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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 1973)
Information and application* available for U.S. college-sponsored foreign study programs. Applications for financial aid and ap plications for study programs must be submitted soon on some programs. In ternational Education Center Room 202, EMU; X3721 THE SCANDAL OF SECRECY John W. Gardner, Chairman Common Cause I Former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare One of the weird and nonsensical facts about our government — at all levels — is that much of the pub lic’s business is done in the deepest, darkest secrecy. Citizens assume that only questions of national se curity and some aspects of criminal justice are dealt with in secret. Little do they know! Most of the time our public officials act as though the way they con duct our business is none of our business. In 1972 roughly one-third of the Senate Public Works Committee meetings were held in secret. The figure for the Senate Agriculture Committee was 59 percent, for the House Appropriations Committee over 90 percent The House Ways and Means Com mittee, which drafts the laws governing every federal tax dollar you and I pay, is notoriously secretive. Se curity is so tight that even the staff assistant of a Con gressman who is on the Committee can’t attend the closed meetings. What are they hiding? All sessions of congressional committees — and records of all votes taken at such sessions — should normally be open to the public. Committees should be allowed to close a meeting only for considerations of national security or invasion of personal privacy, and the procedure for closing it should be carefully pro tected against abuse. In the Executive Branch, virtually everyone asso ciated with national security acknowledges that the system of classifying documents to preserve secrecy has been badly abused — all too often for the pur pose of concealing bureaucratic error. And the zeal for secrecy extends to every government agency un der the control of the Executive Branch. Regulatory agencies often meet behind closed doors, omit public hearings, and suppress reports the public should see. Of course, the secrecy involved is only secret-from the-public. The special interest lobbyists know very well what goes on in those hush-hush meetings. Quite often they're right in there with the decision makers. The only one who has splinters in his nose from bump ing against closed doors is John Q. Public. Now there is a resolution before the Senate — sponsored by Senators Humphrey (D., Minn.) and Roth (R.. Del.) (plus 11 other sponsors) which would open all Senate committee meetings. A bill (S 260) re cently introduced in the Senate by Lawton Chiles of Florida and in the House (HR 4) by Dante Fascell, also of Florida, would open all Legislative and Executive Branch meetings except those dealing with national security or involving personal privacy. Information is power, and secrecy is the most con venient means of keeping that power out of the hands of the people. What the people don't know, they can't object to. It’s time to change all that And you can help. Write your two Senators and your Congressman. Tell them you want them to open up the system. Or join Com mon Cause (2100 M Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20037) and ally yourself with 200,000 other members in getting these changes made. We’re going to give this nation back to its citizens. The student member ship rate is $7.00. Don’t just stand there! This space is contributed as a People Service by The Van Heusen Company 1 Want to work for OSPIRG? OSPIRG opens competition for 13 summer research internships Each intern will be paid $1,000. All students of Oregon colleges and universities are eligible. The 13 students will work with OSPIRG’s professional staff in Portland. They will research environmental and consumer problems. Many will receive academic credit for their work. Applications are available at OSPIRG, 408 S.W. 2nd, Portland, Oregon 97204, or at any campus OSPIRG local board office at the 15 OSPIRG campuses. Ap plications must be complete by April 1. Decisions will be an nounced May 1. Students can choose to work in the following areas: 1) State Land Board: A study of this agency with its important ownership and regulatory role over state lands, river beds, etc. 2) Health Insurance Plans: What is the effect of health in surance costs on the structure of medical care pricing in Oregon? How are rates set? 3) Oregon Coastal Con servation and Development Commission (OCCDC): Evaluate the performance of the OCCDC from January 1073 to June 1973 to determine if it is developing a coastal com prehensive land-use plan which strikes the balance between development and the en vironment as required by the 1972 Oregon Legislature 4) The Role of the Oregon State Highway Department in Promoting Tourism in Oregon: Several reports have been done on this topic, one of which was suppressed and perhaps altered before eventual release 5) United States Forest Ser vice: Several aspects of the United States Forest Service timber management policy will be examined. 6) Oregon State Real Estate Division: What, if any, power does this agency have over questionable real estate sales practices, especially large land development? 7) Auto Insurance: How valid is the data used to support the high rates charged to young drivers? This is a difficult project and probably requires someone with accounting, in surance, or economics background. 8 at 9) Oregon State Highway Department. Two positions open to conduct a general in vestigation of what they do, whether it is in the public in terest, and whether major changes should be made. 10) Consumer Investigations: One student will help organize and conduct several studies of fraudulent or dangerous retail sales practices or items. 11) Mentally Disabled: An investigation of the basic policy goals of care and treatment of the mentally disabled by Oregon institutions. 