FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1975
THE BENNETT BANNER
Page Three
Humphries Reveals
Plans for Future
SGA Activities
by Jamelle Felder
“The student government should
be made up of students, run by
students, for students.”
This was the opening statement
of Student Senate President,
Thorna Humphries, as she gave the
response at the Annual Installation
of Officers Service in the chapel.
Thorna went on to say that “in
most schools that is the general
procedure of the Student Gov
ernment but since I’ve been at
Bennett it has been made up of
students, run by the administra
tion, and not necessarily for the
students”
She added, “I wanted to point
out that what is normal for most
is not normal for Bennett. What
should be is not what it is, and
the thing that I and the Student
Cabinet plan to do is to make
what should be what is actually
happening.”
Discussing plans to make the
Student Government as she would
like it to be, Thorna said, “We
plan to reorganize ourselves, and
reorganize the leaders, making
them see what the situation is.
We plan to set up programs that
will benefit the student body as
a whole, and to present them with
academic as well as social activi
ties.”
A new plan of action being
taken by the Student Government
this year is to meet with other
Student Government leaders who
have got their set-ups established.
“These persons are giving us sug
gestions as to what we can do in
our own Student Government,”
Thorna said.
She added that she felt that stu
dent leaders should serve the stu
dents. Therefore, she feels that
anytime students want to talk with
student leaders they will be avail
able.
Freshman Likes Bennett
(Continued from page 1)
As for the social life at Bennett,
Vajira finds it different than at an
all-girls’ school at home, but not
disagreeable.
“We don’t have anything like
dating in my country,” she said.
She expressed the surprise that
she felt on her arrival, when she
found that young men were al
lowed inside the dormitories and
even to escort girls out until late
in the evening. She said, “At home,
boys take girls out only after they
are engaged to them.”
When asked what she missed
most about home, she responded,
“My parents,” and then quickly
added with a smile, “the food.”
Home, for Vajira, is over eigh
teen-thousand miles away. For
this, and other reasons, it is not
likely that she will be returning
home before completing her years
at Bennett. At present, she is plan
ning to stay with relatives in New
York during summer vacation.
Player Hall Basement to Be Temporary Site of Infirmary
by Diane Stevens
In the basement of Player Hall, rooms 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18,
19, and 20 sit empty, void of life; sit minus the girls that once filled them
with books, belongings and babbling spirits; sit patiently awaiting the
new infirmary.
Thursday, September 10, Dean Harold E. Bragg called a meeting with
the residents of the north end of the basement along with Mrs. Ouida
Scarborough to announce the plan for the new infirmary. The basement
would be converted to an infirmary temporarily for a year in this man
ner: The four rooms in the cubby hole would house the sick. Mrs. Scar
borough’s office and apartment would be the nurse’s quarters. There
would be a reception room, a nurse’s office, a doctor’s office, an examining
room, a waiting room, and a storage room. Mrs. Scarborough’s office would
occupy the two rooms on the end closest to the recreation room on the left
side of the hall as one enters the dorm from the entrance close to the
union.
There would be no thoroughfare through the basement. The stairs
leading to the first floor of the dorm would be off limits to the residents
of Player except in the case of emergency. Player Hall would not be
entered from the north end except by the sick. The north entrance to the
recreation hall would also be closed.
As soon as Dean Bragg disclosed the latter information, the room
was in an uproar. Questions bombarded Bragg like, “If you knew the
infirmary was going to be down here, why did you let us move in? Whose
decision was it to make Player Holl basement the infirmary? Why can’t
the infirmary be moved elsewhere? Where do you propose for us to go?
When did you plan on this course of action?”
Bragg replied that he regreted that the situation was what it was.
However, he went on, the ceiling of the old infirmary, Kent Hall, was
falling in due to the heavy rains in August and it could no longer be
used; the only alternative place for the infirmary was the basement of
Player Hall investigation had shown. Nothing else on the campus would
be feasible. So, he added, “we, the executive committee, President Miller,
Dean Tipton, Mr. Scarlette, Mr. Watkins, Mrs. Eady and myself, settled
on this plan of action.”
He added that the seniors would move upstairs. People already living
on the first floor without roommates would have to move in together to
make room for the girls from the basement; roommates would not be
separated. The juniors residing in Player Hall would go to Cone Hall.
