Newspapers / Elizabeth City State University … / Dec. 9, 1988, edition 1 / Page 2
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f Page 2 Friday, December 9, 1988 THE OPINION PAGE THE COMPASS Robin Sawyer Assoct3t6 Editor.... Lis3 Gfc^ory Managing Photographer Richard Mclntire Advertising Manager Deborah Jacobs Photographers David jo,ne, Richard Mclntire Leamon Pearce Graphics Consultant Diane Patterson Staff Artist He*in Cruz Staff Writers Nicholas Allen, . Karen Blanchard, Darryl Brown, Lynne Chapman, Dwayne Collins, Antoine Davis, Shawn Everett, Beverly ^Jphnson, Travis Manuel, Ursula McMillion, Amy Mitchell, Robin Pincus. Nancy Porter, Sylvia Purvis, Johnny Reid, Alisa Rotiinson, Tammy Taylor, Monique Thomas Sports Mark Morris Mike Stone Edjtorial Assistants Craig Avondo, Samantha Epps, Renee Knight Hm Cmiiuu n published bn £liiib«lli Cilj Stjie Unineisity Studenls undei the direclion of Ihe Depirtmenl of Un|ui(e, Wereluie ud Communication. Dr. Aiiii« Hendervin, Chdirperson, and Mr. Stephen M^tch, tacultf itdviMr Tbt CorniMU nelconie> ieWtn to trie editor. Urters $tiould t>e sent to tCSU Box 815. [Ii/abeth City. NC 27909. All ktters mu&t be utned ind lot.lude the wiitei's adO'eu »nd telephone numkt. They ni^jr t>e edited tor >enKih. cUnty and taste, a well a^ fo( accutacy and ^(aintnai BeciUM of limited ipiice, not all letters c«n be published. IA failure ^ to serve SGA Vice-President Clinton Williams blames the ECSU student body for the failure of the Homecoming Concert. “A building cannot stand,” said Williams, in assigning blame to ECSU stu dents, “without support.” We disagree that the students are to blame. Williams’ contention that students should have shown their “sup- *port” by paying $10 to hear a band they don’t like isn’t fair to students, many of whom are living on limited budgets. SGA should have shown their “support” of the students by choosing a band students want to hear. Moreover, we feel that the entire way SGA officials have handled the Homecoming Concert shows an un willingness to be open with the students who elected them, and whose best interests they are supposed to serve. Although SGA had months to work on getting a band for Homecoming, they didn’t announce their decision - until about a week before the event. Only about 67 students attended the concert. Its failure has left SGA j,,^“thousands” of dollars in the red, which ultimately hurts n- ECSU students. There is no good excuse for this, in our view. A band should have been chosen earlier, and it ""should have been a group more popular on ECSU’s campus than either EU and Roger featuring Zapp. The problem is compounded by SGA’s self-righteous - efforts to pin the blame on students, who would, no doubt, be willing to forgive officials honest enough to ^Tadmit their actions had been less than desirable. SGA officials are not laws unto themselves; their job is to serve. And the Homecoming Concert fiasco reveals a "^failure on the part of SGA to effectively serve ECSU’s students. SGA has also refused to reveal to The Compass and ESCU students the amount of money the concert lost. , SGA’s refusal to reveal this information is not only Zrillegal, it is a violation of the trust students have placed ~"ln SGA officials. That information is a matter of “public —record” as defined by North Carolina law, and SGA is ^required, by law, to make this information public. SGA officials were entrusted with the money they spent bringing two unpopular bands to campus for ""Homecoming. And they should reveal the amount of the : Joss to those whose interests the SGA was elected to --represent: the students. ~ Only in dictatorships and in communist nations do gov ernments conduct their business in secrecy, without letting the people know what is going on. ECSU students deserve better treatment than this. Was that fish or what? To The Editor: Why doout-of-stateECSUstu- ; dents who pay over $3,000 a year to : attend our University have to walk out of the cafeteria without being : satisfied by their meals? Some students say the meals ; are nutritional but not enough. “I feel the cafeteria food should I be improved because we don’t get ‘ enough, and we get the same meals ^ all the time,” said Choanda Brown, a • sophomore from Plymouth, N.C. • “It sounds surprising that you ' can’t get enough to eat as well as a iKaiiety when you are paying your hard-earned money,” said Sherri Newel, a sophomore from Weldon. "The food does not look good at all, that jt’s not very tasty. It’s enough to rttakc you lose your appetite.” Eric Harris, a junior from Portsmouth, Virginia, said, “I’m dis gusted with the food as well as those two little eight-ounce glasses that are allowed for every one’s drinking pleasure.” The University should improve the qual i ty and quantity of food avail able in the cafeteria. One day I was in there and they served the greasiest chicken I had ever seen. This chicken looked as if it had been refried three or four times in the same grease. I have also eaten some fish burgers which they call “a seafood burger,” but 1 honestly could not tell whether it was fish or something they scraped from the bottom of the grill. And what they call spaghetti looks more like nobles that have been silting in water, with a sauce that tastes hke water, loo. I admit there is a little bit of meal in it, but if you didn’t see it you would never know. Knowing all of this we come back to the same question: “Why?” Eric Jones Roderick Fields Trenton, NC has been “. . . the attitude has about the same... As for the morality question, you’ll always have those who’ll indulge because of their natural urges.” Sex: Talk of ECSU Are the moral standards at ECSU declining? Crystal Godfrey ChesapeaKe, VA "I’ve noticed over the years, the sense of morality has improved