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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 5, 1982)
Monday, April 5, 1992 Eugono, Orogon Oregon daily Volume 83 Number 123 emerald Hail, rain, sun hail first Market Hilton presence elicits optimism By Sandy Johnston* Ofthm Emmrmtd Rain and hail, mingled with spots of sunshine, led to mixed feelings by the coordinators of Saturday Market s 13th opening Saturday, but the beat of 1950s music from “Whitetones” delighted the small crowd who attended the opening. "I don't know why this many people would show up in the rain,” says llene English, assis tant manager of Saturday Mar ket. "But then since it's the opening day I expected more people,'' she adds English expects a good year because the Hilton Hotel win dows are directly over the mar ket ‘ When people from conven tions and other visitors see the market out theor balcony win dows they are going to come over and look at what's here,” she says. "They will see the quality and buy items to take home " The city of Eugene has come to "accept Saturday Market as an intregal part of Eugene,” English says "Now it is a gath ering place where people from different walks of life can be outdoors with lots of people they usually don’t mingle with.” Booth space in the Saturday Market normally is a coveted item among Eugene craftspeo ple. The market averages about 200 booths but English es timates there were only 80 to 100 on the opening Saturday because of the rain. The market charges lower commission rates than most local galleries, and shoplifting is almost non-existent. “There is almost never any theft," English says "There is a lot of honesty going on around here." She adds that the crafts people pay for their spots on the honor system and it works quite well. Merchants pay $3 plus 10 perent of their profits (or a minimum of $5). Gil Harrison, a potter from Cottage Grove who has been at the market since the beginning, was one seller undaunted by the weather “The quality of work has im proved quite a bit.” Harrison says. “It has helped a lot of craftsmen become full-time bu siness people working at their crafts. It allows people to try out new things and find out rfpeople enjoy it because there is im „„ Photos by Erich BoaktHhekto Ttf Whltetones " delight a "small" crowd with a capalla tunas from tha 1950s and 60s. mediate feedback “It also gives people who live in the country a place to sell," he says. “Galleries charge 40-50 percent of the total price when they sell crafts but Satur day Market allows the makers of the items to sell directly to the public and keep prices reason able.” Harrison estimates one-half to two-thirds of his income comes from Saturday Market, with galleries and special com missions making up the rest. The most popular booths are the food booths, which are also the most regulated. They must get a $35 monthly license from the county. "They are the most inspected restaurants in Lane County,” English says, laugh ing. All the booths at the market must meet rules pertaining to what is considered to be a craft. Ice cream made by pedalling a bike, jewelry, woodworking and more make up the fare offered at Saturday Market. If the year meets expecta tions, English says Saturday Market will purchase new tables and benches for the food section and overhead shel ters for the food and enter tainment areas. Fifth Street Public Market feels no ill effects from Saturday Market. In fact, Polly Nelson, general manager of Fifth Street Public Market, says that Satur day Market "mainly increases our business because if the weather is good then people will walk back and forth and have more things to do in the down town area." Nelson adds they get a few new merchants each year who have developed their business through Saturday Market and then go into it full time at the Fifth Street Public Market. New coalition backs candidates By Daw Banks OffttbNnM Editor's Note: The Emerald will provide exten sive coverage oftheASUO elections from filing dates to the finish lines. A slate of candidates running for ASUO offices, Incidental Fee Committee seats, and the EMU Board was announced Friday by Students for a Progressive Agenda, a new political coalition endorsing nine candidates in ASUO elections next week. The original goal of the organization was to “unite all groups” on campus, said co-coordinator Julie St. Clair at an afternoon press conference. SPA is “obviously a very large group' with endorsers and candidates coming from about 25 organizations. Candidates endorsed by the SPA on the up coming ballot are: Kevin Kouns. ASUO President; Ken Packman, ASUO Executive Vice President; Mary Alice Holmes, David J. Lesser, Jeff Nudelman. Steve Pacheco, and Dianne Ritterband-Mason for »FC; Mary Hotchkiss and Javed Rasool for EMU Board. Kouns, director of the Cuba Study Group and co-director of SEARCH, said in a brief speech that current student government is "a real joke.” Leadership and communication are needed if the "parochial attitude" toward student government is to be reversed, he said. The current student government is a group of "baby politicians playing games.” Kouns said. “Perhaps if we take it seriously, it will cease to be a joke." “SPA is an organization of ASUO Programs and individual students that came together out of a common belief that student government is failing to fully meet student needs,” said Mary Hope, SPA co-coordinator, as she outlined the group’s platform. “What is needed (to overcome this failure) is a rethinking and restructuring of the role of student government,” she said. SPA bases its commitment to establishing this Graphic by Max DsRunga form of government on three basic beliefs, according to Hope. Those “basic beliefs" are that ASUO should support the programs which help students the most, that the student government must stop appealing only to a small group of students, and that student government needs to recognize the broad political concerns of students, she said. Included among the SPA's resolutions are op position to draft registration and Reagan adminis tration reduction in financial aid and student loans, and support of full student control of incidental fees. SPA candidates would merely be "a change in personnel” and are not as different from the status quo as they might think, said IFC chairer Karsten Rasmussen. What the SPA advocates has “either already been done" or is in the process of being done by the current ASUO government, he says. See listing ol all Nlsd candidates on page 5 Enrollment declines by only 1.5 percent By Ann Portal OMmCmmnU A total of 13,294 students had registered by the close of the two-day registration period on March 30, according to a report from the University registrar's office. That total is down 1.5 percent from the 13,496 students registered on the same day last year, but is 6.4 percent more than had registered during the two-day 1979 spring registration. According to Registrar Wanda Johnson, total spring term enrollment is likely to be about 15,200 students, down about 2.5 percent from the official fourth week figure of 15,618 students for spring term last year. If the projected enrollment total is reached, the student body would remain larger than it was in the spring of 1979, when a total of 14,882 students enrolled. Winter term enrollment this year was down 2.3 percent while fall enrollment was off 4.2 percent, paralleling the enrollment decline exper ienced throughout the State System of Higher Education. According to Johnson, winter and spring term enrollments are typically more stable than fall enroll ments due to factors such as financial aid, which is awarded for the entire year. One significant source of the enrollment drop is the Community Education Program, which enrolled 462 students through pre-registration and the evening registration March 30. That is a decline of nearly 15 percent from the 542 students enrolled at the same time last year. The decline is most likely a reflection of the current state of the economy, Johnson says. Towards the end of winter term registration — extended due to hazardous travelling conditions that detained many returning students — Johnson had forecast a higher enrollment drop, one that would approximate the 4.2 drop of fall term.
