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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 10, 1978)
Letters Some services Jerry Martens, you have spent more time in the Mill Race than on its banks if I am to agree whole heartedly with your letter of Feb. 28,1978. What you call the "drun ken few” can be much more nar rowed to the drunken one-Sigma Alpha Epsilon. I will grant you the fact that these “brothers” do perform a community service; I now seldom have a need to use my radio, (I can that way, save energy, as can other neighbors), due to the wil lingness of Sigma Alpha Epsilon to inundate the local ether with their audio broadcasts. Special service is rendered on Friday nights when the bass is turned up and I get to watch the cock roaches abandon my trembling abode. The idea of Greek Scholarship though, is a questionable idea, since the nightly nocturnal spel ling lesson generally avoids the classical and correct form of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, using rather the diminuative bastardization — SAE. Perhaps the next one pre sented for the neighbor's edifica tion will be correct. F.H.A.T. Axmacher P.O. Box 3952 Eugene From within I feel that it is time for me to get on the right side of my conscience, and join those who have recently been denouncing the Greek sys tem. This is particularly difficult for me, as I personally have been a member of that system for a year and a half now. The Greek system is, and has always been, everything Ms. Wood and Ms. Carlock have as serted it to be in their letters. What Carlock was so fortunate to wit ness in front of the Kappa Sig house last Sunday evening sounds like a minor incident, after having witnessed some of their in itiation practices. The Kappa Sigs are not alone either. Within my own house are some of the most immature peo ple I ever hope to be acquainted with. It is a constant source of consternation to me to realize that we live in the nicest, most modern facility on campus, yet 90 percent of the time it is a virtual pigsty! This is because the members are too lazy to lift a finger and clean up after themselves. Selfishness and self-centeredness seem to be the two most important principles of the Greek system and as of now I see little hope of reform. I will continue to fight the system from within, despite the discourag ing prospects for any measure of success. At least by this, I hope to retain some degree of self respect. Doug Thorne Sigma Phi Epsilon Sophomore, History What a week It's “dead week’’ here at the University of Oregon (the week before, DUM-TA-DUM-DUM... FINALS) which usually finds students bus ily and diligently involved in their studies. Usually these students lack in sleep, patience, smiles and good looks — but are overly abundant in knowledge, zits, fat, greasy hair and shrieks of uncon trollable laughter, schizophrenic personalities and catatonic states. Suicide attempts are frequent and not in the least bit shocking. Because the fact that usually the person who talks another person into/out of: jumps, pills, intentional shots to the head via the mouth (usually resulting in extremely damaging and expensive dental work) and other dramatic excuses for missing exams, are people who either have answers to ques tions for study and review,” or exam copies. (These people usu ally have their B.S. in B.S.) Participants in this so called “dead week” need only have the following prerequisites: 1. High school graduate 2. Money from parents 3. At least 14 books, 27 chapters, 3 papers and book re views left to complete. 4. A brown nose. 5. Extreme fear of enraged parents 6. (optional) Passport and plane ticket to Tazmania following the outcome of grades. Study breaks usually consist of a walk to 7-11 to endulge in chips, dips, or assorted snack items, jogs up and down stairs usually resulting in the blowing of chips, dips and assorted snack items, frivolous attempts at suicide, deepening the dent in the wall caused by the banging of heads, burning and spitting on mid-term examinations, bomb threats and for a lucky few, frustrated attempts at sexual activity. The course of “dead week” is, like everything else at college, a learning experience. Students learn the art of crossing and un crossing eyes, the art of creative hair pulling, the art of nonsensical argument, the various pitches and capabilities of their voices, the joys of typing errors and the art of camouflage, the art of tearing or crumpling paper, procrastination and regret and the idea of how finals week will hit them (right be tween the eyes, below the belt in their bad knees, etc.) Survival of “dead week” is re warded by murder week, which is followed by suicide, LONG trips (to places such as Tazmania, hell etc.) 92 cases of beer, 12 straight hours of soap operas, or slow and concise explanations of visiting hours at Dammasch State Hospi tal.. The fact that makes “dead week” so worthwhile is the constant murmers of "next term I’m going to straighten up” “partying only on the weekends," “next term none of this is going to happen” and “Dad, does this mean I have to pay my OWN way?” and registra tion are just around the comer. “Here’s to memories and what we forgot" (and hope to or hope not to forget, next term etc. etc.etc....) Rosie LaBaumba Sophomore, Journalism A scandal Student apathy abounds. With Watergate fading from our memories and the South Korean payoffs being ignored as "just another one of those things you can't control” I wondered if we, as students, would become upset enough to act if a scandal hit close to home. Well, it is time to find out. Here, on the University of Oregon campus, I have reason to believe that we have an atrocity that would make Watergate seem like a church social. It appears that instructors from various fields of expertise have secretely met to temporarily remove students from the mainstream of society. They have used a technique that the CIA has never though of; a method that the FBI would never consider; a system so clever it is more effective than the most sophisticated