Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 8, 1978)
Vol. 80, No. 68_fcugene, Oregon 97403 Friday, December 8, 1978 Frye takes aim on a federal seat Politicking continuei for U.S. bench spot By JACK CONDLIFFE Of the Emerald The middle-aged woman confidently leans forward, a bookshelf of law books behind her “It would be a new and dif ferent challenge. A promotion, perhaps," she says of a potential ap pointment to the U. S. District Court. Lane County Circuit Judge Helen Frye is one of three women, among the state’s 75 Circuit Court judges, who handle major civil suits and felony cases. Frye has been interested in the ap pointment since she first learned Con gress was creating two new federal Dis trict Court judgeships. More than a year ago she wrote Pres. Carter and Oregon’s four congressmen to express her interest. Frye has seen many sides of society from her seven-year tenure on the Lederer's trial. She also ordered the jail ing of 17 other women, who belonged to Brooks’ commune, as material witnes ses. Frye calls the Lederer case her most interesting criminal trial. Frye, 48, came to the legal profession late. She graduated from the University Law School at the age of 36 and earned the Paul Patterson award — the law school’s top honor for academics and public affairs. Earlier, she was a school teacher, held a variety of other jobs and she and her husband William, who are now divorced, raised three children. After graduating from law school, she One of three female circuit court judges in Oregon, Helen Frye looks toward a possible appointment to the U. S. District Court as an exciting challenge. While she acknowledges that Photo by Steve Dykes important legal breakthroughs are often made from behind the bench, she says the proper place for law-making is in the Legislature. entered private practice, concentrating mo^fy on business law for a couple of local firms. A native Oregonian, Frye participates in a number of community activities, in cluding the Lay Advisory Board of Sac red Heart Hospital. She says her main contribution to the community is the many talks she gives to civic and educa tional groups about the law. But even with her accolades, Frye’s background has not prepared her for the bench, ranging from murder cases, to youths who committed their first offense, to government agencies with complex legal problems. She handled the highly publicized murder trial of Belinda Lederer, who shot and killed a Sheriff’s deputy to allegedly protect her lover, Norman “Snake'’ Brooks. In that case, Frye moved the trial to Portalnd because of publicity from the earlier trial of Brooks, who was acquitted of murder and convicted of hampering intense politicking of a federal appoint ment. Normally, U S. senators choose new federal judges. But because both Oregon senators are Republicans, the task has fallen to often fragmented Oregon congressional delegation. (Continued on Page 3) ASUO plans to fight for evaluation release By MARY FOR AN Of the Emerald In response to the University Assembly’s decision Wednesday not to allow student access to course evaluation data, the ASUO plans to hire a full-time state lobbyist to work toward legislating release. The Incidental Fee Committee decided Thursday to give the ASUO $1,000 for stu dent access lobbying efforts, while $3,142 in ASUO and SUAB funds will also be set aside for that purpose, says Gary McMahon, student university affairs board chairer. The legislation would apply to all state system schools, says Jeff Warren, ASUO vice-president for state affairs. ‘ We've got strong support from Portland State University," Warren says. PSU cur rently provides for the public release of course evaluation information with the con sent of the instructor. Oregon State University student gov ernment voted against making student ac cess a priority, Warren adds, but Southern Oregon College is receptive to the idea. A bill to release student evaluation statis tics to the public made it though the House last year, says Warren, but died in the Se nate Education Committee by a 3-3 vote. House Bill 2702, sponsored by State Rep. Mary Burrows, R-Eugene, and others, asked for a two-part standard form of open comments and six specific questions. The comments would have been closed to pub lic access, while the data from the ques tions would have been open to the public. Warren says that Mary Burrows is still interested in supporting a bill for course evaluation data release. ‘‘Our chances are pretty good this time," says Warren. “Taxpayers are basically skeptical of public employees who are un willing to hold themselves open to fair evaluation,” he adds. McMahon says he sees little sentiment in the Assembly for an amendment to the Greenfield-Holbo legislation to provide stu dent access. “Most were against it," he says SUAB members didn't actually lobby to find faculty support for the assembly meet ing, he adds, citing this as a major reason for student access. Most SUAB members want to go “right to the top" now, McMahon adds. "They want to go above the heads of the faculty and go the state legislature." "The ironic thing," says Warren, "is that before the Greenfield-Holbo proposal, this wasn't a major priority (to the ASUO).” "This has clearly shown us that those who show up at Assembly meetings aren t willing to compromise,” says Warren. “They've forced us into a corner.'' “We re further from where we were when we started,” McMahon adds. “We lacked the foresight to meet with the conservative faction and discuss compromise. They felt they had a personal mission to protect the other faculty, even though the McLean amendment would have taken care of that." SUAB member Harold McLean's Senate-amended proposal would have al lowed faculty who were opposed to the idea of student access to file a closure form, renewable each quarter, to close their evaluations to public scrutiny. A standard state evaluation form along the lines of the Senate-amended proposal of the Ad Hoc Committee on Student Evaluation of Courses, would be accepta ble, says McMahon. There would be space for optional departmental questions, and open-ended comments would remain closed to avoid lawsuits, he says. Helmut Plant, member of the Ad Hoc Committee, says that such committees often make compromises that in the end satisfy very few. "Students feel frustrated and betrayed because their legitimate needs have not been met,” he says. The committee, which worked for over a year on course evaluations, no lonqer ex ists, says Plant. "We tried to accommodate the needs of three different groups, stu dents, faculty and the administration. Now we've gone off in one direction, leaving the other's needs unmet." today The Ducks dropped their third straight basketball game, losing by one point at the buzzer to the University of Detroit. See Page 16. The Oregon House Democra tic caucus is deadlocked over who should be the House speaker in the upcoming legisla tive session Urban liberals are battling rural conservatives and neither side is ready to give in. See Page 8. Nazi hunter Beate Klarsfeld says Germans have a moral re sponsibility to bring war criminals to trial and to defend the state of Israel. See Page 20.
