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	Vol.7, No 9, September 14, 1999
	Campus construction draws criticism By John Putman Daily Forty-Niner During meetings held over the summer break, members of the Committee on Native American Burial Remains and Cultural Patrimony voiced their concerns over the Cal State Long Beach administration's handling of sensitive construction projects on campus.   Committee members were outraged that they received no notice from the university before the repaving of Earl Warren Drive near the Puvungna worship site during July and August.    The members claim the committee was given only a few days to review and respond to plans to renovate the Fine Arts buildings on Upper Campus.    "Weíre striving for mutual respect," said Juaneno elder Lillian Robles, addressing Keith Polakoff, the administration's representative on the committee. "We need to work together with the university. We expect respect from you."   The committee, which advises university officials on policies regarding American Indian remains and cultural artifacts, lobbied for more authority in directing university policy, complaining it was being shut out of the decision-making process.   Polakoff admitted he inadvertently left out the Earl Warren Drive project from his report on upcoming construction projects to the committee in April.   "I'm not saying that the university has not made any mistakes," Polakoff said.   Committee members were upset that digging and heavy machinery were too close to the known American Indian burial site during the four-week repavement project.   "We're very aware of the site," said Mike Kelly, assistant director of planning and design. "We're very careful when we do any kind of construction to stay away from there."   The committee also disputed the university's submission of a notice of exemption stating the renovation of the Fine Arts buildings did not require the filing of an environmental impact report to adhere to the California Environmental Quality Act.   The renovation, intended to bring the buildings up to code, will include 2,000 feet of 3-foot-deep trenching for the laying of utility lines, according to project manager Jeanne O'Dell.   In a letter to Susan Brown, CSULB director of physical planning, committee member Sam Dunlap charged planning officials with minimizing the impact the project would have on subsurface cultural deposits and with assuming that the excavation would not likely uncover archaeological material.   Dunlap, the director of Professional Native American Cultural Resource Monitors in Temecula, suggested that these assumptions revealed an unfavorable bias against the prospect of discovering cultural material associated with the areaís indigenous inhabitants.   The letter received the attention of CSULB President Robert Maxson, who later apologized to the committee for the short notice of the fine arts renovation project and the heavy activity occurring near the burial site during the resurfacing of Earl Warren Drive.   Maxson also agreed to fund an American Indian monitor for campus construction projects, beginning with a project this week which will connect water lines from the Central Plant to The Pyramid.    The monitor would report directly to the committee. Dunlap suggested the Gabrielino/Tongva Tribal Council, whose members are descendants of the area's indigenous inhabitants, select the monitor.   At its July meeting, the committee adopted a resolution recommending it be granted a say in selecting any archaeologist for future campus excavation projects, adding that this archaeologist possess "a demonstrated ability to work cooperatively with local Native American communities."   This would seem to exclude the universityís current contract archaeologist, Matthew Boxt.   Scott Charmack, associate vice president of physical planning and Facilities Management, defended the university's hiring of Boxt for The Pyramid project.   "Dr. Boxt has spent a considerable amount of time and research on this campus," Charmack said. "He has such developed an understanding based on that and is able to assist the university quickly, whereas anyone else coming in is going to have to read volumes of information."   The committee will also request a copy of an article by Boxt and Mark Raab, one of three peer reviewers of his CSULB reports.   The article was submitted to the Journal of Great Basin and California Archaeology.   According to Eugene Ruyle, CSULB professor of anthropology, the article challenges the ethno-historical research behind Puvungna, which is registered as a sacred site in the National Register of Historic Places.   In the meantime, the administration continues to appeal to the CSU to release Boxtís findings.		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Forty-Niner Publications, Department of Journalism, California State University, Long Beach ©1999 All rights reserved.