daiKremerald
Vol. 82, No. 158
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Tuesday, May 19, 1981
Switch to semesters
draws faculty debate
By GABRIEL BOEHMER
Of the Emerald
Added bureaucracy and bad summer
weather were cited as points against a
proposal to change the University from
its present quarter system to a semester
format.
The proposal, discussed at a Monday
afternoon meeting, drew both criticism
and praise from a small group of faculty
members. No students attended the
meeting.
Semester study committee chairer
Maradel Gale said a motion to adopt an
early semester system at the University in
the fall of 1983 would be made at the
faculty assembly meeting in early June.
The plan has been approved by Univer
sity Pres. Paul Olum.
Speaking against the switch, English
Prof. Nat Teich warned that it might put
too much stress on the University.
Teich said that while some faculty
members may be persuaded by the
neatness and rationale of the conver
sion, tailoring courses and requirements
to the semester system could overload
the University’s resources.
“It may be a greater strain on an al
ready weak system," Teich said.
Speaking in favor of the switch,
English Prof. Joe Heins said he views the
semester conversion as a golden oppor
tunity for a spring cleaning of University
academic departments.
The value of the semester system is
that it would require departments to “cut
up and throw away the course catalog,”
Heins said.
In addition to financial savings, Heins
claimed a great deal of emotional, psy
chological and instructional effort — on
the part of faculty and students — would
be saved
And the longer semesters would
remedy the ‘shopping cart” approach to
education that pervades the quarter
system, he said.
“We think because we do things in
smaller packages that we a get wider,
broader education,” Heins said.
But Heins seconded the suggestion of
another professor that the conversion
committee separate the motion into two
parts: one for adoption of a semester
system, and another for adoption of an
early or late calendar.
Earlier at the hearing, religious studies
Prof. Jack Sanders said, “I'd like to plead
with you to divorce the term ‘early’ from
‘semester.’ ”
Objecting to beginning the fall
semester in late August, Sanders said ail
the evidence in the conversion com
mittee's recommendation was aimed at
the merits of the semester system, and
not a specific calendar.
"One of the things faculty enjoy about
teaching at this university is the
weather,” Sanders said. “One of the
things that helps to make up for small
salaries is the opportunity to enjoy the
outdoor opportunities.”
Geology Prof. William Holden said the
calendar of the switch would hamper
geology field research.
Mountain snows sometimes last
through July, Holden said, and the
semester calendar would end the spring
semester earlier than spring term now
ends.
"We see this as a real blow.”
University associate provost Gerry
Moseley — a member of the semester
switch committee — remarked that
Pac-10 universities are “all on the
semester system, converting to the
semester system, or studying the
semester system."
State college sports
face funding hurdles
SALEM (AP) — The game may be over
for varsity sports at Oregon state
colleges if a budget subcommittee
adopts a proposal to drop state funding.
Sen. Jim Gardner, D-Portland, led off a
Monday debate by telling members of his
Ways and Means subcommittee that the
state higher education board has
recommended saving $693,000 by
eliminating support for intercollegiate
athletics at state universities.
He suggested that another $560,000
could be saved by also cutting funding
for state colleges.
Higher education Chancellor Roy
Lieuallen told the subcommittee that
most intercollegiate sports at the
University of Oregon, Oregon State
University and Portland State University
would be self-supporting through gate
receipts.
However, Lieuallen said the funding
cut at state colleges probably would
mean no more intercollegiate athletics.
Rep. Howard Cherry, D-Portland,
suggested that funding should be cut but
not eliminated until the schools have a
chance to put the sports on a self-sup
porting footing.
"It’s an important function," Cherry
said. "We should keep enough so they
don’t have to drop out of the leagues."
"I don’t care about the Pac-10,” Sen.
Frank Roberts, D-Portland, said. "We re
talking about education and you’re talk
ing about traveling around the country
playing games on Saturdays.”
Ways and Means co-chairer Ed
Fadeley, D-Eugene, said physical fitness
was a national goal.
"Then let the national government pay
for it," Roberts retorted.
University Pres. Paul Olum raised the
issue of federal Title IX and state
requirements that women have sports
programs equal to those of men.
"It’s an act of hypocrisy to tell us on
the one hand to do it” and then remove
funding, Olum said.
Lieuallen got back in the fray, saying
total equality could be provided by
eliminating all sports programs but "that
would be a draconian route "
The subcommittee may finish work this
week on the 1981-83 higher education
budget
Jim Weaver
Photo by bteve uynes
Weaver links blast
to recovery process
By TOM VISOKY
Of the Emerald
The eruption of Mount St. Helens still
has much to teach us about nature’s
ability to regenerate itself,
Congressman Jim Weaver said at a
Monday night speech in the EMU.
In an informal speech titled "The
Real Issues Confronting Timber Policy
Today,” Weaver, D-Ore., said he sees
the devastation caused by the eruption
of Mt. St. Helens as an opportunity for
people to observe nature’s recovery
process.
Weaver also linked the controversy
surrounding the designation of Mt. St.
Helens as a natural reserve to other
problems confronting the timber in
dustry.
“It's fundamentally a philosophical
difference,” he said.
“There are fundamentally two kinds
of human beings. One kind observes
and learns from nature. The second
wants to use nature, to exploit it
“One sees a beach and the other
sees a motel.”
Weaver said this difference in out
look has led to a great deal of conflict
over the use of timber resources. But
historically the users generally prevail,
he said
“The history of the world, of course,
is the cutting down of all the trees
Where are the Cedars of Lebanon?”
Noting that “half the trees in the
wor'd have been cut in the last 25
years,” Weaver said he favors careful
timber resource management.
“My particular leanings are toward
prudence in the use of our natural
resources.”
Weaver said the intensive cultivation
and harvesting of only a few select
species of trees may cause unseen
effects on the natural gene pool, which
could adversely affect future timber
harvests.
“We don’t know what effects we're
having on gene pools of plants.”
Foresters are beginning to observe a
rare root rot disease in selectively bred
stands of young Douglas fir, Weaver
said. Natural stands of trees immune to
a wide variety of diseases are in danger
of disappearing unless preservation
areas are set aside, he added
But Weaver noted that not all
government officials believe in
preservation management of natural
resources.
U S. interior secretary James Watt
believes that perhaps some areas
should be set aside tor the use of future
generations, Weaver said But, "he
(Watt) didn’t know how many future
generations there were likely to be
because we don’t know how soon the
Lord will come back ”
Weaver was the keynote speaker of
the Outdoor Program’s Mt St Helens
symposium.
Related stories on Page 6 and 7.