Letters
Letters
Letters
Stand and be counted
Now is the time for all gay,
fraternity members who are hand
icapped and are interested in Rec
reational Folk Dancing to stand
up and be counted. Yes, the Inci
dental Fee Committee is about to
begin the long and complicated
process of allocating your $1.4
million for the next year.
Students at the University don't
seem to realize what cheap thrills
budget hearings can provide on
weeknights. Yes, when your
late-night studying for mid-terms
is getting you down, come over
and hear student government
members hassle over whether to
cover the horse transportation
cost for rodeo members. Actually,
budget hearings provide more en
tertainment than that. Comments
such as, "Sexist, racists,
capitalists bureaucrats," have
been thrown across the tables in
student government’s continual
search to please the 50 plus pro
grams.
Major controversies should sur
face in the athletic department’s
endless quest to sell basketball
tickets to the fourth balcony of
Mac Court, comply with Title IX,
attend all sports events within two
thousand miles and provide a
competitive, revenue-producing
Pac-8 team in underwater bas
ketweaving.
The Erb Memorial Union will
once again try and rationalize an
increase in their allocation with the
continual promise of a free
jukebox and mediocre hamburg
ers. The minorities will once
again try to force-feed maize, for
tune cookies, bagels, burritos, poi
and hominy grits, to the uncultural
WASPs seeking a cheap Oly. You
should come just to answer the
burning question that has haunted
you from your freshman year —
What is HPERDSAC? (High
Perverts Eating Roasted Duck
Sandwiches After Class'!*)
Seriously, the Incidental Fee
Committee is beginning the
process, Sunday, of dividing up
your money and we need your
advice and your voice to aid us.
One of our only indicators in
student enthusiasm and support
is your advocacy, in person, at
these budget hearings. To aid you
in your attempt to "stand up and
be counted,’’ we are posting
notices of the hearings in the Briefs
section of the Oregon Daily
Emerald and in the Daily
Schedule Boards in the EMU. Or
drop by and talk with us in our
office in Suite 5, EMU, about the
money, about your budget
priorities, about your interests. We
are here to represent and serve
you.
Doug Benson
Member,
Incidental Fee Committee
Drop the charges
People for Southern African
Freedom would like to add its
voice to those calling for the
dropping of charges against the
23 students arrested in the Jan. 25
occupation of Johnson Hall. Both
the State Board of Higher
Education and the University
President are on record opposing
U.S. corporate investments in
southern Africa. Many of these
investments violate U.N.
sanctions officially endorsed by
the U.S. government, yet these
violations remain unpunished. It
seems to us that punitive action
against those who are trying to
carry out declared policies against
apartheid is morally inconsistent
and vindictive.
Our organization did not
endorse the Jan. 25 demon
stration because we did not
believe that condemnation of
the State Board of Higher
Education was appropriate at this
time. PSAF is currently involved in
a legal effort to ensure that State
Board divestment policy is
implemented and upheld without
any further delay imposed by the
Attorney General. There is a
possibility that the issue may go to
a court for litigation, perhaps with
PSAF and ASUO joining in
support of the authority of the
State Board on this issue.
Whatever the outcome of the
legal route, however, the need for
massive political demonstrations
on campus and in the community
will continue until the racist
regimes in southern Africa are
brought down by the liberation
movements. In the future such
demonstration should be
well-organized strategically and
tactically, center on a well-defined
issue, and be planned through
collective decision-making.
Campus activity must also be
seen as part of a campaign to
build a broad movement of
support for African liberation in the
communtiy.
Right now the most pressing
need is for the organization of a
broad-based defense movement
for those arrested and facing
criminal charges. If such a
defense movement reaches out to
the Eugene-Springfield com
munity and does not demand
political unity from those willing to
join, PSAF would give high priority
to building support for it.
A community-wide defense
coalition would enable a number
of organizations to link together in
an educational campaign that
would relate the struggle in
southern Africa to the struggles
here at home. It would also be the
most effective way of fighting the
charges against the Jan. 25
demonstrators. Those who have
risked their own liberty in the
struggle for southern African
freedom should not have to stand
alone against the courts.
Watt Sheasby
for People for
Southern African Freedom
Frustrated
I feel so helpless up against the
bureaucracy of this university, that
I have to write this letter. I paid
$250 this quarter to go to school.
As a consumer I feel humiliated
and cheated. Not only am I not
allowed to add a three credit class,
I’m not allowed to sit in, even
though there are only 15 people in
the class.
I signed up for Writing 241 —
fiction — and found that it con
flicted with my mineralogy lab. So I
tried to get into a Monday night
class for the same course. It was
crowded the first week and the
teacher was not sure I would be
able to add the class. The second
week many people dropped.
