Page Meetings, 2:30 p.m., part 3: Tape #17
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| Man | 2915. | 0:02 |
| Official | My secretary's gonna hate you. | 0:04 |
| (audience laughing) | 0:06 | |
| Audience Member | On the question of the emphasis, | 0:11 |
| it seems to me that the pickets and protest policy that's | 0:13 | |
| been in effect now since last August, and students have | 0:19 | |
| exhausted every possible means of talking to do anything | 0:23 | |
| about it, and it still seems to be in effect, | 0:27 | |
| I think there's widespread discontent with that policy, | 0:29 | |
| and dissatisfaction. | 0:32 | |
| I would hope that the students who are being tried | 0:33 | |
| for, the students who took the Allen Building, can have | 0:40 | |
| other recourse than just the pickets and protests policy, | 0:43 | |
| which seems to me itself has never been sanctioned by | 0:45 | |
| the student body. | 0:47 | |
| (audience applauds) | 0:48 | |
| Official | I'm not quite sure, are you asking me something | 0:57 |
| about that? | 1:01 | |
| Audience Member | I'm saying that one of your early | 1:03 |
| orders of business should be, it seems to me, | 1:04 | |
| to grant an amnesty because we have no pickets and protests | 1:07 | |
| policy that is acceptable to the university community | 1:10 | |
| at large. | 1:14 | |
| (audience applauds) | 1:15 | |
| Point of information, are we to understand that the | 1:24 | |
| students have agreed to be heard on the pickets and protests | 1:28 | |
| policy by their consent? | 1:30 | |
| Is this the way we were to understand the point made? | 1:33 | |
| Was this done by consent? | 1:36 | |
| Panel Member | We have consented to voluntarily | 1:45 |
| stand up for what we did, not deny the fact that we did it. | 1:49 | |
| University means of dealing with us, as they've indicated, | 1:54 | |
| will be the pickets and protests policy. | 2:02 | |
| Our views on legitimacy of this policy was not, has not | 2:05 | |
| been expressed to the administration. | 2:14 | |
| We will have to deal with that when the procedures start. | 2:16 | |
| (audience applauds) | 2:23 | |
| Does that answer the question? | 2:27 | |
| Moderator | I think if we have one or two more questions, | 2:32 |
| and then we ought to get on, I think, with some... | 2:35 | |
| Dr. Kerckhoff has raised several questions about | 2:37 | |
| if we are organized and present things through his | 2:39 | |
| committee, and possibly be able to get on with the | 2:42 | |
| business of figuring out some of the things that | 2:44 | |
| we want to present to the committee and be more | 2:47 | |
| formalized in the kind of resolutions that are being | 2:49 | |
| thrown around out there. | 2:51 | |
| Yeah? | 2:53 | |
| Audience Member | You mentioned that the black students | 2:54 |
| would specifically have some sort of voice in what happens | 2:58 | |
| in their dormitory, or in their portal, whatever it's | 3:02 | |
| going to be, you didn't, however, mention specifically | 3:06 | |
| what the situation would be with regards to the | 3:09 | |
| Black Studies program. | 3:11 | |
| Will they, for example, have some sort of | 3:12 | |
| recommending power... | 3:14 | |
| - | Yes, he did. | |
| - | in the selection of professors or teachers | 3:18 |
| as they may be? | 3:22 | |
| Will they have some sort of voting power in the hiring | 3:23 | |
| or firing? | 3:25 | |
| Official | Either you weren't here or you didn't get | 3:26 |
| what I said, but the first step in this direction is | 3:32 | |
| this two or three day meeting, at which representatives | 3:38 | |
| of the Afro-American Society would be present, | 3:42 | |
| and would contribute, and would help define. | 3:45 | |
| Now where it goes from there depends on the outcome | 3:48 | |
| of that meeting. | 3:51 | |
| That is, what is envisioned, what the design of the | 3:53 | |
| program would be. | 3:56 | |
| I can't answer what will happen after March 1st or | 3:58 | |
| April 15th. | 4:02 | |
