Vol. 73, No. 141
An Independent Student Newspaper
University of Oregon, Eugene
Thursday, April 13,1972
The faculty looks on at Wednesday’s meeting in 150 Science as an unidentified spectator protests the
224 to 141 vote to retain ROTC.
Candidates Tavera and Garcia
file for ASUO presidential race
The last candidates to file for the offices of ASUO
President and Vice-President, Margarita Tavera
and Maggie Garcia, do not object to being elected as
a token representation of minorities in the ASUO
“because if we are chosen as tokens we will take
advantage of it and get the job of being ASUO
executives done correctly.”
Ms. Tavera and Ms. Garcia, both juniors
majoring in elementary education, told the
Emerald they were concerned about the lack of
student input in the ASUO and the ignorance of the
ASUO senators and executives about programs
which are funded through incidental fees.
“First of all, students should be able to decide
what kinds of programs are funded with their
money,” Ms. Tavera said.
Ms. Tavera and Ms. Garcia said that students
could control how their money is spent by indicating
what programs they wanted funded when they
register.
“This year’s fiscal budget meetings were greeted
by apathy,” Ms. Garcia said, “because the ASUO
senators and executives were ignorant about the
programs that were requesting funds.”
Margarita Tavera
If the senators and executives decide how the
money is spent, “they should at least be informed,”
the candidate said “I think we need to clean up
house a little.”
Ms Tavera and Ms Garcia also said that student
input is needed “in all department decisions,”
especially those concerning the tenure of professors
and the curriculum of the departments.
Margarita Garcia
“Now, publishing seems to be more important
than whether a professor is a good teacher,” they
said.
Ms. Tavera and Ms. Garcia expressed concern
about the lack of housing options available to single
students and said, “It seems that if the Housing
Department can provide low-cost housing for
married students, it can provide low-cost housing
for single students.”
The candidates also want the ASUO Child Care
and Development Center expanded and any
residential requirements regarding mothers
eligible to use the center abolished
The candidates said they decided to run because
“after reading some of the platforms of the other
candidates we felt that if people can run to get a
tavern in the Student Union, we can run on issues
more important than that
“There are more pressing needs,” Ms. Tavera
and Ms. Garcia said. “How many students on
campus are 21 and could utilize a tavern?”
They said that the time has come “to open up
communication between minorities and the rest of
the community. The way of doing this is to have
more minority students in the Senate and executive
positions of the ASUO," Ms. Tavera and Ms. Garcia
added, and voiced their support for Aurelia
Marquez. Senate candidate for At-Large position
no 2.
ROTC, PE retained
by Faculty decision
By JOYCE ROI TSON
Of the Emerald
The ROTC program and the physical education and health
requirements will be retained at the University—at least for the time
being—the faculty voted Wednesday.
By a vote of 224-141 the faculty voted to postpone indefinitely a
motion asking for termination of ROTC and by a show of hands they
voted against eliminating the PE and health requirements. In a third
major action, the faculty also voted to reinstate funds cut from the
State System of Higher Education during its financial emergency
because the crisis has eased.
The vote on ROTC was the fourth such taken by the faculty in as
many years. The faculty voted in the spring of 1968 to retain academic
credit for the program, in the spring of 1970 against abolishing the
program by a vote of 199-185, and last spring to spend a year looking
for alternatives to the present program.
For the controversial decision, the 500-seat room of 150 Science
was filled to capacity plus, with many students sitting in the gallery.
For the most part there was little verbal confrontation between
faculty and students, although a rally had been held earlier in the day
to gather support for the motion to discontinue ROTC.
Introducing the anti-ROTC motion was Bayard McConnaughey,
associate professor of biology. He decried U.S. military activities as
"an outrage against humanity" which have done “irreparable" and
“wholly unnecessary damage to the world ecosystem.”
ROTC advertising stepped up
McConnaughey said he felt it necessary to present his motion,
even though alternatives to ROTC were being worked on, because the
committee studying ROTC will not address itself to the question of
whether military training was appropriate. He added that ROTC
advertising had been stepped up, their contract had been re
negotiated and the military budget and Indochina war had escalated
so that it was important to consider termination now.
Currently, the ROTC Advisory Committee—charged by the
faculty last spring with investigating alternatives to Army and Air
Force officer training programs—is working on a set of recom
mendations to present to the faculty in October, 1972.
And the Hearing Panel on University Priorities (HPUP) has
recommended that the ROTC contract with the University be re
negotiated so the Department of Defense picks up all costs of the
program. Currently the University pays for secretaries, office sup
plies and building maintenance.
McConnaughey cited several sources, including unofficial Pen
tagon Papers, in presenting his case against militarism. "As we sit
here,” he said, "bombs are raining down on Indochina, an area about
the size of the Pacific Northwest. We’ve dropped more bombs there
than in World Wars I and II combined.”
He pointed out several atrocities being done to the Vietnamese
people and stated, "The greater part of the damage is done to the
people we are protecting.”
During his testimony, McConnaughey was interrupted and asked
to speak to the point of how ROTC affects such activities. One voice
from the gallery replied, "ROTC trains pilots."
A ruling by University President Robert Clark that he could
continue was appealed, but sustained.
Symbolic gesture urged
McConnaughey later admitted that ‘‘cutting off ROTC on campus
is too small a gesture to have any effect on the military,” but he urged
the faculty to make a symbolic gesture now.
Speaking against McConnaughey's motion was Albert Kitzhaber,
chairman of the ROTC Advisory Committee. He said he favored in
definite postponement recommended by the Faculty Senate,because
his committee was nearing the end of its work and that even if the
faculty voted to discontinue the program, it would be at least another
year before it ceased to become operative.
Andrew Thompson of the Counseling Center, who introduced a
similar motion on ROTC last spring, said, “The ROTC committee is
not concerned with the basic morality of the program . . Therefore
postponement is tantamount to making a moral decision.”
There was some disturbance from the audience after the vote was
announced but it was contained to scattered verbal abuse. Comments
included. “Who said Hitler was dead?” and “You just condoned
genocide.”
The motion on whether to continue the PE and Health
requirements was also a controversial issue.
The motion was introduced by Harry Alpert, vice president for
academic affairs and provost, on behalf on the Hearing Panel on
University Priorities (HPUP). He said it was introduced in the light of
a financial emergency and that the intent of the motion was to not
eliminate PE and health courses, but to make them optional.
The debate on whether to continue the PE and Health
requirements was varied and lengthy. Among the arguments in favor
of retaining the six hours of courses, which must be taken in order to
obtain a bachelor’s degree from the University, were:
- The cost factor is the only criterion being considered;
(Continued on Page 8)