Ohio University - Athena Yearbook (Athens, OH)

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Carol Ford uniqueness If your radio has ever startled you by yelling Yoo ' -oo! , it was Carol Ford ' s vocal cords that seized your attention. Energetic, dynamic and petite, Ford is the producer of WOUB ' s Black Directions, and a disc jockey for the station. Black Directions is an eight-hour weekly segment of programming originating and staffed by Black Radio-TV majors. Ford has spent four years with Black Directions as an announcer (reading news, Black history and the Black Board community calendar) in addition to being a disc jockey. She ' s also worked with WOUB-AM for four years. In addition to her announcing chores, she has aired a wide variety of music. She ' s the one who says, If you ' re driving your car now, thanks for the ride! Ford is known to listeners and friends as a real Zany. You have to be ' out there ' to do radio anyway — talking to a microphone and people you can ' t see. Her media work is not limited to radio, however. She has also done TV news and booth announcing for WOUB-TV but prefers radio work. I don ' t like TV; there are too many people. In radio it ' s just you. Ford is very proud of Black Directions. I feel like a mother. I got trained in Directions — preparing myself to go on the air. It ' s grown a lot anil done a lot of things. When asked what Iaitj ' W. Smith contribution of hers pleases her most, she says Keeping up shipboard morale. She ' s a person of multiple talents. She has taught a BSI workshop in modern dance, was an MC for the Eddie Kendricks Concert, has been a runner-up in the Miss Bronze Contest, and has given a lecture on radio to a speech class at Nelsonville-York High School. She has also been the MC for a live remote-broadcast of a jazz concert in Seigfred Auditorium by Ron Esposito and Rania. A lot of the vacation time has been spent in Athens as part of WOUB ' s break staff between quarters and during summers. Ford projects a lively and animated personality over the air waves. Basically radio is a background medium. You don ' t just sit down and listen. So I guess what I try to do is make the radio easy to listen to. DJs are traditionally male and Ford says, It ' s kind of weird when you think about it — generally women are the best talkers. Some people think the pitch of a woman ' s voice is high and irritating. I used to imitate a male voice with a speed-of-light delivery. In order to succeed, Carol Ford will probably only have to imitate herself. She says, I don ' t think I could ever do without the music. Horace Coleman 12

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Baker Center. We ' re in the seat of the bureaucratic mechanism, says Dannie Sher, while another notes, We can ' t smoke dope or drink wine because Baker Center administrators won ' t let us. Another member emphasizes, We want a place for women to sleep, but they make us get out at 12. Likewise, the women are intensely concerned about the poor status of women at the University. There is not enough money for programming, very few classes specifically for women, and not enough counseling for women, Debby Krause, a sophomore chemistry major, says. She also sees need for improvement at Hudson Health Center, where she says, They, even the nurses, sometimes coerce women to go on the pill instead of allowing them to choose their own birth control methods. Although recognizing that the University has responded to the women ' s liberation movement by offering Women in History and Women and Public Policy courses, Krause emphasizes that the University of Cincinnati has a whole women ' s curriculum. Statistics reported in The Post last December, however, show that while the University has not taken great strides in according women more equitable status, it has taken the necessary first steps. While women at the University still swell the lower ranks, The Post noted, the University has hired more women faculty. There were 91 full-time women faculty out of 778 faculty members in 1972, but during the Fall Quarter there were 125 full- time women faculty while the total number dropped to 615. Despite this encouraging sign, Bare-Knepshield comments, Women at this University don ' t stand very well in comparison with the nation or other universities. In fact, she notes the movement has been moving backwards because affirmative action officers have been changing. It takes a new person time to get used to new duties l efore they can get things going. Statistics for women students are also encouraging because they show that more women are enrolling in colleges formerly dominated by male students. And the number of women enrolled in the College of Education, typically a female stronghold, has decreased from 2047 in 1972 to 1398 this year. While it is clear that women have responded to the challenges of gaining equal employment opportunities, it is also apparent that many women at the University feel threatened by other goals and idealogies of the women ' s movement. Bare-Knepshield, who provides dorms and other organizations with an assertiveness training program and a slide show on Growing up Female, says, Most women at the University view the movement negatively. They are unwilling to relate to the slides, she adds in a disheartened manner, and even resident assistants in the dorms have misconceptions. They were worried it was going to change them into these castrating women. Whether the trends suggest that a counter-revolution to the women ' s movement is questionable, but it is true that membership in two other women ' s groups — Athens Women Against Rape (A.W.A.R.) and support groups United Campus Ministry (U.C.M.) — is declining. But, as GiGi Verna, adviser to A.W.A.R. notes, You can ' t expect everyone to support women ' s lib just as you couldn ' t expect everyone to be for the Vietnam War. Regardless, however, A.W.A.R. ' s membership has dropped from 30 members last year to 15 members this year, but the decrease has not harmed their intentions of eradicating rape. We get more done with less members, Verna says. Beside giving counseling to those who have been raped and teaching prevention methods, the group also sponsors a victim assistance program. By calling Careline, a person from A.W.A.R. will accompany a rape victim through a hospital examination and police examination. Police usually prefer to have a woman with her because they ' re upset at what has happened and they know the woman doesn ' t want to talk to a man right then, A.W.A.R. ' s adviser says. Likewise, support groups at U.C.M. still maintain their goal of assisting women not to be so dependent upon men and systems, despite less participants. Carol Kuhre, assistant director at U.C.M. attributes the decrease of women ' s meetings at U.C.M. to budget cuts from the University, but states, U.C.M. has an ongoing concern for women ' s interests. To celebrate International Women ' s Day in March, U.C.M. sponsored a speech by a woman theologian from the Lutheran church and provides a room for women who might be runaways or women who fear being beat up. A mixed picture seems to be emerging for women ' s liberation — dramatic advances in the formation of groups to serve their needs and the opportunity to pursue new careers, but minimal progress in persuading more than a handful of women to become committed to the activities and idealogies of the women ' s movement.

