Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 23, 1981)
Emerald Vol. 82, No. 139 Eugene, Oregon 97403 Thursday, April 23, 1981 Andrus: Man. nature must harmonize By MIKE RUST Of the Emerald Mankind “must move in harmony with nature,” former interior secretary Cecil Andrus told an appreciative University audience Wednesday night. The one-time Carter Cabinet member combined friendly banter with the crowd with warnings that ‘‘our gluttonous appetite for our resources" endangers future generations. “Earth does not belong to man — man belongs to the Earth,” Andrus said. Andrus stressed that he didn’t object to increased production and economic growth. Some coal and hard-rock min eral resources must be used for produc tion, some off-shore petroleum re sources must be developed and the timber industry should enjoy a sustained yield, he said. However, these things must be done “in a sound and responsible manner,” he added. “We’ve all got to make a living, but after you make that living you've got to have a living that's worthwhile.” Andrus, governor of Idaho before his stint in the Cabinet, said a broader un derstanding of economics fs needed, particularly in regard to the way natural resources effect our economic well-be ing. This leads to people working with nature, rather than against it, he said. “There’s plenty there, if we take care of it,” Andrus said. The conservation movement has made more progress during the last decade than it had in the last three, which is "a good start, but only a start,” he said. “Without a real conservation ethic and without a sustained dedication to quality as well as quantity, we will not meet the challenge placed before us.” While James Watt — Andrus’ succes sor at the interior department — has come under fire from numerous envir onmental groups, Andrus declined to criticize him at a Wednesday afternoon press conference. While “bombastic statements” have been made, no action has been taken by Watt, Andrus told reporters, adding it is "unfair” that the Sierra Club is already distributing petitions calling for Watt’s removal from the interior position. “The Sierra Club should wait until they see attempts made before they prejudge the man.” Andrus said that the interior secretary is limited in what he can do by the number of statutes and bills that exist, as well as the possibility of legal action. Every act he made as interior secretary was greeted by litigation, he said. Still, the Carter administration brought to government an environmental cons ciousness “greater than any administra tion in history, including Teddy Roo sevelt’s,” he said. The Alaska Lands legislation, which protected much of that state’s scenic and wildlife resources, control of off shore oil drilling, and strip-mine legisla tion were all cited as accomplishments of the Carter Administration. Andrus concluded his evening speech — the keynote of Earthweek at the University — with a combination of advice and warning concerning the Earth: “Use it, but don’t abuse it, bec ause your destiny and mine are in your hands. “As Will Rogers said, ‘They just ain’t making it no more.” Cecil Andrus Racist letter angers University blacks The University’s Black Student Union has fallen victim to the latest incident of racial harassment in Eugene. The BSU received an anonymous letter Wednesday wondering "why there are so many male negroes here and why they all have our women to interbreed with.” Postmarked in Eugene earlier this week, the letter went on to say “99.44 percent of all negro females are poorly built and very unfeminine and not the least bit appealing in the first place and there being few here encourages the male to out of their breed to seek fine Caucasions (sic). "This satisfies another goal, that being hate by a minority for the superior majority.” The letter is the first incident of racial harassment on campus, says BSU Pres. Vincent Green. The incident is the third of its kind to be publicized in the Eugene area this year. Similar incidents have occurred in Portland this year. However, Green says the incidents made public are a small proportion of those occurring in the area. "It's happening more and more,” he says. "Oregon is a racist state.” Despite the letter s illiterate Style, Green and BSU member Patricia Stuart suggest it may have been written by a student because of its reference to black separatist Marcus Garvey. The letter’s author supports Garvey's position that blacks should be sent back to Africa and applauds Africans for “eating” white slave traders. "You guys ate a lot of them. I wish you had eaten them all,” the letter says The references to Garvey are evidence the letter was written by a student because few outside the academic community know about Garvey's separatist politics, Green and Stuart say. $30,000 chopped IFC pares EMU budget Dy rMUL I CLLCO Of the Emerald The EMU might have a smaller incidental fee budget to work with next year. The Incidental Fee Committee voted 4-1 Wednesday to slash $30,000 from the EMU bud get approved last week by the EMU Board. The IFC earlier cut $50,000 from the EMU budget to fund the new childcare voucher system. Under the new plan, the money will go directly to student parents instead of to the University’s two childcare centers. All IFC decisions are contingent upon University administration approval when the in cidental fee budget is submitted later this quarter. The four committee members who voted for the cuts said they were interested in continuing their efforts to reduce the incidental fee charged to students for the support of student programs. The IFC already has cut 9 percent from ASUO program budgets, which will reduce the fee by about $1. “All year I’ve worked to cut $10 here and $10 there just to keep the fee down,” said IFC member Kathy Stebner. “I think it should be lower " However, few of the people who attended the meeting agreed with Stebner and the others on the importance of holding down the fee EMU Board Budget Committee chairer Karsten Rasmussen said he supported the budget submitted by the board, which called for a 5 4-percent increase in incidental fee subsidies to the EMU “A 5.4-percent increase isn't unreasonable even in these times,” Rasmussen said UUU VJV/HUll. ou i_ivivj uuuyci un EMU budget is very difficult to trim because most of it goes to fixed costs like utilities. “If the fee continues at zero for very long, we’ll have a major decrease in programs," said Bruce Mason, coordinator of the EMU outdoor program. EMU director Adell McMillan suggested the IFC was overreacting to last year’s athletic department fee increase. "I don’t much like us taking the rap for another department, which is, in effect, what’s happening," McMillan said. But the committee held the line at a 2.7-percent increase, which is the expected in crease in next year’s enrollment. “We do everything we can to put the admin istration in the position where they are forced to cut the athletic department," IFC chairer Jon Neiderbach said in response to McMillan’s ob jection Neiderbach says the decreases in the ASUO and EMU budgets will put the ASUO in good bargaining position when it negotiates the athletic fee with the administration. University Pres. Paul Olum has said he favors a plan to reduce the fee by $5. Ann Alexander, the dissenting committee member, said she felt the EMU Board had cut enough from student union's budget The committee didn't mandate specific areas for the cuts, but forwarded the $1,056,427 budget to the EMU Board’s budget committee, which will decide what to cut