opinion
It’s time to get money’s worth from OSPIRG
The University’s Incidental Fee Committee
can take full credit for sending a floundering and
inefficient OSPIRG back to square one in the often
quick and brutal game of student-fees allocation.
It’s true that OSPIRG’s University funding
problems are only one part of a state-wide re-ex
amination of the group’s goals and structure, but
the University’s IFC held the trump card for the
group’s future and played it well Tuesday night.
Slashing more than 75 percent of the group’s
1980-81 budget, the fee committee left no doubt
that it expects some results from its $10,000-year
investment in the Oregon Student Public Interest
Research Group.
In the last few years the University hasn’t
received OSPIRG results that even approach
“money’s-worth status.” What it has received is a
false responsibility for the group’s survival and
misdirected pressure to provide 40 percent of the
group’s budget.
The IFC should be commended for balking at
that bogus responsibility and paying OSPIRG
what it’s worth.
OSPIRG’s worth in dollar figures is subject to
debate, of course, but $10,000 clearly is in the
correct ballpark, while the current allocation of
approximately $42,000 is nowhere close.
Other Oregon schools, too, have realized the
lack of return on their investment, but the com
bined cuts of the two other Oregon schools that
have vowed to pare OSPIRG’s budget don’t ap
proach the cut made Tuesday night in the EMU.
And the schools that continue to support
OSPIRG traditionally have allocated only a quarter
of the money doled out by the University's IFC.
Oregon State University, for example, which
is committed to “doing everything we can to get
(OSPIRG) off the ground," will fund the group
close to the $10,620 it allocated for this year. That
"suppott" figure looks like a sibling of the
University’s pared figure — a testimony to the
disparity in statewide funding of the research
group.
By approving $10,000 Tuesday night, the IFC
signaled the other Oregon schools that it won’t
continue to pick up the tab for a mediocre pro
gram that serves the entire state, and it signaled
OSPIRG that future funding levels may be
predicated by performance.
vours
Trader Vic
The very buzzards we see circling the
Oregon campuses were unleashed from
your arms Trader Vic. If you hear a
knocking heating radiator in your office
late at night, I suggest that it’s more than
a noisy hot water heater. When is your
administration going to climb out of your
suits of shining armor and back into
Oregon 1981? Is this the message you
want to bring to the White House by
going to such economic extremes for
Rural and Jobless Oregon? Before your
administration raises the tuition on
Oregon campuses and vastly lower our
already diminishing quality of education
and probably forever end any hopes of
updating our poverty-stricken library
here at the University of Oregon, I sug
gest that we look at your remark on
tuition hikes in the Monday issue of the
Daily Emerald. “It’s a lot higher than
when I was going to schooJ. But is it
higher than it should be?”
Don’t tell us about the time you went to
college. Every time I enter our main
campus library, the vast majority of
available books are of that time period. I
ask you, Gov. Vic Atiyeh “How much
education do you expect to wring out of
these 1940-1950 circa donated books?"
Of course inflation has increased
dramatically in recent years, no thanks to
your administration. However, as our
tuition was raised, the number of
students in our classrooms per professor
has also increased dramatically and
lowered quality of education.
Could this be a political play by your
administration to Bank Roll your pet
project "Building new corrections
facilities?” Do you Gov. Atiyeh truly
believe that breaking the back of Oregon
in order to stay within the Guidelines of
President Reagan that the other states
(better off than we are economy-wise)
will do the same?
Mitchell Anstine
Speech, Gerontology,
Chemestry-Biology
Blind patriotism
I swear if I hear one more person parrot
the phrase "love it or leave it” I am sure
to puke. Mr. Morison, blind patriotism for
one’s government is not what this
country of ours was founded on. If you
will read your history books instead of
channeling all of your energies into the
quest for the big green you will find that
our own revolution was in opposition to a
tyrannical government.
We wanted to control our own destiny.
I suppose, Mr. Morison, that if this were
1776 you would be telling Thomas Jef
ferson to get the hell out. Sir, I don’t
presume to be any kind of super patriot,
but I can see the path on which our
nation is travelling and at the end of that
path lies disaster. I suggest, sir, that it is
you who lacks information. Here is some
suggested reading: The Chilean Spring,
The Republic of Nicaragua, and look up
America's Open Door Policy. Maybe the
Truman doctrine. You could maybe read
about the Bay of Pigs, Somoza, the shah,
SAVAK, Marcos, Diem, Kim, Batista, Cy
prus, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, El Sal
vador, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia the
list, sir, could fill this page with ease. So
when you are finished gathering this
information come see me, and then tell
me to get the hell out.
Bradley Passenger
Sophomore, psychology
Make a difference
Here’s your chance to make a differ
ence as a single person in a sea of
millions. A very important program is
slated to face Reagan’s budgetary axe
this summer. Whether or not you have
heard of the Youth Conservation Corps
is immaterial to its need to survive. We all
benefit from this invaluable use of federal
funds.
YCC drawes young woman and men of
all races and economic backgrounds
from the community to provide them with
a positive work and social experience.
This program also provides job oppor
tunities for college-age persons and
older who are willing to spend their
summer outdoors working with young
people. In addition to providing a solid
employment opportunity, YCC allows the
young people to be involved in an ongo
ing attitude of learning about the natural
environment. Crew leaders are required
to instruct the students in ecological
concerns as well as communication and
social skills. I have taught in public
schools in Oregon and must admit that
the personal growth I witnessed in high
y
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schools is insignificant compared to that
which occurs in YCC.
In this age of “acceptable deficits”
YCC is a truly amazing federal program
inasmuch as it is cost effecient. If you are
concerned about the welfare of future
generations, now is the time to contact
our congressmen. Sen. Mark Hatfield is
the most important, as he is a Republican
and on the Appropriations Committee.
Write to him at the Senate Office Build
ing, Washington, D C. 20510.
Initially, this may not impress you as
much as nuclear proliferation, poverty,
human rights, and the myriad of other
social issues. YCC, however, is dedicat
ed to building people. Isn’t that where it
all begips?
Daniel Henry
GTF, speech
Dissent cut
Although the Emerald managed to
survive retaliation for its criticism of the
IFC’s policy on religious groups seeking
student funds, another student publica
tion was not so fortunate.
Among the Student Bar Association
budget items that suffered the commit
tee’s axe was the Dissent. The Dissent,
the SBA’s student newsletter, had also
chosen to comment critically on the
IFC’s goal approval for the LDSSA It lost
about a third of its funding last week,
perhaps because the Dissent, too, fails to
project that “positive image of the
University” that Mrs. Harris found lack
ing in the Emerald and so important to
the economic survival of student pub
lications.
I would not consider funding for the
LDS “genealogy” group any more ob
jectionable than the involuntary student
financial support of many other IFC-sup
ported groups of dubious value to
students; from the Athletic Department
to the Muslim Students. I do find objec
tionable the apparent willingness of
some IFC members to suppress criticism
of their decisions by slashing funds from
student publications that offer such cri
ticism. I do not share Mr. Edmunson’s
high opinion of the Emerald, which
frequently provides students with noth
ing more valuable than pre-printed litter
and some subjective ego trips by pro
tojournalists. I do share legitimate con
cerns about any IFC decision that is
implicitly based on politics, rather than
any genuine effort to improve the quality
of student publications.
If last week's decision on the Dissent
was in fact an example of the petty re
tribution that it appears to be, one hopes
such episodes will not be repeated. And
one hpes that editors of all student pub
lications on this campus can continue to
express their opinions and comment on
the use of student funds without the fear
of punitive budget reductions.
David Force
Second year law