THE CAMPUS ECHO
EXCELLENCE WITHOUT EXCUSE
ISSUE 21
NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL UNIVERSITY
FEBRUARY 25,1993
Students Request Action Concerning
Government's GPA Requiremnents To Hold
NEWS
BRIEFS
Pizza Hut
Management
Apologizes
By MAURICE CROCKER
NEWS EDITOR
The regional vice president of
Pizza Hut Coiporation apologized
Feb. 16 to NCCU students for the
behavior of the manager of the
store on Highway 55 in a Feb. 10
altercation at the store.
In the incident, three members
ofThe Campus Echo staff- Maurice
Crocker, Tracey Marbury, and
Ronda Robinson- and the Pizza
Hut manager Ann Grabbs
exhanged insults in an argument
over the price of pizzas ordered by
telephone
Huffman met with the three stu
dents involved: Jason Williams,
the editor of The Campus Echo;
and Charles G. Spellman, a jour
nalism professor from the English
department and assured them that
Pizza Hut did not sanction the use
of racial epithets by its employees
and that the manager had been rep
rimanded.
Huffman pledged to review the
company’s customer relations
policy and all other policies related
to college students.
Huffman also said he would re
view Pizza Hut’s delivery policy.
Pizza Hut does not deliver to
NCCU, even though the campus is
within the delivery area.
“We tried delivering here for
three months,’’ Huffman said, “and
within those three months six driv
ers were robbed and one seriously
injured.’’
Huffman said that the African-
American community accounts for
20 percent of Pizza Hut’s business
in the Research Triangle. Huffman
oversees 40 stores and 12,000 em
ployees in the area.
A second meeting between
Huffman, students, faculty and the
Durham human relations
Cmnmision is plarmed today.
Former NCCU
Dean Died Saturday
Dr. Joseph Avery Pittman, dean
of the Graduate Schiol at North
Carolina Central University from
1971 to 1979; died Saturday in
Durham Reginal Hospital. He was
79.
Mr. Pittman joined the faculty
at NCCU in 1947, and before his
appointment as dean of the Gradu
ate School, had served as chairman
of the department of education and
a Undergradate School dean.
He was a professor in the de
partment of education and wrote
numerous monographs and papers
on educational research.
He held an bachelor’s degree
fromTalladega College, amaster’s
degree in mathematics from New
York university a doctrate in edu
cation from Columbia University.
He also studied at Rutgers Univer
sity and Iowa State University.
Beforcjoining the NCCU fac
ulty, he had taught mathematics at
at Delaware State College, West
Virgina College and Bennett Col
lege.
Offices Next Year
By JASON WILLIAMS
EDITOR
Last night student govern
ment officials met with stu
dents petitioning against the
3.0 GPA required to hold of
fice next fall and agreed after
an hour of discussion to meet
with Vice Chancellor
Buchanan today to discuss the
matter further.
Forty students, including 13
members of Congress, at
tended.
Some students are petition
ing the current 3.0 GPA cu
mulative
to hold the offices of stu
dent body president, vice
president, and Miss NCCU,
and editors of The Campus
Echo, The Eagle Yearbook,
and Ex-Umbra.
“The changes are a result
of a Nov. 15,1990, meeting,”
said Vice Chancellor of Stu
dent Affairs Dr. Roger Bryant,
who was also at the meeting.
Bryant took his information
from a letter addressed to then
Chancellor T. R. Richmond
dated Feb. 13, 1991.
Before 1991, candidates
qualified with a 2.5 GPA.
According to the letter, the
GPA requirement was raised
to a 2.7 in the fall semester of
1991 and then raised to a 3.0
to be effective in the fall se
mester of 1992.
Bryant also said that the
Board of Trustees approved
the changes Feb. 20, 1991.
Some students who don’t
have the GPA requirements
are petitioning the issue and
are attempting on get on the
ballot.