used by industrial spies. These instructors have joined together to have all term papers due on the same date. The reason for this collusion is still unclear. The one logical pos sibility is to gain control of the EMU bowling alley while students are busy pulling all-nighters. Perhaps the reason is even more complex than this. Whatever the reason, before this problem grows any larger I would like to implicate a few of the participants, so they could be brought before a student purging committee to pay for their crime. Unfortunately, I have two more papers to complete before finals week, so I just won’t have time to compile a list. Maybe someone else will. Roger Plant Senior, Marketing An apology On Wednesday, several hundred people were turned away from a program sponsored by the Department of Romance Lan guages and featuring Eugene Ionesco at the WACO Cinema. The EMU Cultural Forum, which played a minor role as a co sponsor of the event, would like to apologize for any inconvenience that may have been caused, especially because this event was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The decision to locate the event in the 400 seat WACO Cinema was based upon the need for a 35 mm projector of which none was avail able on the University campus. While hindsight is superior in all cases, the determination as to how many people would attend this even (free or otherwise) im perfect at best. We are indebted to all who cooperated under the circum stances and thank those who felt compelled to offer innumerable suggestions on how to program such events in the future. Linda Carmichael and Frank Geltner of the EMU Cultural Forum Null hypothesis In response to Susan Carlock’s letter to the Emerald (March 7) condemning all Greeks as "a bunch of obscene morons”, I must express mv surprise at the fact that a senior (in finance, no less) could display such ignorance opinion r Boyd’s analysis erred In his most recent monthly press conference, University Pres. William Boyd discussed the University's financial problems. Boyd attributed these problems to the fact that students are taking fewer credit hours than in the past. (Eugene Register-Guard, Feb. 22) According to Boyd, students are taking fewer credit hours because of our present registration system and the loss of the “work ethic." While our registration system may be partially re sponsible for lower FTE, we challenge Boyd’s assertion that the work ethic is also a factor. What is this mythical work ethic to which Boyd refers? It is commonly known that the make-up of the University student body is undergoing great transformations. Older and non-traditional students are returning to campus in increasing numbers. These students often have families and outside jobs that profit their carrying normal credit loads. As for traditional students, the rising cost of high education is forcing a great many of them to work at least part-time. According to the work-study placement office, 2,500 stu dents have been processed for work-study positions thus far in the academic year 1977-78. This represents a whopping I6V2 percent of the student population! And this does not include the countless others working independently of the work-study prog ram. More and more students are seeking financial aids to sup plement individual and family incomes. In the academic year 1976-77, 57 percent of all financial aid recipients were classified as financially independent. In fact, 40 percent of all students are receiving some form of financial aid at this institution. What all this means, is that students are finding it increas ingly difficult to afford higher education. We challenge the notion that students are losing the work ethic and we question President Boyd’s use of an irrelevant and undefined term. We will be more than happy to work with the University administration and faculty and all students, in attacking the real problems: accessibility to higher education, the needs of non traditional and minority students and our growing financial con straints. Assuming that lowered FTE is partially responsible for the University’s financial problems, let us eliminate the factors actu ally causing that lowered FTE. Students deserve more information about their classes. To this end, ASUO publishes a course guide. Without faculty sup port, the course guide is meaningless. Fortunately, faculty mem bers are taking the course guide seriously and response has been good this term. ASUO has always believed that the publication of student course evaluation is vital, if students are to have complete infor mation about their dasses. Students are primarily concerned with the quality of their education. But, with the soaring costs of high education, students recognize that they are consumers of a pro duct that affects their lives greatly. „ „ _ . a Kell Osborn, ASUO Vice-president and Jeff Warren, Member Incidental Fee Committee through such a gross generaliza tion. Let V, the dependent variable, represent the worth of the Greek system. Let alpha (excuse my use of the Greek alphabet if it offends you) be some positive constant number of Greeks and add it to X. If X equals the benefits of com munity services rendered through activities such as the Greek Week of Giving, parties for under privileged children, raising funds for the Heart Association, etc., multiply X by beta and let beta equal the time and effort spent in these activities. Now add U, the random error variable and let it represent those individuals in the Greek system who indulge in "immature and irresponsible an tics.” Obviously Carlock has dropped a statistically significant variable (X), including only the random error variable and has in fact run an irrelevant regression. Therefore, I must reject her null hypothesis that all Greeks are immature, irresponsible, ob scene, etc. If she researched the facts and included all relevant ex planatory variables in her model, her resulting conclusion would be more meaningful. But then, this may be beyond the scope of her test. Marian Sasaki Senior, Marketing/Economics
