Pa. challenges desegregation ord
By JOHN SCHLANDER
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
The Pennsylvania Department of Ed
ucation is disputing the authority of the
federal Department of Education's Of
fice of Civil Rights to force inclusion of
all publicly related colleges and univer
sities including Penn State in a
revised desegregation plan.
Conrad Jones, from the state's Bu
reau of Equal Educational Opportunity,
said only the federal legislature would
have the authority to direct the state to
take this action.
Jones said the state sent a letter,
which federal officials received Friday,
stating the dispute. The state is not
judging whether desegregation in this
instance is right or wrong, he said.
El Salvador
policy polarizing
split on Latin America issue
U.S.
Editor's note: Bruce Cameron is the
chief. foreign policy lobbyist for Ameri
cans for Democratic Action, a liberal
political organization. Cameron works in
the area of international human rights.
.He also recently visited Central America
with several U.S. legislators, touring El
Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. Dai
ly Collegian staff writer Vicki Fong re
cently interviewed Cameron on U.S.
involvement in El Salvador. The follow-
ing interview has been edited for length
and clarity.
COLLEGIAN: What do you think of the
Reagan administration's stance on the
conflicts in El SalvadOr?
CAMERON: Currently, the chief thing
to understand about this admiiiiitrathin
is that it has polarized this country faster
than any administration perhaps in this
century. The only administration that
might have polarized things this fast
may be Roosevelt's first term.
Interview
The Washington Post said Reagan has
the highest disapproval this early in his
administration, and one of the reasons
that he has achieved this so quickly is
because of the budget cuts and El Salva
dor.
For all foreign policy lobbyists on the
liberal side of the spectrum, there is no
choice but to be involved in El Salvador
because that's where they draw the line.
That's where they have so much de-
parted from the best of the Carter admin
istration. The Carter administration
started the El Salvador policy; the Rea
gan administration is now concluding it,
but they're taking it much further.
The administration has essentially
said that human rights don't matter
That if the Christian Democrats are
111 thrown out of the government, it doesn't
matter, we'll support them.
They have essentially given the green
light to the army in El Salvador not only
to kill at the levels they have killed last
year, which has deceased 5,000 innocent
young people. By innocent, I mean they
.were not involved in combat; they were
'illed because they were suspected of
being leftist or a lover of a leftist.
Bruce Cameron
This administration, by giving $25 mil
lion extra military aid, by sending 25
more military advisers, including 15
Green Berets, to train people in counter
;insurgency, has said to the army in El
Salvador, "Kill at will."
. And given the aid, that's probably what
they'll do.
• COLLEGIAN: What about the admin
istration's reasoning that the United
States must help defeat the guerrillas to
b.„ stop the spread of communism?
BINDERY
W 202 PATTEE
It is disputing legal jurisdiction and
whether the state's publicly related
colleges and universities are "public."
The letter states Pennsylvania's posi
tion on the matter:
"While the Commonwealth is unwil
ling to include the community colleges
and state-related universities in a de
segregation plan, the state is actively
seeking voluntary discussions."
Penn State, Temple University, Lin
coln University and the University of
Pittsburgh are classified as "state-re
lated."
Penn State has its own desegregation
plan for both students and employees.
In Friday's issue of The Daily Colle
gian, William W. Asbury, University
Affirmative Action officer, was quoted
CAMERON: That's crap. But reality is
not that the leftists are all the good guys
and the government the bad guys. There
are good guys in both the government
and the left, but in my judgment, there
are more in the left than in the govern
ment.
The extremists on both sides have
more power. On the government side,
those in the military who believe in
vicious brutal repression have greater
power than the Christian Democrats who
want to control the violence. The Chris
tian Democrats • have no power in the
government.
On the other hand ; on the left are those
people in'the Military'element tharhave
the•tnost" power ' '- not the civilians.
Obviously, it's a military situation, not a
political one. It's the military element
who have the power, and among the
military element, there are those who
have a very, harsh, totalitarian or com
munistic vision for El Salvador.
Nonetheless, our purpose in ADA is two
things, One, we don't believe the United
States should, under any circumstances,
involve itself militarily.
And second thing, it's my personal
judgment that, despite what I've said
about the left, the El Salvador people
would be better off with the left even with
those very extreme leftist elements.
But if a different solution, a mediated
solution could be found, that would be
preferable. A solution where somewhere
you could get the shooting to stop and
politics to return. People can compete
politically, instead of militarily.
To have that come about, you have to
have two things. One, the United States
has to want to mediate a solution, and
right now, th Reagan administration
doesn't want that. They want to go for
military victory. They're encouraging
the army of El Salvador to 'think about a
military victory.
Second, even if the administration
changed its mind, you'd have to find a
way to get in outside troops to supervise
the process of returning to politics and
keep the army in its barracks. Keep the
extreme left where it is, in camps like the
guerrillas in Zimbawe Rhodesia.
