dailyemerald
Vol. 82, No. 78
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Wednesday, January 14, 1981
Ignored repair blamed in dorm rape
Photo by Steve Dykes
Some University dorm rooms on upper floors allow easy access through win
dows
By BILL MANNY
01 tha Emerald
Despite repeated requests, University
physical plant personnel failed to repair a
window lock on the dormitory room
where a female student was raped early
Saturday, two students said Tuesday.
Police believe the rapist entered through
the window.
The physical plant repaired the win
dow later that day.
Eight complaints were registered fall
term with the University physical plant to
repair the window’s locking mechanism,
Walton-Adams resident assistant Lisa
Chase said.
The latch was loose throughout fall
term, she said, and fell off during finals
week, Chase said
“The physical plant is famous for not
doing what they’re asked to do,” an
angry Chase said.
“I hope to God somebody gets their
butts sued off."
David Clarke, chairman of the Carson
Earl presidents’ council, charged in a
letter to the Emerald Tuesday that “the
latch on the woman’s window was not
unlatched, but altogether missing.”
A woman has been raped due to an
incompetent and negligent Housing
Dept.," he said.
"Something like that is absurd,”
Clarke said later.
Housing Department officials Dick
Romm and Larry Spencer said records
show the physical plant had repaired the
window.
A work order was dated Sept. 29,1980,
the officials said
"According to the work order,"
Spencer said, “it had been done.”
Chase said complaints continued long
after Sept. 29.
According to Chase and Clarke, the
raped woman’s second-story window is
located just above the roof connecting
the 10 wings of the Walton complex. In
warmer weather, students sunbathe on
the roof, about four feet below the
second-floor window.
Eugene police Sgt. Rick Allison admit
ted the window latch had been broken
the night of the rape
A short list of suspects has been com
piled, Allison said.
Police are searching for a stocky white
man with short, curly brown hair.
They said the rapist, thought to be in
his early 20s, woke the woman at about 3
a m. and raped her under physical threat
He fled through the window.
The rapist wore a light shirt or jacket
and dark pants or jeans, police said
Allison said he didn't think the Univer
sity was responsible.
"I don’t think the campus can be held
liable for that," he said.
Housing officials said they knew of no
precedent and wouldn’t comment on the
liability of the University in the case.
But lawyer Charles Spinner, director of
University Legal Services, said there may
be grounds for an "assertable claim” if
the window latch was missing.
"But whether it would hold up in court
is another matter," he said. "It’s an
emerging area of law, and at this point
it’s unclear.”
Spinner said there are remarkable
parallels with a case his private law firm
is currently handling.
In that case, a woman is suing her
landlord for faulty locks. She was raped
— in front of her children — at gunpoint.
Oregon landlord-tenant laws require
landlords to provide a "working lock," he
said. But exactly what the term means is
ambiguous.
Spinner said the state’s landlord-ten
ant laws do not apply to students living in
a dormitory.
Chase said she assumed the latch had
been repaired over Christmas break.
She said problems on the first floor
were quickly repaired because they were
seen as security problems, but second
floor repairs were delayed.
Spencer said that first floor repairs are
seen "as emergencies,” but that upper
level repairs are not "placed on the
backburner."
Program conflict kills course
By LAUREL STRAND
Of fh« Emerald
Controversy over the ethnic studies program fall
term has left the program in "a sort of suspension,”
says Barre Toelken, Folklore and Ethnic Studies Pro
gram director.
The most immediate effect of the “suspension” is
Prof. Sharon Sherman’s decision not to teach ES 102,
the second in a three-course introductory survey.
"It got to the point where I was spending an awful
lot of time (dealing with the controversy) and not getting
anything else done,” Sherman says.
At public meetings last term, minority students
claimed last summer’s merger of the ethnic studies and
folklore programs weakened ethnic studies by moving
the focus away from minorities. They also criticized the
texts for ES 102 and Sherman’s teaching methods.
This term and next, the texts and subject matter for
the survey sequence will be re-evaluated, Toelken says.
FES graduate teaching fellows will compile a list of
books appropriate for an introductory course, he
explains. Toward the end of the quarter, the Ethnic
Studies Committee and various ethnic groups will
examine the list.
Toelken says he plans to discuss the program with
small groups.
“A lot can be done by discussing what is appro
priate (to teach). A lot is a matter of opinion and best
handled in small groups.”
If the courses are to represent minority interests,
minority opinion is needed, Toelken says. He hopes to
meet with different ethnic student unions because "we
haven’t been getting that input the last few years.”
The evaluation will help determine whether ES 103
will be offered spring term, Toelken says.
The sequence originally was designed to focus on
the four predominate racial minorities in the United
States.
“We certainly want to maintain the minority focus,
but that’s not all there is,” Toelken says. “I feel we
would be shortchanging the students if we didn’t take
the broader view.”
But Gary Kim, coordinator of the Council for Min
ority Education, says it is incorrect to say one group’s
view is broader than anothers’. The two approaches are
based on different ideas of what ethnic studies should
be, he says.
Kim says the FES program should be re-designed
to meet the needs of both those who want to focus on
folklore and cultural studies and those who want to
focus on racial issues
For the time being, ethnic studies and folklore
should remain one program, he says.
But in a few years, “with proper support from the
faculty and budget, ethnic studies could stand alone,”
he says.
Former coaches used
slush fund in recruiting
From Associated Prsss rsports
The University basketball program used a secret
travel fund to recruit players in violation of National
Collegiate Athletic Association rules, a Lane County
prosecutor said Tuesday.
Deputy District Attorney Darryl Larson said in
Lane County Circuit Court that the account was set up
in 1977 in the name of former assistant basketball
Coach Ron Billingslea and was kept secret from
University administration
Billinqslea has been indicted on a charqe of
taking $1,680 in 1978 from the account, set up with the
Bronson Travel Agency.
Larson's comments came at a hearing before
Judge Douglas Spencer on whether theft charges
should be dismissed against Billingslea and former
assistant basketball coach Mark Barwig.
The judge took the requests under advisement
Barwig has been charged with taking $2,000 in
1978 from another fund set up in his name at Bronson
Travel The money came from refunds for unused
airline tickets, purchased with athletic gate receipts
Larson said the basketball recruiting account was
similar to a $6,v;J0 slush fund maintained by former
University assistant football Coach Andy Christoff and
others. Existence of the football fund was disclosed in
February 1980.
Larson said former head basketball Coach Dick
Harter, now the coach at Penn State, was involved in
setting up the basketball account. But Larson de
clined to say in what way Harter was involved.