Vol .53, No 10
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Thursday, July 23, 1981
Governor’s budget short
University funds cropped
By ANN PORTAL
Of ttw Emaratd
The University has been dealt yet another
financial blow — it must pick up an additional
$1 3 to $1 4 million for faculty and staff benefits
not included in it's original budget
The amount is the University s share of $8
million that must be extracted from the state
higher education budget as a result of the
Oregon Public Employees Union contract that
was ratified last week
The $8 million figure is based on the
assumption that higher education faculty will
receive the same increase in benefits awarded
to OPEU members, as the faculty has in previous
years
University Pres Paul Olum says he con
siders the additional budget burden sig
nificant," but he says he will make no predic
tions on how the University will deal with what
amounts to an additional 13/<-percent budget cut
over the biennium
At this point all we can do is wait to see
what the final budget is,' he says
The extra $8 million that must be paid out of
the current budget is the result of a complicated
system of funding state salaries
Classified staff salary increases are not
included in the higher education budget, but are
funded by a separate bill that was included in
Gov Vic Atiyeh s budget package But Atiyeh
allowed for only a 6 percent increase in OPEU
salaries tor each year of the b'ennium
After nearly seven months of negotiations,
the final contract includes a large increase in
fringe benefits on top of the 6 percent annual
raises Although the central negotiating team
approved the benefit package, it did not indicate
where the money would come from, says Bill
Lemman, state board vice chancellor for ad
ministration
In effect, higher education is "now commit
ted to pay some money for which there is no
apparent source," Lemman says
"We are often underfunded in small
amounts We were not anticipating anything of
this order of magnitude," he says
Vice-pres for administration and finance
Ray Hawk says the University had been led to
believe that the 12-percent salary increase in the
governor's budget would include salary and
benefit increases
Now the University must assume the re
sponsibility of paying for something over which
it had no control, he says
Olum says the effect of the OPEU contract
came as a surprise to the University, which had
no representative on the central negotiating
committee and learned of the contract
agreement only after negotiations were
completed
"If we d had someone there I can't imagine
we wouldn t have been jumping up and down,"
he says
However, Olum says he feels it was the
classified staff s job to negotiate for the best
deal possible
"I'm not mad at the classified staff — the
salary increase is a minimum one for them
"I do feel that when a salary and fringe
benefit package has been negotiated, it is ex
tremely difficult for us to provide additional
funding "
Phone company
ups dorm rates
Pacific Northwest Bell will be
able to "reach out and touch”
the University for unpaid
student dormitory phone bills
beginning July 15, 1982, the
Oregon Public Utilities Com
mission decided recently
The decision was just one
part of a new billing policy
requested by PNB to counteract
more than $1 million the com
pany claims it lost on student
telephone bills at Oregon un
iversities last year
Housing Director Dan Wil
liams says the University resist
ed PNB’s request, insisting that
student telephone bills are the
business of the telephone com
pany and students
"We have lost on our differ
ence of opinion," he says
OPUC agreed to hold the
seven universities equipped
with PNB's Centrex telephone
system responsible for all un
paid student dormitory tele
phone bills
PNB says it lost $400,000 at
the seven universities during
the past two years because of
"basic fraud” — problems iden
tifying students who placed
long-distance calls and accept
ed collect calls in dorm rooms
Students refuse to pay for calls
that they did not make, and the
phone company absorbs the
loss, says PNB representative
Joanne York
Because all dormitory phones
are part of the University's Cen
trex system, the University ul
timately should be responsible
for the bills, York says
The second part of the new
billing system requires students
with phones in their dorm rooms
to pay 30 cents for each opera
tor-assisted call and 65 cents
for collect calls and calls billed
to a third number
Before the OPUC ruling,
students were not charged ex
tra for operator-assisted calls
because all long-distance calls
made from dorm rooms had to
go through the operator. The
operator charge has been ad
ded because PNB estimates
that students previously
received more than $272,000
worth of free operator assis
tance, says OPUC representa
tive John Clay
The new system requires the
University to be responsible for
policing dorm phones in the fu
ture, and it should be easier for
the University to stop abuses,
Clay says
Williams is not so sure
"We don’t know how to wres
tle with the problem yet.”
Campus tunnels contain algae, pipes, cockroaches
By MATT MEYER
Of the EmtilKI
Sometime during your fresh
man year, someone told you
about the tunnels
My brother used to go down
into the tunnels during summer
and play cards.' you were told
It's a lot cooler down there
than up here
So you and a bunch of your
pals dressed up in dark clothes,
took flashlights, found a coll of
rope and prepared for a des
cent into the tunnels
About an hour later, after ex
ploring three or four mucky
storm drains, you decided that
there are no tunnels at all. and
that the whole thing was a myth
perpetuated to keep freshmen
away from their studies
You were wrong
There are. in fact, about three
and a half miles of tunnels five
feet under the University cam
pus, connecting all the major
buildings and the physical plant
The tunnels house miles of
pipes carrying steam, chilled
water for air conditioning, com
pressed air, and power and
communications lines
According to Harold Bab
cock, director of the physical
plant the tunnels allow main
tenance workers easy access to
leaking pipes or other faulty
equipment
The city of Eugene, unlike the
University, buries its steam and
utility lines under pavement
This makes it difficult to repair
leaky steam pipes, Babcock
says The escaping steam
makes its way to ground level,
resulting in billows of steam ris
ing from manholes during
winter
'We re very fortunate to have
this system, I think,'' says Bab
cock "It makes maintenance
much easier because you can
get out and actually see the
problems "
Vet. the tunnels hold more
than just utility lines — namely
vandals Babcock says tre
spassers have broken locks and
grates and used hacksaws to
get through heavy-duty locks
and gates
Once in, they usually don't
stay long Although heavily in
sulated. pipes carrying steam
for heating and cooking, heat
the uncirculating air in the tun
nels to temperatures up to 120
degrees
Physical plant worker Earl
Hemenway says a maintenance
worker usually can last only
about an hour in the hot. muggy
air of the tunnels
The extreme heat isn't the
only uncomfortable feature of
the tunnels Most of the floors of
the tunnels have more than an
inch of mud caused by conden
sation and ram water Orange
algae grows in heaps along the
warm, moist cement walls
Although ores or goblins have
yet to discover the University's
tunnels, squirrels and other
rodents visit the tunnels occa
sionally
But the main animal problem
in the tunnels is cockroaches
There's a colony of cock
roaches down here that'll fight
you," Hemenway says
Despite the extreme heat and
cockroaches, curiosity usually
brings a few students into the
tunnel system each year Alth
ough little is generally said
about the tunnels, Babcock
claims that the physical plant
never has denied their exis
tence
"We've never tried to keep it
secret We'd just rather that it
wasn't a challenge for people to
break in I very strongly feel that
there are hazards down there
that are very serious
"We don’t even go down
there alone It's damn danger
ous if you don't know where
you're going or what you're do
ing."
High voltage cable in older
sections of the tunnels has
released an odor that indicates
that the lines are dangerously
overloaded Most of the cable
has been replaced, Babcock
says, but some hazardous areas
still exist
Continued on Page 2
Photo by Bill Wack
Physical plant director Harold Babcock tours one of the tunnels that
lies five feet beneath the University He says the tunnels, which
contain water pipes and utility lines, are explored by squirrels,
cockroaches and a few adventurous humans