dailyemerald
Vol. 82, No. 155
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Friday, May 15, 1981
Wilkins gives
committee
budget tips
By GREG WASSON
Of the Emerald
SALEM — In sharp contrast to faculty
presentations Monday night, students
seemed more aware of the severity of
Oregon’s budget problems during their
appearance Wednesday before the
education subcommittee of the money
controlling Joint Ways and Means Com
mittee.
The lead-off witness, ASUO Pres.-elect
Rich Wilkins, told the subcommittee the
Oregon Student Lobby is convinced that
any further reductions “will weaken our
nation and our state.”
“But, we are not driven by our com
mittment to higher eduction to the sort of
immature refusal to acknowledge reality
that has too often plagued a species of
university radicalism. Instead, we see the
problem and understand what it is like to
be short of money with no real place to
find it,” Wilkins said.
The subcommittee is considering cut
ting an additional 10 percent from the
higher ed budget submitted by Gov. Vic
Atiyeh. The panel now has suggestions
from the State Board of Higher Educa
tion, the Education Coordinating Com
mission and the Oregon Student lobby
on where to slice the additional $30.6
million.
The state board has recommended the
elimination of approximately 10,000 FTE
students, 77 teaching faculty and ap
“We understand what it is like
to be short of money with no
real place to find it. ”
proximately 500 instructors, according
to Wilkins.
"This, we would submit, is not good
policy, is not good economics and is,
most emphatically not necessary to
achieve the 10 percent reduction," Wil
kins said.
OSL legislative representative John
Moore later specifically laid out the
students’ proposals.
They joined the board and the fcCC in
suggesting increases in application and
transcript fees - $743,200; suspension of
state support of intercollegiate atheletics
— $693,000; a 10 percent reduction in
central activities — $620,374; and a
decrease of 7? FTE positions for off
campus instruction — $300,000.
The group shared the ECC’s sugge
stions that colleges and universities
eliminate physical education service
courses and the accompanying gym suit
service — $4.8 million; institute expand
ed television instruction — $1.1 million;
roll back enrollments to 1980-81 levels —
$2.6 million; and eliminate state support
of summer instruction — $1.15 million.
The OSL alone called for a 10 percent
reduction in statewide services such as
the extension program — $7.7 million —
and a recovery of $2.54 million budgeted
for salary increases. OSL argues the
increases are unneeded if the faculty is
reduced to the level the students
proposed
Dave Sweeney Photo by Anna Hoyt
Forecaster enjoys
zany weather antics
By ANNA HOYT
Of the Emerald
Is Dave Sweeney for real?
A pejorative question, maybe, but
one that must enter the mind of
thousands of television watchers each
evening.
There in your livingroom is KEZI’s
zany — yes, that’s the word for it —
weatherman, climbing aboard his
"weekend weather limb" to promise
more sunshine or kill picnic plans with
rain. He shows off drawings submitted
by local schoolchildren — which com
pare quite well to his own.
"There are guys who do it with
puppets," Sweeney says. "You think
I’m weird." Pause. “I’m working on the
dancing girls.”
Come on, now, it can’t all be true.
But it is. "It’s part of my personality,”
Sweeney admits. He says viewers like
watching people on television who
genuinely enjoy what they’re doing.
"I don’t think having a good time on
the air is something to be ashamed of,"
he says. "Obviously.”
Sweeney says the crew at the station
is used to his antics. "They just say,
Oh, that’s Sweeney, he does these
things.' ”
Like the Halloween night he dressed
up like Dracula, a la Gene Simmons of
Kiss. After prophesying the weather in a
Transylvania accent, he turned to poor
Debbie Segura, who was anchoring
that night, and said, "Vy miz Deboora,
your neck — it looks delicious!”
Then Sweeney lunged at her neck,
startling her enough to scream — on the
air.
“I never tell anyone what I’m up to,"
Sweeney says. "I like the spontaneity of
it."
So it was the night Sweeney decided
to let viewers get a live glimpse of his
"weekend weather limb," off of which
he habitually falls in promotional
commercials. He found the biggest,
mustiest branch possible in back of the
station and dragged it into the studio,
hiding it before he appeared.
When his spot began, he threw the
branch into the air, saying that how it
fell would determine the weather.
It smashed into a million pieces — a
reflection of his accuracy, some might
say.
But Sweeney is not all body and no
brains.
He received a master's in science
education at the University of Idaho,
and began broadcasting weather in
Lewiston in 1977 when he couldn't find
a job teaching science.
Sweeney’s happy now, "except I’d
like to make bigger bucks,” he says.
And though he may not have a "title"
as weatherman, Sweeney insists his
viewers "still get good weather infor
mation."
Sweeney disagrees that describing
the weather as “grey and gunky" or
“spiffy” — not to mention lurking
"thunderboomers" — is merely silly.
"I think adults can get into that just as
much as kids,” he says.
"You can’t just be a machine that has
a stern look on its face and shows no
emotion at all
"Why not have a little fun with it?”
Transcript
requests up
20 percent
By GABRIEL BOEHMER
Of the Emerald
While gripes about mixups and delays
in the handling of academic records flow
steadily through the registrar's office, the
work pace there is picking up.
Student requests for academic record
transcripts have increased almost 20
percent this year, according to Univeristy
registrar Wanda Johnson.
Although Johnson can’t pinpoint the
reason for the increase, she doesn't
expect the activity to lessen due to
current enrollment increases.
Johnson estimates students ordered
about 40,000 academic record tran
scripts this year.
And this year students are spending
17.8 percent more money in fees for
official academic record transcripts.
A portion of that increase is reflected
in the price increase for official
transcipts, Johnson says The cost
jumped from $2 to $3 in 1979. An official
record bears the registrar's seal, and the
University pays the postage
On the other hand, Johnson points out
that the spending increase doesn't
reflect the amount students spend on
unofficial record transcripts. The
University charges 50 cents apiece for
unofficial academic record transcripts
that don't bear an official seal and have
to be picked up at t e registrar’s office in
Oregon Hall.
The delay between the
request and delivery of a
transcript depends on the
time of year that it is ordered,
Johnson says.
Students spent close to $4,000 for
unofficial record transcripts last fiscal
year, according to Johnson. During the
same time students spent about $4,500
for offical record transcripts.
The delay between the request and
delivery of a transcript depends on the
time of year that it is ordered, Johnson
says
At the beginning of the term, the delay
could be a couple of weeks. The Univer
sity won't send the record until all the
student’s grades from the previous term
have been recorded. And delinquent
business office accounts can slow down
record delivery, Johnson adds.
Registrar's office information supervi
sor Carol Raymond says middle-of-the
term orders also are put on hold until
grades for that term have been recorded.
Record orders are heavy in January
and February when students apply for
admission to graduate schools, accord
ing to Raymond
Although Johnson considers the
specific destination of academic records
confidential, she says the registrar’s
office could compile a report on the
percentages of the records headed for
potential employers and other colleges
and universities.
But the registrar’s office staff has
fallen behind in that type of research
since it suffered budget and staff cut
backs, Johnson says.