Two Views of Soka University

I was appalled to read in The Times (“Assembly Passes Bill to Hinder Soka’s Plans,” Valley Edition, Jan. 30) that Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) was crowing about initiating a bill in the Assembly that would deny Soka University the right to call itself a university. I was even further appalled that the Assembly passed the bill without even knowing the facts.

All you have to do is pick up any international university directory to find out that Soka is indeed a university.

The real agenda for Hayden is that the poor man has been redistricted out of a job and is looking for any means of visible support.

This “man of the ‘60s” has somehow sold out the true spirit of what that decade was all about. Where I come from, the term is vendido . He’s aligned himself with another vendido --Joseph T. Edmiston of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, who benefits from a lifetime appointment by former Gov. Jerry Brown.

The really sad part is that, when Hayden sold out, he took with him the entire California Assembly. Californians are losing jobs, our kids are getting poor educations because of lack of funds, and it’s getting harder for many to get decent medical attention, and the conservancy continues to play hardball with our hard-earned money.

The motive--land. The university just happens to be an easy target in these Japanese-bashing times.

The conservancy gets millions of dollars in federal and state funds for land acquisition. Try and trace those funds from beginning to end. You can’t. I dare Edmiston--a public official with public monies--to reveal the conservancy’s exact financial status. How much money does the public have here? What is it being spent on?

Whose land will they go after next? Are deals being made by the conservancy with local city councils? Are monies being paid to anyone’s political coffers? Whose campaigns might we be subsidizing?

Hayden and Edmiston are in the same boat. It stinks like a conspiracy to me.

ALEXIS BYFUGLIN, Agoura Hills