dailyemerald
Vol. 82, No. 77
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Tuesday, January 13, 1981
Mayor: Urban pains
won’t hobble city
By RICHARD WAGONER
Ot the Emerald
Diversifying employment to
help offset Eugene’s sagging
wood products industry will be a
top priority of Eugene city
government, said Eugene
Mayor Gus Keller Monday night
in his annual State of the City
address.
“We realize economic prob
lems are present even in
Eugene,” Keller told an almost
full city council chambers at the
council’s first substantial meet
ing of 1981. "What we are ex
periencing on local levels is be
ing experienced in every condo,
apartment and house — difficult
economic problems.”
In its recent goal-setting ses
sion, the council set em
ployment campaigns to bolster
the city’s teetering economy as
one of its highest priorities.
But employment isn’t the only
problem facing the city this
year.
Effective land-use planning,
energy conservation and local
governmental cooperation are
all difficult tasks facing the city,
Keller said.
These problems are common
among cities throughout
Oregon and the nation, Keller
said, and they mean that
Eugene has plunged into a
modern metropolitan future.
“And unlike some cities that
are drowning, we’re swimming
very nicely," Keller said.
Planning issues will become
increasingly important if
Eugene hopes to maintain a
“town-sized” livability as the
city reaches urban proportions,
he said.
Alluding to a mandatory home
weatherization plan now being
considered by the council,
Keller said energy conservation
legislation is necessary to en
sure a healthy energy and
economic future.
Keller also called for more
local government cooperation
in the future, adding that as the
urban area grows, local
governments have more prob
lems in common.
In addition to outlining prob
lems ahead, Keller also praised
the city for its accomplishments
in 1980:
• Eugene negotiated the
construction of a new 12-story
Hilton hotel to be built down
town next to a new conference
center. The city also established
a visitors and convention bur
eau in conjunction with Spring
field and local chambers of
commerce.
• The city is now a prime
sponsor for the Comprehensive
Employment and Training Act
program that Keller said will ex
pand employment and training
opportunities for city residents.
• The council passed a
smoking ordinance to regulate
tobacco smoke in public places.
• Eugene, Springfield and
Lane County engineered a me
tropolitan plan update to help
guide local governments in land
use planning decisions.
• Eugene voters approved a
new tax base that will give the
city three years to build core
budgets on already approved
amounts of money.
In addition to giving his
thoughts on Eugene’s past and
future, Keller also said goodbye
to two former city councilors
and welcomed two new
members.
Keller praised former coun
cilors Jack Delay and Scott
Lieuallen for their four years of
service to Eugene. Delay and
Lieuallen will be replaced by
Mark Lindberg and Cynthia
Wooten who were elected to the
council in November and sworn
in as councilors last week.
Mayor Gus Keller
Photo by David W Zahn
No suspect in dorm rape
Police request ‘lock-in’
at University dorms
By BILL MANNY
Of ttw Emerald
Campus Security and
Eugene Police have stepped
up 24-hour dormitory security
in the wake of the third cam
pus rape this academic year.
“We’re asking for a com
plete lock-in,” says Eugene
police Sgt. Rick Allison,
requesting that students lock
all doors and windows in the
dormitories.
A University woman was
raped in her Walton Housing
Complex room early Saturday
morning.
“We have some leads,” says
Allison, the director for cam
pus iaw enforcement. He says
police are conducting inter
views in their investigation, but
have turned up “nothing con
crete.”
The weekend rape was the
second such incident in a
University dormitory and the
third on campus since the fall
term began.
In late fall term, a rapist at
tacked a woman watching
television in the basement of
the Bean dormitory complex.
Earlier, a University woman
was raped near the physical
plant.
In the 1979-80 school year,
there were no campus rapes.
The previous year there was
one.
The rising incidence of on
campus rape has women
alarmed and local law enfor
cement and crime prevention
officials worried.
Police believe the rapist,
described as a stocky white
man with short, curly brown
hair, climbed into the woman's
upper-story room through the
window by way of the Walton
Housing Complex roof.
He woke the woman at
about 3 a m., raped her under
physical threat and fled the
room through the window.
The accused rapist was
thought to be in his early 20s.
He wore a light shirt or jacket
and dark pants — possibly
jeans.
The third rape on campus is
frustrating for those whose job
it is to provide protection for
the Univeristy’s large popula
tion.
“Every time there is a major
crime on campus, it brings it
home,” says Allison of the
campus crime problem,
“Initially, they (worried
students) take precautions.
Then eventually they let their
guard down, and it happens
again."
STOP
02
Allison attributes much of
the problem to the attitude that
"it can’t happen to me.”
But, says Allison, that atti
tude is remiss. Rape is a crime
of opportunity, and can hap
pen to anyone at any time.
Marcia Morgan, a crime and
rape prevention specialist with
Lane County, concurs.
“Rapists, as well as most
criminals, are looking for an
opportunity,” she says. She
urges her audiences to “think
like a criminal” — in an effort to
outwit potential rapists or
thieves.
She recommends that both
men and women keep dorm
windows and doors locked —
Graphic by Sioux Anderson
because they can be prevent
ed.
“Because the rooms are so
small, it's easy to make them
safe," says Allison. Putting a
simple dowel in the window
and checking windows and
doors to make sure locking
mechanisms work are ways to
stop rapists.
Dorms and nearby Universi
ty neighborhoods represent
an area with a large number of
young women, says Allison.
They make “easy pickin's" for
sex criminals.
Allison said each dormitory
receives a “personal safety/
rape prevention’’ lecture
each term, in order for officials
to contact new students.
‘Every time there's a major crime
on campus it brings it home. ’
to prevent both rape and theft.
Morgan said people may
have breathed a sigh of relief
at John Schroeder's capture
— but when rapes continued
they realized there were other
rapists who were still at large
But Allison believes that, for
various reasons, women are
lax preventing rape.
“People have other con
cerns beside crime preven
tion,” he says, be it studying or
partying. “People have always
been lax.”
Rapes in dormitory rooms
are especially regrettable,
Winter term lectures will be
given next week.
Allison stresses the neces
sity of reporting any sus
picious activity.
"We may get 20 false
alarms," he said. "But that one
time...”
"Don’t be afraid to report it,”
says Morgan on the same
theme. “Even if it doesn't pan
out."
Rape on campus is not the
only problem. Crime activity is
up nation-wide, Allison says,
and continues to worsen as
the economy continues its
dismal slide.