The Good Neighbor Council and NCSU: Bodies in Space

Chairman Greenlaw expands GNC focus. 

Black Students, 1970s

The first Good Neighbor Council met October 3, 1968, at the behest of NC State Chancellor John T. Caldwell. The GNC featured international, undergraduate, and graduate student representatives, but was mostly comprised of NC State faculty members. Professor James G. Maddox, trained as an agricultural economist, gladly took on the responsibility as the GNC's first chairman from 1967-1968. Initially, the GNC's orders were rather vague; Chancellor Caldwell merely informed the organziation to, "alert him to actual or potential violatons of the canons of good-neighborly conduct on the campus." [1] For many members, it appeared as if the GNC might become a speakerbox for the Chancellor's office and hold no official power. However, after the first few meetings, the Good Neighbor Council realized the potential to bring great change to the campus environment. 

After careful consideration, the Good Neighbor Council decided to only way to provide a more comfortable environment for black students was a greater effort in recruiting qualified black graduate students and faculty. [2] Their resoning was twofold. First, the GNC recognized the psychological benefits for black students to see accomplished black professionals occupying the same space as white faculty; but, more importantly, the Good Neighbor Council thought the only way to change entrenched social and cultural structures in which discrimination occurred was to fundamentally change the actors. Essentially, the Good Neighbor Council thought the campus could only change by inserting different perspectives and different cultures in physical space. It had to recruit more black students and faculty.