| Audience Member | At present, it is undefined exactly | 4:07 |
| how much power black students will or will not have | 4:09 | |
| to select the group... | 4:12 | |
| Official | The detail of the organization of the program | 4:14 |
| is to be determined--or not determined--is to be recommended | 4:17 | |
| at that time, right. | 4:20 | |
| Audience Member | May I continue with my question | 4:23 |
| from before... | 4:24 | |
| Audience Member | Professor, there have been a number of | 4:30 |
| statements made, both by the President yesterday | 4:32 | |
| at his house, and by Dave Griffith here in the auditorium, | 4:34 | |
| that the university was going to take specific steps | 4:39 | |
| to do something to exonerate those people who were tried | 4:41 | |
| and convicted in District Court, Durham on Friday. | 4:45 | |
| What steps is the university going to take to alleviate | 4:49 | |
| that situation? | 4:52 | |
| (audience applauds) | 4:53 | |
| Official | The, somebody said before, certain things | 5:02 |
| ought to be our first order of business. | 5:05 | |
| One of our first orders of business, at least, | 5:08 | |
| by the legal representative on our committee, | 5:11 | |
| is to find out exactly what is planned and to find out | 5:14 | |
| what can be done. | 5:17 | |
| The impression I get, and I'm not a lawyer, | 5:18 | |
| is that it is possible at the point of appeal, | 5:21 | |
| and as I understand it, of the four students, | 5:26 | |
| three have been convicted and one is pending, | 5:28 | |
| isn't that right? | 5:31 | |
| That is the hearing is pending. | 5:32 | |
| David | Ken, Ken, this is David Christy | 5:35 |
| in Page Auditorium. | 5:39 | |
| The meeting seems to be sort of degenerating into | 5:41 | |
| a question and answer session. | 5:44 | |
| Dr. Kerckhoff is trying to end his question | 5:46 | |
| and answer session, and then afterwards they're going | 5:49 | |
| to try and make plans as to what the students can do | 5:50 | |
| to help themselves with this committee. | 5:55 | |
| I'm going to try to get Chuck Hopkins and get a | 5:58 | |
| comment from him as to whether the Afros are pleased | 6:02 | |
| or dissatisfied or what with the decisions | 6:06 | |
| which have been made. | 6:10 | |
| I'm gonna try, as I said and get a comment | 6:11 | |
| with Chuck Hopkins. | 6:18 | |
| I will make a brief review of the statements which | 6:19 | |
| Dr. Kerckhoff made at this meeting. | 6:23 | |
| The meeting started late. | 6:26 | |
| Dr. Knight was supposed to be here originally, | 6:27 | |
| he then phoned in. | 6:31 | |
| We contacted Mrs. Knight, and she informed us that | 6:33 | |
| Dr. Knight would not be at the meeting, but | 6:36 | |
| Dr. Kerckhoff would be here making these statements. | 6:39 | |
| He brought up the various different points which | 6:42 | |
| the Afros wanted to accomplish. | 6:50 | |
| One, the black advisor, he said that plans have been | 6:53 | |
| made to hire a black advisor with the consent of | 6:56 | |
| the Afro-American Society in the determination | 7:00 | |
| of this advisor. | 7:03 | |
| (audience applauds) | 7:06 | |
| Dr. Kerckhoff is leaving the stage now. | 7:14 | |
| Many students are leaving the auditorium. | 7:17 | |
| Official | We have some short business left over | 7:21 |
| to take care of. | 7:23 | |
| David | They promised to establish next fall | 7:26 |
| a black living and learning unit. | 7:30 | |
| He requested the participation of the Afro-American Society | 7:32 | |
| in this unit, and he wanted to get clarification | 7:35 | |
| through the Health, Education and Welfare Department | 7:38 | |
| of the legal technicalities involved in a black dormitory. | 7:40 | |
| Further arrangements onto these plans are possible. | 7:46 | |
| He said that there are certain points on which | 7:50 | |
| progress has been made, although no actual... | 7:52 | |
| They are in the planning stage. | 7:54 | |
| So the Afro-American Studies Program, two possibilities | 7:58 | |
