Page 10, The News Argus, September 1982
Editorials
Black College Day
Postponed—Or Cancelled?
Black College Day has been postponed. Will this lead to the cancellation of this im
portant event?
In September, two years ago, representatives from WSSU, Bennett College, A&T,
Howard University, Florida A&M, Hampton Institute, and several other colleges and
universities gathered in Washington D.C. at the Ellipse beside E Street to support
Black College Day.
Dick Gregory stated that black colleges should be run from a black point of view like
Yale and Harvard are run from a white point of view. He encouraged blacks to
organize campuses and understand how much power we have.
Just last September, students from WSSU were among some 3000 who marched
through downtown Raleigh to recognize Black College Day. There was prayer, the
singing of the National Black Anthem, and enthusiastic speakers who elaborated upon
the need of black institutions, and the need of day to recognize them. It was a glorious
event.
This September, there has been no Black College Day. It has been postponed. Will it
go out of existence after only two years? “Don’t get tired, don’t give up, Black College
Day is a historical day, a day we should never forget,” proclaimed Benjamin Ruffin,
special assistant to the governor in minority affairs. Have these ideas suddenly
become trivial to us as to let such a historical day be postponed? Of course Black Col
lege Day should never be forgotten. There should always be a day preserved in its
honor. We cannot let Black College Day die so easily.
As one speaker said in Raleigh last year, “If there’s no struggle, there’s no pro
gress.” Without black colleges where would we be? Have we forgotten that black col
leges have produced such leaders as Jesse Jackson, Ronald McNair, and Alex Haley?
If we let Black College Day die, then eventually black colleges will do likewise. We
should all be concerned about why Black College Day was postponed. As Dr. Arthur
Thomas (vice president of academic affairs at Central State University) said two
years ago at the rally in D.C. like the Isley Brothers would put it, “Say you will go all
the way, so you can pass it on.” We owe it to ourselves as well as future generations.”
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Financial Aid Dilemma Explained
Below is a letter subniitted to staff
reporter Audrey Manuel by financial aid
director, Willard Jordan. This letter
should answer many questions regarding
student financial aid.
We wish to thank the students for helping
us make the most of an unpleasant
situation during the registration period.
The delays in the processing and delivery
of financial aid this year has been caused
by the delay in finalizing guidelines and
statutory regulations imposed by the
Department of Education.
Congress is still deliberating over some
of the facets of the program. The in
stitution received its allocation letter on
August 16, 1982, the date of beginning
freshman registration. The allocation
letter indicated that we were being funded
at a 50 percent rate of what we had been
notified we should receive in a previous
tentative allocation letter. The financial
aid staff agonized over the delays in being
able to deliver financial aid awards to our
students all summer. We were concerned
about the anxieties of our students who
were waiting to hear from us. In an
ticipation of hoping to relieve some of
those anxieties, the financial aid staff
mailed out some four or five hundred
award notices to our students. Ap
proximately two weeks before registration
this was done knowing that we should be
very careful not to over-extend our
awarding because the institution had no
endowed funds to fall back on should the
federal government fail to deliver.
Please recall that in the spring semester
starting January, the financial aid staff
made persistent and determined efforts to
get all of our students to attend workshops
where they were counseled and given
guidance on how to complete their
financial aid applications and informed of
the pending changes in financial aid
regulations and their possible effect on the
financial aid delivery system.
I am sorry to say that, at best, these
sessions were very poorly attended.
Further, we encouraged our students to
write letters to their congressmen ex
pressing their concerns about the im
pending financial aid situation projected
for the 1982-83 school year.
If experience is a good teacher, then we
should have learned from this situation
that completing financial aid papers on an
accurate and timely basis is tantamount to
securing financial aid awards. So let us
hooe that in the future, we will respond in b
more positive manner to this situation.
Financial aid handbooks are available in
the Student Aid Office for all students who
would like to have them. The handbooks
summarize the criteria for qualifying for
financial aid, enumerate the types and
kinds of programs available and gives a
time frame of which to operate, and
enumerates institutional responsibility to
the student and student responsibility or
obligation to qualify for the program.
One of the new changes in financial aid
had to do with the treatment of Social
Security educational benefits, veterans
educational benefits, etc. In previous
years, students receiving social security
benefits were allowed to use these as
discretionary funds. In many instances
these stipends were utilized to help support
families back home rather than apply to
educational cost. Starting this year, the
stipend was reduced 25 percent. The
period of eligibility was reduced from
twelve months to eight months during an
academic year and all stipends had to be
counted as a resource to help pay your
educational cost. So that, if a student
qualified for a Pell Grant, maximum
award, the total educational benefits he
received for the eight month period had to
be subtracted from his Pell Grant. In most
instances, this completely wiped out any
moneys the student was expecting to
receive from the Pell Grant. This has
resulted in a most agonizing situation for
the administrators of the program and the
students. However, it was the law and we
had but to abide by it.
As a standard procedure, all students
interested in applying for financial aid
each year will have applications available
to them in the financial aid office in
January of each year. However, since
deliberations are still going on in Congress
relative to the 1982-83 school year, there
may be a slight delay in the delivery of the
applications. In an attempt to facilitate
registration, arrangements were made to
give students credit extensions bv the
business office so that they could complete
their registration. The financial aid staff
worked diligently with the business office
in helping them determine students who
were eligible for these extensions. Our
staff surveyed the application files of our
students to determine if we could safely
make a projection as to what students
would achially be eligible for financial aid
pending the completion of incomplete files
or corrections of inaccurate information in
files. Based on our recommendation, the
business officer extended the courtesy of
allowing them to complete registration. In
order to protect all concerned, a time
frame of sixty days was given to each
student as a grace period to complete all
necessary documents and information
needed to qualify for the financial aid
award. Please be aware that if this is not
done within that time frame the student
may be subjected to suspension from the
university. It is my fervent prayer that all
students will be getting about the business
for which they came here.
Please remember to put the academics
first. The successful completion of courses
undertaken could mean the difference
between returning to school next year and
having to drop out. The Department of
Education is coming down hard on
students who are making unsatisfactory
academic progress. Please refer to our
satisfactory academic progress policy in
the student handbook.To this point in time
it was an institutional prerogative to
produce its own satisfactory academic
progress statement. However, there are
several bills pending in Congress
proposing to set a national satisfactory
academic progress statement for all in
stitutions. In these proposals, a student
must maintain a “C” average for all
courses taken. “If a student fails to
maintain a “C” average, he is placed on a
semester of probation and if a “C”
average is not achieved, the student
becomes ineligible. He would have to
again earn a “C” average for two con
secutive grading periods before being
reinstated.” However, the measure does
allow for extenuating circumstances as
determined by the school.
I’m happy to inform you that, as a result
of the override of the presidential veto by
Congress, all Pell Grant awards will have
to be recalculated and for many students
this will mean a larger award.
Here’s hoping for all students a very
successful and profitable academic school
year. We shall endeavor to keep you
current with information relative to
financial aid through periodic articles in
“The News Argus”.
of Winston-Salem State University
Columbia Scholastic Press
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Published monthly by the students of Winston-Salem State
University, Winston-Salem, N.C. 27110. Distributed free of charge
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