Commentary
Students face aid cuts if bill fails
By VALERIE MC INTYRE
Within the next few weeks, President
Nixon is expected to veto the Labor
Health, Education and Welfare Ap
propriation bill. This bill includes in
creases in federal student financial aid
(including grants, loans, and work
study ) to the tune of $400 million, over the
amount available this fall.
The veto controversy arises because
Congress has appropriated over $1.3
billion above the amounts President
Nixon requested for Labor-HEW
programs. In essence, the controversy is
on national priorities: Defense Depart
ment related spending vs. social and
domestic program spending.
If Congress does not overide the veto,
students will not only lose $400 million,
mostly in Basic Opportunity Grants,
Guaranteed Student Loans (7 per cent
interest bank loans) and matching funds
for State Scholarship Programs, but
many thousands will not be able to return
to school next September. In addition, the
$400 million loss of revenue will cause
increasing deficits at many colleges,
precipitating sharp increases in tuition
for all students next fall.
An analogous case last week, Congress
fell 23 votes short of overriding the
President’s veto on the Minimum Wage
Bill and the hourly wage was only 10c
(per hour) over his request. Our
Congressman, John Dellenback, (R-Dis.
41), was the only Oregon Congressperson
of the six who did not vote to override the
veto.
The concept of equal access and equal
opportunity for all students cannot be
met if there is not adequate funding for
either the new Basic Opportunity Grants
Program (BOG) or the three traditional
student assistance programs. While the
goal of BOG is to insure that every
student has an opportunity to attend
college, it is unrealistic if institutions do
not have the funds to guarantee that the
student who needs help does not leave
school prematurely due to financial
difficulties. Why encourage a student to
start college with a large grant and then
offer little or no economic assistance
during the rest of the college career?
You can affect the outcome of this
controversy! This is the most important
vote of the year for the financing of
college education. If you agree, please
send the following (or similar), message
to your Congressperson:
Honorable Wendall Wyatt, A1 Ullman,
Edith Green or John Dellenback
U S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Honorable Mark Hatfield or Bob Pack
wood
U.S. Senate
Washington D C. 20510
We urge the override of veto of Labor
HEW Appropriations bill. College
students will lose $400 million if the
Labor-HEW bill is not passed. As a
result, thousands of students will drop
out of school. Cut will also create a
financial crisis within colleges, resulting
in sharp tuition increases next fall.
We further urge elimination of “need
tests” in Guaranteed Student Loans (7
per cent interest bank loans). Need test
since March, 1973 has resulted in an
intolerably 40 per cent cut in student
bank loans, mostly for students from
families with incomes from $11,000 to
$15,000 per year.
Note: Valerie McIntyre is regional
director of the National Student Lobby.
Letters
Some Weird Baloney
Listen, buddy, don’t give me that
baloney about me being weird! Summer is
coming, you turkey; its only nine months
away. At least I know how to spell: The
word is “suicide” not “sucicide’T Why
don’t you get on the ball. I’m beginning to
think the editors of the Emerald spend
three-quarters of their time getting drunk,
and the remaining portion unediting
everyone's correctly spelled articles and
commentarys. Today it’s “suicicide” and
“Quaker Backers,” next thing you know
they will be talking about “President
Nickson," the “University of Orygone,”
and “Vice- President Mildew,”
Why don’t all you weirdos get your asses
in gear0
Lee Siegel
Obscure Studies
Editor's note. Mr. Siegel, who wrote a
commentary for last Wednesday's
Emerald, is understandably annoyed at
the incorrect headline which topped his
superb piece of humor. However, Mr.
Siegel will get satisfaction from us on the
day he learns how to spell the plural of
“commentary.” Knowing Mr. Siegel as we
do. that could take some time.
