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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 20, 1981)
daily Emerald Vol. 82, No. 159 Eugene, Oregon 97403 Wednesday, May 20, 1981 Controversy tests administrators Officials toil over tainted image Editor’s note: This concludes a series on the University's image. By MIKE LEE Of the Emerald At times, ivory towers get smudged. Law school clinics jump into bed with envir onmental activists. Protestors throw burning yellow ribbons before national heroes, and student newspapers publish profane humor sup plements. A And then the phones ring in Johnson Hall Secretaries placate as many angry callers as they can and send the rest to the boss. Then letters arrive. All must be answered. Not all image-making is as easy as promoting the latest member of the National Academy of Sciences. Both University Pres. Paul Olum and Curt Simic, the public relations vice president, must spend some time defusing problems. Since January, three potential image-tar nishers have made the news. How they were handled gives clues to the personality of the University administration and the difficulties in dealing with a diverse public. January: The Environmental Law Clinic. There’s still some bad blood from this one, though passions have calmed. Timber businessman Aaron Jones had threatened to withdraw a $250,000 contribution towards the University’s planned basketball dome unless the University would cancel the clinic, which has fought timber interests on environ mental issues. “He was angry that we were doing that kind of thing, and hurting, as far as he was concerned, a major industry for the state of Oregon,” Olum says. And Jones' complaints were not groundless. Because of “a very loosely and carelessly drawn agreement” between the law school and the private Pacific Northwest Resources Clinic — funded by the National Wildlife Federation — the ELC appeared to be under the PNRC's control, Olum explains. That made the University appear to be taking sides on public issues. Or, as Simic says, it looked like “we were in bed with the National Wildlife Federation.” The administration separated the ELC, tech nically a law school course, from the PNRC and offered students a chance to work for businesses like Weyerhauser if they want to. Olum is satisfied he did the right thing, but “there are some die-hards who won’t be happy as long as the clinic exists at all,” he says. But he stresses that the clinic has a right to exist as a teaching device. Meanwhile, nearly half the state s legislators had signed a petition supporting the administra tion against Jones and other lumbermen. Olum had to make sure they didn’t think the University had sold out. "The hardest thing to do,” Olum recalls, “was to tell our supporters — who were giving us big praise for preserving freedom of speech and standing up to the lumber interests — to say, look, you’re absolutely right, but on the other hand they had some justice on their side.” February: The Tomseth Incident. With the media present in full force, a pro tester dropped a burning yellow ribbon before the EMU Ballroom stage where former Iran embassy hostage Victor Tomseth was speaking. As bystanders and police wrestled with the protester, others shouted that Tomseth was a CIA spy. Continued on page 3A Graphic by Sioux Anderson ‘Immoral minority’ heckles Rev. Falwell By GREG WASSON Of the Emerald SALEM — The Rev. Jerry Fal well brought his moral rally to i---:— the steps of the state Capitol Tuesday morning. Surrounded on stage by 30 American flags, 30 young Christian singers in red gowns 1 Olum, students will meet today The University's budget problems will be the focus of an open meeting today between University Pres. Paul Olum and students. The president’s convocation with students will begin at 3:30 p.m. in Room 150 Geology. The purpose of the convocation is to give students a chance to discuss any issues that interest them. However, current fiscal issues are expected to dominate the discussion. “We will devote the whole meeting to a wide-ranging and informal discussion of the current status of our fiscal prob lems, what is being done about them, and as much as can reasonably be said about contingency planning," Olum says In a statement to the University Assembly last week. Olum said the University faces the closure of as many as three schools or colleges and eight departments in the College of Arts and Sciences if the Legislature doesn’t approve Gov. Atiyeh's 1981-83 budget and imposes an additional 10 percent in cuts The meeting is open to ail interested students. and white suits, Falwell pointed at the members of the Immoral Minority who were heckling him and accused them of being ex amples of the kind of moral de cline he was lamenting. “We have had a pornographic explosion in this generation,” Falwell said. "The Hugh Hefners and now the Norman Lears have tried to jam down our throats indecency, pornography, vul garity, obscenity — the kind of things you are shouting out there, the kind of things that are a violation of the principle of common decency.” But when the subject turned to the Reagan administration, Falwell had nothing but praise, especially for Secretary of State Alexander Haig. Falwell said that it was refreshing to see a leader willing to "shake his fist at the commies” and that he was impressed at the way Haig handled himself the day Pres. Ronald Reagan was shot. “He walked out and said, Tm in charge here,' ” Falwell said “And I believe he was — under the vice president, of course. But he was doing what was right and saying what was right. "Somebody asked me if we should be in El Salvador. Well, it’s either there or Florida, and I prefer El Salvador.” At a press conference before the rally, Falwell took ex ception to the claim that his movement represents a dan gerous mixture of church and state. He said the "other side” has been active for some time. "Men like William Sloane Coffin, the Berrigan brothers and the National Council of Church leaders have long been out in the political arena," he said. "I protect their right to do that. But what's good for the liberal goose is also good for the conservative gander. "And like them, we re doing it as private citizens, not speaking for our churches or congrega tions." At the rally, however, Falwell was not so soft-spoken. “It was Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, who said 3,500 years ago living by God’s principles promotes a nation to greatness Violating those principles brings a nation to shame.” Falwell said the only organ izations that feared his movement were the abortion rights people, the gay rights groups and the ‘‘other perver sions in our society.’’ One of the few legislators who attended the rally was Rep. Drew Davis, a conservative Portland Democrat who was in troduced by Falwell. Davis is considering running for Con gress next year. Falwell supports teaching so called scientific creationism in the schools, which would be required in Oregon under a bill sponsored by Davis. Oregon is the 41st state to which Falwell, pastor of a Bap tist church in Lynchburg, Va., has brought his campaign. He claimed a recent nation wide poll shows 54 percent of Americans consider themselves part of the Moral Majority, an organization he started two years ago and which Falwell boasts has 4 million members. The 2,000 that gathered to hear Falwell at Tuesday's rally was less than the 5,000 sup porters predicted would attend The crowd was split almost evenly between supporters and non-supporters.
