Oregon daily emerald., March 30, 1978, Section A, Page 4, Image 4

-.—.- editorial — ^
Too little, but maybe
not too late
When Gerald Ford declined to aid the city of New York
during his presidency, the New York Times’ headline read
“Ford to City: Drop Dead.” President Carter is now prepar
ing to lay a flower gently on the grave.
Anyone who has ever travelled from Washington D.C.
to Boston through the heart of the foulest conurbation in the
country realizes that American cities are facing crises
which not only put the future of the cities in question, but
have ramifications for this nation as a whole.
The haphazard and unplanned growth patterns of the
large cities, especially the older cities of the east, have
caused the decay of inner cities. New York’s South Bronx,
where some buildings have collapsed and others are
burned intentionally by owners to collect insurance claims,
has become the epitome of inner city decay. But the prob
lems are not a peculiarity of New York; they extend to
virtually every other large city.
In the younger cities of the west, especially Seattle,
Portland and San Francisco, the problems are not as sever
as the crises of the larger eastern cities. Portland has
recently begun an aggressive program to renew its down
town area, however, to keep it alive and thriving in the
future. Eugene has made admirable strides to keep its
downtown area vital to guard against typical urban prob
lems.
The problems are enormous, and the cost of solving
them will also be enormous. Housing, transportation, edu
cation and other social services are sadly lacking in the
cities, particularly where poor planning in the past hasn’t
been rectified. When buildings crumble, when a wide dis
parity separates the education quality of inner city and
suburban schools and when growth patterns create a
dependency on automobile transportation in the face of an
energy crises, it is obvious that planning has been absent.
Also absent, until recently, were programs to bring the
inner cities back to life. President Carter has announced
that he will propose a city aid program to redirect federal
money to troubled cities. The plan is to stimulate economic
development in the cities, including neighborhood re
habilitation and the control of growth.
The government has been slow and negligent in rec
ognizing the problems of cities, and Carter’s proposal does
little to cope with those problems. The life of the large cities
is essential not only to the cities, but to the nation. The host
of problems not addressed by the Carter administration
and prior administrations will worsen unless measures are
taken to keep the cities alive.
In light of these problems, Carter’s plan — though it
may be a good first step — seems a band-aid approach
intended to provide short-term jobs to the unemployed.
Although that is a worthy goal, it is not a solution to the
problems of dying cities. And unless one is developed to
solve those problems, this lazy nation will awaken to find
them insurmountable.
Letters
Story erred
Your March 10 story on outside
employment for faculty quotes me
as saying that the proposed rule
“gives too much arbitrary power to
faculty members.” Either I mis
spoke or the reporter’s notes are
in error. I obviously meant to say
that it gives arbitrary power to ad
ministrators.
You correctly cited a portion of
the proposed rule, which states:
“ff the president, division head or
designee disapproves, the em
ployee shall reject the outside em
ployment.” That sounds like arbi
trary power to me.
As an academic community, we
need to develop appropriate
guidelines to regulate this trouble
some area. The guidelines need
to be developed through consulta
tion with faculty.
William Boyd
University President
Mock error?
I certainly hope that the article
concerning the mock courtmartial
put on by representatives of the
Marine Corps at the law school by
Jock Hatfield (March 9 issue) is
not indicative of the quality of re
porting contained in the Emerald.
This article contained several
significant misstatements of fact.
To be specific, Private Schull did
not have a reputation for losing
things as was stated by your re
porter. That tendency belonged to
Sergeant Grimes, the victim of the
theft. Also, the article claimed the
victim of the theft was a private,
which was obviously in error as
evidenced by the dialogue and the
testimony of the sergeant/victim.
The defendant, Private Schull,
was charged with two crimes, one
being unauthorized absence and
the other was theft.
He pled guilty to the first charge
of unauthorized absence but pled
not guilty to the second charge of
'&m, MR.BESlN — I 6uEH£PlWT0ra JlM/W IN MIS WISHV-WAW WO®!"
theft, which was the charge for
which he was tried before a jury.
The article misleadingly reported
that in the script Private Schull
pled guilty, referring only to the
charge of theft, which would leave
any person possessing even the
slightest knowledge of the court
process wondering why there was
a trial, complete with a jury finding,
when supposedly he had already
pled guilty to the offense.
I have been under the assump
tion as I have read the Emerald on
a daily basis that the quality of its
reporting was, at the very least,
factually accurate. I will be the first
to admit that the subject matter of
this particular article is certainly
not of such importance that it
would have little if any impact
upon members of the university
community even while containing
these errors. However, if this arti
cle is an indicator of the factual
accuracy of its reporting, I for one
will look with a high degree of sus
picion regarding future articles
contained in the Emerald.
