Monday, January 11, 1982
Eugene, Oregon
Oregon daily
Volume 83
Number 75
-emerald
Hilton openers fight cold, faulty door
by Marian Green
Of ttw Emerald
The Eugene Hilton threw
open its doors Saturday with the
flourish and style expected of
the grand opening of a grand
hotel
About 150 Eugenians braved
freezing temperatures Saturday
morning to witness ribbon-cut
ting that marked the official
opening of the 12-story,
$16-million hotel
Barbara Shroyer, an execu
tive assistant manager said the
opening was pretty smooth ’
despite a few minor setbacks,
such as the front door handle
that fell off prior to the ribbon
ceremony
Ribbon-cutters Mayor Gus
Keller, Hilton manager Alex
Christ, James Fahs (president of
Development Associates Inc .
owners of the hotel), and Greg
Dillon (a vice president of Hilton
Hotels Inc ), first attempted to
slice the ribbon with tour-foot
long sissors of gold-colored
cardboard but eventually
acheived success with 12-inch
brass-colored metal sissors
"I'd like to thank the citizens
of Eugene for helping make this
committment come about, " said
Keller who predicted the Hilton
would be "the heartbeat of
downtown "
"We re very pleased to be
here and will be happier when
we get inside," said Keller,
referring to the shivering cold
temperatures
Pink cheeks and numb red
The Emerald’s
new clothes
Today's Emerald has a new
look that completes a two-part
redesigning effort that began
T uesday
The new masthead and
standing heads, set in eras bold
and eras light typefaces,
provide graphic consistency
throughout the paper The
reversal — white letters on black
background — sets the standing
heads and the masthead apart
from the black-letters-on-news
print style of the rest of the
paper
Included in the new heads are
new names for some sections of
the paper The "opinion" page
has been renamed "platform"
and the "inter/national news"
head has been changed to
"emerald inter/national" A
new section, titled "back door"
will begin Tuesday on the back
page
The new heads come after a
"page shuffle " The editorial
page was moved form Page 4 to
Page 2; the inter /national page
was moved from Page 5 to Page
4 and briefs and the cartoons
Bloom County joined Doones
bury on the classifieds page
under the heading "at al "
noses of the 15 South Eugene
High School band members
who played jazz tunes for the
crowd assembled in front of the
Hilton were constant reminders
of the cold
The new hotel, which opened
three months ahead of
schedule, is part of a $50 million
performing arts center complex
under construction between
Sixth and Seventh Avenues and
Oak and Olive Streets in down
town Eugene A conference
center opens in March and the
Eugene Performing Arts Center
is scheduled to open in Sep
tember
The hotel has two
restaurants—Encore, which
won't open until Feb 1, and
Oscar's, a moderately priced
family restaurant In addition,
the hotel has several special
suites and meeting rooms, in
cluding a special floor—the
seventh—where guests can
relax in a library-lounge or a bar
Hilton employees expressed
relief that the hotel was open
“I've got all the nervousness
out,'' said Rudolph Hawkins, a
front desk clerk
The hotel's 180 available
rooms were all booked up” for
the grand opening, Hawkins
said When the Hilton is operat
ing fully, 276 rooms will be
available, making it the largest
hotel in the community
Doormen, tall and slim in
silver and black uniforms, were
on their best behavior as they
cheerfully pushed open the
Photo by Mark Pynes
Balloons released Into the air at the ribbon-cutting ceremony were symbolic of the high hopes many
have that the Hilton will add vitality to the downtown area of Eugene.
heavy glass doors for entering
and departing patrons
"It's really neat to be at the
door and have people make
positive remarks about the
place,” said one doorman, Mark
Hughes of Eugene
Outside, long, silver-black
Lincoln Continental limosines
lined the turnabout, as valets
paused briefly, waiting for the
next automobile to arrive
Dressed in fancy finery, visi
tors toured the Hilton, gazing
from the velvety smooth furni
ture to the slanting skylights and
riding the elevator to the top
floor of the 12-story hotel
Some, like John Fortna of
Eugene, paid $50 a room on
opening night
“I wanted to be here," he
said, explaining that he rented
two rooms—one for friends from
Medford "It’s a big event for
Eugene.”
Fortna said he has been in
volved in downtown develop
ment activities since 1974, and
although he was invited to the
invitation-only luncheon Satur
day at the top-floor res
taurant—Encore,—he declined
"I was invited for lunch, but I
have to go home and pack my
suitcase," he said sheepishly
Salary cuts called ‘unconscionable’
Faculty faces budget nightmare
By Ann Portal
Of ttM EnwiM
Cutting salaries of higher
education faculty and classified
staff could create more prob
lems than it would solve, ac
cording to several faculty and
Oregon Public Employee Union
representatives
The 16-day furlough pro
posed by Gov Vic Atiyeh last
week, part of a $28 million cut in
higher education s budget, pre
sents a "nightmare" of admin
istrative and legal questions,
says University Provost Richard
Hill
"Faculty salaries are already
so dismal that asking the faculty
to take a 6 5 percent salary cut
is unconscionable," Hill says
The administration is totally op
posed to such a cut, he says
Becky Bragg, president of the
University's OPEU chapter, says
classified staff can afford the
reduction even less than facul
ty
"They're talking about the
extras and we re talking about
bread and butter," she says,
pointing out that most classified
employees earn between $700
and $800 a month
For classified staff and facul
ty, Atiyeh's proposal — which is
based on cuts forwarded by the
State Board of Higher Educa
tion — raises "a lot of legal is
sues," Hill says
To begin with, both faculty
and classified staff members
work under contract
agreements To violate the
faculty contract and place
professors on furlough, the
University "probably" would
have to declare financial ex
igency, Hill says
OPEU members, who just ap
proved a two-year contract last
July, would have to vote to re
open contract negotiations in
order to get a pay reduction,
Bragg says Union members
"overwhelmingly” opposed
re-opening their contracts in a
recent survey
Without changing the OPEU
contract, higher education sup
port staff would have to be
either layed off or put on a
"temporary interruption of ser
vice" (which applies only if the
furlough is less than 15 days).
‘Faculty salar
ies are already
so dismal that
asking the
faculty to take
a 6.5 percent
salary cut is
unconsciona
ble.’
University Provost
Richard Hill
The “temporary interruption”
technique probably wouldn’t
accomplish much, because it
would give staff the option of
using accrued vacation time,
and 1,500 employees have so
much time accumulated that it
would take more than a three
week furlough before the state
would begin to save money,
Bragg says.
The union favors lay-offs,
which would allow staff to col
lect unemployment and bump"
into positions at lower clas
sifications, she says
Hill points out another road
block in slicing 6 5 percent from
all salaries — not everyone at
the University is paid with state
funds
Many staff are paid from aux
iliary accounts, including feder
Continued on page 3