Crisis ends after months
By Tonya Widemon
Editor-in-Chief
Sometimes a crisis is just tiie thing to
bring a group together.
Although from mid-July until late
September the BSM had to function
without student activities funds,
activities were never stifled. In the
afternoons, the office atmosphere was a
kind of social center where students
could drop by, leave notes or take care of
business.
Without funds, however, some
committees had been hampered. The
Cultural Committee had not booked
artists for the semester; there had been
no supplies to print the "Weekly Ink"
announcement sheets; and the BLACK
INK newspaper had not been published.
Ironically, the most active body within the
BStVI during this period was the Gospel
Choir—the center of controversy.
The Controversy
BSM funds were officially frozen July
27, when Student Body Treasurer Mike
O’Neal discovered that the choir was
maintaining an account at North Carolina
National Bank, thus making the entire
organization in violation of treasury laws
enacted in April. BSM officers as well as
officers of other organizations charged,
said that O'Neal never informed them of
the change of treasury laws.
BSM Chairman D. Lester Diggs said
that O'Neal gave him verbal notice about
the outside account on July 25. Diggs
said that this was the first he had ever
heard about the choir's account.
During the first week of September, the
Central Committee, a body of the BSM
subgroup heads that makes up a
legislative group, began the first of many
weekly and emergency meetings to set
strategies in coping with the Campus
Governing Council (CGC) crisis.
The choir had no representative on the
Central Committee, nor had it received
student government funds until the
1975-76 budget year. The outside
account was established in 1972. The
BSM stood firmly on the argument that
until this year, the choir had been
financially autonomous and therefore
had not previously been in violation of
laws.
Between Central Committee meetings,
occurred frustrating and heated
investigative confrontations with CGC
and the CGC Finance Committee.
On Sept. 15, after a two hour debate,
more than 20 BSM representatives were
outraged that again no action had been
BLACK INK
October 1975
BLACK STUDENT MOVEMENT OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Vol. 7, No. 1
Monroe, female
attains top post
by Allen Johnson
Sports Editor
When a Black student attains a
prominent position of leadership at a
predominantly white university chances
are likely that he has accomplished a
first. When that Black student happens
to be a female those chances are even
greater.
Andromeda Monroe, a junior political
science major from Fayetteville, garnered
more than her share of firsts, when she
was appomted to the position of student
attorney general under the
administration of Student Body President
Bill Bates. Monroe is the first Black
woman to hold the top judiciary position,
and the highest ranking Black woman
ever in Student Government.
Monroe noted that she felt her
appointment was significant in the sense
that it "shows that a Black female can get
a high position in Student Government."
She cited the fact that the office of
attorney general is the highest appointed
position and the second highest position
in Student Government.
Although her position is an enviable
one in terms of prestige and practical
experience (Monroe intends a career in
law), it does have certain disadvantages.
One drawback is the fact that the attorney
general has a certain amount of power in
determining a student's fate.
"My freshman and sophomore year."
she explained, "when I was a staff
member and actually got to do cases (she
served as a court prosecutor) I got to talk
to material witnesses in cases, talk to
professors, and more or less plan the
outline for the case and present it in
court."
" As attorney general you're basically
an administrator. You talk to the
defendants who have been accused of
cheating or whatever, and the principle
characters who have been involved with
the case and decide whether the case will
go to court or not I sometimes wish I
didn't have to bring charges against
people, but the evidence is there and I
can't be blind to the situation."
Monroe also observed that student
court is becoming more legalistic with
many defendants hiring professional
attorneys to advise them on cases. "So
what happens, " she said, "is that we
have to be very technical and legalistic
which means that we have to do
everything in the correct order that the
instrument says. If we don't, we could be
taken to civil court."
"Sometimes it seems as if you can t
have that personal touch with the
defendant anymore, " she added,
"because that person (the defendant)
might wind up trying to sue you in the
long run."
Concerning the controversial tenure of
Mike O'Neal as student body treasurer,
Monroe observed that if O'Neal would
lessen his visibility, student government
and the Bates administration could
probably accomplish more.
" Mike is a nice person—personally, " she
said, "however he has this sense of
commitment to his job whereby he feels
he can't bend at all to anyone. I think he
has a distorted view of what justice is."
Monroe also criticized Campus
Governing Council's (CGC) handling of
the funding violations by student
organizations, noting that it is the only
major issue which CGC has taken a stand
on, aside from "petty arguments, " and
that she doubted whether CGC had dealt
with the organizations in a "humane
manner"
"People were ignorant of the law, and it
wasn't their fault that they didn't know
it, " she said
Monroe concluded that Student
Government still has the ability to initiate
positive action.
