Deluxe in McMinnville by Eric Lundeen

Slideshow ‘Deluxe 12/23/2016’ with John S photos.

The Life of William A. Hilliard, Portland’s Pioneering Black Newspaperman (Dec. 14, 2016 Portland Mercury)

Dec. 14, 2016, Portland Mercury

The Original Portland Challenger

The Life of William A. Hilliard, Portland’s Pioneering Black Newspaperman

http://www.portlandmercury.com/feature/2016/12/14/18743955/the-original-portland-challenger

=Hilliard at his desk at the Oregonian, 1979. Photo provided by The Oregonian

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In 1938, 11-year-old William A. Hilliard applied for a paper route job at the Oregonian. A smart, motivated African American boy with an early love for newspapers and journalism, Hilliard was turned down for the paper route because the truck driver, who did the hiring, thought subscribers wouldn’t take well to having their papers delivered by a black paperboy.

Fourteen years later, in 1952, Bill Hilliard would return to the Oregonian armed with a BA in journalism from Pacific University, and become the newsroom’s first African American employee—as a copy boy.

Over the course of more than 40 years, Bill Hilliard would doggedly work his way up the ranks, from copy boy to sports clerk; from sports reporter to general assignment reporter; from assistant city editor to executive editor; and finally, in 1986, as the first African American editor of Oregon’s largest daily newspaper.

Hilliard’s career as a newspaperman reached its zenith in 1993, when he was elected the first black president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE). He was subsequently honored with a Distinguished Service Award from the University of Oregon and inducted into the Oregon Newspaper Hall of Fame.

But before that—well before the milestones and honors and awards—Bill Hilliard was founder, publisher, and editor of his own newspaper: the Portland Challenger, dedicated exclusively to Portland’s underrepresented black community.

=Hilliard with Gov. Holmes and his assistant Harry Swanson at City Desk, April 18, 1958. Allan DeLay

I meet Hilliard at his home next to Forest Park, where he lives with Dian, his wife of 13 years.

Hilliard is seated near a large window overlooking Swan Island and the Willamette River. He is 89 years old, and the well-maintained afro he’d worn for much of his adult life is now just a few tufts of black and gray. Diagnosed with Parkinson’s, Hilliard’s voice is soft, his speech halted, and each word he utters comes with palpable strain. But he doesn’t let it quiet him.

For nearly two hours, Hilliard shares stories about his childhood in Southeast Portland, his game-changing tenure at the Oregonian, flying all over the world on various assignments, and more. What I’m most curious about is his time with the Portland Challenger. After more than half a century since its brief existence, little documentation or information remains of the newspaper. I want to know what motivated Hilliard—an African American man and a then-recent college graduate—to publish his own newspaper in Portland.

=Gabriel Green

“I never saw blacks in the regular daily paper, and I figured we needed a paper that highlighted the good things we did,” Hilliard says. “Because most of what you saw in the [mainstream] paper was crime.”

Portland in the 1950s was very much a segregated city. After the flooding of Vanport in 1948, black families were relocated to the Albina district in Northeast Portland. Owing to discriminatory real estate and lending practices, African Americans were essentially confined to this narrow area, while white families moved to whites-only suburbs. Segregation in Portland at that time was sanctioned and enforced.

“There was a theater on what is now Martin Luther King Jr. [Blvd.]—used to be Union Ave—called the Egyptian,” Hilliard says. “Blacks had to go upstairs in the balcony, they couldn’t sit on the main floor. I never went in the theater. Never went in there at all. I refused to patronize segregated places.”

Though the rest of the city discriminated against African Americans, for a brief stint Albina—especially along North Williams—was home to a thriving black community, with jazz clubs, record stores, clothing boutiques, pharmacies, and restaurants. And it was on the corner of North Williams and Cook that the Portland Challenger printed its first issue on May 6, 1952.

“It is the hope of the Challenger,” Hilliard wrote in his inaugural editor’s note, “through its news and editorial columns, to hasten the day of integration and to foster the principles of true American democracy.”

The first issue arrived on an election year, and the Challenger examined who was running for various offices and their opposing positions. African Americans, according to a national poll published by the Challenger, favored incumbent president Harry S. Truman, who ultimately lost in the primaries against Adlai Stevenson.

