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EXCUSE
Issue 58
North Carolina Central University
Durham, NC 27707
Wednesday, April 10,1996
Student "EnroCCment
Budget crisis looms
os admissions fall
Campus Echo reports
Rebounding from low
freshman enrollment, the
university has lost a considerable
amount of potential revenues.
The school has lost about
$584,500 in housing receipts
because of the low freshman
enrollment of 553, as reported by
the News and Observer.
"When Chancellor Chambers
announced that we were to have
an average SAT score of 950 for
the 1995 entering freshman class,
many students and alumni of the
pniversity
took this to
mean that
every
student's
score had
tobe950,"
said
Under
graduate Julius Chambers
Admissions
Director Nancy Rowland in the
September 22 issue of the Ca/w/>«j
Echo.
The school has set the minimum
average score on the college
entrance exam at 950,100 points
higher than last year.
To achieve an average SAT
score of 950, the high scores of
applicants had to balance out the
low. What this means is that for
every considerably low score,
there had to one higher than 950 to
reach that average.
NCCU is more than 1000
students away from its goal of
‘Lcfto ^porters
Saul it Coming
September 22,1995-
Freshman enrollment takes a dip.
New strategy aims to
boost academic standards
By Erica Dixon
Headed by [Chancellor Julius]
Chambers, the administration is
promoting an agenda that will
strengthen NCCU in resources as
well as student diversity.
This campaign includes setting
a target average SAT score of 950
for the 1995 entering freshman class.
The Chancellor feels thatraising
standards will aid in recruiting top
students andplacingNCCU in equal
standing withcollegesrankedhigher
in the UNC system.
The University will suffer
growing pains because of the
upgrade, and it will be most acute
this year, Nancy Rowland said.
Compared to the 752 first-time
freshmen enrolled in August 1994,
500 first-time freshmen are
presently enrolled at the university.
Classes continue: Students in an English department
class taught by Mrs. Mudy Stone. NCCU is more than 1000
students away from its goal of 1700 new students for the fall.
Minority Presence
Triangle Media
missing big picture
1700 new students for the fall
semester.
By mid-March, NCCU had
asked 921 people to become part
of its freshman class. But
university statistics say the school
must offer admission to 1,205
more students to reach its target
of 1,105 freshmen.
Echo Staff
Lxx:al newspapers, and television
stations all hopped on the Eagle train
to capture student response to the
increasing administrative efforts to
recruit minorities.
Note the following reports:
•“North Carolina Central Uni
versity freshman class president and
fellow students were the subject of a
March 20, 1996 News & Observer
report focused on opposition to white
recruitment.
Taken out of context, the freshmen
were portrayed as advocating rac
ism.
However, many the students who
signed the petition called for repre
sentation of all minority groups-not
just whites.
As a result of this initial report,
fellow N&O journalists Dennis
Rogers and Barry Saunders waged a
verbal war against each other to
debate the issue.
•“In an editorial thatappeared
that same day, Rogers accused
NCCU students of reverse rac
ism.
"To believe that black racism
is as bad as white racism and
divides us rather than unites us is
to be called an ill-disguised racist
in liberal rags," he said.
•■In the March 21 issue of the
News & Observer, Saunders said
that NCCU students fear the
school is losing its "soul".
" You know as well as I that if
the white students NCCU is
pursuing don't get in there, many
of them may get into Duke,
Carolina or N.C. State," he said.
"B ut the black students who don't
go to NCCU won't have nearly as
many options."
Convocation
recognizes
academic
achievement
Keynote speaker William
Raspberry advised his student
audience at the 47th Annual Honors
Convocation to be ready when
opportunity arrives and to make
themselves necessary in their fields
of study.
“ You master those two things and
you’ll be amazed at how lucky you
can get,” Raspberry said.
He also assured students that in
the early stages of a career, money
cannot be a major motivation.
“In the early days of your career,
you’re not likely to be transferring
all that much money,” he said.“ What
you can do, if you work at it, is to
persuade an employer that you are
bright, and eager, and worth having
around.”
Kristi Dunn, of Raleigh, an
English major now doing student
teaching at Cary Senior High School,
was the recipient of the Chancellor’s
Award, which recognizes the senior
with the highest average going into
their final semester of study.
William Raspberrv
UNC General Administration's poiicy on wrong track, SGA says
Recently, in responding to
the use of Minority Presence
Grants, North Carolina Central
University has been portrayed
as being racist.
This biased and incorrect
portrayal of our university has
led the student body to issue this
press release in an effort to
clarify our position on several
issues.
These issues include minor
ity presence, appropriation of
funds in the University of North
Carolina system, and the im
proper use of SAT scores.
We have been disappointed
by the poor and irresponsible
The 10 percent
minority mandate
at Historically White
Institutions versus the
15% mandate
at Historically Black
Institutions is racist
and unfair
journalism that has led the public
to believe that our opposition to
exclusive integration is a racist
one.
That is incorrect. We are con
cerned with the administration's
preoccupation with exceeding the
government mandate of a 15% mi
nority presence.
We also assert that the 10 per
cent minority mandate at Histori
cally White Institutions versus the
15% mandate at Historically Black
Institutions is racist and unfair.
It is our position that if it is the
General Administration’s desire to
make North Carolina Central Uni
versity a more viable institution in
the new millennium, our energy
would be better served if used to
increase the quality of our educa
tional facilities and equipment
rather than the population of other
groups.
In a recent report submitted
to the UNC General Adminis
tration by a consulting group.
Historically Black Institutions
were reported to have been over
funded during recent years.
As students of a Historically
Black Institution, we assert that
the formula used in their as
sessment is inaccurate and bi
ased.
The present misuse of SAT
scores in measuring the aca
demic capabilities of potential
incoming students is also a ma
jor concern of the student body.
It has been determined to be
culturally and economically
biased.
In Chancellor Chamber’s at
tempt to raise the SAT average of
the university to 950, we suffered
a drastic decrease in our enroll
ment.
Being ranked fourteenth world
wide in the realm of education
makes it obvious that our nation’s
public school system is making no
drastic attempts to provide an equal
opportunity for an equal educa
tion for all of its students.
Biased SAT
By placing a greater emphasis
on a test proven to be biased, such
as the SAT, neither are we.