Tempers continued to flare. Young ladies wanted to know if they
could have their money back and move off campus. Dean Bragg evaded
the question at first, saying that there would be enough room in Player
for everyone. The question was asked again and again intermittently and
finally he said he did not know whether it would be possible for them
to get their money back.
Then, the question was raised, “When do we have to move?” Dean
Bragg said preferably by the end of the weekend, which caused another
major disruption. Heated words flew back and forth across the room;
some girls said they refused to move; Dean Bragg said, “You will be
moved!”
The meeting ended without compromise.
Later that night, a meeting was held in the SGA office in the student
union with the SGA officers and the girls involved in the move to try
to find out when and how the plan came about and what could be done
if at all to prevent it.
Thorna Humphries presided. Two things resulted from the meeting.
First of all, a list of alternatives was drawn up for the infirmary instead
of the basement of Player:
1) Buy a mobile home
2) Buy a prefabricated home or building
I
Old Kent Hall Is Being Abandoned As Infirmary
Photo bv Cher\l E. Johnson
3) Use the career counseling center building
4) No infirmary at all
Secondly, a list of reasons as to why Player would not be suitable as
an infirmary was drawn up:
1) Sick people should not be housed with people who are well
2) It would be an invasion of the rights of the young ladies living in
the dorm, because they would have to be quiet and the girls on
on the north end of first and second floor would have to enter
through the front door or the south end.
3) The infirmary would be near an unloading zone and that would
disturb the sick.
4) The noise from dances in the coffee house would disturb the sick.
5) The gate between the cafeteria and laundry building is locked at
night, which would make it difficult for an ambulance to gain
access to the infirmary.
6) The recreation room in the basement of Player could no longer
be used as a place for social functions.
7) If the infirmary was moved to the basement it would become
comfortable for the school and eventually become a permanent
thing and a new one would never get built.
8) Mrs. Scarborough’s office would be in the infirmary and when
students had to do business with her they would come into direct
contact with people who were sick.
At the end of the meeting it was decided that the SGA would meet
with President Miller the next morning, everyone involved would call
their parents and have them talk to the administration in the hopes of
revising the situation and the support of the entire senior and junior
classes would be enlisted.
A third meeting was held later that same night in the parlor of Player
Hall to present the situation to the whole dorm and ask for their sup
port. The girls were informed of the plan for the infirmary and told about
what the SGA thought alternatives could be and the drawbacks of using
the basement of Player.
The girls in Player all agreed to stick together and try in an orderly
fashion to prevent the move of the infirmary to Player. A committee was
organized to contact the Board of Health to see if it was permissible to
have an infirmary in a dormitory.
The next day, Friday, September 11, Thorna Humphries informed
the residents of Player that President Miller would meet with them in
the parlor at 7:30 that evening.
President Miller arrived, greeted the girls cordially and said that he
had come with the idea of making the young ladies see things his way.
The meeting lasted three hours, the outcome being that the executive com
mittee would meet again and consider the girls feelings about the situ
ation, with members of the SGA present. The SGA in turn would report
back to the residents of Player.
The girls in the basement would not have to move that weekend.
Wednesday of the following week the executive committee met with
the SGA officers and some of the residents of Player Hall to discuss the
problem and come up with a solution for an infirmary. The students al
ternatives and view points were all presented.
All alternatives were rejected. No, a mobile home could not be pur
chased. That would only take away from the building of the new in
firmary and set the construction of the new infirmary back. No, a pre
fabricated building could not be bought. Again the money factor was
cited. No, the Career Counseling Center could not be used. There was not
ample space to house the nurse, provide a doctor’s office, examining room
and house the sick. No, the school could not do without an infirmary.
With regard to the students’ opinions on why the infirmary should not
be in the basement, the only objection considered valid was the one con
cerning the locale of Mrs. Scarborough’s office. It was recommended that
she be moved elsewhere.
The health board said there was absolutely nothing wrong with hav
ing an infirmary in a dormitory.
The infirmary would definitely only be in the basement of Player
for a year, the executive committee stressed again.
They reiterated that all things considered the basement of Player
Hall was the least expensive, most adequate in space and easiest to con
vert to an infirmary, and so that, therefore, they felt their plan of action
was wisest and soundest.
