Vol. 78, No. 157
Eugene, Oregon y/4uj
Wednesday, June 1, 1977
Faculty to take stand on ROTC
By SEAN MEYERS
Of the Emerald
With three motions on the issue
scheduled, the General Faculty will be
compeled to take a final stand today on their
recommendation to University Pres. Wil
liam Boyd concerning the ROTC con
troversy. Last month the General Faculty
voted 86-76 to recommend that ROTC’s
contract with the University be severed, but
a parliamentary maneuver forced another
vote on the issue.
Boyd moved at the May meeting to re
consider the vote, but was ruled out of order
by chairer Paul Olum. "My guess would be
that he will listen to debate and then decide
whether or not to speak on it,” said Olum.
Boyd could not be reached for comment,
but he is expected to speak out for the prog
ram.
Meanwhile ROTC opposition has formed
a group called "The Student-Faculty Com
mittee to Remove ROTC from Campus.”
According to one of the handful of members
— Bruce Bowers — the group is composed
of students “who are basically against hav
ing ROTC on campus.” Bowers said the
group has been concerned mainly with lob
bying to the faculty against ROTC.
The first motion on the General Faculty’s
agenda concerns whether to reconsider the
ROTC issue. Should that motion pass, as it
is expected to, debate will be re-opened
later in the meeting when John Sherwood
will present a motion to rescind the action of
the earlier vote against ROTC. Should
Sherwood’s motion pass, the ROTC prog
ram will be safe until at least next fall, but if
the May vote stands the recommendation
goes to Boyd for final approval.
Leslie Turner, chairman of the Ad Hoc
Committee on Grading, will present a mo
tion asking that action on adopting a firm
policy of regulations regarding grading
practices be deferred until next fall.
Turner’s committee had drawn up a code
but the Rules Committee pointed out sev
eral discrepancies at last week’s University
Senate meeting.
Also slated is a motion to transfer the
power of administration of the minority
programs at the University from the College
of Arts and Science to the office of the
Vice-President for Academic Affairs and
Provost, which is under Olum’s direction.
Olum insisted on an amendment at last
week’s University Senate meeting which in
part read “it is understood that the provost
will, on his own determination, take such
action as he deems necessary.”
The amendment passed the University
Senate with the endorsement of Ed Cole
man, an English professor who was be
hind the original motion. If the motion and
amendment is passed by the General Fa
culty, and then by Boyd, Olum will have final
authority regarding the newly re-organized
minority program’s budget.
The meeting begins at 3:30 p.m. in Room
150, Geology.
As a self-appointed “free-lance public demonstration educator," Bob Walden
makes a practice of showing curious youngsters the rudiments of using tools.
Working from his booth at the Saturday Market, Walden also sells children s
furniture recycled from salvage.
Artisan transforms junk
into children’s furniture
Story and photo
By MICHAEL KESTEN
Of the Emerald
A seven-year-old girl approaches Bob
Walden’s crafts booth and examines his
wares. The fancy structures and colorful
awnings prevalent at the Saturday Mar
ket are missing from this booth site.
There is only one thing to attract the
young lady. The product itself.
Walden s specialty is children’s furni
ture.
Miniature tables, stools and chairs are
scattered on the asphalt in front of the
youngster. She tries out a rocking chair
and glances over at the balding man
perched nearby, reading his morning
paper. Walden puts the paper aside,
comes over and asks the young lady her
name, striking up a conversation.
“Hey, listen. I got a challenge for you,”
he says in his quiet, raspy voice. “Do you
like puzzles?”
The youngster nods shyly.
‘‘Well, so do I. Look, here’s a
puzzle...”
Walden burrows into his boxes of
odds and ends. A saw, a hammer, vari
ous shapes of wood and a pot of glue
magically appear. Soon, almost to her
own surprise, the child is happily at work
on the “puzzle.” She is building her own
piece of furniture.
Seated at a table, the little girl strug
gles with an unfriendly saw. It snags on
the wood and bends. It doesn’t slide eas
ily, back and forth like the 65-year-old
man showed her it would. Walden bends
over the child and guides her arms. The
saw begins to cooperate. Together, the
craftsman and the determined youngs
ter execute a graceful cut.
“I call myself a free-lance public de
monstration educator,” he explains, his
eyes squinted and his arms gesturing as
he talks. “I think it’s important that they
(children) team how to use tools. It’s the
physical aspect of education that’s not
always taught in the schools.”
This is Walden’s fifth year at the
Saturday Market. Tall and thin, dressed
in khaki work clothes and tennis shoes,
with sometimes the addition of a paint
splattered sweat shirt, he is a familiar
figure among the artisans. On cold morn
ings he wears one of a dozen well
weathered old caps he has collected
over the years to cover his nearly hair
less head.
A retired man living on a modest fixed
income, Walden keeps busy with other
community-oriented projects during the
week. He comes in contact with so many
people, it is doubtful that any one of them
knows the full extent of his activities.
At the White Bird Sociomedical Aid
Station where Walden does volunteer
maintenance work, he is known as the
man “who does the jobs no one else will
do.” This winter, White Bird chose him
as their volunteer of the year for, among
other things, patching the roof, laying
carpet and tile, and rebuilding the front
porch.
(Continued on Page 6)
Student survey
to aid planners
with future city
development
Approximately 1,700 University stu
dents, professors and staff will be receiving
surveys this week asking about their shop
ping and entertainment habits.
Two University students, Jeff Ross and
Sherry Nesbitt, have designed the survey
for seminar credit in the urban planning de
partment. Its purpose is to examine current
use of the Eugene downtown area and pro
vide an opportunity for the University to
make suggestions about future downtown
development.
The survey is being conducted jointly by
the School of Architecture and Allied Arts
and the Eugene Department of Housing
and Community Conservation (HCC). It will
cost each about $375.
“Students sometimes think the down
town area is for another clientele,” said
Ross. “Actually downtown businessmen
are anxious to have input from students
about the services they offer.”
The survey, which will cover roughly 10
per cent of the University community, was
accompanied by a letter from Mayor Gus
Keller encouraging participation.
Bob Thomas, assistant director of HCC,
said the survey questions refer to an aspect
of the city that is under private, not public
control. The results will be made available
to downtown merchants and potential de
velopers.
The questionnaire consists of three
parts. The first is background questions
concerning the respondent’s residence,
age, sex and occupation. The second deals
with where the respondent shops most
often, goes for entertainment and what
areas of the city are most accessible for
those activities. The third consists of pro
posals to make the downtown area more
viable and asks for the respondent’s reac
tion to the proposals.
David Povey, Urban Planning depart
ment head, said the questionnaire was
tested several times for effectiveness be
fore being given to the HCC, which added
some questions.
The preliminary results should be tabu
lated by the end of June. Students in an
analysis class offered by the architecture
school will evaluate the surveys next fall
before they are used by the city.