Robert “Bob” Whitley

Robert Whitley
Image source: 1971 Buccaneer, page 336

A native of Greenville, Whitley was an active student leader, serving as president of the SGA in 1970-1971, following a year as its vice president, 1969-1970, and service the year before as president of the Freshman Class. Whitley represented ECU as a delegate at the U.S. Students’ Congress, and at the National Association of Student Governments. He was a member of the Publications Board and the national honor society, Phi Sigma Pi. His senior year, Whitley was named to Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges and to the National Student Register.

Following graduation in 1972, Whitley completed a law degree at Wake Forest University School of Law in 1974. He opened a law office in Raleigh, serving North Carolina and much of the Southeastern U.S. in matters related to wrongful injury and liability. He is a member of the North Carolina State Bar Association and the American Association for Justice, and a past member of the Board of Governors for the North Carolina Advocates for Justice.

During Whitley’s year as SGA president, he emerged as a critic of the Fountainhead, claiming that its editors were out of touch with the student body. Whitley complained of the paper’s language and content, reminding readers that since student fees financed the Fountainhead, if the latter was not satisfactory to them, perhaps its funding should be diverted elsewhere. At one point, Whitley compared the Fountainhead’s language to that found in bathroom stalls.

Bob Thonen, editor of the Fountainhead, objected to Whitley’s threats of withholding SGA funds, stating that his staff could not be expected to do quality work if he could not guarantee their salaries. The Fountainhead staff then went on strike on November 8, 1970, demanding that SGA financial control of the paper be ended and that the Publications Board assume control over campus publications. The Fountainhead, supported by SOULS and GAP, a leftwing student organization, further requested a recall of the entire SGA and new elections.  When the petition for recall was later deemed “unconstitutional,” the Fountainhead published an editorial, “Violence necessary?”

The strained relations between the SGA, the Fountainhead, and the Publications Board was a major issue for SGA presidential candidates running in 1972. Glen Croshaw, who was elected, emphasized that the SGA and Fountainhead needed to work together, and that censorship of any kind was wrong. As Whitley’s tenure as SGA president concluded, attention shifted to visitation rights as the dominant campus issue. When demonstrations resulted in arrests, Whitley charged that President Leo Jenkins was out of touch with students’ concerns and should have been more responsive to their requests. The controversies that filled his year as SGA president made it one of the more eventful in ECU student government history

On another count, Whitley proposed to the Greenville City Council that a student advisory board, headed by the SGA president and including select students, be formed to advise the council. The advisory board would not have a vote. Whitley’s proposal was approved by the Greenville City Council and a student board was formed. The purpose was to bring the city and the student body closer together, especially considering, as Whitley noted, that ECU students then comprised one-third of the population of Greenville.

Whitley’s efforts as SGA president and his later career as an attorney distinguish him as one of ECU’s more prominent, albeit controversial leaders.

Sources

More from Digital Collections

Bob Whitley, Vice President of the S.G.A
1970 Buccaneer, page 117

Citation Information

Title: Robert “Bob” Whitley
Author: John A. Tucker, PhD
Date of Publication: 6/19/2019

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