The Joint Ways and Means Education Sub
committee will be at the University Tuesday
night for a hearing on tuition, financial aid to
middle-income students, funding for women's
sports, faculty salary increases, and other
higher education-related issues. The hearing
is set for 7 to 9:30 p.m. in the Dad’s Room in
the EMU (which is to the right of the EMU
Ballroom).
Vol. 78, No. 146
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Monday, May 16, 1977
Delayed benefit checks trouble veterans
By LORI PETERSON
Of the Emerald
With delay of federal educa
tional benefit checks added to the
list of burdens for Oregon vet
erans, many educational coun
selors predict veretans will quit
school rather than cope with it.
Beginning in June, veterans will
receive benefits for a specific
month only after the college has
certified to the Veterans Adminis
tration (VA) that the vet has
attended classes for that specific
month. Currently, veterans' be
nefits are prepaid.
Veterans beginning or resum
mm
mrmmm
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ing classes in the fall will probably
not receive checks until Dec. 1,
counselors say, even though the
VA expects to issue checks by
Nov. 1.
Gary Koppang, veterans coor
dinator at Mt. Hood Community
College (MHCC), says, “It always
has taken six weeks in the past to
generate the initial check.” He
added, “the VA is expecting heavy
paper work that first week, but
they say they can get the checks
out in five weeks. If that’s the case,
I’d like to know why it’s always
taken six weeks before when the
requests were spread out over the
mm
year.” June checks won’t arrive in
the mail until the first of July.
On this campus, the delay will
severely affect those veterans at
tending summer school and con
tinuing into fall, according to Frank
Lu!>ch, University VA representa
tive.
“If there was a calendar month
break between summer and fall,
they could be certified for fall re
gistration before hand,” says
Lulich. He explains that veterans
attending school fall term will be
able to notify the registrar's office
of their intent to register 30 days
prior to fall registration so they can
ik itrmm mi
receive their check around regis
tration time.
“If schools have pre
registration,” adds Lulich, “they
will be able to work it out.”
Currently, the University is con
sidering a pre-registration system,
but it is only in the rough draft
stages. “I brought this to the atten
tion of the business office,” says
Lulich “they know what we re up
against.”
The whole change was im
plemented to battle what federal
officials termed were abuses of
veteran’s education benefits, to
taling $375 million in overpay
merits last year. Oregon’s share of
the overpayments was $7.5 mill
ion.
William Cade, veterans service
officer in Portland, says “people
were applying for aid and then not
showing up for class.” He ex
plains, “Now checks will not be
paid until the work is completed,
just like any job. Colleges will be
required to keep track of a
veteran’s class attendance and
notify us if he fails to go to class.”
Lulich says that overall at the
University, “Vets are pretty good.”
He reports that they have not had
problems with veterans not at
tending class.
But college counselors say they
are not opposed to eliminating
prepayments but are concerned
that delays under the new system
will force some students to quit
school.
Lulich says problems are not
that drastic here.
Yet Thomas McGarry, Portland
Community College (PCC) coun
selor, concludes “the students
need the money in September
when they enroll to pay for tuition,
books and other costs that come
along with starting school.” He
adds, “a big check in December
just won’t solve the problems.”
Gloomy fate
predicted for
day care bill
By MARY BETH BOWEN
Of the Emerald
SALEM — The $3.65 million
appropriation bill to provide day
care services for low-income
community college and state sys
tem students probably won't be
approved by the Joint Ways and
Means Committee, says Rep.
Howard Cherry, D-Portland.
“There is not even a remote
chance that the bill will be funded
at this degree ($3.65 million),”
Cherry told day care supporters
after a four-hour hearing Thurs
day.
But partial funding might be a
possibility, he added. Asked what
level he had in mind, Cherry re
sponded, “It wouldn’t be worth
funding if we didn’t put in at least
$1 million.”
Cherry said after the hearing
that he believes the ua)' f-are bill,
HB 2459, is not a high priority C*
any of the Joint Ways and Means
Committee members who, by and
large, make the Legislature’s
budgetary decisions.
