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.