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ACADEMIC
CALENDAR
Jan. 27 Issuance of
financial aid refunds begin
Feb. 26 Midterm exams
March 4 Midterm exams
end
March 5 Midterm break
begins (No classes-
university open)
March 7 Interim grading
period ends
March 11 Midterm break
ends
March 25 Deadline for
removing incomplete
grades
March 25 Deadline for
withdrawing from classes
April 22 Spring Holiday
(University closed)
April 22 Deadline for
withdrawing from the
university
April 25 Final exams for
graduating seniors begin
April 30 Final exams for
graduating seniors end
May 2 Final grades for
graduating seniors due
May 6 Final exams
end (for students not
graduating)
COLUMN, from previous page
months I have seen the spark of
hfe and of inspiration.
I have always asked a lot of
questions, but never seemed to
get answers that satisfied. I may
have been asking the wrong
people.
Fear, it is what makes us
cringe when certain topics are
put forth. It is what makes us
hide in corners, behind books,
desks, cars and doors. Fear is
what keeps us from trying, from
stepping outside our social and
cultural comfort zones, and it
keeps us from speaking out.
Sometimes that freedom we
think we have is an impediment
and a disguise to keep us from
exploring new realms and pos
sibilities.
Sometimes when we think we
are safe hiding behind closed
doors, familiar friends and jobs
what'we are really doing is not
making connections, not learn
ing and not growing.
I realized the connection is
there, you only have to be will
ing to open that door and step
outside. You only have to stop
being afraid of what other’s
might think, say or do.
photo by Dea Spicer
Carlotta Walls Lanier (left) talks with Fayetteville State University professor Skye Dent at a book signing after Mrs. Lanier’s speech
Thursday at Seabrook Auditorium.
CHANCELLORS DISTINGUISHED SPEAKER SERIES
Pioneer urges students to take stand
By Chamell Harris
Voice Features Editor
“You’ve got to know your history,” she said
adamantly yet with a quaint smile. The “she” is
Carlotta Walls Lanier, the youngest member of
the nine African-American students who pio
neered school integration in Little Rock, Arkein-
sas in 1957. The Little Rock Nine were made
up of a group of young, courageous and most
importantly committed teenagers who felt that
getting the best education possible was worth all
the hardships they faced at Little Rock Central
high school.
Mrs. Lanier’s visit to the Fayetteville State
University campus last Thursday for the Chan
cellor’s Distinguished Speaker Series began with
a video clip of the events that made her story
possible, stories like the Supreme Court case.
Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka which
ended segregation in public schools. It showed
how the Aen Governor of Arkansas used the Na
tional Guard to prevent the African-American
students from entering the building. The stu
dents walked through angry mobs, their families
lost their jobs and had to leave town, they were
harassed and constantly received death threats
during their tenure at Central High. Despite all
of these obstacles, in 1960 she became the first
African-American female to graduate from Little
Rock Central high school.
Central high school had been voted one of the
top schools in the nation, not to mention the most
beautiful. Mrs. Lanier recalls walking past it ev
eryday, because it was just blocks from where
she lived. She admitted that at age 14, she didn’t
see going there as something the nation would
celebrate her act the it is celebrated today. She
saw it as access to an opportunity, and the right
to go to the school, that had she been white, she
would have been allowed to attend.
In 1958, the governor had the all the public
schools shut down, and put more than 3,600 stu
dents, both black and white out of high school
for a year. However, not one to miss out on
learning, young Mrs. Lanier attended correspon
dence school to keep up with her studies. It is
precisely that kind of commitment that she feels
this generation is gravely lacking.
“I don’t see commitment with the younger
people. I don’t see the passion and the ‘stick-to
it-ness’ that [my generation] grew up with,” said
Mrs. Lanier, during an interview with The Voice.
The thing she learned the most about was fear,
but not her own. The kind of fear that the mob
shared, they feared people who were different,
an “unfounded” fear. What made her continue on
with her journey was the fact that she knew she
was doing something right, and that was all that
mattered.
Who’s up next?
Who: Judith Jamison, Artistic
Director, Alvin Alley American Dance
Theater
When; February 3, 2011
6:00 p.m.
Where: Seabrook Auditorium
Cost: Free
“Getting that diploma validated everything I
had been through,” said Mrs. Lanier.
One of the most important lessons Mrs. Lanier
tried to get across to students was that ultimately
the job of each new generation is to do better
than the last, and in today’s economy the only
way for us to do better is to get an education.
And in order for that to happen, this generation
needs to push forward and show a stronger com
mitment to excellence and passion for success.
“I just want the students to understand the
world is out there for them and they can achieve
anything they want to, they just have to work
for it. So let’s eliminate excuses. Let’s not find a
problem for why things can’t get done, otherwise
you’re a part of the problem,” said Mrs. Lanier.