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•VV* \ w.. - • ■ SUNYbledges minority hiring but UB affirmative action dwindling by Daniel S. Parker Editor-in-Chief Copyright 1979 The Spectrum Assistant to the Executive Vice President Corhta Baca termed the statistics 'dismal, demoralizing, and depressing claims that affirmative action has been misconstrued to mean “replacing qualified people with unqualified ones, giving preferential treatment to those who don’t deserve it, moving people into an economic system who couldn’t do it on their own, replacing men with women and whites with blacks, and allowing for reverse discrimination.” \The policy of... SUNY at Buffalo [is] to cooperate with HEW and other ... federal and State agencies to the fullest degree possible in matters of affirmative action and equal employment opportunity. ” —UB President Robert L. Ketter in a letter to Assemblyman Arthur Eve (March 7, 1974) employed here is minimal. In fact, in most of the “protected minorities” category — a status given to Blacks, Hispanics, Asians/Pacific Islanders (APIs), American Indians, and Women - the percentages of minorities employed here is dwindling. ‘Dismal’ stats As a result of budget cuts, the total nuihber of employees here has dropped for both blacks and whites. Between 1974 and 1978, the number of full-time black males dropped from 146 to 100 and the number of black females dropped from 116 to 103. Accordingly, the number of white males also dropped from 2104 to 1900 while the number of white females slipped from 1525 to 1391. \It appears that what ought to be going on is not, and one thing that is going - out - is minorities. ” Jesse N«h of Affirmative Action Cariotta Baca, At Exac. V.P. .. equality takes e back teat ' 'Dismal, depressing, end demoreiising’ males has fallen continuously since 1974, while white male totals have fluctuated. Assistant to the Executive Vice President Carlota Baca termed the statistics “dismal, demoralizing and depressing.” Baca, the only high-ranked woman in Capen Hall, is head of a recently formed affirmative action committee. —continued on pago is— UB'Assistant Vice President for Affirmative Action Jesse Nash (June 18, 1979) The number of non-white full-time faculty here stands at 8.3 percent. However the number of full-time minorities employed here dropped from 338 in 1974 to 298 in 1978. Assistant Vice President for Affirmative Action Jesse Nash explained that many factors have worked against hiring minority educators and researchers. He action is obscured in a jumble of statistical data. For example, based on percentages of the total number of employees, only the number of white women has relatively increased - and there are proportionately fewer blacks here now than in 1974. Nash maintains that beyond the year-to-year numbers, the trends are telling. The number of black Although the University claims to be an affirmative action employer — and is mandated by the State to correct effects of past discrimination and to eliminate present discrimination - the number of minorities currently The key, explained Nash, is arriving at an overall perspective. The actual progress of affirmative friday The Vol. 30, No. 3 / SUNY at Buffalo / 22 June 1979 distributed free to the University community / limit one copy per person Main Street mess hoped to foster Buffalo renewal by Bradshaw Hovey Spectrum Staff Writer Engineering Department describes a number of very tangible behefits which the city could enjoy because of mass transit. Paaswell points to an estimated increase of 2500 jobs in construction-related employment over the five-year life of the project, pumping millions of dollars into the local economy. Beyond this he anticipates an upsurge of investment around transit stations, just as shopping malls and subdivisions tended to grow around the superhighways of a first car,” he says. utilities”' serving as the improvement which attracts both private and public investment. two or three of the 14 stations which he hopes will net the city “a couple of hundred thousand dollars.” Because transit provides a sharp focus for a higher density pattern of development, Paaswell also predicts a savings in “infrastructure” development. Infrastructure is the term given to There are workmen out there on Main Street, breaking up pavement, digging holes, tying up traffic, and generally making a mess. • / Joint development Congress and UMTA were not satisfied to let this process happen (or not happen) on its own, and so set aside $200 million for “joint development” to “maximize the economic return on transit investment.” The money is available for research on making investments in transit corridors easier or more appealing. Compared with other cities eligible for the funds, Buffalo is indeed lagging. Miami, which is at a similar state in development of new rail transit facilities, has a full-time staff of about eight working on joint development. Atlanta, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. already have submitted their applications. the whole range of physical improvements which must be made to make-urban development possible: roads, sewers, water lines, telephone