12 & 13) Open: Students are invited to submit 3-5 page proposals for their own project The projects will be received by the student intern committee and two internships will be awarded based largely on the proposal and the student’s evidenced ability to carry it out. The Oregon Daily Emerald is puhttshil Monday through Friday during the achoei year, except during exam and vacation periods, and four tunes weekly during summer session by the Emerald Board of Directors at the University of Oregon Second class postage pant at Eugene. Oregon. *7403 Subscription rates .: 11 University of Oregtai student and faculty staff subscription rales are baaed aa annual contracts between the Emerald and the ASUO and the Emerald and the L'mve: -*> ministration The rate of these subscript approximately *2 00 per year Ml) Special subscriptions for persons not included in category 111 are available at a rate of *10 00 per year. M W per academic year and S3 SO per term r i Bill Bucy General Editor On Campus Willamette Valley scenarios offered A slide program projecting two futures for the Willamette Valley will be presented by Kenneth Omlid, Lane County Commissioner and member of the Willamette Valley Environmental Protection & Development Planning Council, before a meeting of landscape ar chitects and park planning students at the University on Thursday. The 2:3fl p.m. class will meet in room 112 of the Health and P.E. Building. Emergency Senate meeting tonight The ASUO Senate will consider placing a constitutional amend ment which would restructure the ASUO Senate on Wednesday and Thursday’s general election ballot at an emergency meeting tonight at 7 p.m. in the EMU. ASUO Senate President Cliff Zukin said the proposal is an attempt to counter the “Abolish the Senate” a student intiative measure, which would set up a one year interim committee to work on a student-faculty method of University governance. The proposed plan would reduce the size of the senate from 46 to 30 seats, according to Zukin. All seats would be at-large positions. Black festival auditions tonight Auditions will be ehld at 7:30 p.m. today in the EMU Ballroom for the opening ceremony night of the upcoming Black Arts Festival at the University. “All Black and African students” are eligible to audition tonight in the areas of poetry reading, drama interpretation, singing and dancing, according to Debby Barnett, assistant director of the ASUO Cultural Forum. The Black Arts Festival will be held at the University the week of April 23 to April 27, Barnett said. Tonight’s auditions for the opening ceremony of the festival will last three hours, she added. [ Community Land donated to Forest Service Some 30 acres of land surrounding the old Santiam Wagon Road was donated to the U.S Forest Service Friday. The land, which con tains over a million and half board feet of lumber and is valued at $80,000, was donated by the Louis W. and Maud Hill Family Foun dation of St. Paul, Minnesota. “We are very pleased to be able to see that this historical legacy from Oregon’s pioneer days will receive permanent protection by the Forest Service,” David Mason of the foundation said. Most of the old road is on National Forest land. The donated property is a portion of a 400-acre island of private property com pletely surrounded by the Willamette National Forest. The land lies about three-fourths of a mile east of Highway 126 about one mile north of the Mt. Washington Wilderness. Zane Smith Jr., Supervisor of the Willamette National Forest said the Forest Service intends to manage the old wagon road as if it were a trail, and in such a manner to protect its natural environment and historical value. He said that timber harvesting, which would threaten the wagon road will not be allowed Former 'Youngblood' leader to perform Jesse Colin Young, former leader of the rock group “The Youngbloods,” will perform in concert tonight in Eugene Young will perform from 8:30 p.m. to 11 p.m at Scarborough Faire, 136 E. 11th Ave. Tickets for the performance, available at Scarborough Faire, are $2.50 per person. His performance, sponsored by KZEL-FM, will be broadcast live over the radio station (96.1 megacycles) beginning at 9 p.m. Young is currently touring the nation with a new group of musicians. Young’s concert is one of several performances scheduled at Scarborough Faire through March 10. Scarborough Faire is available, by arrangement, to “community-oriented” groups wishing to stage benefits, according to George Brown, the General Manager of the cooperatively run crafts center. KZEL-FM contracts, promotes and manages the performances. Brown said, and the fee is $15 a show. Salary offer rejected by teachers Eugene teachers, by a margin of about eighty per cent, voted to reject the school board’s latest salary offer Friday night. In a Thursday night meeting, the school board had made an offer of $7,450 for a starting base salary The teachers were a«k.ng for a $7,550 base salary. C»ordon Quigley, president of the Eugene Education Association (EEA), said the association would go before the school board at their meeting tonight to ask them to reconsider the high™- figure. Mellem criticizes ‘Hell’s Canyon’ bill The Sierra Club and the Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs today announced that Roger Mellem of Eugene has been appointed Acting Northwest Representative for the two conservation organizations. He immediately criticized the “Hells Canyon National Forest Parklands Area ’ bill recently introduced in Congress by Senator Mark Hatfield (R-Ore.) and Rep. A1 Ullman (D-Ore.). Mellem will replace Brock Evans, who has become Washington, D C. Representative for the Sierra Club and F W O C until a per manent representative is found lata- this spring or summer He studied conservation at the University Honors College in Eugene for four years, and has been a student at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington since last fall. There he was working with Mt. Everest climber Dr. Willi Unsoeld in a wilderness education program.
