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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 17, 1973)
-—-Commentary Bookstore directors need compensation By RALPH JAMES MOONEY Earlier this fall the University Bookstore Board of Directors (of which I am a member) voted to amend the store’s corporate bylaws to authorize minimum-wage compensation for Board members. This is a worthwhile amendment, important to insuring effective student control over Bookstore policies, and 1 strongly urge Emerald readers to vote to approve it on Thursday, October 18. The Bookstore has become a major business enterprise, with annual sales to the University community of nearly $2.5 million. The Board of Directors must spend many hours each term making and reviewing store policy to insure that the management’s decisions on such matters as merchandise selection, pricing, student hiring and salary and wage scales are consistent with the best interests of the University community. During the past summer, for in stance, the Executive Committee of the Board met nearly every week to con sider issues like pricing discounts, tax refund litigation, management per formance and employee welfare. Out of these meetings came the 10 percent discount on textbooks which has already saved students more than $43,000 this fall. It seems to me only equitable that the eight students and two faculty members on the Board be granted the proposed minimal com pensation for the time they spend on such matters. Certainly every other corporation I have been associated with or represented has compensated its Board of Directors—and always at a rate of pay far higher than the Federal minimum wage. But it is not merely to equity and corporate custom that I appeal. I ap peal also to the self-interest of every Emerald reader. Without a dedicated and effective Board of Directors, the Bookstore will be (and already is, at times) run exclusively by the management. It is by now no secret the management opposed both last spring’s change from a “cooperative” to a nonprofit corporation and this fall’s 10 percent textbook discount which that change made possible. Only the Board’s insistence on those policies gave them life. Yet unhappily, despite those two important successes, the Bookstore Board has been and is increasingly an ineffective body. Board elections are by and large a joke. I ran unopposed. Most students run and serve only as a favor to a friend already on the Board. And worse, once elected# some Board members fail even to attend meetings regularly. If the Board were paid an hourly wage, even the minimum wage authorized by the proposed amend ment, an important economic incentive for service would be created. More persons would stand for election, and once in office they would be far likelier to spend the time necessary if the Board is to function effectively. One final, important point. Political scientists have long since learned that the effectiveness of representative government is seriously diminished if the representatives are unpaid. Only persons of independent means (or those hoping to become County Executive of Baltimore County) will ever stand for election. And once elected, most will cite the lack of compensation as an excuse to do no more than the absolute minimum amount of work passible. The same principle applies directly to the Bookstore Board. If we continue to restrict Board membership to those who do not need to spend their free time earning their way through school, we shall continue to be not only un democratic but foolish. In sum, as I said, I strongly urge passage of the proposed amendment. Anyone still undecided on the issue by voting day should remember the amendment only authorizes—it does not require—the proposed com pensation. As a safeguard, and to in sure an annual review of the program, the amendment requires each year’s Board to decide anew whether its members will be compensated that year. However, for the reasons outlined above, I hope the present and future Boards do vote to compensate them selves, for their own sake and for the sake of all persons who do business with or work at the Bookstore. On October 18, at least give them that opportunity. Note: R.J. Mooney is an Assistant Professor of Law Letters What, no organ music! Last Tuesday noon, some thirty-odd people showed up at the School of Music Recital Hall to attend performances that didn’t happen. Some came to hear a Tuesday Noonday Organ Recital and others to hear a high school band show as was announced in the previous Thursdaj Emerald. Unfortunately, it was a nc program, no performance, no show situation. Originally, an organ recital had beer planned but was preempted by the band concert which had, allegedly, beer scheduled months earlier for that time slot. As it turned out, in fact, that band concert is to be played in April of next year and was inadvertently placed on the Oc tober recital calendar by the School ol Music office staff. This Tuesday noon there will be no orgar recital as Robert Huffman, pianist, presents a program of Chopin, Scriabin, and others. Next Tuesday, the orgar recitals resume on a regular basis through the last Tuesday of November. Of special interest is the October 30th performance of an organ mass by 17th century Italiar composer Girolamo Frescobaldi taker from his Fiori Musicali of 1635. This program will feature practically all the students involved in the organ per formance program on campus this year. On November 13th, Dr. Douglas Butler, guest organist from Portland, presents a program of Bach and a dance suite by 18th century Frenchman Louis