WOI TV News Clip 281

Between the black student, and the white student, and the black student, and the administration, and the black people in the community and in this area, and the those of the university here, and I'm hoping that we will be able to create a better understanding, and that we'll be able to work toward the realization of some of the goals that have been set up or envisioned by university administration, and especially Dr. Parks. We just can't justify it, and I think that there isn't a PTA going that doesn't want to raise the teachers salaries. That's what, as I say, the sympathies of the PTA are just always with the teacher, where it isn't jurisdictional disputes that are the issue. This is one of the great crimes. We spend all of our time paying lip service to the value of education. I never go to any meeting where they don't end by saying "but we must have a-an educational program on this subject", so we all respect it. We say and yet when we get to appropriating money from the public funds, we give billions of dollars to highways, maybe ten times as much as we ever give to the schools. We pay engineers and other scientists any amount of money, but teachers, the people who we say who are the most important people in our society, we don't hesitate to deprive of the real distinction, which is return for what they give to our children. I think, for another thing, that we have our educational pyramid upside down. The most important years in a person's life, as far as this education goes, are the first years, not the university years in graduate school years, but we unhesitatingly and our government just pours billions of dollars into graduate school laboratories and all that kind of thing, when we really wouldn't even need any of those things if the children had been well taught when they were in primary grades and even before they went to school because their attitudes towards their education and towards their world in general is irrevocably set by the time they're in the second or third grade. The most important people in the educational pyramid are those that are the foundation of it of it and those are the ones in the primary schools. They're the ones who are deprived as far as recognition, status, and salary. It's crazy. ...really, I don't see- if we will speak first the local scene, I don't see any real problems, that is problems that we won't be able to resolve, on the local scene. I've met with black students and met with the BSO, Black Student Organization, last summer and I feel that it will be possible to work with them and resolve some of their problems, and I hope to work as a liaison person between the administration, the faculty, the student body as a whole, and black students, and black people in this community toward creating a better understanding and resolving some of the problems which we have facing us. Now, on the national scene, I think that we have really had the greatest difficult, we've experienced the greatest difficulties. I think we're going downhill now. For a long period of time there, a few people in general, and especially on white campus and the white community, seem to know how to meet these problems of black people and black students, but I think a great deal of money, a great deal of time and effort has been spent toward understanding these problems, studying the situation, and I feel that we're beginning to get some answers now. And we're beginning to find resource people in the community and persons who understand the problems of black people, and the problems of our nation, the problems of this age, and I think that we actually, as I said before, are going downhill now. Which is a good sign. Yes it is a very good sign, thank you. In the area of luttocks, doctor is it your opinion, as we have heard and read in some places, that the black student, because of his fantastic athletic prowess, in some instances is being exploited. Well, I don't know whether or not I would use a term quite as drastic as that, as has been used in one of the national magazines, some of its articles. But, I feel that perhaps not enough attention has been given to the black athlete. Perhaps, in as much as many of them come from disadvantaged areas and disadvantaged homes, and many of them have had need for special help in academic areas. I believe not enough attention has been paid to the black, paid to the black athlete, and I'm certain that in the future more tension is going to be paid to, not only the black athlete, but all disadvantaged students, and all students who need aid in school, and of course a number of schools today, number of colleges and universities, are employing counselors for black students and for black athletes, and as well as employing black faculty members who perhaps can relate a little more closely to the black student, and understand his problem a little better. And I think that'll be quite helpful to all of us. The surplus at the end of this current fiscal year, or June 30th 1969, will be approximately five million dollars. This is made up of our estimate at the, for the end of, the end of June 30th of 3.3 million as of June 30th 1969, and also for the three month period, ended September 30th, through the first three months of this year, were about a million six hundred thousand over our estimates. These two figures together come out to a surplus of approximately five million dollars at the end of this biennium. This is somewhat less than was originally projected, but in percentage of deviation from the original estimate, it's something just a little over two percent deviation. Most of the reason for the reduction is reduction in taxes collected basically in the sales and income tax, and this has been a problem to us because of the lag and the enforcement of the new tax structure. Compliance factors have been a problem to us. Some of the items are held up in court. And there was a downward trend in farm income during the last year which affected both the sales and income tax.