Due to the controversy, the
Miss NCCU pageant has been
temporarily postponed and the
planned activities for election
week are clouded by student
concern, according to Lacky
Adkins, a candidate for Miss
NCCU who successfully peti
tioned last week to get on the
ballot with less than 90 hours.
“One reason for the
changes,” Bryant said, was the
quality of the persons running.
Many of the SGA presidents
didn’t graduate on time and
had mediocre grade point av
erages.” *
Over the last four years,
only one president, Ericka
Johnson, has graduated in four
years.
Bryant insists that the
change was gradual and that
people had the opportunity to
make changes.Bryant says
that changing the requirement
would suggest “that we
couldn ’t find people to fill the
requirement.”
Vice President
“This elitist mentality both
ers me,” said Tonia Hicks,
who’s petitioning to run f^r
vice president. Hicks, who his
a 2.8 GPA, questions the use
of a GPA as a qualificatitjn
for candidates.
Hicks cites her roles as a
member of Junior Congress
and as culture chairperson for
student government as aspects
of her leadership skills more
important than the GPA.
“You can’t tell me I need a
3.0 or better,” Hicks said. “I’m
an active member in SGA, and
I didn’t know anything about
the rule.”
Currently, there’s only one
person on the ballot for vice
president-Bob Hanson.
Hanson, who qualified with
a 3.5 GPA, has raised a few
eyebrows among students.
“I want to give the author
ity back to the people,”
ber of student government.
Cox claims he wasn’t aware
of the change until last week.
But according to the min
utes from the Nov. meeting,
Cox seconded the motion to
vote on the change.
Miss NCCU
April McClemmy has a 2.9
GPA.
“Such a high GPA require
ment would make student gov
ernment an honor society,”
she said “and elections
shouldn’t be an honor soci
ety. That’s not a representa
tion of the student body.”
McClemmy claims that 80
percent of the student popula
tion doesn’t have a 3.0. “I’ve
This elitist mentality bothers me.-
Tonia Hicks
Hanson said. “I’m not going
to take it [the position] be
cause I’m unopposed.”
Hanson says that if he
doesn’t receive a certain num
ber of votes, he will decline
the position. Hanson declined
comment on the number until
According to Bryant the
measure raising the GPA re
quirement to 3.0 was unani
mously passed by 34 mem
bers of Congress during the
Nov. meeting.
However, former Congress
members Ginja Massey and
Doris Goins both claim they
don’t remember SGA ever
voting on the issue.
“We never changed it,” says
Tyrone Cox, a former mem-
looked at the Dean’s List,”
McClemmy said.
McClemmy also points out
that according to the “Eagle
Eye Handbook” such a vote
should of gone to the Admin
istrative Judicial Hearing
Board, then to the vice chan
cellor for student affairs, then
to the student body for a vote.
The policy. Article XI,
states this on page 33 of the
handbook.
Yet, no one can say for sure
that the process took place.
“We have no record of the
mass meeting taking place,”
said Vice President Derek
Brown. “We can’t say it hap
pened and can’t assume it hap
pened or didn’t happen,”
Brown said.
Lacky Adkins did success
fully petition to get on the
ballot.
Officials had told her that
she needed a 90 hours to cam
paign for Miss NCCU.
Adkins said that according
to the material she has read in
the handbook, a candidate
only needs 80 hours to run.
Adkins wrote a letter to the
University attorney,A.C.
Ward, and the petition was
granted by the Student Affairs
Office.
According to reliable
sources there are at least two
other students who cannot
compete for Miss NCCU be
cause of the GPA requirement.
“We need another interest
meeting and elections need to
be expanded,” Adkins said.
Adkins stressed the impor
tance of not rushing her cam
paign. Although she has the
GPA requirements, she be
lieves that the rule “is preju
diced and neglects the student
body and students who wish
to be involved.”
SGA Officials
“This is unfortunate and un
timely,” said election board
co-chairman Charles
Feamster.
