Oregon daily emerald., January 21, 1971, Page 5, Image 5

Editorials
The University is not a substitute parent
Most college administrators will tell you
that the “in loco parentis” function of the
University died during the late 60’s. Don’t
believe them. The use of night watchladies
and night managers in the dorms here at the
University is proof that there is no getting
away from mom and dad.
The policy of using watchladies and night
managers to patrol the dorm halls after
closing hours was initiated by the housing
department after it received several com
plaints about increased thefts and
unauthorized visitors in the dorms. It hired
two women to patrol the halls and two men to
back them up.
While thefts from dorm rooms and the
number of strangers wandering around in the
halls decreased after the watchladies started
their patrols, the residents have justifiably
complained about infringements upon their
rights.
For one thing the watchladies seem to
have taken it upon themselves to try and
enforce the rule about closing hours to the
extent of checking the rooms, when they hear
curiously low voices. Until the watchladies
were hired the enforcing of closing hours was
left up to the residents of the dorms. The only
people the watchladies catch are those that
are being flagrant about their bahavior. The
numbers of other men staying after hours go
free simply because they stay quiet and stay
out of the watchladies way. College students
really don’t need someone skulking around
the halls to protect their morals.
The worst aspect of the whole problem is
the way the decision to hire the watchladies
was made. Not only did Assistant Director of
Housing Dick Romm fail to consult with
dorm residents about their feelings on the
policy but he has refused to discuss alter
natives with the students. Romm has even
admitted that he doesn’t know if the
watchladies can help the security problem.
Mom, dad and the alumni will be happy
about the watchladies but the people really
concerned with the problem, the people
living in the dorms, aren’t. Now it’s up to the
housing office to decide who is more im
portant to them.
Shows up flaws
John Leggett’s presence on campus,
according to the administration, “would not
be in the best interests of the University.”
They’re right, of course. The University
exists primarily as a recruiting center for the
present economic and political structure in
America. It is hard to imagine Leggett, who
has led demonstrations against Dow
Chemical’s use of the University of Con
necticut as a manppower pool, coming here.
He might call attention to similar practices
on campus, and that “would not be in the best
interests of the University.”
And it’s obvious that the University
administration, which makes decisions on
dorm watchladies, incidental fees, ROTC,
etc. without consulting students, doesn’t
want someone on campus who stood up for
student rights, as Leggett did at Simon
Fraser University. That “would not be in the
best interests of the University.”
Someday, of course, this situation will
change. Someday, the University’s collusion
with the corporate and military powers of
America will be ended, and the institution
will be a place of free inquiry and open
criticism of the status quo. Then, it will be
seen that to pollute the institution through the
influences of the Army, Air Force, and the
corporate giants of America is not in the best
interests of a free University.
No to USIU
Recruiters from the United States In
ternational University (USIU) will be
holding interviews on campus tomorrow with
students interested in USIU’s graduate
programs. Any person on this campus who
has even a minimum of concern about
fairplay or honest practices should be
disturbed by that fact.
For USIU isn’t a typical university.
Controlled by former military officers and
high ranking members of the Navy League,
in addition to a full complement of bankers,
industrialists and agribusinessmen, USIU
has been able to acquire a number of deac
tivated military bases for free, the latest one
being in Sundance, Wyo. Now USIU is using
its influence to get control of the old Adair Air
Force Station north of Corvallis, a site
desperately needed by the Oregon Council of
the Poor. If USIU is successful, then the
Adair site, which could serve as an academic
and vocational training center for the
council, will be used as a rich man’s school,
where the tuition will be over $3,000 a year.
Of course, anyone who wants to see the
USIU recruiters can do so. But they should
understand that supporting USIU, and the
practices that institution has engaged in, is a
morally repugnant action to many members
of the University community, and that
anyone who does go for an interview may be
exposed to the public censure of his peers.
Commentary
Is USIU Into education or real estate?
Most major universities (including
Columbia, U of C at Berkeley and the U of
O) are being challenged to answer the
charge that their actual role in “their”
communities is that of landlord, land
grabber and dictator of real estate
development. Basically, angry community
and university people are asking: does this
institution act like an educational facility,
or does it act in our lives primarily like a
board of realtors? This question led us to
investigate United States International
University in order to support the State
Council of the Poor’s demand that Adair
(377 acres) not be given to USIU. We found
that the USIU’s enrollment figures are
very low, its access to old military bases
high, and its financial status suspect and
largely secret.
The USIU campus in England has only
about too students. USIU in Mexico City
(formerly the University of the
Americanas) has only 31 students. There is
a campus in Nairobi with about 200
students, but this school is actually a
second rate high school. USIU is con
stantly asking the US government for
more land, yet it continues to enroll few
students. In Steamboat Springs, Colorado,
USIU has 79 students and 57 acres of land.