Hilliard enlisted people he knew to contribute to the paper, many of them childhood friends and other recent college grads. Hilliard assumed the role of editor and publisher, with Lonnie Harris as sports editor, Louis Fuller Jr. as staff artist, Joy Brock as staff writer, and Ted Wesley Burger as managing editor.

Hilliard also brought on board Richard “Dick” Bogle, who grew up on the same street as him and attended the same grade school: Southeast Portland’s Hosford Elementary. Bogle would go on to become an officer with the Portland Police Bureau from 1959 to 1968, and then became the first black television news anchor on the west coast, at KATU, where he stayed for 15 years. In 1984, Bogle was elected to Portland City Council.

In his final years before passing away in 2010, Bogle was a contributor to Down Beat magazine and hosted a weekly jazz show on KMHD. But the 22-year-old Bogle hadn’t yet received his journalism degree from Portland State when Hilliard tapped him to become associate editor of the Challenger.

=The inaugural Portland Challenger inside Hilliard’s personal scrapbook. Gabriel Green

Though several of the newspaper’s contributors would go on to become formidable leaders in their own right, many of the bylines were at the time unknown names—just folks from down the way. Dr. DeNorval Unthank—the only black physician in Portland in the 1930s, and the first black member of the City Club of Portland—lived with his family in the same Southeast neighborhood as Hilliard. Dr. Clarence Pruitt—the first African American to graduate from and teach at the University of Oregon Dental School, now OHSU School of Dentistry—was Hilliard’s dentist. Each of them lent a hand in supporting Hilliard’s fledgling newspaper.

At Hilliard’s house, original copies of the Challenger are preserved in a large, black folder, which Dian retrieves from their basement. As I flip slowly through the pages, she points out an article in the sports section, accompanied by a black-and-white photo of a smiling, handsome, young black man in a football jersey.

“Oh, there’s Emery,” she says to Hilliard, with a laugh. “Oh, you just wrote about all your friends!”

Emery Barnes was Hilliard’s roommate at the University of Oregon. After a brief stint with the NFL, Barnes moved to Canada to escape racial discrimination in the US. He entered Canadian politics, focusing on social welfare and human rights, and became the first African American elected to a legislative office in British Columbia. Barnes then went on to become the first African American elected to Speaker of the Legislature in 1994. The city of Vancouver, BC, named a park after him.

Dian notes how all of these old friends became the “first” African Americans in their fields. Hilliard attributes it to the fact that his grade school, unlike many other schools in Portland, had been integrated. He believes that attending an integrated school gave him and his friends opportunities other kids missed out on. But even with opportunities, support, and intelligence, Hilliard, as a black man, had to have twice as much drive as his white peers, and put in three or four times as much work.

His life as a newspaperman was determined almost from the beginning.

=Allan DeLay

After being turned away by the Oregonian for a paper route, 11-year-old Hilliard went door-to-door, selling the Saturday Evening Post and other magazines. He worked on his school newspaper at Benson Polytechnic High School, and at 18 was drafted into the US Navy, where he served one year before being discharged Seaman First Class.

He went on to study journalism at Vanport Extension Center college (now Portland State University), then transferred to the University of Oregon. When a white professor took Hilliard aside to let him know that a black could never hope to find work at a major newspaper, Hilliard left U of O and transferred to Forest Grove’s Pacific University, where he became managing editor of the campus newspaper, The Pacific Index, and was elected editor for the 1951–52 school year. After graduating from Pacific, he was offered an internship at the Hillsboro Argus—and shortly after, he launched the Portland Challenger.

The Challenger covered the NAACP and Urban League meetings when other newspapers wouldn’t. They offered political candidates’ positions on civil rights. They published stories on local sports, dances, and other social gatherings within Portland’s black community. When Charles Gragg and his wife Joyce moved to Parkrose Heights, then an all-white neighborhood, the couple awoke one morning to find a burning cross on their lawn. Hilliard put this story on the front page of the May 20, 1953 edition. “I am determined to stay,” Gragg was quoted as saying. “This is a challenge.”