‘We need to know what the legal
ramifications will be fimn eith^ de-
dsicn,” said student body President
Phyllis Jeffers. If the measure is
changed, the qualified persons’ legal
ri^ts may be violated, Jefi^ sakL
Jeffers andBrownplannedtomeet
with Vice Qiancellor Buchanan to
day at 8 a.ta to discuss the matter
further. There will also be a meeting
toni^t at 6 at he Student Union.
Chambers Call^For ’Sweeping Reforms*
In First State OfThe University Address
By ERNIE SUGGS\
Herald-Sun Special
In what amounted to his first
state of the university message,
N.C. Central Chancellor Julius
Chambers bluntly told trustees
that the school is failing in
many areas, and called for
sweeping reforms.
“I’m disturbed about a lot of
things I’ve found at Central,”
Chambers said Wednesday in
his first address to the board of
trustees. “I was talking to some
of my former colleagues and I
told them that I didn’t know
that so many problems could
exist in one place.”
Speaking in the quiet, mea
sured tones for which he has
become known, Chambers said
he was unable to present a clear
vision for the future of the uni
versity as he had planned. In
stead, he focused on areas that
needed to be drastically im
proved for the university to
compete and become a
“topnotch liberal arts institu
tion.”
“In order to get to that point,
we have to make some
changes,” he said.
Chambers’ long laundry list
of problem areas spanned many
facets of university life, includ
ing student performance, ad
missions, financial aid and cur
riculum.
NCCU education students
scored considerably lower on
the National Training Exam and
the General Knowledge exam
than their counterparts, he said.
“This meant that we are nof
doing what we should to pre
pare our students.”
Chambers said he was
equally shocked when he
looked at the grade point aver
ages of athletes.
“We are not working with
our athletes,” Chambers said.
“We can’t bring a student here
and not make sure that student
graduates.”
Having said that, he added a
kicker: Despite theirproblems.
athletes graduate at a higher
rate than other students.
“If we are not doing it with
our athletes, we’re certainly not
doing it with our regular stu
dents,” Chambers said. “The
overall GPA [grade point
averagel is low, the SAT scores
are low and a disproportionate
number of students are being
assigned to remedial pro
grams.”
A whopping 71 percent of
incoming freshman have to take
remedial courses, he said.
“Maybe we are doing some
thing wrong in admissions.”
Chambers said. “The board will
have to consider what our ad
mission standards will be.”
Chambers also said that sev
eral offices on campus are not
doing their jobs. He singled out
financial aid.
“I still can’t tell you what
we can offer a prospective stu
dent in terms of aid,” Cham
bers said. “And because of that,
we are losing in the competi
tion for students
The toes you step on today may be connected to the ass you have to
-seen on an office door near RTF
Shifting to the positive mo
mentarily, Cham^rs said he
was impressed with the work
that the home economics, biol
ogy, chemistry and music de
partments have done.
But he charged other depart
ments to work for improve
ment.
“We must insist on the ac
creditation of our business
school. Graduate and under
graduate,” Chambers said.
“There is no excuse for operat
ing a non-accredited depart
ment.”
The school of education re
cently passed accreditation,
while the business and law
schools are seeking accredita
tion. The nursing school should
strive for excellence, he said.
“We don’t just want to meet
the requirements. We want to
be a top-notch nursing school—
not a department.”
One of Chambers ’ other tar
gets was the lack of long-range
plans.
“All of us should be under
kiss tomorrow,"
review,” Chambers said. “I was
shocked that we do not have
longrange plans for develop
ment. We must develop long-
range plans.”
He said a study will be con
ducted to chart the course of
the university. And at the end
of the month, a committee will
present Chambers a report of
the top six university priori
ties.
Among them could be im
proving the student union,
renovating or building a new
women’s gym, expanding the
library, building a parking deck
and greenhouse and expanding
McLendon McDougald Gym
nasium.
“The dreams we have for
NCCU can’t be IfundedI by the
state. We have to expand our
private support,” Chambers
said.
In closing his first address
to the board as chancellor.
Chambers said it is instructive
to look at events in Mississippi
and Louisiana.