Vol. 82, No.74
r
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Thursday, January 8, 1981
Students eating in the newly remodeled Fishbowl
find the choice seats to be on the upper level
Photo by Erich Boekelheide
but the lower level is the only part of the facility
accessible to physically limited students.
Wheelchair access trips up new Fishbowl
By PAUL TELLES
Ol the EmaraM
The University violated state laws
regarding handicapped accessibility to
public buildings when it remodeled the
EMU Fishbowl, a handicapped student
charged Wednesday.
Chester Faller, director of the Phy
sically Limited Union of Students, filed
a complaint with the University’s Affir
mative Action Office after finding that
wheelchair-confined students can’t get
to the upper level of Fishbowl seating.
Many handicapped students have
come to PLUS with complaints about
the situation, Faller says.
The seating arrangement makes it
twice as hard for handicapped students
to find seating during peak periods of
Fishbowl use, he adds.
‘‘They took an accessible building
and made it inaccessible,” Faller says,
comparing this segregation to dividing
McArthur Court into male, female and
black seating sections.
Administration officials reacted cau
tiously to the complaint, saying they
wanted more time to consider the
complaint before making a public re
sponse. However, the officals seemed
to feel the problem could be resolved
quickly.
Although there are differing opinions
about whether the renovation violates
the law, University Planner Dave Rowe
says, ‘‘There is no problem about get
ting this resolved. The question is how
we’re going to resolve it."
The University was unaware that any
one would interpret the renovation as
a violation of the law until after the
project had reached its maximum limit
on change orders, Rowe says.
"It goes to show that those of us that
don’t use a wheelchair everyday aren’t
in the right place in our thinking” about
handicapped issues, says Gerry Mo
seley, associate provost for student
affairs.
EMU Director Adell McMillan, the
person directly responsible for the
Fishbowl planning, was out of town and
unavailable for comment.
But Bob Schutz, assistant EMU dir
ector, says the Fishbowl was designed
so that wheelchair access could be
provided at “minimal cost,” if it proved
necessary.
Despite these kind words, Faller says
the Fishbowl issue "is a key test of the
University’s willingness to make the
University accessible.”
The University has fallen behind
schedule on accessibility projects and
isn’t likely to meet the June deadline
that was set for such projects in 1977,
he says.
The federal and state governments
have been in conflict over who has to
pay for accessibility projects, Moseley
says. As a consequence, the University
hasn't received the funding necessary
to meet its goals.
The Legislature appropriated $1.8
million for University handicapped
projects, but withdrew it during the
special budget-cutting session in the
summer, counselor Chris Goodrich
says.
“They said they would be able to give
us the money next year, but my attitude
is ‘We’ll wait and see.’ ”
McConnaughey s proposals fail m Senate
By MARIAN GREEN
Of ttia Emerald
The University Senate shot down both of Biology
Prof. Bayard McConnaughey’s faculty equity motions at
its meeting Wednesday.
McConnaughey’s first motion asked the University
Administration to give equal dollar raises instead of
percentage increases in each individual's current pay
when giving “across-the-board” raises.
Senate members voted 20-8 against the motion
with 2 abstentions.
McConnaughey said his motion is a “common
sense” measure designed to prevent “widening of the
gaps in salaries at each rank level further and further
until some adjustment must be made.”
"I think that many people who have attained these
ranks have already made their contribution,” McCon
naughey said of senior-ranked professors. “They’re
doing very good, necessary work, but in the long run,
the strength of the University will be helped by the lower
ranks.”
He added that younger faculty may be encouraged
Photo by Erich Boekelheide
Bayard McConnaughey
to stay at the University if such a policy is established.
"An assistant professor spends almost all of his
money on living expenses—these are the expenses
that have gone up the most due to inflation — while full
professors can afford to invest their salaries," McCon
naughey said.
But Acting University Pres. Paul Olum disagreed
with McConnaughy on the motion’s attractiveness to
faculty members.
Olum remarked that while the University competes
well with the 23 American Association of Universities
schools in starting salaries, senior professor salaries
aren’t as competitive.
"We might have trouble keeping those faculty
members," Olum said of the motion. "It could destroy
us competitively with other universities.”
In addition, Olum said the current policy does not
rely on percentage across-the-board increases only.
"What we’ve done in the past has been partly
across-the-board increases percentage-wise, partly
merit increases and partly equal dollar amounts at each
rank.”
“Redistribution isn’t going to solve the problem
anyway,” said Senate member George Struble, a com
puter and information sciences professor. “I think the
salaries for cost-of-living increases are disgracefully
low.”
Continued on Page 16