Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1971)
An Independent Student Newspaper Vol.23, No. 32 University of Oregon, Eugene Thursday, October 21,1971 Says University official 4Advising process stinks’ By CLAY EALS Of the Emerald Harry Alpert told faculty members Wednesday that the academic advising process at the University “stinks.” Alpert, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, was responding to a question posed at Wednesday’s Faculty Town Meeting in 177 Lawrence Hall. University President Robert Clark, who chaired the session, brought prepared questions for administrators to answer at the session for the information of some 75 faculty members who attended. It was the first such meeting this year. In answering the question about the quality of academic advising, Alpert told the faculty he would like to respond in the way of an old movie-star comedian looking at an art exhibit. That movie-star said of the exhibit, “Confidentially, it stinks.” “And I can say the same thing for our academic advising program.” Alpert added, “Our advising mechanism almost fell apart at the beginning of fall term. Bev Fagot, Director of the Office of Academic Advising, said it was the worst mess she had ever seen.” Alpert said a committee has been set up by Clark to deal with the problem, and that Bob Bowlin, Dean of Student Per sonnel Serivice, would chair it. “We hope that as the report of the committee gets finalized, we can definitely improve the academic advising program.” Improving the advising program will cost money, he added. “When I was talking with the President on this, I said, ‘Bob, this is going to cost money,’ and he looked me back in the eye with complete silence. “ Clark said he hoped a way to improve advising could come about without much money spent. The Office of Academic Advising is located in 140 Hen dricks Hall. It coordinates ad vising for thevariousdepartments on campus as well as helping students decide a major. At the town meeting, the question of academic advising was brought up by Clark during a discussion of why students weren’t able to get into class sections this fall, especially freshmen. When asked to explain this, Alpert told the faculty, “The deans of various departments with whom I work didn’t an Hours reduction feared by school librarian Library hours may soon be reduced by one-third shortly if the University Library is not able to secure more workers from the Work Study program. Carl Hintz, University librarian, in discussing the possible cut said the decision is being “reviewed at higher levels,” and that he is hoping for a decision soon. Hintz said the problem began to develop last summer, when the Library was forced to hire students not on Work Study because the program lacked sufficient funds. Larry Large, Acting Director of Financial Aid, said that only a partial program was run in the Work-Study program during the summer due to lack of funds. At that time, there were only enough Work-Study people hired to supply workers for Federal grants. Hintz said that, with a budget cut in the money for student assistance, the hiring of non-Work-Study personnel placed a great hardship on this part of the budget. To stay within the budget, he said the library was understaffed this summer. During the summer, Hintz requested 231 certified workers in the Work-Study program for the academic year. The Office of Financial Aid, which is in charge of the Work-Study program, notified him that he would receive 185-195 workers. He stated he had “received a net 150 certified workers, and we now have 130 working (in the Library). Some quit after a few days, and others didn’t show up for work.” Large said “students have a choice” where they want to work in the Work-Study program. He said his office tries to line up work for those “who are eligible and those who want to go to the jobs. ” Large said 1,200 requests for workers were filed with his office, but only 860 people have been certified for the Work-Study program. The shortage of help has caused the library many problems, ac cording to Hintz. “We are currently short 600 hours of student work a week,” he said. The shortage can be seen throughout the Library, he said. “There is a line in the Reserve Book room, and periodicals are not being reshelved.” “Members of my staff have worked extra hours” to keep the Library running,” he added. “Reducing hours would be very distasteful to those in the Library,” Hintz said. “It’s a most pressing situation, and a decision can’t be delayed any longer, as we are about to come apart at the seams. ” ticipate the enlarged enrollment of freshmen this year.” This year’s freshman class is the largest in the University’s history; more than 200 more freshmen enrolled this year over last year. "There were some indications of the increase several months ago,” Alpert explained, "but 1 don’t think they were properly communicated.” Vice President for Student Services Gerald Bogen then stood up and said, ‘‘The com munication was adequate, but it wasn’t read carefully.” Bogen then added he was ‘‘quite puzzled” about the matter, since “it is presen tly impossible” to tell how many students will show to register