Newspapers / North Carolina Central University … / Feb. 28, 1957, edition 1 / Page 2
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PAGE TWO THE CAMPUS ECHO THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1957 Let Us Get Merrily On Our Way Integration in the schools and colleges of the United States is a serious problem, not just one that belongs south of the Mason-Dixon line. The major cities in the United States have their own integration problems. Recently, the New York Board of Education made a sur vey dealing with this major problem. It was disclosed that the board intends to transfer 1,000 or more teachers from their present positions and send them to the more difficult, ones. The report showed that the difficult schools had a far greater proportion of emergency and substitute teachers than did the all-white schools in more favored economic areas. There is, of course, no official segregation in the city of New York. Segregation there is illegal. But, as has been pointed out by the NAACP, there is a de-facto form of segregation. This is caused by the present reisdential pattern. Children go to their neighborhood schools. When the Supreme Court held that segregation is un constitutional, some educators and commimity leaders in sisted that southern areas as well as northern areas should re examine their policies. The final reports by the New York Board have set off the fireworks. These deal with zoning aVid teacher assignment. In essence, the zoning report called for the creation of a central zoning unit with power to redraw school district lines. In soirte cases the new zones would perpiit children who now attend predominantly colored schools t^ go to near-by white schools. The teacher assignment recommendations would make it the board’s practice to assign a^ it sees fit, including moves to the difficult schools in predominantly under privileged sections of the city. The public school teachers of New |Tork stated that their “morale will break sharply” if t%y are assigned, against their will, to difficult schools. '|he Board stated that “all children deserve good teachers.^ We don’t want to penalize pupils in the poorer economijP area by giving them an undue proportion of the less ab|e teachers.” The final decision of adopting the tfeacher assignment and zoning will have to be made by the board. Actually, the new changes would not end all segregation in schools. It would take a housing revolution to do tljiat. As long as there are discriminatory residential patterns, there will be segrega tion in the schools. But the new progi^-im, as proposed by the Board on integration, woixld certainl^^ eliminate most of the by-products of segregation. The important thing, as we s«e it, however, is that New York has fully recognized its problem and is taking steps in the direction of solution. The rest of the coimtry may well follow this example) or, better still the advice of Judge Walter E. Hoffm^ who recently declared Vir ginia’s “pupil placemen^” law “unconstitutional on its face.” Said Judge Hofflnan, “we might as well get mer rily on our way (with integration)... I see no reason for postponement.” Letters To The Editor — "Jr ocking Chair Decisions Must Go Apparently North Carolina College’s Student Government has decided that it no Jonger can tolerate rocking chair de cisions; they must be burned— The students are getting rest less over the administrative policies of the college and have decided that the only way to gain attention is to refrain from the status quo. Recently,' there have been many discussions and meet ings dealing with certain rules and regulations govern ing the college community. These meetings and dis cussions were held because students were determined to be heard, since they are bulwarks of a free society in a free country. As a major source of new knowledge and as a training ground for many of tomorrow’s leaders, the students can truthfully say that they should be able to express their opinions about administrative policies. On February 16, 1957, a petition was submitted to the Student Welfare Committee concerning a list of grievances drafted by students leaders to bring to the attention of the administration their concern over administration policies. Student leaders representing each organization on the campus community were summoned in to express their major opin ions about the present conditions existing on the campus. It was the opinion of these students that one particular official connected with the administration has entirely too much au thority, for example, that of denying students the privilege of having a dance. The Student Welfare Committee is the com mittee to decide on punishments for students who violate the the rules and regulations of the college. It is the belief of these students that the Student Welfare Committee should exer cise this authority and not delegate it to one particular of ficial. An example of what can happen when one official has an undue amount of authority is the plight that the Veterans’ Club is now in because it cannot secure permission to have a dance. Its social program has, to all intent and purposes, been virtually wrecked by the arbitrary exercises of author ity on the part of one official. Camp^^^ Echo Member ASSOCIATED COLLEGIATE PRESS Member ASSOCIATED COLLEGIATE PRESS The CAMPUS ECHO, official student publication at North Carolina College at Durham, is published monthly during the regular school year. Subscription rates: $1.50 per school year. Second class mail privileges authorized at Durham, N. C> AMAZED GRAD 501 White Avenue Morgantown, W. Va. February 11, 1957 Dear Editor: I had the undesirable privilege of reading the editorial written by guest editorialist Andress Taylor in your January 30 pub lication. Mr. Taylor’s bit of re search on hurdling and pole vaulting I found to be amusing, but his attack upon the college’s actions relative to Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Atwater I found to be positively disgusting and un warranted. It is inconceivable to me where Mr. Taylor got the idea that he could compare a man who has emerged victorious over a field of the world’s best competitors in his specialty with a man who has excelled in a single one of the many colleges in the world. It is evi dent that Mr. Taylor’s concep tion of the merit of these two men relative to the benefit of the college was given very lit tle forethought; otherwise, even he could have seen that the college’s gestures to ward Mr. Calhoun before and after his Olympic debut were the least it could have done. Mr. Taylor’s point about the college’s need for more culture developing activities was well taken; however, it is. a pity that it has been vastly overshadowed by the absurdity of the groimds for his editorial. In some of the larger colleges and universities, fraternities and sororities spon sor many of the culture develop ing activities, but they too, like the college, must have funds and strong memberships. As I recall, Mr. Taylor has already denounc ed the fraternities and sororities on North Carolina College’s cam pus, much to the delight of many cynical nonaffiliates, probably re ducing the much needed student body