Vol. 80, No. 7
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Thursday, July 13, 1978
Shalcespeare
— in Ilshland
By JOCK HATFIELD
Of the Emerald
Ovshland’s Shakespearean fans
are a friendly lot. Their disposition
changes only when in heat or quoting.
Quoting Shakespeareans are known to
swell to enormous proportions and
commit ax murders.
Every year, since 1935, Elizabethan
groupies have been gathering together
for Ashland’s Shakespeare festival. In
creasing national lust for Shakespeare
each year has caused the festival to ex
pand from eight performances a year to
more than 200. Next year the festival will
dish out incessant Shakespeare from
March 2 to October 27.
An estimated 200,000 fans flock in
every year, dropping $10,000,000 onto
Ashland’s economy. It is therefore with
some interest that the locals regard the
Shakespeare fans’ movements. The
local paper has tried to statistically pin
the fan down. Most of them, it says, are
middle-aged college graduates from out
of the state. But this analysis leaves un
catalogued most of the Shakespearean
fans more interesting peculiarities.
Shakespeare fans usually roost in
Lithia Park. This park surrounds the out
door theater and would be a good setting
for a movie entitled 'My First Mellow.”
Here the Shakespeareans sit around and
look tragic between plays. The fan can
be easily identified by the book in his
hand. He is never without it. The book is
Shakespeare fans attentively wait for something to happen in
Ashland's outdoor theater. The theater was designed as a
replica of the Fortune theater in Shakespeare’s London. The
very sight of the theater is enough to make the spectator want
to deliver a soliloquy. This urge should be supressed.
usually a Shakespearean play, but any
thing dull and tong-winded will serve.
X
he Shakespeare groupie
will read this book for weeks on end but
will never get past Page One. If you sight
a specimen past the first page, you have
an imposter on your hands. He is a spy
sent by the CIA or an English depart
ment and should be considered danger
ous. If you come across one of these,
back away slowly and pretend you didn’t
see anything.
Each day at 2 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. the
patrons gather outside the theater for
one last look at Page One. They can be
seen with wrinkled brows, desperately
trying to make it to Page Two in time
while Elizabethan players sing dirges
around them. Once, before a play in
1951, a verified and credited tourist for
got herself and turned to Page Two of As
You Uke It, thus setting a town record.
This tourist can now be seen, stuffed,
over the mirror in the Ye Old Tavern.
When not reading, the patrons can be
found in Lithia Park doing strange things
with their eyes and offering peanuts to
each other. The first time I was offered a
peanut, I was confused. However, new
comers soon discover this is a local cus
tom. Those who turn them down are con
sidered to be either Californians or pickle
producers.
6,
1 ometimes Shakespeareans may
be spotted playing Frisbee in Lithia Park.
These have a great faith in natural order
and believe when they die their spirits go
(Continued on Page 5)
Boyd: Housing department a mixed bag
By MARY FOR AN
Of the Emerald
University Pres. William Boyd
says “the skill of our Housing De
partment has not been in the area
generally called people skills,' ”
but stresses that "just in terms of
certain kinds of efficiency, our
Housing Department would have
to get a very high rating."
Boyd cites the continued exis
tence of Amazon as evidence of
the Housing Department’s effi
ciency, saying, “Amazon exists
for people to complain about only
because our Housing Department
is more efficient than most of its
competitors. Nearly every Univer
sity of any size once had an
Amazon-type housing develop
ment — very few still have them.”
Boyd continues, “That’s because
most places either fell so far be
hind in maintenance that they had
to tear them down, or they weren’t
willing to stand the gaff that you
get when you run a place like
Amazon, and deliberately got out
of the business, thus depriving
students of cheap housing.”
"I really felt it (the recent state
housing audit) was an exonera
tion of the housing department
because a lot of charges had been
made against them, including
charges of illegal activites,” says
Boyd, "and that audit along with
the two preceding audits... de
monstrate to my satisfaction that
those charges are simply not
true.” Boyd says he hopes “those
perennial critics will take the trou
ble to read it,” and that he sees
"no evidence... in the audit of
improper personnel practices.”
He adds that “it’s a credit to the
housing department to keep
Amazon alive and not give up the
struggle against constant criti
cism.”
Boyd says some of the criticism
was justified, “and we have pro
fited by listening to it.” Changes
have been made in response to
this criticism in the way Amazon is
managed and in the maintenance
system, so that more of the
maintenance is handled locally,
says Boyd. But he feels some of
the criticism “has been repetitive
and unfair,” Boyd says. “It has
been found to be untrue and yet
the first letter of apology has yet to
reach my desk.”
Boyd says he expects no
changes in the Housing
Department s managerial style. “I
know of nothing that would
change that. It’s got its good
points and its bad points, like
every other department in the
University.”
Other issues which Boyd ad
dressed range from the future of
graduate studies at the University
to the Grateful Dead concert and
Divestment. Here are some of his
comments.
DIVESTMENT: The Oregon In
vestment Council’s refusal of
State Board’s request and related
action “directing its money mana
gers to consider favorable 54
companies which have made a
commitment to desegregation
and fair employment practices in
their dealings overseas,’’ is a
mixed disappointment, Boyd
says.
“It’s hard for me to know what
that really will amount to in the
end. I’m sorry that the State
Board's action did not prevail,
but... I’m glad that the invest
ment council stated this kind of
principle.” Boyd says the crucial
questions now are: Will following
that principle really have the same
effect as divestment? And if not,
What will be the nature of the dif
ference?
”1 would have preferred that the
State Board had been allowed to
divest itself of the stock,” says
Boyd, “for two different kind of
reasons.” The first is that Boyd
thinks “the State Board followed
careful procedures in reaching its
decision," through its committee
investigations, staff work, and ex
tensive public hearings.” Boyd
feels that “when a decision has
been made after impeccable pro
cedures have been followed, then
I have a lot of confidence that it’s
the correct decision.”
“Then I also happen personally
to agree with it,” Boyd adds, ‘ but I
hope my reasons are more pro
found than just my personal opin
ion.” The second reason Boyd
states “for being disappointed in
the way things went” is that he
likes “to see public education
have the status of virtually a fourth
branch of government.”
Then, he adds, “I like it to be as
free as possible from political con
trol and pressure, therefore I resist
and resent all subordination of the
governing body of higher educa
tion to other governmental coun
cils and controls, so I have some
governmental and philosophic
reasons for regretting the deci
sion.”
Boyd doesn’t see any legal ac
tion coming from the University,
saying, “you would have to talk to
the coalition or maybe the ASUO.
If anything came off this campus it
would come from one of those two
areas, it wouldn’t come out of the
administration.”
THE GRATEFUL DEAD CON
CERT: “You can’t possibly bring
(Continued on Page 3)