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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 13, 1970)
Vol. LXXI UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, EUGENE, WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 1970 No 152 Eugene to close 13th Avenue for trial period By LUCY EDWARDS Of the Emerald Thirteenth Ave. from Kincaid to Agate Sts. will be closed for a two-week trial period beginning next week, according to City Mgr. Hugh McKinley. The official hearing on perma nent closure will not be held until June 29. Temporary closure was re - quested by A1 Williams, city traf fic engineer at Monday night’s meeting of the Eugene City Council. “We need more information of traffic patterns,” said McKinley. Traffic counts will allow a “be fore and after” comparison. According to McKinley, traffic counts are now being taken on and around the University section of 13th Ave. and will continue for at least a week. Then the univer sity sector of 13th will be barri caded and alternate traffic counts will be studied. Tentative trial closure dates are from May 19 or 20 until June 2. i ne (jity Planning commission will discuss closure recommenda tions at a meeting next Monday. . A subcommittee of the Campus Planning Committee will also meet with a joint session of the City Planning Commission and city , mncil, according to University planner Larry Bissett. State law and city ordinance dictate certain rules for the per manent closure of a street sec tion. In a letter dated April 29 to Mayor Lester Anderson, Univer sity President Robert Clark offi cially asked for closure proce dures to begin. At a special meet ing of the city council, the first reading preliminary to an offi cial hearing was given. The bill was read and approv ed by a majority vote at the spe cial council meeting May 4 and at Monday’s meeting. Neither time was the motion to suspend the rule requiring approval at separate meetings unanimous. If the final reading is approved at that meeting, official notice of a hearing will be published May 27 and the hearing will be held June 29, Rutledge said. At that time the council will hear the arguments for and against the closing of 13th Ave. Then, Rutledge continued, the council will have the opportunity to pass an ordinance permanent ly, closing the street segment. Students vote to continue strike By RICK FITCH Of the Emerald Approximately 2,000 students met in Mc Arthur Court Tuesday night and voted over whelmingly to “continue the student strike.” Only about 50 people raised their hands in opposition to the motion. The vote came after several speakers de nounced U.S. involvement in Indochina, re pression of dissent at home, the University's complicity in perpetuating both of these, and the behavior of police who attacked with clubs Monday, Portland State University stu dents protecting a makeshift hospital on campus. The vote also came after ASUO President Ron Eachus informed the meeting, sponsored by the Student Strike Coordinating Com mittee, that University President Robert Clark had issued a statement which, in effect, gives “academic amnesty” to students wish ing to work for change in the community and nation during the rest of spring term, instead of attending classes. In the statement, Clark recommended in structors should either give grades on the basis of coursework already completed, award incompletes or “work out other ar rangements” so that students who want to continue “constructive activities” begun last week may do so “without fear of academic penalty.” EACHUS ENDORSES STRIKE In view of this development, Eaehus said, “There’s no reason we should go about busi ness as usual . . . We ought to strike.” He said those in support of the strike should confront any classes that continue to meet as usual, “and find out why these people aren’t out trying to stop the war.” He said the strike vote would be “a state ment of solidarity with other colleges across the country that are striking in opposition to U.S. policies.” A meeting of representatives of all collec tives working under the auspices of the Student Strike Coordinating Committee will be held at 4:30 p.m. today in 315 EMU. Lance Sparks, a graduate student in Eng lish speaking for the “English Collective,” said the administration of the English de partment had chosen not to abide by a vote to strike indefinitely taken at a meeting of “a whole lot” of English students, faculty and teaching assistants last week in the plaza adjacent to Prince Lucien Campbell Hall. The administration has put up signs stat ing the department is not on strike, Sparks said, because its definition of the English department embraces only voting faculty members who haven’t officially decided to strike. Thus English students who voted in the plaza meeting have been excluded from the decision-making processes, he said. Sparks called for establishment of an "al ternate university” to replace the existing one. Though “things have surely gotten shit tier” in this country since last week’s call for a strike, he said, the University seems satisfied with its “emotional mind-jack” of cancelling classes for two days to show its social concern. "The time has come for our education as Photo by Bob Collins ASUO PRESIDENT RON EACHUS reads the statement by University President Robert Clark declaring academic amnesty at a meeting called by the Strike Coordinating Committee at Mac Court Tuesday night. See related story, page 2. it has been to stop,” he said. "But we don’t want education to stop, we want it to start.” The “alternate university,” which will meet at noon today in the PLC plaza, will attempt to make the world a place of peace, not war, he said. “That other thing doesn’t work,” Sparks said, referring to the existing University. He cautioned, however, "We don’t make revolutions until we make institutions to re place the institutions we trash.” When he