Discriminatory text rule questioned
By KATHY CRAFT
Of the Emerald
Academic freedom.
Affirmative action.
Does supporting one mean op
posing the other?
Obviously not, but, as Univer
sity faculty and administrators re
cently discovered, commitment to
both is somewhat difficult when
the issue at hand is possible re
view of course textbooks to de
termine if they include racist, sex
ist or other discriminatory informa
tion
According to administrative
rules adopted by the State Board
of Higher Education last May (in
accordance with Chapter 204 of
the Oregon Laws), if textbooks or
other curriculum materials “are
found, upon investigation, to exert
a discriminatory impact on the
basis of age, sex, marital status,
handicap, national origin, race or
religion," the University must at
tempt to provide supplemental al
ternative non-discriminatory mat
erial.
Although the rules emphasize
that “nothing herein either pro
hibits or requires the use of any
particular textbook or curriculum
materials," concern over possible
textbook censorship accelerated
among the faculty last month and
anthropology professor Paul
Simonds announced he planned
to introduce a proposal at the
November general faculty meet
ing stating that no "overseeing
body" shall be established at the
University "which shall review
publications or textbooks for the
purpose of exercising any form of
prior censorship" over them
Soon afterwards, on Oct. 25,
University Pres. William Boyd
sent a letter to the faculty in which
he said that his "administration
will not direct nor be complicit in
any actions which would have the
effect of censoring materials or
threatening the academic free
dom of faculty or students.” He
further stated that "there are laws,
state and federal, which are im
properly cited as authority by
those who wish to see materials
reviewed. But the laws do not re
quire any such action, and none
will be taken,” he added.
Some questioned Boyd’s as
sessment of the legal situation in
that last statement and interpreted
it as "a slap in the face" to affirma
tive action efforts at the University.
At the Nov. 3 faculty meeting,
Boyd explained that in the process
of attempting to alleviate faculty
anxiety over censorship, his letter
created anxiety concerning the
administration's commitment to
affirmative action. He said he is
committed to both and believed
both will be achieved at the Uni
versity.
Later at the meeting, Simonds
introduced a resolution concern
ing textbook censorship, consid
erably milder than his original
proposal, stating that the Univer
sity faculty “stands fully in opposi
tion to any attempts to censor tex
tbooks, teaching material and
publications which will be used by
the faculty in their teaching.” Sev
eral members of the faculty were
concerned about the resolution’s
implications concerning affirma
tive action and the group voted to
postpone the resolution indefi
nitely.
Although Simonds said Friday
he doesn’t plan to pursue the
issue further and won't attempt to
reintroduce his resolution, he
feels the issue is far from resol
ved. "We re here to seek the
truth,” he said, "not what we’d like
the truth to be,” he explained.
He was concerned, for exam
ple, that textbooks which present
information about societies in
which the status of women is low
will be labeled sexist and unac
ceptable. He also pointed out the
instructors sometimes use one
text to provide one viewpoint and
then give another in lectures. He
feared that textbooks used in this
fashion might also be labeled dis
criminatory.
Whether or not there is basis for
such concern is questioned by
some. "The rules are explicit,”
said Karen Alvarado of the Uni
versity Affirmative Action office.
Unfortunately, she said, “some
people may misinterpret them”
and fear censorship.
dailf'emerald
V An Independent Newspaper
Vol. 78, No. 45
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Wednesday, November 17, 1976
Anti-Gallo demonstration ends with arrest
Protestor denounces Emerald ads
By HEATHER McCLENAGHAN
Of the Emerald
Violently denouncing the
Emerald and screaming, "The
people will win," University stu
dent Eric Wright was dragged
handcuffed and upsidedown to
the back of a Eugene Police De
partment squad car Charged with
trespassing on a premises, Wnght
was arrested at 6:15 p.m. Tues
day on the lawn of the University
Faculty Club across from the
EMU
Wright's arrest followed his al
leged unlawful occupation of a
small pup tent on the University
grounds Wright was staging a
hunger strike in protest of the
Emerald's controversial policy of
accepting advertisements from
Gallo Winery, a company under
boycott since 1973 by the United
Farm Workers (UFW) An
Emerald board of directors meet
ing considering the issue was
scheduled to take place in the
EMU an hour after Wright's arrest
No decision was made dunng the
meeting. A second meeting on
Monday night has been
scheduled to resolve the issue of
accepting Gallo advertisements in
the Emerald.
Uniformed Eugene police of
ficer Al Williams was dispatched
to the scene in response to a call
from campus security.
“Are you ready for a shew?” Of
ficer Williams asked the assem
bled crowd of onlookers, before
entering the tent to arrest Wright.
Wright was in violation of the
campus open space regulations,
Williams said.
"When we find somebody in this
situation we ask them if they have
permission to be there," Williams
claimed. “If he refuses to leave we
will take down the tent. The only
alternative we have is to arrest
him for trespassing This is the
only back up the campus open
space committee has in enforcing
regulations."
“We tried to give him a citation,
and give him a chance to surren
der of his own recognizance," Wil
liams said. “The ball is in his
hands now. He can take the ball
and run with it or he can stay."
Wright responded to Williams
request to leave by reading por
tions of the First Amendment.
"We want the Oregon Daily
Emerald to stop publishing Gallo
advertisements," Wright said
while still inside the tent. "We de
mand the Emerald stop acting as
a tool in Gallo s repression of the
UFW ."
"Cooperate and there will be no
problem,” Williams told Wright.
"Do you want to come out, Eric?"
Wright said he intended to phys
ically resist the officer's attempts
to remove him from the tent.
"For god s sake make the
Emerald stop running Gallo ads,"
Wright said at the squad car door.
Some of those watching the inci
dent whistled resistance tunes
and shouted encouragement in
Spanish.
"You are instruments of a fas
cist system," Wright told Williams
and a campus security officer as
they handcuffed him. “Freedom is
only a dream, we do not have the
right to be free.”
Bail was set at $60.
UFW*
f y 1
l mm
Eugene Police officer Al Williams, foreground, tells student Eric Wright he is illegally occupying University
property. Wright was arrested last night and charged with trespassing on a premises after staging a hunger
strike on the lawn of the Faculty Club. Wright’s protest was in response to the Emerald's acceptance of Gallo
wine advertising while the winery is under boycott by the United Farm Workers.
Speaker to relate peace efforts
■
By BILL LUTZ
Of the Emerald
On Oct. 16, 1975, Susan Laf
lamme, a member of the local
chapter of Clergy and Laity Con
cerned (CALC), left San Fran
cisco for Washington D C. — on
foot. She was part of a group of 60
persons calling themselves the
Continental Walk for Disarma
ment and Social Justice.
Their purpose: to protest over
$100 billion a year in military
spending, to counter the use of the
Bicentennial as a glorification of
U S. corporate-military industrial
complex; and to build links across
the United States between local
issues and the mass issue of
military spending.
Laflamme, who will speak at an
informal gathering tonight at 1563
Fairmont St., called the march,
“the beginning of a new direction
(Continued on Page 10)