Olum claims broken latch never reported
By BILL MANNY
Of the Emerald
A "careful check” of physical plant
records shows that personnel were not
informed of needed repair work at a
University dormitory room where a
woman was raped 10 days ago.
An investigation by Acting Pres. Paul
Olum’s staff shows that procedures for
responding to repair-work requests are
“careful and thorough,” Olum said in a
morning news conference Tuesday.
Olum requested the investigation fol
lowing the Jan. 10 rape. Several students
claimed the latch on the woman's dorm
room window had been broken and left
unrepaired despite numerous requests
made to the physical plant.
Olum said the investigation, headed by
the president's Assistant for Administra
tion Muriel Jackson, found only one
request for repair work on the window
latch. The request was taken Sept. 26,
three days prior to the beginning of fall
term.
Adams resident assistant Lisa Chase
said last week she reported the broken
latch to the physical plant as many as
eight times fall term, but received no
response.
Chase said the latch was loose all term
and finally fell off during finals week.
“Our interest is much less in pointing
fingers than it is in checking on current
deficiencies and being sure they’re cor
rected,” Olum said.
Olum said repair requests are tape
recorded at the physical plant and tran
scribed daily by plant personnel. About
7,500 repairs were reported fall term
According to records, Olum said, the
latch was repaired following the Sept. 26
request. "Apparently the lock was bro
ken again, but there is no record, on any
of this, of any call taken from any of the
tapes,” he said. "The tapes did not mal
function, did not run out; there are no
gaps in the tapes.”
In the past, reports of repairs needed
on dormitory first floors were "treated as
an immediate emergency,” Olum said
“That will continue certainly, and
obviously we re going to be very sensi
tive about even second-floor things that
are near roofs.”
Olum dismissed the possibility that
repairs reported complete on the raped
woman’s window were never done.
"That has never come into question in
this case,” Olum said, stressing that no
repair calls subsequent to the September
request were received. “Our people to
the best of our knowledge are responsi
Security ends dorm check
A security check of University dormi
tories has turned up 50 needed repairs,
housing director Dan Williams, reports.
Campus Security checked 1,500
rooms in 47 living units, Williams
reported.
The dorm check began last week,
following the Jan. 10 rape of a Univer
sity woman in a Walton-Adams room.
The window through which police
believe the rapist entered had a broken
latch, police and dormitory residents
said last week.
Acting Pres. Paul Olum said the
check was launched to "discover any
safety deficiencies that needed correc
tion."
The 50 items needing attention in
clude replacing 11 window latches, five
doors and one broken window. Repairs
also are needed for five door crash
bars and closers, two roof hatches and
one window screen.
Nineteen doors had too much space
around the locks, and one door’s “an
ti-jimmy” device needed repair.
Olum said the “first goal is to correct
any safety problems.” All necessary
repairs will be treated as “real emer
gency problems that need fixing.”
Williams plans to send letters to each
student of the residence halls remind
ing them of steps to take when im
provements or repairs are necessary
"to keep your security at a high level.”
Those steps include reporting prob
lems immediately to resident assistants
or custodians during the day. They also
can be reported to RAs on duty or the
student manager after 4:30 p.m. or on
weekends.
The repairs found in the security
check are expected to be completed by
the week’s end.
ble and careful.
"There was no question that it was
fixed the first time, I believe. The issue
here is what happened the second time,
and nobody's claiming it was fixed a
second time — there's no record even of
any call."
Also at the conference, Olum said he
was "very disappointed" with the
NCAA’s recent action not to base athletic
scholarships on a need basis.
Olum said the Pacific-10 conference is
a strong supporter of the proposal, but
the change was "not what the biggest
and most powerful of the football schools
wanted.”
However, Olum said the matter is not
dead.
"As the athletic departments of even
the biggest universities gradually start
going broke, it's much more likely we’ll
get needs legislation ”
Many athletic departments already are
struggling, he said. But the issue is more
than a "question of financial solvency,”
he said. "It's also a question of fairness."
Academic scholarships are based on
need, allowing universities to educate
more students. "I don’t see any reason
why it should be different for athletic
scholarships," Olum said. "I don’t for
one minute believe all the claims that say
that it would be harder to administer or it
would give rise to cheating."
Also, Olum said the University admin
istration would support legislation this
session to alter state hiring guidelines
that limit the number of state employees
to 1.6 percent of the population.
Judge dismisses charge
Andrew Page
Emerald Photo
Circuit Court Judge James
Hargreaves dismissed coercion
charges Monday against former
University football player An
drew Page, ruling for the third
time that Oregon’s coercion
statute is unconstitutional
Lane County Deputy District
Attorney Darryl Larson said he
will appeal the decision.
Hargreaves sustained a
motion by Eugene attorney Ken
Morrow that the Oregon coer
cion statute used to charge
Page is unconstitutionally
vague.
Last October Hargreaves dis
missed coercion charges
against tailback Dwight Robert
son and former tailback Reggie
Young by ruling that the coer
cion statute is unconstitutional.
Larson immediately announced
he would appeal the decision.
Larson said Tuesday he will
seek to consolidate all three
appeals to help save time and
court costs
Arguments on the appeals
should be heard in court in
about 30 days, Larson said
The appeal will no doubt
postpone the trial of Robertson
on sex charges, Larson said
Robertson s trial orginally was
scheduled for Jan. 27 in Lane
County Circuit Court.
Page, Robertson, Young and
former wide receiver Rick Ward
were indicted Aug. 28 by a Lane
County grand jury on charges of
sodomy, attempted sodomy,
attempted rape and sexual
abuse.
According to the indictment,
the athletes allegedly forced an
18-year-old woman to commit
sodomy on Nov. 14, 1978, and
threatened to release damaging
information about the woman if
she reported the incident.
Page pleaded innocent to the
charges earlier this month.
Ward, the only one of the four
who has not appeared in Lane
County court, is still fighting
extradition from Colorado.
The Colorado public defender
representing Ward has called
the charges trumped up and
politically motivated because
the indictments were handed
down days before football sea
son began. Ward, the leading
receiver for the Ducks in 1979,
transferred to the University of
Colorado at Boulder
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