VOL. LVIII
\ RATU W\
NO. 9
LONGWOOD COLIJ5GE, FARMVILLE, VIRGINIA, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9,1982
MADD, SADD, Others Present Cases During Alcohol Awareness Week
By DEBBIE RIPPY and JULIE CRUMPTON In March of 1981 the first chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers was started in Virginia by Susan Midgett whose 14-year-old son was killed by a drunk driver on Sept. 30, 1980. The driver hit the boy who was located over 15 feet off of the highway and proceded on as if he had only hit a dog. He was apprehended 2^2 miles away with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .33. At present, the man is out on a work release with a job at a bar and grill just 3 blocks from Susan Midgett's house. He will get his license back this coming Dec. 2. Susan Midgett spoke last Monday night at Jarman Auditorium, the first of Longwood's Alcohol Awareness Week speakers. She provided some interesting statewide statistics. There are 500-600 deaths annually, 42 deaths monthly, and 10-11 deaths weekly due to drunk drivers. Nationally there are 26,000 deaths annually, 500 deaths weekly, 71 deaths a day, and 1 death every half hour. One thousand or more victims are crippled, injured or maimed for life yearly. Drunk drivers cost $24 billion a year in property damage, human life, and funerals.
The punishments for these offenses are rather slack. If the driver is caught drunk a second time there is a mandatory jail sentence to be served at his convenience. If he is convicted of involuntary manslaughter he will face a sentence of 1-10 years when it used to be only 1 to 5. When MADD marched at the General Assembly, they were still Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. Since then the name has been changed to Many Against Drunk Drivers. Mrs. Midgett stated that her group is not out for destruction. They only want progressive change in the laws to help prevent the accidents caused by drunk drivers. •'More than two-third's of adults drink occasionally. Most do so moderately. One out of ten are problem drinkers. And thousands of these problem drinkers are under twenty-one." Kim Terry, former resident of Farmville and graduate of
alcohol. I was afraid to take people home because they might talk about my parents. I was very protective." Kim began to drink the first day of her freshman year when her aunt attempted suicide. She "Both of my parents were' drank to cope with her feelings alcoholics. I was affected by it long before I was afflicted with and she also began to build up a reputation. Longwood, stated some facts concerning alcoholism before starting her speech on Tuesday night. She began in a very straight forward way.
At the beginning of her that was expected of her. Eventually, she decided to go sophomore year her aunt committed suicide. Her mother into social work. She discovered gave her three beers before the during her internship at Norfolk news. She felt a lot of depression. that she didn't know how to She saw several deans for handle the real world. While she counseling and took classes at random to stay in school because (Continued on Page 3)
Participants and organizers of Longwood's Alcohol Awareness Week-
Minority Students Increase Pursued By Dora Ann Daniels Back in 1978, the Federal Government and the United States Department of Education were informed that there still existed several institutions of higher learning in the state of Virginia which were not in compliance with the established desegregation laws. Faced with the possible cutoff of federal funds, Governor Dalton acted as overseer of a possible method to effect desegregation in these institutions. The outcome: the Virginia Plan. The Virginia Plan is the product of an agreement between the state of Virginia and the Office of Civil Rights of the United States Department of Education. The purpose of this plan was to increase the number of other race faculty, staff, and students in Virginia's predominately white, statesupported institutions. The Department of Education established enrollment goals for each of the fourteen public, predominately white institutions in Virginia, with hopes that all
objectives would be met by June 30, 1983. Unfortunately, the Virginia Plan has not been considered successful. By their own admission, Virginia attests to falling short of their goals. By Fall, 1980, only 1286 minority students had been enrolled in Virginia's traditional institutions. This is 334 short of the 1,650 they had hoped to have enrolled by that time. As of June 19,1982, the Reagan Administration rejected the Virginia Plan as a failure and ordered Virginia to come up with a new strategy to bring about desegregation in these schools. Longwood College is one of such institutions under Federal scrutiny. The College has chosen to direct their efforts towards the recruitment of black faculty, students, and staff. During the past four years, Longwood's recruitment efforts have been somewhat successful: the school year 1979-80 marked a good year for recruitment of students as did the years 1980-81 and 1981-82 for faculty and staff recruitment. However none of these efforts
have been consistent. The 1982-83 school year marks the beginning of a concerted, continuous effort to recruit minority students, faculty, and staff to Longwood, despite the fact that the overall plan has been deemed a failure. With the installment of Longwood's new President, Dr. Janet Greenwood, and other new persons under her administration, great measures are being taken to insure the enrollment of minority students at Longwood. The summer of 1982 saw colossal effort to recruit minority students. An "ad hoc" committee was formed whose duties were to locate and recruit minority students for the 1982-83 academic year. The committee began by confirming the minority applicants already accepted to Longwood by sending to each student personal welcome letters from Dr. Greenwood and Edna Allen-Bledsoe, Minority Affairs Coordinator. In addition, Ms. Allen-Bledsoe and Delores Scott, a new minority Admission Counselor, made a personal
phone call to each student. Other plans of action include location of additional applicants through review of applications on file, the contacting of local schools, and the reviewing of the available lists of high school graduates from the past three or four years eligible for admission to Longwood. Just as tremendous effort has been made to recruit the minority to Longwood, that much more effort has been made to keep the students here. "The quality of black life has to improve at Longwood," says Ms. Allen Bledsoe. "The minority student needs to see evidences of a college environment that is culturally and socially enriched enough to fit his-her needs." Efforts to retain minority students include the emphasis of black organizations on campus. The Afro-American Student Alliance and the Basic Gospel Choir are such organizations. In addition, there are two black Greek organizations on campus; Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and f Continued on Page 2)