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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (July 20, 1978)
Registration verifications will be av ailable Friday, on the second floor of Oregon Hall. Students should pick them up to make sure any errors in their class schedules can be corrected before the final grade lists are sent to instructors. Vol. 80, No. 9 Eugene, Oregon 97403 Thursday, July 20, 1978 Tenure Willard challenges limited appointment By MELODY WARD Of the Emerald Ed. Note: The recently filed class-action affirmative action suit raises several questions about employment practices both at the University and throughout the state higher education sys tem. This is the first of several arti cles to examine a particular as pect of those practices. As litiga tion proceeds, the Emerald will explore others. University Affirmative Action Di rector Myra Willard was not fired from her position, says a member of her tenure evaluation commit tee. Ronald Rousseve, develop mental studies professor, says the committee recommendations were an exception to the standard ”up or out” procedure followed in tenure cases. Willard filed a $4 million class action employment suit against the state board, University and several state system officials in cluding the Chancellor and Uni versity Pres. William Boyd two v\teeks ago with the U.S. District Court in Portland. Among the charges detailed in the complaint are allegations that state system officials conspired against Willard to coerce her into not seeking administrative tenure and that they retaliated after she refused to withdraw her requests for tenure by denying it. Willard concludes in her complaint that she was thereby terminated as of June 1979. “What it means is that she had been taken off the tenure track,” explains Rousseve. “But she’s really not out in the cold, because she was offered a fixed-term ap pointment." Tenure is usually an “up or out” situation, and when it is refused the employee is generally termi nated when the current contract expires. “She didn’t go up, but neither did the committee say she should be given a notice of termination,” Rousseve explains. “The ar rangements worked out for her constitute an exception to the up or out rule. The suit was quite an unexpected shock.” Prior to 1975, administrators were hired with the possibility of achieving indefinite tenure after a five-year period. But the chancel lor recortffinended and the state board approved a general policy change for the entire state sys tem, stipulating that tenure be li mited to persons serving in academic divisions. Because Willard had been hired before the policy change, she had the option to either continue on tenure track under a “grand mother” clause or switch to a fixed term, renewable contract, Rous seve says. The policy changed principally because the original reason for tenure was to insure a professor's academic freedom, Rousseve notes. Though Willard's committee re (Continued on Page 2) |—Today Twice in just as many weeks, Republican nominee for governor Victor Atiyeh re fused to say how he feels about the tax revolt that looms over the state. He did. however, say how he felt about other cam paign issues. See Page 4. If you’ve ever wondered what it was like to run through the Garden of Eden, the Wil lamettans may just have some thing for you. What they have to offer goes far beyond the average summer camp ex perience. See Pages 6 and 7. There's a group in Califor nia that is mourning the loss of their state to a new “feudal order” because of the victory of Proposition 13. Although there isn’t much they can do about Oregon, they’d still like to help. See Page 8. Nearly six years since he was imprisoned on a question able charge by the government of Indira Gandhi, Anandamurti, leader of an Indian socio religious organization, has been released. His followers worldwide are rejoicing at the news that he and his suppor ters are free. See Page 9. Photo by Greg GawtowsKi If it's raining right now, don’t blame us. It was summer once this summer, as you can clearly see by these people enjoying themselves on the cool river during one of the infrequent hot days of July. Things may change soon, however. Fall is just around the corner. Accessibility Lack of funding delays University in opening programs to handicapped by MARY FORAN Of the Emerald A lack of funding to provide for the special needs of handicapped students has delayed University compliance with federal anti discrimination regulations, ac cording to Shirley Wilson, director of student services and coor dinator of services to handicap ped students. Wilson has been part of the task force committee charged with evaluating the University’s com pliance with Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act, which came into effect last June. The regulation prohibits discrimination in hiring, enrolling, or providing services to mentally and physi cally handicapped persons in fed erally assisted programs. “We need more money and time to comply," Wilson said. The law was passed without funding provisions, she added, forcing the University to find the money in its already strained budget which cuts into other student services. “Money is far short of our needs on every level.” According to Myra Willards, af firmative action director, Section 504 compliance officer and chairer of the University’s self evaluating 504 task force, many programs are accessible to the handicapped while others need major accommodation changes. University Pres. William Boyd will receive the committee’s report next week, which identifies de ficiencies in University com pliance and makes recommenda tions for affirmative action to en sure that the handicapped are no longer excluded from University programs by “architectural or at titudinal barriers." In compiling the report, the task force looked at University hous ing, admissions, financial aid, de partmental requirements and em ployment policies, and inter viewed department representa tives concerning their knowledge of Section 504 and their legal ob ligation to comply with the regula tion, said Willard. The task force consists of fa culty, classified employees and students, some of whom are hand icapped and belong to such or ganizations as the Eugene Human Rights Commission for the Handicapped, ALERT, and several wheelchair athletic as sociations. Committee members were di vided into two subgroups, one on employment accessibility, headed by Ralph Rosa and later Carole Johansen, and one on program accessibility, headed by Karen Al varado and later Shirley Wilson. The subgroups worked separately to identify and evaluate problems in their areas. In addition, a University plan ning office group assessed the degree of University inaccessibil ity. The group was responsible for the “facilities transition plan” which Willard said is designed to remove architectural barriers that exclude the handicapped from participating in University pro grams. The group recommended the remodeling ot facilities and the investigation of new ways of ac commodating the handicapped. Some special problems noted by the report are structural bar riers posed by some campus facilities such as Villard Hall, with its specialized broadcasting equipment that is inaccessible to the handicapped. Allen Hall, which houses the journalism school and Susan Campbell Hall, home of both the Career Planning and Placement Center and the Counseling Center (Continued on Page 3)
