Tuesday, April 20, 1982
Eugene, Oregon
Oregon daily
Volume 83
Number 134
emerald
Group pans
state board
budget cuts
By Ann Portal
Ot MM CnwraW
Recent State Board of Higher Educa
tion decisions regarding the 1982-83
budget have been blasted in a report
issued by a state educational coordinat
ing commission
The 1982-83 higher education budget
continues a short-term strategy, relies
heavily on tuition increases, does not
adjust for projected enrollment drops
and reflects no clear system-wide
planning for staff and program reduc
tions, according to a review of the higher
education budget prepared by the staff
of the Oregon Educational Coordinating
Commission
The commission is a state agency
charged with planning and coordinating
all levels of education, kindergarten
through higher education
The report, which says that the budget
fails to comply in many ways with the
Legislature's 1982 notes on program
reductions, points out a number of areas
in which discrepancies supposedly oc
cur
The report also criticizes the higher
education staff for choosing "targets of
opportunity” for cuts, such as eliminat
ing positions when someone leaves, in
stead of firing tenured faculty
At a meeting Sunday, the seven OECC
commissioners accepted the staff s
report, which now accompanies the
higher education budget to an April
29-30 meeting of the state Emergency
Board
The State System of Higher Education
was the only state agency to have only
one year of its two-year budget funded
by the 1980-81 Legislature, which put
only $1 in the 1982-83 budget That
action means the Emergency Board still
must approve next year's budget
At the meeting. Chancellor Roy
Lieuallen responded briefly to parts of
the OECC report, pointing out that it is
impossible' for anyone who didn't fol
low the state system's budget cutting
process to conclude there has been
inadequate system-wide review How
ever. he said the commission s sugges
tions would receive "careful'’ con
sideration by the state board
University Provost Richard Hill told the
commissioners he found the report "one
of the most devastating of the recent
series of dismal documents on higher
education in Oregon
Hill pointed specifically to a part of the
report that says "in the absence of divine
intervention or a major realignment of
political forces it is not likely that higher
education will receive a disproportionate
share of the projected $3 5 billion gen
eral funds in 1983-85 there is little
leeway for recovery of past support
levels for higher education."
"I cannot accept that message, and it
would be tragic if this commission
adopted that message as its position We
will not accept the assumption that ex
isting funding levels cannot be improved
— nor should you,” Hill said
Bob Watrus, executive director of the
Oregon Student Lobby, applauded the
commission's report and said the OSL
agrees with ' the majority of the
document.”
"(The OSL), indeed, sees the need for
restructuring of the state system,”
Watrus said
Photo by Bob Baker
Ahhhhh — sunshine
The student who belongs to these legs had a hard mattress Monday when he fell asleep basking in the
sunshine. Weather is expected to be sunny and warm again today, with temperatures reaching the low 70s.
Two discuss Darwin’s ideas
By Sandy Johnstone
Of tt>* Em»rakj
Religion is not the key issue when
looking at the origin of the world, two
authorities agreed at a Monday night
discussion of creationism and Darwinian
theory
"Science does not ask if (an ape) has a
soul,' said David Wagner, director of the
University herbarium "I know I have one,
but I won’t try to prove it by Darwinism,”
Wagner repudiated the argument that
“rejecting creationism undermines God
and morality because evolutionary
theory does not use God.” He compared
that argument to arithmetic, saying “then
math must be atheistic, because there is
no God in long divison.”
"The study of creationism makes a
person religious just as much as study
ing Toyotas would make a person
Japanese,” responded Scott Chambers,
assistant chemistry and physics profes
sor at George Fox College in Newberg
The two men argued the issues of
creationism vs evolution at a fund-raiser
for the natural history museum that
commemorated the 100th anniversary of
Darwin s death. About 200 people paid
the $3 admission fee, which will be used
to help keep the museum open next year.
Wagner tried to prove his pro-evolu
tion case by examining the inadequacies
of creationist thought. He said one
popular and fallacious argument is that
Takin’ it to the street
Budget decorates 13th
Most of the bicyclists and pedes
trians traveling 13th Avenue Monday
didn't seem to notice the small
stenciled letters running down the
middle of the street. Of those who did
notice, most wondered what the
neatly painted graffitti meant.
By walking from Kincaid Street
toward the intersection of University
Street and East 13th Avenue, students
can view federal budget proposals
laid out in an unusual way. Using die
street as a figurative yardstick, an
errant artist has offered an unusual
illustration of Pres. Ronald Reagan s
budget priorities
Red painted letters and arrows in
dicate percentages of budget money
allocated to various parts of the
federal budget. Spaced accordingly,
some of the street is untouched for
almost an entire block, to illustrate the
defense department’s 29-percent
allocation
Across from Johnson Hall, the gaps
between budget items narrow as the
illustrations of allocations for higher
education and environmental pre
servation — each about 1 percent of
the budget - are painted a few feet
apart.
Rumors indicate the illustration may
be a part of ‘ Earth Week,’’ but the
University Survival Center claimed
no knowledge of the graffitti or its
artists
One Survival Center source said the
spray painted graph “sounds” like
something that might be attributed to
the Survival Center, but the source
added he cou!Jn't be sure
A campus security representative
said the “graph” had not been
reported and the security office was
unaware that anything had happened
The paintin j was apparently done
late Sunday "ight or early Monday
morning.
any difficulty with evolutionary thought is
a point in favor of creationism.
Wagner stressed the ability of the
creationist to “impress you with statis
tics” by saying there was only one
chance in “several hundred zeros” that
life would arise from nothing. He
advocated the idea that given enough
time, the proper conditions were possi
ble
However, Chambers pointed out that
the world was unlikely to be the product
of mere chance, and that some type of
intellect was required For example, the
most advanced computer storage sys
tem can hold only 15,000 bits of in
formation per square centimeter, he
said, while the cell has over one billion
bits per square centimeter. This points to
the need for some higher intellect to
design the world, he said.
Wagner also said the universe has to
be more than 10,000 years old (which
some creationists pick as the world's
age) because a lot of galaxies have more
than 10 million light years between them.
But Chambers noted some data that
supported his view that the earth is rela
tively young. He pointed to studies that
pinpoint the origin of life at 150,000 years
ago, 12,000 years ago and to 4,040 BC.
In addition, Wagner said that “certain
individuals possess qualities not given by
chance alone that make the difference
between the survivor and the non-sur
vivor." He says the theory of survival of
the fittest has brought about change in
the species.
Chambers, however, said that after
creation organisms either stayed the
same, became extinct or were slightly
modified He admitted slight changes
may be possible, but “a fruit fly will
always be a fruit fly" even if superficial
alterations are made
Wagner also said the notion that a
single great flood deposited most of the
sedimentary rocks on the earth is
”prepostorous” because geological
studies show that the earth's construc
tion would be vastly different than it is
now if that were the case