Veteran issues unsettled

By Michael Watanabe
Daily Forty-Niner

Complaints were not fully settled after an all-day meeting between Cal State Long Beach and the U.S. Department of Labor Friday over a possible affirmative action plan for qualified veterans.

Though neither organization would comment on details, each agreed that progress had been made. The university "made some significant progress in getting to the issues that were of concern," said Armando Contreras, executive assistant to CSULB President Robert Maxson.

William Smitherman, director of the Los Angeles Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program, a branch of the Labor Department, said he would not comment until a resolution was found, but called the discussions an ongoing process.

The issues in question revolve around the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readujustment Assistance Act, adopted in 1974, which covers Vietnam-era and qualified special disabled veterans from discrimination in employment, according to the Labor Department.

The department found in early August that university officials had violated 21 sections of VEVRAA.

The discussions focused the department's findings and what the university would have to do in order to comply with VEVRAA, Contreras said.

The Labor Department had come up with a proposal for compliance and this meeting was the place for the university to ask questions about the settlement terms, Contreras said. The university now has to consider what was discussed, and will have another meeting to decide what the university will do.

Contreras stressed that these meetings are not solely based upon the complaints brought by campus veterans, but are also a venue where they could improve relations between veterans and the university.

Unfortunately, some of the veterans have not been contacted. Walter H. Moore Jr., a communicative disorders professor, hasn't heard anything, which raises his concerns.

"It's like the government is too busy to deal with the people's business," he said.

Though the university has not responded to Raymond L. Renaud, a Vietnam veteran who works in Audio-Visual Services, he has heard from the Department of Labor. But he is being patient.

"I just got to hold tight and wait," Renaud said.