Print Shop Proposal

"Over grievances, blacks, Caldwell meet," November 2, 1973

     Don Bell and the SAAC saw the destruction of the King Building, and consequently the Ghetto, as an opportunity to propose a new African American space that would have additional programming, staff, and recognition from the university as a cultural center. The SAAC proactively sought a new location for the proposed cultural center, settling on the newly repurposed Print Shop on central campus (now known as the West Dunn Building). Bell and the SAAC attended the Chancellor’s Liaison Committee meeting on November 1, 1973 to request the use of the Print Shop building as a permanent African American Cultural Center and to air additional student concerns. Approximately fifty African American students attended the meeting to show their support for the cultural center. SAAC representatives did not speak during the meeting; rather the students requested a private meeting with Chancellor John Caldwell and Dean of Student Affairs Banks Talley, among other campus administrators, following the meeting. Caldwell requested Student Body President Terry Carroll remain during the meeting, however Bell emphasized that he wished the meeting to be private, dismissing Carroll. This would later serve as a point of contention for some white students who viewed the meeting as an attack on defenseless (white) student leaders. During the closed-door meeting, which lasted over an hour, African American students listed several complaints in addition to their request for the Print Shop. Students asked that more “soul” music be played on WKNC-FM, the campus radio station, that the annual Pan African Week not be combined with All Campus Weekend (a weekend of entertaining campus events and activities), as previously proposed by University Student Center President, Brenda Harrison, and that the university hire a black counselor for students.

     The students’ grievances demonstrate that African American students believed the university was not meeting their needs. In the case of Pan-African week, African American students believed combining the two university events would take away from their recruitment programs and cultural events. The possibility of recruitment programs could certainly have comforted the approximately two-hundred and fifty African American students on campus, especially since many African Americans recognized the university’s lack of a formal plan to increase African American enrollment. The addition of African American counselors could make students feel more comfortable when discussing personal or academic problems. Students may have felt a shared history or shared experiences could help African American counselors meet their needs more successfully. African American students’ desire for WKNC-FM to play more soul music indicates that students felt they were unable to incorporate themselves into traditional campus programs and activities. Music that reflected their interests and tastes could make students feel more welcome on a campus that resisted federal integration policies.

     In short, the only grievances administrators immediately addressed during the meeting, was the request for increased soul music on WKNC-FM. The radio station agreed to train African American students to play soul music during the allocated time slot, midnight until 3:00 am, a time with a limited audience. Later that year, administrators announced Pan-African week would not be combined with All Campus Weekend, a success for the SAAC.

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