Crisis links University, city
Poor economy joins duo in high-tech industry hunt
By Harry Esteve
Of ttw Emerald
Thrown together by economic crisis,
the University and the city of Eugene are
forging a partnership with one overriding
goal — survival
Until recently, the symbiotic
relationship between the University and
its host city has been taken for granted
For more than two decades the Univer
sity has been the single largest employer
in Lane County
Each October, thousands of students
poured into Eugene, spending their
money hand over fist for apartments,
food and entertainment
In return, Eugene was considered one
of the best cities in the United States to
live in Crime was low, the streets were
clean and there was enough money to
build the "Eugene Centre" and dream
about building the Emerald Canal
Now, both Eugene and the University
are struggling to make ends meet Fewer
students are enrolling, and those who do
have less money to spend The Universi
ty's budget has lost ground to inflation
and cutbacks
In Eugene, unemployment hovers
consistently above the national average
Citizens are beginning to trickle away,
causing the tax base to shrink
No one can say which has suffered
more, but officials from both the Univer
sity and the city agree they need each
other
The University's "man in Eugene" is
Gary Long, the city's administrative ser
vices director A University graduate,
Long sees the institution as Eugene's
"most important economic development
chip.”
He helped coordinate legislative lob
bying during the last regular session and
during the following special sessions
His bias toward the University was no
secret
"Our number-one issue was preserva
tion of the University,” he says. City
lobbyists rallied hard for better funding
for higher education
"I believe we had some influence to
minimize the damage done to the
University," Long says confidently
But the city's main effort is aimed at
economic development — and that's
where the University comes in That's
also where the economic buzz word for
the 1980s — high-tech — comes in
In every state north of the Sunbelt,
there is a shared vision among heads of
universities and city administrators, a
vision of clean, light industry — attracted
by a good community and a solid liberal
arts university — establishing its busi
ness and bringing with it hundreds of job
openings and plenty of taxable dollars
The vision is very much alive in
Eugene
What city and University representa
tives have in mind is something similar to
the Research Triangle in North Carolina
or Silicon Valley in California, where
large tracts of land are devoted to high
tech industry. Thousands of people are
hired to produce computer and satellite
components and other technology of the
"information age.”
The Research Triangle was in
strumental in turning around North Ca
rolina's economy, Long says, and the
universities in North Carolina were in
strumental in getting the businesses to
locate there Corporations in California’s
Silicon Valley were lured by Stanford
University and the University of Califor
nia at Berkeley.
The University could play the same
role here, Long says.
The "wave of the future" is high-tech
and bio-tech industry, agrees Charlene
Curry, director of governmental relations
for the University
Oregon legislators should wake up to
the fact that higher education will play a
major role in attracting thoSe industries,
Curry says
"It's absolutely absurd to talk about
economic development and cut back
higher education It doesn't make any
sense,” she says. "Obviously the two go
hand in hand.”
Curry, like most University administra
tors, gets impatient with the frustrating
catch-22 of University/state economics
Simplified, the catch goes something like
this:
Without a healthy economy, higher
education loses funding, and its quality
and reputation deteriorate But it will take
a solid higher-ed system to ensure
economic development and boost
Oregon's dilapidated treasury
Continued on Page 5
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