Oregon daily
emerald
Tuesday, July 6, 1982
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 4, Number 4
Herons nest along valley rivers
By Cort Femald
OffhaEmaraM
Morning sunlight sparks off the
water tike diamonds tossed in the air
as a great blue heron suddenly
snatches a fish from the river shallows
and takes to wing
The blue heron leisurely pumps its
wide wings and rises above the river
as the fish wriggles spasmodically,
locked in the heron's beak
At the confluence of the McKenzie
and Willamette rivers, in a copse of
cottonwoods near Armitage Park, the
blue heron alights on a topmost limb.
The large bird hops awkwardly down
the limb to a stick nest where two
young blue herons hungrily squawk
with beaks agape
The blue heron tears the fish to
small bits for its young. They vor
aciously swallow and squawk even
louder for more
Other blue heron young in nests
high in the cottonwood trees cry for
food Their hungered cries give tes
tament to the population of the her
onry.
The great blue herons are in their
nesting cycle now, according to Her
bert Wisner, senior instructor in
biology and avid ornithologist The
nesting cycle began in late March and
is nearly over
The great blue herons frequently
nest in the old-growth cottonwoods
along the Willamette, Wisner says
"Sadly, most of the cottonwoods have
been cut down," he adds
Despite the loss of cottonwoods,
Dan Gleason, who teaches summer
field ornithology courses at the
University, says the blue heron
populations along the Willamette and
McKenzie have remained relatively
stable
Blue herons usually gather in nest
ing groups, or colonies, Gleason says
These colonies can consist of as
many as 15 to 50 birds
Blue herons have a feeding territory
encompassing many miles They are
most actively feeding in the morning
A blue heron raises its spindly legs
high and meticulously steps along the
shallows of the bank Ducks scrabble
in noisy clusters about the blue heron.
Bicyclists stream across Knicker
bocker Bridge above The blue heron
slowly searches the water for food,
impervious to ducks and bikes
Photo by Mark Pynas
Heron populations along the Willamette and McKenzie rivers remain stable
although the many cottonwoods — the trees In which they nest — have been cut
down.
University greets new job program
University students without work-study
funding may find a break from the doom
and gloom of the job market with a new
job development and location service
specifically for them, says Emmett Wil
liams, coordinator of the program
The purpose of the new job service is
to provide off-campus jobs for students
regardless of their financial need, he
says.
To be eligible for the job location and
development service, undergraduate or
graduate students must be enrolled in
three or more credit hours at the Univer
sity and must not be receiving any finan
cial aid other than Guaranteed Student
Loans, Pell or Basic Need Grants
The job service is an off-campus op
portunity for students without work
study money to gain work experience
and financial assistance for school, Wil
liam says
"We re trying to help as many students
as we can get through college,” he says
"A GSL is not enough with tuition going
up
The program began a little more than a
month and a half ago, and has met with
favorable response from the business
community and University alumni Wil
liams has been corresponding with. And
an additional 8,000 letters have yet to be
SQnt to the Eugene-Springfield and out
lying areas
“Many employers prefer hiring
University students because they're a
good product," Williams says.
Numerous skilled and unskilled jobs
are available at the job service. Adding
students in professional programs such
as computer science, architecture or
business would not only be an asset to
the job service, but to the community,
Williams says.
Jobs listings from within the commun
ity from baby sitting to computer science
are accepted "as long as it's honest and
pays," he says.
interested employers or job seekers
may contact Williams at 1511 Agate St. or
at 686-3214
Meeting defines
KWAX snafu,
station’s value
By Randy Malat
Of Emvrakt
Supporters of endangered species
KWAX-FM, the University’s radio station,
are searching for ways to save it from
extinction.
‘‘We need more time to make contin
gency plans’’ for other sources of
financing, station manager Janet Ken
ney said at a meeting attended by KWAX
staffers and faculty members from a
variety cf departments last Thursday.
Kenney says that, in the long run, the
station is more valuable to the University
than the short-term relief the proposed
budget cut would offer to the state’s
ailing economy.
Located on the top floor of Villard Hall
since its inception in 1951, KWAX is a
National Public Radio affiliate. Its fund
ing comes from state and federal alloca
tions and self-generated income.
University President Paul Olum recently
proposed the elimination of $82,000 in
University funds for the radio station.
“Whenever the university loses a pro
gram it suffers a double indemnity. It
loses that service and it loses students
that would come to the University
because of that service,” Carlyle Moore,
a retired English professor, said.
KWAX supporters justify the station's
existence on two grounds. They call it an
“outreach” program that enhances the
local arts community and provides a
public relations/advertising tool for the
University. And they point to its
"educational" function, as a place where
students gain valuable practical exper
iente.
"KWAX extends the University to
Bend, Salem, Rossburg, the coast.
That’s the kind of public exposure the
University needs to be a first class
school. When you cut out KWAX, you
retard the progress the University has
made," said Jonathan Fink, a music
student and KWAX announcer.
The only station to provide primarily
classical music in the area, KWAX has
over 27,000 listeners. Besides its NPR
news and public affiars reporting, KWAX
airs concerts from the Eugene Sym
phony, the University School of Music,
and the Oregon Bach Festival.
University students work for KWAX as
interns, to receive credit toward their
degrees, or for work-study money. Ex
perience is garnered in fundraising, an
nouncing, production, and public affairs
broadcasting KWAX shares its produc
tion facilities with the speech department
and the journalism and music schools.
"Students have more responsibility on
a public station than they get downtown
on a commercial station,” Ron Sherriffs,
chair of the speech department said.
Instead of doing "a lot of repetitive, fetch
and carry work,” he added “students
can do their own writing that sometimes
becomes the heart of public affairs pro
gramming.”
Loren Allen, chair of KWAX's com
munity advisory board, was unwilling to
predict the outcome of the station's
struggle to survive.
"We’ve been through this four or five
times,” he said “Are we a cat with five,
or six, or seven lives, or what?"