" The executive branch, if it gets itself
out of the cloud that surrounded it
because of the Tar Heel incident and the
Campus Life incident, etc., " she said, " it
could probably do some really good
things But right now the issue is still the
same—Mike O Neal. "
taken by CGC concerning unfreezing
funds. After adjournment by CGC
Speaker Dan Besse, the status of BSM
funds was left unclear. Two resolutions
had been presented and defeated: one to
release BSM general funds except the
choir's, and another resolution to
continue the freeze on all funds.
The same night, Diggs called an
emergency BSM general body meeting.
About 50 Blacks congregated in Upendo
Lounge in Chase Hall until about 2 a.m. to
organize a demonstration and expression
of solidarity and grievances against CGC
actions, and to draw up a set of demands
to Chancellor Ferebee Taylor.
By word of mouth, more than 200
Blacks had received word that a peaceful
demonstration would take place that
morning. Singing "Lift Every Voice and
Sing " and chanting "Power to the
People," students marched from the Pit to
South Building.
BSM Special Projects Chairman
George '"Buddy" Ray kept morale up
during the wait with chants of "We ain't
goin" no where, no where," and "We
want the Chancellor." BSM choir
members sang and poetry was read.
Inside, representatives presented
Taylor with demands for $12,000 from
the Chancellor's discretionary funds and
for the formation of a committee to
investigate CGC's actions.
Taylor did not honor either demand, but
suggested that the group take their
actions to Student Body President Bill
Bates. Dean of Student Affairs Donald
Boulton, Associate Dean of Special
Programs Harold Wallace, and Assistant
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences
H. Bentley Renwick accompanied.
The next day BSM funds were first
unfrozen by Bates; they were frozen and
unfrozen again by the Finance
Committee: and frozen again by O'Neal
and Finance Committee Chairman Bill
Strickland.
It seemed to a lot of students in BSM
S ee 'Perspectives,' page 3
Andromeda Monroe
Afro-Am survival
conference meets
by Queenie Mackey
Staff Writer
Addressed to "The Survival of Black
Studies, " the North Carolina Conference
on Black Studies proposed to create a
statewide organization to undertake the
challenge of institutionalizing Black
Studies.
The organizational meeting of the
conference convened Oct. 4-5, at Quail
Roost Conference Center in Rougemont.
Co-sponsors of the conference were
the Curriculum in Afro-American Studies
and the Afro-American Affairs
Committee of the BSM. Attending the
conference were some 60 teachers,
directors, and students of Black Studies
representing elementary, junior high,
high school and higher education.
Keynote speaker was Dr. Russell
Adams, Chairman Afro-American
Studies Department, Howard University,
Washington, D C. Adams spoke on " The
State of Black Studies in the Nation."
Adams traced the Black studies
movement from the self-study research
activities of the 19th century Negro
convention movement to the 1960's
when Black students demanded scholarly
attention to the Black experience In the
interest of maintaining social stability,
administrators funded Black studies
programs. In some instances these
programs were term funded and were
not expected to be refunded, hence to be
phased out. On the other hand, those
programs which received line-item
budgeting within the university have
survived. Since the rationale for Black
studies has ceased to be an explosive
issue, the challenge of institutionalizing
Black studies is basically a bureaucratic
one—Who? What? When? How?
Adams said Black studies is not the
only discipline to have evolved out of a
social problem. Other disciplines also
originated to address certain needs, such
as sociology and political science.
Four panelists addressed themselves
to "The State of Black Studies in North
Carolina. " Representing a predominantly
Black university. Prof. Valerie
Edmundson of Fayetteville State stressed
the importance of local history. Clifton
Collins of the Social Studies Division of
the North Carolina State Department of
Public Instruction raised questions
regarding the changing clientele for Black
studies, citing the frequent abuse of Black
studies programs by administrators who
use them as a dumping ground for
discipline problems.
Dr. Roberta Ann Dunbar, director of
UNC-CH African studies, presented a
survey of African Studies programs in
North Carolina colleges and universities,
and also stressed the importantce of
studying African .and Afro-American
cultural linkages as manifested in North
Carolina history. Prof. Ruth Kennedy,
from the NCCU English department, gave
tentative conclusions from a survey
showing how Black literature courses are
taught in North Carolina high schools.