Chicano culture
and education
examined in
‘Que Pasa, Raza?’
By MARIANNE RINALDO
Of the Emerald
There is a definite lack of bi-iingual, bi-cultural
teachers at the University, primary and secondary
levels of education. The time has come to provide an
edwtwm for students according to their needs.
American education can no longer be considered a
melting pot for distinct cultures.
Manbel Rivera, Margarita Tavera and Maxine
Baca-Zinn expressed these opinions Thursday in a
news conference marking the opening of the first
Chicano Mobile Institute on campus.
“If Chicanos are out of school by the eighth grade,
something is wrong. We must stop blaming the child,
the parent and the culture,” Rivera said.
“The main focus of the conference is education.
Oregon is one place where Mexican-Americans are
getting shuffled. Every time you talk about a minority,
think* you’re nikii^ about Blacks. It is the
purpose of the institute to bring these people data So
you can’t pass the buck and say T don’t know what
you’re talking about’,” Rivera, a keynote speaker for
tbe conference, said.
Baca-Zinn, doctoral candidate in sociology at tbe
University, said University administrators need
sensitizing to change the negative stereotypes of
Chicanos.
“Take a look at a college catalogue here at the
University. There are two classes in sociology con
coning Chicanos To me this is a lack of commitment
by administrators, and that lade of commitment is
what the conference is all about,” she said.
Margarita Tavera, University student and ex
director of MEChA, added, “Trying to talk to depart
ments and teachers is very difficult and frustrating.
Most students just have to get through school. I have to
pass a class to get out and teach.” When asked about
the promotion of stereotypes by teachers at tbe
University, Tavera replied, “They concentrate on
minorities, how to handle them and bow they behave.
You don’t agree with what the teacher says but you sit
there. I know she is promoting a stereotype.”
Rivera then stated, “There is racism by professors.
They are powerful, they give you a grade.”
By JUDY SLY
The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in the Department
of Housing. Education and Welfare is responsible for
Today’s Schedule
1:00 Informational session regarding additional speakers and room
sites for special presentations, seminars, and workshops.
i:so-t:ao Workshops and Seminars
Ethnic Studies
1. Alex Kuo, Director of Ethnic Studies, Central Washington State
2. Frank Sandoval, Chicano Studies Institute, Long Beach
3. Paul Simonds, University of Oregon
4. Arnoido Vento, University of Michigan
5. Lila Gonzalez, University of California at Berkeley
Affirmative Action
1. Lee Sainz, Regional Director of Women’s Bureau on Affirmative
Action, Denver
2. Lorenza Schmidt, Ex-Interim Director, Affirmative Action,
University of Oregon
3. Mario Obledo, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational
Fund (MALDEF), San Francisco
4. Gilberto Anzaldua, State Board of Education
Chicano Community
and University Relations
1. Earl Barrios, CANAAC, Eugene
2. Sonny Mooter, Mt, Angel College
3. Frank Martinez, Director, Valley Migrant League, Woodbum
4. Francisco Martinez, Lawyer, Legal Defense, Denver
Recruitment and Student Services
1. Alfonso Cabrera, Program Chairman and Coordinator
2. Maxine Baca-Zinn, Doctoral Candidate in Sociology
3. Gerald Bogen, Vice President for Student Services
4. Margarita Tsvera, Chairman, MEChA
All room numbers posted in the EMU.
enforcement of the 1965 executive order requiring an
affirmative action policy in hiring. Instead, the office
“helps institutions of higher learning understand
rather than implement affirmative action,” charged
Lorenza Schmidt in her talk at the Chicano conference
Que Pasa Raza, Thursday.
OCR has the obligation to initiate legal action against
institutions who don’t follow the affirmative action
policy, Schmidt continued. But she said the office,
under the direction of Stanley Pottinger, has
negotiated and bargained with institutions who are
debating the meaning of the order, and not complying
with it.
Schmidt, ex-interim director of the University 8
Affirmative Action office, was joined in ho* Thursday
afternoon talk on affirmative action by Lee Sainz,
regional director of the Women’s Bureau on Af
firmative Action in Denver.
In her prepared speech Schmidt traced a brief
history of civil rights legislation in this country
beginning with the 1964 Brown vs. Board of Education
decision which stated that public educational in
stitutions owe equal education to all children. “But the
legislative rejection of segregation was set carried
out,” she continued.
She also cited the 1964 Civil Rights Act and President
Johnson’s Executive orders for affirmative action in
1965 as continuing legislation designed to help
minorities. “But this country has failed to fulfill its
legal obligation to the minorities of the country,” Sch
midt stated.
Institutions of higher education tend to make excuses
for not meeting affirmative action requirements, she
said. They complain they aren’t able to find qualified
minorities and women.
—Goals and quotas. “This borders on being a purely
semantic exercise,” Schmidt said.
—Good faith and effort. Pottinger has said, Schmidt
charged, that procedures which are effort-oriented are
sufficient. “Institutions must understand that they are
committing an illegal act” by not complying with
affirmative action order.
The courts—not the OCR—should make rulings on
the meaning of the order and whether institutions are
acting in good faith or have valid excuses. The OCR
should initiate legal action against institutions which
are not, according to statistical data, meeting af
firmative action requirements, Schmidt said.
