"YUa CanofiMxii, ^owvnaf, Volume Xil; Number 16 Tlie Studeat Newt|iaper of the UanerMly of ?4orth Carolina at Ciiarblte Qiarlotte, North Carolina January 31, 1978 UNCCAnd Minority Enrollment By Les Bowen As a part of the 16-member UNC I'stem, UNCC has a stake in the outcome f the current dispute between UNC and [EW over desegregation guidelines. Exactly how that controversy will Ffect UNCC remains to be seen, but both hancellor D.W. Colvard and Associate director of Admissions James A. Scott >ree that UNCC is in a different position om the state’s other predominantly white liblic institutions with regard to minority irollment, due to a number of factors. The biggest minority enrollment is eater proportionally than any of the ther “white” schools in the system, lOugh some larger schools actually have lore minority students. The reasons for UNCC’s higher ratio ive to do with the school’s location in an urban area; its close relationship with CPCC and other community colleges; a continuing effort to recruit minority students headed by Scott, who is black; and something a bit more elusive having to do with lack of a tradition of segregation at UNCC. Addressing the last point, Colvard said, “We started in a way that’s different than the beginning of any other college. N.C. State was primarily a white, man’s college oriented toward math and the sciences. Chapel Hill was a white, man’s college oriented toward the arts. Fayetteville State was a black teachers college. UNCC came after all that, without any built-in bias toward sex or race from the beginning. If we have bias, it is of the people and not of the system.” Colvard foresaw problems in reaching the goals HEW asks for. “We’re committed to trying to protect and develop the black colleges, and HEW seems to be committed to that. On the other hand, they’re saying you’ve got to drastically increase the number of black students in predominantly white schools. Also, they said it wasn’t a quota, it was a goal. It’s hard to understand what the difference is.” The Chancellor was optimistic, however, that some sort of compromise could be reached. “HEW is saying ‘do the best you can; we’re going to look at your record of performance.’ ” Scott saw the matter differently, “Personally, I feel it’s something that has to be done. In the early 70’s there seemed to be a concerted effort on the part of predominantly white schools to increase minority enrollment. That was the time of ;he most activitism on college campuses. Today, there seems to be an atmosphere of ‘letting things ride.’ “UNCC is a lot closer to meeting those goals than a lot of other universities in the system are,” he continued, “but that’s tempered by the size of the university. Our eight percent encompasses fewer students than some of the others.” Colvard said UNCC made “a conscious effort to recruit minority students from the very beginning. At first we had a very small program, and we still don’t have a very big program, but it’s a good one.” Scott in charge of minority recruiting since he came here seven years ago, said, “We’ve had the commitment ever since I’ve been here, but you run into problems with money for recruitment.” (continued on page seven) Fourth Ward: rhe Sociology Of Redevelopment By Brad Rich Last week, the Carolina Journal resented the first in a series of articles ealing with the restoration of the old ourth Ward neighborhood in downtown !harlotte. In the first article, architecture tudent Ron Wilson looked at the rchitectural aspects of the project and etermined that the redevelopment of 'ourth Ward was, indeed, an architectural tatement. This week, UNCC Dean of Students lennis Rash, a Fourth Ward homeowner nd a prime figure in the entire Fourth ilard project, was interviewed in an ttempt to discover some of the key ociological aspects of revitalization efforts. One of the major questions in this, and ny redevelopment, is whether or not the esidents of the neighborhood are forced 'Ut of their homes into inadequate lousing. Rash said, “A lot of ehabilitations of old neighborhoods across he country may have had that problem, lowever, that has not been the case in •ourth Ward...the area was almost 50 lercent vacant lots, and of the houses still landing, about 50 percent were vacant. )urs had been vacant for about two and a lalf years before we moved in.” Rash said that whenever possible, the 'oung, professional people who have noved into the neighborhood have asked he old owner of the house (most were ented) to locate adequate housing for the )ld residents as a term of the sale. In one ase. Rash said the person who moved into house paid moving expenses for the esidents who were moving out, and helped hem find a new house. Rash admitted, though, that in several nstances residents were displaced in a nanner that seemed less than ideal. “In Imost all of these cases, though,” he said, hhere was an absentee landlord and we eally didn’t have much control over what vent on.” One attempt made to relocate residents. Rash mentioned, was when NCNB loaned money to MOTION, a black-owned corporation, and persuaded them to rennovate an old apartment building on 8th Street between Poplar and Graham streets and turn it into low cost housing. “I think this is an important step symbolically,” Rash said, “though maybe not numerically. It does say, I tWnk, that we want not to displace people.” Another key to the success or failure of the Fourth Ward experiment, probably the most important question, is how well the upper-middle class professional residents and the lower class and elderly residents on fixed incomes get along together. Rash said so far there is not any real socialization between the groups, but that they have “had some of those moments of socializing...maybe I’d stop for a while after working on the house all day on a Saturday and one of the neighborhood residents from across the street would come over...and I’d buy a sixpack of beer and we’d sit down and drink beer together. “I did have one run in with a woman, though,” Rash said, “..,and one of the men I’d had beer with came over and said something like, ‘Don’t let her bother you, she’s just a crazy woman.' That made me feel kind of good, like some of the residents were glad to have us there. “Arrd there is a little gorcery store in the neighborhood where we do a lot of shopping, and frankly, they have the best steaks in the city of Charlotte. “i don’t think there will ever be a lot of social interaction, you know, like low- income residents coming over to eat dinner with us...I mean you have to have some things in common,” Rash said, “but I think there is a healthy respect, a spirit of tolerance. 1 mean, we kind of look after one another to make sure there aren’t any ripoffs. Wlien you live this close together. As new businesses and families move into Fourth Ward, questions arise concerning the fate of those who have lived there since before rebuilding. (Hioto b-v Frank Alexander) with houses literally only 40 feet apart, you keep your eyes out.” One interesting and encouraging fact is that the children in the neighborhood have begun to associate with each other to some degree. “A few of the kids know each other because they go to the same school...we go to Irwin Avenue, and it’s almost a neighborhood school...! wish I thought everybody was completely devoid of prejudice, but that’s just not the case. 1 have had had to encourage my older child to play with some of the lower income kids, but my younger boy plays with anybody. “But I don’t want to misrepresent it to you. It’s not a natural play relationship yet, where they come home from School and immediately go out to play with some of the black kids. It’s more like if they’re out playing basketball or something some of the neighborhood kids just stop by and start to play. I don’t know why it hasn’t become natural yet, but it is clear that there is some relationship there.” The issue of security also has been important in the Fourth Ward project. Two weeks ago, a Carolina Journal photographer taking pictures in the neighborhood noticed one house that was fenced in. Rash said, “Oh yeah, that’s a black family that’s been in the neighborhood a long time before we moved in. They had had some problems with security before...they’ve lived there about 10 years, I guess, and that’s really a fine house they live in. They have made some money, and before we kind of turned things around they had (continued on page six)

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