Thursday, April 22, 1982
Eugana, Oragon
Oregon daily
Volume 83
NUmbor 136
emerald
■ M _ m • • Photo by Bob Bake,
Vuarnet visions
Sudden spring temperatures threw much of the University Into pandemonium Wednesday, as
students searched frantically tor their warm weather wear. Freshman Mike Haley spent most of the
day reflecting on his future tan.
Students vote
on funding bill
By Debbble Hewlett
O/Om £m»rt)d
A battle between the Inciden
tal Fee Committee and the
recreation and intramural pro
gram over increased funding
has resulted in a referendum on
the general election ballot.
RIM asked the IFC last Fe
bruary to increase its budget of
just over $5,000 this year to
$56,000 tor next year, a jump of
1,000 percent.
The reason for the requested
boost in the budget stems from
a decision by the recent special
session of the legislature to
eliminate funding for all physical
education activities classes.
Part of that money funded the
University’s RIM program.
The whole issue left Mike El
lis. head of the P E. department,
“mad as hell,” while Karsten
Rasmussen, head of the IFC,
and Alan Contreras, the ASUO
acting vice-president of pro
gram administration, conceded
that the dispute might lead to a
ballot referendum.
According to Rasmussen, the
committee decided that to bud
get RIM for the requested
amount, incidental fees would
have to be increased. Neither
the IFC, Rasmussen nor Karla
Rice, the director of RIM, want
ed to take money from other
ASUO programs that had al
ready been cut back. The com
mittee then unanimously voted
to approve a referendum.
"They felt that there was no
room to manuever with the ath
letic department's and other
ASUO program's budgets,”
Rice said
The referendum asks that the
ASUO be allowed to increase
the incidental fee by $1.50 per
student per term, in order to
raise $56,000 to be spent on
RIM.
The increase in incidental fee
money for RIM will make up only
about half of the $116,000 bud
get. The other half of the budget
will come from either the health,
physical education and recrea
tion school's budget, increased
participation fees or a combina
tion of both.
Rice says she is happy the
issue made it to the ballot but
that the timing could have been
better.
“I hate to see it come at this
time, it's a bad time for
students,” she says.
According to Rice the pro
gram has been around for
"eons.” And without the money
from incidental fees, ‘‘this
building would close down at 5
(pm.).”
Rice has also circulated a
"fact sheet,” detailing what ex
actly comprises the program.
The sheet shows “17 team ac
tivities and 18 different all
campus events.’ ”
The fact sheet also notes that
Essiinger and Gerlinger Hall
facilities remain open until 9
p.m. during the week and 6 p.m.
on weekends. A count taken
winter term that is used as an
''average” to indicate use
shows that 2,032 people used
the facilities.
If the referendum doesn’t
pass, “it looks like the program
will go kaput,” Rasmussen said.
Today is the last day to vote
on the referendum and ballots
can be marked at ASUO polling
booths around campus.
ASUO ballot questions evoke controversy
By Dane Claussen
Of Of Emerald
Two items that appeared in
Wednesday’s ASUO balloting have
ASUO officials, a presidential can
didate and the editor of the Oregon
Daily Emerald wondering what hit
them
ASUO Pres Rich Wilkins says he was
unaware of the "opinion question”
students were asked to vote on regard
ing the Emerald’s incidental fee fund
ing
Emerald Editor Sally Hodgkinson
said she had no idea the question was
going to be on the ballot and that the
question sounded like someone’s
“personal vendetta” against the paper.
And ASUO presidential candidate
Kevin Kouns says he was caught off
guard by a referendum requesting a
raise in incidental fees to fund the
recreation and intramural program
The measure appeared on the same
ballot that contained the Emerald
question.
Kouns said the measure, which reads
"Shall the ASUO be allowed to increase
the incidental fee by $1.50 per student
per term, in order to raise $56,000 to be
spent on Recreation and Intramurals?"
gives his opponent C.J Balfe an unfair
advantage because Balfe knew about
the referendum beforehand and was
able to do last-minute campaigning in
support of the measure
"It's a question about how the
process has been used," Kouns said,
criticizing the lack of debate on the
referendum.
The choice given students — to either
raise their own incidental fees or do
without a recreation and intramurals
program next year — is an " ‘are you
still beating your wife?’ question,” he
said.
Gus Palmitessa, ASUO elections dir
ector, cites negligence as the reason
Kouns didn't know of the ballot mea
sure.
"Hell, if he (Kouns) would have asked
me, I would have told him," Palmitessa
said. The Incidental Fee Committee’s
request to have the measure placed on
the ballot was decided during a public
meeting and reported in the Emerald,
he said.
‘‘I would assume that that informa
tion was available to everyone,”
especially students keeping track of the
student government, Palmitessa said.
The question about the Emerald
wasn't a matter of public record before
Wednesday's voting. Palmitessa says
he didn’t inform fellow ASUO officials
or Emerald editors about the question
because he “didn't give the public any
advance warning” and wanted the
students’ votes to be “gut responses."
The proposal, which is not binding,
reads, “Should the Oregon Daily
Emerald continue to be funded by a
subscription through student incidental
fee dollars, rather than be sold on
campus?”
Wilkins and Hodgkinson criticized
Palmitessa for keeping it a secret.
“I'm a little concerned because it
went on the ballot without anyone
knowing about it," Wilkins said.
Hodgkinson said that if the ASUO
wanted to know what students think
about the Emerald, “they should com
mission a report or survey rather than
slapping it on a ballot.”
It was “irresponsible to throw one
sentence on the ballot without telling
anyone” and it "sounds like a personal
vendetta,” Hodgkinson said.
Palmitessa defended the appearance
of the question as an appropriate
guage of public opinion, and said the
results could "be enlightening to the
ODE."
"This year the ODE has been a point
of controversy," he said.
"It’s very possible that results will
show that the student body — those
who vote — will show they are satisfied
with the ODE or that they'd like to see
some changes,” Palmitessa said.
"There's been no planning about the
whole thing from the beginning," Wil
kins said. "If there's going to be
something on the ballot that students
get an opinion from, it should not be a
surprise.”
Not just anything should be placed
on the ballot without language being
scrutinized and without the appropriate
people being told, Wilkins said.