Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 6, 1981)
daily^merald Vol. 82, No 115 Eugene, Oregon 97403 Friday, March 6, 1981 Faculty opposes emergency plan By BILL MANNY Ol the Emerald Instructors at Oregon's colleges and universities have lost the first battle in a war over salary increases. “We’re not giving up,” says James Tattersall, head of the University econ omics department and president of the Association of Oregon Faculty. Addressing the State Board of Higher Education last week during discussion of an emergency plan to meet a possible 10-percent cut in higher education funding, Tattersall said faculty no longer will support "temporary expedients,” such as postponed salary increases. The board’s plan calls for an approx imate 5-percent cut in total faculty salaries by reducing the length of the school year that state employees and staff are paid for. "We’d be doing the same work anyway,” Tattersall says. The board's plan will be forwarded to the Legislature’s Ways and IWeans Committee, which will ask the Oregon Education Coordinating Committee to review the recommendation. Tattersall says the AOF will appeal to both groups. While the AOF plans to protest all the cuts in the board’s plan, they are worried most about their own interests. “Any of the 10-percent budget reduc tions are grim,” Tattersall told the board last week. He urged the board to point out the "disastrous consequences of failure" if Gov. Vic Atiyeh’s tax proposals to produce additional state revenue are not passed. But Tattersall also encouraged the board to "reaffirm its policy of develop ing and maintaining a competitive salary structure, even if program cuts, FTE reductions and enrollment reductions are forced upon us.” Tattersall said Oregon faculty salaries have lagged behind inflation by 20 percent over the last 10 years. The proposed emergency plan would leave the faculty even further behind inflation — about 30 percent. “The average salary in constant dollars has eroded 20 percent in the last 10 years," Tattersall said. Atiyeh has proposed a 6-percent salary increase for Oregon faculty. But the emergency plan would take almost 5 percent and leave faculty members way behind Tattersall’s “conservative" estimate of 12-percent inflation “We think it’s getting pretty ridiculous," Tattersall says. "That’s not the way to treat dedicated people trying to do the best job we can." Tattersall says the AOF supports "moderation” of the “unnecessarily large” Oregon tax relief program. But faculty representatives say proposing further salary cuts sends the Legislature the wrong message, and Oregon faculty will not “subsidize” Ore gon higher education. "Bluntly put, the faculty has been sub sidizing this system for years,” Tattersall told the board. Some of the proposals in the plan include: • Eliminating 1,500 full-time equiva lency students, primarily Oregon residents, with an accompanying reduc tion in faculty and staff in 1981-1982. One FTE equals 15 credit hours. • Eliminating general funding for in tercollegiate athletics at Oregon State, Portland State and the University. • Reducing enrollment in 1982-83 by as many as 4,500 more students, again primarily Oregon residents, with a corre sponding reduction in faculty and staff. • Reducing the 1982-83 funding of education and general services at the University Health Sciences Center in Portland. • Increasing tuition rates for medical and dental students by 25 percent. • Charging an additional $108 surcharge in 1982-83 beyond that currently being considered by the state system. Photo by Steve Dykes Overtime loss Oregon's men's basketball team chased fifth-ranked Arizona State into overtime before losing 78-77 Thursday night in McArthur Court. Story on Page 8. Campus cops may gain police power By GREG WASSON Of the Emerald SALEM — Currently, campus cops have no more rights than other citizens to make arrests or tap into police information networks. HB 2456 would change that, giving the security forces police power. John Garner, head of security at Portland State University, says it doesn't make sense to have city police be responsible for campus crime "The university security forces work with the students, with faculty and staff on a daily basis. We are more aware, tuned in, if you want to speak to the college and university community." However, Rep Margie Hendriksen, D-Eugene, a member of the House Education Committee, disagrees. "I support having a security force and charging them with maintaining the security of the buildings and that sort of thing,” she says. "But expanding that role to make them a police agency, I don’t feel is appropriate.” The committee held its first public hearing on the bill Thursday. A representative of the Oregon Student Lobby told the committee her group is concerned campus security is too insulated from students to be given police power. ‘‘We’re not talking about a mayor and a city council that have to be accessible to their constituency. We are talking about appointed administrators on campus and appointed people to the state board of higher educa tion. Student input into choosing those people isn’t adequate when we look at the impact this bill could have among Oregon students.” The committee took no action on the bill. At the same time, the Housing and Consumer Affairs Committee of the House took testimony on a bill requiring dormitories to be equipped with effective locks. Hendriksen is the main sponsor of the legislation, which she says was prompted in part by the recent rape of a University student in her dorm room. "I’m very concerned, especially in this time of diminishing fiscal resources for higher education, that the state set a legislative policy that safe dwelling places for students is a priority.” Oregon landlord-tenant legislation requires landlords to provide secure premises. But dorms specifically are exempted from those statutes. Hendriksen adds that the bill (HB 2594) is merely a recognition that Oregon is growing up. “It's just a fact of life that we have to be more aware and protect ourselves by having adequate, safe and secure locks on our doors and windows. Later in the day, the House Committee on Aging and Minority Affairs took testimony on a bill (HB 2618) that would force Oregon to divest itself of stock in companies doing substantial business in countries with discriminatory laws. Currently, South Africa is the only nation in the world fitting that definition. Witnesses outlined the repression of the black majority by the white minority government in South Africa However, one member of the committee, Rep Max Rijken, D-Newport, said the policies of other nations are none of our concern — particularly when we need that country’s natural resources “Before we go across the borders with our con cerns about discrimination, I think that we ought to straighten out our own affairs. We cannot be a mother and a father and everything else to all the nations in the world.”
