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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 1978)
Conservation Is conservation of energy hav ing the classrooms so hotly heated that windows must be opened for comfort? Cheryl Lea Moersch Junior, Art-Education Bizarre grading In Richard Seven's article on Jan. 18, he points out some of the absurdities of the changes in the grading system and the new D grade. He may have missed the full implication of what he re ported. After reading the gradua tion requirements in the catalog, I have reached the conclusion that through the incompetence of the people responsible for designing the new requirements a crucial phrase concerning the D grade is not intended to mean what it says. It states: "...and 90 percent of credit earned (A, B, C, D, P) must be passed with grades of A, B, C, P.” Consider two students attend ing the U. of O. One student re ceives 32 credits of N and F out of the 186 credits he has attempted. This student must merely take the 32 credits he is lacking in order to graduate. Another student re ceives 32 credits of D grades out of the 186 total credits he has earned. To satisfy the require ment stated above, this student must now take 134 additional cre dits with grades of C or bet provide the coverage which one of takes 102 more credits than the student who received the F's! Can this actually be the correct interpretation of the requirement? The phrase is incorrectly worded. It should read, "D credits in ex cess of 10 percent of the total cre dits earned at the University of Oregon may not count towards graduation.'' This, clearly, is what the administration meant when it wished to limit the amount of D credits used towards graduation. unuer inis requirement, ine stu dent who received 32 D credits would have only 18 of them count towards graduation. He would then have to pass 13 more credits with a C or better. The student would have 199 credits, 13 of which would not count, leaving the required total of 186. If I am wrong and the require ment does actually mean what is stated, then the administration owes an explanation to all stu dents as to why it considers a D grade vastly inferior to an F. Frank Morton Senior, General Science Track neglected While the Emerald is a good col lege newspaper, I have noticed that the sports coverage this week has neglected one of the University's finest groups of ath letes: the track team. Last Saturday, the track team competed in the Portland Indoor Invitational Track Meet. Many members of the team had out standing performances in the meet. Yet the Emerald, for what ever reasons it may have had, failed to provide any coverage of these fine performances. Instead, there are articles on major league baseball (Kuhn's rejecting Vida Blue's trade to Cincinnati), fenc ing, a film of the 1976 Olympics, a commentary on the balance of the Pac-8 in basketball and the Oregon duck head. Although I am not a member of the track team, I feel a grave injus tice has been done to the team by omitting the results of Saturday's meet. I am not saying that some of the other stories you chose to give coverage to should have been eliminated from the paper. What I am saying is that you have, either by intention or design, failed to provide the coverage which one of the finest athletic programs at this 'SO rfs TO a>A&M£ 'SMOKING WITH TAKING THE Pill — WELL. I'M CERTAINLY NOf Giving up smoking ! “ University deserves by its con tinued outstanding performances, including last Saturday in Portland. I think the Emerald owes an apology not only to the Oregon men’s and women's track teams, but also to the many fans of the sport who have been de prived of the opportunity to read the results of the meet. A serious in justice has been done to these people. It is too late to print the results now, but at least let those of us who appreciate the sport of track and field and who are loyal fans know that we are not forqot ten. Mike Frank Senior, Journalism Emerald infiltrated And so here I am immersing myself in the Emerald as I do most everyday: Front page, Peanuts, Letters to the Editor, when I get to page six and stop...! I almost mis sed it, like a subliminal blip that says “have a coke." But no, there it is. What am I talking about? The ad that says “Employment, U.S. Cen tral Intelligence Agency —unique professional opportunities are av ailable.” The CiA. Did I read that right? Yes, the CIA is looking for students skilled in such field as Polish (ha ha), Nuclear Physics, Photogrammetry, Interpretation and sooo much more. And so, here I am immersing myself in the Emerald and here’s the CIA, who was lurking around Martin Luther King, Watergate, Chile, etc., etc. — and now page six of the Emerald. Oh don't worry, we've got a new emperor now with a new set of clothes; have a coke. Tom Knight 789 W. 11th, Eugene Stand and fight In response to David Greene's letter (Jan 30). You are weak! You suggest that students who do not support South African government should refuse to attend school and not pay tuition. Now that would be just fine if the whole student body went along with that idea, but that would be the wrong way to go. First, be cause the student body had al ready voted to dump the stock. There are also too many weak lings like yourself on compus who would be afraid to stand up and say dump the stock. Therefore, there is only one other alternative for those who want to dump the stock; don't run away, but stand up and fight. That is why I respect the folks who sat in Johnson Hall and pro tested the South African stock. They were not afraid to stand up and fight against something big. Sure that Mack truck will hurt when it hits. But, if you keep trying and gain enough support, you can stop it. Otherwise it will just keep on rolling. So, according to your sugges tion, by remaining in school and paying tuition, you must support the State Board in retaining the stock. Your philosophy is exemp lified by the political cartoon which appeared below your