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news
Affirmative action
plan unsettles vets
By Michael Watanabe
On-line Forty-Niner
Mixed reports cloud
whether or not an acceptable affirmative action plan for Vietnam-era
veterans is on its way to Washington D.C.
Armando Contreras,
executive assistant to Cal State Long Beach president Robert
Maxson, said a viable plan has been hammered out between the
university and the U.S. Department of Labor. He would not
release details of the plan, however, because it still needs
final approval from the government.
"We wanted
to do whatever was necessary to be in compliance and we hope
the agreement is acceptable," Contreras said.
Veteran Walter
H. Moore Jr., a professor of communicative disorders at CSULB,
received a letter recently offering him $2,000 to sign an
agreement without ever seeing it, "which is the usual
tactic here, to get 2,000 bucks and run off."
He said that he
had called the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs,
a branch of the Labor Department, and was told that the university
should not be sending out any form of agreement.
Andrea Brown, assistant
district director of the OFCCP, would not comment on the issue
when contacted.
Moore said that
the university seems to be doing exactly what it was told
not to do, thereby breaking the oral agreement with the OFCCP.
The letter, Moore
said, offers $2,000 to discharge CSULB of all wrongdoing,
with the hopes to solve the issue "without need for formal
legal proceedings."
It goes on to say
that CSULB had entered into a conciliation agreement, "in
the spirit of conciliation and cooperation." Further,
the $2,000 is not to be construed as an admission of liability
or wrongdoing.
David Nelson, a
photographer for University Publications, received a similar
letter.
"I think that's
just a slick way to get around what the law is," Nelson
said. "The award they're trying to give us is, to me,
is just a slap in the face to all the veterans who have served
for their country."
Contreras, however,
disagreed.
"I know [Moore]
had conversations with the [Department of Labor] and I'm in
no position to comment on that," he said. "Everything
we've done with the conciliation agreement has been in accordance
with the Department of Labor."
This was not the
first time that veterans' issues have caused controversy.
Some veterans were
displeased with the timing of the "Go Beach" sign
painted on the Veteran's Affairs Hospital's water tower. The
sign was painted just as the university was in the middle
of the VEVRAA controversy. Veteran Raymond Renaud said he
felt as if it were a slap in the face.
Additionally, the
flagpole located just outside Peterson Hall Science Building
1 was also questioned. While many veterans and community members
approved, others, such as Moore and John Whittaker, a CSULB
technician and discriminated veteran, said the university
was trying to hide the veteran issue.
Renaud, a veteran
who had worked in AudioVisual services at CSULB, filed the
original complaint to the OFCCP in 1995.
The complaint stems
from the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act,
adopted in 1974. Under the act, Vietnam-era and qualified
special disabled veterans are supposed to be protected from
discrimination in employment.
Since 1995, there
have been two investigations into the matter. The first showed
that the university was in compliance. The veterans appealed,
and four years later, another investigation was launched.
That investigation
found CSULB to be in violation of 21 sections of VEVRAA. Specifically,
the report said that school officials had not kept records
relating to Vietnam-era veterans, that officials had not reviewed,
or updated, affirmative action plans, and that veterans were
never informed about affirmative action benefits.
Last semester,
the university and the OFCCP met to discuss what measures
would be needed to comply with VEVRAA.
Contreras said
that an agreement was signed between CSULB and the OFCCP on
Jan. 26, and sent on to Washington D.C. for approval. He also
said that veterans were notified via a personal letter.
However, Moore
said the letter was not sent just to inform, but to offer
a settlement.
Meanwhile, veterans
such as Nelson said they are feeling discouraged and disheartened.
"They've completely
ignored this law," Nelson said. "It's not something
the veterans made up for the heck of it."
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