Miami Hurricane, August 01, 1973

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Vol. 49, Mo. I
SPECIAL MAIL AH AV EDITIOA
284-1401
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•	Oid 4*r«duNtimn linn ilie I »1 r»»fhnll pis-ture? H. arf about il . . . Hurrlt-anr Sport» Soft ion
•	<»«*! an idea of «N«l to t**p<M*i in ihe na> of a confort »fric» . . . Hurricane Enter» lulnmcnl Section.
•	Haiti: %n Island Nation . . . f eature l’atfe - S-%.
SUMMON
^OWVtRSIiY Of MM8i
AUCa -1973
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Nurr.f.«n* ôrtPftK. By JEFP WQLLMAN
By JEFF WOLLMAN
0« TM Hurrlc.n. Staff
“AN I will say about Norman Manasa is: we recognize his work . . . nothing beyond that,” went the statement which began a recent conversation with UM Vice-President for Academic Affairs Dr. Carl McKenry.
Norman Manasa, the pursuasive and dedicated campus figure responsible for making SUMMON the accredited academic program it is today, has been officially severed from any connection with the program and the University.
SUMMON offers credit-only work in several academic areas serving many of Miami's surrounding county and community agencies.
The decision, according to Dr. McKenry, came as a result of certain action on Manasa's part which McKenry’s office termed “irresponsible and unjustifiable”.
The action in question, was a letter-written by Manasa which sought to disavow the legitimacy of a UM request for federal monies for SUMMON.
The proposal had been assembled and presented in Washington by Dr. Thomas Vest of the UM School of Education without Manasa’s knowlege, input, or approval. And which. Manasa claims, included such significant changes as could present a very real threat to preserving the integrity of the program.
On June 18th 1973 the U.S. Office of Education informed UM, through its TTT Office, that some federal monies had been released on short notice of availability, and that SUMMON fulfilled requirements thst made it eligible for consideration for receipt of a grant.
This news was quickly passed on to McKenry for action since the deadline for submission of a request was set at June 30th. According to McKenry’» office “every possible effort was made to contact Manasa, but he was out of town and unavailable." McKenry and Dean Beery of the School of Education conferred and it was decided that Dr. Vest could be authorized to prepare the request and sign it on the University’s behalf. Vest flew to D.C. that evening where he began joint sessions with UM’s Washington office in preparing the formal request.
It took two days of consultation to draft the proposal culminating in the submission of a $149,000 request for federal funds.
McKenry’s office stated that immediately upon Vest’s return, he left a duplicate of the proposal on Manasa’s desk along with a note recounting the circumstances and chronology involved.
According to Sami Burstyn, McKenry’s assistant charged with reviewing the SUMMON matter: "(then) out of a clear blue”sky, all of a sudden we find out that Maiysa has sent a i letter to the UPBP office (in D C.) denying the? Vest had any
right to speak for SUMMON, and asking that the request not be considered as it was not a legitimate one."
During the course of a Hurricane investigation into the matter, several discrepencies were discovered.
When asked specifically what efforts were made to consult and inform Manasa. three additional and substantively differed versions were noted.
Dr. Vest, newly appointed Director of SUMMON, stated: “I made one. possibly two calls” . . . "but he could not be reached".
A phone conversation with Dr. McKenry provided another recollection. “Why would anyone have to contact him (Manasa) ... he is not a student, he is not an administrator, and not faculty," McKenry said.
When the question was pressed again he replied: “I don’t know.”
He was then reminded that on an earlier occasion he said that “everyone tried to reach Norm to no avail." To this he replied: “I have nothing to say."
Manasa, however, categorically challenged the veracity of these statements. “I was not out of town and in fact was around my office," he said. Manasa then produced bank statements and cancelled checks (one to cash) dated the 18th and 19th of June drawn from a bank opposite the University. These documents substantiated that, in fact, he was not oniy in Miami but potentially available.
There was also disagreement as to whether Manasa had any legitimate claim, through his connection with the program, to be involved in the negotiation of the proposal.
