Commission Dismisses Discrimination Complaint Against Alabama-Birmingham
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The state Ethics Commission has dismissed complaints against the president of the University of Alabama-Birmingham and another school official, saying the allegations of discrimination do not fall under its jurisdiction.
A local activist had filed a complaint against Dr. W. Ann Reynolds, the school's president, and George Perdue, assistant vice president of minority business development, saying the university discriminates against Black-owned businesses.
Richard A. Peters, director of Concerned Citizens for Racially Free America, also alleged that the university awarded contracts to women who served as fronts for businesses actually operated by their White husbands.
"I don't know what he's talking about," says university spokeswoman Dale Turnbough, adding that neither Reynolds nor Perdue will comment on the allegations or the ethics complaint.
University officials say contracts with minorities and female-owned businesses have increased. The number of minority vendors rose from 10 in 1988 to 257 in 1998 and female vendors jumped from 156 to 426 during the same time period.

Appeals Court Upholds Confiscation of Kentucky Yearbook
CINCINNATI — Kentucky State University administrators did not violate the First Amendment rights of two former students by forbidding distribution of a school yearbook and allegedly meddling with the student newspaper.
That's the word from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals here, which ruled last month that former students Charles Kincaid and Capri Coffer failed to prove their allegations against the university. Their lawyer says he will appeal.
The university's lawyer, J. Guthrie True, contends that administrators were not trying to control the yearbook's content. Rather, he says, halting distribution was "only an effort to assure that the students were producing a quality yearbook."
In an earlier ruling, U.S. District Court Judge James Hood found the yearbook was not a public forum protected by the First Amendment, that its content did not rise to the level of public speech and that the two students lacked standing to pursue claims about the student newspaper.
The students accused the administration of trying to keep "negative" news out of The Thorobred News campus newspaper and of forbidding distribution of the 1992-94 student yearbook, The Thorobred.
The students' attorney argued that administrators never consulted with the student publications board about confiscating the yearbooks and transferred the student publications coordinator out of that job after she insisted students should control editorial content.