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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 17, 1983)
opinion Ed is good for ed The University needs all the advocates it can get It got one more last weekend when Sen Edward Fadeley, D Eugene, was voted Senate President The University already has a friend in House president Gratten Kerans, D-Eugene Both these liberal, Eugenean, University alumni staunchly supported higher education during the past few years of cutbacks and special sessions. Their combined record on higher education reads like a green light Fadeley's compromise election to the Senate pre sidency, following weeks of liberal vs conservative conflict, is a sign of the senator’s ability to work with both factions — rural and urban — in the Democratic party A certain amount of compromise will be a necessity if anything solid for higher education or the whole gamut of state institutions, for that matter, is going to survive Salem this session While campaigning, Fadeley mentioned to the Emerald that he favored base-budgeting higher education plus about $70 million during the next biennium This sounds su spiciously close to the Governor s budget proposal for higher education. This sounds good for the University We ll see whether Fadeley had to compromise too much on committee appointments to garner his presidency. The key chairmanships to the Senate Revenue and Ways and Mean's Human Resource Committees should be announced today Regardless, it's better to have friends than enemies in high places. The University now has two it is counting on. j* "ifT'r Zr'9to b* -TVS'*, r*Jfc! OrntrCJOtS World of the blue-collar student By Alice Alfonsi Shut down My father says to my mother, “Well, I'm on the schedule again this week. For now, it looks like I still have a job " When my father started work harry esteve Faculty reflects changing times “When I was 18 my father was so stupid I couldn’t stand to be in the same room with him. When I turned 20. I was amazed at how much the old man had learned " Mark Twain said that At 25, I've noticed this little bit of old-fashioned wit applies to teachers as well I consider myself one of those "children of the sixties" who can still recall the banner head lines when John Kennedy died Our memory of Bobby's death is clearer; Jim Morrison's, vivid I remember how stupid our teachers seemed My ninth-grade science teacher with the flat top haircut barred me from class when I showed up wearing a black arm band to protest Nixon's decision to mine the Gulf of Tonkin I was suspended from football practice the same day for the same reason I didn't miss much, though The team had to leave the field early, choking on tear gas fumes that had spread from a nearby demonstration Jerry Rubin told us not to trust our parents, to despise our teachers. We listened and obeyed The message was to reject authority, any authority And all the authorities we knew were teachers and parents — so we gave them grief We got into shouting matches with our high school teachers over trivial issues We refused to write on only one side of the paper in order to save the trees We publicly burned our report cards to rebel against the "oppressive American educa tional establishment." We caused teachers to sweat, principals to stutter Now I'm in college. In my social psychology class last term, a student decked in full ROTC regalia called male nurses "faggots A business major in a coat and tie scorned the women s equal pay movement Funny thing was, the only person to offer much opposition to the statements was the teacher The rest of the class was either silent or in agreement My political science professor became exa sperated as he tried to convince the class of the abuses the Pentagon wreaked on the American public during the Vietnam era. I believed him — I've been believing that sort of rhetoric for years A lot of students in the class did not I've noticed this phenomenon in several other classes The professor expresses the liberal view and the students fire back caustic comments Some of the strongest pleas for nuclear disarmament I've heard have come from faculty members Lately, the most radical and beguiling ideas I've been exposed to have been from my professors, old and young It leads to a strange kind of ambivilence on my part. I now feel a certain solidarity with a group of people I had earlier renounced as Orwellian mind police, while the ideological distance between myself and my peers widens I would be as foolish as my junior high school science teacher to condemn the students' point of view I can only acknowledge that Dylan was right: The times were a changin', they changed, and now they're changing again Oregon daily _ . emerald The Oregon Daily Emerald is published Monday through Friday except during exam week