Issues

The Sally Hemings VOl 1, No. 6

BLACK RECRUITMENT:

LET'S PUT OUR MONEY WHERE OUR MOUTH IS.

President Shannon reiterated for the nth time yesterday his support for the recruitment of blacks and women. But we want to hear more than words. We want to hear, for a start, some specific signs of support for Item #7 of the strike demands. Item #7 reads:

We demand that the University of Virginia publicly commit itself to accepting 20 per cent as a goal for the enrollment of black students throughout the University, and further, that $100,000 be allocated for black admissions programs.

Now, 20 per cent may seem like a high percentage, especially compared to our dramatically inadequate .4 per cent last year. But:

1) We as a University say we cannot admit more blacks because they are not prepared for a University education. We are indeed intellectual snobs. If we are alive as an institution at all, it behooves us to look at the reality of the situation. And the reality is that black people have until very recently been forcibly prevented from attaining an adequate preparatory education at any level anywhere in the Commonwealth of Virginia. We have a responsibility to ourselves and to this state to break this cycle and stop admitting students only on the basis of who will or who will not best succeed here. We must instead begin to admit students on the basis of who will most benefit from having come here.

2) Blacks comprise 20.6 per cent of Virginia's population. But they comprise only .4 per cent of U. Va. 's population. This University continues to perpetuate such institutional racism, even though its personnel, with few exceptions, continually reiterate non-discrimination. When are these constantly talked about personal "convictions" going to influence institutional actions? We must either stop talking or start acting.

3) Next year's first-year class will include about 125 black students. Only three or four times that number will reach our goal of 20 per cent in the fall of 1971. The goal is not excessive. Vote for it.

We ask also $100,0000 for black recruitment for next year. Does that turn you off? Then compare it with these facts:

1) The University spent no money at all for black recruitment for the first 143 years of its operation. For 127 of those years, it enforced a policy of deliberate exclusion.

2) $25,000 was raised Saturday morning for student bail. If we can do this in five hours for white people-- fraternity men, Shakey's pizza delivery boys, dates--how can we fail to raise four times that amount to attract black students here for a whole year?

3) The University--in its specific on-going black recruitment programs, in the transition program, and in its financial aid programs--quite likely approaches $100,000 per year in expenditures for black recruitment already. If so, let us as a University make a public commitment to that. And let us as students indicate our support for these programs and these goals. Let's put our money where our mouth has been.

SUPPORT DEMAND No. 7!

The Sally Heming Vol 1, No.7

THE SALLY HEMMINGS WILL PRINT THE NAMES OF ANY MEMBERS OF THE FACULTY OR ADMINISTRATION WHO INTIMIDATE STUDENT STRIKERS. PLEASE CALL 296-7208.

With his stand against the war, President Shannon has begun to move in the right direction. His cool restraint Sunday night was also encouraging. Insofar as he has begun to move in this right direction, we support him. We understand the strength and courage required to take his stand in the face of the inevitable negative reaction from around the state. This reaction has begun to materialize in its ugliest forms. Members of the university community would be wise to contact public personages throughout the Commonewealth and urge them to endorse President Shannon's letter to Senators Byrd and Spong. The loss of Mr. Shannon to the anti-intellectual, hot-head elements in Virginia would end any hopes of an open university.

WE THE PEOPLE (Part 1)

The University of Virginia has been insulated in its green triangle for too long. Friday night's activities brought us into shocking confrontation with one aspect of city life. But we share other and more pervasive concerns. One of these is the war in Vietnam.

In the weeks to come, our Peace Movement must take steps to include the poor whites, the blacks, and the old southern conservatives. These people are paying for this war, both physically and financially, more than anyone in the University. They don't get the draft deferments we get. Their bodies provide the cannon fodder for this bloody holocaust. And it is upon their backs that Mr. Nixon has so callously laid the success of his elitist economic policies. These facts must be brought to their attention. Let's work to include these people in our struggle. PEACE WILL COME ONLY THROUGH SOLIDARITY.

TODAY'S PORK FUTURES: Outa sight, man. (But still around...in area motels...you'd better use the back seat of your car this weekend.)

THE JOHN WAYLES MEDAL OF HONOR AWARD TO: The Reverend Arie Bestebreurtje for valor above and beyond the call in his behind- the-lines defense of George Babbitt.

REMEMBER THE MAYFLOWER.

The Sally Hemings Vol 1, No.8

CUTTING THROUGH THE CHICKEN FAT

Well, well, well. So the University of Virginia is finally a tax-supported institution. And the taxpayers, to use Governor Holton's words, are "fed up" with aspects of our protest. How interesting that our state leaders are now anchoring their arguments on this taxpayer question; interesting because the students for several years have been pointing out that U. Va., as a upblicly supported institution, has an obligation to serve all the people of Virginia. That specifically includes the 20 per cent of the population which is black, the 50 per cent which is female, and a great many poor whites. All along, we have been met with an amazing silence. It has taken demonstrations, lawsuits, and student pressure to begin to open the school to these groups. In short, the University has been a public school with aspirations to be a private, gentlemen's University.

ENTER THE DOUBL STANDARD: Now that the students have dared to challenge a corrupt foreign policy backed by many state leaders and politicians, we suddenly become a tax-supported institution. We welcome those who now admit this to the ranks of the enlightened, however, we suspect that if the students were demonstrating in favor of the war, there would not be a single peep from the mouths of our self-righteous critics.

Now that he has called forth the taxpayer spectre, our Governor should move to make this school representative of the entire state. He can begin by backing a black and poor white recruitment program. He can also act to see that the Board of Visitors represents the people instead of a few giant corporations. How about a few women, blacks, and poor whites, too?

