Student lobbyists gird up
for higher education fight
By MIKE ANDERSON
Of Vw Emerald
Student lobbyists have their work cut out for
them this year, as state-mandated budget cuts
threaten the quality of higher education in
Oregon
The willingness of some state legislators to
reduce the size of higher education and the
federal government s eagerness to trim financial
aid will keep student lobbyists busy in upcoming
months, ASUO officials say
This year, the ASUO will work closely with the
professional Oregon Student Lobby, says Dave
Burns, the ASUO’s legislative coordinator
While the ASUO will channel much of its
lobbying through the OSL, it also will coordinate
student support that is critical for an effective
campaign. Burns says
In preparation for the special session of the
state Legislature Jan 11, the ASUO has published
an information packet encouraging students and
their parents to write letters in support of higher
education The packets will be distributed in the
EMU and University dorms
Information reflecting the problem's urgency,
sample letters, and the names of influential
persons in the state to whom students can write
all will be in the packet, according to Burns
"Right now is the time for students to help,"
Burns says "Anything less than a thousand or
two thousand letters will be a failure.”
"It's important for parents to write from their
districts for continued support of higher educa
tion," says John Stewart, ASUO vice president for
state and public affairs
A few well-placed letters, from eastern
Oregon for example, will have a tremendous
impact," Stewart says
Letters from influential people are effective,
agrees John Moore, ASUO executive coordinator
and former OSL lobbyist Moore has been helping
Burns target key members of the community who
will be urged to write letters
"We will try to identify students who live in key
districts and train those students so they can
contact important persons and upstanding ci
tizens in their communities
"We want them to serve as intermediaries
who can get these people to write letters," Moore
says
ASUO Pres Rich Wilkins, who also serves as
OSL chairer, says he will take care of coordinat
ing ASUO lobbying with OSL efforts
"We have to voice our concern on what could
happen if these budget cuts were passed, and
suggest other alternatives," Wilkins says
There are other ways the state could relieve
its financial situation that would be less devastat
ing than a 20-percent cut to the state’s higher
education budget, he says
Advocates of the budget cuts say tuition
hikes can compensate for the lack of state fund
ing, but this is not the solution, Wilkins says
"Legislators must realize that the University
can't always go back to the students and raise
their tuition," he says "We can't allow tuition to
go up so high that students will be denied access
through pricing "
Because the problem is so serious, ASUO
officials say it is important for students to find the
time to write letters despite the conflicts dead
week, finals, and registration present.
"It's a matter of devoting 10 minutes to write a
letter to save a whole year of education,” Burns
says
After lobbying for less-destructive budget
cuts in Oregon, efforts will turn to Washington,
D C and federal financial aid, Stewart says
Direct lobbying is difficult for financial aid
cuts because they are a federal — not state —
issue, according to Stewart Letter writing will be
essential, he says
"Letters are effective We need letters to be
written to congressmen, especially Mark Hat
field." Sen Mark Hatfield, R-Ore , is chairer of the
Senate Ways and Means Committee
Hatfield "is a key player in Senate delibera
tions and in the future of financial aid,” he says
Stewart says he has been working with Hat
field's staff to remain informed on developments
in Washington, and with Ed Vignoul, University
financial aid director, to determine the effects of
financial aid cuts at the University
The problem is more serious than most peo
ple realize, Stewart says
"A lot of people aren't going to be able to
come back to school,"
Veterans organization to fold
The University Veterans As
sociation (UVA) has announced
this year will be its last on
campus
Although director Dave Isen
berg submitted goals for
1982-83 to the Incidental Fee
Committee, a Monday memo
addressed by Isenberg to IFC
member David Gibson and
ASUO Executive member Dean
Larsen reiterated his conclu
sion that the organization is no
longer desired on campus
Other agencies are available
to help Vietnam veterans, there
is "a new breed of post-Vietnam
vets on campus" and campus
concern about future foreign
wars has decreased, stated
Isenberg's memo, in explana
tion of UVA's dissolution
“For the most part they are
content to rely on the new vet
erans clerk and assume that
Uncle Sam will provide, and
prefer not to do anything on
their own to ensure they get
what is owed them in terms of
benefits," Isenberg wrote of the
"new breed" of veterans
In a recent interview, Isen
Sexual abuse suspect
held on bail by police
A 37-year-old Mexican transient arraigned Monday on a
"menacing" charge is a "very strong suspect" in a number of
sexual abuse cases that occurred on campus this fall, accord
ing to a Eugene COP team spokesperson
Joseph Ballard, arraigned in the Lane County District
Court, was charged with "verbally sexually harassing" a
42-year-old white woman the evening of Nov 26 near 14th
Avenue and Ferry Street, says COP team member Skip Stokes
Ballard, booked on the menacing charge Dec 4, also is a
suspect in the Dec 2 sexual abuse of three University students,
according to Sgt Rick Allison of the Eugene Police Depart
ment.
The three women, all either 17 or 18 and residents of
Willcox Dormitory, were mailing letters in the early afternoon at
15th Avenue and Moss Street when a man approached them,
grabbed at their breasts and chased them, Allison says
Eugene police currently are investigating several other
recent incidents of sexual abuse on campus, and Ballard is a
suspect in those cases, Stokes says
Ballard is being held at the Lane County Jail Bail is set at
$2,500
berg stated flatly, "I'm not going
to babysit them"
The UVA is a one-man opera
tion and few efforts are made to
recruit new members, Isenberg
says
Efforts to find veterans to
continue the group's operations
made between the time he wrote
the goals and Monday were
fruitless, he says
“It's not going to hurt the
general student body" directly
or immediately, he says It will
only hurt campus veterans in a
year or two when, he predicts,
the federal government will
weaken veteran benefits pro
grams
"The things it (UVA) could do
won’t be available when they
(veterans on campus) need it,”
Isenberg says of the discontin
uance of the group
Those veterans who have the
energy to continue pro-peace
and other such movements will
find other outlets, he says
In place of the UVA, the
"ASUO and IFC (should) estab
lish some sort of military infor
mation center which can
provide information on the draft,
troop deployments, military
strategies, " the memo reads
Isenberg says he will maintain
UVA books for the rest of the
year and he recommends that
Students for a Nuclear Free Fu
ture be allocated UVA's current
office next year
"The group did what it was
supposed to do" but is at the
end of its usefulness, he says
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