and vacations, by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co . at the University of Oregon Eugene OR. 97403 The Emerald operates independently of the University with offices on the third floor of the Erb Memorial Union and is a member of the Associated Press Nm and Editorial Display Advertising and Business Classified Advertising • Production Circulation •••-$$11 •••3712 ••• 4343 •••43(1 ••• $511 Editor Managing Editor News Editor Assistant News Editor Editorial Page Editor Photo Editor Sports Editor Associate Sports Editor Entertainment Editor Night Editor Associate Editors Higher Education Departments and Schools Student Government Features Politics Politics Education Reporter General Staff Advertising Manager Classified Advertising Production Manager Controller Harry Esteve John Hea>y Marian Green Cort f ernald Joan Nyland Bob Baker Mike Riplinger Ravil Dan/er Jonathan Siegie John Mealy Sandy Johnstone f rank Shaw Richard Burr Sean Meyers Michele Mata«M Aieta 2ak Darlene Gore Sally Oljar Victoria Koch lean Ownbey ing at U S Steel's Clairton Works in 1948, his badge still said "Carnegie Steel." J.P. Morgan bought out An drew Carnegie's dynasty in 1901 for about $500 million, part of which Carnegie used to build the Institute of Technology, now Carnegie-Mellon University. I guess that's why old Andy's cold steel eyes run through me every time I pass his portrait in Baker Hall. In his rags-to-riches rise to the top, Carnegie lived in both the blue-and white-collar worlds So he constantly pokes my ribs to remind me what got both of us here He reminds me that I owe a lot to my father He reminds CMU that it owes its existence to blue-collar work and that these workers cannot simply be pushed aside when another new technology takes over Mill work is my father's livelihood My life is back there with the two televisions, the bowling league and the neigh borhood bar My father, my uncles, my cousins have all worked in the mill "The time passes without you even knowing it.'' they warn When you start, they say you II only stay a few years, but before you know it, it's been 10 years on the job Yeah, and 10 years' seniority don't mean nothing anymore " In 30 years as a millworker. my father can't remember a whole mill shutting down Now Clairton Coke Works has been down since July Other mills — Duquesne, Homestead, McKee sport — have been wholly or partly down even longer So my father waits for the ax to fall and cut him down to an other statistic in the morning papers “If you don't take academics, there ain't nothing,” said my father, patting me on the head and thrusting me into CMU with the others His own background is a Clairton High diploma, but my father wanted my sister and me to attend college, and he was strict with us during our childhood. When I'm told by a white-col lar classmate that her "daddy's company doesn't like unions,” I don't hesitate to tell her that my "daddy” works in an area where the air's so bad people drive with their car windows up That my "daddy” has friends who have been crippled and killed by job accidents. And that my daddy” belongs to a union It's difficult to explain a blue collar world to an unsympathe tic professor When a professor confides, My God, even steel workers make as much as I do,” then I know to dress preppy for his class Blend in His wife doesn't worry about him getting lung cancer from pollution, or wait by the phone when a fur nace blow-up is reported Blend in Professors of this type cannot or will not hear a blue-collar student's views As I go to classes. I realize I am leaving my father's blue collar past for my professor's white-collar future I worry about becoming what my father and I have always disliked EDITOR'S NOTE: This piece is taken from the Associated Press wire service Alice Altonsi is the editor of The Tartan, the student newspaper at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh Her story appeared on the opinion page ol the Pittsburgh Post Gazette letters policy The Emerald will attempt to print all letters containing fair comment on topics of Interest to the University Community Letters to the editor must be limited to 250 words, typed, signed and the identification of the writer must be verified when the letter is turned into the Emerald office The Emerald reserves the right to edit any letter tor length, style or content Your turn is an Emerald opinion feature submitted by members of the University community Your turn" columns must be limited to 500 words and typed This editorial will not be edited by the staff, but selection will be based on appro priateness Letters to the editor and Your turn columns should be turned into the Emerald office. Suite 300 EMU Unsigned editorials apearing in the Eemrald are based upon the majority opinion of the editorial board
