Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           985-549-2341/fax 985-549-2061
    Date: 02/21/02
      Contact:                           Angey Saucier   92

INSPIRATIONAL LEADER WRAPS UP SLU AFRICAN-AMERICAN HERITAGE
MONTH
     HAMMOND   Controversial educator Joe Clark, subject of the inspirational movie
"Lean On Me," will wrap up Southeastern Louisiana University's celebration of African-
American Culture and Heritage Month on February 28.
     Clark will bring his message of self-pride and his stories and strategies of success to the
Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts at 7 p.m.. Ticket prices are $5, adults, and $2, non-
Southeastern students. Admission is free for Southeastern students, faculty and staff with
university ID.
     As a former army drill instructor, Clark has been described as seeing education as a
mission. In 1984, he began his career as principle of Eastside High School in Paterson, N.J., with
an attitude of high expectations and challenges for success instead of sympathy. In just one day
of his first week, Clark expelled 300 students for fighting, vandalism, drug possession, profanity
or abusing teachers. 
     "If there is no discipline, there is anarchy.  Good citizenship demands attention to
responsibilities as well as rights," said Clark.  "Every day, pride in self and school must be
reinforced. Every day, the value of academics must be demonstrated."
     Within two years, he turned the once raucous institution into one that was declared a
model school by New Jersey's then-governor.  Clark was also nominated for one of the nation's
ten "Principles of Leadership" awards in 1986 and for the National Association of Campus
Activities' Speaker of the Year award in 1996.  He was also named a model educator by
President Ronald Reagan and offered a White House post as a policy advisor, which Clark
declined.
     Clark earned a bachelor's degree at William Peterson College and a master's degree at
Seton Hall University.  He also did post-graduate work at Columbia and Rutger Universities to
gain his doctoral equivalency.  He is currently the director of Essex County Detention, a juvenile
detention center in Newark, N.J.
     For more information, contact the Office of Multicultural and International Affairs at
985-549-3850.
                             -SLU-
Press release available online at www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsp02.html