Landscape students
protest tree trim job
By JOHN LANIER
Of the Emerald
About 50 landscape architecture
students took their complaints about ex
cessive trimming of trees and bushes on
campus to University President Robert
Clark Wednesday morning, along with
some of the trimmed branches as evidence
of their gripe.
Morgan loses
court appeal
Former University Student Body
President Kip Morgan and a fellow
student, David Gwyther, lost the final
court appeal on their draft board
disruption cases early this week. The U.S.
Supreme Court in refusing to review a U.S.
Court of Appeals decision which convicted
the two men, affirmed that decision.
Morgan and Gwyther were convicted
in U.S. District Court in Portland for draft
board raids in Roseburg in January, 1969,
and in Eugene in June, 1969, and were
sentenced to two years in prison.
According to Gwyther’s attorney,
Herbert Titus, the only legal avenue open
to his clients now is requesting a reduction
of sentence. Titus said he is considering
filing such a motion with the trial judge,
Robert Belloni, in Portland. Belloni may
act upon this request at any time within 120
days after the sentences start, according
to the law in such cases.
Neither Morgan nor Gwyther were
available for comment on the Supreme
Court’s refusal to hear their case. The two
men have been free on bond.
Jack Collins of the U.S. Attorney’s
office in Portland said that paperwork on
the case should be completed by next
week. At that time a legal order will arrive
in Portland and a U.S. Marshal will take
Morgan and Gwyther into custody.
The students, many of whom were
part of a plant materials class of assistant
professor Lawrence Walker, had been
examining plants and bushes near
Lawrence Hall when they came across
some that had been trimmed extensively
by Physical Plant crews, according to
senior James Whitcomb.
Enraged by still another example of
destruction of University plantlife,
Whitcomb said, the students picked up the
branches and carried them to the
President’s outer office in Johnson Hall,
where they intended to confront him with
the problem.
They piled the many and assorted
branches and cuttings in a 5-foot high and
rather wide pile in the middle of the office
floor.
The demonstrators were met by
presidential assistant John Lallas, who
said, “I’m quite interested in finding out
what your concern is and in helping you
out.”
He informed them, however, that the
President was unavailable, and advised
them to “find yourselves,” draw up a list
of specific complaints and present them to
the President through two or three
representatives.
He also suggested that they contact
the Physical Plant about the matter, but
several students responded that they had
and “it just didn’t work.”
“These are not diseased plants or
anything,” one student said. “We want to
know why they are being cut and have it
stopped.”
After about 10 minutes of discussion,
the students returned to Lawrence Hall,
carrying with them most of the floral
“evidence.”
They left behind a pleasant smell and a
mess of twigs and leaves.
Whitcomb told the Emerald that the
landscape architecture students want “to
save the plants we have on campus as
much as possible,” and to make known
their objection to Physical Plant trimming
and pruning policies.
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Photo by Bill Feather
The White Bird Clinic offers free medical service at 837 Lincoln. For story see page 4.
At California State Colleges
Faculty demands Chancellor’s resignation
SAN JOSE, Calif. (CPS)—Chancellor
Glenn Dumke, who has ruled the 19
California state colleges with an iron fist
for the past seven years, has never been a
favorite of the students and faculty under
him—for several understandable
reasons.
During the last year, he has single
handedly ,fired popular professors,
eliminated traditional campus
disciplinary procedures, tacitly approved
the current purge of 16 professors at
Fresno State College, and silently stood by
while Gov. Ronald Reagan slashed
budgets for the state college system.
It was no surprise, then, when two
separate coalitions last week coin
cidentally issued to Dumke a singular
ultimatum: love the state college system
or leave it.
A public letter signed by 67
distinguished faculty members accused
Dumke of “autocratic policies” that
threaten to destroy faculty morale in the
California colleges. The signers, all past
recipients of outstanding professor or
distinguished teaching awards urged
Dumke:
“Before the damage is irreparable,
display a readiness to moderate that
absolutist position which you seem to have
assumed and which has begun to infect our
campuses None of us will be proud to
teach in an institution in which dissent is
punished and authority is presumed to be
unassailable. Nor can we teach well if we
cannot teach proudly.”
On the same day that statement was
made public, a much harsher attack came
from the editors of 10 state college student
newspapers, who each printed versions of
a “Dumke Must Go” editorial. Listing
charges against Dumke, the editorials
stated, “As the schism between the state
college students and faculty and the
chancellor’s office grows, it is apparent
that the gap is beyond bridging. There is
just one viable method of closing the
irreconcilable division: Chancellor Dumke
must go.”
The editorial campaign was led by
Craig Turner, retiring editor of the San
Jose State Spartan Daily. Papers at the
Fullerton, Pomona, San Francisco,
Stanislaus, San Fernando Valley,
Dominguez Hills, Sacramento, Long
Beach, and San Diego campuses published
the editorial.
An 11th paper, at the San Bernardino
campus, also criticized Dumke, but did not
demand his resignation. Other student
papers, according to Turner, would have
run the editorial had they not closed down
publication for the semester for finals.
Both the editorial and the faculty
letter were prompted by the recent faculty
firings at Fresno State, objecting as an
example to the ouster of the English
department chairman there in which
armed guards coerced the man out of his
office.
The professors and editors cited other
grievances, as listed in the Spartan Daily’s
editorial:
“Utterly failing to convince Gov.
Reagan and the state legislature to
allocate adequate funds for the state
colleges to maintain high quality
education.
“Formulating grievance and
disciplinary policies which virtually
eliminate the time-honored tradition of
faculty peer judgement, kill local campus
autonomy, reduce the power of a college
president to govern his own campus, and
set up Dr. Dumke as virtual dictator.
“Proposing revisions in the method
of granting tenure which would encourage
faculty mediocrity and discourage student
participation in such decisions.
“Failing to stand up and speak on
behalf of the colleges he administers at a
time when those colleges are under attack
from all sides. He has left higher education
without an articulate spokesman.”
The letter mentioned faculty firings at
other colleges besides Fresno. Each
student editorial listed the professors
dismissed at its respective campus.
Dumke’s response was brief: “While I
have great respect for the recognized
classroom performance of these signers, I
am disappointed that the letter contains so
many generalizations and does not
recognize the full degree of academic
governance that exists within the state
college system today.”
As to the editorisls, Dumke expressed
“regret at such actions as this by student
editors.”
The faculty letter, representing the
opinions of 67 of 80 professors who had won
awards for teaching, listed the names of
mostly older academics with outstanding
reputations and little or no previous
hassles with Dumke. A sizeable number of
the signers could be considered con
servative and the majority were
moderates.
Turner, who had organized the
editorial campaign, also believed that
“none of the editors I talked with were
radicals. Many were liberals, but quite a
few were conservative.”
The Spartan Daily editor explained the
editorial was written as a “way to express
the united feelings of students throughout
the state. We didn’t expect Dumke to
resign, but every editor I called thought he
was a terrible chancellor. He has alienated
all the students in the state system.”
Turner did believe the editorials had
an effect. Shortly after their publication,
Dumke issued a statement on the budget
cuts which, though not as strong as some
hoped, did ask for more funds in the future.