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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 1981)
Emerald Vol. 82, No. 91 Eugene, Oregon 97403 Monday, February 2, 1981 Tuition increase may bring about enrollment drop By BILL MANNY Of Ilia Emerald Proposed tuition surcharges could mean more than just increasing the cost of a college education in Oregon, according to the Oregon Student Lobby. Across-the-board tuition hikes would eliminate thousands of students from the system in the first year of the biennium, says John Moore, OSL legislative assistant and “in-house economist.” And that loss of students would mean hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars lost to Eugene and other Oregon communities that support institutions of higher education. "There’s a serious danger that if the state board staff has its way, 6,000 to 10,000 students would be eliminated from higher education,” Moore says. There’s also the “the multiplier effect,” Moore says. Every higher education dollar that’s lost means approximately $2.50 lost in the community. That could mean $150 million lost to Oregon communities and $10-$40 million in Eugene. “When you consider the University, you're talking about a significant impact,” Moore says. Moore stresses his figures are only estimates, and the OSL is working on "down-to-the-last dollar” details to present to the State Board of Higher Education at its February meeting. Moore says higher tuitions would “permanently" eliminate productive college graduates from the “gross state product,” the total of all state goods and services. ‘‘We’ll lose their economic produc tivity for a lifetime." The state board staff has prepared two alternative proposals to Gov. Vic Atiyeh’s proposed 15-percent tuition hike over each of the next two years for all students ex cept out-of-state graduates. Non-re sidents graduates would face an 84-percent tuition increase. One of the alterna tives is a $123 sur charge for all students. Another is a $144 surcharge that would be levied on all resident students but not non-residents. Residents current ly pay 23 percent of the costs of instruction, while non-residents pay 100 percent of the costs. The state board calls the proposed increases “surcharges," but ASUO Pres. Dave Eaton is uncom fortable with the proposed increases. "I don’t care what they call it,” Eaton says. "People are still going to have to come up with the extra $123.” Eaton says he’s not convinced the surcharges would really be just temporary surcharges. "They may be calling it a surcharge, but once they start getting that revenue, they aren’t going to want to let it go,” Eaton says. "Things are Looking pretty grim up there in Salem. We may be lucky just to get the governor’s 15-percent” tuition increase. At the state board’s Jan. 23 meeting, Moore and OSL Executive Director Bob Watrus said a decision on tuition before state revenue has yet to be computed would be unwise. Continued on Page 3 Emerald graphic By LESLIE FARRIS Ol the Emerald Feminist gains in the United States historically have benefited mostly white, middle-class, heterosexual women. So say minority and lesbian feminists who chal lenged that historical bias Saturday during a regional conference on Feminist Theory and Action held at the University. Speakers throughout the weekend told large crowds in the EMU that feminism must diversify for women’s liberation to succeed. They called on non minority and heterosexual women to educate them selves about the concerns of minority and lesbian feminists. Sharon Claeyssens, student and black feminist, said feminist theory explains the oppression of all women, not just white women. “Women are black, brown, red, yellow, straight and gay,” Claeyssens said. "Feminist theory must explain the reality of women. I think it needs to construct a new model because the white, straight, middle-class model is wearing thin on some of us." She said for feminism to succeed world-wide, it must address women of color, "who are a majority on the planet.” Feminists must understand and confront the antagonism between white women and women of color, she added. Colleen Fong, student and Asian-American femin ist, said acknowledging the "lessons of history" can help solidify the feminist movement. One such lesson teaches that feminism is not immune to racial inequality. Fong said Susan B. An thony asked Frederick Douglas not to attend a National American Women’s Suffrage Association meeting in Atlanta because Anthony feared his presence would jeopardize Southern support. "The racist status quo was adhered to during the struggle for women’s suffrage,” Fong said. “Ex pediency took the place of equality.” She said in 1945, Congress voted down by just one vote a motion to sterilize all Japanese women incarcer ated in concentration camps. And in the late 1960s, Los I Graphic by Sioux Anderson Feminists appeal for unity; plead for sexual equality J Angeles Hospital sterilized between five to seven black women per day. “I don't want to further exacerbate the antagonism between white and minority women,” Fong said. "I want to move forward, but that can't be accomplished without incorporating a rigorous analysis of race rela tions and acknowledging our differences.” Claeyssens said non-minority women must ack nowledge women of color's fight against racism. “Don’t tell us that we are prioritizing race first," she said. "Too often when we go to other movements, we are told we’re prioritizing sex first. “Tell me, what do you see first when I come in? Do you see my race or do you see my sex?” This refusal to acknowledge both racism and sexism is made concrete under Affirmative Action laws. Despite the combined effect of racism and sexism in job discrimination, Affirmative Action treats minority women as either minorities or women, but not both. University graduate student Sharon Anthony pointed out she was only one of two lesbian speakers during the three-day conference, which she said illu strates lesbians’ position within the feminist movement. “It seems ironic considering the movement has been labeled a lesbian plot by its opponents," Anthony said. She said too few women realize lesbian feminism is more than just a choice of sexual partners. “Lesbianism and feminism go together like bagels and cream cheese. Neither is quite the same without the other.” Anthony said all women weigh the costs of being a socially acceptable woman against the costs of being a lesbian feminist or a so-called political lesbian. "We weigh the value of our essence against the creature comforts and social sanctions,” she said. “Because lesbian women know heterosexual women go through this process, we are hurt and angered by your inability or refusal to deal with lesbians and lesbian issues. "I call for us to be strong, to search out the common ground with our sisters, to find the power in our diversity, to deal now with the problems we have with each other.”
