II/3./JJ7
INSIDE
"All heart, all
the time"-
Book review
of Vibe's
Tupac
Shakur
Page 6
M
U
ECHO
EXCELLENCE WITHOUT EXCUSE
North Carolina Central University
Durham, NC 27707
Issue No. 71
Friday, Nov. 21,1997
ALSO INSIDE
•Lady Eagles basketball team
captures Michael Jordan RPM
Nissan Classic victory
Page 7
• New Honor Society courts
freshmen and sophomores for
spring inductions.
Page 2
In flight
Editor's note: The Campus Echo will publish
in this column brief news items on current and
former members of the NCCU community.
Our goal is to let you know about significant
and interesting achievements of the
university's students, faculty, staff and alumni.
We will publish news of awards and honors,
internships, full-time jobs, graduate study,
significant out-of-state travel and other
information that will show the full range of
activities by the Eagle family. If you have
something you would like to be included in
Eagles in Flight, please call us (560-6504) or
drop by our newsroom in 319 Farrison-
Newton Communications Building. We prefer
to have submissions in writing, and you must
include your name and local telephone
number so that we can verify information.
Students
Lateefah Williams, a senior English major,
and Shayla Nunnally, a senior political science
major, represented NCCU at Ohio State
University's Minority Graduate School Visitation
Program Nov. 2-4 NCCU honors students
Laura Bethea, Michelle Austin, Shanitra
McNealy, Chenita Rountree, Cheryl Woods,
Oyinkansola Ogunrinde, Kara Jackson,
Jennifer Rayner, Tamela Jeffries, Jereme
Sampson, Kenneth Paul Fauntleroy, Caesar
Otieno, Elisabeth Harrell, Jocelyn Scurlock,
Patricia Johnson, Brian Mills, Harry Lawrence
III, Jamil Spain, Robert Rusher, and Marcus
Funchess have traveled to Alcom State University
in Jackson, Mississippi to represent the university
at the National Association of African American
Honors Program Conference held until Nov. 23....
Faculty and staff
Dr. Jean Spaulding, a professor in the
department of psychology, has been named vice
chancellor for health affairs at Duke University....
Alumni
Valeria Frederick Cooper, '75, is a supervisor
at the Hertford County, N.C. Alternative
School....James Johnson, '77, is head of the
Urban Investment Strategies Center and the Urban
Enterprise Corporation, which promotes business
in innter-city communities. Johnson is also
founder of the Durham Scholars Program, which
helps tutor middle school students and provides
scholarship money to graduating high school
seniors in Durham....Wendell Tabh, '85, teaches
drama at Hillside High School in Durham, N. C,
and is the founder of his own entertainment
production company....Arthur Yancey, B.A. '86,
J.D. '91) is assistant district attorney in Chatham
and Orange counties, N.C Hope Newton, who
holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from
NCCU, has been appointed by the Pines of
Carolina Girl Scout Council to the position of field
director for Orange County.... Jessica Johnson,
'92, and a former Campus Echo editor, recently
received her doctorate in educational psychology
from Ohio State University in Columbus,
Ohio....Tracy Creech, '94, teaches at Neil Middle
School in Durham....Allen Cross, '94, teaches at
Carrington Middle School in Durham....Vanessa
Abernathy, '94, entered Duke University Divinity
School in the fall of 1996....Paige Barnes, '95, is
an administrative assistant at the Amerian Dance
Festival in Durham....Michael Salerno, '96,
teaches English and film studies at Jordan High
School in Durham....Khristi Dunn, '96, teaches
English at Cary High School in Cary....
Publication update
Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, the next
issue of The Campus Echo will be distributed on
Thursday, Dec. 11, instead of Thursday, Dec. 4.
The Campus Echo wishes everyone a safe and
happy Thanksgiving.
Hate crime teleconference
brings president to NCCU
by Shelvia Dancy
Editor-in-Chief
North Carolina Central University found its
way into the national spotlight Nov. 10,
participating in President Clinton's White House
Conference on Hate Crimes.
NCCU was one of 70 hve satelhte feed sites,
and the only site in selected in North Carolina.
Among those in attendance were NCCU
Chancellor Julius Chambers and outgoing
Durham Mayor Sylvia Kerckhoff.
The 17 speakers at NCCU focused on
reducing and eliminating hate crimes in North
Carolina as well as nationwide. Some even
'W^hether we like it or not, our
futures are bound together, and
it's time we acted like it/
Bill Clinton
President of the United States
attested to their own run-ins with racism and
hate crimes.