| have been proposed, one to incorporate the graduate | 8:01 | |
| and undergraduate system, one to incorporate the | 8:03 | |
| undergraduate system only. | 8:05 | |
| Both of these proposals are in rough outline stages. | 8:07 | |
| They plan around March 1st to have a two or three day | 8:11 | |
| meeting incorporating the Afro-American Society, | 8:14 | |
| the faculty, the administration, and discuss this. | 8:16 | |
| And they plan to have an organized statement being made... | 8:20 | |
| (whispering) | 8:23 | |
| Hold on just a second, I want to try and get a statement | 8:26 | |
| from Chuck Hopkins. | 8:27 | |
| (audience applauds) | 8:28 | |
| We are trying to get Chuck Hopkins over here to get | 8:34 | |
| a statement from him on their plans and their decisions | 8:36 | |
| as to how it was made. | 8:41 | |
| I will continue until we can see if we can get him, | 8:43 | |
| with the resume of Dr. Kerckhoff's speech. | 8:45 | |
| He said that the status of the students who have | 8:47 | |
| flunked out is being reviewed, and he hopes to | 8:49 | |
| enroll these students in this program, which is | 8:52 | |
| going to be held this summer, and hopefully have them | 8:54 | |
| reinstated in the university. | 8:58 | |
| The concern of grading of black students, he said | 8:59 | |
| that this problem is more general to all of the university. | 9:02 | |
| It involves all of the grading system at Duke, | 9:06 | |
| and they are studying this right now. | 9:09 | |
| The student union is planning to organize a black | 9:11 | |
| committee on the... | 9:14 | |
| Tom | Chuck Hopkins, this is Tom Fine for WDBS | 9:18 |
| Contemporary News, Chuck Hopkins has refused to give | 9:20 | |
| any additional comments. | 9:23 | |
| He says that anyone who wants to can listen to his | 9:24 | |
| preceding comments to this meeting. | 9:27 | |
| David | All right, we will have those replayed later. | 9:31 |
| Chuck Hopkins is speaking now. | 9:33 | |
| Chuck | Well, he said he hadn't got to the meat of | 9:40 |
| his discussion yet, so I don't feel too bad about it. | 9:42 | |
| Howard Fuller asked me to make an announcement to you | 9:47 | |
| as to why he wasn't here. | 9:52 | |
| He's been kind of following the struggle here thus far. | 9:55 | |
| He didn't want you to think he'd copped out or anything. | 9:59 | |
| But today, Vi, his wife, is having their second child, | 10:02 | |
| so he couldn't make it. | 10:08 | |
| (audience applauds) | 10:10 | |
| David | Chuck Hopkins just explaining why Howard Fuller | 10:11 |
| was unable to make the meeting this afternoon. | 10:13 | |
| All right, we'll go on. | 10:15 | |
| Dr. Kerckhoff said that the student union is organizing | 10:17 | |
| a black committee to handle the needs of the black students, | 10:19 | |
| and the chairman of the officer board of the union | 10:22 | |
| has also confirmed that statement. | 10:26 | |
| The admissions requirements, Dr. Kerckhoff said that | 10:28 | |
| the SAT scores are admittedly less effective for | 10:30 | |
| some students than for others, and at Duke University, | 10:33 | |
| it is generally true that admissions are using not only | 10:35 | |
| the SAT scores, but also high school achievement scores | 10:39 | |
| and recommendations from high schools. | 10:43 | |
| The university has committed itself to increase the | 10:45 | |
| black students, hopefully to the 29% level which they | 10:49 | |
| have demanded. | 10:52 | |
| To the problem of police harassment of black students, | 10:53 | |
| Dr. Kerckhoff said that the Kerckhoff Committee will study | 10:56 | |
| any such actions and decide how they should be handled. | 10:58 | |
| The Duke University Employees Relation Council is going | 11:02 | |
| to meet this week to discuss the problems which had been | 11:05 | |
| posed for the non-academic employees. | 11:08 | |
| And a last comment on the amnesty, he said that the | 11:11 | |
| students themselves, the Afro-Americans who had | 11:15 | |
| occupied Allen Building had voluntarily placed | 11:17 | |