Nicholas Clarembault (very campy music). The remainder of the programs will include new compositions by student composers as well as selections from the bulk of the organ literature. Some holiday more humorous than profound, music will be played on the final two November concerts. The recitals take place every Tuesday at twelve-thirty at the School of Music Recital Hall. Randolph Bourne, Coordinator Tuesday Noonday Organ Recitals Gasp! After reading yesterday’s Emerald, ’ was filled with admiration for som< members of (jpr local Arab community Most of us have come to accept th< bombastte rhetoric of the adolescen radical £fedrome as an inescapable mile annoyance.'However, our more outspokei Arab friends seem to have carried the ar of self-deception and world view fantasj construction to a level of volume and sheei quantity of production unmatched in the voluminous annals of political myopia. It is difficult to avoid the mesmerizing qualities of constantly repeated loud noises (“Fascistimperialistaggressor zionistexp loi terof oppressed third world peoples amen”), but a brief review of some clear and obvious points might provide us with some protection It might also provide some of our more obsessive radicals with some laxative relief. First, the Arab countries involved in the fight with Israel are, without exception, military dictatorships. The fascinating spectacle of the local radical community supporting a collection of kings and dic tators notwithstanding, each Arab regime is using time-tested methods for main taining control. I hesitate to make another tired comparison with the grandaddy of all Bad Guys, but the technique of blaming another country or ethnic group for ALL of your problems is in the best traditions of a certain mid-twentieth century Aryan totalitarian. At any rate, each of these countries, purportedly the vanguard of the World Revolution, is possessed of a real live ELITE (gasp) ruling class, interested primarily in maintaining its position of power. Is it not possible that we could see those Generals, bankers and government officials (using thousands of poorly fed, illiterate Arabs as cannon fodder) as honest to goodness, bona fide exploiters? Further, I would venture to guess that a considerable portion of our local Arab community, being quite able to travel 10,000 miles to good old Eugene to obtain an expensive American education, are members in good standing of those very same ruling class elites (gasp again). Is it sacrilege to think that Eugene Arabs have more in common with the officers and bureaucrats than with the laborers and bleeding soldiers? Is it possible that our local vocal Sons of Allah, spewing forth didactic perorations on the exploitation of the Third World, have as much to lose from the Revolution as say, Tricia Nixon? It is, I suppose, a question of the most obvious motives. Perhaps I could humbly suggest that Palestine Liberation Movement (ignoring an obvious fecal pun) elevate its political effusiveness to a slightly higher level of inanity. Skip Wall Mere Student GOP Greg On October 5, 1973, to the surprise of no one, our dynamic young local ASUO president announced that he was an “avid member” of America’s most corrupt ITS GOING TO TAKE MORE THAN A LOT OF HOT AIR'» PANT PANT/ political party. I, for one, am proud that Greg Leo is a Republican, since I am a Democrat. To paraphrase Richard Nixon, circa 1954: Isn’t it wonderful finally to have a Student Body President who will admit that he is an elitist and a reac tionary ! I really enjoyed reading in the R-G and the Emerald about how the Republicans are the straight-line party in Oregon. Gee, in the last legislature I thought that they tried to undermine all the progressive ideas proposed by Dick Eymann and his “straight-line” Democrats. I’m sure glad good old Greg Leo set me straight. I also really grooved on the part where Greg commended the efforts of students from the U of 0 who worked as lobbyists and “advocates” during the last legislative session, of which Greg wqs one. Greg had to compliment himself and his friends, because no one else was willing to. I also might add that Bill and Don and Joan and Greg and Val and Jeff and Wendall did a bang-up job kow-towing to the ideological descendants of Mark Hanna. Student monies were well spent in the quest for right-wing sugar daddies. I bet Greg wowed the Rubicon Society when he told them Clay Meyers would make a great Governor, since everybody over 14 knows that Clay Meyers would make a lousy one. One well-known Lane County Democrat summed up the sen timent perfectly when he said: “Clay Meyers is a pipsqueak, let’s get rid of him.” The moral of this diatribe can be found in the comment of one would-be ASUO reformer who gave up, at long last, because reform was impossible. He said: “Most so-called student leaders are really conservative. They’re not radicals at all. The true difference between them and me is that all they want to do is kiss ass, and all I want to do is kick ass.” Michael Bonner 1970 E. 17th Eugene Gay hours In Friday’s (10-12) Oregon Daily Emerald there appeared an article on One Step Beyond Eugene’s gay counseling and resource center, but the article neglected to mention our weekday office hours held at White Bird. Monday thru Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m. and Friday from 3 to 5 p.m. besides Friday from 7 to 10 p.m. where we are available for calls, walk-in counseling, referrals and just plain talking. These are in addition to the other times mentioned. So don’t forget if we can help call 342-8255 or stop in 343 E. 12th. ONE STEP BEYOND, staff
