Vol -86, No 7
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Thursday, July 9, 19fi1
Koinonia evicts
anti-draft groups
By HEIDI SWILLINGER
Of ttw Enwaid
Clergy and Laity Concerned
and the Coalition Opposing
Registration and the Draft
have been asked to move out
ot their offices in the Koinonia
Center, at 1414 Kincaid St
According to John Skillern,
a board member of University
Christian Properties — an in
terfaith group that owns the
Koinonia Center — CORD and
CALC have been asked to
leave because "the Meth
odists are leaving the Wesley
Center (1236 Kincaid St ), and
they need the space "
However. CORD member
Christina Cowger says, "A
large motivation for (University
Christian Properties) to evict
us is political "
"The draft is going to be
more ot an issue in coming
months," she says "The
CORD office will become a
center of activity again "
Cowger says Skillern told
her that "philosophically, your
activities don't meet with the
purposes of the building
Skillern does not deny mak
ing the statement and says,
"The purpose of the (Koinonia
Center) is to provide space for
Christian ministries on cam
pus "
"CORD is not a church
CALC is not a church
(Koinonia) was formed to get
all denominations on campus
under one roof he says
Cowger says that while the
Methodists may move into the
vacated CALC offices no
other group has shown an in
interest in renting CORD'S
basement office
"It's highly unlikely they'd
ever find anyone to rent this
space tor an office,'' she says
Cowger says the Campus
Interfaith Ministry invited
CORD to use the basement
free of rent about two years
ago However, she says the
move never was officially
authorized by University
Christian Properties, who vot
ed last month to evict the two
groups
The Campus Interfaith
Ministry didn’t struggle very
hard against UCP's decision.''
"It makes life hard," she
says, adding that until August
15, CORD will share office
space with CALC — scheduled
to move from the building on
that date
CALC staff member Doug
Barber agrees with Cowger
that CORD'S eviction is poli
tically motivated
However, in CALC’S case
Barber says he believes the
original decision was made
based on space problems
"It was a priority use of
space," he says
Neither group knows yet
where it will relocate
"We d like to stay on this
side of town," Barber says
"We've been here seven years
now, and have developed ties
to the faculty and students
we'd like to maintain.”
Cowger says CORD is plan
ning a fund raising dinner for
July 14 The benefit will be
held at the Keystone Cafe, 395
W 5th Avenue and begins at
5:30 p m
We re also asking anyone
who knows of space for low
rent or no rent that is prefera
bly centrally located to let us
know "
Photo by Bill Wack
Christina Covvger, member of CORD, hauls boxes out of the
Koinonia Center after being evicted from her office.
Cop lab
finds LSD
in body
Traces of LSD have been
found in the stomach of a man
who was killed by an off-duty
state trooper in Cottage Grove
last week when the man threa
tened to hit a small boy with a
hammer.
A medical examination by
state police lab technicians
Tuesday confirmed that small
pieces of paper found in Todd
Schiesz’s stomach contained
LSD, according to Lieutenant
Chuck Vaughn of the Eugene
criminal investigation lab
LSD that "leeched out" of the
papers also was detected in
stomach juices, but it is impos
sible to tell if the LSD was in the
man’s bloodstream or affected
his actions, Vaughn said.
"All you can do is assume it
had time to get into his system,”
he said
The papers in the stomach
match LSD-saturated papers
found in a small container
Schiesz reportedly threw during
his erratic behavior Friday after
he attended the Oregon Jam
concert in Autzen Stadium
According to Cottage Grove
police, Schiesz rammed an
other car on Interstate 5, then
jumped out of his car and ran
into a residential neighborhood
in Cottage Grove. He then ran
into four houses, demanding
guns and explosives. The last
house he ran into belongs to
trooper Ronald Nelson.
After Nelson chased him with
a gun, Schiesz scooped up a
2Vi-year-old boy, apparently as
a hostage. Nelson identified
himself as a policeman and fired
a warning shot after Schiesz
threatened to hit the boy with a
hammer. Schiesz then raised
the claw end of the hammer,
and Nelson fired, killing him in
J stantly
If Johnny can’t write, at least he’s trying
By ANN PORTAL
Of Dm EmaraM
Editor's note This is the first
of a three-part series examining
a renewed emphasis on student
writing abilities
Can Johnny write yet?
No, the statistics say
As well as before, some
scholars say
Five years ago, the identifica
tion of an American literary cri
sis caused many schools to re
examine their curriculums
Overloaded with ‘ relevant”
courses — such as citizenship,
home economics and health —
schools abandoned the value
judgement approach and began
to sift through the educational
debris to salvage the basics
"A large group of students
were not learning anything but
how to get in touch with them
selves," says University English
prof Kathleen Dubs, director of
composition
Today, educators acknow
ledge that schools still are
producing functionally illiterate
students — the statistics spell it
out:
• Performance on the verbal
section of the SAT has declined
alarmingly
• A recent National Assess
ment of Educational Progress
study indicates that the writing
abililities of pre-college
students have improved little
since 1970
• Albert Joseph, president of
the International Writing Insti
tute in Cleveland, estimates that
at least two-thirds of the peo
ple who pass through the
educational pipeline come out
unable to write a simple letter or
report "
However, some professors
say the problem may be due
more to increased expectations
than decreased skills
University English prof John
Gage says that he feels writing
has not gotten any worse
"Freshmen writing has al
ways been awful," but now tests
can objectively measure that
awfulness, he says
The real literacy test today is
not how well Johnny compares
to his forefathers, but whether
he is learning the skills neces
sary to survive in a world of
increasing technology
Students may feel that the
widespread use of telephones,
televisions, radios, computers
and video display terminals is
smothering the need for writing
abilities, but an electronic
society will demand even
greater writing fluency and
proficiency, according to com
munications experts
Edward Corbett of Ohio State
University said in a May article
that students should consider
the written word a means of
access, a tool and — when
needed — a weapon
“Business, industry, educa
tion and the professions are
consuming more paper and us
ing more writing every year," he
said
“As an information storage
system, language is cheap, sta
ble, readily available and indis
pensable.”
The cry for better writing skills
has not gone unnoticed by the
American educational system
Writing, once considered the
bastard child of university Eng
lish departments, has become
the legitimate study of rhetoric
and communication
The combining of educational
theory, psychology and
linguistics has produced an ex
plosion of different techniques
for teaching writing — and the
University English department is
feeling the shock waves.
Gage says that "all these new
solutions to old problems
haven’t accomplished very
much." Competing theories and
approaches have destroyed the
homogeneity once character
ized by primers and composi
tions.
But the new practices are
revitalizing English depart
ments, stirring up the muddy
waters of grammar and usage,
and pumping energy and op
timism into the struggle to teach
Johnny to write
"No assumptions are sacred
anymore,” Gage says