..
The Louisville
an independent student weekly
"I've got a brand new pair of roller skates ... "
Karen Klusmeler, an Arts and Sciences freshman and speed skater, breaks
In a new pair of skates on her way to class Tuesday. She hopes to have the
skates ready for a race coming up In two weeks. Karen Is a member of the
Hlghvlew Speed Club.
Black frats and sororities: bound by tradition
and ritual
By SUZETTE BRADY
University of Louisville's black fra- '
ternities and sororities have a lot in
common with Dr. Pepper. .. . They're
both mi understood.
Maybe you've seen a line-up of
black males or females chanting and
performing some fancy steps on cam­pus,
and wondered what was going
on.
Or maybe you've noticed several
black males walking in a straight line,
from shortest to tallest, and questi­oned
why they weren't walking next
to each other.
The answers are easy. These are
some of the rituals that black frater­nities
and sororities take part in.
However, few people understand why
they perform these rituals or the pur­pose
behind them.
"There ~eems to be a lot of ignor­ance.
particularly in the black univer­sity
community, about what these
fra ternities and sororities do; they
can't understand or see the impor-
1ance of some of the things they do,"
said Harold Adams, assistant vice
president of student life.
His sentiments are echoed by mem­bers
of the fraternities and sororities.
"Black students don't see the pur­pose
of what we do." said Vi Engels.
treasurer of Sigma Gamma Rho •
sorority. "But thQse who are involved .
can see the purpose, and.it prepares
them to survive in the world ."
"The University of Louisville is a
, predominately white campus and the
survival of Black Greek organiza­tions
is a struggle, "said Myra Drum­mond.
financial secretary of Alpha
Kappa Alpha sorority. "This is be­cause
people are ignorant of our pur­poses
and don't really understand
what we are about," she said.
What black fraternities and sorori­ties
are "about" is quite different
from other fraternities and sororities.
For instance, other fraternities and
sororities are controlled by the Na­tional
Panhellinic Council ( PC).
But, black greeks are controlled by a
totally different council. the National
Pan Hellenic Council (NPHC). be­cause
the purpose and rules govern­ing
the black greeks are altogether
different.
In the black groups you cannot
pledge uptil you have an academic
record. which happens well into the
semester. In white groups you can
pledge before or when you become a
freshman.
The rules of rushing are different.
In black groups, before going "on
line" you are required to have a C
averag~ and in SO(I')e caS~Ji-Y0l.J neeo Jl
2.5 or 3.0 grade point average~ In
white groups, you only need a 2.5
GPA when you get initiated and not
at the time you pledge.
"Black groups are not as social­minded
as the white groups," said
Adams. "Rather than holding beer
blasts, etc., they hold their socials to
obtain funds to meet their financial
obligations and to perform philan­thropic
work," he said.
Probably the biggest difference
between black and white groups is·
that black groups are more ritual .
oriented.
Few people understand what these
rituals are all about. But the rituals
that fra ternities and sororities are
founded on are not something new to
blacks.
The pledge concept began in Ethi­opia,
where they walked in lines and
carried symbols of their tribes and
fami lies. This was done when boys at
the age of 14 or 15 would enter
manhood .
The ritual of walking 'in-line' is
done while pledging. It represents
how the slaves were chained in lines
together from the shortest to tallest
when they were brought from Africa
to the United States. The tallest per-
~.O fficials promote remedial
~programs as key to desegregation
By BERNIE FELLONNEAU
One of the ways to keep more
blacks at the University of Louisville
would be to improve the retention
rate through remedial programs.
officials say.
U of L will have to improve the
retention rate in order to stay within
the guidelines of a federal order on
Jan. 15 to desegregate Kentucky
colleges.
In the fall of 1980. 1,723 blacks
enrolled at the University of Louis­ville.
accounting for 8.5 percent of
the school's enrollment. The federal
study said that blacks made up 18.4
percent of the local high school grad­uates
in 1978.
In th.: fall of 1980,blacks accounted
for 11.4 percent of the freshman class
at U of L. The retention rate could be
improved, some believe, through re­medial
programs.
The Developmental Education
Center (DEC), the Educational Ad­vancement
Program (EAP) and the
West Louisville Educational Ad­vancement
Program (WLEP) are
three programs that provide remedial
help for U of L students. The three
programs are not aimed at black
students.