President Clinton, who spoke via satellite to
NCCU's audience in the Farrison-Newton
Building Auditorium, urged listeners to do their
part in helping to eliminate racism and hate
crimes in the country.
He warned that all citizens in America must
not be hesistant to take an active role in the
attempt.
"Whether we like it or not," said Clinton,
"our futures are bound together, and it's time we
acted like it."
Also participating in the president's panel
were Attorney General Janet Reno and several
citizens, including high school students, from
around the country.
The conference was co-sponsored by the
Committe on Racial Understanding, the Insitute
for the Study of Minority Issues, and the
Durham Human Relations Commission.
Alumni show honors Art Museum
by Danny Hooley
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Upon entering the North Carolina Central
University Art Museum, a visitor’s eyes are
immediately drawn to the right, where a wood and
pigment AMcan mask flanks three wooden antelope
headdresses and a “Female Cult Figure” in wood,
sculpted by an unknown artist in Senufo. The
display sits on a rock garden with a backdrop of
three beautifully carved wood door panels from
Nupe, depicting lizards and birds.
These works represent only a part of the
museum’s permanent collection of African and
Oceanic art. There are also many American works
in the collection that pay homage to Africa; for
example, as the eyes move left, the object of focus
is undoubtedly Caryl Henry’s 1994 mixed media
sculpture Ancestral Home, which sits in the foreground of the
museum’s entrance center.
A work of remarkable depth that gives the deceptive impression
of simplicity, Henry’s piece consists of a rectangular wood column
painted with various hues of blue, orange-yellow and blood orange,
and decorated with shells. It depicts Africa as a home where snakes
adorn the sides of the “house” and the front door is open to reveal
the faces of its citizens. The back door is also open, revealing a
beautiful sun goddess figure.
These and other works in the museum’s permanent collection.
which are displayed in the front
section of the museum on a rotating
basis, arc ciurently sharing space with
works in the “Re-Connecting Roots:
The Silver Anniversary Alumni
Invilalional.” This show, which runs
through Dec. 7, commemorates the
NCCU Art Museum’s 25th
anniversary by focusing on the art of
former NCCU students, some of
wliom have risen to prominence.
An example is photographer Joseph
E. Maynard, who attended NCCU
from 1966 to 1968. Maynard’s black
and white photographs of African
American figures including Miles
Davis, James Baldwin, artist l^omare
Bearden and anonymous people as
well, have been displayed throughout the world, widely published
and auctioned at the prestigious Sotheby’s of New York.
The existence of a freestanding museum that would house
student art as well as a permanent collection that honored works of
African American cultural significance was a longtime goal of early
university administrators. Unfortunately, they were prevenlod b\
financial realities from even starting the project until 1958. During
the previous three decades, two buildings destroyed by fire had to be
replaced, which took precedence over the construction of an art
See ART SHOW, page 6
The NCCU Art
Museum observes its
25th anniversary
with "Re-Connecting
Roots." Pictured:
Hurdler by 1972
NCCU graduate
George E. Mitchell.
Law students form council on race
Inside
Campus News
Pages 2-4
Perspectives
Page 5
Arts & Entertainment
Page 6
Sports
Page 7
Editorial
... Page 8
by Mari McNeal
Staff Writer
Twenty students at North Carohna Central University's School of Law
have banded together to form the NCCU Law School Race Relations
Initiative.
Yvette Walker, a second-year law student, formed the group in an effort
to improve race relations on NCCU's campus.
The group held its first meeting two weeks ago at the home of NCCU
School of Law professor Irving Joyner. In an interview with the Durham
Herald-Sun, Walker said she plans to schedule meetings once a month so
group members can discuss various racial issues and hopes to include
guest speakers who will introduce new topics for discussion.
A core group of students — three black, two white and one Asian —
was also formed to include the viewpoints of other ethnic backgrounds in
the discussions. The objective of the core group is to determine what types^
of activities can include all races that make up the student body.
Although NCCU is predominantly black, the School of Law is one of
the most diverse in the country: 42 percent of the law school's 360
students are white, 52 percent are black, and 2 percent are of other races.
Still, Walker said she believed the Race Relations Initiative is
necessary.
"Certainly, there is a need for a group like this," Walker said in an
interview with the Herald-Sun. "The whole concept of integration is to
integrate."
Walker also said about the School of Law: "It's not a chilly
environment, and it's not a hostile environment.
"But it's no different than what's going on in society right now. We
need to break out of the traditional mode of separating black and white."