Campus Ministry and University Services Agency

Original Plans

Even before the University started, Chancellor Dean McHenry encouraged local churches to proceed with plans to build a University Religious Center on Campus and establish a University Interfaith Council.  Plans were made for a site for such a center below Stevenson College, but Engineering reports made that impossible. Students came, and Provost Page Smith provided an office for the ministry in the Trailers and it was then moved for a short time to the Health Center and then to Merrill College.

Campus Ministry and the 60’s

Being involved in campus ministry during the 60’s was exciting, challenging, and life changing. The Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War made it very clear that campus ministry leaders should do more than lead worship, teach, and provide counseling. Faithful ministry must help students realize that faith commitments meant becoming involved in Social Justice and Peace issues of our society. Having a Center was of secondary importance. Those of us in campus ministry became very active in the Civil Rights, Anti War, and Farm Workers Movements. As part of our Anti-War ministry we helped students file for Conscientious Objector status. When the local draft Board refused to grant C.O Status to all that qualified we helped lead a group of 50 students to protest and close the Draft Board, got arrested, jailed, and sentenced.  We then educated the Draft Board members about their responsibilities and most resigned. We helped with the “Teach Ins” at the University. We led marches with Death masks and a coffin through the streets of Santa Cruz to protest the bombing of civilians. At a Joan Baez anti- war rally and concert in the Quarry I received draft cards and burned them. We helped students who could not obtain CO status to make their way to Canada, so they could avoid killing and participating in the war.

A New Possibility

As the University grew space demands meant our office at Merrill would be given to an incoming Faculty member and so we needed an office and meeting place near the center of campus. When the University announced that the Restaurant space in the Redwood building became available for bid, and it included an office we immediately developed a proposal to present to the University. I was on my way to present our proposal when I met my friend and colleague Paul Lee who had just returned from Sabbatical. He had just suffered a painful experience of losing s a dear friend and colleague by suicide and had much uncertainty about himself receiving Tenure.  It was a miracle of “syncrebility”. We both wanted the same thing. At Prep School, College, and Seminary I had been involved in many service and non- profit student projects. At Harvard Paul had firsthand experience with and knowledge of the Harvard Student Agencies, and so University Services became a reality. It was our response to the 60’s. Eisenhower’s parting words as he left the White House about the danger of the military Industrial complex, and the exorbitant profits being made rang in our ears as we reviewed the events of the 60’s. The US should be Non-Profit! Any money that was raised in the revenue producing affiliates would go to start other service organizations.

A few Faculty and Community provided us with money to get started. (Those included: Dr Floyd and Emily Estes, Manuel and Alice Santana, Norman Lezin, Dr. Ruth Frary, Fr. Gerard Lasko, Dr Burney LeBoeuf, Ed Gaines, Rev. Herb Schmidt, and Dr. Paul Lee.

Our original incorporators were Paul Lee, Herb Schmid Gerard Lasko, Glen Martin, Ron Lau, Burney LeBrouf, Ian McPhail, Jay Greenberg, and Robert Scott.)

The Beginning

On April Fools Day, 1970 we began. Our first project was the Whole Earth Restaurant. Great organic food was provided through the efforts of Sharon Cadwallader, Carol Teachout and staff. Campus Ministry had a central place to schedule speakers, and we had a counselling office above the Restaurant where we could meet, council, and strategize with students.

Affiliates

Then came several Affiliates with their own Board of Directors. These included the Campus Childcare center, Santa Cruz Community Switchboard, the Santa Cruz Food Project, The Santa Cruz Hostel Society, Camp Joy and the Santa Cruz Horticultural Society, Ecology Action Recycling Center, Group Homes, General Hardware and Feed.

Programs

In addition to Affiliates the USA Board developed a number of special programs such as the woman’s media collective, a farm and garden workers training program, briar patch trust, a jail visitation program, a prison reform project, tenants’ rights organization, special educational research projects, an alternate energy co-op, a proposal for senior citizens/student housing, and a number of others.

In 1975 perhaps the most important program that USA helped sponsor was the Community Congress which was composed of private non-profit corporations to review the county budget. Margaret Cheap was the Staff Coordinator for the Project. The county administrator had originally recommended $400,000 for nonprofits. After lobbying the county and carefully reviewing the budget $1,500,000 was designated for nonprofits in the county.

By the end of the 70’s Paul Lee and I had moved on and left USA. The Affiliates and programs were morphed into a group called Riptide and then a new Agency, Democratic Management Corporation.

