Moon Network Takes Over Nearly Bankrupt University

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. - One morning in August 1990, a small, bookish man identifying himself as a biblical scholar showed up at the University of Bridgeport bearing an intriguing proposal.

The visitor, Anthony Guerra, a young religion professor from New York state, said he represented an anonymous group of wealthy investors who wanted to bail out the private school.

The university was sinking deeper into debt. Angry professors were threatening to strike. To the small cadre of officials who heard Guerra's offer, it must have seemed like manna from heaven.

Guerra outlined a plan to turn the 85-acre campus on Long Island Sound into the flagship of a world network of universities featuring international education.

"It was a phenomenal idea," President Janet Greenwood recalled. She said she did not learn the identity of the investors until February 1991.

Some officials wondered about Guerra. He did not look like a businessman. Still, they wanted to know more about the offer.

In March 1991, the investors decided to fly about a dozen administrators and university trustees to Washington, D.C., on a fact-finding trip. At La Guardia Airport in New York City, some of the trustees met Guerra for the first time. They were still skeptical of his connections. Was it true what they had heard?

Yes, Guerra said. The deal was backed by the Unification Church of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

The year that followed the Washington trip was tumultuous. The university, millions of dollars in debt, fell further behind. The school began depleting its endowment. Greenwood resigned.

Some of the trustees were shocked that Moon was behind Guerra's proposal. But lawyers had advised the board that they had to consider all offers.

Trustees, hoping to find some other way to save the school, rejected the proposal in October. The school begged for help, turning to bankers, nearby colleges, even the state.

One by one, the options vanished. So on April 25, the trustees ended the university's painful struggle to survive. They accepted a $50 million deal, agreeing to relinquish control to the Professors World Peace Academy, an arm of Moon's church.

The Bridgeport campus will become the first U.S. university to join the international network of enterprises operated by the controversial Korean religious leader.

A few years ago, such an affiliation would have been preposterous. Moon was regarded as far out of the mainstream, a man his followers believe is the second coming of Jesus Christ and who has vowed to set up a global theocracy with himself as ruler.

In 1984, only months before Moon was sent to federal prison in Danbury, Conn., on U.S. tax-evasion charges, the University of Bridgeport sent a letter warning its students to avoid Unification Church recruiters.

The affiliation with Moon is a measure of how desperately the University wanted to stay alive. It is also a measure of how much Moon, through groups such as the Peace Academy, is concentrating on building a worldwide empire aimed at gaining him legitimacy. His conglomerate now includes companies that produce such diverse products as newspapers, ginseng tea and air rifles.

It is no surprise that Bridgeport officials did not immediately recognize the New York-based Peace Academy for what it was. For years, the group had operated quietly, working toward Moon's goal of gaining the acceptance of intellectuals. It courted scholars, mostly in history, sociology and political science, with invitations to lavish conferences and offers to publish their work.

In 1983, about the time academic costs began outrunning revenues at the University of Bridgeport, Moon invited professors from 70 nations to Seoul, South Korea, for the Peace Academy's First International Congress.

Each professor who attended pledged to help Moon in his bold mission to establish a "God-centered world of universal fellowship and harmony."

They selected as their leader Morton Kaplan, a conservative University of Chicago political-science professor who once advocated developing the neutron bomb to achieve world peace. The group soon began holding international congresses.

The group, which publishes books and journals in numerous languages, now claims a membership of 800 U.S. professors and 10,000 worldwide.

Why did the Moon group choose Bridgeport? The campus's proximity to New York and its site on Long Island Sound made it particularly appealing, according to Gordon Anderson, the group's secretary-general.

"We envision developing oceanography programs," he said. "We believe the ocean has a lot of potential to feed the people of the world."

In addition, the academy concurred with a vision statement written earlier by Greenwood, the former university president, recommending that the university emphasize international education, Anderson said. The academy pledged to guarantee academic freedom and keep the school nonsectarian in accordance with the university's state charter.

Guerra told school officials the location also appealed to one of the Unification Church's key financial backers, a wealthy shipbuilder possibly interested in "expanding his business to Bridgeport on the water," Greenwood said.

Some of the university's most ardent supporters have distanced themselves from the school.

Former Bridgeport Mayor Nicholas Panuzio left the board he once headed, saying he did not want to be connected with the Unification Church.

"I'm amazed by how many people seemed to accept this thing," he said. "It's a lot of money to Bridgeport, but I can't live with that."