Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 23, 1974)
daily emerald Vo/. 75 No. 158 Eugene, Oregon 97403 Thursday, May 23, 1974 IFC hears Gay People's, other appeals Tempers flared Tuesday night as Gay People's Alliance (GPA) representative Randy Shilts appealed the decision of the Incidental Fees Committee (IFC) which cut off all ASUO funding for the GPA next year. Accompanied by more than 30 members of the group, Shilts told the IFC that he had received no justification for the IFC decision. He went on to list this year's ac complishments for the GPA which included fall term's "very successful'' Gay Pride Week and work by the group's members in state and local governments aimed at securing gay rights. He said GPA has the largest active membership of any student union on campus and because 10 per cent of the population is homosexual, the group represents a sub stantial proportion of University students. Because of the group's value, Shilts said, "All I can see in this refusal is a sort of vindictiveness." IFC chairer Terry Kay said the legislative functions of the GPA could be carried out through the ASUO legislative coordinator's office. GPA member Jerry Harris said in an emotion-charged reply that just as Blacks themselves were the only group who could lobby ef fectively for Black rights, it had to be gays themselves lobbying for gay rights. When Kay reported that a survey conducted by the ASUO had revealed students were opposed to ASUO funding of GPA, Shilts also used an analogy to Blacks. "We're where the Blacks were in 1955," he said. "Would you have cut off funds for them if a survey showed no public support?" IFC member Peter Glazer charged that from his ob servations, the GPA office is often inactive. The GPA representatives replied that much of their work is done outside of the office. Kay offered another reason for not funding the GPA: not only is much of their work done outside the office, Kay asserted, but the thrust of its activities has been directed off campus entirely. The IFC finally decided to place $500 for Gay Pride Week and $100 for films and speakers in a reserve ac count of the ASUO executive. The GPA members, who had requested $2,873, voiced strong opposition to the decision. In other appeals to the committee, representatives of the Survival Center questioned the IFC's elimination of a salary for the center's second assistant director. Com mittee member Kay Hill said that volunteers should be enlisted to fulfill the responsibilities for the removed director's position. Survival Center representatives replied that volunteers can be enlisted only for specific projects and that general coordination work is a job no one would do without pay. The IFC voted to reinstate the salary for assistant director. The University Feminists used the same rationale of a staff-to-volunteer ratio in their request for salary funding of a director position. The IFC voted to reinstate the position. Dan McLoud and Mark Miller, co-directors of the Drug Information Center (DIC), told the IFC that with their allocation of $2,758.18 (the center asked for $6,923.26), the center would last, in Miller's words, "maybe six months." The DIC directors asked that a decreasing funds request schedule contract similar to the IFC's agreement with the Emerald be worked out Kay said he will meet again with them to work out such a contract. Becky Sisley of the Women's Intercollegiate Athletics (WIA) asked for transportation and room and board funds for University WIA representatives to attend two conferences. The IFC voted to allocate the funds. Alex Wong, representing the Foreign Students Association, asked why the salaries for the president, vice-president and secretarial positions had been dropped from the association's budget. Committee member Bill Dick explained that in his view many of the salaried positions of ASUO programs should be run by volunteers and Kay said that secretaries will be supplied next year from a secretarial pool. The IFC decided that the association should be allocated a compromise amount of $540 for a director's salary and an additional $500 for the organization's programs. r i Emerald reminder: There will be no school Monday and the long-lost Oregon sun is forecast to shine during the three-day Memorial Day weekend, but the Emerald reminds students that Oregon's primary election is Tuesday. Anyone planning to make the three-day weekend a four-day vacation can vote now at the Lane County Elections Department, 7th Avenue and Oak Street. Photo by Jacques Beteinber Wanna ride? Jerry Benterou and Peter AJUs demonstrate the “horse dive" Wednesday night during the Dolphin Water Follies sponsored by the University swimming team. The Follies continue tonight at 8 p.m. at Leighton Pool. Action Now seeks new director Action Now is looking for a new director. Anyone interested in applying for the salaried position should contact the Action Now office, located in room 111M of the EMU. The Director will be appointed today. Action Now is "an idea of using the energy students put into learning to do something concrete for people outside of the University," Carlos Batista, out-going director, said in a recent interview. Action Now is currently involved in many projects, most of them through the Homemade Houses class offered each term by SEARCH. The class is designed to teach students about building by allowing them to build for people who are unable to pay to have the building done, and are unable to do it themselves. In addition to the Homemade Houses class, another idea has grown from Action Now and is embodied in the SEARCH class, Earth Works. According to Dave Johnson, a member of the class, the goal of Earth Works is "to designate areas for growth, and to have the people who are going to use that area be the ones who build on it. The idea is to get away from the present practice of having structures designed by people who will not be using them." The area Earth Works hopes to develop is the 36.4 acre University-owned area that once housed the Eugene Sand and Gravel Works. The idea of allowing people to help design the en vironment they are going to live and work in is an ap plication of a theory proposed by a San Franciscan, Christopher Alexander, Batista said. Alexander believes that people should have a chance to affect the environment they live in because it is this environment that shapes their lives. The Earth Works class proposes that development of the land along the river be done in three stages. The first stage is comprised of things students can do by them selves, the second stage will require the help of the University and the third stage will require the help and approval of the University and city and state govern ments. Suggestions for stage one of the proposal include: a bicycle shop co-op, a stage and dancing platform, a picnic area, a playground and an effort to dean up the entire site. Stage two plans include, boat and canoe landing, observation tower, artifidal lake, coffee house and development of the river frontage. Proposed for stage three of the development are: an ASUO tavern, student housing, a day-care center, a restaurant by the river and bridge construction com petition. Batista emphasized that Action Now is concerned with involving people from all areas, both within the University and within the Eugene community as a whole. He stresses that no part of the project is rigid. He says that all stages can be modified. In fact, that's what he'd like to see —the area being planned and changed by the people who would use each facility. Such a desire ties in with the broader goals of University development set by the University two years ago. Those guidelines call for piecemeal growth and user planning. PERB to consider new bargaining unit SALEM (UPI) — State higher education system officials have asked that the Public Employe Relations Board (PERB) provide for a statewide organization to represent faculty members at various campuses in collective bargaining. The Wednesday hearing before PERB examiner Roy Edwards is expected to continue today and possibly be resumed next week to take further testimony from Higher Education Chancellor Roy Lieuallen. Lieuallen testified Wednesday that the State Board of Higher Education feels a multi-campus bargaining unit would be more appropriate than having faculty members represented by different organizations at each campus. The PERB has been asked only to decide if the bargaining unit should be multi-campus or not and was not expected to select the bargaining unit. Petitions to represent the faculty at several campuses have been filed by the American Federation of Teachers, the Oregon State Employes Association, the American Association of University Professors and by several in dependent groups at individual campuses. Faculty at campuses that already have a bargaining unit would not be affected by the PERB decision. The issue was brought to PERB by petitions from several campuses and organizations and it was decided to combine the issues in one hearing. A final unit deter mination is not expected before mid-summer.