asked if any faculty members would help teach in the “alternate university” a few responded. Only a small number of faculty members were in attendance. PROFESSOR OPPOSES STRIKE James Johnston, assistant professor of edu cation, was the only person who used the address system to voice opposition to the strike. After talking with students, he said, he got the idea many are concerned that what happened at Kent State University in Ohio could happen here. He disagreed with the tactic of striking because, he said, the rights of the majority of students to get an education would be violated. One girl, he said, told him she wondered if she could get a tuition refund if she couldn’t go to class. A 6’-4” male student told him there would be some “cracking of skulls” in the event of a strike, he said. Defining average intelligence as 100 I.Q., Johnston said half of the people in the U.S., including the Eugene community, are below average intelligence and would be unable to understand the reasons behind a stude; t strike. Many students shouted their disagreement with this, but the professor told them, “You just don’t understand statistics.” COUNTRY IN CRISIS Jeff Freed, the student who chaired the meeting, said the U.S. is in the midst of an “economic, political and social crisis” and, “If we are unable to reverse the course of the war, the consequences for this nation and for us will be disastrous.” He said the ac tions of students the past week, canvassing communities, pigeonholing politicians and contacting city councils, has been a “release of energy and dynamism unparalleled in the history of this country.” Jim Howe, another student, said he wit nessed the police action at PSU on Monday and the police “beat people to the ground” who were only engaged in nonviolent pro test. Accordingly, he said 2,000 people march ed to the courthouse Tuesday to demand the resignation of Portland Mayor Terry Schrunk, who summoned the police. Another student reported on a meeting of the National Student Congress which drew representatives of numerous schools to San Jose State recently. He said the group passed a resolution demanding that the shipment of nerve gas to Oregon be halted, and promis ing to organize a demonstration against the shipment should it occur. March through campus after rally Students protest Portland State incident Over 250 University students and other persons attended a noon rally on the EMU terrace Tuesday in an expression of | - “solidarity” with students injured this week at Portland State University. I ! The PSU students, 18 of whom were hospitalized, were bloodied Monday night when Portland police, wielding riot sticks. . clashed with student demonstrators mass ed at park blocks near the campus. After the Tuesday rally at the Univer sity, about 75 of the students marched ! I around campus chanting "On strike, shut : i it down” in halls and in several class rooms. They ended up at a sociology forum where a verbal confrontation developed between students and Army ROTC Major James McDaniel. At the noon rally, several speakers con demned the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, political repression against members of the Black Panther Party, the attack on the PSU students, and suppression of the student activist movement in general. "How in the hell can you expect any one with a conscience to sit by and watch what is going on in this country?” de clared freshman Tim Travis. "Revolution is the child of America,” he continued. “It happened here first.” Another speaker said students must de cide that "we’re going to make the revo lution a reality.” Chanting "Avenge Portland State” and "On strike, shut it down,” about 75 of the students from the rally then marched, through Johnson Hall, the administration building, to Commonwealth, where they marched into several classes to urge stu dents to strike. They also carried their message to the Computer Center, the library, and the education building, ending up in 180 PLC where an English convocation was underway. Few classes were in session during the demonstration, and there were no inci dents. At 1 p.m. the demonstrators arrived at a sociology research laboratory in the basement of PLC where a sociology forum group was holding a discussion with Army ROTC Major James McDaniel. They sang “America the Beautiful,” and the Marine Corps anthem, chanted “off the Pigs” and "Seig Heil,” and then began an often-heated discussion with McDaniel and participants in the forum. Forum leaders said that they were at tempting to hear “all sides” on "some of the issues on everybody’s minds.” Students then asked McDaniel why he had been in a police car last month while that vehicle was involved in the arrest of two students accused of participating in campus riots. “1 do not work for the Eugene police department,” he responded. McDaniel also said, however, that he was in the car, ■ because the day before I had been as saulted” and because “the police asked me if I was willing to go around and help them identify people." Students said at the time that McDaniel had identified the two who were to be arrested for the police. At that point, about 2 p.m., the stu dents left to state their plea for a student strike in several more classrooms. McDaniel remained in the forum for a discussion of the war in Cambodia, Viet nam, and ROTC on campus. After the students departed, and in re sponse to a question, McDaniel gave his view of how much control the Pentagon has over ROTC officers. 'I am not allowed to advocate the over throw of the government in any way,” he stated. However, he added that he is free to state whether he believes a de cision to be wise or unwise. He said that he would be allowed to put a bumpersticker supporting a political candidate on his car, but that there were directives against his making political speeches. “Nothing has been given to me to par rot,” he stated.