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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 4, 1981)
opinion Title IX gains, but budgets may dim future A presidential advisory panel, empowered by Pres Carter, has only just released findings that claim women have made ‘‘dramatic gains” in the nine years since the enactment of Title IX It’s important to remember the “dramatic gains” took nine years and have not as yet resolved existing inequities beyond only a satisfactory level. All Title IX has done is lessen the gulf—perhaps chasm is a better word—between opportunities for women which were customarily male oriented But there are threats to the achievements of Title IX. Most of these threats come from the economic side Title IX, in order to ensure compliance, cost money. Here at the University the money budgeted for Title IX programs is looked upon as money that could be spent more profitably on older, more beneficial programs Title IX is the otherside of the pendulum—and has been accurately called a sex-bias law Unfor tunately, as with quotas in hiring minorities, it required reverse discrimination to provide the impetus to correct the situation Does the end justify the means? In the case of Title IX, perhaps it ,does When getting to the particulars the panel found many things to point to as positive The number of women enrolled in profes sional schools has increased tenfold Women earned half of the master's degrees awarded in 1980, and one-third of all doctoral degrees Women have been studying in areas that were considered primarily male fields The percentage of women studying law rose to 40 percent Women studying agriculture rose to 27 percent Business and management showed a 31 percent rise in the number of women in the field And 8 percent of the undergraduates in engineering were women That’s not an even distribution, but it is close enough in some areas to indicate gains Women have increased their participation in etters Religious cults In "Cults serve spiritual potpourri to students" (Emerald, Oct 22), Christians Dick Beswick and Doug Groothius attack contemporary religious cults. "Cults want you, or your money, or both,” says Beswick Isn’t that what Jerry Falwell and Oral Roberts, et al., want? Established businesses always resent upstart competi tors. What was Christianity but a cult until a Roman emperor in a decaying empire bestowed imperial power upon it? Like semi-Christian cults today, early Chris tianity prophesied the imminent end of the world Jesus is quoted in three Gospels as solemnly swearing that "this generation” will see Judgement Day Peter: “The end of all things is upon us ." Paul commanded Chris tian husbands to live as if they had no wives because "the time is short.” John "My children, this is indeed the last hour" because there are many anti-Christs Like some contemporary cult leaders, Jesus promised his followers supernatural powers—they might "tread on" poisonous snakes without being bitten, or move a mountain by faith (No one has ever had that much faith.) Modern cultists who practice free sex find moral support in Paul's enigmatic statement "To the pure all things are pure ” As long as there are unstable people in an unstable society there will be religious cults Better a thousand competing cults than one or two overpowerful religions or churches Voltaire said, of eighteenth-century Eng land, that if there were one religion there would be tyranny, if two civil war So let us rejoice in the multi plicity of cults L.F. Hawkins Eugene Omission It is regretted that an omission occurred in prepar ing copy for this fall's Student Handbook section of the Time Schedule of Classes, and I would like to call the correct information to everyone’s attention The "Non Discrimination Policies" section on page 141 will be corrected in the winter Time Schedule of Classes to read intercollegiate programs to nearly one-third Ath letic scholarships for women are now available at 500 colleges—and of the total athletic scholar ships awarded nationwide, women received 22 percent. But, particularly in athletics, the backlash is evident A number of schools are deliberately limiting budgets in womens' athletics to discour age participation And though women comprise one-third of college athletes they receive only one-sixth of college athletic budgets. The special session of the Oregon Legislature in 1980, by drastically cutting higher education budgets, caused many state institutions to run the risk of violating Title IX In a number of instances ii was considered unavoidable Jobs in education for women have shown disappointing results Women still are behind men in salary and tenure, and advancements to higher positions in administration have not been sig nificant Title IX has done much to correct existing inequities for women However, the law is not looked upon with much favor by the Reagan administration The economic support for Title IX is considered expendable and not necessarily in the federal realm If economic incentives are withdrawn or limited, Title IX will become less and less effective Title IX is essential to resolving the past inequities under which women suffered VB&lfcTOTK /MfltlES "The University of Oregon affirms the right of all individuals to equal opportunity in education and employment without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, age, religion, marital status, veteran status or any other extraneous considerations not directly and substantively related to effective performance, includ ing sexual orientation This policy implements Title IX, Section 504 and all other applicable federal, state and local laws, regulations and executive orders " “Related inquiries may be directed to Norma Com rada McFadden, Director, Office of Affirmative Action, 472 Oregon Hall. University of Oregon, (503) 686-3123 “ Bob Bowlin Dean of Students Clout not cult I don't know if anyone from Christ Brotherhood has molested any children Maybe we will see a fair trial and find out I do know that they feed a lot of people who don't get help anywhere else As for the accusation of “cult!'' I object to the definition used in your Oct 23 article Mr Beswick says that cults pick and choose parts of the Bible to ignore and others to emphasize Yet churches with misogynist tendencies emphasize Eve’s part in The Fall, and quote I Corinthians XI People who believe women are not second class men ignore these and refer instead to Christ’s acceptance of women as followers and to his setting free the adulteress People who are pacifists emphasize The Prince of Peace, and war-mongers endlessly quote the blood and gore of the Old Testament, carefully ignoring each others’ favorite sections Rich people glory in King Solomon and ignore most of the book of James. Catholics add the lives of the Saints and pronouncements of the Pope as holy Protestants read others to tell them what to emphasize and what to ignore Mormons add a whole Latter Day Testament And the rejected books of the Apocrypha were tossed out of the Bible by the judgement of men, not God To refuse to pick and choose from the Bible is to accept slavery (Genesis IX, Exodus XXI) to impose the death penalty for gathering sticks on Sunday (Num XV: 32-36) to believe that lobster and crab are abomin ations (Lev XI), treat menstruating women like filth (Lev XV) and to live out a host of other barbarities Perhaps the real difference between a cult and a church is amount of money and political clout Jerry Falwell, Billy Graham, the Pope and the Mormon Patriarch are safe of the accusation tor the reason of their earthly power and that alone Linda Jencson Community edanthropology Alternative view I have been a bultmarexic for nine years I began the practice of vomiting meals in college, as many women do I would like to offer an alternative to the viewpoint expressed in recent media articles, of which yours, "Anorexia Nervosa" (Oct 26) is typical Psychological factors do play a part, and the right counselor can help you But there is another aspect which, I believe from my own experience, plays an important part — nutrition A competent nutritional counselor can explain to you the problems associated with maintaining your body's blood sugar, and how factors in your diet — most notably sugar — can trigger imbalances in your body and psyche The concepts involved are logical and easily understood There are biological reasons why you cannot get "full" why you become severely depressed, and can't concentrate on the tasks at hand A thorough understanding of your blood sugar will give you tremendous insight Psychologists and psychiatrists charge an alarm ing amount of money and my considerable experience with them has been that they rarely offer sound, com monsense explanations More often they dispense theoretical knowledge that is impressive but vague, and gives you few tools to really help yourself The low-cost clinics, such as White Bird, have excellent nutritional and crisis counselors and are a good place to start Also a self-help group with some feminist orientation can take you very far along the path to cure Check the Observer classifieds for these, or start your own Best of all, these are things you can afford yourself, so painful patterns of dependency upon parents do not have to be prolonged Remember that bulimarexia is a newly discovered disease, and neither the cause nor the cure is entirely known by anyone Be creative in your search and do not think an expensive therapy is better than an inexpen sive one I am not completely well, but I have come a long way The things that have helped me most have been: strict avoidance of sugar, a feminist self-help group for overeaters, and nutritional counseling Patricia J. Reed Eugene resident
