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One Hundred Years Old

Messages From The President of Morris Brown
College
.....During The Spring Convocation On The State Of The College

It is with much pleasure that we greet all of you today as we observe this spring convocation of the 1979-80 school year. For the beautiful cooperation that all of you have given to this noble institution, we are indeed grateful. To those of you who were with us during last semester, and have been with us before, we are indeed happy that you have returned.
To those who are new at Morris Brown College, we are most delighted to have you and hope that your stay here with us will be enjoyable and successful.
It is our sincere hope that this second semester will be filled with those living and learning experiences which will help us become our best selves in intellectual, social, physical and moral development.
We must be forever mindful of the need for continuous growth toward becoming the best that our potentialities will allow. To become the best that we are capable is a divine imperative for realizing the true and full meaning of human creation.
In addition, if we are to respond adequately to the increasing challenges of the social order such as war, inflation, unemployment, racism and crime, all of our potentialities, talents and abilities must be cultivated to the fullest extent. We cannot afford to let it be true for those we teach at Morris Brown College what our critics say that our former students and graduates are illiterate and incompetent.
Morris Brown College is as sensitive and responsible today to maximum growth of all its students as it has been for the past 98 years.
This sensitivity and responsiveness are revealed clearly and emphatically in these sacred words of the institution's mission statement: 
  The aim of the College is to provide an 
  educational opportunity for students to 
  become functional persons in society. The 
  fulfillment of this aim means producing 
  graduates who may not only live full, 
  meaningful and personally rewarding lives
  as individual, but who may also make 
  socially constructive and culturally 
  relevant contributions to local, regional 
  and national undertakings.
Morris Brown College is most certainly concerned for and committed to its abiding task of helping more than sixteen hundred students develop those competencies that will enable them to become self-supporting and contributing members of society.
There are numerous resources that are provided here at Morris Brown College to assist all students toward wholesome growth and development.
We have 102 plus faculty members who are highly trained and richly experienced as professional educators and totally committed to helping every student become a winner as a learner.
We have a comprehensive and dynamic curriculum that includes more than thirty areas of concentration, excluding the more than sixty others that are offered by other AUC schools. The most recent program to be added is nursing as a part of the allied health fields.
There are many clubs, organizations, fraternities, sororities and other groups and activities that are available for student participation and leadership and friendship development.
We work constantly at trying to keep in good repair and attractive appearance the more than twenty buildings and fifty acres which constitute our buildings and grounds. The most recent major repairs have been in Sarah Allen Quadrangle, Ware Building and Fountain Hall.
The Thomas-Jordan Library, which has more than 60,000 publications is open seven days a week for study and reflection. To supplement this facility is the Trevor Arnett Library at Atlanta University which will be replaced in 1982 by the $16 million Woodruff Library which is presently under construction.
The financial aid program is available to all eligible persons which includes about 90% of our students.
Morris Brown College is a fully accredited institution by the State Board of Education of Georgia and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and we are presently seeking accreditation by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education.
As a member of the Atlanta University Center which includes Clark, Morehouse, Spelman, Atlanta University and the Interdenominational Theological Center, Morris Brown College is able to make available many different programs and services. Security force, book store, Engineering, Computer Science and ROTC are among some of the benefits that our students may share. 
We are proud of our athletic program which is intercollegiate and intramural and which includes six different sports-our plans for participation in IAA Sports are still on the front banner.
These programs, activities and services represent some of the opportunities offered by Morris Brown College for the elevation and success of our students. 
These opportunities alone are insufficient to get the job done. For them to have most meaning, every student must seek out these opportunities with all of his soul, all of his mind and all of his body. To pursue is to subdue-to be caught is to be sought.
To get the most out of what Morris Brown has to offer and move toward maximum self-improvement and fulfillment, here are ten things that every student must do.
Every student must:
1. Apply for financial aid and, if eligible, use financial aid to pay Morris Brown College.
2. Be punctual and regular in attending classes and thorough and presentable in preparation of assignments.
3. Become an active member in at least two organizations and activities on campus.
4. Keep your environment clean, attractive and safe.
5. Do not use or peddle drugs nor take from others what does not belong to you.
6. Take care of the school's property and practice conservation of energy.
7. Dress appropriate for all occasions and refrain from loud and boisterous behavior.
8. Take time at least each week to worship and pray to a God who is all wise, all powerful, and ever present. 
9. Take advantage of programs, activities and services offered at other schools in the Atlanta University Center.
10. Help each other and be an ambassador of goodwill for Morris Brown College.

As we look to opportunities present before us, let us all seize the challenge to become the very best of our many possibilities.
Teachers and workers, let us come forth with full strength and renewed dedication to teach constructively like we have never taught before.
Students and learners, let us discipline ourselves with unending patience and unyielding persistence to learn thoroughly like we have never learned before.
Moving forward together as teachers and workers and students and learners in pursuit of this noble challenge to become our best, we can expect to receive from our sharings and experiences the best of many blessings that benefit significantly our personal lives, our alma mater, our nation and all mankind.

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