opinion
Sex discrimination stains the state system
A class action suit alleging Oregon’s eight
public colleges and universities discriminate
against women faculty was certified in U S District
Court Tuesday From the statistics submitted by
the plaintiffs there is little reason to doubt the
claim of sex discrimination will be proved
It is quite startling to see that even in the State
System of Higher Education, where one of the
spoken ideals is truth, discrimination appears
The suit alleges women faculty are dis
criminated against in pay promotion, tenure,
professional duties sabbatical leave, grant
application support administrative and adjunct
appointments salary support and grievance
mechanisms
The suit was filed by 13 women faculty
members from five of the colleges and universities
in the state system Specific allegations of sex
discrimination will be brought by the individuals in
court But there is reason to agree that the
charges of discrimination are true systemwide
District Court Judge Helen Frye, in a written
opinion said, "The plantiffs have made an
adequate showing that the board (of higher
education) heads a statewide system that
practices sex discrimination ”
That s quite a damaging statement but one
which can be backed with excerpts from the
University’s own affirmative action report issued
April 1981 These statements are indicators of
areas of possible discrimination at the University
“Compared to last year, the percentage of
women appointed to 1979-81 academic postions
declined The percentage of new minority
appointments decreased from that of past years in
both full-time and part-time positions at all
ranks
Judge Frye noted that the plaintiffs “have
presented statistics tending to show a statewide
ours
pattern of disparity between men and women
faculty members in promotion and access to
upper-echelon positions in addition to pay differ
entials "
The University report went on to cite dis
crepancies in faculty salaries here Men receive
an average salary of $24,840. while women
receive only $18 648
The percentage of women appointed to full
time academic positions is also declining — as are
minority appointments in both full-time and part
time positions the University report states
The state system unlike the University, lacks
adequate affirmative action goals The dis
crimination suit relates directly to the state
board s affirmative action failure systemwide
theirs
This discrimination suit comes at a time of
economic stress However, the importance of the
suit outweighs the problems it poses for the board
It's unfortunate this discrimination suit will
have a greater impact on affirmative action than
programs already in existence Perhaps
affirmative action programs as a result of the
discrimination suit will be given the clout they
need to ensure fairness in hiring and
advancement It should be to the shame of the
state board that a judge will correct existing
inequities in the system
The discrimination suits will be expensive in
salary and punitive compensation, but the affect
systemwide will be to correct a deplorable situa
tion that has been allowed to go on for far too long
HAM' OBVIOUSLY AnIHER EXAMPLE OF YOU* FAMOUS SENSE OF HUMOR UNDER PRESSURE — Ri6Wf. RpN?'
Offended
I am writing with reference to
Tuesday s front page article titled “Few
View Otum Induction' with the sub
headline "Student Apathy Scolded “
I was very offended at the implication
that students were apathetic” about
wanting to see Paul Olum’s inauguration
As a student, I would very much have
liked to have attended, but I did not know
that I could
I work in the German department as a
clerical assistant I knew the professors
were invited; we received several
announcements concerning this but not
one single announcement concerning
the students being welcome ever came
across my desk
As to the quote from Wilkins saying
you must “flood the campus with in
formation,” rf a memorandum had been
sent to all departments asking that in
structors announce to their classes that
students were invited to attend, the turn
out most probably would have been
larger In comparison to much of the
trivial announcements that we deal with
daily, this one would have been most
welcome
I would like to personally apologize to
Pres Olum I am very sorry I wanted to
be there but I did not think I would be
welcome
Shelty Harris
Junior, Journalism
Sinking ship
An article appeared on the front page
of the Emerald on Tuesday which
attempted to justify the few number of
students who attended Paul Olum's in
auguration I found the article to be
utterly pointless
Page 4
Here we are in a time where cutbacks
have become the rule rather than the
exception, and the Emerald wonders
why students did not come in droves to
Olum s ceremony School pride dimin
ishes when funding diminishes It's as
simple as that It's no slight against dear
Paul it’s just characteristic of a sinking
ship How many sailors would rush to the
party being held for their new captain
when news of imminent disaster
abounds? Not many, if any When it
comes right down to it observation of
ceremony is low on the list when the
school's going to pot
It's not lack of information on the event
that prevented hundreds or even
thousands of Duck students from
crowding the stands at Mac Court, as
ASUO President Wilkins guessed It's not
lack of promotion, either It's not even a
"self-centered philosophy" that caused
only 30 to 40 students to take Sunday
afternoon off and observe the inaugura
tion
It's plain and simple a fact of life that
practically all of the University’s 18.000
or so students don’t give a hoot about an
inauguration And why should they?
Olum has been serving as president for
the last year, anyway
As a final note. I d like to say that the
money used on the inauguration cert
ainly could have been used for educa
tional programs instead But. alas, a bit
of sparkle in the form of pomp and cir
cumstance is just too valuable to skip
And anyway, it didn't cost too many
thousands of dollars
Jay Leisner
Senior, finance
Crack down
In the past two months the Islamic
Republic of Iran has executed over 1800
(Amnesty International statistics) revolu
tionaries in an attempt to crack down on
the opposition which is growing daily
This figure does not include a great
number of the masses who are being
executed on the streets without trial
Over the past two years, the Islamic
Republic has been unable to solve the
country 's problems due to its reactionary
nature and as a result of this has in
creased its oppression on the opposi
tion Daily, an average of 20 people are
executed and hundreds are arrested
The Islamic Republic is accusing the
members of the opposition of being U S
mercenaries while it is shamelessly
making deals with imperialist nations in
order to survive its severe economical
crisis By suppressing the resistance of
the Iranian people the Islamic Republic is
directly serving the purpose of the U S
imperialism, because the U S knows that
if a true and just revolutionary govern
ment comes into power its interest in the
crucial region of the world will definitely
be endangered
The Muslim Student Association has
supported this regime in Iran from the
start and still continues to do so The
MSA never mentions or explains the
suppressions and executions performed
by this regime it supports
We therefore invite all freedom loving
people to join us in exposing this criminal
regime and its supporters We would like
to ask the Muslim Student Association
why the Islamic Republic of Iran is ex
ecuting the revolutionaries who had
joined the people in the struggle against
the Shah We would also like to ask them
why the Islamic Republic is releasing the
members of the Shah's secret police
(Savak) who were responsible for ex
ecuting the Shah's atrocious crimes
Also we would like to know how the
Muslim Student Association justifies its
support of a regime which takes pride in
executing pregnant women as well as
children from the ages of 9 to 17
Farhad Lankarani
ISA.
Poor handling
I am writing concerning the very poor
organization used in running the Univer
sity of Oregon Invitational Tennis
Tournament (October 9-10) The officials
in charge of running the tournament
both upset and angered a number of
players when, without notice, they
cancelled all of the adult divisions
I feel my experience is typical with that
of others I arrived at the covered courts
at 11 a m for my first match only to be
hastily told that my division was
cancelled and I would not be playing so I
could leave When I attempted to inquire
why the division was cancelled, pushy
officials simply said there wasn't time for
it.
As if failing to notify the players of
cancellations in advance wasn't bad
enough, the officials were also very rude
and inconsiderate in answering ques
tions from the curious players In addi
tion. they had the gall to ask non-playing
participants to donate their entry fee to
the school tennis team rather than
receiving a proper refund
In future tournaments officials should
be organized enough to structure ample
time for play in all divisions, attempt to be
more considerate in their dealings with
the participants and develop a more
effective way of informing players of
cancelled matches If these simple im
provements cannot be made such
tournaments should no longer be run
Nicholas Baras
Freshman, Journalism
Friday, October 16,1981