2003-04 Student Handbook - Spelman College: Home

Solicitations, Canvassing And SalesSolicitations, canvassing and sales are permitted on campus by full-timeSpelman students with the permission of the Vice President for StudentAffairs/Dean of Students or designee. Requests by other groups and companiesmay be approved at the discretion of the Dean of Students, but only ifthe activity provides student scholarships or otherwise benefits Spelmanstudents or organizations. (Note: a separate policy governs solicitations,canvassing and sales by Spelman employees, and these may be obtainedthrough the Office of Human Resources.)AuctionsThough the College encourages student organizations to engage in fundraisingactivities, a degree of decorum must be used when conducting auctions.Spelman does not promote, nor will it tolerate the auctioning or the sale ofany human being, whether in jest or as an attempt to acquire funds. Thisincludes date auctions, servant auctions, slave-for-a-day auctions or any combinationthereof. If an auction is the fund-raiser of choice, only auction itemsor services that have been purchased or donated by commercial agencies orreputable vendors are permitted.A DECORUM GUIDE FOR SPELMAN WOMENSpelman College is unlike any other institution in America. For more than acentury the name Spelman has exemplified excellence. Spelman studentsare selected from among the top students in the country, and the College hassought to prepare these exceptional women for academic achievement andleadership.There is a special history and incredible pride associated with the College.As part of that history, Spelman has a reputation for shaping leaders. Cultivatingexceptional achievers takes more than scholastic performance. It requiresa commitment to honesty, integrity, purpose, compassion, service, civility,and excellence.As a Spelman woman, you are preceded by countless women, both nationallyand internationally, that have achieved at the highest levels all over theworld. As a Spelman student and a Spelman woman, you no longer representjust yourself, but rather you represent Spelman alumnae and the College.Your life as a Spelman student will be marked in the beginning with a candlelightceremony, and at the end with a walk through the Alumnae Arch on theOval. Many experiences will take place between these two events. The DecorumGuide serves as a tool to guide you through the total Spelman experience.It speaks to the Spelman standard--a standard of excellence.At Spelman, it is important to remember that you are among the best andbrightest women undergraduates in the country. There is no place likeSpelman, and no one like a Spelman woman.Spelman History And TraditionsSpelman, one of the nation's most highly regarded colleges for women, wasfounded by Sophia B. Packard and Harriet Giles, two friends who were commissionedin 1879 by the Women's American Baptist Home Mission Societyof New England to study the living conditions "among the freedmen of theSouth." Appalled by the lack of educational opportunity for Black women,the missionaries returned to Boston determined to affect change. On April11, 1881, they opened a school in the basement of Atlanta's Friendship BaptistChurch with $100 provided by the congregation of the First BaptistChurch of Medford, Massachusetts. The first eleven pupils were primarilyformer slaves, determined to learn to read the Bible and write well enough tosend letters to their families in the North.5152