But at this point, that would be very
difficult to imagine. The key to even
beginning to go in that direction is for the
American people who are concerned
about greater U S. involvement in El
Salvador to oppose it, to again become
politically active.
COLLEGIAN: Like the violent protests
in the '6os?
CAMERON: I'm not advocating that
now is the time for people return to the
streets. I think that's premature, I think
that now is the time for people to become
politically active, right here in State
College and Penn State. William Clinger
should not go a day without hearing from
constituents about El Salvador.•
COLLEGIAN Is the El Salvador situa
tion similar to Vietnam?
CAMERON: There are parallels here.
'ln each case, you have presiding over the
country, a corrupt military establish
mat which stayed in power through
terror.. And that's a combination that
can't work. It's a combination that is
alienating so. many people.
The more the United States gets in
volved, the more likely an American will
get killed which will lead to more in
volvement. It's an never ending spiral
downwards.
COLLEGIAN: How do the U.S. sen
ators and representatives feel about U.S.
involvement?
CAMERON: There are a lot of mem
bers of Congress, mainly Democrats,
who see the Vietnam analogy in the case
of El Salvador, who see this from the
human rights perspective as opposed to
the "We got to draw the line and stop
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as saying he thinks the University is
already following federal desegrega
tion guidelines.
If the state would be ordered to com
ply with the federal desegregation or
der, the University may then have to
set numerical quotas for minority en
rollment and employment, Asbury
said.
However, the Office of Civil Rights
claims Pennsylvania is still operating
its higher education system in violation
of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of
1964, which calls for desegregation.
Jane Glickman, spokesman for the
Office of Civil Rights, said Friday the
office needed more time to consider
Pennsylvania's letter before a response
could be given.
Run for it!
Students ran in the seventh annual Delta Chi marathon yesterday to raise $3,500 for the benefit of handicapped students at the
University. From left are Phil Chamberlin (12th-marketing), Dino Del Nano (12th-marketing), Bart Veberroth (Bth-business)
and Bill Minehan (3rd-petroleum and natural gas). See related story on Page 20.
communism" perspective of the admin
istration.
The problem is that it (opposition)
tends mainly to come from Democrats
and the Democrats were just whipped in
the 1980 elections. Second, there are a lot
of Republicans who are very wary of
what the administration is doing but
they're not ready to go public yet.
They're not ready to oppose them yet.
Unfortunately, a lot of people are going
to die while they wait to decide when
they're going to go public.
COLLEGIAN: Do the Republican leg
islators feel Reagan is that strong politi
cally?
CAMERON: Yes, they feel Reagan is
that strong and he got a mandate. And
there's a third element, I talked to one
member of Congress. He didn't commit
himself, but you could tell he didn't buy
the good guy versus bad guy argument,
that he knows a murderous government
is in power. But he told us, "Look, you
have to understand this. What might be
happening in El Salvador is a symbol.
This is the place where we're going to
have a quick victory against Soviet-Cu
ban adventurers by making a big noise
and forcing them to cut off the arms flow
and claim a victory."
Now that's pretty sad. And by implica
tion, he was saying, "Because I'm a
Republican, I'm going to have to go along
Likewise, Clayton L. Sommers, the
state's commissioner of higher educa
tion, said he did not want to comment
on the impact of the state's letter until
the Office of Civil Rights had more time
to study the letter and make a response.
The state's letter is a response to a
Jan. 17 letter sent by the Office of Civil
Rights directing the state to revise its
current desegregation plan, which does
not include the four state-related
schools and the community colleges.
Pennsylvania's current desegrega
tion plan, approved by The Office of
Civil Rights in 1974, covers only the
state's 14 state-owned institutions.
Civil rights court cases lead to the
Jan. 17 order to revise the desegrega
tion plan, Jones said.
with this."
. What he did say was, "They want a
quick victory and this is an easy one for
them."
COLLEGIAN: Why is a quick victory
so important?
Cameron: Because they want to re
orient foreign policy. They want to kill
the human rights policy in which the
United States not only looked at the
question of East-West conflicts, the ques
tion of U.S. interests in economics and
resources, but also how the government
treats its people.
The administration wants to substitute
a policy that primarily focuses on the
East-West struggle. And . one of the
places to do that is El Salvador.
They're saying human rights is not
important, that*what is most important is
the East-West conflict. How better to get
that moving than by . having a quick
victory and saying we stopped the East
ern flow of arms?
COLLEGIAN: So you oppose this anti-
Communist approach?
CAMERON: I think it's mad, and it's
so destructive. The human rights policy
was a good policy for the United States. It
won us so much new respect in Africa
and Latin America. The way the Afri
cans view us now is because of our policy
toward Zimbabwe; it's an amazing dif
ference.
Jones said the state is seeking volun
tary discussions with the involved
schools and with the Office of Civil
Rights.