However, there was to be a second incarnation of University Services Agency after a hiatus of a few years.

The Transition Period

When Dr. Paul Lee and I resigned from the original USA board we continued to be involved in social justice, environmental, and homeless issues and kept in close contact.

Paul Lee became involved with Page Smith in starting the William James Association and the William James Work Company. For a period of time he also served as the head of the Herb Trade Association. He and Page also started the first homeless shelter that eventually became the Homeless Service Center. During this time, he also started the Save Pogonip Movement. Paul started the Homeless Garden and together with Pastor Paul Pfotenhauer started the Inter Faith Satellite Shelter Program in more than 30 churches.

Rev. Herb Schmidt accepted a call to Lutheran campus ministry at the University of Arizona in Tucson and then later at Stanford University. In addition to the usual Campus Ministry activities in Tucson, his Campus congregation was among the first faith communities to declare Sanctuary for refugees from Central America and Mexico. Because of his involvement with immigrants seeking asylum he also worked directly with people from San Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. While at Stanford he also became involved in the Israeli/ Palestinian issues, studied there, and led groups on fact-finding trips. During this period, he worked with Scott Kennedy and Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa Cruz to send groups of students to Palestine to work with NGO’s.

At this time Paul and I began to work together again and decided to re-incorporate USA in 1992 as United Services Agency since the name University Services Agency had been used by another group during this interim period. The purpose of the organization was very similar to the original USA

It was to promote cultural, educational and charitable projects related to students, faculty and the larger community related to Stanford, the University of California in Berkeley and at Santa Cruz.

This broad statement of purpose has enabled USA to become involved in more than 35 different projects between 1992 and 2018. Most are local, but some are international. Many of these projects are run on sparse budgets for short periods of time, but the energy expended by those involved have made significant differences for many people.

These projects include environmental, homeless services, faith and justice, educational projects and groups related to gender issues. Some were full USA Affiliates with their own leadership and some were simply projects

Some of the most interesting Affiliates include:

Ecotopia: It includes work on the circle trail, the Alan Chadwick archives, the electric car projects, Homeless support for the interfaith Shelter Program and the Association of Faith Communities Shelter project, the Homeless garden, the Homeless Services Center and the Santa Cruz service Corp, an AmeriCorps project using volunteers to put gardens in schools

WARMING CENTER/USA This was one of the most recent Affiliates. It now is its own Non-Profit Corporation, which we encouraged all our projects to do. Brent  Adams has done an outstanding service to the homeless with his team of volunteer to make sure that on the coldest nights the homeless have a place to stay in local churches. His latest project provides Storage for the homeless.

SURF/USA The Richard Schmidt Surf School provided special scholarships to assist young people in need to receive surf lessons or assistance to attend one of their surf camps.

CARS/USA-Committee for the advancement of religious studies at UCSC. This group worked to help fund a special Religious Studies FTE at UCSC but was unable raise enough funds. They did however sponsor the Annual Noel King Lectures and other special speakers.

Tet Ansam (Heads together) a summer volunteer work project in Haiti involving students from Stanford, Berkeley, Davis and UCSC. This happened because Campus Pastors at Stanford and Berkeley had been contacted by friends of President Father Jean Bertrand Aristide of Haiti who requested student groups to come to Haiti to serve in nonprofit organizations.

Bali/ USA resulted for my working with the indigenous Church of Bali as a volunteer in mission five different times in retirement. It supports orphanages, schools, scholarships and making the village of Enonentes in West Timor self-sustaining.

USA /CUBA INFO MED sent more than a thousand reconditioned computers to Cuba to be used in rural medical clinics. The director of this Affiliate was David Wald. The Affiliate received special recognition from the Cuban Government.

PROJECTS INCLUDE: The Interfaith Institute of Palo Alto, Peace Action of San Mateo County, The Urban Institute, Tenants Rights, Friends of Natural Bridges Children’s Center, Cuba Harmony Chorus,AWRE-American women achieving rights, Kids and Teens exploring Nature, Teach a Child to Fish, The Balloon Hat Experiencer, Women’s Global Network for Gender Equality, The Living Learning Intergenerational study project, El Salvador  Student Computer Project, Bosnian Student Support, Free Indeed-A program to support women who were subject to human trafficking, Housing Options, and Camp Paradise.

CONCLUSION

Small as some of these projects are they have shaped the lives of many.  It is as Paul Lee suggests in BECOMING A SPIRITUAL MILLIONAIRE the Nonprofit Corporation is a secular expression of what the Church’s mission should include.