There are now fifteen people in
the class and the teacher said
there was room for me — that I
could get in.
I never missed a class meeting
and I bought all the materials. The
third week of school I tried to add
this class. The writing department
has a rule stating that you can't
add a class after the second week.
This was not stated in my class. I
went to the departmental office at
least 10 times to see a woman
who might be able to let me in.
After a week of trying to see her,
we finally met. She told me to see
“Dr. Love-Joy” the department
head. I went to see the good doc
tor and told him my story. He said
they have a rule and he has to
stick by it. I was getting emotional
and asked him why. He said, “We
don’t want people adding classes
after they have already started
They are already behind in as
signments, etc." I reiterated that I
hadn’t missed any class meet
ings, that maybe he could bend
the rules a little for me. “No ”, he
said. Humiliated, I left.
I decided to further my educa
tion anyway and planned to sit in
on the class. This past Monday
after class my teacher informed
me that she has specific instruc
tions not to let me sit in on the
class! She explained that l
“created a bad atmosphere for
everyone”, and there is nothing
she can do about it.
The whole situation is a rip-off
and dehumanizing. I feel like I’m
being cheated out of education
and money. (I have only 12 cre
dits). The people in charge are so
inflexible with their little rules and
regulations. They are the
bureaucracy, they make the uni
versity what it is — a myriad of
departments and deadlines. This
is wrong. It does not further educa
tion, but detracts from it. This situ
ation should be corrected, but I
know it will just get worse.
Dennis Moore
Senior, Geology
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----Washington today--- -
Panama treaty critics focus on translation “problems”
By WALTER R. MEARS
AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON — Now the cri
tics of the Panama Canal treaty
say they’re worried that it may
gain—or lose —something in the
translation.
What they're really looking for is
any argument they can find
against the pact in the Senate.
Still, they may have a point, since
translating is a tricky business.
President Carter discovered
that in Warsaw, when his remarks
became somewhat more colorful
than intended because of a faulty
translation from English to Polish.
When he spoke of Polish de
sires for the future, it came out as
“your lusts for the future.’’
It would hardly do to have a trea
ty recording U.S. lust for the
canal, although the point could be
argued, given the ardor of the
opposition.
Translations between English
and Spanish are not quite so dif
ficult, but it turns out that there is
room for argument oyer interpre
tation of the words in the treaty.
“We must contend not only with
conflicting interpretations of the
English text, but also the Spanish
meaning of every word in the
documents,” said Sen. Orrin G.
Hatch, R-Utah, who opposes
ratification. He has proposed an
amendment to declare the English
language text binding in case of
any dispute.
State Department translators
and negotiators have spent about
400 hours studying the English
and Spanish language of the
treaties, and they say there are no
substantive differences.
But translation is an imprecise
science, and there is a treaty pro
vision for consultation or media
tion in case of disputes over the
meaning of the words.
r
That is a problem in the negotia
tion of any treaty involving differ
ent languages. As one of the final
phases of treaty negotiations, the
diplomats call in their language
experts to check the words in
translation and try to make sure
there are no significant differ
ences in what they mean.
Sen. James B. Allen, D-Ala.,
claims there are not only am
biguities but errors in the canal
treaty translations. He argues that
“errors in translation were very
likely—at least in many instances
— deliberate" so that Panama
could claim the best of the bargain
while U.S. negotiators could get
their handiwork approved by the
Senate.
His complaint, and Hatch s
amendment, are based on a study
of the English-Spanish texts by
Sylvia Costellanos, research di
To^E.MEN.' well think of soncihins/*
rector for a conservative group
that calls itself the Senate Steer
ing Committee.
According to her analysis, the
treaty translations could lead to
questions about the U S. role as
manager of the canal, about the
control of traffic and about future
payments to Panama.
She contends that the treaty
language does not give the United
States dear authority to control
canal traffic, even though it grants
a U.S. right “to provide for the or
derly transit of ships ...”
“In the Spanish text, this func
tion is expressed as the right to
provide for the fluid transit’ of ves
sels,” she writes. “Interpreted lit
erally, the Spanish version of the
sentence merely gives the United
States the right to ensure that the
ships going through the canal
will have water or some liquid to
sail on.”
Presumably, the water will stay
there, no matter what the treaty
and the translators say. The treaty
pronounces the Spanish and En
glish texts to be equally authentic.
That’s the language Hatch wants
to amend, to make the English
version binding. If he were to suc
ceed, which is not likely, the
amendment would have to be ren
dered into Spanish so that the
Panamanians could consider it.
An amendment to the treaty
would automatically require
further negotiations — and more
translation.