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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 2, 1978)
opinion ours Day care ACTion The Amazon Cooperative Tenants (ACT) recently demon strated anew a strength of consumer organizations timely and direct response to members’ needs. ACT, which sprang up several years ago in response to chronic problems at the aging Amazon family-housing project, already has produced solid results in dealing with the University over rental and maintenance issues. Last week, ACT staked out some new terrain with its inau guration of a day-care center for two-and-a-half to six-year-olds at the project. The *60-a-month tuition fills the need of student/parents whose income falls between welfare-subsidized levels and the relative affluence necessary to pay private day-care costs for children. Unfortunately, the ACT center’s organizers found them selves unable or unwilling to take on the obstacle of more string ent, state standards required for day-care centers serving younger children and infants. Perhaps this, too, will come with time. ACT’S activist example in these areas of rent, tenant com plaints and, now, day care should stimulate interest among other resident groups — both in the dormitories and Westmoreland to form similar tenant/consumer organizations. Although the needs of the latter groups may differ from Amazon’s, ACT’S efforts have shown the potence of tenants attacking a problem themselves rather than waiting for an institu tional response. Indeed, unorganized students at Westmoreland and on campus housing units may find themselves at a disadvantage with ACT in eliciting budgetary and other consideration from a University with admittedly limited resources. Talks vs. strike Maybe it’s the conciliatory spirit of Camp David or maybe its time has just arrived, but a couple of recent developments in the University-Graduate Teaching Fellow Federation drama bring hope to weary hearts. First, the University, which has never greeted the rather novel organization of its student staffers with open arms, has agreed to renew negotiations with the GTFF. Second, the GTFF has armed itself with one of the traditional weapons of organized labor: The strike. Whether or not the two events are causally related, they represent progress of a kind in a process that has stretched nearly three years since the GTFF's conception. Having armed themselves with a strike option, the GTFF members and leaders need to ponder whether — with less than a third of the University’s GTFs in their organization — they have the strength to wield that weapon. The University’s rejection of a factfinder’s proposed solution to the contract stalement indicates that hard bargaining remains ahead. Recourse to a strike, however unattractive that seems, may be needed. For their part, non-member teaching fellows need to con sider deeply whether their needs are being met by the Univer sity. If not, their answer is doubly clear: Your union never needed you more. m,l£TC So TBITHE MBW VW£ MR 0»*3$SS HASNTSHIRKED ITS W1Y THIS aSdlONYEAR! Manager image irks In response to your recent article: "What Price Glory," we feel compelled to react to the somewhat simplistic description of the responsibilities of stu dent athletic trainers who are in the sports medicine program at the University of Oregon. The students in this co-educational program, which is sponsored by the Department of Physical Education, are screened from hundreds of applic ants who apply each year. Half are graduate and half are undergraduate students. The academic re quirements for admission are heavily science weigh ted as is the actual curriculum. While wrapping and taping are minor aspects of this program, trainers do no more running of errands or consoling of athletes than coaches, newspaper reporters or team mana gers. The major focus of this unique program is to prepare para-medical personnel to evaluate, treat and rehabilitate injuries occuring in sport. The in juries resulting from such competition are peculiar to specific sports and require special training for their proper management. The students and faculty in volved in this program work directly with medical doctors from several disciplines. These physicians are continually involved in the educational program for trainers and play an active role in the process through clinical instruction. The developing sophistication of the field of sports medicine can be measured, to some extent, by the increasing number of medical journals now dealing with this topic. The 2-3 year program in athletic training at the University of Oregon involves practical training of 600-900 clock hours which is complemented by rigorous academic preparation with the aim of pro ducing fully qualified persons to enter the athletic training profession. 1 TOO magwfep RApfAT10U'? llOICAL tiore ^ TOO flFUSAUOS AK1C /veetwa? AT rJe tffflClAL 0NHANCBP! FOR V€ hWWOM 00MB We are submitting this letter to clarify the nature of this curriculum so that those students interested in learning to wrap, tape, run errands and console ath letes may go elsewhere. Louis R. Osternig, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Program Director Russell Cagle, M.S. Clinical Instructor Richard K. Troxel, M.S. Clinical Instructor Legal aid nonsexist I read with interest and appreciation your article in the September 19, 1978, fall orientation issue of the Oregon Daily Emerald on Women’s Community Re sources. However, as one of the primary family-law attorneys at Lane County Legal Aid, I feel obliged to correct your statement regarding our office. Your article states that Lane County Legal Aid will provide a woman lawyer if requested. I regret to inform you that this is not the case. It has never been our policy to permit or encourage specific requests for attor neys, either by name, race, sex or any other particu lar characteristic. Our reason for this is simply practical. We have a limited number of attorneys, and can only handle a limited number of cases. We make every effort to assure that caseloads are evenly distributed among our attorneys, according to levels of experience and expertise in various areas. Although I have no doubt that it is important for a client to have an attorney with whom she or he is at ease, we have no wish to feed any possible myth that women clients are more com fortable with women attorneys, or that male attorneys cannot be thoroughly sensitive and supportive to a client undergoing a traumatic family situation. In point of fact, the attorney who presently handles (and for the last few years has handled) the bulk of our family law cases is a man, and I for one have nothing but praise for his abilities. Occasionally, if a client has a severe personality conflict with one of our attorneys, a change of attor ney can be made. Additionally, if a client is dissatis fied with the representation that she or he is receiv ing, we have a grievance procedure that can be followed. I hope that you can print a correction, as I would regret any persons coming to our office under the assumption that they can request a specific attorney, or can request a woman attorney, as their expecta tions will not be met. Diane DePaolis, Attorney at Law Editor’s note: The Emerald obtained its information for this story from "A Guide to Women's Resources in Eugene," which has been apprised of Ms. DePa olis' letter.
