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.”