
So we have to address
health and safety issues.”
But Eckstrom said the
university, also the only
tence since his January
conviction on charges he
molested children and
manipulated the sect’s
finances from 1998 to
2000.
U.S. District Judge Ash
ley Royal held a hearing
Friday after a key govern
ment witness said that she
insubordination. They were
openly defiant and in some
cases hostile.”
Founded in 1870 to educate
freed slaves, the college has
been a haven for students who
must overcome barriers to
obtain higher education. The
school's open admissions poli
¢y means many students arrive
with poor study habits and
weak high school records,
Swinton said.
But Swinton may be tram
pling on academic freedom in
the process, the American
Association of University Pro
fessors said.
Swinton “may be doingit for
the noblest reasons,” Jordan
August 26, 2004
got the experience, we got
the history ... and the feel
ing of what it was then and
what we hope it can be
now,” Shuttlesworth said.
Current initiatives include
voter-registration drives
and a campaign to docu
ment inequities experi
enced by black children in
inner-city schools, but the
See Civil lllg—hts, page 10A
public, historically black
university in the state,
needs to improve its
accounting practices. He
said the university has
continually missed a
deadline for completing
the annual audit the state
requires of agencies. The
university has not yert
turned in results from a
2003 audit, which was
due last October, Eck
strom said.
“I think there’s been a
huge lack of political
courage to even talk
about these problems,”
Eckstrom said. Legisla
tors “look at this as some
thing they don’t even
want to talk about. It’s
kind of racially charged.”
Completion of the
audit was delayed because
the university had a
change in administration
last summer as President
Andrew Hugine Jr. took
over, said John E. Smalls,
the university’s senior
yige. president for
finance. The analysis
Seec Budget page 10A
lied during the trial and
that she was not molested
by Mr. York.
But during the hearing 28-
year-old Habiybah Washing
ton ultimately stood by her
testimony, saying she tried
to recant only because she
felt sorry for Mr. York.
Kurland, the groups associate
general secretary, said from his
Washington, D.C.,, office. For
Swinton alone to “come u(;
with a new grading policy an
for one or more professors to
say, ‘Look, we just cant do it,
its against ev standard we
have, and d':ny be fired for
insubordination —that’s about
as extreme as you can get.”
In an Aug, 10 letter, Kurland
asked Swinton for more infor
mation about the firings and
said his actions might be
grounds for censure.
Swinton says he won' get in
a fight with the association. He
says it’s a faculty union and “we
don't recognize them.”
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