support of those citizen building, character developing organizations to a lower ebb. Yet, Mr. Taylor wants a well deve loped cultural environment, so he says. There are more tactful ways, undoubtedly unknown to Mr. Taylor, of making people cognizant of the necessity of a more cultural environment than to take away from a man or organization the honor and opportunity which they so richly deserve in many in stances. It is ironic that not once did he say, “Mr. Calhoun is a great competitor and is an asset to both the track game and North Carolina College.” Yet, he was writing what was to have been his unbiased opin ion of the issue. (Continued on Page 12) TO TAYLOR Dear Mr. Taylor, I am siure that I voice the senti ments of the vast majority of the of the students here of our col iege community when I write that I think your article (in the January ECHO was both un timely and absurd. Mr. Taylor, you are, in all probability, among the hor ribly few who cannot appreci ate the beauty of the graceful strides of a hurdler such as our own Lee Calhoun; perhaps you are not cognizant of the beauti ful rhythmic repetition with which a hurdler clears the im pediments before him; perhaps you are not aware of the ter rific amount of stress and strain placed upon the athletes competing in today’s track and field events. Any distinguished scholars certainly deserved recognition upon revisiting our campus, but it would have been rather ridi culous for our college not to have backed a brilliant athlete such as Lee Calhoun. It would, I think, have been ridiculous for our school to have refrained from honoring an athlete who hon ored us. Mr. Calhoun not only brought honor to himself but he brought fame to the United States of America and attention to every student and faculty member at North Carolina Col lege. I personally think that ev ery student attending this col lege should be grateful and ap preciative rather than cynical and critical. Mr. Taylor, have you for gotten that we as a race have made progress through athletic as well as scholastic channels. Dr. Ralph Bunche has help ed us, but Jesse Owens has, too. Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune has helped us, but Althea Gibson has, too. Booker T. Washington elevated us, but Jackie Robin son did also. With no reflection on the par- (Continued on Page 12) CONGRATS Dear Editor: I have been planning to write you ever since your paper took honors in the Intercollegiate Press competition. My staff is interested in the details for possible emulation, and I would appreciate any informa tion you can gvie me about the compeition. And in the mean time—congratulations on a job well done! Sincerely yours, ALFRED FARRELL, Adviser 'The Lincolnian Lincoln University, Lincoln University, Pa. The college has a history of not giving too much con sideration to student proposals. This has caused many students to assume an attitude of despair on the prospect of ever securing a change in obnoxious rules and policies. In fact, it seems that the more distasteful a policy is and the more students protest against it, the more stead fastly does the administration adhere to it. Student pro posals are most frequently rejected on the groimds that they are impractical and unworkable. But how does any one know that they are? Have any of them ever been tested and found so? The students say that it is not necessary to have the police department and a regiment of chaperons at each dance. Is this so absurd? The short-sighted policy of disregarding student pro posals is sure to lead to some kind of disruption. Twice in the past two years we have had demonstrations simply because the students did not feel that they had any other effective means of redress. It is worthwhile to note that the second was much more violent than the first. Already the hand writing is on the wall. The students have already threatened to impeach the president of the Student Government if some thing is not done quickly. Let us hope that something is done in the immediate future to calm student unrest before some form of unpleasantness takes place. GROW VP! Dear Editor: I think that it is high time that we, the students of NCC, stop acting like adolescents and be gin facing facts. I say “we” be cause I feel just as guilty of the juvenile conduct on this campus as those who are actually responsible for it should feel. NCC and its students are in separable. Even though we re gret to admit it, we are just as liable for the dishonorable rec ognition which NCC receives as we are for the honorable rec ognition. College is “supposed” to be an institution of higher learn ing, but I feel that the students here are attempting to dis prove this maxim. Recently there have been indications on this campus which prove that we are not as mature and in telligent as high school stu dents. It is believed that “non sense” belongs to adolescents, but I think that college stu dents also share this possession with the teen-agers, for we find students at NCC full of it. We do things here that even surpass the pranks of hiffh school students. For example, when one stu dent decided to exercise one of his democratic privileges — free dom of the press — we resort to unintelligent means of opposi tion. We make use of the school’s property to post signs to display our disagreement, rather than use the voice of the stu dents — The Campus Echo — to voice our opinions in a democ ratic manner. This method of protest which we use is similar to that of an individual who has never attended college. By such a reaction, we are upholding the accusation that we are not col lege students but students en rolled in college. We are too narrow-minded in our thoughts. We should never allow ourselves to think that because we believe something everyone in the world should believe it. If we believe some thing, let us hold to that belief and do not try to force it upon others. The editorial published in the January edition of the CAMPUS ECHO has set off repercussions that imply that the students at NCC are not mature enough to accept intelligently an indi vidual’s personal opinion on a matter. If this implication is so, we have failed to obtain the ad vantages of a higher education. Are we going to continue to de generate toward ignorance? Are we always going to “follow the crowd” whether the crowd is right or wrong? Voltaire once said, “I dis approve of what you say, but 1 will defend to the death your right to say it.” This is a good policy for us to adopt as students of today and leaders of tomorrow. A person’s rights are his; we (Continued on Page 12) MISTAKEN VIEW Dear Editor: I think Mr. Taylor displayed his nescience magnificently in his article on Lee Calhoun’s participation in the Olympics. However, I do not think he wrote as he felt. If his purpose was to arouse the student body— mission completed. If his pur pose was to gain social, politi cal, or scholastic recognition, I think he failed in this endeavor, and I suggest he try some other approach. Melvin Woodburn
North Carolina Central University Student Newspaper
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Feb. 28, 1957, edition 1
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