Lafayette Morehouse

Lafayette Morehouse, previously known as More University, is an intentional community, or commune, established in 1968 in Lafayette, California. The community is known by residents in the area as "the purple people", a nickname derived from the community's characteristic use of the color purple on their buildings and on some of their vehicles. "We tell people that all the houses here are purple so that there is no mistake that one has changed realities should they wander onto our property". The San Francisco Chronicle referred to it as a "sex cult", and in an article about California "sex communes", The New York Times describes it as "a controversial 40-year-old community ... that has been conducting public demonstrations of a woman in orgasm since 1976".

The community was founded by Dr. Victor Baranco (son of the Oakland jazz artist Wilbert Baranco) and his first wife, Dr. Suzanne Baranco. The organization also has a community in Oahu, Hawai'i. Since Dr. Victor Baranco's death in 2002, the group has been led by Dr. Cindy Baranco, Dr. Victor Baranco's second wife.

In 1977 Morehouse opened More University which conferred Bachelor of Humanities, Master of Humanities, and Doctor of Philosophy in Lifestyles and Sensuality postsecondary academic degrees. Approval to grant degrees was authorized from the California Department of Education in 1979. In 1989 the California State Legislature formed the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education to review vocational schools and private degree-granting institutions in the state. In 1994 this agency reported that it would be investigating More University as part of a crackdown on private, nonaccredited universities. As Billingsley noted in his 1994 criticism, "According to Darlene Laval, who headed the state council that reviewed More in 1986, all one needed to do for approval at that time was show that they had a certain amount of money and a library, or access to one, 'and that was about it.' There was no review of the school's faculty, facilities, or curricula." Billingsley also reported that the university had 34 faculty members with 15 of them holding doctorates with one from UCLA and 14 from More.More University closed in 1997.

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