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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 25, 1973)
Roberts talks on health care By GEORGE BUDDY Of the Emerald State Senator Betty Roberts, a soon-to-announce candidate for Governor, discussed the health care issue with students in a University political science class on Wednesday. About 60 students of Larry Pierce’s “Oregon State and Local Government” class heard Roberts review the efforts of the legislature to develop health care programs. Roberts, a liberal Portland Democrat who has been in the legislature since 1965, is reported to be announcing her candidacy next Monday. The state senator listed three areas of concern in health care for the legislature: quality of health service, delivery of health service and cost. “The legislature has decided to get involved and do something to keep the costs of health care down,” Roberts said. One important piece of legislation that Roberts detailed was the 1971 law to create the position of paramedics and designed to assist doctors in remote areas of Oregon. The Oregon Medical Association (OMA) had originally lobbied for the bill, Roberts said, but after the legislation was successful, pressure from nursing organizations built up to have nurses designated as paramedics. Another bill would have created a commission to review hospital costs around the state and regulate their costs in a manner similar to public utilities. The health care industry, Roberts said, objected to the cost regulation aspect of the bill and the legislature later dropped that section. “There was a great deal of agitation that the regulation was pre-mature,” Roberts said. She hopes that the 1975 session of the legislature will put the regulatory measure back into the law. Roberts justified the regulatory-public utility ap proach by pointing out that health care is “an absolute necessity” to the citizens of the state, much like telephones and electricity. Other legislation from the last session included a school vaccination program but Roberts said that plans for additional health care bills go “far beyond that” in developing-programs. Health spurs constitutional questions She said, however, that “constitutional questions” arise in dealing with state-wide health programs. Already, the school vaccination program exempts certain religious groups from forced innoculation, and future legislation will have to consider similar problems from different groups in the state. Ultimately, Roberts said, some type of comprehensive health care must be developed. “It would be far more appropriate to have this legislation on the national level,” she felt. Roberts said that she does not think being female will hurt her as a candidate for governor. “We have so many precedents in Oregon of women in different roles that it won’t be a precedent,” she said. “The sex thing will diminish...” “The sex thing will diminish if not completely go away,” Roberts said. “I don’t think it will be an issue.” Citing a poll taken by her people, Roberts admitted that her voter recognition is presently low, but she hopes to overcome it by the spring primary election date. Robert Straub, twice un successful against Gov. McCall, leads her poll, Roberts admitted, but pointed to the responses from people. She said that voters seem to feel that Straub has had his chance at election and the idea of a third attempt prompts a “So what’s new” from many people. Planners adopt Oregon Experiment Calling the resolution “an historic step,” Chairer Jerry Diethelm praised the Campus Planning Committee’s adoption of the fundamental principles from “The Oregon Experiment” as policy guidelines for University growth, Tuesday. “The Oregon Experiment” is a prospectus which was prepared under the supervision of Christopher Alexander of the Center for Environmental Structure. The study contains a series of proposals regarding how the development of the University should be organized. However, it was noted that the report may face opposition from some administrators. The committee members consider the measures recommended in the report, while revolutionary and unprecedented, to be an im portant step toward a more flexible plan for development. Moving away from the massive plans of past years, the report urges concentration of the planning process on small projects. Under the new guidelines, no maps of new building sites or designated use areas will be drawn. According to committee members, old planning concepts were too rigid to allow for changes in the needs of the University. The report was begun when Alexander was hired by the University to make planning recommendations. The committee decided to attach a cover letter to the report offering to help University President Robert Clark in asking for acceptance of some of the proposals by the State Board of Higher Education. The proposals contained in the report include: —All decisions about what to build, and how to build it, will be in the hands of the users. —The construction undertaken in each budgetary period will be weighted overwhelmingly towards small projects. —All design and construction will be guided by a collection of communally adopted planning principles called patterns. —The well-being of the whole will be protected by an annual diagnosis which explains, in detail, which spaces are alive and which ones dead, at any given moment in the history of the community. —Finally, the slow emergence of organic order in the whole will be assured by a funding process which regulates the stream of individual projects put forward by users. If the recommendations are accepted by President Clark, a number of the proposals such as those covering funding must be presented to the State Board of Higher Education for approval before they can be implemented by the University. Merits of county library system outlined The Lane County Com missioners held a press con ference Wednesday morning and answered questions concerning the proposed county wide library system. Committee Chairer Nancy Hayward expressed hope that concerned persons throughout Lane County will be able to sit down and talk with county staff about the library system. Some opposition has surfaced in the Springfield City Council, she said, although the Florence City Council gave its support to the library system last week. She said the opposition has come from those who are afraid of less service for more money, and city dwellers who do not wish to subsidize rural libraries. The measure is to go on the ballot next spring. Chairer Hayward said all library cards would be accepted county-wide. In addition, some libraries have special features such as the Scandanavian collection in the Junction City library and information lumbeir products in the Springfield library, which could be shared throughout Lane County, Hayward further stated that this could be the “last chance” for a county wide library system. A similar proposal was defeated earlier at the polls. The Commission in its regular meeting decided to take no action until further local input is received. The Library Advisory Com mittee will meet Thursday night at North’s Chuck Wagon for those interested. In other news, Commissioner Ken Omlid talked about his recent trip to Washington D.C. to discuss county-federal relations. Omlid said Washington was in terested in the co-operation between Lane County and the City of Eugene. He discussed priorities including planning, welfare programs, elderly problems, child care, and the role of state and federal governments in county services. Omlid said local people should set priorites where they think they ought to be. The commissioners discussed the possibility of extending the selling of food stamps through county post offices. The present food stamp center is over crowded. Commissioner Omlid stressed that while selling the stamps is a county responsibility, certification is a state matter, so only the selling of food stamps would take place at the post offices, not the certification. Photo by Scott Strauss State Senator Betty Roberts, above, discussed health problems with a political science class, yesterday. Ms. Roberts plans to an nounce her gubernatorial candidacy Monday. r ^ Arab Student Organization suspension dismissed After suspending the Arab Student Organization and the Eugene Liberation Coalition for alleged fund raising violations, the Student Administrative Board met yesterday to hear out the two organizations and to decide upon a finalized action. Taken as two separate cases, the Arab students and the Coalition were both suspended on Monday as a result of each organization’s failure to fill out a fund raising application form which is mandatory under SAB rules when any monies are accepted by student organizations.. In the first case, the point of misunderstanding was that the Arab Studentswerepassingout literature on the EMU terrace and accepting donations to help defer publications cost. According to an Arab spokesman, the literature was paid for directly from the pockets of the Arab students and they accepted whatever small amounts that the public was willing to donate, at times even giving the literature away free. The spokesman claimed that they did not think this constituted a fund raising event, and therefore, thought it wasn’t required of them to fill out an application form. However, after much heated discussion the Board made it clear to the Arab Students that any donations, however small it may be, must be kept track of under SAB policy. Consequently, the Arab Students agreed to fill out a fund raising application form and the SAB voted unamimously to lift the suspen sion. In the Coalition’s case, the reason for suspension was that the organization put on an off campus fund faising dinner without first filing an application. Amasha, spokesman for the Coalition, pointed out that this was due to the precedent set by the SAB during the previous three years. Amasha said that the Coalition held numerous fund raising dinners during this time and the only time the SAB required that they file an application was when the dinners were held in the EMU ballroom. However, it was pointed out by the Board that any fund raising event whatsoever—be it on campus or off—must be kept track of by means of a fund raising application form. Hie precedent of not having to fill out an application when holding an off campus event was probably derived from a dormant Student Administrative Board. After all this was brought into the open the SAB moved to lift the hasty suspension.
