Howard University - Bison Yearbook (Washington, DC)

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 Reasserlion would be ihe process that is utilized toward self-actualization as well as collective survival. We should realize that as Black people we are all interdependent and we should be striving for improvement. Our mentality is geared toward the here and now rather than the enhancement process. There is a resurgence of social consciousness but it is not being consistently expressed. For example, in the issues concerning Bakke and urban dwellings, I don't see a consistently expressed mission to improve the quality of life in Black America. Howard University should be the cylinder of all community concerns. — fay Chunn, Ph.D. Dean, School of Social Work The theme of reassertion comes at a critical time in Howard's history, for this theme may fix our thoughts on valued principles to which we adhered many years ago but from which we have recently strayed. The learning process is active, not passive. A real mastery of the facts is the best preparation for advancement; a thin veneer of learning is soon stripped away, revealing unpreparedness. In meeting the competition ahead, one frequently has to be not only as good as the next candidate, but better. Reassertion of these principles will be a constructive and positive approach for the future. — Marion Mann, M. D. Dean, College of Medicine When I speak of reassertion, think of reassessing our rights and privileges as human beings. It is also a reevaluation. When we converge on a point, we must constantly remember that unless we continue to assert and reassert our positions, we will begin to take things for granted, bee ome complacent, and start to drift and lose ground rather than gain. I find that many students are assertive but assertive about many of the wrong things. They never seem to assert themselves on positive ideals and goals. Some have shared feelings but have become silent when it comes to action. Some have only contributed lip service. There is a need for more positive reasserlion and reaffirmation. — Wiley A. Hr an Ion Dean, School of law 28

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 In the 1970'$, people are thinking that all is well, that there is no struggle as a people. People are only interested in individual prosperity, while at the same time, people are being evicted, not going to professional schools, and the like. So, we must return to the basic things we have been doing to reclaim our rights as human beings. Student reassertion has been very disappointing due to too much partying. Society will listen if students TRY. If we don't challenge this neo conservative trend NOW, we will have to face a very cruel society when we graduate. We want to make it so that those coming after us will have something on which to build. — Sami A do, President Hon did University Student Association It (reassertion ] is the sojourn the stray must make through the edifice to the liaison of past and eternity, the godliness in all who were stolen, the soul. Campus life is a microcosm of the greater whole. Such is witnessed with the problems among students on campus. Students are insensitive to the oppression of our race, like those of the greater whole. Students are not organized, neither is the greater whole. I evaluate campus life as I evaluate the greater whole, the most wretched and infamous of existences. I see signs of reassertion on many faces but it is in Watotowajua where it lives. — Wayne McDowell President, liberal Arts Student Council The word reassertion means the rebirth of a new positive declaration of efforts to achieve a desired goal. This new thrust usually succeeds a period of passiveness, and represents a rejuvenation of all drives to obtain success. The campus life of Howard University is showing signs of progressive change. Through the last few years, the campus life has been very politically pathetic and socially oriented. Recently, due to the critical nature of prevailing issues, the students of Howard have begun to reassert their efforts in to the struggle of Black students. — Garland Hunt Coordinator, Undergraduate Student Assembly 2

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 One of the most encouraging things lhal I've seen and heard from students in the sixteen years that I've been here is that they are becoming far more serious about their education. This is evident from the freshmen through the senior class. I encourage students to make legitimate complaints when they feel that their rights have been violated or that they haven't gotten their money's worth. There is a very positive effort on their part to develop themselves intellectually because in the world of competition no one will ask, 'How many times did you march?', but, 'What can you do and how well can you do it.? ' — Clifton R. Jones, Ph.D. Associate Dean, College of Liberal Arts Students are back to basics. They are now pressing with more finesse to develop themselves more literally and are asking, 'Am I a better person and better equipped?' by using some of the things they learn from their professors. Reassertion then is a focus on functional academics. The present generation of students is entering college with a greater sense of what they want from their professors. They want to know the core and not the surface of the courses that are taught and they also want to feel that they are associated in learning. Students respect the teaching innovations that involve them. — Russell Adams, Ph.D. Chairman, Department of Afro-American Studies ... I feel that reassertion would start from the recent statement of the mission and goals of this University and that, among other things, this would lead to a redeclaration of the rights and responsibilities of all constituents and finally would lead to a general improvement of the intellectual atmosphere of the University. Speaking specifically as a chairman of one of the major science departments, I can see indicators of reassertion verbally, but I also look forward to their more vigorous implementation. Reassertion must be viewed as a continuous activity. Without it, there is no growth; there is only stagnation and final decay. — Joseph B. Morris, Ph.D. Chairman, Department of Chemistry