until they actually do so. He said a meeting is scheduled for Friday among faculty and ad ministrators to study the problem and present proposals of how to eliminate it. One proposal, Bogen explained, is for students to register for next year during the spring in ad vance. He said a Philadelphia based firm, Systems Computers Technology, may be consulted by the University for implementing computer registration. “And we’ll need resources,” he said. Dean of the College of Liberal Arts Burton Moyer then brought up another aspect of freshman enrollment this fall. “It’s the way freshmen distributed them selves. There was a marked (Continued on Page 5) Ticket sale pleasing Athletic Department tickets are selling well this year. Vice President for Ad ministration and Finance Ray Hawk reported this at Wed nesday’s Faculty Town Meeting in 177 Laurence Hall. (See related story this page). ‘‘It’s going to be better than we had originally thought,” Hawk said. As of a Wednesday report from the AD, Hawk said, about,“$53,000-plus” worth of tickets had been sold. ‘‘The kind of ticket we’re depending on is the game-by game sales.” At last Saturday’s University of Oregon University of Washington football game, 6,175 student seats were sold, out of an available 6,200, Hawk said. This year, the University is using a new student method for funding athletics. Of the $1.6 million total AD budget, $230,000 is needed by the AD from students. In past years, the full amount was supported by student incidental fees. However, only $100,000 is being paid for by incidental fees this year, the rest to be made up by student ticket sales ($130,000). Straub Hall: dorm or office? More protests plan to convert Straub Straub Hall should not become University office space. ASUO President Iain More stated this position in a statement released Wednesday. His remarks were concerning the possibility that the old student dormitory will be converted into “educational and general use” for the University instead of living space. At the Oct. 5 meeting of the Building and Facilities Committee of the State Board of Higher Education, a proposal was passed to do just that. The proposal would authorize the initial phase of the Straub Hall conversion within a budget of approximately $135,000. Total cost for the conversion would be about $1 million. The full state board will take up the proposal at its meeting next Monday in Klamath Falls. More had several reasons for opposing the Straub conversion. It “would seem to be illegal under Oregon law” to make the con version, he said, because of a decision by the 1927 State Legislature, which “specificialy dedicated Straub Hall for use as a facility solely for dormitory housing, boarding or student activity purposes.” Funds were issued after 1927 to finance the costs of Straub, More said. They were “pooled in common with all other bonds in the State System and therefore were all pledged to amortize additional issues of revenue bonds. “The Oregon Constitution states that bond issues are authorized only for facilities that appear to be wholly self-liquidating and self supporting from revenues, gifts, grants or building fees.” More said the Straub conversion “might be deemed as a threat to the liquidation of the bonds,” because now, there is no mention of reimbursement. “This would be a violation of the Oregon Con stitution.” Because of this, dorm rates for the other University dorm buildings would have to be raised, he added. They would have to be raised “to produce revenue to meet the self-liquidating bonds. Straub would no longer be a contribution.” Of the possible raise in dorm rates, More said: “The students in all the state schools have felt the problems of the increase in tuition and the wage freeze. They should not be subjected to actions which could cause further increases albeit to only a certain segment of the student population.” More recommended that the state board, at its Monday meeting, delay any action on the committee-passed proposal on Straub con version “until other uses for Straub Hall are investigated, such as married student housing.” If the state board did pass the proposal, it “would be an example of bad faith to dormitory students in all schools, insofar as this action would do little for them but to keep the dormitory fees artificially high in a period of escalating student costs.” At the Oct. 5 committee meeting, board members were unable to answer specific questions about the implications, legally and monetary, of the proposal to convert Straub. To this, More said: “The ASUO feels strongly that, in the future, if the board or its committees feel that they have insufficient information on any topic, this should constitute the basis for delaying any decision until that information is available.” Reasons given by the committee on Oct. 5 for converting Straub Hall are as follows: —Shortage of classroom, lab and office space on campus. —Ability to put most offices of the psychology department in the old dormitory. —Space would be available for conversion because of a decrease in the number of students wanting to live in the dorms. —Precedents for this sort of change at other state schools.