Although University officials said
they were not yet aware of communica
tion from the state when contacted by
Joe Bennett of the University's Public
Information office and by The Daily
Collegian, the state had contacted Penn
State, Jones said.
Jones said voluntary discussion is a
distinct change from forced action.
What the state is saying, Jones said,
is "let's sit down and talk about this
problem. We think it's in the best inter
est of everyone involved."
He said he hoped the Office of Civil
Rights would agree it does not have
Photo by Chuck Andrasko
COLLEGIAN: Is it true that many U.S.
businesses have interests in stopping the
guerrillas in El Salvador?
CAMERON: We have very minor in
vestments in El Salvador. The Japanese
have many more investments in El Sa
lavdor. It's a political-military
judgment, not an economic one, in my
view.
There is no country on the border of El
Salvador which is sympathetic to the
guerrillas. Guatemala, which is almost a
facist government, opposes the guerril
las and aids the government. Vietnam,
you had North Vietnam which directly
supported and eventually took over the
guerrillas in Vietnam.
The other difference is the channel of
weapons. The Russians were shipping
weapons through China to North Viet
nam which would then ship them to South
Vietnam.
COLLEGIAN: In your opinion, what
would the best course of action for the
United States?
CAMERON: Stop aid, cut it off and
withdraw our advisers. Become tacit
toward the internal situation in El Salva
dor and support efforts by governments
of Mexico, Venezuela and West Germany
to create a framework for negotiation.
Place about 2,000 peacekeeping troops
from the United Nations which would
serve like the police in El Salvador.
legal jurisdiction over the publicly re
lated colleges and universities
"Regardless," Jones said,
willing to talk."
The Office of Civil Rights also
charged in its Jan. 17 letter that certain
areas of the 1974 plan have not been
properly enacted, including charges of
limited desegregation progress at the
predominantly black Cheney College.
Part of the state's letter deals with
what it calls inaccuracies concerning
Cheney College in the Jan. 17 letter,
Jones said.
The last 'part of the state's letter is
basically an update on desegregation
procedures in the 14 state-owned
schools, Jones said.
Monday April 6, 1981
Vol. 81, No. 144 20 pages University Park, Pa. 16802
Published by Students of The Pennsylvania State University
Club wants
chance for
varsity title
By TOM SAKELL
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
The Federal Office for Civil Rights has
decided to investigate the Penn State
athletic department concerning a Title
IX suit filed in which the women's soccer
club asked for varsity status.
' In a letter to Tim Conley, club adviser
and coach, the director of the Office for
Civil Rights in Region 111 said:
"We have determined that your com
plaint is complete and that we have the
authority to investigate under Title IX of
the Education Amendments of 1972
which prohibits sex discrimination in
educational programs or activities re
ceiving federal financial assistance.
A-ccordingly, we are assigning this com
plaint for investigation."
Conley received the letter, dated
March 31, on Friday.
Athletic Director Joe Paterno, reached
at his home last night, said, "I don't
know a thing about it and I'm not going to
comment on it tonight."
Not only might this Title IX suit be the
club's last chance to gain varsity status,
it could be its last chance to remain alive.
The club is partially funded by the Asso
ciation of Student Activities, but the club
contends that money allotted by ASA
may not be enough to continue. Conley, a
volunteer coach, has said he probably
will not return this fall if the team is not
granted varsity status.
The athletic department has rejected
the club's applications for varsity status
twice in the past two years.
The federal investigators have a 90-day
period in which to review the athletic
budget and program, Conley said. After
90 days, the investigators will say wheth
er or not the University has the monies to
give the women's soccer club varsity
status and accompanying funds.
"They talk to coaches about their bud
gets," said Elvira Falsetta, president of
the women's soccer club. "They're au
thorized to talk to anyone they want to
review the budget, to see if there are any
other channels to give us money."
Should the Office for Federal Rights
rule in the club's favor, the University
will then have 90 days to negotiate with
the office on terms of varsity status. If
the. University is dissatisfied with the
results of this 90-day investigation, it can
then take the case to court, said Federal
Investigator John Garven.
Conley said he was glad the investiga
tors decided to take the case, the club's
first step in gaining varsity status
through a Title IX suit.
"I expected it," he said, "but it is
never definite until you receive the let
ter."
Falsetta said, "All it really does is
acknowledge our complaint, that they
have the legal status to investigate."
The 9G-tiay investigation period should
begin the day the investigators come to
the University, Conley said, but he is
unsure of exactly when they will arrive.
Our streak of days with above
normal temperatures will end
today. Considerable cloudiness,
windy and chilly today with P.
few passing sprinkles or flurries
possible. Today's high will only
reach 46. Clearing and cold to
night with a low temperature of
29. ToMorrow should feature
plenty of sunshine with less
wind. After a chilly start tomor
row, temperatures will rebound
to an afternoon high of 56.
Streak ends
"we're