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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 9, 1982)
emerald platform Reported salary demand corners board The State Board of Higher Education may have painted themselves into a very tight corner with their selection of George Weathersby as a candidate to succeed out-going Chancellor Roy Lieuallen. And as with almost all things in the state of Oregon, that tight corner the board is painted in is surrounded by green — as in money. The specific obstacle in the Weathersby ap pointment appears to be his reported $90,000 salary request. That reported salary demand was blasted by Eugene Democrat Sen. Edward Fadeley, who called it “grossly insensitive.” Weathersby, in Portland over the weekend for discussions with the board, was “reluctant to comment” on the $90,000 salary and neither confirmed nor denied the figure. If the reported $90,000 salary demand is true — and there is no evidence to doubt that it isn’t — Weathersby would become Oregon’s highest paid state official. Dr Leonard Laster, president of the Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) is presently the highest paid, earning about $80,000 annually. But compare Weathersby’s reported asking salary and Gov. Vic Atiyeh’s salary: Atiyeh earns only slightly more than $55,000 in his role as governor. Compare also the average faculty salary at state institutions which ranges from a bottom of $10,000 to a top (at OHSU) of $65,000 — with the mean being about $25,000 The present salary of the chancellor is $69,516, which will be increased 5.3 percent along with statewide academic staff as of July 1 The salary will again be increased another 4 percent in May of 1983. By then the chancellor s salary will be almost $76,000. Along with this the chancellor is given use of a furnished house and $18,000 a year for the upkeep. The chancellor is also provided with an expense allowance incidental to the position This expense allowance is nearly $5,000 a year. There’s little doubt that the Harvard- and Berkeley-educated Weathersby, presently Indian a’s commissioner for higher education, is going to shake things up in the state system His ideas on making the educational institution more financial ly productive are radical. Board members are concerned with securing a quality chancellor, and they have the notion you get what you pay for. But is Weathersby worth that much? And if the board opts to meet his reported salary demands will Weathersby become more of a liability than an asset? The reported salary demand betrays an in adequate understanding of the present economic situation in Oregon, and its effect on the state's system of higher education At a time when faculty are being asked to accept a six-montn postpone ment of a deserved salary increase, how can the board in good conscience pay Weathersby what he reportedly demands? This $90,000 figure, if actual, sets a relationship between Weathersby and the board that may be characterized as other than cooperative If Weathersby has indeed demanded a salary of $90,000, the board should not shy away from offering Weathersby the chancellor's post at the present salary level And if Weathersby won't accept anything under his reported demand, then the search for Lieuallen's replacement should be reopened I letters Rudeness The National Security Con ference was an ambitious project of regional significance ASUO co-planners should be congratulated for bringing a timely program of this stature to our campus I have concerns, however, about the reported rudeness of our audiences More important ly, the attitudes expressed by some student leaders merit ex amination From one student leader, we learn that “in order to under stand both points of view, you have to listen, ” and “ if we persist in this kind of behavior, the only people (that) will come to Eugene are people we al ready agree with." Contrast that with comments by that same student in the same article: “The speakers may have de served the comments they got. Experienced speakers should know when they come to a col lege campus that this is what they are going to get " One of the national speakers here as our guest said, “This is the rudest college audience I've spoken to in the last five years " That is a strong statement not to be taken lightly No one is com plaining about what may have been said, but there is comment needed on how we go about communicating Adjectives de scribing rude include primitive, uncivilized, and uncouth, none qualities that accurately de scribe almost all of our students Yet, that is the label given the University because of a very few, (some probably not students) We should not overlook the statement of a qualified national speaker who stated un equivocably the conduct at the University is the worst he’s seen. That is not the same mes sage we hear from our student leader when he rationalizes that student audiences are this way everywhere. I don’t believe that and I don’t believe the Universi ty community needs to be em barrassed nationality by the un civilized deportment by a few Vincent J. Bilotta Susan Campbell Hall KZEL radio Concerning the Emerald s story on KZEL-FM How can anyone patronize a radio sta tion, whose once progressive character has been totally epoxied over with a format — abstractly arranged to endorse certain predictable economic patterns — and influenced by the corporate media executives of a mysterious and unaccoun table "programming service” in Atlanta, Georgia? (No wonder we never hear black music on KZEL ) Sure their ratings are high, but to call KZEL nonpareil is a joke; as if the airwaves of Eugene were crammed with competitive all-day mega-watt hard-rock stations But, hey kids, how about that "local hit" morning show "Breakfast with the Beatles" with featured "artist" Van Halen — again Tomorrow, they'll fea ture Led Zepplin — again And those DJs — funnnnnnny! Who cares that they got their start in little red-neck towns like Char lottesville, N.C. and Spokane, Wash ; after my first joint in the morning, I'll laugh at their amour propre humor anytime These guys really know where it's at DJ Dan Clark, who admits he’s “pretty weird sometimes" (yeah, AC/DC is great creative input), really summed up KZEL Atlanta s attitude that KZEL's old free-form style was too un structured and not homogen ous enough Homogenity is ob viously KZEL Atlanta's answer to creativity and structure a control of unwanted forms of behavior (i e , New Wave), KZEL Atlanta is exactly the kind of situation that Elvis Cos tello warns us about in his song "Radio. Radio' "Radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools trying to anesthetize the way that you feel " Ralph McDaniel Senior, architecture letters policy The Emerald will accept and attempt tp print all letters containing fair comment on issues, ideas and topics of interest to the University community The letters must be limited to 250 words, signed and the identification of the writer must be verified when the letteriis turned in to The Emerald offices, EMU 300 The Emerald reserves the right to edit any letter for length, style, or content Publication is dependent upon space available Tht Oragon Dally Emaratd It publlahad Monday through Friday axcapt during tinalsmaak and vacations by tha Dragon Dally Emaratd Publishing Co. 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