r---— opinion
OSPIRG accountability: a tale of good and evil
In the beginning, as some of the older students
will remember, all was Darkness. Since then, to
make a long story short, the Forces of Light have
triumphed. , „ . „ .
' I have seen it all with my own eyes. In the fall of
1970, Ralph Nader came to town, and I went to hear
him speak. It was the turning point. He brought a
lantern to students oppressed by a society that sells
them watered-down orange juice; brought a flaming
torch to an ASUO previously resolved to hold down
incidental fees. A packed McArthur Court cheered
him with one voice when he proclaimed that' 100,000
public service lawyers” was the sine qua non of the
society. Although I was then pre-med, I cheered
too, in hopeful anticipation of my new, increased
consumer purchasing power.
A new organization, called OPIRG at the time,
was proposed. A petition with accompanying raison
d’etre was was distributed:
“...the ‘free market’ economy and the ‘adversary
legal system’ are myths that have little if anything to
do with the true balance of power in America today.
Large corporations and government bureaucracies
(!) wield an overwhelming share of the political and
economic influence in what some would call our
democratic system’ ... we are aware of this imbal
ance and are trying to even the odds...” It was an
ominous and powerful statement, exploding more
myths with quotation marks than an Emerald editorial
about freedom of choice. 7,744 people signed the
petition, and — it seems like only yesterday — OS
PIRG was bom.
The Emerald predicted that “the effect of such
an organization would be nothing short of revolutio
nary.” Apparently so. I remember seeing a Portland
State University poll recently that said about 90 per
cent of their students approve OSPIRG. I would ex
pect a similar percentage here.
But I still sit in Darkness. I and the 10 per cent or
so of the students who dissaprove. What cynics!
What atheists! But let’s try to understand these
anti-OSPIRG weirdos. Most of them don’t have any
friends. Nobody thinks fondly of them. Nobody says
hi to them on the street. They brood a lot.
I myself brood mostly about the lettuce con
troversy, a little bit every day. Recently, though, I’ve
tried to broaden mv interests. I’ve compiled a list of
ten consumer complaints I have that OSPIRG hasn’t
rectified since requisitioning $13 of my money in the
past four and half years. Read on.
1) Bic pens don’t “write firsftime every time.” As
a matter of fact, they usually clog up still half full of
ink. This bugs me to no end.
2) Blue jeans pockets get holes in them after a
couple weeks of normal use.
3) Someone left the tip of our Van Morrison Live
record sticking out of the album, and the sun warped
it. There was weeping and wailing in the Syiwester
house that night. But why doesn’t somebody invent a
process to straighten out a little warp like that or
make records warp proof? I exchange records with a
girl in Poland, and her records are twice as thick as
ours.
4) The EMU doesn’t have a TV room any more.
5) The PE department’s jocks (the under
clothes) don’t even serve the function of regular jock
straps, which, by the way, is no function anyway.
6) Having the Dairy Queen sell scrambled-eggs
breakfasts is as kitsch as making Independence Hall
into an insurance company.
7) The Emerald doesn't print as many letters as
it used to. This struck me in particular when I was
reading through old issues doing research for my
mudraking series, which will shake this campus to its
ankle bones when I finally write it. Youse guys ain’t
seen nothing yet.
8) My bicycle's gear ratio is too low—girls' stuff.
Why should we studs with diesel piston legs have to
pay extra to increase the gear ratio?
9) I read somewhere that a guy in Texas in
vented a pollutionless car that runs on sea water and
that the giant auto and petroleum corporations
bought the patent and suppressed the discovery.
Why didn’t OSPIRG ever investigate this?
10) We have financial disclosure laws for politi
cians, so why not “politics disclosure laws" that
would require them to reveal the stands on the is
sues?
OSPIRG is supposed to help me get my
money's worth. If we should call to account a tooth
paste company that promises to revolutionize our
sex lives (the bitterest disappointment of them all),
shouldn’t we also call to account a mandatory politi
cal organization that promises to revolutionize our
consumer power? I haven’t even evened my odds.
Mike Sylwester, a graduate student in Slavic lan
guages, is an amature ASUOoligist
V
Letters
Editorial condescension
I was astounded and appalled at the
editorial in Wednesday s Emerald on the
impending OSEA strike, its essential point
seemed to be that classified employes
should not join the strike because it might
disrupt the end of spring term. The writer
showed absolutely no concern and less un
derstanding of the issues involved in the
strike, issues which, if they concerned peo
ple in Alabama or Southeast Asia, would
have elided rhetoric purple enough to hem
an emperor’s toga. The editorial expressed
only a slightly nervous condescension to
ward the people who keep the university
operating. It was as if student's conveni
ence were a more serious matter than the
very real economic inequities under which
state employes labor.
