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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 14, 1981)
emerald Vol. 82, No. 132 Eugene, Oregon 97403 Tuesday, April 14, 1981 200 travel to Salem Students rally for higher ed funds By GREG WASSON Of the Emerald SALEM — As promised at Friday’s rally, University students invaded the capitol Monday, attempting to generate concern over the plight of higher educa tion. Though the crowd numbered only about half of the 400 persons ASUO Pres. Dave Eaton had predicted, Vice Pres. for State and University Affairs Rich Wilkins labeled the visit a success. ‘The people that did come up were interested. They were excited. They cared and they wanted to show that to legislators,” Wilkins said. “I think we accomplished our goal of showing that we know what is going on and are very anxious for the Legislature to see things in the same light as we do." But, as pointed out at a morning rally on the capitol steps, students have a very poor track record at the polls. r "That hampers us," said Wilkins. "One of the ideas we are looking at right now is having another voter registration drive so we can come back and say, 'Look, we registered 30,000 students in the state system.’ ” The students spent the afternoon talk ing with lawmakers from their home dis trict, paying special attention to members of the revenue committees, who will approve any money-raising tax increases. Earlier in the day, Rep. Gratten Kerans, D-Eugene, the House Majority Leader, told the group that revenue increases are a must. "The fact of the matter is, this state and its budget is facing the worst crisis it has experienced in its 122-year history," Kerans told students. "What I want you to do with your visit here today is to ask the members one very hard-line ques tion: ‘Are you prepared to raise the revenues necessary to preserve those elements of the budget which must be maintained?' “Don’t let anybody shuck you — that's the issue.” Eaton says the answers were some times less than satisfying. ‘‘There are revenue committee members that are supportive of us. But most people are not ready to make any kind of commitment,’’ Eaton said. “I think we showed, however, that if we don’t get more revenues and are forced to take this 10 percent cut, it’s going to devastate higher education.” Eaton and four others met in the after noon with Gov. Vic Atiyeh, who told the five that he’d done what he had to But, at the rally, co-chairer of ways and means Sen. Ed Fadeley, D-Eugene/ Springfield, repeated his claim that Atiyeh’s proposal puts higher education in the financial race “ten yards behind and wearing lead boots. “In order for higher education to start out equal with the other general fund programs, there must be $30 million added to the governor's recommenda tion. I’m not going to lean into this or say anything inflammatory, but the governor really has done it to higher education.” Fadeley was followed by Rep. Margie Hendriksen, D-Eugene, who also lamented the inadequacy of the higher education budget. That fact, warned Hendriksen, means the most trouble for those whc are already disadvantaged “There is a current lack of integration of women and minorities into faculty positions. I'm heading up a sub-commit tee to investigate affirmative action, or lack thereof, and we will be in Eugene April 15. "I’m very concerned that as the budget crunches come forward, we will have practically no women or minorities get ting tenured positions at the University or other institutions.” ‘Hello, Flipper?’ Computers may open lines between humans, dolphins By MIKE LEE Of the Emerald We may have the best telecommunications system in the world, but John Lilly still finds fault in it. “No dolphin can use our telephone,” he says. Although he is being a trifle facetious, Lilly is serious about bis research into hu man-dolphin communica tion. With the aid of two com puters, he hopes to create an electronic audio-visual trans ‘If dolphins are so damn smart, and men and women are so damn smart, why haven’t we communicated before this?’ lator that will allow the two species to “talk” to each other. Lilly and his wife, Toni, spoke to an audience of 250 at South Eugene High School Monday evening. Lilly noted that a dolphin’s brain is larger than a human's — 1,800 grams to 1,500 grams. Brain mass serves as a raw measure of intelligence, he said. Yet, “If dolphins are so damn smart, and men and women are so damn smart, why haven't we communicat ed before this?" One explanation seems simple enough: dolphins talk underwater. Too bad early researchers didn't recognize human limi tations in this area. “A lot of people tried (to talk under water) in the '50s and '60s and almost drowned,” Lilly said. The second explanation is more complicated: dolphins speak in a range of sound ten times as high and ten times as broad as ours, Lilly said. And they do it through four differ ent voices, allowing two dol phins to hold four conversa tions at once. The communications sys tem Lilly is developing should sort through all that, he said. It’s called JANUS — for “Joint Analog Numerical Under standing System." Using JANUS, a human first speaks a command into a microphone. One computer then translates the command, simultaneously "printing" it in large words on an underwater television screen while broad casting it in dolphin-recog nizable sounds. The dolphin, either seeing or hearing the command, will then execute it, Lilly said. “If you say Rosalie' into the microphone, the computer prints out 'Rosalie' and creates a sound that is like Rosalie’s,” Lilly said. The second computer analyzes Photo by Erich Boekelheide John and Toni Lilly explain how humans someday will be able to "dial-a-dolphin." any reply the dolphin Rosalie sounds. Then, if the command is "GO TO 1,” Rosalie will swim to a "1 ” painted on the wall of her tank, and maybe fetch a ball there if she is told to. The translator can handle only 40 words, however — hardly enough for an extended conversation. But Lilly says this is only the beginning. Lilly himself began re searching dolphins in the 1950s. At the same time, he worked with sensory-depriva tion tanks, like the ones used in the movie "Altered States," and studied the drug LSD in the 1960s Lilly dropped his dolphin work in 1968 and traveled to Chile, where he explored states of conscious ness. After his seven months in Chile, Lilly investigated the U S. mind-fads of the '70s: Gestalt, encounter and Rolfing Lilly returned to dolphin re search in 1976. Since then, he has gained actor Burgess Meredith's help in establishing the Human /Dolphin Foundation, a private non-profit research group based in Malibu, Calif Ideally, Lilly's research will enable humans, using port able translators, to talk to dol phins and have the replies synthesized into audible Eng lish "I won't be satisfied until I can talk to dolphins," Lilly said "I want to have a telephone I can call up a dolphin on — Dial-a-Dolphin.”