At one point USIU told the government
that they were doubling and tripling
enrollment, but when this was discovered
to be not true, the board stated that they
wanted to remain small and exclusive.
There are about 800 students at their home
campus in San Diego, plus 2,400 students
from Cal Western, a Methodist Church
School which was originally bought out by
USIU. The two schools were forced to
merge their two boards in 1967 by the
government. The church can still pick 11
out of 33 board members, but there has
been some feeling in the church people to
disassociate themselves from USIU
because they can’t get adequate financial
information on what USIU is into. Of
course, “non-profit” USIU could always
unmerge from Cal Western, which would
leave USIU a private corporation with
tremendous holdings.
For example, USIU has access to
Camp Eliot (a 400 acre gift from the Air
Force). It also has Sundance Base in
Wyoming. And now USIU wants to clinch
its hold on Camp Adair. USIU is getting
this land as a non-profit organization in the
United States, but their actual financial
status is much more complex. USIU is
operating as a private, profit-making
institution in Mexico. This means that
USIU can transfer public funds it receives
because of its non-profit status in the U.S.
to its branch in Mexico, where there are no
controls over how it is spent. Or debts
acquired in Mexico could be shifted to its
non-profit branches in the U.S.
The U.S. Office of Education is in
terested in USIU because it defaulted on a
government loan. (It was one of only
twelve universities in the country which
asked for an extension.) USIU also would
not turn over its audits to the U.S. Office of
Education. And neither H.E.W. nor H.U.D.
have received USIU audits.
Not even the board of trustees have a
full picture of the finances of USIU. Its
assets are said to be $35 million. But
certain questions raised by trustees in
board meetings are cut off by President
Rust of USIU or by those on the board
following his instructions. It is reported
that anyone who disagrees with Rust is
kicked off the board. USIU has continually
to go to short-term borrowing, sometimes
from its own trustees (who are bankers,
lawyers or resort owners). There is a
suspicion of leakage of funds, or perhaps
USIU has other borrowing commitments
(debts) to pay off. A resolution was passed
June 1968 by the board which said that the
USIU President was authorized to pur
chase any stocks without further question
from the board, and that this decision was
retroactive. Another resolution authorized
the President to borrow up to $200,000 for
any purpose, also without questions from
the board. It is possible that USIU was
gambling on the stock market—the loses
on the market might account for USIU’s
bad financial situation.
Actually, President Rust rims a fairly
well tied-up enterprise. Most board
members are right-wingers, and some of
them have handy ties to military
associations. No better connections could
be asked for, if one happens to want to be
given a 377 acre Air Force Base! Rust also
rules the USIU campuses with control that
every college president probably envies.
Both students and faculty must sign a
pledge of allegiance to USIU. Even if the
students get good grades, and even if they
maintain good conduct under an op
pressively puritanical code, USIU can still
dismiss them, on any grounds. This way
USIU can get rid of those who question too
much or cause trouble or (horrors!) want
to join together in political actions. This is
the kind of “university” that “deserves”
FREE 377 acres of Oregon just north of
Corvallis!
And they will be getting free buildings
on the land. The money to finance the
houses at Adair ($2,900,000) was borrowed
from the U.S. National Bank of Oregon.
The government intended to retire the
mortgage on the housing ($1,700,000) after
Adair had been handed over to USIU. In all
this there are many possibilities of USIU
govemment complicity. Here are three
more possibilities: l) H.E.W. accepted
from USIU incomplete and out of order
answers to financial questions; 2) The
General Services Administration told one
investigator that it is irrelevant for them
to tell him which banks held the housing
mortgage on the Adair houses; and 3) The
son of Senator Robert Wilson in San Diego
is on the board of Directors of USIU, which
is common enough practice for all
“educational” boards, but it may yield
some further information. So dig in,
there’s research enough for all!
This Friday, January 22, a USIU
recruiter will be on campus. The campus
Adair Support Group and the RCU will
hold a rally on that day at 10:30 at the
EMU. We intend to invite the USIU
recruiter and plan to ask him why USIU
deserves Oregon real estate and all sorts
of other questions. Bring your own! The
Adair issue is beginning to move on the
state level. Rep. LeRoy Owens, D-Eugene,
has just called for a study and said “The
state owes a vote of thanks to the Poor
People’s Conference for bringing this
matter to our attention ... At a time when
Oregon is experiencing a severe housing
shortage, and is finding difficulty in
meeting the facilities requirements of
various state agencies, it would be a gross
miscarriage of public resources to allow a
private out-of-state organization to
acquire the air base.” Right on! Let’s
meet the USIU man here Friday and tell
him so. Campus Adair Support Group