Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1971)
Amchitka blast subject of vigil at IRS today By TORRIE McALLISTER Of the Emerald A vigil calling for a halt to the controversial Amchitka nuclear test will form on the EMU terrace at 12:30 p.m. today, and continue at the IRS building until the blast is called off. In between , the International Coalition to Stop the War (ICAT),vigil organizers, has arranged for a speaker program at the downtown mall. Peter Jacobs, ICAT spokesman, describes the vigil as a final plea of concerned people to ask the United States government to reconsider the Amchika test, and the idea that nuclear war will ever be an an swer to world problems. He said that the vigil is being held today internationally in Canada and Japan, as well as across the United States. The vigil procession will begin moving toward the downtown mall at about 1:30 p.m. Jacobs said. A stop will be made at the Internal Revenue Service where a small part of the group will begin a vigil watch which is to be kept continuously until the test is called off or the bomb explodes. “We want to keep a constant number of people at the IRS building 24 hours a day. This means that people will have to work together, spelling each other so that everybody can have time to go home to eat and sleep.” Jacobs said. At the mall people will be addressed by Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; City Councilwoman Wickes Beale; Leroy Owens, representative to the Oregon State Legislature; Jim Weaver, former candidate for U.S. Congress; and a speaker from the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Jacobs said. “Speakers will be asked to keep their addresses brief, and we expect forum to last for two to three hours.” The Lane County-Veterans will be in attendance but will not be serving as the marshals for the vigil. According to Jacobs there will be a telegraph table where people will be able to send public opinion wires. A telegram will cost $1.25. Jacobs said that because of crowded parking conditions at the IRS building, not all the crowd will go to the IRS vigil when the forum is over. However, he encourages everyone to spend sometime at the IRS vigil sight. At 7:30 p.m. the community is invited to a panel discussion teach-in in the EMU with professors from the University. The panel will include a geophysicist, a radiation expert, and a political science professor, Jacobs said. “This will be an informative session to help put some of the rumors about the Amchitka test into perspective. The professors will not be taking a pro or con stand on the issues. They will be addressing their comments to their knowlege of their fields,” Jacobs said. “These people are experts. We hope people will take advantage of the opportunity they have offered us to develop our awareness by volunteering their time.” ASUO President More has urged students to participate in the vigil activities. He released the following statement Tuesday: “The ASUO agrees with the Atomic Energy Commission’s own evaluation commission when it says that the need for the Pictured left to right are Ellen Bepp, Jamal Rahman, and Esaway Amashe who spoke at Tuesday’s symposium on prisons. The theme of their talks was prison conditions in foreign countries. Amchitka tests ‘should be compelling if they are to be conducted in the face of the possible risks that have been identified.’ But there are no compelling needs. “The ASUO perceives the risks involved as: 1) The effects of the blast are at best unpredictable; at worst they may well trigger off a major earthquake and tidal wave. 2) The Nevada test site has a history of radiation leakage. The Alaskan site invites a great risk of radioactive leakage into the Bering Sea. 3) The risk of endangering SALT (Stratigic Arms Limitation Treaty) talk. “The ASUO would urge all students and commuity people to sign a tetition on the EMU Terrace by Wednesday, November 3rd. This will be wired to the President. Also, in dividual wires to the President and Senators or Congressmen are of the greatest urgency. The Amchitka test vigil has also received the approval of George McGovern, (D-S.D.), Congressman Paul McCloskey ( R. -Cal.), and former Oregon senator, Wayne Morse. McGovern’s statement to ICAT reads: “Brothers and Sisters: “In the past few years a popular debate among cynics has revolved around the question of whether the world would end with a bang or a whimper. "The Amchitka nuclear test scheduled to take place next week offers fuel for both sides of the question. The short-range dangers of the explosion range from earthquakes to tidal waves, while the long range dangers include possible radiation poisoning of the air and water. The only excuse for the AEC is to give bureaucrats something to do with their time. “I have called on President Nixon to turn away from both end of the world theories—I have called him to accept a third alternative, a world peace where our time and resources are devoted to the stuff cf life and not to the instruments of death." Morse stated in a letter to 1CAT that the "Amchitka test blast is indefensible. "We already have a nuclear weapon overkill so superior to Russia or any combination of nuclear powers that we should be urging world support for dismantling nuclear might on the part of all nations rather than further endangering the peace of the world.” McCloskey said Tuesday at the Geological Society of America’s 83rd convention in Washington that, "The Nixon Administration has refused to disclose adverse environmental impact statements to Congress. The Congress is getting more ac curate information from 25-year old geologists than from the assistant secretaries of cabinet officers." Fewer police for campus part of pending contract By CLAY EALS Of the Emerald Fewer Eugene Police detectives and patrolmen will be keeping watch regularly on the University campus this fall. This is one aspect of the new contract for this year between the City of Eugene and the State Board of Higher Education for police services on the University campus. The new contract has not yet been signed by either party and is currently being redrafted and typed. Vice President for Student Services Gerald Bogen says it will be signed in the next few weeks. If the new parts of the contract are approved by both the University and the City of Eugene, there will be, in effect: —Three patrolmen shifts instead of four shifts, seven days a week, 38 weeks a year. —Two patrolmen shifts (same as last year), seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. -One detective shift instead of three shifts, five days a week, 38 weeks a year. —One detective shift instead of two shifts, five days a week, 52 weeks a year. —A new “position”—a sergeant will be in charge of the patrolmen and detectives on campus, who will work five days a week, 38 weeks a year. (A shift of 52 weeks is for all year-round, white 38 weeks is the length of the shift for just the school year.) Vice President Bogen calls the reduction in number of shifts “essentially the same manpower coverage of the University.” In fact, Bogen says the new arrangement will provide “better coverage—because the schedules are better established. We know more about when they’re going to be here.” Bogen adds he feels it is “not as appropriate” this year to have the same number of detectives. If the new parts of the contract are approved, the University will pay the City of Eugene less money than it did last year. TTiis year’s budget calls for $120,688 to be paid the city, whereas last year’s contract was for $121 ,*». Another change from last year’s contract is an in creased hourly provision for overtime pay—the University is to pay $7.50 instead of $7.06 an hour for EPD overtime work on campus. The contract presently reads that there can be an unlimited amount of overtime work done by the Eugene Police detectives and patrolmen “with University ap proval.” Bogen says he is working on establishing a limit on overtime work. “The way it’s written out now is inadequate," he says. For example, he says It is difficult for the University to plan in the fall for possible overtime work by the EPD during the following spring. This year is the second year of a unique arrangement between the University and the City of Eugene for police services. A new department, the Office of Campus Security, located in Alpha-Straub, was created last fall and combined a campus security force of nigh (watchmen, traffic officers, student workers and the Eugene policemen. OCS still coordinates the efforts of the city policemen and the other members of the security force, but Bogen says the EPD is gradually, informally creating a “campus division" of police coverage by putting a sergeant in charge of all officers regularly petroling the campus. The basic function of the Eugene Police patrolmen and detectives on campus is to deal with thefts on campus, thefts which in past years have numbered, at times, from 20-30 a week and 12000 worth of stolen goods. The EPD crew is responsible for a boxed area around the University, bounded on the north by the Southern Pacific right-of-way beyond the Physical Plant, on the south by 18th Ave., on the east by Villard St. and on the • <*t by Alder St