The girls would have to move, but they were granted the option of
moving to the third floor of Pfeiffer (which was completely empty) if
they wanted to. This concession was made because the only rooms avail
able in Player and Cone were ones in which girls lived alone; these girls
would have to double up and make room for the girls leaving the basement.
Those girls having to move felt it would be simpler to go somewhere
like Pfeiffer where no one else would have to be inconvenienced by mov
ing. Other girls said they had chosen to live in the basement because it
was quieter than the rest of the dorm and they would prefer the third
floor of Pfeiffer because it, too, would be quiet. President Miller said
the girls would be allowed to live in the freshmen dorm with upperclass
men restrictions for their guidelines.
President Miller also said that maintenance would be available
throughout the weekend to help the young ladies move.
Personal Rights Given Little Regard
(Continued from page 2)
SUPPORTED BY THAT MOTION, THAT OBJECTIVELY SUPPORTS
THAT MOTION, WILL PURSUE THE SAME POLICY OF THAT MO
TION. And we all know that tuition pays only 1/3 of the costs of the
college so the president has to “beg” for the rest.
Isn’t the “No-Knock Law” similar to the Residence Hall Directors
being allowed to enter rooms “whenever it is necessary?” Aren’t the
rising prices in the economy (inflation of certain pockets) similar to the
almost $3,000 tuition? Isn’t there a similarity between the additional ex
periences businesses require for jobs and the additional courses we are
required to take?
The question “why” again; the worms are the same.
What can we do to “cut this in two?” The Chinese had a philosophy of
Ying and Yang—the law of positives and negatives in everything. We
need to FIRST, come together and sum-up the already existing informa
tion that we all have pieces of, SECONDLY, decide on our objectives, and
THIRDLY, move on them.
Women at Bennett used to have to wear dresses constantly, attend
compulsory vespers, be in by 11 P.M., etc. That ONE GATE last year was
supposed to have closed at 9 P.M. (Students were offered a compromise
of midnight. That gate NEVER closed. Black people used to be property.
Women couldn’t vote. Foreigners could (and quiet as its kept, still can
be) locked-up in times of national crisis.
Those things changed. We can change. We can change those things.
Freshman Class Officers
To Plan Together, Strive
by Deborah Tillman
With eighty-one percent of the
class voting, Bennett’s freshman
class officers were elected Sep
tember 10th.
Necia Boyer, director of co-cur-
ricular activities, supplied a vot
ing machine to help relieve the
problem of counting votes. The
use of this machine also gave
freshmen the experience of using
it.
Although the candidates worked
hard in their campaigns, only one
person could be elected to each
office. Hattie Purnell defeated
Karen Ferguson, Viola Hemphill,
and Brenda Wallace for the office
of President. Darlene Donnell,
Marion Johnson, Stephanie Thom
as, and Jane Watts lost to Tonya
Jessup for the title of Vice Presi
dent.
Dorothy Brown was voted sec-
Are Elected
, Move Ahead
retary over Marilyn Brimmage,
Lisa Greene, Page Motley, and
Marilyn Wilson. Voted assistant
secretary is Kathy Clark, winning
over Janice Sellars, Alicia
Stephens, Anita Taylor and Deb
orah Tillman..
Winning the title of treasurer is
Rose Marie Hudson. She defeated
Karen Bell, Rosa Faulk, Marcelle
Miranda and Regina Watkins.
Deborah Moser gained the most
votes for parliamentarian as she
won over Rhonda Armstead, Fe-
lecia Burton, LaNorma Shelton
and Thomasina Stallings.
Three officers live in Jones with
two living in Pfeiffer and one liv
ing in Barge.
“I feel 1 am qualified to hold the
office of President and I hope I
am able to do my best in leading
the freshmen,” promised newly-
elected president Hattie Purnell.
Ill Feeling Keeps
Lingering in Many
Freshman Minds
(Continued from page 1)
do what was expected,” she said
“but the matter of refrigerators
not being permitted in the room
(just to name one thing) is ab
surd.”
Monica continued: “Considering
the food in the cafeteria is not
very good, and the portions are
small, and there is no variety,
then it is unfair not to be able to
have these facilities in our rooms.”
President of the freshman class,
Hattie Purnell, feels that she
agrees with some of the objections
voiced by students but does not
understand others. Hattie is a na
tive of Ocean City, Md.