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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 1971)
Underpass to open footbridge By IRJAORAV Of the Emerald An underpass to allow continual access to the footbridge which leads from central Eugene and the University to the north bank of the Willamette River is almost assured. It remains only for the City Council to make its approval official at next Mon day's meeting. Agreement has been reached between the State Highway Department, Lane County, the City of Eugene and the University to provide funding for the underpass. The Southern Pacific Railroad Co. has agreed to allow tunneling under the track. Cost of the operation is estimated at $50,000. The State Highway Department will fund the major part, which will be about $30,000, or 60 per cent. Remainder of the cost will be shared by the University, the city and the county. The Associated Students of the University have made $1,250 available for the project from their budget. Added to this will be $1,250 from miscellaneous gifts to University President Robert D. Clark. Parking fees will make up the remainder of the University’s share. The University con tribution will be about $7000. Ernest Drapela, Parks and Recreation Department, remarked that the $50,000 figure is probably a high one and that actual cost will be lower. Bids are expected to be heard early next year. If plans move as expected, the un derpass should be finished in June. When the underpass is completed, the footbridge will be open at all times to pedestrian and bicycle traffic. Presently, the footbridge access is locked except for special events such as football games at Autzen Stadium. When the gates are open and the bridge used, there is a watchman present who is on the alert for trains and locks the gate when they approach. With the underpass, no attendant will be necessary. Gerald Attig of Lane County Public Works Department, will coordinate the project. Drapela, who represents the city in this project, speculated that the underpass will be about 12 feet wide and 8 feet high. It will connect with existing bicycle and pedestrian paths. Gerald Bogen, University Vice President, has remarked that “students have been significant partners in the project” and have supplied much of the impetus that has resulted in the joint agreement to fund. The ASUO, represented by Senate President Stephanie Larsen, was “delighted that the footbridge will be opened to all members of the community by spring and that public funds will finally be utilized by receiving optimum utilization.” Oregon Bridge Engineering Co., Springfield, is exploring methods of reinforcing the area under and around the tracks so that excavation can go on without detouring or halting train traffic during excavation. No methods have been decided upon yet. Such reinforcement woud do away with or minimize the ex pense of detouring the trains which run on the track. Prof says prison troubles stem from politics By CINDY BELL Of the Emerald David Wellman is white, middle class, and a non-prisoner, yet, he firmly believes the prison revolts are not riots but “political rebellions of the op pressed minorities against the white power structure.” After working for the Soledad Brothers defense in California last year, Wellman has moved to Eugene and brought his ob servations with him. Tuesday morning, the assistant professor of sociology spoke to a meeting of the Eugene branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. His topic was “San Quentin and Attica—Riot or Rebellion?” According to Wellman, who claims to be no authority on penal institutions but bases his com ments from talking and working with the prisoners, “the revolts are definitely political problems needing political answers, not riots needing policing. “Most prison populations are made up of men excluded from society; the Blacks, Puerto Ricans, Chicanos and poor whites. These are people society doesn’t need, want, or can con trol,” he said. “Material and psychic deprivation undergone by these people throughout their lives forces them to find themselves— usually in ways deemed ‘unac ceptable’ by society. “Criminal acts are thus acts of revenge, of getting back at white society,” he explained. “They are testaments of dignity and have become symbols of struggle for survival in the third world.” Not only society but the system of criminal justice is also to blame, the sociologist said, pointing out the inequalities of arrest procedures for different people. “Short-haired white youths are let off with a warning while Blacks and Chicanos are booked in like situations for misdemeanors and felonies and sent to prison. “At this point in time,” Wellman declared, “the prisons are one of the most important tools used to maintain white superiority.” In the operation of penal in stitutions, Wellman described the “reality of so called progressive prison systems such as in California and New York where ironically the two worst revolts have taken place.” “The systems used by these two states are rehabilitative. They allow for indeterminate sentencing instead of the older determined sentences still used by other states,” he explained. An indeterminate sentence is one by which a prisoner is sen tenced to a minimum and maximum number of months or years. He is subject to parole when he proves he is rehabilitated. This system theoretically provides for an earlier parole than the older method. “But, in reality,” Wellman says, “the indeterminate sen tence is one of the most powerful weapons the prison officials hold over inmates—it is even better than the traditional whip.” In California a nine-man all white “adult authority” board decides paroles for the prisoners. “They have total authority over the lives and destinies of the inmates,” Wellman said. “Because a prisoner must now not only pay his debt to society but prove he is cured, this system has ultimately increased time served. It has been proven that prisoners serving indeterminate sentences spend more time month for month than those serving determined sentences in other states,” he declared. “Thus, the system is even ineffective in its own terms. It does not meet its one criteria for success,” Wellman said. Regarding the rehabilitation process, Wellman cited a prisoner who claimed he would rather be breaking rocks in the older ‘pen’ than undergoing the psychiatric treatments forced on him in the ‘correctional institute’. “The crux of the problem” said the sociologist, “is the prisoner’s basic demand for human dignity. Prison authorities and society’s definition of dignity is when a criminal accepts the wrongs he’s done and promises to do better when released.” “Whereas the. prisoner’s definition of dignity,” according to Wellman, “is refusing to admit committing a crime in the first place.” Professor Wellman will speak on this same topic at 7 p.m., Wednesday night on cable channel 12. SSSffiSSSSSSSSS® Money not coming j Eugene Fire Marshall Wendell Wick says his office will not reimburse students for chains removed from bicycles when their bikes are found blocking entrances to buildings on campus. Last week the Office of Campus Security hauled away “seven bicycles which were blocking the door and loading dock” of the library. At that time OCS officer Winfred Smith told the Emerald the bikes had been chained to a railing and the “chains were cut with clippers we have for that purpose. As far as we’re concerned, the students will not be reim bursed for the cut chains because they were in direct violation of bicycle parking rules.” At the time, Smith had said students might be able to receive reimbursement for the chains from the fire mar shall’s office. But Wick says that is “not so, we have no such thing as that.” SS Artisans gather at faire The fifth Renaissance Faire of Lane County will be held this weekend near Elmira, on Oregon 126. The Renaissance Faire, held each spring and fall, is a gathering of artisans who will demonstrate, exhibit and market their wares. All types of crafts and arts, food, music, dancing, plays, jugglers and clowns are past features of the Faire, and they are promised to be there again this weekend. The Faire will open each of the three days—Oct. 8, 9, and 10—at 11 a.m., and will close at sunset. The site is one mile west of Elmira on Oregon 126. Admission is 75 cents for those over 12, and free parking and child care are available. Faire sponsors warn there are no public camping facilities. Those interested in displaying their wares must register today. Booths may be obtained by contacting M s. Wooten at Odyssey Coffee Shop, Eugene. Registration Fee is $5. The Oregon Dolly Emerald I* published Monday through Friday during school year, except during exam and vacation periods. Once weekly during summer session by the Emerald Board of Directors at the University of Oregon Second class postage paid at Eugene. Oregon *7403. Subscription rates (to per year. St.00 academic year, (3 JO per term. Art Bushnell Editor Marcus Wright Business Manager INFINITY Water Beds Unusual Gifts "Pasha" Fabrics Posters - Blacklights Incense Ask about our student discount club. 303 So. 5th — Big M Shopping Confer 747- (J5Z> GENUINE MEXICAN FOOD! Lunch 11 a.m. 'til 2 p.m. Mon. thru Fri. only Dinner 5 p.m. 'til 9:45 p.m. 7 days a week Closed afternoons 2 p.m. 'til 5 p.m. CASA T0L-T6C 389 6th West at Lawrence 342 3921