WE THE PEOPLE (Part II)

About forty years ago, a U.S. Senator and an American historian espoused the Wisconsin idea--that a University and a community should serve each other. The senator was Robert LaFollette, the historian, Frederick Jackson Turner. Time has since tarnished this valuable precedent. LET US RESURRECT IT, LET US UNITE.

THE JOHN WAYLES MEMORIAL SPIRO AGNEW PRIZE: To Channel 8 in Richmond for this objective remakr [remake] when questioning State Senator Ed Willey: "A lot of those demonstrators are coming from off the campus and stirring things up...." (Better look under those beds tonight, folks.)

STUDENTS: Support President Shannon's move to support us before he is crucified by Virginia's wrinkled old men. Right on.

Hear ye, Hear ye! ye Third Continental Congress is now in session!

The Sally Hemings Vol.1, No.9

WHO SHALL OVERCOME?

May 5, 1969: Kent, Ohio-- National Guardsmen shoot and kill four white students at Kent State. Result-- Five hundred American colleges on strike within a week. "Shut it down. Shut it down."

May 8, 1969: Charlottesville, Virginia-- a bust. Nobody hurt; nobody killed. Result-- U. Va. radicalized; students strike. "Shut it down. Shut it down."

May 11, 1969: Augusta, Georgia-- a series of murders. National Guardsmen shoot and kill six blacks. Result-- U.Va. silent; students unconcerned. "Business as usual. Business as usual."

May 14, 1969: Conclusion-- Police, or whatever we call them, deign to touch our precious white bodies, and we are up in arms, screaming bloody murder about injustice. Police, or whatever we call them, wipe six black bodies off the face of the earth and we remain unmoved, piously asserting to ourselves, "No, of course not. We're not racists. Not us." Keep talking, folks. But just remember, chickens come home to roost; no man is an island; and all that....

WE THE PEOPLE (Part III)

The past week's events have shown that a good many of us in this community are getting "the raw end of the deal." For those in the community who have been facing it and fighting it for a long time, sentiments probably justifiably run, "better late than never." A great deal has been stripped away now, and we are in this together. We therefore plead, let's look to each other as men. In a real sense there are no workers and no students in the United States. We shouldn't be at each others' throats. We are being trod upon together. Remember the slogan of the great revolution of this country-- "Don't tread on me."

"We the people..." begins the U.S. Constitution. We have, up to now, been many peoples, divided unto ourselves. But let us now come together not as a university united against a city, but as one community, sharing the same battles, fighting the same wars. LET US BE ONE!

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TODAY'S PORK FUTURES: More than likely the cost of pork will go up, because the price of keeping pork on the hoof in the local area is $8.00 per hour.

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THE JOHN WAYLES LAMONT CRANSTON AWARD TO: The Daily Progress for having been unable to discover the mysterious and ethereal source of the University's secret conscience-- us.

IS IT TRUE THAT T. MARTIAL HAHN'S FIRST NAME IS "THE"? HAHN(K) FOR PEACE.

REMEBER THE MAYFLOWER

THE SALLY HEMINGS Vol 1, No. 10.

OUR EAGER CARRION CROWS

We've been hearing a lot of talk these days about how the University of Virginia must not adopt a political stance. Whether this is true or not can be debated endlessly by the adademicians and quasi-academicians of the state, so we will not debate it here. It should be made clear, however, that the University is about to become a political football as a result of the May 10 speech by Edgar Shannon.

The wrinkled old men in Richmond are rumbling and are out for blood. Right now, there is a rather ugly comparison being made between U. Va. and V.P.I., and we can guess that in the eyes of the Governor's Mansion, the savior of Virginia youth is your hero and ours, T. Marshall Hahn. A quick check of the scoreboard shows Hahn is ahead 107 to 68. Not only is Hahn ahead, but Mr. Shannon apologized for the high score and told the team how proud he was of their school spirit.

We don't know if you remember it or not, but last summer, T. Marshall ran for Governor. He got on the Battle Wagon after the primary, but chances look good that he'll get into the race again. We don't need a man in Richmond who chalks up brownie points for each student head that is cracked at Tech.

Mr. Shannon may not be running for Governor, but right now he is running for the presidency of the University. A dump-Shannon drive now is a pure political play to pump blood into the die-hard Democratic machine and to outflank the Republican party hawks who see a chance for political mileage. Among other things, U. Va. doesn't need a new leader of the Hereford- Godwin ilk or a governor who slides into office brandishing the slippery stick of law and order.

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THIS STRIKE HAS BROUGHT TO MANY OF US AN AWARENESS of the need for better relations with the community. There has been much talk, but little action. Today, it came to our attention that the Charlottesville-Albermarle Neighborhood Youth Corps owns some fine equipment for a learning laboratory. The people at the NYC offices are looking for someplace to set up this learning lab. Ideas, anyone? (The Air Force ROTC building would be nice, wouldn't it, folks?)

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TODAY'S PORK FUTURES: Hahn stockyards in Blacksburg reports the discovery of new uses for pork bellies. As a result, both the cost and supply of porkers in that area has risen, although the demand for them is being expressed only by a few hungry politicians.

A WARNING TO CERTAIN ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS WHOSE MOUTHS ARE WATERING FOR MR. SHANNON'S JOB: If the President goes, the state's politicians will probably clean house throughout the University administration. For your own sake, you had better join us in defending Mr. Shannon.

THE TIMOTHY MATLOCK- BRENDA STARR AWARD TO: The Richmond Times- Dispatch for moving Dick Tracy to the editorial page.

VETERANS FOR PEACE. Now forming. Contact Griff Ellison, 6 University Circle. 296-8522.

CONFIDENTIAL TO LINWOOD HOLTON: Caution. The students at the Sorbonne are restless.

REMEMBER THE MAYFLOWER.