How can students be so small-minded,
so provincial as to offer delayed grade re
ports as a reason for hundreds of people to
continue to accept substandard wages in a
time of frighteningly rapid inflation? Worse,
how could the writer presume to dired uni
versity employes not to join their fellows in
the strike if it happens? He/she seemed to
feel that classified employes should be
more concerned with the smooth comple
tion of the spring term schedule than with
their own straitened circumstances and the
apparent indifference of the executive de
partment of the state to the recommenda
tions of the impartial fad-finding panel!
There are many serious questions to be
considered in the possibility of a strike by
university employes. Recent statements by
faculty members have shown some cog
nizance of these and some sympathy for
the classified workers. That the student
voice can only whimper, "Don’t interrupt
me, I’m studying” is a sorry testimony to the
efficacy of a liberal education.
Roberta. M. Taussig
Research assistant,
Center on Human Development
Necessary precondition
It is my understanding that the ASUO
Executive has recommended zero funding
for the University of Oregon Day Care
Center for 1975-76. I understand further
that the center's services are absolutely es
sential to a minimum of 78 low-income and
working students, and that if such services
are not provided, a majority of these stu
dents will be forced to drop out of school. It
is also my understanding that many of
these students will be forced to seek “wel
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trainee,,
PROGRAM?
'SHE'S THE RIGHT HEIGHT, SHE'S FEMALE AND SHE'S CAUCASIAN — BUT PATTY HEARST SHE AINT!
fare”, as without childcare it is impossible
for them to work. It is ironic that an administ
ration which has in good faith attempted nof
to discriminate “on the basis of race, sex,
religious preference, sexual orientation,
disability, or other”, has proposed an action
which discriminates in the concrete against
many women students who have children
and are single (not to mention single male
parents or two-parent families in which both
parents are students or workers). If the
university is moving into a "no-growth”
situation, then given our current con
straints, some prioritization of needs is
necessary. What are the effects, however,
of a "steady state” which freezes opportun
ity? What is the human cost if budget
priorities affectively restrict participation on
the basis of ability to pay? Is this not a form
of discrimination as pernicious as any
other?
For many students, day care is no luxury,
but a necessary precondition for continued
enrollment. How many other programs can
claim to affect so vitally a student s life
chances? How many other programs are so
crucial in guaranteeing that discrimination
against working parents, single parents,
women, and low-income parents is addres
sed? To be sure, this is a small step, but a
very real step nonetheless.
I urge that the ASUO Executive recon
sider its decision, and that the IFC recom
mend funding at the level requested.
Gary Kim
Asian American Student Union
Child care top priority
The collapse of the ASUO Childcare and
Development Center is virtually inevitable
unless the IFC supports its budget request.
During the past year, state and federal
funds through the 4C’s and Children’s Ser
vices programs have dwindled. In the face
of this loss of funding, not only have Robert
Liberty and members of the IFC indicated
that they will not support an increase in
ASUO funding of the childcare center, but
also that all present funding might be elimi
nated in an attempt to economize.
The ASUO Childcare and Development
Center now serves mainly poor students
who, without the center, would not be able
to attend school. Aoproximately half of the
families served are single parent families
headed by women. If the^ university sup
ports equal opportunity to an education for
the poor, minorities, and women (as I feel it
should) then funding of childcare should be
a top priority.
Please express your opinions on this
issue to Robert Liberty, ASUO president,
and the Incidental Fee Committee. This
issue is not a matter of funding plush, luxury
programs. The outcome will affect our fu
tures and the futures of our children.
Susan Swanberg
Senior, Psychology
Boycotters not vandals
I was working at the Boycott table on the
morning of Tuesday, April 8, the morning of
the discovery of the damaged locks on
Johnson Hall. Randy Shilts, of the Emerald
staff, came in for a coffee break and told us
he's been anonymously contacted by
phone as to "a good story at Johnson Hall. ’’
He had rushed right over to cover it, and
found the situation with the damaged locks,
which had been discovered by Campus
Security. Randy's story was the first time
we had ever heard of the incident at John
son Hall. Those of us at the table were
surprised, and also concerned at the exis
tence of provocateur tactics against the
boycott. The UFW Solidarity Committee
had nothing to do with the recent cases of
vandalism on campus.
Anne M. Korn
Biology (GS)