Wilberforce University - Forcean Yearbook (Wilberforce, OH)

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Of 43,000 engineers graduating in 1971 only 407 were Black, a tragic total of less than 1 percent available for industry's top engineering leadership slots. ln keeping with Wilberforce University's constant push to provide relevant education for its Black students and through the interest and efforts of President Rembert Stokes and Academic Dean Yvonne Taylor and others, a new program has been launched. On Friday, January 26, 1972, the President of Wilberforce and the President of the University of Dayton signed an agreement to institute a dual-degree program between these two outstanding private institutions. Students will enroll at Wilberforce for three years and at the University of Dayton School of Engineering for two years and at the end of the five-year period will receive a degree from each institution. Wilberforce is presently in the process of recruiting a director who must have at least one degree in engineering. The plan is to have on campus by September 1973 fifty new students who will enter this intensified and specialized program. lndustry is enthusiastic and excited about the fact that the oldest Black institution in America has now achieved another first. lt is our hope to be the first Black institution to turn out a great number of the new leaders in engineering science for industry as we have done in the past in education, the social sciences, the ministry and many other areas in higher education. Present in picture: SEATED: President Rembert Stokes of Wilberforce University and President Raymond A. Roesch, S. M., ofthe University of Dayton. STANDING: Academic Dean Yvonne Taylor of Wilberforce University and Dr. David Kraft, Dean of the School of Engineering at Dayton University.

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lt's like starting all over again. We have nothing left but memories. With that remark. Gary Duggins, one of the members of Alpha Phi Apha Fraternity, Inc., Xl Chapter, whose house burned to the ground this year, summarized the feelings of all of the former residents. I sat in the Student Union Cafeteria one morning after the fire, nursing a coke, smoking a cigarette, and feeling rather insensitive while asking three members of the burned-out home to recount the tragedy that destroyed everything they owned on March 9,1973 around 8:00 a.m. Kermit Thrash, the fraternity president, sat opposite me, eating very slowly, and trying to digest the full realization that a big chunk of his life now lay in an ugly, twisted black heap of charred timbers and wreckage of what had once been a comfortable home. Duggins, realizing the difficulty I was having in attempting to understand and appre- ciate their feelings, tried to put me at ease by smiling and making glib remarks. Thrash and Tony Johnson, another one of the victims of the destructive blaze, also attempted to shrug off the mishap by saying that it's just something that we have to get used to. I asked Gary where all the men were staying. Emery Hall, he replied. And then Johnson hastily interjected, but it's not the house. What kind of assistance have you received? I asked. Duggins explained that the University has given them S200 and the Student Government Association S100 and the American Red Cross Chapter 575, In addition all the victims of the fire had received donations of numerous articles of clothing and supplies from various students and staff and faculty members. But as they spoke and expressed their thanks for the compassion of all who had helped them, you could tell that this money and the donations would never replace the memories and records that had been consumed by that savage fire on that cold rainy March morning. I could detect a note of sadness when Duggins spoke of losing valuable records that contained the names and other information of fraternity brothers who had lived in the house in years past, and were long gone from the Wilberforce scene. What they had left behind was buried somewhere under the huge heap of ashes, mute testimony to the whole host of memories that passed in and out of the doors of the Alpha Phi Alpha house of XI Chapter over the decades. And where do they go from here? Will the house be rebuilt? None of them know these answers, but all expressed the hope that a new fraternity house would be rebuilt on the new campus. They all seemed to express a hope and an enthusiasm that everything would work out somehow in the end. Their remarks and their enthusiasm made me realize that what really counts in the end is not the structure, but the men who lived in it and who carry its memories intheir hearts. ri 'limi ,aku 1 68

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Juniors Aboul, Abu-Oharr Albergottie, Paulette Anthony, Richard Beck, Kenneth Bell, Derrick Bibbs, Kenneth Bligen, Leola Boddie, Joe Bohammon, James Brailsford, Gwendolyn Brooks, Miriam Brown, James Brown, Sam Jr. Brunson, Edward Burrell, Voncille Butler, Margarette Burns, Rita Chandler, Diane Cato, Gerald Jr. Freeman, Renee Clark Coard, Patricia Cockburn, Carl Cole, Marie Cook, Derrick Cooper, Franklin Coursey, Ronald Davis, Myrna DeLee, Laurie Eddings, Gail Elijah, Deborah Exum,Bernadine Flippen, Diedre Foster, Sandra Gordon, Carroll Green, Hilda