Faculty scrubs PE requirement
By ANN PORTAL
Of lh* Emerald
After more than four decades as part of
the University curriculum, the physical
education requirement hit the showers
Wednesday
The University Assembly overwhelm
ingly approved a motion to eliminate
the five-term requirement, including an
amendment expressing annoyance'
with academic cuts made for financial
reasons
Beginning fall term 1982, students no
longer will be required to take PE
classes, although courses still will be
offered for an additional fee The
department plans to keep all its faculty,
says Celeste Ulrich, health, recreation
and physical education dean
PE department head Michael Ellis,
who made the motion to drop the require
ment, said he regrets having to make the
change
“This could be extremely disruptive to
a very large department,” Ellis said
But dropping the requirement is the
only way to deal with a financial setback
imposed by the Legislature, he said
Physical education is too important to be
deleted by a budget footnote. Ellis said
The state Legislature cut PE general
fund support during its last session The
cut would have required the University to
slice $150,000 from other programs to
fund the department
The requirement was an obstacle that
prevented the PE department from
becoming self-supporting. Ellis said If
physical education must pay its own way
with user fees, it can't require students to
take the courses, he said
Mathematics prof Lewis Ward, one of
three faculty members who voted against
the motion at a senate meeting last week,
suggested faculty approve an amend
ment indicating the Legislature should
not solve budget problems by mandating
curriculum cuts
Faculty members quickly approved the
amendment, which approves dropping
the requirement "because of a legislative
budget note and not for any academic
reasons "
Ulrich said she was not pleased by the
situation that prompted Wednesday's
action
"You can't be glad when you've
watched something die," she said
But the amendment indicated the
faculty’s support of the PE program,
Ulrich said PE fees will be kept as low as
possible next year by relying more on
community fees, she said
"The more successful we are. the
lower the cost "
Photo by Mark Pyncs
Michael Ellis
Emerald
Vol 83. No 40
Eugene. Oregon 97403
Thursday, October 29, 1981
Olum relays proposed
budget cuts to faculty
By ANN PORTAL
Of th« Emerald
Budget cuts suggested by
Pres Paul Olum would suspend
the international education pro
gram for a year freeze searches
to fill a number of key adminis
trative positions and leave the
University with the equivalent of
85 to 90 fewer faculty than it was
supposed to have in 1982-83
Olum announced the cuts —
which equal another 4-percent
reduction in the University's
budget — at a University As
sembly Wednesday, just four
days before a deadline set by
Roy Lieuallen, Chancellor of the
State Board of Higher
Education
The cuts will cost the Univer
sity budget another $2 14 mil
lion next year
They include eliminating the
natural history museum, filling
senior-level faculty positions by
making junior-level appoint
ments. closing the art museum
two months during the summer,
and reducing the amount spent
on services, supplies and ad
ministration
None of us like it, but we
don't know where else to get it,"
Olum said of the cuts, which
drew criticism from faculty
members at the assembly
"We have tried our best to
look at alternatives that are bet
ter "
Faculty asked Olum to dis
cuss those alternatives, but he
refused to identify areas that
were considered Those pro
grams would think of them
selves as "next on the list,"
needlessly damaging morale,
he said
Olum said faculty may wonder
why he is presenting additional
cuts after saying in September
that all reductions were in place
But the chancellor’s office sent
new guidelines after that date
identifying several thousands of
dollars in additional cuts, he
said
The reductions proposed
Wednesday comply with cuts in
Gov Victor Atiyeh's budget,
underfunding of the Oregon
Public Employee's Union con
tract, legislative cuts carried
into next year and quite a bit
more.’' as requested by the
chancellor, Olum said
All cuts already are in place,
and have been discussed by the
Advisory Council, deans and
department heads, he said
But faculty members voiced a
number of concerns Wednes
day. including worries over the
effects of the cuts on University
quality, the priority given to re
storing areas cut, and the ra
tionale behind some of the
reductions
Much of the discussion con
cerned freezing the internation
al education program, which
sends students to a number of
countries, including France,
England and Japan
By suspending the program
for one year, the University will
save nearly $150,000, Olum
said, promising the program
would be the first area to be
restored
However, the move may not
be reversible, and it could im
poverish the University in terms
of culture and foreign ex
change, faculty members said
The Advisory Council has en
couraged Olum to look at all
possible alternatives to su
spending the University's par
ticipation in the program, said
political science head Larry
Pierce, a council member
Upcoming searches for
several administrative posts al
so will be shelved, Olum said
Positions that will be filled by
acting administrators — or
faculty already at the University
— include the provost, a vice
provost, the allied arts and ar
chitecture dean, the community
services and public affairs dean.
the computing director, the law
librarian and several others still
to come
These are expensive posi
tions," Olum said, and filling
them with people already at the
University should save
$280,000
However, Olum asked faculty
to keep in mind that the freeze
was only to cope with the cur
rent financial crisis
We ought to review where
we stand on all of this in two
years "
Regarding the 85 to 90 full
time-equivalent positions to be
left open. Olum said no tenured
faculty or personnel in the mid
dle of contracts will be laid off
The number of positions cut
would have been about 10 per
cent of the 1982-83 faculty
members
Instead, cuts will be met by
not rehiring some personnel
whose contracts have expired,
not filling positions of some who
quit or retire, leaving the posi
tions of faculty on leave of ab
sences open, and not filling new
positions
For those positions that ab
solutely have to be filled, Olum
said there would be a "firm in
sistence" on hiring faculty at the
junior level to save on salaries
and fringe benefits, even
though the position might have
been one of a senior faculty
member
Further cuts were made in the
amount to be spent for heat,
supplies and maintenance,
which are ‘‘going to make it
pretty tight," he said
The Labor Education and Re
search Center and the Bureau
Continued on Page 3
Derek Bell
Photo by Erich Boekelheide
Panelists go after
Reagan’s policies
By DAWN GARCIA
Of th« Emerald
Pres Reagan's social
policies are based on a con
tradicting ideology that singles
out the poor, women and other
minority groups, a panel told
an EMU Ballroom crowd Wed
nesday night
Reagans "conservative
liberalism” contains con
tradictions because of its
simultaneous defense of the
market system and the tradi
tional values of family and
religion, said Cheyney Ryan,
an associate professor of
philosophy and vice president
of the Federation of Teachers
“The commitment to both at
the same time causes the
greatest source of hypocrisy in
the new right," Ryan said
For example, Reagan's
policies oppose abortion, yet
defend the rights of corpora
tions to distribute potentially
poisonous baby formula to in
fants in Third World countries,
she said
Such conservative econ
omic views are translated into
social policies that have hit
lower-income people —
especially women — the har
dest, said Rep Margie Hen
driksen, D-Eugene, also a
founder of the National
Caucus of Women
Continued on Page 3