among the females on the campus. Women are being more careful, as well as men, primarily because of AIDS.' Pacquin McClain Rocky Mount, NC “You think you’re safe, you really aren't, in a w are a bit too free. Peo decisions but are not possible consequences. secure, when i ly, i fee) thing# I ite are making examining the William Pone Whiteville, NC “It is simply a fact that young men and women are fulfiiling fantasies they may have had while they were in high school. " Mi Mona New Queens, NY “I don’t think much has changed! They don’t take it seriously, like It should be. People don’t tend to listen, it’s dangerous out here and everywhere, as seen by various incidents which have happened on campus. Something drastic will have to happen for a change.” Tony Spruill Chesapeake, VA “This is a very moral campus. Rea son being the girls and guys can interact like adults and leave deci sions of this nature to themselves.” Guest Golumnists Family story inspires faith, courage By Ericka Ruffin I still remember the day I came home from school crying. I told my mother that I wanted to become class "sweetheart," but I knew I wouldn't win because there were other girls running who looked better than me. My mom sat me down and told me a story about herself. My mom was the first black woman to receive a secretarial job at a manufacturing company in our town. She said that my father de cided he could no longer pay the bills from his salary alone and she needed to get a job. So my mom went to the company to apply for a job. During her interview she was told that she was too qualified to work on the yard, and they didn't want to give her a desk job because the company's owner didn't feel that a minority member should hold such a position. My mom decided to fight for what she described as a fair chance. She knew that she was just as capable as any other women of holding that position. She called the Better Business Bureau and made calls to Raleigh, North Car olina. After several weeks of calls and office visits she received a call from the manufacturing company asking her to come to work Mon day. She said she knew they had hired her because of all the work they had gotten behind in, and they didn't think she could do it. But she worked hard day after day, and took work home. She continued to work there for 13 years. My mom told me this story, not in the hopes that I would be like her, but to help me realize that things don't come easy in life. And even if I didn't win, there is satis faction in giving it your best. This story had a great influence on my life. Not only did I realize that things don't come easy, buti instilled more courage and deten^ nation in me. There have been 1^ of times in my life when I wa afraid to say what I felt or just stah up for myself. But after a short pe^ riod of time, from somewhere de|i down this courage comes back ani gives me more determination to s(| or do things that seem impossible J I believe that if all children hav^aB story like mine to recall each timil they are downhearted, they will bel able to face any obstacle that mayD confront them. Without this storj| I never would have gotten this in life. And I am grateful for my mother for sharing it with me. The myth about black athletes, white schools By Joseph D. Johnson What four attributes do Andre Dawson, Doug Williams, Jerry Rice, Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd, Walter Payton, Vince Coleman, and Willis Reed have in common? They are all male. That's one. Black. That's two. Athletes. That's three. What's four? Every one of them entered professional sports from histori cally black colleges. Namely, Florida A & M, Grambling, Jack son State, and Mississippi Valley State. black athlete must attend a predom inantly white college or university to be able to successfully pursue a career in professional sports after graduation. I bring that up to poke a hole in a myth. A mistaken notion that a If that myth were reality, the An dre Dawsons' (the National League's MVP in 1987): the Doug Williams' (MVP for Super Bowl XXII) of this world would enjoy a rewarding col lege career then drop from sight. The reality is that a good athlete will get noticed no matter which school he attends. That brings up another very important point: at tending from a historically black school is no less valuable-either athletically or academically-than at tending a predominantly white TtttSORE 7 school. Before I began my own business last year, I was a vice president of Personnel and Organization for Xe rox Corporation. In that capacity I met and worked with engineers from Prairie View; math majors from Jackson State and Lincoln University; systems analysts from Hampton and Grambling; and a Xerox business division president, Bernard Kinsey, who graduated from Florida A&M. And three graduates of my alma mater, Lincoln University in Mis souri—Earl Wilson, the European Director of Marketing for IBM; Stan Scott and Thomas Shrosphere, senior vice presidents of Phillip Morris have also made solid con tributions in the business world. These people are certainly just as successful, and in some cases moi'p so, than their black friends who went to predominantly white coK leges or universities. I am proud to be an alumni of Lincoln and my graduation from a black university certainly didn't hold me back, isn't holding me back, and won't ever hold my back What can hold blacks back is-all too frequently-their inability to get a quality education at a predomi nantly white college. That's brought about because they must—deal with the race relations issues, which take time and sap en ergy. At a black college, race isn't an issue. Getting a good education is. CPS
Elizabeth City State University Student Newspaper
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