Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 18, 1978)
editorial Bain’s the right choice When the voters of Lane County voted to make county offices non-partisan, the idea was to make the offices a-political. But it hasn’t worked out that way — that's easy to see in the primary election for County Assessor. Political attacks have been flying during the election campaign, especially between incumbent Ken Bylund and challenger Bill Dwyer. Only one candidate has remained relatively above the fray: Bill Bain. Because Bain strikes us as the most level-headed and non-political of the three candidates, we support him in his bid for election. We are concerned a bit about Bain’s political support. He has been funded by some large business interests and was asked to run by Commissioner Archie Weinstein’s aide George Kramer. But we think that most of this support comes from the desire to elect someone who will not drag politics into the assessors office with him on election day. Bylund has been obviously political during his tenure as assessor. He has capitalized on some of his assess ment decisions, especially his reduction of the Springfield assessments, and he openly states that he would like to challenge Weinstein for the county commissioner seat Weinstein holds now. Dwyer is an old stalwart of county democratic party politics; he is the head of the County Democratic Central Committee. As assessor, Dwyer, we feel, would carry with him some old political debits and credits. The assessor’s office should be as free of politics as possible — a vote for either Bylund or Dwyer would insure that politics would be one of the central problems of the office. Bain is technically the most qualified for the office. He also seems well-suited to management of employees — a particularly important part of the job in light of the charges of Bylund’s ineptitude as a manager. Bain will make a fine manager and a fine administrator. And, of course, those are essential for a fine assessor. Council: Heath, Haws Miller and Johnston Four Eugene City Council posts are up for elections this May, and the candidates for those posts represent a variety of interests and ideas. The future of Eugene is as nearly placed in the hands of the city council as it is any where. The people elected to the council will be deciding how much the city should grow, which direction to grow, and what kind of transportation, housing and parkways we will have in the city. The myriad related issues will be coming before the council regularly, and the people on the council will deter mine the outcome of the issues. With all this in mind, our endorsements this year go to Jim Johnston of Ward I, Gretchen Miller of Ward 4, Liz Heath of Ward 5 and Eric Haws of Ward 6. The ward one race presents two well-qualified candi dates, Johnston and Emily Schue. Either will carry a sin cere concern for the future of the city to the council. But we believe Johnston has a deeper knowledge of the issues. He has been involved in city politics through the city’s neighborhood group program, and has carried a strong dedication to the public interest in that capacity. Bob Lyford, the third candidate, is also sincere, but we believe he doesn’t have enough knowledge of the complex city issues to make him effective as a council member. The choice for Ward 2 is clear. Gretchen Miller de cided to run for the office because she disagrees with the views of her opponent, Doug McKay. That’s a reason we understand, because we disagree with much of McKay’s platform as well. McKay, who has holdings in the Oakway Mall, comes from a distinctly business background. There’s really nothing wrong with that, but we feel a non business oriented person is on a more solid base for mak ing objective decisions. Miller, a lawyer, is capable of doing just that. Bill Hamel, incumbent Ward 5 council member, has been quiet and not very forceful as a council member. He is a member of the conservative voting block on the council. Hamel is honest and sincere, but it’s time for more dynamic viewpoints on the city's governing body. Liz Heath strikes us as being a leader, one who will keep the city’s best interests at heart. Eric Haws is also an incumbent seeking reelection. His opponents, Ted Brandt and Harley Spencer, can’t even approach him in terms of intelligence, savvy and indepen dence. Haws describes himself (accurately) as a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. That’s a fine combination, one which qualifies Haws well for the position. A A Letters Clarification I am writing in reference to your May 11, 1978, article on the Energy Facilities Siting Council hearings entitled “Proposal May Lead to Trojan Closure." The suggestion I made was a bit more complicated than: “for every fuel rod that comes into the State, a spent fuel rod should go out of the State.” The Trojan operators are requesting permission to enlarge the spent fuel pool capacity by in stalling compact storage equip ment. If Portland General Electric receives permission to install the dxtra capacity and Federal interim spent fuel storage is late coming online, but is “soon” to be com pleted, P.G.E. may want to rent space in Trojan’s spent fuel stor age pool to other utilities around the nation whose spent fuel pools are full. Those other utilities would be desperate for spent fuel storage space. This activity would fit into Submitted by Raymond Nelson