University of Virginia Library

Letters To The Editor

Expanded Program Asked

I was quite elated to learn of
the new two year all expense
paid educational program
which has recently been
implemented to raise the level
of competence of a certain
security officer at U.Va. There
are but few institutions of
higher education with
comparable opportunities for
university employees. My only
concern is that the program is
not open to employees
throughout the University
community.

As it stands now, it appears
that one can qualify for the
program only if he has 1) a
minimum amount of
education, 2) served on the
security force and 3) harassed
or arrested blacks under
questionable circumstances.
However, under an expanded
program, an assistant professor
who frequently eschews racial
epithets or otherwise subjects
blacks to verbal abuse could
qualify for the opportunity to
enter a doctoral program at the
school of his choice with all
expenses paid.

Also, the group of grounds
workers who took it upon
themselves to harass a Sister
('70-'71 school year), could
qualify as a group to enter the
school of their choice at the
expense of the University.
After all, why shouldn't the
food services worker who
refuses to serve Blacks be
entitled to two years, all
expenses paid, at the junior
college of her choice. Such a
commendable program should
be open to more U.Va.
employees.

Of course one built in
limitation upon the size of the
program is that there just are
not enough blacks to go
around. At present the limited
number of blacks at U.Va. are
probably being divided among
our security force, and once
they make their choices, there
just won't be enough Blacks
left for all University
employees to have the two or
three to harass in order to
qualify for the school's new
program.