Grant Lattin
First Year Law
A caution
In the March 28th Emerald an
article appeared soliciting volun
teers to work with an organization
called Crossroads Africa, offering
“...unique experiences with Afri
cans, helping to build schools and
clinics...” and mentioning possible
academic credit. I feel compelled
to warn interested people that the
“unique experience’’ might be
pretty wretched if you are not care
ful.
While in the Peace Corps in
Sierra Leone, West Africa, I came
in contact with three C.A. groups.
One was well-led by a C.A. staffer
who was very experienced in Af
rica. They were ambivalent about
the value of their work but had had
a good time & were enjoying
traveling around after their project
was finished.
The second group spent six
weeks making cement blocks for a
museum, the pet project of a
young chief who wanted to leave a
monument to himself. I consider
this a marginally worthwhile pro
ject. Their leader was a summer
C.A. employee who had been in
Peace Corps in Sierra Leone. He
still was foolish enough to take all
the group’s traveler’s checks in a
briefcase with him on a midnight
stroll on the docks of Freetown,
where a thief grabbed them, forc
ing the group to rely on charity and
delay their departure.
The third group was led by two
people who had never been to Af
rica. They were ignorant of the
customs and laws of Sierra
Leone, and no one in the group
could speak the local language.
The place where they were to stay
and work for two weeks was not
ready and no one in the Ministry of
Works or the U.S. embassy
seemed interested in helping
them. I met them when they came
to the Peace Corps office in
near-panic. Their first week had
been one disaster after another
and most were ready to turn
around and go home. I left Sierra
Leone at this point so I don’t know
what the rest ot their stay was like.
I hope it was better.
Africa is a wonderful place if you
know what you are doing, or your
leaders do. If you’re considering
C.A. for this summer, make sure
the project is worthwhile, and
make damn sure the leaders of
your group have lived in the coun
try where you will work. It will
make the difference between a
possibly great and a possibly hor
rible experience.
Ross Carey
Fifth year graduate student,
unclassified
Not for Wood
As the University Campus
Chairman for Bob Wood in 1974
when he ran for County Commis
sioner, I urge voters not to vote for
him this year. His last minute
switch from the Governor’s race to
the Congressional race was done
at the bidding of special interests
with a large bankroll.
I urge unqualified support for
the incumbent, Jim Weaver.
Weaver is the only congressman
in the Northwest who is the least
bit willing to stand up to the private
utility interests and the profit hun
gry timber companies. For that
alone he deserves our support as
the voice of common people who
are being victimized by the greed
of special interests.
It is really too bad that Jim
Weaver did not choose to run for
the U.S. Senate where we have
been so poorly represented since
the departure of the late Sen.
Wayne Morse. Weaver is one of
the few Oregon politicians who
have followed in the Morse tradi
tion of courage and leadership on
the controversial issues of the
day.
Dave McTeague
765 E. 18th #5
Eugene
Petition tuition
After a hard and confining
winter and with spring just around
the corner, restless students on
the campuses will be searching
for that elusive something that will
attract and delight their attention.
In the past, they have engaged in
such frivolous antics as seeing
how many students could fit in a
telephone booth, streaking, etc.
This year, why not try something
that is challenging as well as en
joyable, such as achieving tuition
free education through the college
level. Students would not only
have an outlet for their pent up
energies but they would also be
able to demonstrate their mastery
over the intellectual tools that they
have acquired.
This idea could be defended
from every point of view: a) It
would be easy to show that tuition
free education through the college
level is a natural extention of the
democratic process under the
equality of opportunity clause; b) it
would reduce unemployment by
keeping young people engaged in
academic pursuits for longer
periods of time instead of flooding
the job market with unskilled
labor; c) it could be shown that
tuition free education through the
college level is not onoly self sup
porting but that it is the most pro
fitable business that any nation
could involve itself in. For exam
ple, a college educated person will
earn about $5,000 a year more
during his lifetime than a non
college educated person. If this
excess earnings is taxed at only
20 percent, and the productive life
of the student is 42 years, he will
contribute $42,000 more in taxes
than a non college educated per
son.
Can such a goal be achieved?
Well, there are about six million
students on the college campuses
in the United States. Each student
has a mother, father, and at least
one aunt and uncle. This would
represent 30 million signatures
that could be gotten on petitions
requesting legislatures to provide
tuition free education through the
college level. If you could get the
high school students to join you in
this crusade, you would have
another 20 million signatures on
your petitions. If you sent these
petitions to the legislators in
Washington, and bearing in mind
that 1978 is an election year in
which all of the congressmen and
one-third of the senate is up for
election, every signature would
represent a vote.
The big question is are there
enough idealists and activists on
the campuses today who would
be willing to accept this challenge
as being worthy of their leadership
and organizational abilities?
Joseph Pasinosky
Special student
West Virginia University