University of Virginia Library

Clear The Air

News always seems to break when the
people affected by it are not around to do
anything about it. Such is the case with the
complex and unresolved issue of the Security
Department's role in recent controversies
involving alleged racism. Several things
transpired in the past week which when
clarified (stories on page 1) shed a disturbing
light on that department and its relation to
the University and the students.

After its investigation into the charges
against Officer Walter Chaffin had begun, the
committee chaired by Marion Kellogg was
notified that Mr. Chaffin had been advised
not to testify by Albemarle County
Commonwealth Attorney Charles Haugh
while the two cases involving Chaffin's arrest
of blacks were still pending in the courts.
Without a principal witness, the committee
notified the administration that it could not
carry out a meaningful investigation. Thus,
the investigation died and the problem was
put aside by transferring Mr. Chaffin outside
the Security Department to another
University job. Richard Shutts, business
manager of the University, justified that
action by claiming that without the
investigation it was impossible to either clear
or condemn Mr. Chaffin's record, and that his
continued presence on the security force
would be "ineffectual."

Much of this activity results from the basic
problems of overlapping authority and
administration of the Department as an
agency of the University and as an arm of the
court. We have recommended before, and do
so again, that there be a full investigation of
the role and function of the Department of
Security and of its relation to both the
University and the courts.

Mr. Haugh tried last week to do just that.
He scheduled a Circuit Court hearing at which
President Shannon and other University
officials also were subpoenaed to testify. But
before the hearing could take place, the Board
of Visitors pulled the rug out from under Mr.
Haugh by directing that the Department of
Security would no longer be deputized by the
Albemarle County Sheriff's Department (Mr.
Haugh's jurisdictional territory) and remain
deputies only of the Charlottesville Police
Department.

Why, we may all ask, was the University so
determined to avoid this investigation? A
source close to the administration answered
that they believed the investigation to be only
a political maneuver of Mr. Haugh because he
"just wants to throw his weight around. He
just wants to make a stink. He's that kind of
guy; he's got that kind of constituency."

Mr. Haugh, of course, says he had other
motives. Apparently uncertain of the current
status of the Department and its chain of
command, he ordered the hearing, he claims,
in order to help the University and the
Department by settling the jurisdictional
problems. He says he is convinced that, in
order to do this, a full-scale hearing with
University officials testifying under oath was
imperative.

Whatever the motives actually involved in
ordering the hearing, the fact that the
University acted so fast and so decisively to
undermine it indicates that it was very
hesitant, if not afraid, to have the Department
investigated. Indeed, Mr. Haugh's press release
of yesterday morning, stating that practices of
the University officials "could not stand the
scrutiny of either Judge Berry or the public,"
whether justified or not, seems to be endorsed
by the actions of these very officials.

The more involved the issue becomes the
more important a full-scale review of the
individual cases in question and of the
Department's status in particular becomes.
Students, who are the majority party in the
University community, have a stake in the
operations of their police force just as do
citizens in a city. When practices of a police
force are open to such important questions as
have been recently raised, there is little to lose
and everything to gain by clearing the air.

Maybe there is nothing whatever awry in
the operations or administration of the
Department of Security. If that is so, we are
all most fortunate. If not, we should all know
it, and the situation should be changed.

If the city is the only remaining
non-University authority with any connection
to the Security Department, we think it
should pick up the idea and carry out a
hearing despite University protest. For if
there is nothing to hide, the administration
will be exonerated and all doubts laid to rest.
If something is being hidden, we would like to
know about it.