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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 16, 1963)
"WHO, ME?" Dr. Boekelheide Our Distinguished Chemist Wins a Well Deserved Honor It is encouraging to see's man of Professor Virgil Boekel heide's stature win the statewide recognition his achieve ments merit. Sen. Edward Fadeley’s Senate Resolution to honor the distinguished University of Oregon chemist was certainly a proper gesture for the State Legislature to make. Dr. Boekelheide is the first scientist in Oregon history to be elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences. We join Sen. Fadeley and his colleagues at the Statehouse in commending Dr. Boekelheide, who is con tributing both to the calibre and prestige of the University. We also agree that the State System of Higher Education deserves a vote of confidence for attracting a person of Dr. Boekelheide’s scientific stature to our faculty. We heard not long ago that our distinguished chemist was being plagued by “raiding parties” from Eastern schools, but intends to stay here with our chemistry depart ment, which in one scholar’s opinion is stronger than some Ivy League departments. We hope his association with the University is a long one. Letters to the Editor ‘Things Not Really So Bad For Negroes in Southland’ Emerald Editor: I thought that the Negro stu dents as well as the various races on our campus might be interested in an editorial writ ten by Rev. J. W. Jones, editor of “The Community Citizen,” a Negro news paper, New Albany, Mississippi. Here are a few ex cerpts. “I am not ashamed of my race. I would rather be a Negro . . . We are not helping our race when we are leading them to resist the powers that be . . . The administration knows that a Negro vote does not mean any thing unless it is able to carry the state. The activities in Mis sissippi are make-beliefs. If it were possible to do away with publicity, Negro coercion would go down like the Titanic. Before you can catclf fish, we must bait our hooks. “That is exactly what the ad ministration is doing with the Southern Negro. They are not trying to help us; they are us ing us for bait to lure New York, Chicago, Detroit, Phila delphia, and Los Angeles Ne groes to support them for their make-belief efforts in Southern States . . . Every time anything happens in our state, if they think they can create a feeling, they will send a reporter with a camera and make a national show of it. “When a Negro says he wants better schools in Mississippi for his children, he either does not have any children to send or is not sending those he has. Le flore County has Negro schools equal to those in any county in the state. Any illerate can of fer criticisms but only a mind of wisdom can produce plans for improvement. “If we plant only enough cot ton to make two bales, and our white neighbor plants enough to make ten bales, it is foolish to blame and charge our failures to him. No mqp ever goes any higher than his aims. “It is stated that 100,000 Ne groes are registered in Tenne see for voting. Not as much as 50 per cent of that number go to the polls during election. The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have noth ing. (Proverbs 20:4)” This is one of the finest ar ticles I have read and if any one would write to Rev. Jones at the above address I am sure he would send the entire article to you for postage and expenses. The title of this article is “Who is concerned about the welfare of the Negro Race?” Mrs. C. H. Phetteplacc 3939 Hilyard St. Student Lobby Effort This Years Program—A Good Start Despite Limited Funds and Staff As the State Legislature nears the end of its current session, student leaders should be assessing the effectiveness of the ASUO Committee on Higher Education, better known as the University’s student lobby effort. While the student lobby is a unique program and there was no available pattern to follow, a number of shortcom ings have hampered the program’s relative effectiveness. Because of the limited time that college students have to spend working in a lobby ing program, a complete re-evaluation of guidelines for action should be considered. The primary goal of a student lobby for better education facilities should be to bring issues of direct concern to students to the attention of the State Legislature. Stu dents should concern themselves only w ith those issues which the chancellor and the State Department of Higher Education do not emphasize in their presentations and reports. Ideally students should emphasize tuitions, scholarships and avadable loan funds. The end purpose, of course, is to achieve results. This year the lobby program obscured its impact by trying to fully cover all areas of the higher education budget. Student spent time doing research on capital con struction. faculty salaries and over-realized enrollments as well as the more important tuition and loan issues. The lobby’s most effective work was done in the tuition area where resident tuition was not increased as much as the governor recommended. How ever, in the area of non-resident tuition where the committee did not work at all, a fantastic increase was recorded. In at tempting a blanket approach in gathering data for dissemination to the students, pub lic and legislature, the committee obscured any real hope it ever had for effectiveness. The student lobby should not be duplicat ing material which the chancellor will pre sent to the legislature. In what was an admirable attempt to acquaint all members of the student com mittee with the state board budget, a great deal of valuable time prior to the Christmas vacation was literally wasted. The Univer sity committee managed to work effectively beyond this point, but several of the lob bying committees on other campuses spent all their time in analyzing the budget. This points up a basic problem in the coordinated inter institutional lobby effort. There was not a unified objective. The Uni versity committee hoped to influence legis lation and ultimately keep down student costs while other committees sought only an educational experience in learning how the legislature works. To the purpose of achieving results the student lobby this year made detailed studies of the chancel lor’s and governor’s budgets. They had per sonal visits with legislators, a semi-organi zed mailing campaign, printed information was sent to legislators and there was 15 minutes of prepared presentation before Joint Ways and Means Educational Subcom mittee. In terms of total results the student lob by's impact was not very impressive. Major considerations in assessing their work are limited funds and staff and too little data over too wide an area. Yet the student lobby made an admirable beginning. Its primary problem was in too little focus on the grass roots avenues available. Several thousand University students are the favorite sons and daughters of their home towns. They have influence on the local newspapers, civic and fraternal organizations, which could be activated to support the students’ cause. Efforts should be directed towards arousing public sympathy for higher edu cation. A single student giving a speech before a subcommittee simply cannot ef fectively carry the issue to the legislature. Teams of students should give speeches at local clubs, and see that data and com prehensive analyses of of the significant problems at the University are dissemin ated to parents, alumni and others who will be helpful. ASUO President Phil Sherburne’s pro posed interim lobby copimittee should be commended, but if it is to operate on the $100 budget approved by the ASUO Sen ate it might as well be written off before the year begins. This amount handles lit tle more than one mailing. Serious consid eration should be given to allocating con siderably more money for this worthwhile project. The student lobby, if well staffed and operating with a respectable budget, could achieve measureable results at the next legislative session. GOP Fall Conference Eugene Will Host Presidential Aspirants The Western States Conference of Re publicans will be held in Eugene October 10 through 12. Nelson Rockefeller, George Romney, William Scranton, and Barry Goldwater are among important Republi cans expected to attend the conference. This will be the last major conference of Republicans on the West Coast before the 1964 presidential nominating convention. It could be the biggest thing politically to come to the Northwest in years. The conference could have significance in Governor Mark Hatfield’s bid for the vice presidency. This will give Hatfield the op portunity to show the Republicans his quali fications for the vice presidency. Specula tion in Washington, D.C. has been that if Rockefeller gets the presidential nomina tion, Hatfield or Senator Kuchel of Cali \ fornia will get the vice presidential bid. Young Republicans at the University will participate in the conference by acting as a coordinating agent for transportation and liason. University students will have the opportunity to watch the nation’s bigname Republicans at work. There may be a com mittee at the conference at which young people will be able to participate, which should prove invaluable to those participat ing. It’s About Time We were pleased to see that one of our favorite people has finally “arrived.” Abra ham Lincoln has finally made the cover of Time magazine. Of course, we liked him before he gained such nationwide fame.
