Emerald
Vol 83, No 25
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Thursday, October 8,1981
Olum rejects ‘let’s get small’ attitude
By ANN PORTAL
Financial exigency: for sinking Oregon colleges
and universities, it represents the last port in the budget
storm
Portland State University rowed into the financial
harbor three weeks ago; Western Oregon State College
considered it
At the University, Pres Paul Olum directs his crew
to patch the boat and stay afloat
"You wave your magic wand, and you say those
magic words — but what does it mean?" asks Olum
For higher education, financial exigency means
bankruptcy It means not being able to pay all the bills,
breaking personnel contracts and firing tenured facul
ty
And Olum says it means losing face as an academic
institution
“It's a pretty strong action — a public announce
ment to the academic world that you've broken faith I
would like to resist doing that," he says
“It takes a long time to live that down "
Institutions must be able to prove exigency in order
to declare it. he says The amount of time it takes to
regain credit and credibility will, in part, depend on
whether the declaration was in good faith, Olum says
In Oregon, exigency had been declared only once
before September's PSU announcement, according to
higher education Chancellor Roy Lieuallen The earlier
declaration also was at PSU, he says
Although declaring exigency is the individual deci
sion of the eight state colleges and universities, the
chancellor and the State Board of Higher Education
both must be consulted, Lieuallen says
PSU Pres Joseph Blumel says his decision to
declare exigency was. in part, acknowledging what he
considers an order from the Legislature to reduce the
Graphic by Max DeRungs
size of higher education
WOSC Pres Gerald Leinwand agrees with Blumel's
interpretation of recent budget cuts, viewing them as
more than a short-term problem to be handled this year.
"In Oregon, the dream of what higher education
can mean to the state has been lost,” Leinwand says
"We re dealing with a legislative mandate to
become smaller.”
But Leinwand says he rejected exigency as the
means for achieving smallness, although proving ex
igency at WOSC next year “would not be a difficult thii
to do."
“We've discussed (financial exigency) rather ex
tensively with them,” Lieuallen says.
However, after talking to deans, faculty and
students, Leinwand decided on the "more orderly”
system of program reduction proposed to the faculty
last week.
Under state administrative rules, financial exigency
and program reduction are the only ways tenured
faculty can be fired — which probably will happen at
both PSU and WOSC next year
Firing tenured faculty will hinder WOSC's ability to
attract faculty in the future, Leinwand says, but word of
program reductions may not travel as far — or hurt as
much — as financial exigency. Many colleges across
the nation also are cutting back, he says.
Allowing time for comment on both planning and
implementation seems to have prevented panic, Lein
wand says.
“The faculty have reacted with remarkable re
straint.”
The University already has in place the 4-percent
cut for the 1982-83 academic year that triggered the
actions taken at the other two schools, Olum says.
But work continues on the $2.15 million reduction
as guidelines shift on what is included in the cut, he
says.
For the time being, financial exigency remains an
abstract idea at the University. Olum says he continues
to reject the idea of getting rid of tenured faculty or
eliminating academic programs
Decreased tuition, decreased state revenue, or
new cuts in the special legislative session could change
the picture, he says, but right now the University is
riding it out — and waiting for calmer waters.
“We've done everything in our power to hang on to
what we've got ”
P.E. Dept, wants
requirement cut
By DEBBIE HOWLETT
Of Ih* Erin nld
Physical education require
ments may be dropped if a
cost-cutting proposal wins
faculty approval
Michael Ellis, who heads the
physical education department,
asked the University Assembly
Wednesday to repeal the five
term requirement beginning fall
term 1982
"We need to unfetter our
selves from the constraints im
posed by the University P E
requirements," Ellis said
The assembly tabled discus
sion until its next meeting, pos
sibly on Oct. 28 University Pres
Paul Olum must recommend
additional budget cuts to the
State Board of Higher Educa
tion by Nov 1
If passed. Ellis' motion could
alleviate some pressure for
further budget cuts because the
physical education department
would not need funding for ac
tivities classes
Legislation in the Oregon
House of Representatives
prohibited the activity classes
from drawing general funds To
continue P.E. requirements, ac
tivities classes would have to be
funded from cutbacks in other
departments.
And after a year of already
painful cuts, nobody is happy
with that solution
Accordingly, Celeste Ulrich,
dean of health, physical educa
tion and recreation, says "with
the Legislature dipping into
curriculum patterns, we have a
lack of funds What we want to
do is explore different concepts
to handle the programs ."
Ulrich proposes a program
similar to that used by Continu
ing Education Activity classes
would be arranged in a variety
of ways, from seminars to full
terms, but students would have
to pay separate fees to enroll in
the classes
Ellis says that the transition
will be a "hassle," similar to
changing horses in mid-stream
"We will probably get wet,”
Ellis says.
In other assembly business,
members questioned the
University of Washington's de
claration of financial exigency,
asking whether it was "prema
ture."
Olum replied, "In my own
judgment, it was a bit prema
ture There might have been
political purposes involved "
Olum then stressed that
under no circumstances would
the University declare financial
exigency for political reasons.
Cartoonist draws audience
Twenty-year-old Jack Ohman is a man living
out his fantasies
Wednesday, the popular syndicated political
cartoonist donned his “Ted Kennedy glasses”
and read a prepared text about his life to a
capacity crowd of high school journalists in the
EMU Ballroom.
“In high school, I was a veteran avoider of
math classes," Ohman told the enthusiastic
crowd “And I started hanging out in the
newspaper office.”
Now he is what Newsweek calls "Cartoon
ing s newest star “ Ohman's satirical drawings
appear in more than 350 newspapers across
the country.
Ohman's break came just last spring, when
his syndicate's premier cartoonist, Jeff Mac
Nelly, gave up his job to concentrate on the
"Shoe" comic strip. The syndicate chose
Ohman to take MacNelly's place
In college, Ohman worked as the staff car
toonist for the University of Minnesota Daily.
"In college I got a lot of incompletes, and I
lost a lot of weight," he says about his begin
ning
"I gained all the weight back, but I never
made up the incompletes."