Special Treatment Of Hatfield Daughter Denied

PORTLAND - The president of Oregon Health Sciences University has denied that he was doing a political favor for Sen. Mark Hatfield when he accepted the Oregon Republican's daughter as a medical student.

The Sunday Oregonian reported that Elizabeth Hatfield Keller was among a handful of students who entered OHSU in 1989 in the first year of an admissions program devised and personally administered by Dr. Peter Kohler.

The newspaper described Hatfield as a prime benefactor of the school. As senior Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, he helped steer $91 million in federal grants to the institution over the last decade.

But Kohler said at a news conference yesterday that the senator's daughter simply fit the criteria for an admissions program intended to improve medical care in Oregon.

``It's not politically motivated,'' Kohler said. ``I really resent that insinuation.''

Two members of the medical school admissions committee resigned after being notified of Kohler's new policy. One of the former committee members, Dr. Judith Ray, said she thought committee members assumed Keller's admission was politically motivated.

However, Ray said she did not object to Kohler's admissions program. She said she was upset with the way it was handled. The admissions committee was told of the program only after Kohler had accepted the students, she said.

Hatfield was unavailable for comment yesterday, said his spokesman, Bill Calder.

Kohler said he devised the admissions policy to diversify the student body. The change was intended to produce more graduates willing to practice in fields such as primary care, particularly in rural areas, Kohler said.

The program favors applicants with previous medical experience. Keller, 31, worked as a paramedic, a registered nurse and as an emergency room nurse before entering medical school. ``She ideally fit the criteria that we put in place,'' Kohler said.

Kohler said he discussed his idea for the special admissions program when he was a candidate for the presidency at OHSU in 1988.

That was before he ever met Hatfield or knew Hatfield's daughter wanted to attend medical school, he said.

The president blamed himself for the ``communication breakdown'' leading to the resignations of Ray and Dr. William K. Riker, chairman of the medical school admissions committee.

Hatfield said in a statement prior to publication of yesterday's story that he told the university not to give his daughter special consideration.

Hatfield also is involved in a controversy over gifts he received from the former president of the University of South Carolina, James Holderman.

Hatfield received $9,300 worth of gifts paid for with money from a special fund controlled by Holderman. Holderman also used money from the fund for a $15,000 scholarship for Hatfield's son, Charles Hatfield.

The senator failed to report the gifts under Senate rules. He has said they were not reported because he was unaware of their value.