Oregon passed its civil rights bill on April 13, 1953—the 21st state in the union to pass such legislation—and the Challenger marked this historic occasion with a celebratory front page story, printing the three sections of the new law word-for-word.

Publishing a newspaper wasn’t easy, however, and it wasn’t cheap. Like most periodicals, the Challenger depended on advertisements, mostly from other Albina businesses, like Benny’s, Wilson’s shirt shop, Hooson’s Hardware, and Phil Jones Food Market. Hilliard had to hustle for every one of these small ads, and even then the paper—which Hilliard estimates to have had a circulation of 4,000 to 5,000, at 10 cents a copy, or $2.50 for a yearly subscription—struggled for revenue. To help support himself and the paper, Hilliard worked at Union Station as a railroad porter, known back in the day as a “redcap.” There were about 50 redcaps at Union Station, almost exclusively African American men. Each redcap was assigned a number, which would identify him and connect the passenger to his or her luggage. Hilliard was number 28.

“You had a great big cart full of bags, and you’d go out front to deliver them,” Hilliard explains. “People would pick them up, and that’s when they’d tip you. But you didn’t get much in tips. If you had two bags, they’d give you a quarter.”

Hilliard faced resentment from his white bosses at Union Station. They couldn’t figure out why a young black man with a college education would want to work part-time as a redcap. But to Hilliard, it was a necessity to keep the Challenger afloat.

“Being a redcap gave me the opportunity to work on this sort of paper, which was very independent of the big papers,” Hilliard says. ..“And the white guys, they didn’t understand that.”

To further supplement his income, Hilliard also worked as a copy boy at the Oregonian. He didn’t harbor any resentment against the paper for their snub 14 years prior—or, if he did, he didn’t let it deter him. Even so, he didn’t get the job on his first attempt.

“They said they wouldn’t hire college graduates to do copy boy work,” Hilliard says. “They wanted someone with experience. I said I can’t get the experience unless you give me the opportunity.”

Hilliard was hired by the Oregonian on his second try. He was 25 years old, the first black employee in the newsroom. He didn’t remain a copy boy for long, however, and within a year he was given his first writing assignment. Hilliard smiles as he remembers his debut as an Oregonian reporter.

“The first story I had was about an old black man who was a hundred-and-something years old,” he says. “I thought everybody around Portland would see my name and pay attention.”

Meanwhile, the difficulties in maintaining the Challenger proved too great to continue. Hilliard had been publishing the paper, writing most of the copy, and drumming up advertisers, and even with his supplementary work at the Oregonian and Union Station, the paper’s funds soon dried up.

The Portland Challenger printed its final issue in the spring of 1953, only a year and a half after its debut. Though Portland’s black community lost a promising new voice, Hilliard was now free to commit himself fully to the Oregonian.

=Gabriel Green

He worked myriad beats, earning promotions to sports reporter, religion reporter, and general assignment reporter. In 1965, he became assistant city editor, and in 1971 he was named city editor—an event that was noteworthy enough to be covered by Time magazine. Under his management, the Oregonian became the west coast’s first newspaper to cover the national meetings of the NAACP and the National Urban League. Hilliard prohibited writers from the use of racial identification unless it was critical to the story, because it reinforced negative stereotypes.

“After the Watts riots, a lot of white-owned papers began to look for black writers,” Hilliard says. “And I was a prize for most of them, because I’d been working at the Oregonian for years as a reporter, covering all kinds of stories, all around the country. And when they began to see me, they thought that I’d be a good one to start with, but I never left the Oregonian. I wouldn’t leave. The Oregonian was good to me, gave me an opportunity, so I decided I owed it to them to stay. So I did stay, and it’s a good thing I did.”

Hilliard was named executive editor in 1982, and one of his first responsibilities was the impending merger of the Oregon Journal with the Oregonian, which gave the paper even greater leverage and boosted circulation. Five years later, in 1987, Hilliard was offered the paper’s top job, becoming the first black editor of the Oregonian. As head boss of the newspaper, Hilliard increased the hiring of non-whites, broadened coverage of minority and LGBT issues, and delivered lectures throughout the country on the importance of diversity in the newsroom.

In 1992, following protests by Native American communities across the nation, the Oregonian became the first major newspaper to bar sports teams with names that were derogatory to Native Americans. Not everyone at the paper was on board.