DEC has two chief objectives, Pro­fessor
Mark E. Blum,the program's
co-director said; one is to give the
student the intellectual skills needed
to support college work, the other
goal is to develop independent criti­cal
thinking.
,"The program is very successful."
said Blum. He said that Ia t May, 61
percent of the program's first year
students were still enrolled at the uni­ver
ity, while 45 percent oft he second
year students sti ll attended U of L.
"If a student survives the first year,
they usually ~tay in school," Blum
said.
DEC offers courses in grammar,
spelling, vocabulary and critical
thinking. The program a lso provides
tutoring for its students.
"We try to prepare students who
lack skills in spelling and grammar,"
said Daisy Yang, upervisor of the
DEC learning lab.
"With an open admissions policy,!
think it's the university's responsibil­ity
to help students that are not as
well prepared," Yang said.
There were 330 students in the
DEC program last fa ll. 170 students
are involved m the program this
semeste1.
"Many students take English for
granted becau e it's their native lan­guage,"
Yang said. "Students know
when a phrase is awkward, but they
don't always know why."
"I took Vocabularly II last semes­ter,"
one DEC student said. "I stud­ied
by myself. It 's not easy but it's
not like you have to study all the
time. I made an A."
EAP i made up of three parts, aid
Ralph Fit zpatrick, director of EAP.
The Upward Bound Program is aimed
at high school studl!nts who want to
attain some post-secondary educa­tion.
The Special Services Program is
designed for freshman and sopho­mores
and provides I utors. A third
area of EAP deals with special pro­grams
such as CETA training pro-
S•• "lf•m"l•l," b•ck pefl•
son in back of the line is called the
.h~ dkttocker ," because fie Is the
biggest one and is supposed to keep
them in order. The purpose of walk­ing
in-line is for unity.
While pledging and walking in-line
they learn how to step.
"Stepping is basically a way of
advertising our fraternity or soror­ity,"
said Arthur Simpson, presid~nt
of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. "Step­ping
is a way to get freshmen inter­ested
in joining a fraternity or soror­ity,"
he said.
Stepping originated in Africa and
consists of two different kinds of
steps. One is the traditional step that
deals with ability, as these are diffi­cult
to do.
1 he second steps a re "dog steps,"
which are performed as a challenge to
another fraternity and are used to get
the crowd excited.
According to Drummond. there is
a distinction between male and female
stepping. Males are known for their
creative use of hands, feet and voices
to create a rhythmic sound.
Females are known for the versatil­ity
of their voices and creative themes.
The themes are geared toward gain­ing
the interest of the audience and to
those interested in pledging to their
sorority.
"All stepping is a form of recreat­ing
our heritage in a unique way,"
said Drummond.
Aside from rituals. black greeks
are actively involved in philanthropic
work. A lot of money-making events
have recently been geared towards
supporting and assisting the Louis­ville
Repertory Theatre Company.
Other projects include collecting food
and ca nned goods for the needy at
Thanksgiving, visiting and volunteer­ing
their time to nursing homes and
orphanages, and raising money for
the United Negro College f-und and
the NAACP.
The first black greek fraternities
and sororities were founded in the
early 1900's. At the time, blacks were
not readily accepttd into colleges so
they put together a fraternity or sor­ority
to protect each other.
"They saw a need for blacks to
unify to overcome the oppressions
they were faced with at a predomi­nately
white institution, "said Wayne
Holloman, fraternity brother of Al­pha
Phi Alpha.
Alpha Phi Alpha was the first
black fraternity to be founded. Seven
young black friends got together to
study a nd came up with the concept.
They saw that fraternities helped the
white males and felt it would do the
same for them.
Alpha Kappa Alpha was the first
black sorority to be founded. "It was
SH "Black," back pafl•
, .
Friday, January 30, 1981 Vol. 52 No. 18
Night students
claim discrimination
By MELISSA McCONNELL
Night school students at U of L are
being discriminated against accord­ing
to Susie Brady. University Col­lege
student council president.
' A night student herself, Brady said,
··we pay the same amount as day
students but we're not receiving the
same services."
Brady said she talked to president
Donald Swain about the problem
and was told that night students
would have to pay an additional fee
at registration to keep campus servi­ces
open and alleviate the problems.
Specifically, the problems Brady
believes night students unjustly face
are these:
• Not enough classes to serve the
number of declared majors in UC.
• Some classes are offered so infre­quently
that students must delay gra­duation
to take them.