Brutal Thieu
Despite the signing of the peace
agreement in Januafy, and despite the
withdrawal of American combat troops,
(here is no peace in Vietnam. The Thieu
regime, more brutal and ruthless than
ever, has carried its campaign of
repression to unprecedented levels. It has
turned the cities of South Vietnam into
police states in which all persons must
carry identity cards and be subject to
constant harassment, in which tens of
thousands are arrested in massive police
sweeps, in which 200,000-300,000 political
prisoners are subjected to torture,
brutality and inhumanity in an attempt to
destroy all opposition to an unpopular
dictator.
The United States bears a direct
responsibility for the maintenance of this
state of terror. The U.S. provides 90 per
cent of Thieu’s budget and all of his
military establishment. If this aid were to
cease, most economists agree the Thieu
government would collapse immediately.
There are still about 10,000 U.S. “civilian”
advisers, many of them CIA, working with
the regime’s police, military, prison of
ficials and economic planners. It is clear to
all who look that the Vietnam war is not
over and will not be over until the U.S.
ceases to interfere in Vietnamese affairs.
The Eugene Peace Action Committee
(EPAC) is a coalition of Eugene groups
working against this interference and
against the repressive police state of the
Thieu regime. It invites all concerned
TflfcJW* PXr -
FIRE!!'
persons to attend its weekly meetings each
Tuesday at 8 p.m. in the Newman Center,
1850 Emerald St., just south of the campus.
John Lanier
575 Kingswood Avenue
Senior, Journalism
Anti-theft devices
Could the Emerald or ASUO investigate
the possibility of installing bicycle anti
theft devices on the parking meters ad
joining the campus? A simple way to
construct one would be to weld a small
peice of chain to each meter pole. Then the
bike riders would have a secure lock in
stead of risking that a thief merely lifts
bikes over the top of the meters.
Bruce P. Kebbekus
GTF Finance
it’s money, folks
I’ll tell you, unabashedly, that I’m a
music addict, and since an FM radio is the
only sound source in my apartment, it’s
tuned in all the time. I’m all too familiar
with KZEL and with the “new contender”
mentioned in last Thursday’s letters
column, KFMY.
“AM idiotosis” is, unfortunately, a
progressive disease that affects, even
tually, all stations; all stations, that is,
that run commercials. It works like this:
in order to sell commercial time, they
overlap “'oo” much with their AM com
petitors. But when was the last time you
were listening to either of the “FM un
dergrounders” and you heard Captain
Beefheart? Or Dory Previn? Or Harry
Partch, for that matter? If the stuff
doesn’t sell records, it stands to reason it
won’t sell commercial air-time either.
It all comes down to money. As long as
they’ve got to sell their time, they’ve got to
play the stuff that sells, say their names
and their call-letters alot, and talk real
cool.
Let me recommend two non-commercial
FM stations in the area. On KLCC, around
90 mhz, you can catch two hours of only
very-briefly-interrupted jazz, every af
ternoon from 5 until 7 on “Jazz 120.” And
on the University’s own KWAX, at 91.1
mhz, there is experimental alternative
programming every weeknight from
midnite to 2 a.m. Both these stations are on
about 14 hours a day, and play a wide
variety of musics, news, and public af
fairs.
And the important thing to remember is
that it’s not commercial. Nobody’s selling
out. Tune in.
George Lederer
Senior, Broadcast Communications
Paying the Piper
What O’Halloran’s article in Wed
nesday’s Emerald amounts to is: If I have
more money than you have, I’m a better
fan. If I have more money than you have,
I’m a better student. If I have more money
than you have, I have more school spirit.
A real Quacker Backer is a person who
proudly says, “I’m an Oregon fan.” Not a
person who says, “I have season tickets to
all the football games. I have season
tickets to all the basketball games. I have
season tickets to all the track meets. I
have season tickets...”
If my money is used to help support the
Athletic Department, I have a right to
purchase a seat for a reasonable price
when my wallet can afford it — when I
choose.
If I pay the piper, I’m going to dance to
the music.
P.H. “Pal” Willard III
Rm. 204, Burgess—Hamilton
Sophomore
Business Administration