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.