Emerald
a/! A\/cr O I
Vol. 82, No. 147
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Tuesday,Tk^rtf 5, 1981
Olum chides lawmakers about cuts
By ANN PORTAL
Of the Emerald
University Pres. Paul Olum blasted state
legislators Monday for being "too scared to do the
job they were hired to do."
Speaking at a Lane County Democrats’ Fo
rum, Olum said legislators believe they are acting
on a mandate from voters to lower property taxes.
But if Oregonians were given a fair assessment of
what those lower taxes will mean to the state, they
wouldn’t feel the trade-off was worth it, he said.
"Legislators should vote their conscience
and go back home and tell them (constituents)
about it.”
Olum proposed that property tax relief be
"strongly tied to income." Those in higher tax
brackets should receive no relief at all, he said.
Although Olum criticized both Gov. Vic
Atiyeh's higher education budget and the addi
tional 10-percent cut being considered by the
Legislature, he said the University at least could
survive under Atiyeh's proposed $1 5-million cut.
Olum’s main criticism of Atiyeh’s proposal is
that it contains no money for program survival,
specifically badly needed library and law school
funding. Also, the governor's proposal would
allow only a 6-percent increase in faculty and
classified salaries and would eliminate about 28
faculty positions, a corresponding number of
Graduate Teaching Fellowships and 17 classified
positions.
However, the University can continue to build
with modest funding and be ready to push ahead
at the end of the biennium, Olum said.
But a 10-percent decrease in state aid would
be disastrous for the University, he said. The
Legislature’s desire to eliminate waste in the
state's budget is understandable, but the Univer
r
sity “has already done it" over the past several
years, Olum said
“We have no margin, no fat, no room for
maneuverability.”
Olum said a 10-percent cut would require
firing 200 faculty members, eliminating 3'/2
professional schools and closing seven or eight
arts and sciences departments.
But don’t ask which departments would be
cut, Olum said.
“I’m not about to cut our own throats in
anticipation that someone will cut them for us."
A 10-percent cut would equal about $5 mil
lion in direct support but could go as high as $7.5
million because of lost tuition and grant overhead,
according to Olum.
Eugene also would be hit by the “domino
effect” of faculty firings Faculty salaries are
recycled 5'/2 times in Eugene businesses, which
could mean a $22-million revenue loss if the
salaries of 200 faculty leave Eugene, Olum said.
The alternative for dealing with a 10-percent
cut — lowering all salaries by 10 percent — is
unacceptable, he said. Teachers elsewhere in the
country are receiving 11- or 12-percent salary
increases.
"I will not recommend such a cut.”
The Legislature would be destroying
something that can’t be restored, Olum said. If a
professional school is closed, it won’t reopen for
at least a decade, and that means top faculty will
leave and never return, he said.
“Good people will be long gone and won’t be
coming back. Our best people are getting very
good offers right now.”
But Olum said he is hopeful that the Legisla
ture and Oregonians will realize how important
good higher education is.
“I tend to be optimistic, because we can't
afford to lose.”
T
\I»>M t
Paul Olum
They sleep with guns'
Habits, memories returned with Vietnam vets
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second of a two-part article
on dealing with veterans.
By ANNA HOYT
Ot the Emerald
His roommates don’t wake him up. They fear that
he might be dreaming he was back on the battlefield.
Reesa George, who lives with two Vietnam veter
ans, says she learned early that “you don’t wake them
up or enter the bedroom unless you know for sure
they’re awake.
“They sleep with their guns,” she says. “Every one
I know does.”
Living with a Vietnam veteran can require much
understanding and patience from family and friends.
The Disabled American Veterans organization es
timates that a half-million or more Vietnam veterans
suffer from post-combat stress.
But the stress victims are not mentally ill, the DAV
emphasizes, they just have some adjustment problems
to work out Paranoia and sleeping with guns are
common reactions for Vietnam veterans — but not all of
them.
John Eskins is one of many learning to deal with a
past that haunts him.
Eskins — known as "Speedy" to friends — has been
sleeping with his shotgun since he came home in 1969.
“It's just a habit I picked up in Nam," Eskins says
“That’s something I’ve never lost, the self-protection
(instinct)."
. Graphic by Anna Hoyt
But he's not afraid of accidentally using the gun if
he is unexpectedly awakened.
"I’ve been trained better,” he says.
Eskins admits living with guns can be a little uneasy
for other members of the household.
"It makes them nervous,” he says. "My sister would
knock on my head with a broom handle to wake me up.”
Eskins says sometimes he'll have dreams of Viet
nam and wake up “flipped-out." When he first came
home, he’d sleep on the couch with his eyes open. His
eyes would follow people walking by, but he'd be sound
asleep. One time when his mother tried to wake him, he
jumped up and started slapping her.
For his girlfriend, Eskins' habits restrict spontaneity
in their relationship — she can’t even sneak up behind
Eskins and tickle him
"I tried that once, but he turned around and told me
never to do that again,” she says.' It’s a part of me to be
playful, so it bothered me "
Worse, she says, his gun toting bothers her.
"He carries them with him everywhere, and I’m not
used to it. I don’t say anything about it because it's his
thing,” she says.
"But I wonder sometimes if this is the kind of guy I
want to be with the rest of my life.”
Since the war, Eskins says he’s become "more
hard-nosed” in his relationships with women.
"I’m hard to get along with," he says. "I fought hard
for my freedom and feel I can do what I want."