1 nside S cb o en -N ew sp a P er Should Blacks attend a Black or white college? Page 4 Spotlight on Nelson Mandela Page 2 Mattie Ann Callier-Spears discusses the National Council of Negro Women Page 3 More on Earl "The Pearl" Monroe Page 7 L ib r U n iv e 7 O regon E u gen e, U rey PORTLAN& Volum e X X , Num ber 26 By Professor McKinley Burt Ceasescu (surely, the man jests). Equally intriguing was the belated request, “ Ask your employer to become a “ partner” in the “ Star Plan” . En­ courage your employer to support de­ veloping the next-generation work force through a range of company-sponsored activités and by allowing you time to make contributions...” I thought about this late-blooming gambit when Mr. Ron Herndon stopped by my house the same week. During our conversation, which included the success­ ful fruition of his ‘‘P artn ers” For Success: Business and Education proj­ ect, Herndon re­ marked that years ago I had introduced him to the concept of harnessing the clout and resources of the business sec­ tor in the effort to effect meaningful change in the edu­ cational establish­ ment. A t this time of the early 1970s, I was mak­ PROPHET ing the transition from industry to teaching (Portland State University), and was finding very useful educational applications for the prag­ matic, real-time functions of a highly disciplined past experience. Several weeks ago my “ Perspectives” column described how these elements were inte­ grated into my course designs. And apropos to the discussion above with Mr. Herndon, I recalled that he was a member of the Black Education Center at that time. I had first encountered these young people when as chief ac­ countant for a local corporation I was asked to pass on their request for a con­ tributions to what turned out to be a very committed effort to achieve quality education for African American chil­ dren by means of an “ Alternative School.” However, the group was working with very meager resources, scattered high rent facilities and the constraints of the usual limited financial experience of recent college graduates. After achiev­ ing an amicable relationship-consider­ ing the generation g ap -I advanced the idea that I could design a concept which industry and the foundations would buy. I would emphasize two major elements, “ commitment and CONTINUITY” ; the latter component really translating into “ REAL PROPERTY” , an unachievable goal for most non-profit corporations at the time. My 25 years’ experience in industry and public sector as an accountant or administrator had already apprised me that the business/grantor community had two major concerns: 1. The public school system was sending them young people whose low level of basic skills shocked them sufficiently to get their rapt attention. 2. They were equally shocked by the 80 per cent failure rate of the myriad non-profit organizations coming to them for funds to “ escalate the quality of life of the poor", or to “ intervene in the deterioration of the education establishment.” The ‘troops’ were dispatched to find and photograph a suitable available building that could house a school, bookstore and related activités. The exercise culminated in my design of short one-and a half page cover letter addressed to twenty Oregon grantors. Drawing on my experience the theme was simple; “ W e’re committed and we’re competent as herein documented, but, just as importantly, ten or fifteen years down the line your board of direc­ tors can speak proudly and point to the physical presence and continuity of their original contribution.” It all worked like a charm, not only for this project but for several of my both Black and white students after I incorporated the tech­ nique into my “ Urban Economics Class” . The school is still there, o f course, and functioning; you saw the photograph on the front page of last week’s Observer. Now, that, like “ Schools of Excel­ lence,” is just one of the many kinds of meaningful contribtions that can be brought about in a social/business/edu- cational climate that PERMITS EXCEL­ LENCE! Few o f us are naive enough to believe that Mr. Prophet single-handedly runs the educational show in Portland- or even that he is the 'author’ of this play. No knowledgeable person will rise from his seat shouting “ Author! Author!” I am not about to make him the whipping boy. To completely define the parameters of this position in the particular case one would need to go back a number of years-to the reign of the “ friendly redhead” after whom the orange administration building was named-and assess the interplay between the office of superintendent, school board politics, and the cabals that actually ran Portland. W e’ll do some of that next week. Then, too, we need to take a hard look at these “ famed” Base Line Es­ says, the Curriculum and Lesson Plan Models, and the ephemeral “ Local Consultants” ; wasn’t it Shakespeare who might have been commenting upon all these things, “ O, what a tangled web we weave, when first we try to deceive” ? ■’ '>'403 ERVER 25