Center focuses on attitudes toward aging
By KATHY CRAFT
Of the Emerald
"I think attitudes towards older people
are improving in this country, but it’s a
slow process,” says Dr. Frances Scott,
director of the University Center for
Gerontology.
Speeding up that process is a major
goal of the students, faculty and staff
involved with the gerontology center, the
coordinating facility for a multi
disciplinary University instructional
program devoted to the study of aging.
Although the center, which was estab
lished in 1968, is part of the College of
Health, Physical Education and Recrea
tion (HPER), gerontology courses and
field work are offered through a variety of
other areas, as well, including the Wal
lace School of Community Service and
Public Affairs, the College of Education,
and the architecture, telecommunica
tions, political science and philosophy
departments.
Gerontology is not a degree-granting
program at the University. Rather, it is a
supporting area for majors in related
schools and departments interested in
the aging process. In the past, the word
gerontology never appeared on the dip
lomas of students who completed the
gerontology curriculum. For many, that’s
still the case, but this fell! HPER intro
duced a degree option in “Health Educa
tion: Gerontology” for health ed students
who specialize in courses focusing on
the concerns of senior citizens.
In addition to its academic program,
the gerontology center also sponsors a
number of research programs designed
to furnish information on aging. For ex
ample, the Widowed Services Program
is concerned with determining the needs
of widows and widowers. Another re
search program, which recently re
ceived a $96,000 grant from the U.S.
Public Service Commission, is designed
to develop programs for pre-retirement
counseling for persons approaching re
tirement age.
According to Scott, those involved in
the center also hope to establish a prog
ram “to bring men and women who are
over 55, especially retired people, to
campus as regularly matriculated stu
dents. If they wanted, they could be
teamed up to study with students under
30 or they could take classes about re
tirement, widowhood and death.”
Scott wants to see more students en
roll in gerontology classes “as part of
their general education. With the propor
tion of seniors in our population increas
ing rapidly, the aging process is some
thing students need to know about."
Too often, she points out, students
have no direct contact with seniors and
the picture of the elderly they're exposed
to via the mass media is often negative.
She admits “the media image of older
people, especially on television, is grow
ing more positive" but adds much
change is still needed. “The media must
become self-conscious about seniors in
much the same way as they have with
blacks and other minorities.” It's still
rare, for example, “to see old people
advertising anything but Doan's pills,"
Photo by Tonya Houg
Jeannie Edwards (third from right), a University student, is involved in prac
ticum work through the Center for Gerontology, including assisting an activity
director in a nursing home. Edwards and friends Rosina Lassie, Lottie
McClure and Mahon Short examine some creative macrame work.
she points out.
In Scott's opinion, when students deal
with seniors directly, any negative
stereotypes they harbor about the el
derty begin to disappear Once they
meet a senior who is not a relative," she
says, "they realize that an old person
can make a really good friend."
L
Business for Project Intercept is picking up
By BOB GULDIN
Of the Emerald
Project Intercept is the most vis
ible recycling effort on campus,
but it’s a program riddled with
paradoxes.
Paper recycling is going better
than ever before, but it’s still going
terribly. State law requires recycl
ing, but the state provides almost
no funds. And the University Phys
ical Plant can help out, but not
where help is needed most,
paper products, much more than
last year. And that doesn’t include
newspaper donated to the
Eugene Mission.
In fact, Perry says, the program
may be dose to breaking even. "A
year ago,” he estimates, “it was
costing two or three times what
our income was. We're not doing it
to try to make money, though.”
Project Intercept is the
University’s paper recyding prog
ram. Its metal barrels are
stationed around campus and In
tercept is doing better than ever
before, according to Carl Perry,
building maintenance superinten
dent. Between January and Au
gust of this year the physical plant
picked up and sold 39 tons of
Clayton-Ward Co. of Salem
picks up paper from the University
once a month. The company has
contracted to buy all of the state's
recyclable paper output.
All income from Intercept goes
into the state's General Services
Division. That means there is no
financial incentive or any way to
directly use the income to
strengthen the program
Perry attributes this year’s im
provement to better organization
and a more conscientious pickup
schedule. One part-time worker
picks up more than 80 satellite
Whipple describes goals
Blaine Whipple, Democratic
candidate for secretary of state,
brandished his record, voiced his
goals and hammered Ns oppo
nent Norma Paulus during a cam
paign stop on campus yesterday.