=Bill Hilliard at his desk, July 22, 1959. Many Oregonian reporters grew beards in honor of the Oregon Centennial. Allan DeLay

“The sports editors were nasty about it,” Hilliard says. “And I threatened to remove them if they didn’t go along with the policy. They said, ‘You can’t say Washington unless you say Redskins.’ I said, ‘The hell you can’t. I’ll sit down at the typewriter and show you what to do.’ And all I did was just use ‘Washington’ or ‘Atlanta,’ and that was it.”

The Oregonian has since rescinded this policy. [CORRECTION: The Oregonian's director of news, Therese Bottomly, has told the Mercury that this policy, in fact, still stands. Former sports editor Jeff Wohler also takes issue with this description, saying that neither he, or his editorial assistants, were "nasty about it" and they implemented the new policy when asked to do so.]

Also in 1992, the Oregonian endorsed a Democratic candidate for president for the first time in its history.

“Clinton called one day, and wanted to come in to meet the editorial board,” Hilliard says. The publisher, Fred Stickel, wasn’t a fan of Clinton, so Hilliard invited Stickel to sit in on the meeting. Stickel walked away impressed with what he’d heard from Clinton, and gave Hilliard the go-ahead for the endorsement. Bill Clinton won Oregon with 42.5 percent of the vote (over George H.W. Bush’s 32.5 percent and Ross Perot’s 24 percent).

The following year, the 65-year-old Hilliard was named the first black president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. In an interview with the New York Times marking the occasion, Hilliard said, “The thing that bothers me more than anything else, is what I see as more and more racial divisions in the country today. And I think newspapers are the ideal educational tool to correct it.”

At the end of his one-year term as president of the ASNE, and after 42 years at the paper, Hilliard retired as editor of the Oregonian.

“When I retired, Bill Clinton gave us a party inside the White House,” Hilliard says. “We had a ball.”

=Hilliard in recent times, with wife Dian. Gabriel Green

As Hilliard tells me these stories, it’s November 7, one day before the 2016 presidential election. I want to know, after everything he’s seen, what he makes of the Republican candidate.

“Trump was telling people that he’s going to arrest the liars at newspapers when he gets to be president,” Hilliard says. “It’s a bunch of crap he’s giving people. But eventually, if we’re not careful, we could be like [Nazi Germany]. It scares the hell out of me that one of these days we’ll end up with a dictator.”

For one who has spent his entire adult life in the newspaper business, and as a lifelong advocate for diversity in the newsroom, a Trump presidency is a serious concern—not only to Hilliard, but to journalists across the nation. Journalism has been under threat for years, but it faces an even greater menace under a Trump administration. What opportunities Hilliard had been given were not available to everyone—nor are they guaranteed to anyone today.

His success didn’t only come about through hard work and perseverance, but from hard-won civil rights, desegregation, and the commitment to diversity in schools and the workplace. For any American committed to freedom and equality, a free and open press is an indispensable tool in ensuring equal opportunity and fairness. As Hilliard wrote 64 years ago, in the first edition of the Portland Challenger, a newspaper’s main objective is to “foster the principles of true American democracy.”

Like the country itself, Portland has seen numerous changes since Hilliard was a young, ambitious, black reporter working the beat. Though we’ve still got a long way to go, Portland has become a more welcome and diverse city, thanks in large part to Bill Hilliard’s long and dedicated life as a newspaperman.

“I want to believe,” Hilliard said at an ASNE meeting in 1994, “that over the years, scores of young people of color have looked at me and said, ‘It can happen.’”

=Hilliard and Johnny Cash. Photo Provided by the Oregonian

......................

William A. Hilliard, former editor of The Oregonian, has died

By Tom Hallman Jr., Oregonian 1/16/2017

William A. Hilliard - a former editor of The Oregonian and a national pioneer who paved the way for a generation of minorities who wanted to become journalists - has died. He was 89.

Hilliard, who once was denied a paper route at The Oregonian because managers said whites did not want blacks delivering their paper, retired in 1994 after a 42-year career. In 1993 he had served as president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the first African American to hold the post.

