In 1969, the University of Puget Sound (UPS) signed a Community Service Program Contract under the Title I Higher Education Act. They were proposing a project entitled “Community Development Through Business & Economic Systems.” Directed by Prof. Dan Kelleher, this project was an offshoot of VISTA, a volunteer domestic Peace Corps. (A Title I grant supplied $2,000 for the project, and VISTA provided the remaining $7,000 of the total salary). VISTA projects were led by a small group of 15 volunteers who went out “in the field” to facilitate efforts in “conflict management,” “personal financial assistance,” “awareness,” and “actions programs.” [A&SC 33]. The major problem identified by the project was the view of disadvantaged person as “inadequate” and the “unequal participation in the resources of his community,” which it planned to address “by initially focusing on increasing black business opportunity in the Tacoma area.” [A&SC 33]. The project proposal does not mention the Now, Mr. Lincoln?  (NML) campaign, but its emphasis on providing the black community with resources for personal skill development aligns with the campaign's call to "help the black man help himself."

That being said, several of the projects described in this proposal may have been a precursor to the campaign itself. At the same time, however, the proposal also states the desire to "bring about the orderly modification of present societal structures to ensure continued participation by all citizens and segments of the community" [A&SC 33]. Thus, the proposal also recognizes that effective community service entails addressing the larger structures and systems - governmental, educational, and economic - that underly community struggles. Another element of the project emphasized by the proposal was collaboration between the University of Puget Sound and other institutions or organizations. These groups included Tacoma Community College, Pacific Lutheran University, the Black Businessman's Association, and the Tacoma Urban League, and a group of "white business leaders in Tacoma." [A&SC 33]. By calling for the formation of a support network that bridges both predominantly white and predominantly black organizations, this proposal situates UPS not only as a source of service to the community, but as a mediator facilitating participation and communication between various voices of the community. 

Within the proposal, overviews of various projects are described, including special education services in public schools, Hilltop Day Care Center, Model Cities, and ADC Mothers. A project directly to the NML campaign was the Black Business Opportunity Development project, which aimed to engage with the Black Businessmen's Association's needs for “capital, expertise and skills.” [A&SC 33]. In a letter to Prof. Robert Bock, Kelleher expresses that the projects would “serve to fill many community needs in the Tacoma area and thus contribute to a lessening of community tensions and conflicts” [A&SC 34]. It is unclear what Kelleher means by "tension and conflicts." This mention alludes to a statement in the Project Proposal document that states an aim to develop methodologies of "conflict management that will help turn the present tensions and conflicts within the community into stepping stones to problem solving and participation rather than into a road leading to violence and alienation" [A&SC 33]. The proposal remains vague as to what these tensions are and their effect on the Tacoma community. Are these tensions a result of poor "conflict management" strategies by individuals, or by poor resources and support structures, as the proposal also alludes to? 

Kelleher's letter also stresses that the projects will “act as field situations” where students involved in the Urban Studies Program can work directly with and maintain constructive dialogue with the community surrounding UPS [A&SC 34]. However, while the proposal includes a personnel list of faculty to be involved in the planning of the projects, it makes no mention of whether students or specific student groups will be participating in these projects. From the proposal alone, the writing of the grant of the project and the determination of the specific goals and activities seem to be entirely faculty-led. The student newspaper (The Trail) does not contain seem to contain any articles in the year of 1969 that refer to the projects described by this proposal, suggesting a possible split between faculty and student engagement in community involvement and in issues regarding race and economic disparity. 

UPS students seemed to be engaged with community service in the black community in their own ways. A 1970 article in the Tacoma Facts entitled “Black Student Union Gets Grant” describes how UPS received a $5,000 grant to employ student members as tutors for elementary and junior high children in Tacoma’s Hilltop area. It is unclear whether this grant relates to the Title I VISTA Project. [A&SC 35]. Professor Robert Ford, director of the Black Studies Program at UPS and initiator of the tutoring project, sent the article to the University President with the following note: 

"This is the first time, UPS has had an article in the local paper in the Black community. I guess we're becoming a bit relevant." [A&SC 36].

In this letter, Ford's pride seems to emanate from the increased visibility and impact of the University on the community, rather than the success of the students in the Slack Student Union or the potential benefit of the tutoring project to the community itself. Granted, that may not have been the primary purpose of the letter, but it does reflect the Project Proposal's focus on the University's reputation as an institution rather than as a representative of students who want to become involved and make a difference in their community.


Additionally, it can be noted that the Tacoma Facts article quotes not students, but Prof. Ford, who calls it “a real chance for needy Black college students to earn work-study money and an excellent way to involve them in the community in a meaningful way” [A&SC 35]. Ford's choice of the word "needy" to describe BSU members is an interesting one. He seems to imply in this quote that the grant itself serves as a form of community service to the students, providing them with personal financial assistance and engaging in positive, "meaningful" activities. Ford's quote and the article as a whole place the students in a passive position, overlooking that fact that the students themselves likely played a large role in seeking out the grant and initiating the tutoring project. It was the students, not the University, who initiated the Black Student Union and generated demands for a Black Studies curriculum at the University. Why, then, in both the University project proposal and community media were their voices downplayed in favor of faculty voices? We will later see in the "Campaign" section how this exclusion of student voices and opinions also seems to extend to the NML campaign itself.