Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 5, 1978)
Vol. 79 No. 72 bugene, Oregon 97403 _ Thursday, January 5, 1978 ard gallery: Art works catch eyes of motorists i This landscape by Lorraine Krol, formerly of Oregon and now of Escondido, Calif., is on display at the comer of McKinley St. and W. 11th Avenue. Krol’s painting is one of four artistic billboards that can be found decorating Eugene-Springfield roadways. The billboards are part of an ex perimental program sponsored by the Bisual Arts Resources de partment of the University Museum of Art. The billboards are part of an attempt by program coordinators to introduce art to a mass audience. The coordinators hope to take advantage of the ad vertising medium to stimulate in terest in art and sates of artwork in Oregon. Story by KEVIN HARDEN Photo by DOUG LAMB Eugene and Springfield residents tired of looking at the same advertising from billboard to billboard will see some thing new this month. A two year project by the Visual Arts Resources (VAR) department of the University Museum of Art to promote works by Oregon artists took the form of billboard art during the holiday vacation. Four1 billboards in the Eugene Springfield area will be covered with art works by four Oregon artists. The project was started nearly two years ago as a way for art to reach a large segment of the general public by Michael Whitenack, supervisor for statewide services with the Museum of Art on campus. Whitenack, also the director of the VAR program, opened the competition for billboard space to artists last summer and received more than 150 entries from state artists. The four designs, which range from graphics and watercolors to silkscreen, are the works of Haley Jessup, now of Berkeley, Cal.; Lorraine Krol, now of Es condido, Cal.; James Mattingly, Dallas, Ore. and Scott Mclntire, Portland. Each of the artists received a cash award of $250 for their winning entries. The money was part of funding from the Oregon Arts Commission and the Na tional Endowment for the Arts. The billboards, which are donated on a space-available basis during slow ad vertising months by the ONe Communi cations and the Acketley Communica tions companies, are located at Beltline Road and Northwest Expressway, Highway 99 and Fairfield Street, McKin ley Street and W. 11th Avenue in Eugene and 14th and Main Streets in Springfield. Unless advertisers buy the billboard space, the art works will be up for about a month. Underfunding blamed for money woes By RICH SEVEN of the Emerald Roy Lieualten, chancellor of the State System of Higher Educa tion, will ask the state emergency board Jan. 25-26 for additional funds to ease the higher educa tions budget problems. Lieuallen to plead with state board for emergency funds to ease blind At the core of the problem is a legislative budgeting method known as “underfunding". This occurs when the Legislature pur Emergency repairs of boilers approved The State Board 1 Higher Education decided last month to ask the state emergency board for an additional $62,000 to repair the power generation system of the University Power Plant so it will comply with state safety codes. Officials of the building codes division of the State of Oregon Department of Commerce have urged that the corrections be made as soon as possible. According to Jack Hunderup, vice-chancellor for facilities planning, an equipment failure could cause irreparable dam age to the boilers and perhaps cause a boiler explosion that would injure the plant’s employees. Commissioned engineers have estimated the total cost for the repair will reach $178,000. Sixty-five percent of that amount or $116,000 was allocated as pari of a $980,000 life and safety program. The initial expenditure limitation authorized for phase one of the Safety Deficiency Correction Program did not anticipate the total cost of the operation, making it necessary for the board to apply for the addi tional funds. posely doesn’t appropriate enough money for staie agencies' authorized expenses. Underfund ing is based on the theory that sal ary savings will occur when posi tions are held vacant because of employee turnover throughout the school year. Lieuallen says higher education was underfunded for salaries by $2.6 million in the 1975-77 bien nium. However, to the chagrin of higher education, the amount un derfunded in 1975 was not carried forward, thereby reducing the budget for the 1977-79 biennium. “We simply didn't anticipate the Legislature would make this a tradition and do it again in 1977,” says Lieuallen. “Maybe we should have." Because the amount un derfunded in1975 was not carried forward, higher education’s budget was greatly reduced for the 1977-79 biennium. "In order to reduce the impact of the legislative salary underfund ing on the state system budget, we withheld academic salaries for two months," Lieuallen says. “If the underfunding is carried over biennium after biennium, we will get a base budget of zero. I don’t think that’s the in tention of underfunding.” By deferring the academic salaries, the loss due to under funding was reduced to about $1.4 million for the 1975-77 bien nium. At the heart of the problem is the way the Legislature treats the higher education budget, accord ing to Lieuallen. Unlike other state agencies, which build base budgets for personnel services from the number of authorized positions they have, higher educa tion budget is determined by its dollar total. When other state agencies begin their new bienniums, they are appropriated funds on the number of approved positions they have," Lieuallen explains. ‘‘Their underfunding from the pre vious biennium is left out. The one percent underfunding is then taken from that 100 percent budget base. “However, our dollar amount is reduced each biennium and not restored,” Lieuallen says. ‘‘If the underfunding is carried over bien nium after biennium, we will get a base budget of zero. I don’t think that’s the intention of underfund ing." The "base” of higher education’s budget is currently about $1.25 million short of what it stould have been if the oversight had not occurred. The cumulative effect of under funding now stands at $4.4 million-including $3.2 million pro jected for this biennium. ‘‘The emergency board is our only source of relief,” Lieuallen says. “If we don’t find help from the emergency board, further re ductions will have to occur in our state systems. The schools must stay within their budgets. ”
