Page6A - THE CHARLOITE POST - Thursday, January 5, 1988
CI)t CJjarlottc ^osit
Gerald O. Johnson, Publisher
Robert L. Johnson, Co-Publisher
Jafyne Strong, Editor
Editorials
Belief Important To Success
By HOYLE H. MARTIN
Editorial Writer
Those of you who watched Notre Dame re
tain its No. 1 football ranking, while claim
ing the mythical national championship,
probably missed or were unaware of the
real success story hidden behind the head
lines of Tuesday morning's newspapers.
That story centers around a man who over
came adversity and a whole state - nearly
two million people - that revived a belief in
itself. It is a story that confirms an editori
al we wrote two months ago (Oct. 27, 1988)
under the title 'The Courage To Be Your
Best."
Our story begins with an Associated Press
report about a skinny little kid who at 12
years of age said he wanted to be the foot
ball coach at Notre Dame when he grew up.
The very idea of such a lofty goal seemed
simply impossible. Why? As a high school
sophomore the kid was struggling to attain
a weigh of 100 pounds. As the smallest
player on the football team, even the small
est shoulder pads were too big, but he wore
them with pride. The little fellow said too
that "I never had a date with a girl until I
was a sophomore in college and when the
guys wanted to know what was going on so
cially, they never called me because I never
knew anything." Even In adulthood, the
kid who had reached a proud 152 pounds,
appeared to be a person of low self-esteem.
He said, "I'm not going to Impress anybody .
. . I'm not a very smart individual. I gradu
ated (from high school) 234th In a class of
278" He recalled also that when he told his
high school guidance counselor that he
planned to attend Kent State University as
opposed to going to work in a local steel
mill as she partly had suggested, he quoted
her as sa5dng, 'You don't have the academic
background to succeed."
No, we are not talking about a black kid
from the ghetto of one of our major cities.
we are talking about a still skinny eye
glasses wearing nerd-looking fellow from
East Liverpool, Ohio, named Lou Holtz. Yes,
the same Lou Holtz who this past Monday
led the "Fighting Irish" of Notre Dame Uni
versity to a national football champion
ship in a 34 to 21 win over also unbeaten
and untied with a similar 11-0 season
records West Virginia University.
After serving as an assistant coach of five
Division I schools, Holtz moved on to be
come head coach at five other Division I
schools. The AP report notes here that, "At
each stop, he (Holtz) inherited a losing pro
gram, but he took each team to a bowl game
by his second year."
Lou Holtz is a man with a message. A
man with a mission and one willing to
reach beyond his inner self for the courage
to be his level best.
West Virginia, is a little known, little
talked about state surrounded by Pennsyl
vania, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and
Ohio. With mining historically the chief
industry of the state, and with the heavily
declining demand for coal. Its primary
mining project. West Virginia has been in
serious economic decline for many years.
Therefore, with little to boast and feel good
about, the sudden rise to football promi
nence of West Virginia University with an
11-0 season gave them a rally call for a new
sense of pride. These fine "Mountain State"
people were saying "we can compete with
the best of them."
In the absence of any kind of professional
sports team or other major university. West
Virginia University became the pride and
joy of the entire state. Forget that powerful
Notre Dame spoiled an otherwise perfect
season, our "Mountain State" cousins found
a good reason to be feel good, to lift their
heads up high, to bask in the glory of victo
ry and to believe, in the words of Jesse
Jackson, "I am somebody."
It's Time To Reassess Our Values
In 1966 an authentic study of 83 percent of
college freshmen said that "developing a
meaningful philosophy of life" was listed
as the most important aspect of college.
Twenty-one years later, in 1987, being
"very well off financially" had risen to the
top as being of highly "essential or very Im^
portant" reasoning for attending college. To
"develop a meaningful philosophy of life"
had fallen to the lowest point In the survey.
This latest survey of 290,000 freshmen in
over 500 colleges and universities showed
that 75.6 percent were primarily Interested
In earning a lot of money: only 39.4 listed
philosophical concerns as most Important.
A similar study of high school students In
1980 showed that of the very high number
of high school students who worked part-
time (63 percent), the vast majority used
their income as a contribution to the fami
ly Income. However, in 1987, 80 percent of
16,000 working high school seniors said
they spend their earnings for their person
al needs and interests only — clothing, ste
reo equipment, records, video tapes, mo
vies. etc. Only five percent said they use
tlieir income to augment the family in
come.
Thus, in the face of American youth hav
ing become overwhelmingly materialistic,
it is refreshing to know of a youth who
could very easily be materialistic by way of
his personal success, but is not. We are re
ferring to Malcolm - Jamal Warner or bet
ter known as Theo on the highly successful
"Cosby Show." In a book entitled, Theo and
Me. young Warner says we are living in
what Is called the "Me" generation, that is. a
preoccupation with "self and no Interest In
the needs and concerns of others.
