NATIONAL / The Charlotte Post
Thursday, December 18,1997
Activist: Fund wasn’t abused
By Karen Sheilds
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A lawyer representing the chief
fund-raiser for “Girl X,” the 9-
year-old whose story made head
lines after she was raped and left
for dead in a Chicago housing
project last January, is denying
that his client has misused funds
collected for the youngster.
Ralph Bernstein, a lawyer for
Beverly Reed said he is confident
that his client is not guilty of any
wrong-doing after Illinois
Attorney General Jim Ryan filed
a lawsuit to fi^ze the “Girl X”
account. Ryan said that his office
is investigating whether or not
Reed violated any criminal
statutes in her handling of the
fimd.
"We are seeking answers on
what happened to the money and
assurances from the court that
the funds will be preserved and
directed towards Girl X and her
family,” Ryan said.
Addressing allegations that
Reed misappropriated funds,
Bernstein said, "she has no per
sonal interest in those fimds."
In addition, Bernstein said
there was a twofold explanation
as to why more money hadn't
been given to Girl X’s family, who
he says wanted the entire fund
turned over to members.
Firstly, he said, his client had
doubts that the family would
actually use the money to benefit
the child. And secondly, there
were concerns that if the family
received the money it could
destroy Girl X’s Social Security
and Medicare benefits, because
“it would be deemed that she
owned the funds,” Bernstein said.
According to Ryan’s Charitable
TVust and Solicitation Bureau,
the Girl X fund has taken in more
than $310,000, and from that
only $1,125 has been given to Girl
X and her family, while about
$52,000 has been taken out of the
fund.
Acknowledging that his client
has to account for that money
Bernstein said, “in my opinion the
money that was taken was for
reasonable expenses.”
Bernstein expects to be able to
disclose soon how that money was
spent, right now he says that
Reed is in the process of gathering
her records.
In filing the lawsuit, the attor
ney general’s office sought to tem
porarily and permanently stop
Reed from having any association
with the fund and to also require
her to make a full disclosure of all
her expenditures coimected with
the fund.
Furthermore, an issue of per
jury has arisen because Reed,
reportedly while under oath,
signed a statement stating that
she had not been convicted of any
crimes. According to reports, the
attorney general’s office is now
investigating Reed’s criminal his
tory.
Black colleges are recruiting
Continued from page 3A
Shreveport this week as part of a
five-city recruiting tour this
month. But fighting off the pri
vate schools as well as Southern,
LSU-Shreveport, Northwestern
State and Louisiana Tfech for area
students won't be easy.
“We’re giving out enough infor
mation to make everyone in the
city think about coming to
Southern,” said Johnny Vance, a
recruiter for Southern, which has
campuses in Shreveport, Baton
Rouge and New Orleans. “Let’s
waive their first-semester tuition
to get them in here, and after
that, we could give them a
stipend if they make good
grades.”
State mandates - which raised
admission standards and fees at
public colleges - are forcing
Grambling and Southern
University-Baton Rouge to seek
smarter students to offset enroll
ment drops. 'The schools lost some
1,300 students this year because
so many applicants scored below
17 on college entry tests.
Dillard and Xavier have drawn
top black students in the past,
but higher tuition and selective
admission have stalled enroll
ment in recent years and sent
many students shopping out of
state for college.
Then there are students like
Grambling junior KeUa Mack,
who enrolled in 1995 with a 3.98
high school GPA and held that
average through two years at
Grambling. She said she thought
about transferring because her
courses are too easy.
“I have friends who attend
black colleges and the biggest dis
advantage is that were moving
through the courses too slowly,”
Mack said. “I know we’re not at
the same pace as some of the
mostly white schools who we’ll be
competing with for jobs.”
Colleges with a mostly white
enrollment have successfully
drawn black students away from
black colleges by offeriig more
money and better facilities.
“I may transfer to LSU once I
get my two-year degree here, but
right now, there’s no better expe
rience for a black college student
than attending a black college,”
said SUSBO sophomore Kenneth
Smith.
Bigger colleges have been able
to lure students away fiom black
colleges.
Black student eiuollment at
Centenary, LSUS and Bossier
Parish Community College has
doubled since 1986, due to minor
ity scholarship programs. About
85 of Centenary's 109 black stu
dents are on partial or full schol
arships.
But cutbacks in such aid
throughout the country - mainly
in Tfexas and California - have
also reached Louisiana. For
instance, BPCC’s awards to black
students will be cut from 50
tuition-paid scholarships per year
to five starting next year because
the college switched from local to
state control.
“I didn’t want to tell our kids
about this myself, and Fm not
happy about this, but it’s a state
rule,” said BPCC counselor
Lurene Barfield, who supervises
the minority scholarship pro
gram. “Students who’ve been
graduating for the past 16 years
won’t be able to in the future
because the cutbacks may hurt
our black student enrollment.”
But black college officials don’t
expect such cutbacks to bring
them more students.
“People expected the floodgates
to roll in for us after all the atten
tion over the affirmative action
stuff. But that hasn’t been the
case and probably won’t be the
case,” said Winston Brown, dean
of admissions at Xavier.
Despite stagnant enrollment
over the past 10 years, private col
leges have maintained recruiting
efforts nationwide because they
have more money to spend.
“Money isn’t the only factor that
keeps us competitive. We go on
our reputation and joh placement
record,” said Brown, whose uni
versity has sent more black
undergraduates to medical
schools than any other college in
the country.
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