Whipple, a state senator from
the Beaverton area, summarized
his legislative record to a group of
30 people and said that it illus
trates his commitment to the fu
ture.
"We’ve got to take away from
the fat cats and the special in
terest groups the funding of cam
paigns in Oregon,” said Whipple
as he mentioned that he was the
senate sponsor of Oregon Ballot
Measure No. 7.
Ballot Measure No. 7 provides
for public financing of the com
munication expenses of candi
dates for major state offices dur
ing the general November elec
tion.
He also said that as secretary of
state he would look at state gov
ernment agencies and see how
they are performing their function.
Whipple said he wants to make
sure state agencies operate in an
effective, efficient manner and to
be assured that recipients of state
programs receive the services to
which they are entitled.
Whipple blasted his Republican
opponent Norma Paulus for her
comments on Ballot Measure No.
7. He said that Paulus had labeled
the measure as not being restric
tive as to content. He feels that
Paulus' comments were intended
to “confuse the voters” and that
she was “attempting to pull the
wool over the eyes of the voters.”
Whipple mentioned his support
for a legislative pay increase say
ing the increase was necessary to
open up the legislative process so
that “more than just the wealthy
can afford to be a part of the -
Oregon Citizen Legislature.”
Whipple said he was instrumen
tal in bringing about the passage
of Senate Bill 269, which he said
brought about the distribution to
taxpayers of earnings from their
tax reserve payments. “I put the
whole thing together and now the
lenders are out to get me,” he
said.
The candidate noted his sup
port for the Oregon bottle bill and
his support for the proposed ban
on aerosol cans. He also said his
“one man crusade” was instru
mental in bringing to Oregon “one
of the finest oil exploration bills
you will find.” Whipple said
Oregon's oil exploration bill pre
vents the “selling out of the
Oregon coast" and protects one of
Oregon’s greatest public re
sources.
Whipple said he opposes the
extension of the field burning
deadline and that he opposes the
repeal of the Land Conservation
Development Commission
(LCDC).
Noting that the secretary of
state serves on the state Land
Board which administers
1,600,000 acres of public land,
Whipple said there should be
somebody on the board “commit
ted to the conservation and pre
servation of the peoples re
sources.”
barrels around campus, as well as
the three centralized drop-off
points at the EMU. the Computing
Center and the science complex.
"We may have to hire new peo
ple,” says Perry. “Were getting
requests for new pickups from
students and secretaries.”
But the people at the
University's Survival Center dis
agree.
Bruce Walker, Survival Center
director, says the recycling prog
ram is much better at Oregon
State University, where there is a
higher level of commitment, staf
fing and funds. Oregon law calls
for state institutions to recycle
“where economically feasible,"
and Walker claims the physical
plant here too often refuses to ex
pand its recycling efforts on the
grunds that the program lacks
economic feasibility.
Cindee Perhats is assistant di
rector of the survival center and
volunteer teacher of this quarter’s
SEARCH class on recycling and
resource recovery. As a student
heavily involved in the campus re
cycling effort, she sees lots of
problems.
“The biggest problems are the
transition of students, and not hav
ing enough people to publicize,
educate and supervise recycling,"
she says.
While she admits Intercept is
doing better than before, Perhats
emphasizes how much still needs
to be done. “A survey taken at the
old Day Island landfill showed 90
per cent of the paper dumped
cam© from the University “Even
now," she says, "the percentage
of waste being recovered is very
small."
The key is publicity, to edu
cate people about recycling, says
Perhats. "But the physical plant
can’t supply funds for publicity. It's
like a Catch-22 situation. They
won t put more workers on until
there s more volume. But to get
volume up we need more people
working on publicity."
In past years, some of that edu
cation and organizational work
was done by students working for
credit in the SEARCH class on re
source recovery. This quarter,
though, only 12 people enrolled in
the class, compared with a previ
ous average of 30.
Faced with an energy shor
tage of its own, the recycling prog
ram is seeking new alternatives.
Perhats suggests either the use of
work study people or a new ar
rangement in which money from
sales of recyclables would go
more directly to those working on
the program.
Perhats points to the state law
requiring recycling where
economically feasible. “If the state
wrote the law," she says, "it
should provide the money to im
plement it.”
As of now, Project Intercept can
still place more barrels in
academic buildings on campus.
There are two types of barrels,
those for newspaper an those for
notebook and typing paper. To ar
range for placement of an Inter
cept barrel, contact either the Sur
vival Center or Carl Perry at the
physical plant.