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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 9, 1970)
Emerald Vol. LXXI UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, EUGENE, THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 1970 No. 128 *- Non-student injured in fishbowl incident s Attacker missing; victim hospitalized By CLAY EALS and ART BUSHNELL Of the Emerald Fist-fighting between two per sons in the EMU lobby developed into a near riot in the lobby and .Fishbowl Wednesday afternoon. Hurt in the incident was Steve Easton, who police said is not a University student. Easton was admitted to Sacred Heart Gen eral Hospital later in the after noon in “fair” condition with scalp lacerations. In the Fishbowl, the 17-year-old non-student allegedly was hit over the head with a chair by a Black person who, according to the po lice, is enrolled in the Project 75 program. Police and an ambu lance arrived minutes later and the victim was rushed to Sacred Heart. Investigations are still continu ing and no arrests have been made by police as yet. A student employee at the EMU desk, who wished for his name to be withheld and who was walking in the lobby toward the postoffice at the time, said the fight began with an argument be tween five Blacks and two Whites in the lobby. One of the White persons was Easton, the employee said. ‘Gross fight '‘A really gross fight” broke out between the other unidenti fied White person and one of the Black persons, according to the employee. The two were “kicking” and rolling” on the floor, he said. When the White student got the upper hand in the struggle, the employee stated, “two or three Black persons ‘jumped’ the White person and started kicking him.” » According to the employee, the fight calmed down within a few minutes. Easton helped the White per son across the lobby towards the Fishbowl, the employee contin used when Easton began to be “pushed around” by several Black persons. The fight started again when Easton yelled, “I'm not going to take it,” according to the employee. Several people attempted to in tervene in order to stop what was going on, but according to the employee, “anybody who tried to break up the fight got in volved.” At this time (approximately 3:30 p.m.), the employee report ed the fight to the main desk and the emergency buzzer was sound ed throughout the EMU. Trash cans thrown During parts of the incident up to this time, an EMU staff meet ing was taking place in room 108. The main-desk employee said the meeting was interrupted to al low staff members to assist in dealing with the situation. The unidentified White person went back to help Easton, the em ployee stated. Then action erupted. Christopher Briggs, student em ployee at the Fishbowl food bar, said there were “several other outbreaks in which trash cans and ashtrays were thrown around.” The main-desk employee who reported the disturbance said sides were basically drawn be tween Blacks and Whites and that "Black guys were getting pretty wild, swinging at anyone in the vicinity.” He added, “White guys took no initiative,” except at the begin ning. The scuffle continued with a metal trash container being thrown on top of the unidentified White person, who had fallen to the ground as the result of the fight. Shouting, “This is no way to make it,” a third White person intervened, according to the main desk employee, intending to break up the fight. He, too, was knocked down with a trash container. At this point the main-desk employee said White persons were Photo by Paul Bralnerd STEVE EASTON is carried from the EMU after he was injured in a fight Wednesday afternoon. About a dozen people were involved in the action while almost 100 looked on. yelling but not getting involved in the fight. At approximately 3:40 p.m., police were called. Then the incident moved into the Fishbowl, the main-desk em ployee stated. Another witness said about 75 to 100 onlookers were surrounding the fighting. Several Black persons were swing ing chairs around in a circle and “there was no holding them back,” he emphasized. Easton was making his way further into the Fishbowl “mak ing no aggressive moves,” the main-desk employee said, “when one of the Black persons took a chair and slammed it down on top of Easton’s head.” Briggs, the food bar employee, said after Easton was hit, he "im mediately collapsed and in the melee nothing was seen of the attackers or any of the others involved in the fight.” People “seemed horrified,” girls were screaming and there was general disorder after the chair was thrown, Briggs said. Another witness said another White person stood up after Eas ton was hit and said, “For God’s sake, keep it cool ... if we can’t make it here we can’t make it anywhere.” Shouted back by an onlooking Black person, this witness said, was, “y’better start with your own