In 1998 Hilliard was voted into the Oregon Newspaper Hall of Fame, which recognizes journalists who have made outstanding contributions to Oregon journalism.

"It was a great career," he said in a 2010 interview. "Every day was exciting. It was a heck of a job."

Hilliard prided himself on his talent, hard work and perseverance, traits that he believed allowed him to make his way from a newsroom clerk to a position where he ran the entire news and editorial departments.

And yet as was the case during his long career, Hilliard's race - not any one overriding journalistic strength or accomplishment - defined the man, his legacy and journey.

He was The Oregonian's first black reporter. When promoted through the paper's ranks, he received national attention because he was always the first black to hold a particular job. He was the first black to be city editor of a major, mainstream newspaper and later the first black to be editor of such a paper.

In the 2010 interview, Hilliard said he was always aware that he was being judged twice: Once as a journalist and again as a black man in a white world.

"The adults around me, my parents and neighbors, encouraged me to succeed," he said. "It never dawned on me that I couldn't."

In 1993 the National Association of Black Journalists gave its Presidential Award to Hilliard for his leadership as a mentor to reporters and editors. The association president praised Hilliard as a role model and as a "quiet, persistent journalist" who worked behind the scenes to integrate the mainstream media.

"This is the most outstanding award presented to me," Hilliard told the 1,500 delegates representing the nation's largest black media organization. "It's important to me because you are my family."

Throughout his career, Hilliard refused to be described as an African-American. He wasn't born in Africa, he'd say, but in Portland. He always insisted on identifying himself as black.

Hilliard's parents divorced when he was a baby, and for the first eight years of his life, he and his three sisters lived with his grandparents in Arkansas. His mother, who worked as a maid, moved west with a family and sent for her children when Hilliard was 8. By then she had remarried and the family rented a house in inner Southeast Portland.

"My stepfather was not a father figure," Hilliard said in a 1994 profile. "He was my mother's husband, that's all. He drank and he'd disappear for days at a time, or come home drunk. He had no interest in our lives."

Although other black families lived in the neighborhood, most of Hilliard's friends were white. When he ventured out of the neighborhood, however, he heard racial slurs and taunts. Blacks were allowed to eat in only a handful of Portland restaurants, and Hilliard remembers going downtown with his family and being stopped at businesses by signs that read: "Whites Only."

Hilliard found guidance from a neighbor. His name was Stephen Wright. He was a black businessman who owned the Melody Hotel, the only hotel in Portland that welcomed blacks.

"I cut Mr. Wright's grass and he took a liking to me," Hilliard recalled in the profile. "It dawned on me that there were no blacks that I could see as role models. But here was Mr. Wright, a black man who was not a waiter or a Pullman porter."

When Hilliard was 13, his mother and stepfather moved to Northeast Portland. Hilliard didn't want to go. Wright's family took him in.

"My mother may have been hurt from time to time, but I think she saw it as a good influence," Hilliard said. "Mr. Wright took me on business trips. He taught me how to drive. At his hotel I met black entertainers and businessmen. Mr. Wright told me, showed me, that there were blacks doing things with their lives. He told me to do what I wanted to do. Get good grades in school, go to college and don't pay attention to what anyone else says.'"

Hilliard attended Benson High School and worked on the school paper but was not named editor. He believed it was because he was black. After graduation, he was drafted by the U.S. Navy and served for a little more than a year. While in the service, Wright sent him small, comic book-sized copies of The Oregonian that the paper produced for servicemen.

Hilliard returned to Portland and studied journalism at Vanport College, which was organized to accommodate the returning servicemen. Two years later, he transferred to the University of Oregon, where a professor told him that he was wasting his time. Hilliard transferred to Pacific University, graduated, but could not find a job. He worked as a redcap at Union Station and started the Portland Challenger, a weekly paper that covered Portland's black community.

After a family friend heard that The Oregonian was looking for a copy boy to run errands, Hilliard applied for the job and was hired. He was 25. His boss was a high school student. After he was hired, white editors and reporters openly wondered whether he would bring what was then called the "Williams Avenue look" to the paper.

He ended up as a reporter in the sports department - the only full-time sports reporter who was never sent outside of the office to cover a story. His first outside assignment was to cover the Harlem Globetrotters, the black basketball team, which was putting on an exhibition at Lincoln High School.

