State board OKs remodeling funds
PORTLAND — University
compliance with laws prohibiting
discrimination against the hand
icapped may be easier in the
1979-81 biennium.
Accessibility for the handicap
ped was listed as the number two
priority on the Capital Construc
tion Budget approved by the
Oregon State System of Higher
Education Friday. If the budget is
approved by the legislature, the
University could receive close to
$1.8 million for construction.
Section 504 of the federal Re
habilitation Act, which came into
effect in June 1977, prohibits dis
crimination in hiring, enrolling, or
providing services to mentally and
physically handicapped persons
in federally assisted programs.
The law was passed without fund
ing, forcing the University to make
cuts in other areas of its budget.
The University has until June
1980 to provide complete pro
gram accessibility for the hand
icapped.
Other funds for Sec. 504 com
pliance may come from a reserve
fund proposal submitted to the
board. The proposal calls for fund
ing in three different areas:
• A total of $200,000 for staff
funding for all OSSHE schools.
The University's share would be
approximately $30,000.
• A $160,000 general fund to be
held by the State Board to meet
individual institutions compliance
needs related to Sec. 504. The
money would be available to fund
such services as tutors, interpret
ers and readers.
• A $40,000 central equipment
pool for the purchase of equip
ment needed to help the hand
icapped. According to Melinda
Grier, Compliance Officer for
OSSHE, the equipment would be
held centrally by the State Board.
No federal money is available to
aid University compliance. How
ever, the Health, Education and
Welfare (HEW) budget, now in
committee, could allocate as
much as $500,000 to the Univer
sity, Grief said.
Also at Friday's meeting, the
state board, in its 15-minute-long
consideration of capital construc
tion, approved $1.56 million to
continue the University’s six-year
remodeling program.
In approving its first construc
tion priority, the board gave the
University funds to help finish the
program, which thus far has in
cluded major additions to the
School of Music and Gerlinger
Hall. Projects that may now be
undertaken might include installa
tion of sprinkling systems in Es
slinger and Fenton halls.
Also among the first 15 priorities
approved by the board were funds
for additions and alterations to the
University's School of Architec
ture and Allied Arts, given ninth
priority by the board, and
campus-wide utility improve
ments in steam service, given
eleventh priority.
However, Ray Hawk University
vice-president for administration
and finance, said priority listings
were not final, noting that the legis
lature might elect to move up the
utility improvements.
Hawk also said that it was un
likely for the final budget to include
funds past the first nine priorities,
putting the architecture and utility
improvement funds in jeopardy.
daily emerald
\J An Independent Newspaper
Vol. 80, No. 12
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Tuesday, August 1, 1978
With temperatures high and skies cloudless, the Willamette River provides relief as well
as fun for these inner-tubers. Last year at this time, the tubes would have dragged bottom
***' .^/\^> , •■ *-?**•<* f- '\' s' ^
Photo by Greg Gawlowski
instead of floating - the drought slowed the river to a trickle.
Women athletes edge toward parity
By MARY FORAN
Of the Emerald
Women’s intercollegiate athletics will
make some gains toward equity with the
men’s athletics program in the coming year,
according to a Title IX progress report sub
mitted to HEW last week by Ray Hawk,
vice-president for administration and fi
nance and Title IX compliance officer.
The report says that two coaches and a
clerical assistant will be added to the
women's athletic program staff, that
$75,000 will be available for tuition scholar
ships for women athletes next year, up from
$11,000 in 1977-78, and that women ath
letes will be using enlarged locker facilities
and expanded central equipment and sup
plies facility in the once males-only McAr
thur Court.
Such improvements are the result of the
University's effort to comply with Title IX
regulations by the July 21, 1978 federal
dealine, the date on which this third and
final corrective action plan was released.
Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis
of sex in educational programs and ac
tivities assisted by federal funding.
The University was the target of a com
plaint filed in 1977 by Robert and Barbara
Aiken, alleging discrimination on the basis
of sex in the University’s intercollegiate ath
letics program and questioning the
University’s progress toward Title IX com
pliance.
Since then, the University has done more
to comply with Title IX than many schools in
the Northwest, according to Becky Sisley,
director of women’s athletics in the newly
merged Department of Intercollegiate Ath
letics. “Most others aren’t doing reports,”
she says, adding that the University ad
ministration is more involved with Title IX
compliance than administrations at “most
other schools our size.”
Women’s teams are now provided shoes
and practice jerseys and can fly to out-of
state meets like the men’s teams, whereas
before they had to drive, according to Sis
ley. Grants-in-aid to women athletes
started in 1977-78 but are limited to tuition
and fees due to AIAW (Association for In
tercollegiate Athletics for Women)
guidelines.
The 13-page progress report describes
steps already taken since the January re
port plus other action the University will take
to insure compliance with Title IX provisions
on athletics. These include the planned de
velopment of a softball diamond and
discus-hammer and field hockey practice
areas on the 18th Avenue and Agate Street
fields.
Also planned is the construction of a
glass-enclosed display case for women's
trophies which will be located in McArthur
Court near the existing display cases for
men, which the report says will “visually
represent the consolidation of athletics into
a single administrative structure.” Now
women’s athletic awards are scattered in
offices and other obscure areas where the
public is not likely to find them.
Sisley says that the display case idea has
been over a year in coming, adding that
even though there will only be one display
case for all women’s sports, “It’s a start.’’
There are display cases for each men’s
sport, but Sisley says that is due to the
University’s “long years of history’’ in men’s
athletics.
According to the report, an audit of the
coverage of athletic events by physicians
will be carried out by the athletic medical
staff next year to determine whether or not
there is discrimination in the coverage of
men's and women’s events. This was pro
posed after much discussion of the subject
caused a statement concerning “high-risk
events" to be deleted from the report until
further data is reviewed.
Sisley says that the consolidation of
men's and women’s athletics will give
women better support services and will help
with budget planning. When women’s athle
tic offices are finally moved into the com
bined administrative offices in McArthur
Court, “the channels for communication will
be there, says Sisley. “Just by osmosis
things will improve.”
Women s athletics are “going in the di
rection of mens athletics,” says Sisley,
which means it is more concerned with re
venue production. This brings about other
concommittant changes, Sisley says, “like
the pressure to buy blue-chipper athletes
and the pressure on selection and perfor
mance." But that’s the coaches' responsi
bility, says veteran softball coach Sisley,
adding, There s evolving greater oppor
tunities for women in sports.'