Revise Our Constitution
We Do Not Really Need
Three ASUO Presidents, 100 Senators
Last May 18 the Oregon Daily Emerald
pointed out several flaws in our current
constitution. The ASUO Senate has finally
begun working on it. ASUO Vice President
Art Erickson is not sure whether or not
it will be completed in time to be on
the Spring ballot, however.
We urge that the Senate take all pos
sible action to revise our ridiculous and
antiquated constitution as soon as pos
sible. Student leaders have wailed about
its inadequacies for years. We would hate
to see another ASUO Senate burdened
by its existence.
The writer of the original document
were very careful to prescribe what require
ments officeholders should meet to hold
office. One of these is that an officeholder
should be a student, but included as an ex
offico non-elective officer is the Director of
Student Affairs—a non-student.
Another minor but potentially hazard
ous oversight is the failure to establish a
term of office for officeholders. This means
that new officers can be elected in accord
ance with the provisions of the rest of the
Constitution, but that the old ones never go
out of office until they become ineligible,
usually by leaving school. Legally then, we
have three student body presidents (Dan
Williams. Neil Goldschmidt, and Walt
Grebe) and over a hundred Senate mem
bers.
But this is not all. According to the Con
stitution, the ASUO President (or all three
of them in our case) has powers as outlined
in nine separate clauses. Five of these deal
with his appointment powers, one an ex
officio position, two his presiding and co
ordinating functions, one his responsibility
to submit a budget to the Senate each term
(which is not done now), and one clause
making him responsible for carrying out the
legislation enacted by the Senate. He has
no other power. This means that every ac
tion of the ASUO President in which he
represents the University Students or takes
action in their behalf may be illegal unless
previously approved by the Senate.
The Constitution establishes the Cabinet
as an administrative arm of the President.
Yet its function is an advisory one. No ad
ministrative action is taken by it. In fact it
would be very difficult for the Emerald Edi
tor, Co-op Board Chairman, or the 1FC
President to administer parts of the ASUO.
Article V of the Constitution establishes
a Student Court. No one has been appointed
to it for a number of years, and its functions
are handled by the Student Faculty Discip
linary Committee. The court provision
should be abolished.
In the section governing Elections, there
is a great mass of poorly organized material
which tells the exact times and dates of fil
ing, balloting, and contesting. Much of this
material should be in the by-laws, not in the
constitution, since circumstances will
change so that new rulings would be more
efficient. In fact, the constitution is incon
sistent on this point. It states all the regula
tions for the general election in the body
of the constitution, and all the rules for the
primary in 1'he by-laws. Confusing indeed.
And. concerning the by-laws, they are
not authorized as being legal in the consti
tution. Therefore all the by-laws under
which the Senate operates are invalid to be
gin with.
There is much more, including the
under representation on the sente of under
class dormitory students and fraternity and
sorority members.
We would also think that the Senate
should consider many additions, such as
the possibility of the ASUO Vice President
presiding over the Senate, and giving the
president a veto power.
Revision of a constitution is a long
process. The Senate should have started
it much earlier in the year, but now
is no time to worry about that. An ade
quate constitution is necessary for an ade
quate student government, no matter when
it takes effect.
All three student body presidents and
all 100 senators should get to work on it
right away.
I
Letters to the Editor
100 Rude Students
Emerald Editor:
There is one lecture class here
at this university that is com
posed of about 100 rude stu
dents who need spanking. If
this sort of behavior is typical
of all U. of O. students I blush
to be here. But I don’t believe
it is typical.
No mature group would car
ry on a continual buzz of chat
ter throughout 50 minutes of
instruction on difficult material.
No mature group would slam
books shut, put on coats, and
walk out of a classroom five
minutes before the bell at a
‘ pause” in the lecture. No ma
ture group would do this to any
teacher, and to do it week in
and week out to a man with a
doctor’s degree is a disgrace.
This could hardly be typical
conduct for people who are so
mature they don’t need rules!
We are crying about dormitory
and university rules when we
don’t even know the rules of
common decency.
Margaret Brown
Sophomore in Pre
Nursing
Protection
Emerald Editor:
I live in a dormitory. That is
because my parents think I am
a Big Girl Old Enough to Take
Care of Herself. But a group on
this campus doesn’t think so.
I don’t exactly know who this
group it—but I guess I’m not
expected to, as long as I fol
low its dictates.
It is protecting me from the
big, bad world—from vice, un
feminity, and filth.
First, it protects me against
apartments. But what about
cars? More male-type university
students have cars than have
apartments.
Second, the group protects me
from appearing unladylike. Thus
I wear my slinky sexy skirt in
20 degree weather rather than
my toasty-warm wool slacks. Be
ing A Lady is much more im
portant than getting pneumonia.
Finally, it protects me against
dirt and germs. My room is
checked for neatness every
week. But why do I get only one
clean sheet in the same period
of time? In keping with the
logic behind many dorm policies,
I’d rather have my room check
ed every two weeks if I could
get a complete change of bed
ding every week.
And why aren’t women work
ing in the cafeteria lines re
quired to cover their hair? Per
haps, along with all the other
rules we are fed, they are ex
pected to keep their curls
squeaky clean? This is what I
tell myself whenever I find a
lovely black strand on my hash.
What a joke on Mommy and
Daddy! They thought I was old
enough to protect myself? Dear,
dear old U of O protectors, who
I
will take care of me after I
graduate?
But I mustn’t question For
this is a legislative year.
