Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 1978)
Vol. 79, No. 94 Eugene, Oregon 97403 Monday, February 6, 1978 Redden still working on divestment ruling To determine who controls By RICHARD SEVEN Of the Emerald Although the divestment discussion is now slipping into the forest of legal jargon and statute-studying, Atty. Gen. Jim Redden’s legal opinion can be expected in “about 10 days” according to Redden s assistant, Mark Nelson. Nelson says the initial draft of the attorney general's opinion, which was prepared by Ed Branchfield, chief counsel for higher educa tion, is currently being reviewed by an opinion staff. The staff will rewrite the draft for style and legal arguments, if necessary. Also accompanying the draft was a legal brief prepared by the People for Southern Afri can Freedom (PSAF) and Clergy and Laity Concerned (CALC) upholding the legality of the State Board of Higher Education's divest ment decision Nov. 18. The ASUO, in conjunc tion with the Office of Student Advocacy (OSA), has also formed a legal brief upholding the state board's divestment decision. The at torney general should receive that brief today. “The OSA, at the request of the ASUO pres ident, has reviewed and answered the ques tions the board has raised regarding divest ment,” says OSA Attorney Don Chalmers. "Following that review we remain convinced the state board, and not the Oregon Invest ment council (OIC), has the power to divest the stock in South Africa. The board should order its administrative officers to proceed full speed in divesting the stock.” At its Dec. 16 meeting, the board drew up 11 questions for the attorney general to review in deciding who has the actual control over higher education investment policy — the board or the OIC. After the board decided to divest, questions were raised about the legality of the action because of a 1975 statute. The statute has been construed by the attorney general as giv ing the control of higher education stocks to OIC. The attorney general has already “infor mally” told the board that the OIC has control of the investment procedures, which means selling the stock has been placed in a “holding pattern” until the official decision is released. The attorney general has agreed to allow members of the PSAF, CALC and ASUO to sit in on some of the legal proceedings to discuss the pro-divestment arguments. “It will strictly be a legal discussion on the pros and cons of the situation,” says Nelson. “The gentlemen might find themselves on the same side as the attorney general’s interpreta tion." According to PSAF spokesman Walt Sheasby, the whole question of who has the legal authority should have never come up. “This entire issue of investment authority seems to have been manufactured by misin formed members of the media who pressured the attorney general into suggesting there was a problem, when in fact, the question had been settled by his predecessor more than a year ago.” Sheasby was referring to a 1976 opinion by Lee Johnson, former attorney general, who attempted to clarify the corresponding roles of the two state bodies. According to the PSAF brief, Johnson de fined the OIC’s role as a "sub-agent” to the board, which would make the council merely an executory arm of the state board. The ASUO brief says the question of control was settled among the two bodies by a series of letters. The brief goes on to say the board was assured of maintaining its control over its equities-investments through a mutual ag reement with the OIC. The agreement was authorized by statute ORS. 190.110, which allows cooperation and agreements between state agencies, accord ing to the brief. Another major question for the attorney genral to consider is whether divestment would violate the “Prudent Man Rule.” The rule states trustees and fiduciaries of state in vestments must use the same discretion and intelligence as if they were managing their own affairs. The rule apparently was designed to keep investment actions to remain on a primar ily economic basis. PSAF and ASUO contend the prudent man rule would not be violated by (Continued on Page 3) Report says out-of-state enrollment on the wane Three out of every 10 students enrolled in fall term classes were from out-of-state, ac cording to University student body enrollment figures recently released by the registrar’s of fice. Overall, however, the percentage of non resident students has dropped since reports in 1972 estimated 34.2 percent of the University students were from outside Oregon. The fall 1977 term report shows more than 69 percent of the students enrolled were Oregon residents. Total enrollment was 16,701, with 11,564 students coming from Oregon and 5,137 from out-of-state or from other countries. Of the students from Oregon, there were 5,996 men and 5,568 women. The total en rollment breakdown included 9,035 men and 7,666 women, 12,282 undergraduates and 4,419 graduate students and 13,970 full-time students and 2,731 part-time students. Every county in Oregon was represented by at least three students. Counties with the largest number of students enrolled were Lane County with 4,401, Multnomah County with 2,315, Marion County with 712, Clackamas County with 680 and Washington County with 521. Since 1972, the University has lost more than 500 California resident students. There were 1,421 students from California enrolled fall term, as opposed to 1,980 enrolled five years ago. Other states and regions have increased their student enrollment at the University since 1972. Some of these include the states of Alaska, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. New England, the South Atlantic states and the “West North Central” region, including the Dakotas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Mis souri and Kansas, continue to send more stu dents to the University each year according to the report. Blues man I Photo by Erich BoefcaMde In two sellout performances Friday night in the EMU, B.B. King demonstrated how he earned his folk title “King of the Blues.” King performed “Why I Sing the Blues” "Nobody Loves Me But My Mother, ” "The Thrill is Gone " and several tunes from earlier in his career.
