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The Compass - page 2 October, 1995 EDITORIAL Drugs, Drugs, Drugs, Drugs Just a few observations on drug abuse. Drugs are dangerous, let’s make no mistake about it. They cost untold dollars of damage and untold suffering to many people. However, drug epidemics are nothing new. Around the turn of the century, headlines told of the horrors of cocaine much as they do today. Co caine, legal at the time, was taken out of Coca-Cola and made illegal. Drug abuse has not really changed that much over the years--sure, drugs of choice have changed-but the use and abuse of drugs have been with us a long time and probably will continue to be around. What has changed is that the media now has the ability to reach large masses of people and our awareness has changed. I don’t disagree with the media saying that drug abuse—mainly cocaine or crack abuse-is a problem. But why this concern now? Freebase cocaine has been around since the late 1970’s and its use has been increas ing ever since. The problem 'was much worse two years ago, according to the same Time story that has us believ ing we are in the midst of the worst drug epidemic in his tory. The number’s simply don’t warrant this belief. According to statistics from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the use and abuse of all drugs except co caine has gone down. The sta tistics also show that cocaine use and abuse has stayed about the same since 1981, with a slight increase in 1985. Seems hardly like a cause for alarm. Well, that’s not quite true~any drug abuse is cause for alarm, but we don’t need to lose sight of our con stitution with a hastily thought out plan to stop drug abuse. What really amazes me is that Ronald Reagan cut funds for treatment centers in 1982. How can an addict get help if there is nowhere to go. Treatment must be available to those who want it. Drug abuse is a hot political issue now-candidates for public offices are vowing to stamp out drug abuse. They are even challenging each other to urinalysis contests. Where will these people be in six months when the issue loses its political clout. While these men play their games, addicts are dying. Statistics are being thrown around to prove how bad drug abuse is or how bad it isn’t. Remem ber, behind every statistic is a human being. Many experts on drug abuse seem to think tougher laws won’t help with the crack problem. They say crack use won’t abate until addicts start hitting the bot tom and start looking for help. Let’s hope there will be wj |1^' *^^0 COLLEGE PRESS SERVICE Looking Back “Educate, Educate Organize Students must Arise” By Deborah Carr Staff Writer FEEDBACK: “Why did you come to ECSU?” “I came here because it offered me everything I wanted in a university. They offered me the type of environment I wanted, a place to grow plus south ern hospitality.” Rob Wil liams, 19-year-old sopho more Physical Education major from Newport News, Va. “I am a senior and I have really enjoyed my three years here at ECSU. I was recruited by Mr. Hines, the director of the University choir.” LaVleita Sloan, 21-year- old senior English major from Orlando, Fla. “I chose ECSU because the pastor of my church is an alumnus and he brought me and others down to tour campus.” Nichele Watson, 19-year- old sophomore Business major from Richmond, Va. “I wanted to attend a predominately black insti tution and I also wanted to meet people from different parts of the world.” Robin Patterson, 21- year-old senior Business Administration/ Marketing major from East Orange, N.J. “It is a very refreshing atmosphere. My uncle is a graduate plus I have fam ily in the area.” Troy Miller, 20-year-old Busi ness major from Queens, New York “I chose to come here to further my education be cause it is predominately a black institution. There is a very good professor to student ratio. The classes are small enough that you can express yourself and be heard.” Calvin Bradford, 20- year-old Physical Educa tion major from Dinwid- die, Va. treatment facilities available when they do seek help. In all the publicity about crack, the nation’s most abused drug seems to have been overlooked. I’m talking about alcohol-a drug which creates more misery than all others combined. Many peo ple seem to view alcohol and drugs differently. Sure, al- chol is legal, but it is also a drug. A drug is a drug is a drug. Let’s talk statistics again, this time courtesy of the National Institute on Alco hol Abuse (NIAA). Teenage drinking is on the rise. Alco hol use was involved in 50 per cent of all car accidents last year. For people between the T"! , ages of 15 and 24, alcohol-re- Black College Day : lated fatalities were the num ber one cause of death. Alco hol IS our nation’s number one drug problem, but that doesn’t make for exciting press and it isn’t a hot politi cal issue right now. Before we consider passing some ques tionable laws to stop drug ^ , abuse, maybe we should re- ^ chant^hoed thrcmgh consider some of our permis- ^ ® streets of Raleigh on Sep tember 15 as we marched to the Capitol Building. Students from N.C.’s predominately black colleges and universi ties had gathered to partici pate in Black College Day ’86. We arrived at the steps full of energy and ready for an swers to our questions con cerning our institutions. Our questions were good ones that demanded some hard answers. “When do we get better books?” “When are we getting more money for improved facili ties?” “When is dorm overcrowd ing going to stop?” I admit at first my ulterior motive for participating was to meet new people. Sud denly, it became more impor tant for me to get involved in what was happening. I real ized that we were already friends because we had the same purpose. We had taken time out from our busy sched- MElXLOPttliR ''51^^ I iL JON W Cei£BK^oN df TflE C^SfTTvTro^... If M