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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 13, 1978)
Today's Emerald is the last of the term. We will resume publication March 28, the second day of regis gration. Good luck with your finals. Vol. 79, No. 118 Eugene, Oregon 97403 Monday, March 13, 1978 Audit ordered for University Housing Office By MARY BETH ALLEN Of the Emerald In response to pressure from Amazon residents, University Housing Office employees and numerous state and University officials, Secretary of State Norma Paulus has ordered an audit of the housing office scheduled for next week. Gov. Bob Straub has requested Paulus to review the office, in the wake of a letter signed by 30 anonymous housing office employees, which states that an investiga tion of the office may reveal "many irregular if not illegal practices.” Amazon residents have sent numerous let ters to the governor, also urging that an audit be per formed. In Straub’s letter to Paulus, he said that an audit is appropriate "considering the questions which have been raised about Housing Office accounting practices, and the potential effect this could have on rent in creases.” Paulus has refused to list specific allegations made against the office, saying, “When the report is final, it will be made public.” "I just hope that this is going to be a performance audit and not just a fiscal audit,” says Judith Barker, Amazon Community Tenants president and Amazon Family Housing Policy Board member. "The problem with the books reflects the type of policy decisions that are being made,” she continued. She hopes the audit will discover more than just whether the books are accurate, calling for an examination of "the decision making process, as to how money is being spent.” Barker says that last year's Hasking and Sells audit was incomplete in that it only reviewed the office’s books. The report did allude to the desirability of exam ining the dorm system as well as the housing projects for fiscal and managerial weaknesses. The Amazon demolition fund issue is particular reason a performance audit is vital, according to Barker She said that for the past years, the housing office has budgeted $7,005 tor the demolition fund and reported it to the State Board of Higher Education. At a Dec. 2, 1977 meeting of the Amazon policy board the housing office reported a total of $28,005.13 in the fund. Later in December, after attempting to follow a state board directive that the demolition fund be discontinued and the funds transferred to the Amazon reserve fund, housing office accountant Bob Minshall discovered that the fund was nonexistent. Apparently at the end of the fiscal year no money was left over to actualize the budgeted figure, although the office reported it an in creasingly large figure year after year to the state board. 1 Door opens Photo by Patrick Sullivan LCC women need a place to go when they're working in non-traditional vocational programs and Friday they got it when Carol Eliason from the Center for Women's Opportunities opened the door to a new women's bathroon. Doctoral student suing UO Bookstore By RICHARD SEVEN Of the Emerald A $1.65 package of 24 file fol ders, its crumpled wrapper, a Uni versity Fulbright scholar and the University Bookstore are the cen tral ingredients in a false arrest and malicious prosecution suit currently being conducted in Eugene. Flora Banuett, who is now a University doctoral student and at tended the University on a Ful bright grant between 1964-68, is suing the bookstore for $136,000 in damages to compensate for the financial, professional and emo tional damage she claims to have suffered when she was arrested by bookstore detectives for al legedly shortchanging the store of 45 cents, Nov. 5, 1975. Ken Morrow, Banuett’s attor ney, told the court in his opening remarks that even though the second-degree charge was dis missed before it went to trial, Banuett was photographed, fing erprinted and given a permanent criminal record. She feels the re cord will hamper her teaching fu ture. William Wheatley, the attorney representing the bookstore, told the jurors in his opening statement that the main issues are whether the store detectives had probable cause to arrest and lodge a com plaint against Banuett and whether the detectives acted with actual malice. Wheatley denied Banuett's charges, claiming that the detec tives saw the plaintiff remove the cellophane wrapper from a pack age of folders and crumple it in her hand while purchasing the item. Wheatley continued, saying the detectives knew the price of the folders was $1.65 and followed Banuett when they noticed the clerk only rang up $1.20. The store detectives believed Banuett committed “theft by deception.” Banuett claims she removed the cellophane that contained the price tag, to make sure that there were indeed 24 folders in the pac kage. She said she then placed the wrapper on the cashier's counter with the package of folders while the clerk rang up $1.20. The folders cost 5 cents apiece. However they cost 45 cents more when packaged. One of the arresting detectives, Dan DeHaven, told the court Fri day, that Bauett concealed the cel lophane in her hand while buying the folders. However, when asked why he had left the incident out of the ar rest report he was required to fill out, »he 19-year-old DeHaven said, “I couldn't tell you." DeHaven said he first became suspicious of Banuett when she removed the wrapper from the box. "It’s not something that an ordi nary shopper would do," DeHa ven said. He also told the court that he did not notice "any count ing going on." Banuett, a native of Costa Rica, said the arrest caused her to post pone her preliminary doctoral exam and drop the research pro ject she was working on at the time. She told the jury she was “humiliated, degraded and ter rified,” by the arrest process. Wheatley, however, said Banuett is trying to "exaggerate the lawsuit.” He said she made no effort to exonerate herself by for feiting bail or by paying the book store the extra 45 cents. Also, she made no effort until this week to have her arrest record erased. Wheatley continued. The Bookstore's attorney also told the jury that the detectives had been ordered to watch for petty thefts because the store had been losing $40,000 to $50,000 a month from such thefts. Most of those thefts involved items of a dollar or less, Wheatley con cluded.
