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October 1973
BLACK INK
BLACK STUDENT MOVEMENT OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Volume 5 No. 2
HEW rejects plan
A poet/poetess writes about the things that he/she lnows.
Several weeks ago, poetess Gwendolyn Brooks shared her life
experiences with the UNC student body.
‘Life distilled’
by Kaye IVlilcliell
Slaff Writer
No timid little lady was she!
Gwendolyn Brooks delighted her
audiencc in Memorial Hall with,
“There is quite a bit to be said for
old marrieds. Sometimes you tire
of ecstasy and hysteria." Her
vitality, energy, and respect for life
immediately gleamed through her
humble exterior. Her reading of
Oct. 11 proved her to be aware of
the black experience in all its
forms. Her range was from the
“ruins of love to “cheese souftle" to
“black fury.”
“This a raw and raggedy time.
The cry is not for rondels,
villanelles, or rhyme,” was on the
quotes delivered by the poet
laureate of Illinois.It was apparent
that she was no technical disciple,
as Miss Brooks cast off several
traditional modes of poetic
expression. “I think that perhaps I
shall never write another sonnet.”
continued the accomplished
authoress. She added a quote of the
late Dr. Martin Luther King, “A
riot is the language of the
unheard,"
No more than 5’4" tall, and small
of build, she wore a dark blue
turban, and matching blouse,
under a blue tweed jumper. Her
spectacles were thick, and at 56 she
has acquired 11 books published, a
Pulitzer Prize, a husband, and two
children.
Her poetry was on the various
modes of black life. The innocence
and extremes of childhood were
found in A Song From the Front
Yard, on youthful wholesomeness,
and The Life of Lincoln West on
youthful rejection. She read poems
by .Janice Mills
Managing Editor
In a letter dated September 21,
the U.S. Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare rejected
UNC’s Affirmative Action Plan.
The plan was prepared in response
to a report done in September,
1972 by the Atlanta Regional
Office of Civil Rights of HEW.
This report charges that the
North Carolina State University
System is not adequately
complying with equal employment
opportunity standards. UNC’s
Affirmative Action Plan went into
effect in July, 1973.
The purpose of the plan is to
“review' the structure and
organization ol the University and
its policies and recent efforts aimed
at eliminftiing'consideration of
race and sex from employment
decisi'flns.” A Chancellor-
appointed Affirmative Action
Officer and an advisory committee,
outlined “remedial efforts," after
reviewing UNC’s schools and
^enartments.
By June 30, 1976, these goals are
to be achieved: an mcrease in Black
faculty members from 0.8 per cent
to 4.34 per cent, and a comparable
increase in female faculty members
from 16.31 per cent to 18.71 per
cent; an increase in Black SPA
employees from 23 per cent to 28
per cent, and a retention of the
present male-female division of 61
per cent to 39 per cent; and an
increase in Black EPA non-faculty
employees from 3.21 per cent to
8.09 per cent, and a reduction in the
number of females in this category
from 35.96 per cent to 34.53 per
ANNOINCEMENTI!!
The next monthly BSM General
Body meeting will be held on
November 1, at 7:00 in the I pendo
Lounge.
Student aid survives.
Federal bills reinacted
F.mma Pullen
Editor-in-chief
An article in the March 1973
edition of the Black Ink dealt with
the battle between President Nixon
and Congress over the 1973-74
federal appropriation for higher
education. The President sought to
do away with the Equal
Opportunity Grant (EOG) and the
National Defense Student Loan
(NDSL), two programs specially
designed to increase the number of
minority students attending
college.
He would replace them with the
Basic Opportunity Grant (BOG)
and the Guaranteed Student Loan
(GSL), two programs which
according to Ihomas Langston of
the UNC Student Aid Office,
would do away with all campus-
based federal aid.
Congress won the battle. They
funded the EOG and NDSL, and in
an attempt to appease the
President increased funds for work
study and provided limited funds
for the BOG.
But because of this conflict, the
institutions of higher learning did
not know how much aid that they
would receive, hence, they could
not give students a definite answer
concerning financial aid.
According to UNC Student Aid
Director William Geer, this
university was not notified until
late July.
When asked how this problem of
timing effected the number of
Black students entering as
freshman or returning this year.
Geer replied that he had no way of
determining the number but, he
does not think that the number is
that great. "Each student was sent a
cent. HEW, Blacks, and women
rejected the plan as unacceptable.
HEW attacked UNC’s lack of
documentation for its plan. Ihe
plan does not include substantial
data to answer the major questions
with which it should be concerned.
Are Blacks and women being
employed by UNC in numbers
incommensurate with their
availability? If they • are, why?
Another criticism levelled by
HEW is that UNC failed to submit
evidence that its schools and
departments are publicizing their
intent to hire more Blacks and
women. HEW also requested
further explanation of UNC’s
apparently arbitrary establishment
of goals and timetables.
Willie H. Mebane, chairman of
UNC’s Black Student Mo'ement
calls the goals of the Affirmative
Action Plan “semantic b’.llshit.”
Mebane is presently organizing a
research group of Black students.
This group will investigate the
availability of Black personnel anu
present an original plan to Douglas
Hunt, the .Affirmative Action
Officer and his advisory
committee.
Dr. James Brewer, Afro-
American Studies professor,
expressed the need for an
organization of Black faculty and
personnel who are presently
employed by UNC. “What is now
very fashionable is to wallow in
double talk. You deny with
rhetoric and reaffirm with acts
your committment to racial
segregation.” Brewer hopes that
this organization will function as a
check for the affirmative action
working committee.
Dr. Barbara Schnorrenberg, a
lecturer in UNC’s History
Department agreed with one of the
major criticisms cited by Mebane
and Brewer, Dr. Schnorrenberg,
head of the University Women for
Affirmative Action, also criticized
the excessive rhetoric of the plan.
She referred specifically to the lack
of documentation for the plan and
the absence of data to support its
“small and general projections."
UWAA maintains further that
no provisions are made in the plan
for training women and 't black
prospective empioyei-;.
Schnorreviherg noted dv rapid
.uinovet r-:.; ->f SP.-\ p^.
aren't more w.-nn-n and
BlacV' hi ;;d t„ i - .
i?s’"
While biacKS and women argue
that they should get preferential
treatment in hiring, many white
males argue that they should not.
On a questionaire concerning his
department's efforts to hire more
Blacks and;or women, one UNC
department chairman,
(incidentally, a white male),
indicated that he did not intend to
make any efforts to hire Black and
female personnel. He contended
continued on page 4
letter telling him of his estimated
need earlier in the summer," he
said. “We explained to him that as
soon as the federal government let
us know how much we would
receive then we would send them
an acceptance agreement.”
Then came the problems of
sending award letters so that
students could sign them. In many
instances, students were not at
home and their parents did not
forward their letters or they
received their letters late and did
not return their acceptance
agreement. Consequently, many
students returned to campus with
no financial aid.
Another factor that Geer said
contributed to the delaV in students
receiving their award is the
mechanical problems of the
computer. Geer sajd, suprisingly, it
continued on page 8
The decline of America's capitalistic society and the need for the
unification of Blacks Africans all over the world were the two
principal topics of Black activist, Stokley Carmichael during a
recent address at NCCU.