Emerald
Vol 83, No 19
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Wednesday, September 30,1981
WVO poses as campus newspaper
By MARIAN GREEN
Of ttw Emaraid
Today marks the second week of
distribution of the other newspaper on
campus — the Willamette Valley Ob
server’s "WVO On Campus" edition
But folks at the Oregon Daily Emer
ald. on campus since 1908. say they
don’t feel threatened by the added
competition
“It's not really competition in a tradi
tional sense because the campus edi
tion isn’t different from the regular
issue," says Sally Hodgkinson, editor of
the Emerald "They're not covering
campus any better than they have in the
past
"We would welcome real competi
tion. but we haven’t seen any yet The
WVO may be on campus, but it isn’t a
campus paper " she says
"Just because they throw 10,000
copies on campus doesn't mean
they're a campus paper "
Darlene Gore, advertising manager
of the Emerald, says the Observer’s
on-campus paper hasn’t hurt the ad
vertising end of the business either
"We re not suffering from it "
The only visible difference between
the "WVO On Campus" paper and the
Willamette Valley Observer's regular
edition which costs 50 cents, is a dif
ferent banner on its front cover and a
short campus calendar on the back
cover
Ken Doctor, the weekly paper’s edi
tor and publisher, said the 8,000 copies
delivered to various on-campus loca
tions last week were well-received
He says between 7,500 and 10,000
copies will be delivered to various spots
on campus The circulation will change
during vacation periods or and special
editions
Doctor says the free papers aren't
expected to cut into the paid edition s
subscription market
"I don’t think there’s going to be any
significant change University students
aren't a large part of our subscription
list,' he says
But those students who already have
paid $13 for a year or $8 for a half-year
subscription to the Observer now will
find an almost identical paper on cam
pus newsstands for free
Over the past couple of years, the
Observer distributed two small sup
plements on campus — the Livingwell
calendar and the Music Monthly edi
tion, but Doctor says those editions
now are consolidated within the free
paper
"They did what we wanted them to
Photo by David Corey
do, which was to reach more people,"
Doctor says
' Music Monthly was profitable on a
month-to-month basis, but with the way
the music industry has been going —
record stores closing and very few
concerts — there wasn’t enough mar
ket to support the kind of music edition
we wanted to do "
Doctor says where he would have
liked to see a 16-page music sup
plement, but Music Monthly usually
only attracted enough advertising to
pay for an eight-page supplement
Now, he says, distributing the whole
paper free to campus seems to be the
"best way.’’
Doctor says the Observer can serve
the campus audience as well as the
Eugene community
"Our audience is really broad — 18 to
49 (in age) ” he. says "Our news and
information is applicable to both the
campus and the community ”
PSU declares bankruptcy
By ANN PORTAL
Of the Emerald
What happened to Portland State University7
On Sept 16 PSU Pres Joseph Blumel declared
tinancial exigency, making PSU the first state higher
education institution ever to do so
Financial exigency — the educational equivalent to
bankruptcy — allows state colleges and universities to
fire tenured faculty
The decision to declare exigency came only five days
after State Board of Higher Education Chancellor Roy
Lieuallen directed all state institutions to cut back their
1982-83 budgets by 4 percent
Declaring exigency at this time also was required by a
union agreement with the American Association of
University Professors, the bargaining unit for PSU
faculty, he said The union requires a year's notice
before laying off tenured faculty
The taculty reduction will allow an accompanying
Graphic by Max DeRungs
reduction in academic programs and university ser
vices that translates into a $1 75 million cut, Blumel
said
The declaration, which apparently surprised admin
istrators at other Oregon colleges and universities,
came little more than a month after Lieuallen an
nounced that financial exigency had been narrowly
avoided by the Legislature's level of higher education
funding
However, the declaration is a rational response' to
the Legislature's directive to trim higher education
programs
Budget notes released by the Ways and Means
education subcommittee made it "clear" that the
Legislature expected program cuts in the 1982-83
academic year, he said
Blumel's proposal, which faculty and students can
comment on until an Oct 12 deadline, suggests the
elimination of PSU's women’s studies, journalism and
film programs and Central Europe, Latin America and
Middle East area studies programs
Services courses in business education (secretarial
science), special teaching degree programs and health
and physical education courses also would be elimin
ated
The program eliminations would allow 44 non-clas
sified positions — almost all instructional — and six
classified staff positions to be cut, Blumel said, alth
ough no specific faculty members have been identified
A varied number of faculty would be pulled from
departments including criminal justice, biology,
chemistry, english, foreign languages, geography,
history, philosophy, physics, political science,
sociology and speech communication, he said
Some cuts were made based on declining program
enrollment, Blumel said, though many other factors
were considered
"They (the programs) were each judged on their own
merits ”
Fewer programs will mean less students at PSU, he
says, but there "ought to be a reduction" in enrollment
if there are fewer resources
The declaration should not be interpreted as sig
naling the demise of PSU, nor even a major change in its
mission, Blumel said, but should be interpreted as a
modest program and enrollment reduction necessary to
maintain quality.
Friday begins
celebration of
education
The first National Higher Education Week, which
begins Friday, catapults the University into several
weeks of frenetic activity the likes of which students
may not soon see again.
The special higher education celebration runs
from Oct 2 through Oct 11 By coincidence.
University Pres Paul Olum’s inauguration and sur
rounding festivities take place the weekend of Oct
11 and the University library kicks off its year-long
centennial celebration Oct 5
While students recover from education week
events, homecoming weekend will sneak in the back
door to confront them Oct 15-17
And fall parent's weekend comes to campus Oct
31 accompanied by a huge EMU Halloween party
Higher education week activities include a revival
of the popular summer University Theatre produc
tion Inherit the Wind, a giant EMU spaghetti feed and
a community-facuity-student-parent-alumni open
house A full schedule appears on Page 6A; in
auguration events will be detailed in a special sec
tion next week
Nearly a thousand universities will participate in
higher education week, which is being sponsored by
the Council for the Advancement of Support of
Education, says Barbara Petura, University news
bureau director
Petura says coordinators hope they are really
making very clear the importance of higher educa
tion in this country."
University coordinator tor the week, Petura says
planning began last year when departments, schools
and faculty were asked to move planned activities
into the week, or sponsor special events
The open house especially should provide
students and parents a chance to see things they
otherwise might not, such as lasers in operation in
the physics department, she says