Whiting Assumes NCC
w
Presidency on July 1
RESPONSIBILITY PASSES—Dr. Albert N. Whiting, right, shakes
hands with William Jones, NCC vice-president for financial affairs and
chairman of the outgoing interim committee. The new president assumed
his office July 1, and observed his 50th birthday on the following Mon
day, July 3.
Dr. Albert N. Whiting, North
Carolina College’s new president,
anticipates working with a fac
ulty and student body whose
members believe in the potential
ities of the college’s student body
as effective participants in an
“unsheltered integrated life.”
The new president—who cele
brated his 50th birthday on July
3, his first full workday as presi
dent—said in a press conference
after assuming his new post, “In
the light of the changes which
have occurred in our society, a
college today must be selective
in its emphasis. Because North
Carolina College will continue to
have a predominantly Negro
enrollment for the next decade
or so, I believe its educational
pattern must be shaped so as to
prepare its students consciously
for effective participation in an
unsheltered integrated life.”
Challenges
In an address earlier this
year to business managers of
predominantly Negro colleges.
Dr. Whiting told his audience
that predominantly Negro in
stitutions “above all, must make
a gargantuan and immediate
effort to invest in tomorrow by
developing the kinds of pro
grams which will prepare its
students for an effective role
in the society of the future.”
Summer
Echo
Volume XIII—^Number 1
Durham, North Carolina
Monday, July 24, 1967
Dr. Render
Dr. Manasse
NCC Professors Receive
Grants for ’67-68 Research
Two North Carolina College
professors have been desig
nated fellows in the Coopera
tive Program in the Humanities
conducted at Duke University
and the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill for the
coming academic year.
Dr. Sylvia L. Eender, profes
sor of English, will continue
research and writing at Duke
University on the life, works,
and critical reception of the
works of Charles W. Chestnutt,
generally regarded as the first
Negro to achieve stature as a
novelist.
Dr. Ernst M. Manasse, chair
man of the Department of Ger
man, Latin, and Philosophy,
will work at both Duke and the
University of North Carolina
on a history of French research
into the works of Plato.
Dr. Render, who holds the
M.A. degree from the Ohio
State University and the Ph.D.
from George Peabody College
for Teachers, joined the NCC
faculty in 1963.
Dr. Manasse, a native of
Dramburg, Germany, studied at
the universities of Heidelberg,
Munich, Berlin, and Paris. He
earned his doctorate at Heidel
berg in 1933 and joined the
NCC faculty in 1939.
One of 61 scholars awarded
coveted post-doctoral grants-in-
aid by the American Council of
Learned Societies, Dr. Manasse
is in France for the summer
conducting a survey of French
Platonic scholarship in the 19th
and 20th centuries under provi
sions of the grant.
The cultural heritage of the
Negro must not be neglected,
Dr. Whiting has emphasized.
He told the business managers,
“predominantly Negro colleges
must reorganize and accept a
special mission, namely investi
gating, preserving and dissemi
nating the contributions of Ne
gro life to the nation and the
world.”
A further essential goal de
scribed by Dr. Whiting in the
July 3 press conference is the
development of techniques
“which will enable NCC to re
pair initial educational handi
caps related to social depriva
tion and restricted cultural
participation.”
The new president said de
velopment of the remedial tech
niques must go hand in hand
with a quality liberal arts pro
gram.
Challenges Students
Dr. Whiting, designated pres
ident-elect by NCC’s board of
trustees last November, spoke
in January to the college’s stu
dent body, urging the students
to seek “true intellectual in
volvement.”
He declared that a college
fails “miserably” if students see
their education only as a ticket
to a job.
“There are great and import
ant questions which man has
asked and continues to ask with
greater accent as his horizons
have widened, and in each age
powerful and sustaining in
sights with reference to these
questions have been obtained
through the liberal arts,” he
said.
Dr. Whiting said the presence
of a student at a liberal arts
college should indicate his in
volvement in the search for an
swers to the great questions.
The Faculty
In a May 1 letter to Watts
Hill Jr., chairman of the State
Board of Higher Education, Dr.
Whiting described the faculty
he wishes to build at NCC.
“The sine qua non here is a
really competent, concerned fac
ulty. My hope is to develop a
group of teachers who believe
in the potential of their stu
dents to attain satisfactory
norms rather than those who
decry their alleged incompe
tence; teachers who have the
ability to motivate students and
lift their levels of aspiration
rather than those who are
wedded to the ‘grades’ approach;
teachers who so excite their
students that they are led to
think rather than simply memo
rize and regurgitate; teachers
who can develop creative imagi
nation in students and who
themselves are creative in the
solution of problems; and fin
ally teachers who in their be
havior and interests represent
models of liberally educated
persons.
“Such a faculty would require
a climate of academic and per
sonal fredom and a central role
in determining educational poli
cies and practices. Therefore
an associated aspiration is the
development of a faculty or
ganization and institutional
governance design which would
nurture and protect these im
peratives.”
Broad Experiences
Dr. Whiting, a sociologist by
(Continued on page 12)
Group Cites NCC
Summer Program
In the spring North Carolina
College was cited for the second
straight year by the American
Association of Colleges for
Teacher Education for excel
lence in teacher education.
The NCC program recognized
as a “program of excellence”
was a three-week Summer Insti
tute for Cooperating Teachers
offered last year. Supported by
the Southern Education Founda
tion, the institute dealt with the
training of teachers supervising
student teachers. Dr. Floyd Bass
of the Department of Education
was the director.
The citation is included in a
booklet issued by the AACTE in
connection with its Distinguish
ed Achievement Awards for
Excellence in Teacher Education.
Some 78 colleges and universi
ties are listed as worthy of
recognition.
World Association
Accepts NCC Union
Into Membership
North Carolina College’s Stu
dent Union last year became a
member of the Association of
College Unions—International.
This organization represents
more than 700 colleges and uni
versities in different countries.
Representatives from several
NCC student union committees
will attend the Region V meet
ing this fall at Knoxville Col
lege, focusing on exchange of
program ideas and techniques.
Topics of current interest on
the college campus will also be
discussed.
Porgy and Bess Singers
'Porgy’ Group Closes
Summer Lyceum Series
The singer originally chosen
by George Gershwin to play the
role of “Sportin’ Life” in the
folk opera “Porgy and Bess” will
appear Thursday, July 27, at
8:30 p.m. in B. N. Duke Audi
torium with his Porgy and Bess
Singers.
Joining Avon Long, whose
Broadway credits include many
shows since “Porgy and Bess,”
are Lucia Hawkins and Levern
Hutcherson.
Miss Hawkins has been fea
tured soloist with the Leonard
dePaul Chorus and portrayed the
rol of Cindy Lou in a touring
production of “Carmen Jones.”
Hutcherson was the original
Joe in “Carmen Jones,” toured
Russia as Porgy, and recently
played Porgy in the New York
City Center Opera Company
production of the Gershwin
masterpiece.
The Porgy and Bess Singers
performed for President Ken
nedy at his Birthday Ball at
Madison Square Garden in New
York, appeared in a Musical
Tribute to George Gershwin in
New York’s Carnegie Hall with
the Symphony of the Air Orch
estra, and were the first Negro
artists to appear as guest artists
with the Miami Pops Orchestra.