VOI. 78, NO. 110
Eugene, Oregon 97403
rnuay, iviarcn i i,
Sloan challenqes treatment of black women
Ms Magazine co-founder
blasts media distortion
By HEATHER McCLENAGHAN
Of the Emerald
After ten years the “second wave” of the women’s movement still
faces an uphill fight, Margaret Sloan told a University audience Thurs
day.
Sloan, founder of the National Black Feminist Organization and
co-founder of Ms. Magazine, spoke to a standing-room-only crowd
about problems of black women in the United States and the challenges
facing the women’s movement today.
Sloan described the developing awareness among black feminists
that the coverage given them by a white, male-dominated media has
been grossly distorted. The white-man’s media have consistently mis
represented black women in the feminist movement, fueling the myth
that black women have nothing to gain from “white, middle-class
feminism.”
“Interviewers are still asking me about having cigarettes lit and
opening my own doors and talking about bra burnings which never took
piace,” Sloan said, “instead of treating the movement as a serious
revolutionary effort the media is still trivializing ‘women’s lib’ and it’s
treated like something laughable.”
Sloan emphasized that racism and sexism must be fought at the
same time and are never mutually exclusive.
Sloan, who left Ms. Magazine several years ago, said the
magazine had given women an alternative to traditional women’s
periodicals such as Redbook and Cosmopolitan. Sloan said she would
like to see Ms. become “a lot more radical” in the future.
One of Sloan’s prime concerns is rape and sexual abuse, she told
the crowd.
“Every women in this room is a potential rape victim,” Sloan said.
Black women between the ages of 11 and 19 are victimized more often
than women from any other group, although only one-tenth of the sexual
assaults on young black women are reported, Sloan added.
Sloan said it is no accident that as women become more indepen
dent the rape rate rises. Sloan drew a parallel to the violence against
black people as they, too, gained freedom.
“Just as black people became more assertive, aggressive and
autonomous the answer was lynching, the same holds true for women
and rape,” Sloan said, linking the increasing number of murder-rapes to
sexual hatred.
In no state is it a crime for a man to force a woman to have sex with
him if the two people are married or have been living together, no
matter how long the couple may have been separated. This is based in
the belief that women are property, Sloan said.
Women should fight back against rape, no matter what the conse
quences for the rapist, Sloan said.
“Women have to carry whistles and mace and that’s a terrible way
to go through life, but I say whatever women have to do is valid,” Sloan
said, calling the jailings of Inez Garcia and Joan Little for killing their
rapists “the real crime.”
Men can give more support to the women’s movement by fighting
other men’s sexism than they can by simply bemoaning their own
dehumanization, Sloan said. Sloan told men “to stop punkin’ off our
movement.”
Margaret Sloan
Photo by Tonya Houg
Biology faculty consider releasing course evaluations
By PETER LEIBEK
Of the Emerald
The biology department passed
a motion Wednesday that allows
public release of computer print
out course evaluations with the
instructor’s consent.
Biology head Sanford Tepfer
said there was significant opposi
tion to the plan introduced by
Franklin Stahl, biology professor,
but the vote was “not close.’’
Tepfer emphasized that many
people who voted to consider the
issue have no intention of releas
ing the print-outs.
The feeling among most biology
faculty is that the evaluations are
not as useful as students like to
think, Tepfer said. He added that
the evaluations will probably be
relevant only to non-science stu
dents taking low-level courses.
Science majors are more con
cerned with course content and
have much better means of
evaluating courses, he explained.
Tepfer said he will know by next
week how many instructors will
voluntarily release course evalua
tions from the past year.
According to ASUO adminis
trators, student efforts to have
course evaluations publicly re
leased will continue despite the
defeat of the proposal at the last
General Faculty meeting.
ASUO administrative aide Al
Holcomb told the Student Univer
Boyd explains budget changes
University Pres. William Boyd
announced budget changes that
have cut $1,100,000 from the Uni
versity budget for this biennium, in
a special meeting with faculty
members Thursday afternoon in
Geology 150.
The unscheduled meeting was
called, Boyd said, “Because a
number of actions (budgetary cut
backs) on my part have caused
distress at the University."
With an enrollment drop of 900
this year and the decreasing trend
expected to continue over tne next
several years, Boyd said intellig
ent academic planning must begin
if the University’s quality is to be
preserved.
The alternative would be to rely
(Continued on Page 6)
sity Affairs Board (SUAB) Wed
nesday that the ASUO may distri
bute its own course evaluation
forms and print the results in the
ASUO course guide next fall.
Gary Kim, ASUO vice-president
for academic and University af
fairs, said the ASUO would prefer
that each department release the
evaluations voluntarily. If the de
partments agreed to release the
information the ASUO would then
try to standardize the different
types of evaluation forms so the
results could be used in the
course guide. But, Kim added, the
ASUO is prepared to spend the
next three months designing its
own evaluation form to be used for
all departments.
Holcomb and other SUAB
members claimed the 78-25 vote
against the evaluation release at
the last General Faculty meeting
was unrepresentative ot tne fa
culty.
"It was all emotional," Board
member Cathy Teamen said.
“The young, untenured profes
sors are afraid to say anything."
"It’s not over yet, ” SUAB chairer
Andrea Gellatley added.
SUAB also plans to poll stu
dents to determine if they favor a
semester, early semester or quar
ter system. Gellatley hopes to in
clude a semester system ques
tionnaire in spring registration
packets. The board was unable to
reach a decision on alternate pol
ling methods if it is too late to in
clude a survey in registration pack
ets.
Board members voted to form a
committee to continue work on
course evaluations and semester
surveys, but failed to appoint
members before adjourning.