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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 29, 1981)
Emerald Vol. 82, No. 165 Eugene, Oregon 97403 Friday, May 29, 1981 Law clinic claims win in la wsuit By JEFF BAKER Ol the Emerald The University environmental law clin ic won a “significant victory” Wednes day in an Idaho timber case. Or did it? A U S. District Court judge ruled that two environmental impact statements submitted by the U.S Forest Service were invalid. Judge Fred Taylor also dismissed a suit brought by the Idaho Wildlife Feder ation, which was represented by the law clinic. Clinic co-directors John Bonine and Terence Thatcher were attorneys of record for the federation. Bonine called the judge’s ruling a "pretty significant victory,” a claim that an attorney for Evergreen Forest Products can’t believe. Evergreen was a co-defendent in the suit along with the forest service and Boise Cascade. "They sure weren’t claiming victory in court yesterday,” Boise attorney Hugh O'Riordan said. “I’d call it a Pyrrhic victory — one where they lost more than they won.” O’Riordan said the National Forest Practices Act allows national forests to operate under old timber management plans while new plans are being chal lenged. Since the environmental impact statements were rejected by the court, the old plans go into effect in the two southwestern Idaho national forests in question. i nc uiu piaris aiiow more roaa duiio ing and timber harvesting,” than the rejected statements did, O’Riordan said. “Our people are happy because they want to cut timber." Bonine, reached by phone in Boulder, Colo., said the government’s attitude was “ ‘too bad, now we re going to use the old ones.' ’’ Thatcher said although he was “not absolutely clear what they’ll do,” he said the government “hinted rather broadly" that it would return to the old plans. The next legal move is up to the feder ation, both sides agreed. The federation will “review any announcement of activi ty in that area very closely," Thatcher said. "We don’t think the old plans can be successfully challenged,” O’Riordan said. “They’ve been around for 13 years and have never been contested.” Bonine and Thatcher paid tribute to the “at least six” law students who worked on the legal briefs used in the case. “It’s a tribute to the educational sys tem that a group of law students can force the forest service to obey the law," Bonine said Not all Eugene residents consider the law clinic a tribute to the educational system. The law clinic’s involvement in the Idaho case sparked protests in January and February from several forest products executives, notably sawmill owner Aaron Jones. Jones threatened to withhold a $250,000 donation to the University’s proposed basketball pavilion if the clinic was not disbanded. He said the law clin ic, as a part of the University, should not take stands on controversial issues. Photo by Steve Dykes Byers bests fast field Tom Byers of Athletics West set a meet record of 3:55.73 in winning the featured mile at Thursday's Twilight Meet at Hayward Field. Byers led four other runners below the four-minute mark, including Bill McChesney, Rudy Chapa, Ed Spinney and Ken Martin. Story on Page 8. Lieuallen pleads for higher ed By GREG WASSON Of the Emerald SALEM — The battle to save higher education is moving into a new phase and all segments of the enterprise in vaded the capitol Thursday First, Chancellor Roy Lieuallen and the presidents of the University, Oregon State and Portland State pleaded with the House Revenue Committee to ap prove Gov. Vic Atiyeh’s revenue propo sal so that the state budget won't require the drastic cuts threatened. Then, students from around the state held another rally on the capitol steps and visited lawmakers from their areas, encouraging them to avoid the carnage that would result without additional funds. In his testimony, Lieuallen contended that the past fifteen years have seen higher ed forced farther back in the pack. "During the decade of 1967 to 1977," the chancellor said, "The share of the states general fund allocated to higher education has dropped from 24.4 per cent to 14.6 percent.” Lieuallen added that Oregon enrolls in its four-year institutions about the same percentage of its population as the na tional average. If the money is drastically reduced, he warned, the state should consider reducing access. Lieuallen predicted that without addi tional money, 100 faculty and 35 classi fied employees will be terminated this fall with an additional 400 faculty and 265 classified personnel going the following year. The chancellor estimated that the layoff would be accompanied by denial of access to 7,000 students. Many of the professors who would be terminated have tenure, a situation that requires a declaration of financial ex igency before the system can lay them off or reduce their salaries. Such a declaration, Lieaullen told the committee, is the same as a declaration of bankruptcy and would cause the word to “be spread far and wide among academics and will reduce the attrac tiveness of the state system to able students and faculty Additionally, Lieuallen warned, the declaration would cause faculty and students already here to look for other opportunities. “While openings elsewhere might be sparse, there are always places for the best The best ones are the ones we can least afford to lose.” The same message was given to the students as they gathered on the steps by House majority leader Grattan Ke rans, D-Eugene “You don’t destroy universities and then bring them back two years later When the funding is gone and the faculty is gone, you don’t call them back we didn't mean it.’ " Among the cuts proposed by the Ways and Means committee in the event addi tional money doesn’t become available is $200,000 given to campus radio stations Such a move would mean the end of $123,000 slated for KWAX and the $70,000 budgeted for KSOR at Southern Oregon State College in Ashland.