Theo says candidly as an 18-year-old "I
certainly don't claim to have all the an
swers and I'm no sociologist, but I do know
that we who are young have somehow lost
track of our values, values that we are sup
posed to learn from our parents." Thus, pos
sibly misplaced values among parents or
failure to spend ample time with their kids
may lead to Involvement with drugs, street
gangs and the "Me" attitude which can lead
to crime growing out of selfishness. He
notes the gap between an entertainer earn
ing $30,000 a week and a school teacher
earning $30,000 a year. Is there any won
der. Theo asks, "how can we blame a 17-
year-old kid earning $15,000 a week selling
drugs when a college diploma cannot guar
antee a job that pays even half as much?"
Instead of making a number of new year's
resolutions that most of us forget as soon as
we make them, we need to begin thinking
seriously about Lou Holtz and the people of
West Virginia who did not let adversity or
the injustice in our society lead them to
crime, drugs and worse. The people of cou
rage reflect the kind of values that Theo is
referring to in his book. His Is a writing
that we all, young and not so young, can
learn much from. Think about It In this
new year of 1989 eind we may be here to say
thank God at this time In 1990. HAPPY
NEW YEAR TO EACH OF YOU.
The Arrival of Pro Basketball
Sometime in the early eight
ies, I wrote an editorial dismiss
ing the feasibility of having a
professional team of any kind
In Charlotte. At that time, Char
lotte's Metropolitan Statistical
Area (MSA) was less than half a
million people and the city was
just not In a position to support
professional sports.
What has happened In such a
short time that has caused this
city that I love dearly to be set
ting an attendance record for an
expansion basketball team? I
thought you would never ask.
One of the major happenings
was the Influx of northern car
petbagger (smile) to our fair city
escaping the highly taxed, urban
areas of the North. Major north
ern firms decided to relocate to
the South and bring a lot of their
employees with them. These
people, generally, had easy ac
cess to major sporting events
and had grown accustomed to
them. Their arrival brought in
direct pressure to look into ma
jor sports for our area. You see,
professional sports is a drawing
card for industries to relocate to
an area just like quality of
schools, roads and neighbor
hoods.
But long before the carpetbag
gers arrived, some very key
events took place that enhanced
the feasibility of a professional
team coming to Charlotte. Obvi
ously, the new Coliseum was the
major happening. Without the
no-name Coliseum that seats
25,000, the NBA wouldn't have
even looked In our direction.
But just as important as the
new Coliseum but more subtle
was the airport expansion. The
ease of getting to and from Char
lotte plays a big role in the type
of support a team can expect.
Would you fty to see your favor
ite team play if it required you to
change flights several times?
Who would want to play a team
that required you to change
flights to get to the city? The air
port expansion allowed Char
lotte to get more direct flights in
and out of Charlotte, thereby
making the Queen City more ac
cessible by air.
In this same light, accessibili
ty by road was vastly improved.
The completion of 1-77 and 1-85
in North and South Carolina in
essence expanded Charlotte’s
MSA. In the early eighties, driv
ing to Greensboro was a chore.
You could drive to Sallsbuiy on
1-85, then you had to pick up
Highway 29.
You picked up 1-85 on the other
side of High Point. Driving to
Columbia, S.C., was even worse
on 1-77 to Rock Hill, then High
way 21 to Columbia. Tlie com
pletion of these interstate high
ways made Charlotte more
accessible from all directions.
Driving to Greensboro or Co
lumbia takes just over an hour
(if you don't get a ticket)-- a
mere commute.
Another remarkable occur
rence that indirectly benefited
Charlotte's pro basketball ac
quisition was Interstate bank
ing. Congress changed the laws
that restricted banks from doing
business outside of their pre
scribed jurisdictions. This
created a situation that allowed
the aggressive North Carolina
banks to acquire banks in other
states. Consequently, the state
wide banking firms of NCNB,
Wachovia, and First Union grew
from statewide banking powers
with assets of $5 to $10 billion
to super regional banks with as
sets of $25 to $50 billion. This
phenomenal growth made it
possible for these institutions to
provide the necessary capital
and assume more financial risk
with supporting a lot of what
has taken place. -
Needless to say that without ,
the vision aiy people like George
Shinn and others, the team still ■
would not have materialized. ■
But bringing professional sports .
to Charlotte started long before •
Mr. Shinn’s pursuits were made >
public. It materialized because :
of the hard work by a lot of peo- !
pie, a vision of what Charlotte ;
could be, and a great deal of luck
Interestingly, professional ^
sports was not the objective of.
most of the efforts, but a by- '
product of it. When you do the -
right things for good reasons, .
only good can come from it.