• Services such as Financial Aid,
Student Health Care, the cafeterias,
and the bookstores are not always
open at night.
• Parking problems and safety on
campus.
"In UC there are over 900 com­munications
majors alone," said
Brady. "If all of the students take
only one communications class, there
are still only 400 slots open." Brady
said she had talked to UC acting
Dean Leicester Moise about this
problem.
" While I am here. my hope is to
modestly increase communications
course availability," said Moise. De­spite
a tight budget, Moise says he is
pushing for more full-time faculty in
the communications program.
But at the present, Brady says
soi{Ie ~tudents are having. to delay
graduation because some :Classes iA
their program are only offered once a
year.
"By delaying graduation," said
Brady, "tax dollars are being spent
unnecessarily by the public to help
fund our education."
The main reason night students are
finding classes closed is
because traditional day students are
taking night courses.
"The night courses are filling up
because more and more students are
working," said Randy Embry. an
advisor in ·uc.
Besides problems with class avail­ability,
Brady said night students are
denied campus services open to day
students.
"The Financial Aid office usually
closes at 3:45, "says Brady, "and most
of us don't get on campus until4:30
or 5. When I asked one of the recep­tionists
what I should do about the
problem, she said 'I'm sorry, I guess
you'lljust have to take off from work ·
to get down here.'"
Brady said Student Government
Association President Angela Ford is
trying to arrange for the Financial
Aid office to be open later one night a
week.
As for the bookstores, cafeterias
and health care services, Brady said,
"We don't always have access to
them and yet we're paying for them."
Night students also resent having
to pay more to park this year, with
less safety protection on campus.
according to Brady.
"Because so many students drive to
campus at 5:30, parking is bad. Many
have to park in areas over on Fourth
St. where attacks have occured in the
past," she said.
A & S night student Denise Mc­Laughlin
says when she used to have
to park behind the Speed School, she
was afraid. "It's just not safe," she
said. "I won't go anywhere by myself."
To help solve the problems night
students face, Susie Brady is working
with the United States Association of
Working Students (USA WS), which
has· a lobby in Washington. She said
that organization was recently suc­cessful
in getting part-time and even­ing
students eligible for financial aid.·
"The USA WS is new, but it's been
helpful," said Brady. "What I would
like to see in the future is a totally
different evening student govern­ment
with its own student council.
Evening students lack representation.
But ~t isn't justat U ofL, it'sall over."
Murphy's Law
Physics text contains
13 pages of errors
ByLAURAKONERMANN
Students enrolled in Physics Ill
will have a little extra homework this
semester making corrections in their
text book. The author of Technical
Physics is U of L Physics Department
Chairman Dr. P.J . Ouseph.
Instructors of the course have
handed out a supplement of correc­tions
for mistakes made in the book.
The supplement is 13 pages long and
the first chapter of Technical Physics
contains 17 errors. The mistakes are
mostly in numerical equations and
formulas.
Ouseph said, "All the mistakes in
!he book are listed on the supplement
and the supplement is provided for
students at no cost." He said the book
was correct when it was sent to the
Van Nostrand Publishing Co. in New
York, and that the mistakes are the
publisher's.
Ouseph said that when they were
deciding on a book for the course
Technical Physics worked best. He
said the book serves it's purpose, but
there should be a new book out next
year.
Ouseph ~aid he is disgusted with
the problem, but students have been
provided with an adequate supple­ment.
Jim Conkin, the assistant manager
of the bookstore, was unaware of the
situation until last week and was sur­prised
to hear of a book with so many
errors. He saiq it is unusual to have a
correction sheet that is over one page
long, but that mistakes occur more
often with technical books.
Conkin said that occasionally
there are bindery mistakes and they
can often trade them for good books.
He said that the Technical Physics
book might be traded but since he
has never encountered a situation
· like this he wasn't sure what will be
done with the books. "The second
edition will have the mistakes cor­rected,"
he said.
"It is the responsibility of the pub­lisher
to find any mistakes; that is
what they have editors for," said
Conkin.
The D. Van Nostrand Company
claims that the mistakes could have
happened during the process of pub­lishing.
Judy Johnson, the vice president
publishing director,said,"There are so
many people with their hands in the
pie that mistakes are hard to track
down. The mistakes could be blamed
on the sloppiness of the author but it
is likely through the long process of
editors, proof readers, composers,
etc. ,that the mistakes happened.''
Johnson said this is common for
... "8cN*, .. -·,.,.