Alene Sharff
Freshman, Journalism
* * *
Protests Proposal
If lawyers could devise a way
to re-charter University of Ore
gon as a private institution—
and thereby free it from the
grasp of your state legislature—
the school, with its excellent
faculty and location, could grow
to the stature of a Berkeley or
Chicago.
Its only other hope (besides
federalization of all state uni
versities) would be for the vot
ers of Oregon to eliminate
scores of provincial legislators
at the polls. Rep. Stafford Han
sell’s (R-Hermiston) proposal
to “limit non-Oregon students”
to “10%” of enrollment (Feb.
11 EMERALD) and thereby sup
posedly save the state money is
typical of the attmepts by legis
lators to intimidate the univer
sity and reduce it to a over
blown junior college.
If Hansell’s proposal is adopt
ed (and it might as well be mod
ified to read “no non-Oregon
students” the school will reel
under a series of contingent
losses. To just skim a few: en
richment that foreign and out
state students bring to any state
school, resultant monolithic stu
(Continued on page 3)
' ^
"AAOR.& Vl&AH, PLEASE."
PU CoaMJt
How An Educator Views
Higher Education’s Future
What will higher education
be like in the year 2000?
One possible answer to this
question was discussed recently
by Alvin Eurich, director of the
Fund for the Advancement of
Education, in an address given at
the 49th Annual Meeting of the
Association of American Col
leges.
Eurich predicts that whole
new teaching techniques must
and will be found to accommo
date the tremendous increases
in the number of persons seek
ing higher education
"If we were to continue oper
ating our colleges along conven
tional lines, we would need to
construct more college facilities
in the next 15 year than we
have built in all our history,"
Eurich pointed out.
“WE OBVIOUSLY cannot ac
commodate such numbers with
in the conventional framework
of our educational system. We
are virtually forced to consider
how we can use available re
sources more effectively and
efficiently.”
He adds that all our plans
must be made with the aware
nes that the world of the 21st
century will be a quite different
place than it is now.
He said, "The changes of the
next 4b years, we are told, well
equal the -.significance those of
the last 400.” The changes
which are certainly coming "will
affect higher education pro
foundly,” he stated, "We must
be prepared to meet them intel
ligently.”
Eurich, in his speech, then
considered how these challenges
might be met. He did this by
use of the “looking backward”
technique—pretending to be in
the year 2000 and looking back
ward to see what the changes
have been.
IN LOOKING backward, Eu
rich sees an extensive junior
college system, with a junior col
lege “available for every young
man and woman within com
muting distance from home.” In
addition, teachers colleges have
completely disappeared and
their place has been taken by
large multipurpose institutions
which, along with the strong lib
eral arts colleges and univer
sities, have discontinued the
first two years, since these now
come within the province of the
junior college.
“The transition took place
with surprising smoothness,”
Eurich states. “Once football,
basketball, and other sports be
came completely professional
ized, and the social fraternities
and sororities vanished from
the scene, the need for the first
two years of college abruptly
ceased"
OTHER CHANGES in higher
education winch Enrich, tire
dict.s include:
• Giant universities some en
rolling more than 200,000 stu
dents
• Strengthening of the con
tent of education on all levels in
two ways: (1) clearer definition
of the objectives of education,
and (2; production of "new cur
ricula" due to growing alarm by
scholars over our "soft educa
tion
• Development of new learn
ing processes, which make the
best teaching available to all stu
dents and adaption of instruc
tion to individual rates of learn
ing Kurich predicts that the use
of educational TV, individual
learning techniques, and other
advances will make the stand
ard lecture obsolete
“Together, these techniques
enabled us to break through the
ancient framework which used
to bind college education into a
rigid pattern No longer do we
have to divide the day into fixed
fifty-minute periods, no longer
do we measure a student's prog
ress by the number of credit
hours he has hanked.' no long
er do we march all students
along through the same series
of lectures and classes "
Eurich concluded his speech
by pointing out that his was
only one man's view. "Each of
(Continued on page 3)
OREGON DAILY EMERALD
Thr Oregon Dail> Emerald is published
seven tunes m Srpinnlxr and five day* a
week during the school yeur, except dur
ing examination and vacation periidt by
the Student Ptiblk »i»on* Board of the
University of Oregon. Entered a* second
clast. mater at the post office, Eugene,
Oregon. Subscription rate- $5 per year;
$2 j>er term.
Opinion* expressed on thr editorial page
are those of Thr Em-raid ami do not pre
tend to represent the opint >ns of the
ASUO or the University.
RON BI EL, Editor
MARTY KKTELS, Husinesi Manager
TED MAHAK, Managing Editor
EVKRETTE DENNIS. News Editor
PHIL COGSWELL.
Editorial Page Editor
LARRY WILLIAMS,
Advertising Manager
JOHN »C( HNER, Sports Alitor
DL'LCY MORAN,
Assistant Managing Editor
I)A V E SA N DS, JI M E U A K E,
JANET GOETZE.
Assistant News Editors
GEORGE HIGH AM, Photo Editor
LINDA BROWN, Entertainment Editor
RON COWAN, C ATHY NEVILLE,
THORA \\ I LLIAMS,
Associate News Editors
DICK RICHARDSON,
Feature Editor
EDITORIAL BOARD:
Ron Bucl, Phil Cogswell, Ted Mahar
Everette Dennis, Dave Sands
Dnlcy Moran, Linda Brown
Bob Forsyth, Hal Snow,
Grant Ledger wood, Dong Ragen
Janet Goet/e, and Bill Hutchison