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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (July 22, 1982)
Oregon daily emerald folds Page 8 Thursday, July 22, 1982 I Eugene, Oregon Volume 84, Number 10 diet the city fo fuUicc (!fat By David Brown 04 the Emerald Every Friday and Saturday night, the strip of Willamette Street between 25th and 29th Avenues called the ‘Gut" becomes a bumper-to-bumper parade of hot rods, family sedans and rusted out VWs with chrome mags And every Friday and Saturday night Eugene police officers patrol the area to make sure the fun doesn’t get out of hand Now, a publication titled "The Gut Driver's Handbook" attempts to inform drivers of problems on the Gut and the surrounding neighborhood — such as urinating in public, traffic violations, noise and litter — and the laws addressing those problems The eight page pamphlet was published last year by the Eugene Commission on the Rights of Youth with help from the Eugene Police According to the handbook, “the best thing to remember about noise is don't make any!" But teenagers who constantly honk hellos, lean out win dows to exchange comments or shout Photo by Jay Jollon Congested traffic is only one of the problems on the Gut profanities apparently feel noise is one of the best things about cruising. “To you, draggin’ the gut may be a game, but remember we are the referees. All that we as police officers are asking of you is that you play by the rules, ” pleads the handbook When the rules are broken, the referees blow the whistle. One average June weekend at the Gut, Eugene An American tradition lives on in Eugene, as cruisers like the one pictured above, “roll" Willamete Street and the Gut. police issued 63 "uniform citations” for traffic code violations such as speeding, loud mufflers and impeding traffic, says Sgt. Bill Childers of the Eugene Police Department’s traffic team. On the same weekend, the team arrested one person and wrote 12 cita tions in lieu of arrests for misdemea nors related to alcohol, drugs, traffic violations and urinating in public, Childers says. Police recently expanded their Gut patrol to include the surrounding Dunn neighborhood following complaints from area residents, says Ruth Miller, acting chairer of the youth commis sion. “Kids would be all right if they just stayed out of neighborhoods and on the Gut,” Miller says. “The thing I've heard the most is this business of urinating on the lawns.” “Most of you take pride in your cars, try to keep them clean and good look ing,” says the handbook, "and would get quite upset if someone used your mag wheels for a toilet." A second edition of the handbook could be handed out with police cita tions, distributed through schools and passed out on the Gut by volunteers, Miller says. "We are trying to have an ongoing education effort so people will be a little more aware." The task force, composed of city staff, neighborhood residents, youth commission members and Gut drivers also recommended installing lights and walkways in public bathrooms around the Gut to relieve the use of neighbor hood lawns as bathrooms. Work is continuing on that proposal, Miller says. The recommendations result from a survey this spring of 194 Gut drivers. In response to the survey, the task force recently installed three dump sters along the Gut to cut down the litter problem. The dumpsters will be unlocked only on Friday and Saturday nights How many of the Gut’s problems can the handbook and task force solve? Miller says she doesn't know if they've cracked the litter and bathroom problems yet. But Gut drivers were very pleasant to deal with during the nights the survey was taken, Miller says. And the task force provides the means for every one involved "to work on it as a city problem." Board studies requests totaling $7 million By Debbie Howlett Of the Emerald The State Board of Higher Education will review funding requests for program enhancements totaling nearly $7 million dollars at its July meetings on the Southern Oregon State College campus in Ashland. On the agenda for the Thursday meeting are a study of state funded college and university libraries and a “code of ethics" for intercollegiate athletics. On Friday the board will convene its regular meeting. Computer programs at the three universities in the state system have received the highest priority for increased funding. At the top of the list is a $440,000 request for the Oregon State University computer science department, followed by the University's request for $1 million and Portland State University's request for $312,000. The University’s computer science request is part of a package that also includes nearly $500,000 for cell biology, ranked sixth on the state’s priority list, and an unranked request of more than $200,000 for the journalism school. The other two priority requests are for the engineering schools at PSU ($788,000) and OSU ($986,000), ranked fourth and fifth respectively. The priority requests were established “because of their obvious tie-in to the economic development program initiated by the state legislature," according to the agenda. If approved, the requests for program enhancement would add about 50 full-time faculty members and almost 29 new classified staff positions. None of the requests from the colleges in the state system or from the Oregon Health Sciences University were earmarked for the priority list. Also on the board's agenda is a study of institution libraries, mandated by the board in March, 1981 The 30-page, 16-month study entitled “The State of the State System’s Libraries" focuses on the present condition and past problems of the libraries and in cludes an appendix with "self-assessment summaries” from institution librarians. The study points to three events which have affected the condition of libraries since a similar study was conducted in 1977. The three events are a $700,000 “grant” from the legislature for the 1979-81 biennium, a program improvement request that "fell victim to the hard times” and "computerization” which occurred in 1977. In his self-assessment study, University Librarian George Shipman reports that it seems ‘imperative that the State System of Higher Education alleviate the most serious problem facing the University of Oregon Library, that is, the severe deficiency in the quality of (the) collection.” The board also will review code of ethics statements for intercollegiate athletics from each insti tution. The statements follow on the heels of a system wide policy that was approved September 11,1981. The policies will also include adoption of cost containment measures and identify two categories of intercollegiate athletics — major revenue-producing athletics and "others” — for purposes of "establishing financial policy and determining equality of opportuni ty " Also on the board’s agenda is consideration of a capital construction program for 1983 through 1989 and a proposal to suspend the baccalaureate degree in art at Eastern Oregon State College.
