Wednesday, March 10, 1982
Eugene, Oregon
Oregon daily
Volume 83
Number 118
X
Private gifts boost University budget
By Ann Portal
Ottha Emerald
Funds raised by the University Foundation
increased 87 percent last year, adding $4 2
million to a needy University budget
"We re really pleased with it,” says Curt
Sirrnc, vice president for University relations
The most exciting thing about it is the number
of people who are coming forward to help the
University "
The $4 2 million is only the amount of cash
actually received last year An even larger
amount has been pledged through “planned
giving.” the money is not collected until the
death of the donor "The big money isn't going
to come in until the future," Simic says
Nearly half the donors last year were not
connected with the University in any way, other
than possessing what Simic calls a "desire and
appreciation" for quality higher education in
Oregon
While alumni donations increased 112 per
cent from 1979-80 to 1980-81, non-alumni gifts
increased 184 percent, according to the foun
dation’s recently released annual report
Increasing the base of support was the
foundation's primary goal, set 3-and-a-half
years ago, Simic says That's been accom
plished, with about 10,000 people now listed as
potential donors The next step is to encour
age permanent endowments and capital to
fund "bricks and mortar" work like a library
addition, he says
Simic says the foundation has drawn some
flack from state legislators about state money
being used to raise additional money. Last
year, the foundation office received $180,000
from the state, which it turned into $3 6 million
through its fund-raising efforts, he says
The University administration decided to pay
the foundation director's salary this year out of
funds raised, so the foundation receives only
$150,000 during 1981-82, according to Simic
He says the foundation may one day be
entirely self-supporting "My intention is that
we ll pull it all the way back if you've got a
chance to make it on your own, you're going to
have to do it," he says, adding "at least we
have the option ”
Simic. who has been acting director of the
foundation since Doug Wilson left in the fall,
says the success of the University's fund
raising is due mostly to "good organization" —
thanks largely to Wilson He expresses equal
confidence in Wilson’s replacement, Russell
Picton, who began his new job this week
Students also are getting involved in fund
raising Twelve University students have
staffed a "telethon" project this year aimed at
out-of-state areas with heavy concentrations
of alumni, such as San Francisco and Seattle
CASH GIFT
Graphic by Max DeRungs
Union leaders say ‘no way9 to renegotiation
At a recent convocation, a University employee illustrates the frustrations of
forced budget reductions.
By Debbie Howlett
Of the Emerald
University Pres Paul Olum has hit a
snag in balancing the University budget
At least where decreasing salaries for
classified staff is concerned, says Becky
Bragg, an administrative assistant at the
University and president of the University
local of the Oregon Public Employees
Union.
Brenda Cochran, president of the
Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation,
agrees that the same "snags” in the
OPEU contract are the problems that the
GTFF faces, but their involvement is
two-fold, as employees and as students.
According to both groups, the biggest
problem is in re-opening the union's
contracts to renegotiate salaries Re
opening the contract would require a
majority vote of union members Bragg
and Cochran both say "no way” to even
submitting the issue for a vote
Because OPEU represents all state
employees, Bragg, who also serves as
OPEU district director for Lane County,
says that she feels there is no reason for
an inequity in pay just because an em
ployee works for a university rather than
the Department of Transportation.
“There isn’t any point in asking us to
take a salary decrease when it's not
something being shared by every state
employee."
The GTFF has also announced that
they will not consider reopening their
contract either because, according to
Cochran, "If you re-open the contract,
you go back to the beginning and may
lose what you’ve gained."
While both women agree that other
ways to balance the budget exist, they're
taking a hard line on salary reductions.
The GTFF, says Cochran, has spoken
with Olum, and some alternative solu
tions were discussed One possibility, is
to reduce the Full-time Equivalent of the
GTFs, something that Cochran says she
is not anxious to do
In a recent letter to Olum, the GTFF
executive board "urged" Olum to "take a
stronger stand and take a position which
would transmit a more compelling mes
sage to the legislators in Salem."
They termed Olum’s plans as “higher
education taking it’s teaspoonful of
economic medicine quietly, as it has
always done in the past."
The FTE reduction is the “lesser of two
evils,” says Cochran.
Bragg insists that the only way to
reduce classified salary costs is to lay-off
classified staff
“Our position is; we have a clause in
our contract that states in the event of a
financial crisis there will be lay-offs,
we’ve negotiated in what order those will
occur,” says Bragg. The lay-offs will be
in order of seniority, she adds
Draft rally set for Thursday
A demonstration We say: no ar
rests! no draft! no war!" reads the
handout from the Coalition Opposing
Registration and the Draft
Eugene's CORD is sponsoring a
demonstration Thursday in protest of
upcoming prosecutions of draft
registration resisters The demon
stration begins at noon at the Fed
eral Building 7th Ave and Pearl St
There are at least 900,000 non
registrants in the United States, says
CORD counselor James Lewontin
and they will probably be prosecuted
— selectively — in late spring
Despite official assurances draft
registration has nothing to do with
actual inductions, U S leaders are
propelling us toward !he real thing, a
CORD statement says