The eighties will go down as ■
one of the best decades for Char- .
lotte. All of us are fortunate
enough to have witnessed the ■
transformation from a small
town to a major metropolis. As
sociated with this rapid growth
is the significant responsibility
of managing where we are, eis ;
well as where we are going. .
Moreover, growth management
must be an Incluslonaiy process •
of gathering input from all seg
ments of this vibrant communl- ■
ty.
If in going forward, we fall to
capitalize on the significant
achievements of the eighties, .
then a lot of good things would
have been accomplished in '
vain.
^ 5(NDiO«)
pin
What's On Your Minii?
Let us hear your comments, ideas and opinions. Write to:
Letters To The Post
RO. 130X30144
Charlotte. NC 28230
Please include name, address and phone number. We edit letters for clarity and grammar.
Maneuvering Through The Work Place Can Make Or Break A Budding Career
American work places have
unique cultures. These cultures
are fixed sets of rules and house
Jargon that everyone must
adopt. The rate of one's upward
mobility is dependent on how
well one learns to maneuver in
this work culture.
American universities are a
classic case study to examine
the impact of work cultures be
cause they are proponents of
the art of erudition. A new pro
fessor quickly learns that the
top three things he must do to
get promoted are: "Publish! Pub
lish! Publish!"
On the other hand, if a new
professor falls to publish, he
seriously risks losing his job.
This implies that teaching abili
ty is a second tier requirement
for success at America's univer
sities. Nevertheless, some uni
versities do grant limited pro
motions on outstanding
teaching ability.
But publishing scholarly arti
cles requires one to have both
an appreciation of the universi
ty's internal politics and the
more of external financial back
ers. That is, one must write a
proposal for a research project,
get it funded, do the research,
and then write the article to re
port his findings.
Although the above process
appears simple, it is wrought
with pitfalls for new professors.
Let us look at this process
through the eyes of a black pro
fessor who enters a predomi
nantly white university. This
person starts out without a
mentor to guide him to credibili
ty amongst his professional
peers.
This black professor quickly
learns that the clock is ticking
on his career If publications do
not start pouring forth. He finds
he must write proposals that get
funded. There is also an immol
ate need to know what founda
tions. government agencies, or
private industries that are sup
portive of his research. Or he
learns that his esoteric research
is too limited for external fund-
^0^ Mill,cr
Says
By Sherman Miller
ing, so his fate falls to the mercy
of the faculty senate for univer
sity dollars.
The picture we are painting of
the black professor is similar to
a black professional entering
the mainstream work place. In
light of the current cool recep
tion to the super-liberal defini
tion of affirmative action, we
must look for alternative scena
rios to help black professors in
the current conservative nation
al psyche.
A brief discussion with Dr.
Frank Dllley, president of the
University of Delaware Faculty
Senate, offers some direction for
predominantly white universi
ties in their handling of the pro
motion of black professors. Dll
ley sees the need for senior
professors to become mentors
for black junior professors.
These senior professors can
teach black professors the art of
the publication game. They can
speak to such techniques as
blindly submitting a proposal
and praying that it gets seen:
finding out what groups are
funding and writing proposals
around their interest: or getting
to know people at the funding
agencies and accepting their
guidance in putting proposals
together.
Senior professors might also
publish jointly with blacks
which will help new black pro
fessors to establish their credi
bility. The joint publications
will open many doors at funding
institutions. This is not a novel
idea because joint publications
are common practice in the
scholarly publications game. It
Is not uncommon to see several
names on a publication.
Dllley also sees the impor
tance of the University of Dela
ware setting aside a portion of
its research dollars for non-
tradltional research. This pro
gram would offer new professors
an opportunity to get esoteric
projects funded instead of their
being killed off by persons who
do not fully appreciate the value
of the research.
Glover Jones, a black senior
research chemist at the DuPont
Company, says he has pub
lished jointly with professors at
predominantly white universi
ties. He has co-authored four
publications with University of
Delaware professors in the de
partments of Chemical Engi
neering, Physics & Astronomy,
and Material Science. Jones
welcomes the oppxjrtunlty to do
joint publications with black.
hard science professors. Per
haps other corporate black re
searchers are reticent to do joint
publications with black profes
sors.
I am told there is a group of
black physicists organizing a
nation^ organization who will
offer black professors an oppor
tunity to gain international
credibility through joint re
search efforts. I trust that other
black, hard and social science
groups are developing or have
developed similar research net
work groups.
As a former member of the
Board of Trustees of Delaware
State College, I believe Ameri
ca's universities and colleges
are supposed to foster the
search for new frontiers, where a
professor's thoughts are esoter
ic research today, but tomorrow
they are the wave of the future.'
Will Dr. Dilley's foresight on pro
viding opportunity for non-.
tradltlonal research become the
pervasive mind-set at America’s
colleges and universities?