emerald
Vol. 82, No. 133
I
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Wednesday, April 15, 1981
Panelists cite progress by blacks
Photo by Frlch Boekelheide
Derrick Bell
Weaver, Bell: Reagan budget
bodes ill for minorities, poor
By KAREN SHAUGHNESSY
Ol the Emerald
Oregon race relations have come a
long way since the state was dominated
by the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, but
there still is plenty of room for im
provement, three panelists agreed in the
EMU Ballroom Tuesday night.
State Attorney General Dave Frohn
mayer, Rep. Jim Weaver, D-Ore., and
Derrick Bell, University Law School
dean, addressed the theme "Up From
Obscurity: Challenges of the ’80s.’'
The panel was faced by seven state
and local journalists, including KATU
newsman Dick Bogel and KEZI news
anchorman Don Clark. The discussion
was moderated by Oregon State Univer
sity social sciences Prof. Betty Griffith.
Frohnmayer, who grew up in Oregon,
said the "overt, outrageous
discrimination” of Oregon law has given
way to increased tolerance and under
standing. Gov. Vic Atiyeh’s proposal to
make racial discrimination a punishable
offense is an example of this progressive
trend, the former University law profes
sor added.
"I think the very obscurity of blacks in
the state contributed to the election of
legislatures during the 1920s that were
entirely dominated by the Ku Klux Klan,
legislatures which enacted laws dis
criminating not only against blacks but
against all minorities, racial, religious
and political," Frohnmayer said.
"So the progress, while it may seem
glacial, has been astounding. There is
now more tolerance and understanding
of the problems of minorities than
Oregon has seen before.”
Weaver agreed blacks should take
pride in the progress of the last 120 years
but emphasized, "The 1980s should not
be a step back for minorities but another
giant step forward.
"We’re seeing some tough times,” he
said, “but the best of times are tough for
minorities.”
The priorities of the Reagan adminis
tration don’t bode well for minorities, he
said.
"We agree that education is the op
portunity young blacks need for pro
gress,” Weaver explained "Key educa
tional programs are the ones being dis
mantled. The loan programs, federal
grants for students — those are being cut
back with eventual plans to terminate
"We must not let that happen; that's
going to be a catastrophe for blacks."
Weaver emphasized the problems of
blacks are shared not only by other min
orities but also by poor whites.
Bell commented that Reagan adminis
tration plans to balance the budget "are
a thin veneer over a plan to roll back the
social programs of the last 50 years."
Other ways to save money have been
suggested, he said, but because they
involve "sacred cows” of the rich —
entertainment deductions, oil company
depletion allowances — they haven’t
seriously been considered, Bell con
tended. The discussion was spon
sored by the Black Student Union as part
of the union’s annual Black Arts Festival.
IFC candidates roast current committee
By PAUL TELLES
Of the Emerald
A rising tide of discontent with the budget cuts
made by this year's Incidental Fee Committee has
carried 11 candidates into this week's IFC election
campaign.
Candidates complain that this year’s committee,
which cut more than 9 percent from the ASUO pro
grams’ budgets, hasn’t done enough homework before
hacking at budgets during meetings and hearings.
“I wasn’t too happy with things I saw happening
this year," says law student Steve Baldwin.
Baldwin says he especially was incensed by the
75-percent cut dealt to the Oregon Student Public
Interest Research Group. The decision wasn’t based on
a reasoned position and consequently created a lot of
hard feelings, says Baldwin, who worked as a work
study assistant for OSPIRG this year.
As a committee member, Baldwin says he would
apply the practice in justifying beliefs and statements
that he gained while earning his master’s degree in
philosophy.
Like Baldwin, Jonathan Bernstein says the IFC
didn’t adequately fund student lobbies like OSPIRG and
the Oregon Student Lobby. OSPIRG was cut from
$42,000 to $10,000, while the OSL got $19,768, an
increase of more than $3,000.
Bernstein, a senior majoring in health and history,
says he also would like to cut the athletic department’s
incidental fee budget.
“There’s entirely too much politicking on the IFC
now,” says law student Cathi Bulone. Several commit
tee members have voted on program budgets on the
basis of the members' political agendas instead of the
programs’ merits, she says.
Although Bulone says she has gotten most of her
information on the committee's workings through
conversations with the four law students on this year's
committee, she says her experience as a high school
business teacher gives her the budgeting expertise
necessary to be a good committee member.
Alan Contreras, the only candidate with prior IFC
experience, says this year’s committee hasn’t always
done its "tag work," the individual reviews of program
budgets, before the budget hearings. This has resulted
in capricious decisions the program members rarely
understand, Contreras contends.
....« --—..
Polls open today
for ASUO election
Students can cast their votes in the ASUO
elections at eight locations today and Thursday.
Polls will be open from 9 a m to 5 p m.
Polling booths and tables are located in the
EMU lobby, in front of Gilbert Hall on 13th Street, in
front of the law school, on the corner of 13th and
University in front of 150 Geology and at the Agate
Street bicycle crossing between Walton and
Hamilton residence hall complexes.
Voting opportunities also will be offered to
students in front of the Music School, in front of the
library and in front of Esslinger Hall facing Univer
sity Street I
Contreras was a committee member last year and
an IFC chairer last summer. Despite his criticism of the
current IFC's methods, he says he shares its concerns
with keeping the incidental fee budget as low as
possible.
"I would vote for no budget increases that would
result in fee increases,” he says.
David Gibson, one of three Greeks running for the
committee, agrees with the others that this year’s
committee hasn’t done its tag work properly. A member
of Sigma Nu, Gibson frankly admits he is running, in
part, to protect the Interfraternity Council’s budget,
which was slashed by this year’s committee.
“We’re just afraid of being zero-funded,” he says.
However, this doesn’t mean he will rubber-stamp the
council’s requests, Gibson adds.
He says he would like to see more money given to
the cultural programs promoting musical and dramatic
programs on campus.
“I want a hand in where the money goes,” says
Pamela Jordan, another Greek candidate. Jordan
criticizes the current IFC for not taking enough time to
consider the program budgets and to explain its ac
tions.
‘‘They should have taken more time and not
slashed budgets because we have to get through
things,” she says.
Jordan is a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorori
ty. She says she could bring new insights to committee
business because she is a music major and a black
woman
John Miche, a senior majoring in math, frankly says
he’s running for the committee "just to get in there and
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