Hilliard received his first byline and learned that never before had the paper covered the Globetrotters. When friends suggested he contact the newspaper union to complain about his assignments, the sports editor warned Hilliard to get the union off his back, or he would run him out of the paper. Hilliard never complained.

"Bill was always breaking barriers," said Judson Randall, one of Hilliard's friends and an assistant city editor when Hilliard ran the operation. "He came of age during a time when people of color were marginalized in the mainstream media. He had tenacity in seeking what he wanted. He did it in a way that was never pushy, but it was always firm."

In 1965, after covering sports, religion and general reporting assignments, Hilliard was named as an assistant city editor. Six years later, he was named as city editor. In 1982, Hilliard became executive editor of the paper. He flourished, showing himself to be a strong and decisive leader with plans on how to improve all areas of the paper.

"Bill started having weekly meetings," recalled Randall, who retired as assistant to Hilliard. "We had good, focused discussions on where the paper should go. Then bam, it was over. He really didn't get to make his mark. Events overtook the paper and him."

Four months after Hilliard was promoted, publisher Fred A. Stickel closed the Oregon Journal and merged the staff into The Oregonian. Stickel said no staff members would lose their jobs, but Hilliard had to absorb managers from the Journal and place them in key posts at The Oregonian.

"He did a good job under a very difficult situation," Stickel recalled in a 2010 interview. "What he did was not easy. He treated people fairly. He had a little bit of a temper, but that's OK. We all do."

The ensuing years turned out to be tumultuous, Hilliard recalled.

"The last 12 years of my career was mostly dealing with the staff and their personalities," he said. "I would have loved to have done more community work and become more involved as a journalist in the paper's operations, but I was more a manager of people. We had a serious morale problem."

In hindsight, Hilliard said he wished he had exerted more control over the paper instead of letting subordinates carve out feuding fiefdoms.

"I wish I had been stronger," he said. "I wish I had embarked on more of a crusade in the community."

Even so, John Harvey, the paper's news editor who retired after 43 years, said Hilliard's major accomplishment was building "the modern Oregonian."

"Don't underestimate what Bill did in putting that staff together after the merger," Harvey said. "Before the merger the paper made a lot of money, but the owners ran it as if we were in the Depression. We couldn't spend money. Overnight, the news hole grew by 80 percent. He was the editor during what I would call the paper's fat years when the paper devoted whatever resources were needed to cover a story."

But the paper did miss a national story in its own backyard.

In 1992, the paper was scooped when the Washington Post reported that 10 women had accused Sen. Bob Packwood of sexual harassment. The Oregonian came in for even more criticism when it was revealed that one its own reporters had been kissed on the lips by Packwood.

"I was in the dark about all of that," Hilliard said. "Some lower level editors in the news operation knew about it, and knew the Washington Post was out here looking into allegations. But the editors did nothing about it. They didn't pass the word on to me or the publisher."

Within the paper, Hilliard pushed to change the way minority communities were covered and described. Reporters had routinely written that police were looking for a suspect described as "a 6-foot black man." Hilliard said the description was so generic that it was useless, and only served to perpetuate stereotypes.

Hilliard also had the newspaper quit calling sports teams by what he called "offensive" nicknames: Indians and Redskins.

"Bill dedicated his life to The Oregonian and to serving our community," said Director of News Therese Bottomly, hired in 1983. "More than anyone, he worked to ensure our newsroom, and newsrooms everywhere, reflected the diversity of the communities we cover.

"His legacy endures in the young journalists he hired and mentored over his long career."

In retirement, Hilliard continued to be involved with journalism. He was one of three former newspaper editors asked to conduct an investigation after USA Today found a former star foreign correspondent made up substantial portions of at least eight stories and plagiarized numerous quotes and other material from competing publications.

The team of editors called the conduct "a sad and shameful betrayal of public trust."

Hilliard is survived by his spouse, Dian Hilliard. Survivors also include his son, Abdur-Razzaque, and daughters, Linda and Sandra, from previous marriages; sisters, Juliet and Dorothy; and two granddaughters. No funeral is planned, but the family plans a celebration of life in the future.

