Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 1978)
Fager defends rights of student press "There is a growing climate of censorship hovering over school newspapers," a press rights ad vocate told a group of about 65 student journalists Thursday night at Allen Hall. Christopher Fager, former di rector of the Student Law Press Center in Washington, D.C. and a leading defender of the rights of student newspapers, spoke on the rights of today's student press. "The more high school presses become meaningful and get read, the more censorship is enforced." he said. Fager used as an exam ple of a Pecos, Texas school where a principal refused to allow a student to publish a second school newspaper because the school already had one." Fager recently argued a case in Virginia in which a student news paper established that school administrators :ould not control the content of the paper even though they funded its publication. “There is a general decline in knowledge of organization and operation of the government by adolescents," said Fager. “Young people are not reading the estab lished press, and are not aware of their First Amendment rights.” “Democrats for Lausmann” answer Weaver campaigner By KEVIN HARDEN Of the Emerald A co-leader of 'Democrats for Lausmann" says controversy sur rounding his group is a political character assassination attempt. Bob Gorman, who heads the group with fellow University politi cal science grad student David Mason, added attacks on the group are nothing more than an attempt to discredit his group by workers for 4th District Con gressman Jim Weaver. Mason made virtually the same state ment when he responded to ques tioning earlier this week. The group's validity came into question earlier this week when Weaver's campaign manager, Joe Rutledge, said Gorman and Mason had become paid mem bers of Lausmann's staff after they were denied positions with the Weaver campaign. Both Gorman and Mason are paid $300 monthly to run Lausmann’s Eugene office. The "Democrats for Lausmann" group was started at the end of Sep tember as part of a volunteer pro gram to gather support for the Re publican challenger. Gorman said he and Mason ap proached Rutledge as members of a professional political research group designed to aid candidates during the 1978 election. The group was not looking for paid staff positions, he said. "At no time did we discuss that we should try to get a job on the Weaver staff,'" Gorman said. Gorman's and Mason's re search group was seeking a con tract for its services with Weaver's staff, he said. They were also negoitating a similar contract with Lausmann at the time of the Weaver meeting, Gorman said. Their motivation for joining the Lausmann staff came from the "type of campaign Weaver's staff was running,” Gorman said. That campaign includes targeting op ponents for harassment, he said. Gorman and Mason decided to join Lausmanns after they learned Weaver’s staff had sing led out Medford businessman Norman Peterson for harassment. Peterson, head of the Forest Edu cation and Energy Institute, told Gorman he had received several threatening telephone calls from people connected to Weaver’s staff. The FEEI is a private Southern Oregon Program that trains un employed workers in timber indus try skills. Lausmann has publicly supported the program during his campaign. The threats were made be cause Peterson had received a $10,000 grant from Lausmanns plywood mill in Medford to con tinue the FEEI program, Gorman said. That grant was interpreted as a political payoff by Lausmann for Peterson's support, he exp lained. " We decided that because of SOMEWHERE TO TURN... T M he Office of Student Advocacy (OSA). an ASUO funded agency, is located in the basement of the old half of the EMU. room 16D SA director Don Chalmers acts as the ombudsperson in grievances between students and the University, student employers, and state agencies. Cases commonly handled range from residency disputes to charges of alledged hiring or housing discrimination. T A he Legal Services Division provides other professional services through a full time attorney; Chuck Spinner. Chuck wifl help students with name changes, divorces, incorporation, etc. A Iso available is the Student Defender Division. Third year law students working with Chuck act as legal representatives in Student Court, and, in select cases, accom pany low income students in crimi nal proceedings at the discretion of the attorney. SA is also available for speaking engagements on issues of student rights. that incident, this was no place for us to be working,” he explained. “That was the motive for our move, not money.” Gorman explained that he and Mason wouldn’t disucss the "Democrats for Lausmann” group again because they wanted to “get back to the real issues" of the campaign. iT Kliban’s here for Fall T-shirts: various designs and sizes from children’s on up to men’s extra large. $5.95 to $9.95 Tiny Footprints: Kliban’s newest book of intrigue and wit. $2.95 Cat Calendar for 1979: filled with all new designs, for all new laughs. $3.95 Plus Cat Notecards, posters, and all of Kliban’s famous books. Perfect gifts! Perfect laughs! Upstairs In THE TRADEBOOK DEPARTMENT uo BOOKSTORE 13th & Kincaid 686-4331 Photo by Keith Allen "1 Christopher Fager