and electric lines, streetlighting, and sidewalks. Of course, the effort and expense the Get used to it. They will be there, somewhere along Main St., working for the next five years on construction of the nearly half-billion dollar Light Rail Rapid Transit (LRRT) line. If all goes according to schedule, according to the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA), the first passengers will board ttrains in May of 1984 for the 6.4 mile premiere ride from Memorial Auditorium to the Main Street Campus. The trip will be cut in half — twenty minutes compared to the almost forty minutes it takes now. Failing economy This situation worries Paaswell. “Buffalo,” he says, “is a city in major decline,” with an expanding service economy failing to make up for a loss in manfuacturing jobs. In retail sales, for instance, there isn’t that much business to go around; Paaswell sees business fighting itself, with the suburban malls at odds with the central business district. But perhaps the most important thing is that the rapid transit system may be the key to speeding the revival of Buffalo’s ailing urban core. Larry Scheiber doesn’t mind telling you that the LRRT is going to be just about the best thing to hit this since the Erie Canal. But that’s his' job; Schieber does public relations for NFTA. R ight now the only organization with responsibility for decisions concerning station area development is the Theater District Association. Harold L. Cohen, Dean of the UB School of Architecture and Environmental Design and a member of the Board of Directors of the Theater District Association, told. The Spectrum the Board will soon make a decision on how to respond to the NFTA’s choice of the “600 block site,” down a few blocks from the actual theaters, for the Theater District Station. The Theater District Association has gone on record to oppose that choice because they believe it will hamper retail trade in the Theater District. The other thirteen station areas face a come-what-will future. And the only entity with jurisdiction over the whole corridor is the City of Buffalo and it is uncertain whether they have things under control. Paaswell believes that co-ordinated planning will lead to strong development while contradictory policies will risk wasting the opportunity which transit offers Buffalo, and he fears we may be heading for the latter. Besides allowing people to travel in the city “freer, faster* more comfortably, and more safely,” Schieber believes the line will be a great spur for urban revitalization. To illustrate, he points to Toronto’s experience: $ 10 billion invested along the first 4.5 mile section of the Yonge St. line and skyrocketing property values. inzo GET USED TO IT: Main Straat will be torn up, tarred over, and detoured around for the five yean while the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority installs Buffalo's rapid transit system. The project, which has been tangled in red tape and controversy, is estimated at neerly a haH-biMon dollars. The above scene at Main and Winspaar is nothing new to UB students — the digging around the University began early last spring. the 60’s and 70’s. Because of this, and a general appreication of property values in station areas, Paaswell foresees a stabilization and perhaps an increase in the city’s tax base. Paaswell also sees a savings in energy costs: first because transit is simply more energy efficient than cars and second because mass transit tends to promote a more dense, more compact pattern of development instead of the typical “urban sprawl.” Mass transit will even allow, some people to dispense with the “cost of owning that second car or even local governments are willing to shoulder puts a limit on how much can be done. This might include offering tax abatements, improved landscaping and lightig, providing zoning and design controls, and “site assembly” whereby the city assembles various smaller pieces of real estate on behalf of private developers interested in larger projects. Sagging economy Joseph Voit, a broker for Saperston Real Estate, readily admits that transit here will have “a favorable affect on value” but he doesn’t expect anything like the Toronto boom. “None of the rules we live with apply to Toronto,” he said. Toronto was then a boomtown. Today, Buffalo’s economy sags. First, a bit of background: Congress did not see its mass transit program as simply an effort to improve transportation in selected American cities (only a handful of large cities are being funded for rail transit by the Urban Mass Transit Agency [UMTA] ). It is instead part of an overall effort to revitalize deteriorating central cities with what one local architect, Peter Hourihan of the Cannon Partnership, calls . “people The Buffalo- Community Development Department, which is handling application for the money, hasn’t gotten very far yet. Mike Krasner, who is in charge of Joint development for the city, said he is now preparing a “pre-application” for studies of Dr. Robert A. Paaswell, a transit specialist in UB’s Civil Inside: DC-10 debacle—P. 6 / Alvin Alley—P. 7 / Fascination—P. 11 / ‘Ampersand’—advertising section