But it was evident from the tes
timony at Thursday’s hearing be
fore the Ways and Means Sub
committee No 4 that day care is
the number one priority for low
income student parents. The gist
(Continued on Page 12)
For more than an hour Saturday log trucks
and recreational vehicles drove through down
town Eugene, blasting their horns. Onlookers
stood in front of Harris Hall, waving signs and
shouting encouragement to the truck drivers.
The truckers, and their supporting onlook
ers, were protesting the passage of federal
legislation which would expand wilderness
areas in Oregon. Their point of view was ap
parent from their “Jobs First" buttons and
“Kiss my axe, Weaver” signs.
Inside Harris Hall, truck horns blaring in the
background, witnesses testified on the En
Story and Photo
By BARBARA WOOD
Of the Emerald
dangered Wilderness Act, HB 3454, co
sponsored by Congressman Jim Weaver,
D-Ore.
Economic concerns and protection of wil
derness areas as a unique environment were
the themes of much of the testimony.
Kurt Kutay, Oregon Wilderness Coalition
member, spoke in support of the bill. Wilder
ness areas are a unique ecological niche,
Kutay said.
"The wilderness area is the last refuge for
species that have been or are endangered,”
Kutay said. Both plants and animals are
threatened, he said.
On the other side Arnold Ewing, executive
vice-president of the Northwest Timber As
sociation, said the bill would endanger the jobs
of many Oregonians.
“We don't want to have to export our chil
dren from Oregon in order for them to find
work,” Ewing said.
Another Weaver-sponsored bill restricting
the export of logs was discussed at the day
long hearing. Employment was also a major
issue in that testimony.
The Public Land Timber Conservation
Act would put heavier restriction on the export
of logs by any company getting timber from
public lands.
"Our jobs are going up the freeway to Long
view,” a Springfield lumber representative said.
Logs are shipped out of Longview, Wash.,
to foreign ports for processing.
Wilderness advocates argued that restrict
ing exports would more than make up for jobs
lost in wilderness areas and industry figures
backed them up. An International Woodwork
ers of America research economist said 2.87
billion board feet of lumber was exported last
year — the equivalent of 11,400 lumber jobs.
Other timber representatives said the pro
posed wilderness areas contain a 144
million-board-foot harvest of timber annu
ally, or only 1,222 lumber jobs.
Wilderness supporters also argued that not
putting roads into wilderness areas would save
money which could be used for more intensive
timber management, thus creating more jobs.
While hearings chairer Teno Roncalio,
D-Wyo., Rep Won Pat, R-Guam, and Weaver
heard testimony from more than 90 witnesses
at Harris Hall, the loggers held their own hear
ings at the Lane County Fairgrounds.
A delegation of log trucks left the fairgrounds
in the afternoon to join loggers from other
states. The truckers will go to Washington,
D.C., to testify against new wilderness areas.
Economic concerns were the main reasons
given by opponents to the wilderness legisla
tion, but a few other arguments surfaced. Don
Fisher of Eugene’s Bohemia Lumber Co. said
he and most recreation users avoid heavily
timbered areas and prefer open areas with
scenic vistas.
“My wife and I prefer open areas to avoid the
claustrophobic feeling many people feel in
closed in timber stands,” Fisher said.
Another common argument against more
wilderness iand was the small number of peo
ple who use the areas. “There are already
enough wilderness areas for the small fraction
who use them,” Mel Davidson of Grants Pass
said.
Dick Lamster, Lane County Audubon Soci
ety representative, disagreed. Just knowing
wilderness areas are around makes them im
portant even to non-users, Lamster said.
Dick Chasm, a member of the Umpqua Wil
derness Defenders, gave perhaps the most
eloquent testimony of the day in favor of pre
serving wilderness areas.
Chasm spoke of the heritage involved in the
wilderness and characterized remaining wil
derness areas as “the last bit of un
touched America we’ve got.”
“There’s got to be a place where we turn
around and start loving the earth," Chasm
said.