Wedding 12/17/2016

PLU EMAL Football Facebook posts noticed 12/22/2017

FOR YOUR INFO: The PLU EMAL Football Facebook postings below are from the year 2017, NOT from the year 2016 even though the date of this posting shows Dec. 16, 2016. 

Posts

PLU EMAL Football

December 16 at 2:41pm ·

The 12/12/17 parent meeting went well. Around 70 parents and students were present. The first half hour was spent by Admin explaining the hiring committee and responsibilities of each member. Laurie and faculty member Keith Cooper will be co-chair the committee. Other members are Nick Edwards (former EMAL), Dave Gunovich, Jen Thomas, Nolan Soete (Head baseball Coach), EMAL’s Parker Trewet and Alex Fairhurst, SAAC Member Machaela Graddy, and Chad Barnett (FAST member and parent).

A couple points and a rough outline regarding the hiring process.

1. Jan 8th- Soft Application deadline

2. Week of Jan 24th- Interviews

3. 1st week of Feb- bring top 3-5 candidates on campus

4. 2nd week of Feb- Public will get a chance to meet the finalist

5. Offer 3rd week of Feb

Parents and Student Athletes asked Questions for 30 minutes. Following are the areas addressed:

1. Concerns with the support of student body with athletics on campus during recruiting tours.

2. Why is the hiring process taking so long? Answer: It was decided by the agency. Laurie stated this is the D3 process, unlike D1 with resources to do it in 3 days. One of the parents mentioned that many other D3 schools are on record of hiring their coach in 4-8 weeks. Whitworth did it in exactly 4 weeks. PLU will be about 3 and a half months.

3. What is the administrations overall vision? Answered by President Belton was that “our vision is to have something nicer than what George Fox has. We want you to have the continuation of everything that comes with EMAL and nice facilities.”

4. The culture on campus and problems with faculty

5. The disconnection between the football program and the athletic department.

6. Where are we at with EMAL? VP Dan Lee said that it was a very unfortunate situation pushed by President Krise. He said for branding purposes EMAL will not be used, but may be used internally for the team.

There is much happening within the inner circles of the University ... budget shortfalls, low enrollment, student retention challenges, affordability, Tenure Professor layoffs, search for the new President, and of course issues regarding Athletic Department leadership. Ultimately, there are reasons to remain cautiously optimistic over our issue. Clearly, an department which meets the visions and missions of both PLU and the NCAA requires complete overhaul of the the Athletic Director and supporting staff leadership. Stay engaged.

………….

PLU EMAL Football

December 10 at 8:57pm ·

URGENT EMAL PARENT ALERT ... it is important to have as many parents AND players as possible to attend the meeting with PLU Administration this Tuesday, December 12. It could be our one time opportunity, collectively, as paying clients to stand up, speak up and demand answers.

What: Open forum with Admin

When: Tuesday, December 12

What Time: 7:00-8:00 pm

Where: CK East in Anderson University Center

………………..

PLU EMAL Football

December 8 at 9:13pm ·

EMAL Nation Update ... representatives of FAST met with President Belton and Vice-presidents Lee and Royce-Davis last Friday, December 1st. Admittedly, FAST left the meeting with cautious optimism ... and it was short lived.

During the meeting FAST outlined numerous concerns regarding Laurie Turner’s leadership of the athletics department, provided several personal examples to illustrate those concerns, and made four initiative requests. Those requests were:

1. Immediately conduct an Independent Investigation (with FAST involvement) of the athletics department, including, but not limited to, the circumstances surrounding Scott’s forced resignation and Laurie Turner’s abilities to lead the athletics department;

2. Immediately conduct a 360 degree performance evaluation of Laurie Turner (as part of the independent investigation);

3. Discontinue any plans the University has to publicly recognize Scott and the Westering family; and

4. Include 3 FAST representatives on the search committee for the new head football coach.

On December 7th the University issued a response to FAST requests. Regarding the request of an Independent Investigation of the athletic department, a program evaluation will be conducted by the University during the summer of 2018, as part of the process the University uses to evaluate other student life programs of the University. This review is being moved up in the University’s timeline from the 2019-20 academic year to the summer of 2018. However, is not independent and is far too late from today.