| themselves under the jurisdiction of the pickets | 11:20 | |
| and protests committee which was made. | 11:23 | |
| Kerckhoff then went on to say that his committee | 11:26 | |
| is not only acting on plans for the present, | 11:29 | |
| but studying plans for the future, and he wanted to | 11:33 | |
| clarify the position of the committee. | 11:36 | |
| He said that the committee is made up of representatives | 11:38 | |
| of the faculty members to understand the manifest | 11:40 | |
| concerns of the student body, particularly at this time, | 11:42 | |
| the black student bodies, and they want to maintain | 11:46 | |
| the high standards of learning, making every effort | 11:49 | |
| to respond to the problems of the black students, | 11:52 | |
| and of all students, and they do seek consultation | 11:56 | |
| with blacks and with other students. | 11:59 | |
| He then closed his speech with the statement, | 12:00 | |
| "We are committed to action." | 12:03 | |
| They then opened the floor to a series of questions | 12:05 | |
| to be handed to Dr. Kerckhoff, which we aired | 12:09 | |
| on the air, and the floor has now been opened | 12:11 | |
| to discuss the possibilities of how the students | 12:14 | |
| can affect the Kerckhoff Committee, how the students | 12:17 | |
| can better their situation here. | 12:20 | |
| And that is the report as it stands right now | 12:22 | |
| at Page Auditorium. | 12:24 | |
| For WDBS Contemporary News, this has been David Christy. | 12:26 | |
| Now back to more music. | 12:29 | |
| (audience laughing) | 12:30 | |
| Chuck | I guess I feel all right. | 12:39 |
| You know I don't know what went down, but I assume that | 12:43 | |
| what we decided last night is what went down. | 12:46 | |
| And if that is what happened, then I hope that | 12:50 | |
| everybody is gonna move towards a constructive thing | 12:53 | |
| on the things that black people want. | 12:59 | |
| I'd also just like to say one other word, | 13:01 | |
| I sincerely hope that the white students who are here | 13:04 | |
| and all students, for that matter, for those of you | 13:10 | |
| who are faculty members, that we begin to realize | 13:13 | |
| the significance of involving all people in whatever's | 13:15 | |
| gonna happen to their lives. | 13:21 | |
| And I think that it's very important that white students | 13:23 | |
| at Duke and on any other campus, that they be involved | 13:26 | |
| in the things that are deciding their existence | 13:30 | |
| on this campus. | 13:33 | |
| And I hope that all of us are going to begin to take | 13:34 | |
| a whole new look at our whole process of education, | 13:37 | |
| 'cause one of the problems that we're having in | 13:40 | |
| this country is that those things that we are learning | 13:42 | |
| are fast becoming irrelevant to the people who are | 13:45 | |
| outside of these walls. | 13:48 | |
| So I hope that the whole educational process will take | 13:50 | |
| a new look at itself. | 13:53 | |
| And that out of this will come the chance to have | 13:55 | |
| a country that not necessarily has to be integrated | 14:01 | |
| in the old sense, but at least a country where there | 14:05 | |
| will be some respect for people as people, and a belief | 14:09 | |
| in humanity, and that this country will begin to set | 14:14 | |
| some priorities for the education of its people | 14:18 | |
| and for the growth of its people, rather than for | 14:21 | |
| the destruction of people in other lands | 14:23 | |
| and within this country. | 14:26 | |
| So I hope that this is a beginning of that kind | 14:28 | |
| of stuff. | 14:30 | |
| (audience applauds) | 14:31 | |
| David | We're trying to get Howard Fuller for a comment. | 14:33 |
| I don't know if we will or not, we're asking him right now. | 14:35 | |
| It doesn't look like we're gonna be able to get him | 14:46 | |
| over here. | 14:47 | |
| I think you can stop the tape, Warren. | 14:48 |
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