McKenry insists: "Norman was only a consultant" . . . (he) never was and is not now connected with the University in any way.” He went on to say: “Norm had nothing to do with the proposal ... the new proposal (June 18) is totally different than the earlier one submitted by Norman” . . . "yes, different in every way.”
Vent said that he felt there was no excuse for Manasa's actions. Asked whether Manasa's earlier proposal had been used as a working model lor the one he drafted in Washington, Vest said: “I only saw a copy of Manasa's proposal before I left" ... “I did not take a copy with me ... I designed the whole proposal up there.”
Manasa pointed out that he has severed as the program's director in the past four years and during this tenure developed proposals and presented them on the University’s behalf as recently as April 13, ’73. He made a copy of his April ’73 proposal available to the Hurricane which was, in most parts, identical with Vest’s. Although Vest stuck to Iris claim of complete ai^jorship of the document, most of it was a verbatim copy of Manasa's. This clearly indicates that yest
must ha\e had a copy along with him in D.C from which major segments were lifted
The Hurricane then referred back to McKenry's contention that Manasa's ties to the program were only of a consul-tory nature. This was confirmed by Burstyn, Dr McKenry. Dr. Vest and other UM officials.
Confronted with this information, Manasa was again able to produce documentation which indicated many instances in which he had been officially recognized as the director of this University program.
A letter from Robert Simpson, Director of UM’s TTT Project to the U.S. Office of Education, proceeded thusly: “It should he noted that TIT will be acting as the fiscal agent for this program (SUMMON) and that the actual responsibility for the implementation of the program will be the responsibility of the SUMMON Director, Mr. Norman Manasa" . . .
Among the other documents were correspondence from UM President Henry King Stanford, former V.P. for Academic Affairs Armin firopp, and other letters from Robert Simpson: some of which had copy lists including the names of Dr. McKenry, Mr. Spino of TTT, and Eugene Cohen, then V.P. for Financial Affairs and Treasurer of the University.
Comparison of Manasa’s and Vest’s proposals could offer tba beat possible explanation for what motivated Manasa's letter to Washington seeking to cancel the request.
Manasa related his knowlege of the events which led up to this action but began his story from an earlier time frame.
Apparently, for some time Manasa's allegedly ambiguous position had been a bone of contention between himself and McKenry McKenry insisted that in order to retain accreditation the program had to have a suitably credentialed director Although Manasa conceded this point, he disagreed with McKenry over just what power this "figurehead" would have, and expressed his opposition to McKenry’s suggestion of Vest for the position.
Manasa was wary of not only the possible usurpation of his powers as prime mover of the program, but made his wish known that his choice for the job was Professor Charleton Tabeau. He felt Tabeau was eminently qualified through his several years of direct participation in the program both as a faculty member and advisor.
Vest, admittedly, had no prior involvement with the program. During a meeting with McKenry to discuss the April 12, proposal for funding SUMMON, Manasa claim»; "the proposal was due the next day" . . . “for the sake of expediency I agreed to temporarily step dow n to Program Director" . . . “so that no hasty choice need be made of a permanent Project Director”. . . “you have to understand that the question was who would eventually run the program’’ ... “I made this compromise so that the proposal could be sumltted In time.”
McKenry assured Manasa that no fmal choice of a Project Director would be made until some CTie in the future and
that the choice would be made in a join! decision between McKenrv, Manasa. the SUMMON Faculty Advisory Committee, and representatives of the School of Education
McKenry then signed the proposal as the Principal Investigator (Project Director) at release time ('< of his salary would be payed for watching over the program).
Burstyn was able to confirm that such an agreement existed but was unable to specify all the details.
On May 21st Manasa met with Dr Vest at which time Vest told Manasa he “sort of had been appointed by McKenry as Project Director" and "expected lo handle all funding and policy matters"
In light of the fact thai he received no official notification to support Vest’s statement, Manasa waited for an opportunity to take it up with McKenry.
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