Regarding the request of a 360 review, FAST is told an evaluation of Laurie Turner schedule for 2018. Again, it is far too late from today.

The University honored our third request. EMALs will truly honor Scott and the Westerings.

Finally, one FAST member (Chad Barnett, class of 1993 and father of two current PLU football student-athletes) was offered a position on the search committee for the next head coach. The search committee will be chaired by Keith Cooper (the Faculty Athletics Representative) and Laurie Turner. The search will proceed in the Spring of 2018. Far too late from today and lead by Laurie Turner's personal anti-EMAL agenda.

Obviously, President Belton and the two Vice-presidents FAST met do not understand the depth of the issues they have in the athletics department because of Laurie Turner’s leadership. Their failure to recognize the significance of the issues has resulted in a failure to understand the urgency in which both the Independent Investigation and the 360 degree review of Laurie Turner needs to occur. They also fail to understand the sense of urgency and purpose these two initiatives generate in the requirements necessary to guide an effective, non personal agenda driven head coach search.

Conducting the search with an expected completion date sometime in the Spring of 2018 is a recipe for disaster. The hiring cycle for football is now. It will be challenging to entice a great coach to leave a team in the Spring. The delay in hiring a new coach will negatively affect the current recruiting class as great prospective student-athletes seldom commit to a program when they do not know who the coach will be long term. Instead, they commit to other schools during this recruiting cycle, as PLU fumbles along a slow path to hiring the next head football coach.

Because the leadership of PLU continues to fail to address real issues in the athletics department, it is time to take our cause to the next level. If you agree, we ask you to let President Belton and the Vice-presidents know of your displeasure with their lack of adequate response to our first two requests. If you have not done so already, we are also asking you to voice your concerns to the PLU Board of Regents.

FAST was recently told the forum scheduled for December 12th from 7-8 pm is not an open forum as originally e-mailed and posted on Facebook. Instead, Administration says the meeting is an opportunity for the parents of current football student-athletes to communicate with PLU administration about the situation. If you are not the parent of a current PLU football student-athlete please do not attend this meeting. We would hate for the meeting to be cancelled because uninvited guests attended, thus resulting in the parents of current football student-athletes not having their questions answered and voices heard. FAST will push President Belton and the Vice-presidents to schedule an open forum so other interested parties can ask questions and voice their concerns.

Finally, FAST and many others believe it is time to leverage media in efforts to help the University see the need for new athletics department leadership. Over the course of numerous years and in good-faith to no avail, many EMALs and FAST have encouraged Administration to build bridges and work with FAST and other Alumni groups. Clearly, PLU Administration has no interest in working together and improving Alumni relations. More details on this will follow soon. For now, continue to voice your concerns in EMAL fashion to President Belton, the two Vice-presidents and members of the Board of Regents. Feel free to share this post.

Although extremely disappointed, FAST remains committed to EMAL as truth always prevails.

PLU Leadership:

Allan Belton, Interim Acting President: president@plu.edu

Joanna Royce-Davis, VP Student Life: roycedjc@plu.edu

Daniel Lee, VP Advancement: leedj@plu.edu

PLU Board of Regents Officers:

Ed Grogan, Chair: ed@summitplans.com

Mark Gould, Vice Chair: Mark.Gould@sf.frb.org

Michelle Long, Vice Chair: mylong@chevron.com

Mark Miller, Vice Chair: mmiller811@comcast.net

Susan Caulkins, Vice Chair: scaulkins@dpearson.com

Steve Whitehouse, Treasurer: whitehsm@plu.edu

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PLU EMAL Football added an event.

December 6 at 9:22pm ·

A student-athlete parent forum with Administration to discuss the forced "resignation" of Scott Westering and the hiring of a new Head football Coach. This is Parents, Players, and Families opportunity to ask questions, get answers, and have our voices heard. This meeting could be a drastic difference maker in the future of our football program. Let’s use our voices in classic EMAL style and tone.

Attending the meeting will be:

Allan Belton, Acting Interim President

Joanna Royce-Davis, Vice President for Student Life

Daniel Lee, Vice President of Advancement

Laurie Turner, Athletic Director

Jud Keim, Interim Head football coach

EMAL ... the Legacy Lives in You.

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