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Student — again Richard Carter, a senior majoring in business administration, first came to O.U. and then left — as do many freshmen. He has a unique perspective on what school has been like and what he feels it is like now. Rich, tall, lithe, friendly, w ith a short afro, sideburns and a chin full of hair; a go d-natured person who readily puts you at ease. Basketball, with hopes of playing regularly, is what originally influenced him to come to Athens. After Fall Quarter of his sophomore year, he became disillusioned with the sports program and b.s. that goes on around campus in general, and transferred to Ohio State. After playing ball for O.S.U. and re-injuring a leg muscle. Rich was back at O.U. in a year. The doctors told me I would keep re-injuring it. and I had the hours here so I came back. Since returning, he has learned w hat it takes to get ready for ' out there ' . I came here at first and went wild, he relates. I took all basic 101 courses, raised (left) on the weekends and partied day and night. But now he feels that the whole school seems to have changed. Little things, like the freshman dorm thing, I guess to change the school ' s image. Rich relates that the party school image has changed, partly because drugs are not as plentiful. He observes They ' re still here, but you don ' t see as much now. Commenting on trends in and out of the classroom, he feels that. Everything is harder. For instance, Soc. is really hard now. It used to Ik ' cool, we would look forward to it as a chance to talk about common-sense things. Rich drives a small blue Chevy and noted that more students have expensive cars now, and there is more emphasis on nice clothes. A casual dresser, who — as often as not — wears jeans and a cap, he says he likes to dress nice, too. But some people wear long coats and bad-ass rags all the time! Through the good quarters and the bad. Rich says he has been able to achieve a balance and that now, like most, he tries to maintain, study and just take it day-by-day. Wayman Smith Afro-American studies . . . The rejection of that which was or is ours has been the hasi for the acceptance of that which is someone el« ' s. The most effect i,e weapon used against us has been the educational ssslem — 1 1 - ii I. las?. Rlack poet It is still in existence. That is the most important, most valuable, fact of the Center for Afro-American Studies The Center was created in reaction to racism (sic). Black Studies Institute courses are not recognized by the College of Arts and Sciences. Professors outside the department question the legitimacy of professors within BSI. Compounded with the financial crises of a new interdisciplinary department, BSI continues to struggle to secure its rightful place in the University. Most Black Studies departments across the country have come and gone, the victims of planned obsolescence via underf unding. poor planning and a general lack of support. But the C.A.A.S. continues to provide an educational opportunity which always-present instructor Lindi Pettiford describes as organic, stimulating and nourishing. The BSI is indispensable, says Assistant Dean Bev Childs in that it is the only one that addresses the problems of the largest minority of Americans and serves a variety of needs Whether stopping by the John Coltrane Room to cneck on the progress of the Afro-American Affairs newspaper, or knowing that you. as a serious student, can enroll in a study skills course not available in the Universitj anywhere else — and get it Black — is unique in itself. Wayman Smith 13