Newspapers / Elizabeth City State University … / March 24, 1993, edition 1 / Page 3
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The Compass Wednesday, March 24, 1993 3 A Rebirth Of Pride The Compass salutes the members of ECSU's Concerned Black Awareness Council for their tenacious quest to en sure that students be exposed to black history before they graduate. Largely due to their efforts, it now appears that World Civ, a required course, will be be taught from an Africentric perspective. ECSU's administrators deserve praise, too, for their flexibility and wrill- ingness to listen to the voice of the stu dents, who, last year, startled some of- fidals with a silent demonstration to dramatize their request to mandate black studies at ECSU. Mandating black studies at ECSU is an important first step in raising the consciousness of our students about the rich contributioits African-Americans have made to the country and the world. Elsewhere in this issue, an article points out that air conditioners, irons, refriger ated trucks and stop lights were all invented by black Americans. Yet how niany people are even aware of these, and other notable accomplishments of black Americans? Black Americans have also made valu able contributions to the arts, science, music and literature—to name only a few. We believe that it is important that Americans of all races be made aware of these accomplishments. If we cannot learn about these contributions at an HBCU, where else are we to leam about them? It's a shame we need sfjedal courses to leam about the African role in his tory, but most standard history books have not given Africans, or African- Americans, a fair shake. The apparent change in the curricu lum comes at a time when more and more members of ECSU's black student body are showing pride in African his tory and culture. Witness, for example, ECSU's African-centered Coronation, and the guest speakers and meetings sponsored by CBAC—and witness Nikita Sutton's moving speech during the Black History Month Assembly. ECSU is not the only campus experi encing a rebirth of racial pride and soli darity. At UNC-Chapel Hill, after years of struggle, black students have finally prevailed in their efforts for a black cul tural center. The only debate left is a choice between two sites. This success off^ more proof of what focused, com mitted minority studentscanaccomplish. For those who doubt that America still needs improvement in race rela tions, we refer them to the video clip of four policeman beating a prone and helpless black motorist named Rodney King. Not all of ECSU'sblack students show an interest in history, and, although that is their right, we salute those stu dents, like Tarik Scott, Ursula McMiUion and Ralph Nixon, who are working hard to bring racial pride and solidarity to the campus. In the words of ECSU's freshman Nikita Sutton: "We as black people must stand as the rock. We as a black people must make sure that we keep this race alive." Class 'a waste of time' ECSU student declares Elizabeth City State University is accredited by the Conunission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to awani baccalaureate degrees. Twenty-two hundred copies of this publication were printed at 45 cents per copy. The Compass Editors: Lavenia Dameron * ran'hu Steve Cooke Photography Tim Smith Jody Riddick 1 Tarsha White Entertainment Advertising Manager n Graphics Consultant Photographers: Steve Cooke, Lavenia Dameron, Alec Harding, Jody hkwick, Tarsha White „ ^ Staff writers: Steve Cooke, Bruce Campt>ell, Ayanna Dorsey, K^ha Ga^, Melanie Harrington, Anna Herring, Xanthe Ivey, Evonne Ma^ri, Jody RiWia, Yolande Silver, Tarik Scott, Rodney Stallings, Pamela Tolson, Reginald Worlds. Compass is published by Elizabeth City State Univeraty uwJer the ^*P9rtment of Language, Utefature and Conmunication, Dr. Urida Rorence . Mr. Stephen March, faculty advisor. ~ ^ The Compass welcomes letters to the editor. Letters shoukJ be «n^EKU ^ 81^ Qaabeth City, NC 27909. All letters must be signed and include the . telephone number. They may be edited for length, clarity, and t^, as well as accuracy and 9f8mmar. Because of liijiit^. s(:;ape, np^^l letters can pubtehed.. _ To TheEditon If you were a school administrator and you knew a certain professor was going to be leaving in the middle of the semester because she was awarded a grant for studies, would you allow a class of hers to be offered? I wouldn't, not unless I already had another profes sor lined up and the students who signed up for the class knew that there would be a change of professors. Let me tell you what happened in "Introduction to Phonetics, " last se mester. The first day of class, we seven female students, were told that there were some conflicts in scheduling and that the class might not be available. We were told to come back Friday after noon or Monday morning and we would find out whether the class was available or not. We returned and were told that the class would be taught. We thought, "Great! No problems! We need this course for our majors!" But we were wrong to think we wouldn't have any nwre problems. The next problem was that we had to buy a workbook. After the initial shock of finding out it would cost us twenty dollars, we went to buy them. Guess what? The book store did not have enough copies for all the students. This was hard to believe! How could you not have enough copies? You only have seven students! Once we bought the books, and the ones who did not have books placed orders for them, we began class. Or so we thought. The professor gave us worksheets to do since not everyone had books. Cool. I can understand that. What I can't understand, is why, when we are paying for three course hours, that we oiJy meet two days a week! Sometimes only once! Now, I'll admit that it is nice not to have class once in a whilebut only having class once a week? Please! How are we supposed to leam the basic fundamentals of speech therapy when we aren't in class with a teacher? More bad news came. We heard it through the grapevine that our profes sor would be leaving about three weeks before midterms. We asked her if this was true and she said it was. She said that we should be getting a new teacher by midterms. She wanted us to cover chapters 1-5 by midterms, on our own! We hadn't even covered two chapters in the whole six weeks of class! Now I realize that most of your learn ing is supposed to be done by yourself, but if you don't understand what you are doing and have no one to ask, what are you supposed to do? We signed in with the secretary, did the assignments given to us, and we waited. We waited until they told us we had a teacher, but due to bureaucratic red tape we had to wait until her papers were processed. Our new instructor's papers were processed within a week and a half and then there she was. She is a luce lady and I wouldn't want to hurt her feel ings, but we were lost. It wasn't her fault. She wasn't the one who said, "Offer the class, we'll worry about the teacher later." She was a victim of the administration as much as we were. I feel that this class was a waste of all the students'time and efforts. Although I have decided not to go into this field, the other six students who are inter ested in speech therapy are in trouble. They are going to have to leam what wasn't taught, just to be able to take the rest of the courses offered in this field. I feel that we should be refunded our money for this class. What did we pay for? We paid for a lot of grief and not much class. Sarah Beth Workman Poetry The Moon and I Beneath the mcx)n, I sit. And, here. Love, I vyrill wait for you to come join me. I pray you will not be late. For it is getting lonely beneath the silver moon. Oooh! There's a falling star! I v^sh to see you soon. Raindrops Are Falling Raindrops are falling. The clouds are gray. The grass is dew-filled. There's no sun today. There's a break in the clouds. The sky's turning blue. The sun's coming out. That's my image of you. Sheika She^
Elizabeth City State University Student Newspaper
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March 24, 1993, edition 1
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