WEM. " sive laws regarding alcohol. Right now, crack is the most popular drug of choice (not including alcohol) for many who are abusing drugs. But while all this concern over crack is being voiced, an old drug or a new drug of choice is waiting right around the corner. ules. We missed classes and some of us traveled great dis tances. Our chanting and clapping made our march a joyous one. People gathered on the downtown Raleigh streets to watch. As we approached the capitol steps, my heart and mind was filled with even more enthusiasm. I cheered and applauded the different speeches made on our behalf. By Deborah Carr Staff Writer The speeches given by SGA presidents meant the most because they know firsthand what’s going on. They go to the predominately black schools; they attend the classes; and they live in the dorms. I was happy to participate and even prouder to come back and share what I heard with friends. Now, as I sit and think, I am glad I attended Black College Day. The chants will always come to mind as I march back down Raleigh streets in my memory. “We don’t need no music ’Cause all we want to do Is read and write and Study hard and stay In our Black schools.” Dear readers, We would like to bear from you. Let us know what you think of the pa per. If you think we should do something differently, tell us. Any comments on what you think the paper should include are wel come. The Compass is for the students and we won’t know how to better serve you without your feed back. Letters to the editor are also welcomed. If you have a concern do some thing about it, write us. Just remember, that your letter must be signed and we do reserve the right to edit all material. Send your stories, let ters, comments or ideas to: The Compass, P.O. Box 815, Elizabeth City State University, Eliza beth City, NC 27909. The Editors Non-Commercial Radio Impacts Market The following article is re printed from Black Radio Ex clusive publication, Septem ber 19, 1986 with the permission of David C. Lin ton, general manager of WRVS-FM. There was a time when you turned to the far left of your FM dial and all you could hear was clasical or jazz mu sic, talk shows and classroom lessons. And once upon a time, you could only Isten to those stations within a two block radius. Today, when you turn to the left of your FM dial, you can hear a variety of formats ranging from blues and new wave to gospel and R&B. The Compass Co-Editors Pam Brown Steve Smith Associate Editor Robin Sawyer Sports Editor Fred Lassiter Assistant Sports Editor Minor Wiggins Photographers Kevin Cox Richard McIntyre Ron Townsend Reporters Lavette Washington Deborah Carr Lynne Chapman C.C. Rhodes Warren Hicks Production Steve Smith Faculty Supervisor Lane Hudson The Compass has been published by ECSU students since 1959. Vol. 27, No. 1. Questions and comments should be sent to The Compass, P.O. Box 815, Elizabeth City State University, Elizabeth City, NC 27909. These stations’ power range from 100 to 100,000 watts ERP. Yes, non-commercial radio has come of age. There was a time when col lege radio meant a low-watt station operated by students void of true professional guidance (my apologies to academia), void of music ro tations, slick promotions, and most of all, void of a mea- sureable audience. In recent years, the term “non-commercial” only means no commercials sold and “college radio” means only that the station is li censed/owned by a college or university. Yes, some are still student operated, but a rap idly growing number are pro fessionally operated and stu dent/volunteered assisted because they still train stu dents for careers in broad casting. Many of these sta tions ar now being managed and programmed by profes sionals from commercial ra dio and its allied fields. These stations ar powerful too, like WSSB-FM 80,000 watts, WSHA-FM 25,500 and V- 91FM-WRVS 10,000 watts. In the area of listenership based on ratings provided by Arbitron through the Radio Research Consortium, non commercial radio is getting an increasingly larger share of the audience. Yes, non commercial stations are in terested in shares, cumes and the rest because of them, too, the bottom line is important. Although they don’t sell con ventional time, they are al lowed to raise funds with a variety of promotional con cepts and many have operat ing budgets ranging any where from $100,000 to $1 million. They boast of IBM, Xerox, Merrill Lynch and the “mom and pop” stores that can’t af ford 30 seconds on the local commercial outlet as their sponsors or underwriters. Re cent FCC deregulations have even given light to actually sell time to certain concerns. The aforementioned devel opments - coupled with re sponsive programming like local news, coverage of com munity activities and an ag gressive playlist - these sta- tions ar quickly re establishing the standard of what radio used to be before the “more music, less talk”: syndrome and the introduc-: tion of full-time satellite ra- : dio. •; Finally, the college radio: stations still have students; active in their operations who buy music. They are the best: indicator of what’s “fresh”’ musically,and therefore, are a valuable asset to the pro gram or music director. I ask then, “Why are college sta-; tions having difficulty with something so basic as record service-not to mention pro-' motions?” The answer I believe lies with the industry’s lack of ac- knowledgement of what these stations’ are doing and the' lack of aggressiveness in marketing themselves to the industry. Through this col umn we intend to bridge the; gap between commercial ra dio, the record industry and the college radio, which is the starting point for the future of our industry.
Elizabeth City State University Student Newspaper
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Oct. 1, 1986, edition 1
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