Schmidt outlined three method* for achieving af
firmative action compliance:
—Institutions should apply academic expertise with
input from women and minorities on. changing
recruitment and other policy procedures. The in
stitution must realize that a good program will cost in
both money and people resources.
—Local political groups should organize for intense
work in seeing that policies are carried out.
—Minority individuals and groups must initiate legal
action against institutions who do not comply.
Schmidt said carrying out legal actions aren’t easy.
She itemized these difficulties: lawyers are difficult to
find and their are few legal precedents in affirmative
action suits, suits are time consuming and expensive
and “chances are good we would lose seven out of 10
cases.
“If we initiate legal action the universities have to
respond—even to a weak case. They must put out
human and money resources,” die pointed out.
Sainz spoke under the auspices of IMAGE—a group
of Mexican-American government employes. She
made recommendations for Chicanos who want to get
involved in affirmative action programs:
—Know your population. Some 37,000 Chicanos live
in Oregon, Sainz said. These people need to form links
with national organizations like IMAGE to get a
communication system working between groups.
—Know your rights and be willing to initiate suits to
see that you get your rights.
Both women will participate again today during the
Chicano conference’s seminar and workshop on af
firmative action.
Sonny Montez, director of the Chicano Resource
Center at Mt. Angel College, spoke Thursday afternoon
in the EMU Ballroom as part of the Chicano con
ference, Que Pasa Raza, which continues through
today.
Montez delivered his presentation in Spanished
because, he explained, “A lot of the ideas that I want to
get across lose a little in English translation and
because some of the things I said I want kept in the
Chicano community.”
Montez told an Emerald reporter, who doesn’t un
derstand Spanish, his speech concerned the present
plight of racial discrimination that Chicano students
face.
“We have between 75 and 100 Chicanos here
(enrolled at the University) who don’t get a god
damned thing,” he said referring to the lack of
scholarships and counseling at the University.
“I told the audience the only way we can overcome
our problems is to work together,” he concluded.
R ide Stop begins Monday for University
On Monday, University students will be
able to do something that they could never
do before They will be aide to RideStop to
school.
RideStop? What is it? . . . According
its innovators, a group of students
3 .9
Urban Planning, RideStop is an “ex
perimental method of transportation,
designed to remove many of the hazards
and reduce the length of time in hitch
hiking."
Realistically, as explained by RideStop
RIDESTOP
coordinator Dena Wild, RideStop is a
"system of marked locations for student
commuters, and a transportation system
that is roughly baaed on hitchhiking.’’
After almost two years of work on the
project, operation RideStop is now
scheduled to go into effect an Monday.
Wild comments that, “after working so
long on paperwork, the RideStop signs
should all finally be up by Monday, at least
the first 24 of them. We’re encouraging
both the motorist and riders to use
RideStop, and the closer I come to finality
the more I want the signs up and
working.’’
Twenty-four initial Ride-Stop sites will
be put up over the weekend, by a group of
military SeaBees, and as soon as this step
is completed RideStop will be available for
use. Among these are RideStop signs at:
18th and Arthur, 13th and Polk, on 2nd and,
VanBuren, at Patterson and Franklin,
Hilyard and Franklin, at 13th and Pat
terson, 18th and Patterson, on 18th and
Hilyard, at 19th and Patterson, and on 23rd
and Hilyard.
Other RideStop sites include: 13th and
Agate, two at 30th and Alder, and another
on Franklin Blvd. between Hilyard and
13th. In Springfield, RideStop sites are: at
Laura and Lindale, Laura and Shelly, on Q
Street near the Freeway, at aid and E
Street, 14th and Main, on 14th and A Street,
and two on Franklin Blvd. near the
Willamette River overpass.
Each RideStop site will be marked by a
“no parking” as well as RideStop sign, and
Wild states that “one of RideStop's many
advantages is that the motorist can pull
out of the lane of traffic, much like a bus
and still be able to drive over into a pubth
right of way, where the RideStop sign will
be.”
WUd stresses
that RideStop “will r jbw
students to get from their homes to the
campus, or to anywhere within the Eugene
or Springfield area The system can be
used by people from both Eugene and
Springfield, and students will be able
easily to get to school or back borne
again.”
“RideStop,” Wild says, “when you think
about regular hitchhiking, is a lot safer
both for the motorist and for the hitch
hiker. An advantage for the motorist
would be the ease of picking up the person,
and for the hitchhiker it improves his
chances for a ride.”
Wild goes on to say, “RideStop is strictly
legal, and you’re not breaking any law at
all. We are reminding people that Ride
Stop is still basically hitchhiking, entailing
the same personal risks, but we stress that
RideStop is definitely an improvement
over the old form and must be thought of
as just that.”
Funded by the University with a grant of
$500, equally matched by Lane Community
College (which is also included in the Ride
Stop program), approximately 5 cents is
spent in RideStop, taken out of incidental
fees, for each individual student at the
University.
RideStop routes, sign locations, and
complete information about the basic
RideStop process will soon be distributed
at various locations on campus, including
the EMU, the Co-Op, the Urban Planning
department, and several others.
RideStop signs go up over the weekend
and if they are ready for use by Monday,
then students will be able to RideStop to
school for the first time in the University ’s
history. Hopefully, according to the Ride
Stop innovators, the RideStop process will
become a “natural” thing for students, the
thing to do, and a wave of the future.
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