letter, where the one man firmly state “ME FIRST!" David Greene, go suck a Krugerrand! Paul Hanson Sophomore, Undeclared Letters policy The Emerald will accept and try to print all letters and opinion col umns containing fair comment on ideas and topics of concern or in terest to the University commun ity. Letters and opinions will be run on a first-come, first-served basis. Both letters and opinion columns must be typewritten, using 65 character margins, and should be tnple-spaced. Letters and opinions must be signed and the author's field of study (or fa culty) noted. -----opinion State Board stalling, student support needed Submitted by Ismet Guchan for the Southern African Liberation Support Committee The struggle to oppose the apartheid system in Southern Africa and to divest the State Board of Higher Education s stocks that support the minority regimes there has been pushed forward to a new stage by the events of Wednesday, Jan. 25. The militant rally, leading to the occupation of the Chancellor's office and subsequently to the arrest of 23 students, has demonstrated the determination of the stu dents to put an end to two months of stalling by the Board since their November vote. It is crucial to evaluate the current situation correctly, since the University and the Board are bent on doing all they can to mislead people in order to prevent divestiture, or at least stall it as long as possible. An examination of the facts shows dearly that (1) there is no legal barrier now to the sale of the stock, and (2) the Attorney General already ruled in 1976 that the Board does in fact have authority over investment dedsions. So their attempts to drag the issue to the courts are part of an effort to stall divestiture. Such stalling serves only the interests of the U.S. corporations who are today ripping off huge profits from the plunder of Southern Africa. Last Wednesday,the students stated with their action that we won’t stand for this situation even if we re threatened with arrest, just as a few years ago students and others rose up in a mass movement to get the U.S. out of Indochina. As the struggle to end U.S. involvemert in Southern Africa and to dump the stock grows, the lines are being more dearly drawn, in Southern Africa and right here on campus. The Emerald, too, took its position by Dswa A GaaM/va A appointing itself to the job of slandering and discrediting the struggle. Friday s editorial derided the demonstration as "mis directed," "theatre of the absurd," etc., and dain.^d the demonstrators accomplished “nothing" and their de mands were "unreasonable.” What is behind the talk of “formal legal opinions" and the slanders against the struggle? The administration and the State Board fear the growing strength of the student movement, which made itself felt when the students forced the Board to vote to divest in November. And now students, outraged by two months of stalling, are deter mined to raise hell until the stocks are actually sold. What the Board is trying to do is to convince students that demonstrations and militant actions won't accomplish anything and that instead the students should put faith in judicial and bureaucratic procedures. They hope that by doing this students will become cynical and the struggle will die down. But this effort, fully backed by the Emerald, flies in the face of reality. University students know that the gains that have been made up to this point in the efforts to dump the stocks have come through our struggle and not by relying on the good will of the Board, which has opposed divestiture from the beginning. The November vote was preceded by months of battle with the board, from leaflet ting, demonstrations, petitions and referendums on the University and Portland State University campuses, to taking the Board on directly at meeting after meeting. The history of the Southern African peoples' strug gles against apartheid brings this out clearly. Their efforts at change "through the system" relying on the "good will" of those in power were met with guns and dubs of the racist regimes. A bitter lesson was learned in I960 at Sharpesville where hundreds were gunned down in a protest against the hated Pass Laws. All of this has led up to the growing liberation struggles of today which are winning support around the world. This, and the many struggles of students and work ing people in this country, makes dear that victories and gains are won through struggle. The history of the fight for unions, the eight-hour working day, the Black liberation struggle and the anti-Vietnam War movement, are all telling examples of such fights. A well organized, militant struggle will be necessary to ge the stocks dumped without further stalling. When students stood their ground at Johnson Hall Wednesday and demanded, “Dump the Stock, Now!" they knew that it might be necessary to face arrests, $3,000 in bail (which had to come from food, rent, tuitions) and possible convic tions, to further the struggle against apartheid. The same U.S. government that protects U.S. corporate interests in S. Africa also works to protect those interests here. We need an organized movement, not the Attorney General's opinion, to force the Board to divest Our strug gle here is part of a broader fight across the country to get !, o .ou! °| Southern Africa and to limit the ability of the U.S. imperialists to continue supporting the minority re gimes and the apartheid system. Thousands have par ticipated and hundreds have been arrested in building occupations and other actions. Just last year over 700 California students were arrested in a struggle against University of California investments. We call on all University students to support the demands: State Board: Dump the Stock, Now! Drop the Charges Against the 23 Arrested!” A petition with these demands can be signed at the EMU Lobby table; contrib tions toward the bail are needed —at the table or sent to: Southern Africa Liberation Support Committee, P.O. Box 3723, Eugene OR 97403.