Graduate Teaching Rep. and Olivia Clark, Pres., Sociology Graduate Student Forum As a result of tactics reminiscent of the Water gate era, Dean Baldwin is currently faced with a nearly impossible hiring decision for the Department of Sociology. The source of his dilemma stems from the unprincipled and undemocratic actions of a minority of the Department. This minority, the self styled “Gang of Nine” has showed incredible arro gance in flaunting the progressive and open tradi tions of our department. This state of affairs results from what should have been an exciting task in finding replacements for current faculty facing retirement or promotion. Oregon’s national reputation as a progressive and well-balanced Department on the cutting edge of the discipline drew over four hundred diverse and well qualified applicants. Many were scholars of national and international reputation, including a Pulitzer Prize nominee. After many weeks of intense deliberation this impressive list of candidates was narrowed to sev eral top contenders whose nomination was presented to the Department for possible invitation. At this point the Gang of Nine began their perversion of our democratic principles. They had previously agreed amongst themselves that under no circumstances would another Marxist be hired into the Department. Basing their actions upon this committment this group has stopped any rational discussion of candi dates’ qualifications. It is worth commenting upon their definition of Marxism. In this context it appears to have two mean ings. First, it applies to anyone whose interests or sympathies both academically and politically tran scend the most narrow and traditional concept of the m(iw m wmm mow amiwju$ Vtmm FOR US 10 UAD1VIEMIN THE STRU&li AGAINST IMPERAUSTIC CJTOS2QNJ the Attorney General's office s de finition of ‘‘temporary storage.” My suggestion to the EFSC is, if they approve compact storage at Trojan, then they should also re commend to the state legislature that they enact a law to head off the possibility that Trojan might become a temporary spent fuel handling site. Transhipment of spent fuel between reactor sites increases the possibilities of acci dents, hyjackings and exposure For a full treatment of the spent fuel problem, see NUREG — 0404, Vol. 1 & 2, “Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement on Handling and Storage of Spent Light Water Power and Reactor Fuel.” I was disappointed that in his article Russell Linebarger did not point out the absurdity of holding hearings in a room where it was impossible to hear. Dan Solitz 892 Sprague, Eugene Law twisted In my opinion, the law is often twisted in ways to suit the person who wants it twisted. In the case of divestment of the state's stocks in South Africa, I feel the law has been twisted to suit certain in terests of people that stand to make a lot of money. Although I do not know the complete law regard ing divestment, I am receiving mixed signals and feel very un comfortable about the way the whole affair has been handled As soon as the board made the decision to divest stock in South Africa, Attorney General Jim Red den raised the question that it might be illegal for the board to assume this power. One gets the feeling that Redden was prepared for this decision and wanted to put the whole thing on ice for awhile. Now, after things have cooled down a bit, he announces that the board does not have the final say on how the stocks are handled I hope feverently that his deci sion will not go unchallenged. Jim Johnston Freshman, Undeclared -opinion-—■ Perversion of principles field. Second, it is anyone whose work or posture favours active student participation in the life of the Department. The deadlock in the Department brought about by a minority is strongly reminiscent of McCarthyism in the '50s, and is not isolated to the University of Oregon. In Maryland, Bertell Oilman, a distinguished political scientist who was invited to be the new chairperson of the University of Maryland’s political science department is now facing problems from the Regents for his, "avowed Marxism." In Berkeley, the closing of the School of Criminology a few years ago set off a wave of political firings and controversial hiring decisions in the University of California system of higher education. Once again, at our own univer sity, last fall the Economics Department refused to rehire Margaret Simeral on grounds that had clear political and sexist overtones. As graduate students in the Department, we represent many diverse perspectives both politically and academically. We have never argued that non-Marxists should be excluded simply because of their political beliefs, and regardless of their qualifica tions. The central question forus is that of academic freedom. Whether or not the current hiring con troversy is resolved to include a Marxist we strongly object to the actions of the Gang of Nine in their attempt to subvert the democratic procedures of the Department. We have been hesitant before now to wash the dirty linen of the Department in public. However, we feel that the issues involved and the principles at stake demand university-wide discussion. We reiter ate our support for the Chairman of the Department in his effort to maintain the open and collegial tradi tions to which we have all been accustomed despite the destructive stone-walling of this narrow-minded minority.
