"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.