Pan-African Head Assails CSUN for ‘Racist Disregard’

The acting chairman of the Department of Pan-African Studies at Cal State Northridge charged Friday that administration officials used “racist disregard” in their handling of an alleged grade-buying scheme.

Professor Verne L. Bryant said campus officials should have come to him with the allegations and consulted him before canceling classes and making the matter public.

“I don’t think anyone else would have been treated this way,” Bryant said. “I think there has been a racist disregard for me as a chairman.”

CSUN spokeswoman Ann Salisbury said university President James W. Cleary “was concerned that illegal activities might be going on, and he didn’t have time to pause for social niceties to inform the chairman before he took the action. We had to halt it right then and there.”

She said the university told the press quickly because they did not want to appear to be hiding anything.

Cancels 3 Field Studies

On Thursday, Cleary took the unusual step of canceling three Pan-African field studies classes amid allegations that students were recruited with promises of A grades if they sold $100 worth of raffle tickets for a professor’s nonprofit foundation.

Professor Eleazu S. Obinna, a 17-year faculty member, and Willie J. Bellamy, a 1985 graduate of the department who began teaching there last year, are under investigation by campus police. Raffles are prohibited under state law, although in many cases it is not enforced.

Proceeds from the raffle were to benefit the United Crusade Foundation Inc., a Pacoima-based nonprofit group headed by Obinna. Bryant is second vice president of the foundation but is not under investigation, campus officials said.

Obinna refused to comment on the allegations. Bellamy could not be reached for comment.

Bryant said he is not concerned that students were asked to sell tickets but said he does not condone making the sales a course requirement. He said he and the department’s 22 other faculty members will protest the university’s handling of the incident.

Bryant said he fears that the incident may permanently harm the department, which he said is one of the strongest in the country at a time when black-studies programs are dwindling in strength and number.

Bryant said it could be a major blow to what he describes as one of the top five black-studies programs in the country. The programs were formed in the early 1970s in response to protests seeking better educational opportunities and larger faculty representation for blacks and other minorities. About 1,800 of CSUN’s 30,000 students are black.

The United Crusade Foundation was created in 1982 by Obinna to “concern itself with global education, culture, relief and social welfare of all African peoples.” Despite its ambitious objectives, however, its accomplishments have been much more modest.

$5,000 Raised

A financial statement for 1984, according to city Department of Social Services reports, showed $5,000 raised and spent on expenses and disbursements. United Crusade has operated out of the homes of members of the board of directors, and has no staff or phone in its office, which has been occupied for about a month.

“We have had no money for hired staff,” said Brenda Travis, a CSUN secretary whose simple home in a poor section of Pacoima still houses the foundation’s business phone.

The foundation’s relief actions so far have been limited to occasional distribution of clothing and meals to the homeless. Even these activities have been at least partially funded by donations by board members such as Travis and Norman Brock, whose firm is providing at cost the sleek Sebring car to be raffled off.

Brock said he has personally spent about $3,000 in the past year.

Social Services said records show that the organization held a fund-raising dinner on Sept. 26, 1986, at which $6,000 was collected. However, the dinner cost $6,627. A dinner on Nov. 10, 1985, raised $8,000 but cost $7,879.

The agency likes to see at least 50% of the proceeds of a fund-raising event go to charity, said Linda Cuarenta, a spokeswoman for the department. Spending more than 98% on expenses “is not good,” she said.

The organization is reported to be the embodiment of the dreams of Obinna, who was upset by the problems in Africa as well as the dropout and drug rates in poor sections of Los Angeles. The budget for 1983-84 revealed the scope of his dreams. Income was estimated at $131,000, with $56,000 alone to come through television and radio solicitation. Disbursements were projected to include $25,000 for a proposed executive director, and $60,500 for hunger relief in Somalia, Ethiopia and Mauritania.

In the end, United Crusade received no revenue between November, 1983, and November, 1984, according to records on file with the Secretary of State.

Obinna has had his own financial problems. Records on file with the U.S. Attorney show that he has an outstanding 1981 bill to the government for a $15,300 educational loan. Federal officials went so far as to try to attach his wages at one point.

But Brock said the charges and allegations have not shaken his faith in Obinna. “He is a magnificent person,” he said.