people.” The Student Health Center was contacted and a doctor and nurse arrived a few minutes before four policemen and an ambulance came at 3:50 p.m. At this time the buzzer stopped ringing and the area was cleared by EMU staff members. The store adjoining the main desk was closed from 3:55 p.m. until 4:10 p.m., an employee working there said. She stated, “If something is going on in the lobby that could get out of hand and into the store area, the store is closed.” Dick Reynolds, EMU director, said blood stains were found in many places on the Fishbowl floor. Other witnesses said blood was spattered on many persons’ shirts and on trash containers in the area. In faculty meeting Motion made to terminate ROTC ties By PEARL BARREN Of the Emerald The University faculty debated ROTC related motions for nearly three hours Wednesday and it’s not over yet. They will reconvene at 3:30 p.m. next Wednesday to continue discussion of a motion to recommend that the University terminate its contracts with ROTC as soon as possible. The proposal, made by Andrew Thomp son, counselor at the University Counsel ing Center, provides that the contracts with the military could be replaced with relations more like those between the University and other employers. Thompson originally made his motion at the December faculty meeting. How ever, at that time it was postponed until the ad hoc committee to study the ROTC curriculum could submit its report. MECHANICS DISCUSSED The committee, headed by Vernon Sprague, physical education professor, submitted their report to the faculty sen ate last week. The report stated that the group had found the ROTC program edu cationally and academically sound. The Wednesday meeting, which dealt with no other business but ROTC, saw little debate on Thompson’s actual pro posal to rescind the contracts. Rather the session was taken up primarily with dis cussion of numerous motions concerning when to vote, how to vote and who should vote. ‘LET’S GET TO THE HEART’ The meeting was characterized by re peated statements by the faculty mem bers that the time had come to get at the heart of the matter. “We’re at a point where we really ought to face up to the basic question,” said John Gange, director of international studies. Francis Dart, Honors College director, said "It’s appropriate the faculty con sider it (Thompson's motion) and decide. It won’t do any service to put ourselves in the position where we seem to be evading the issue.” Repeatedly, though often by narrow margins, the faculty defeated motions to delay action. They voted to take up Thompson’s pro posal and postpone a motion made by the committee to study ROTC curriculum to establish a standing student-faculty ad visory committee on ROTC. The faculty defeated a motion made by the faculty senate that consideration of the Thompson proposal be postponed un til the ad hoc Committee to Study ROTC contracts had a chance to report. They also defeated a motion to post pone the vote until the May faculty meet ing to enable the faculty senate to make a recommendation and another to take the vote by mail so all faculty members could participate. In a lengthy statement against the ROTC program, Thompson refuted the “claim made repeatedly that the ROTC department differs only in minor ways from other departments.” “Apparently there is no real distinc tion between the military without the University and the military within the University.” ‘FOREGO RULES’ “The military seems to be so important at the University that we are willing to forego ail rules ... to let an education system on campus be run by the actual employer,” he said. Sprague, who advocated retaining the program on campus, said his committee had studied the program thoroughly, and “from the standpoint of curriculum, it is sound.” “It is an educational program offered or. a voluntary basis to those who wish to take it.” Responding to criticisms of ROTC department policies he said, “there is plenty of leeway to correct these things. You correct your problems; you don’t eliminate them.” STUDENTS SPOKE Persistent student efforts at gaining the floor finally won them time to express their views. Though initial comments from students Ralph Nussbaum and Jim Howe were ruled out of order and irrelevant to the discussion, the faculty finally voted to go into a committee of the whole to allow the students to express their views. Robert Leeper, psychology professor, initiated the action saying “I think that in our discussions on these matters we have had a one-sided stand. We have given the students only five minutes to express their views. I think its important we hear what they have to say.” Howe, one of five students to address the faculty, told them "We are living in total oblivion to what is happening in society. When are we going to start deal ing with these problems seriously?” he asked.