I
A perspective
on athletics
The National Collegiate Athletic Association has moved
toward setting priorities between "college" and "athletics."
"College" headed the priority list last week in the
association's adoption of a measure to require NCAA ath
letes to meet minimum admission criteria
The requirements were set at a 2 0 grade point average,
a high school "core curriculum" of math, English, social and
physical sciences and a SAT score of 700 or ACT score of 15
The association’s ruling was an acknowledgement that
the business of colleges and universities is to teach, not to be
an entertainment industry or a training program for profes
sional sports. As Pres Paul Olum said in a recent interview,
"We re an academic institution first. ..."
The NCAA's ruling is a good first step toward putting
academics and sports in perspective
The final ruling also stipulates that athletes must declare
and fulfill course requirements toward a degree to remain
eligible This means they can not take a series of "Mickey
Mouse courses” fo remain eligible
The NCAA has provided a loophole for the new admis
sion requirements. It enables Division I (Pac-10 and other
conferences) to offer scholarships to athletes who do not
meet the minimum criteria The athletes must sit out their first
year and prove they can handle college coursework
The ruling has been called racist by biack educators —
mostly from small state universities They consider the
measure discriminatory against black athletes They argue
these athletes come from poorly-funded school districts and
hence will be ineligible for recruitment because of their poor
grades and SAT scores
The ruling should help these athletes Traditionally, the
athletes who did not have the background to attend a major
institution of higher education (like the NCAA’s Division I
schools) have been used by these institutions.
They are captured by recruiters, driven to excel, over
played and then discarded at the first major injury, series of
poor grades or recruitment of a better star They leave
college in their early twenties — without degrees and usually
without a ticket into professional sports
The University has had its own handful of athletes like
former Oregon quarterback Dana Hill who was unprepared
for life at a major university and ended up leaving
As University athletic director Rick Bay noted last week,
universities have a responsibility to ask "who has a realistic
chance of succeeding in college?”
And those athletes who do not have a realistic chance
should not be recruited and scholarshipped to play for a
school which they would never have attended without their
athletic prowess and from which they will never be able to
graduate
opinion
letters
Leading cheers
Why doesn't the University
rally squad lead cheers or at
least show up at the Women's
basketball games?
Kathleen Downey
member, pep band
Death penalty
A lot of myths exist concern
ing the death penalty Since
Gov Vic Atiyeh favors its rein
statement, I'd like to cover
several points:
Myth Number One. Capital
punishment doesn't prevent
crime
Fact Number One: There is a
high rate of recidivism (return to
violent crime) among paroled
murderers If these convicted
murderers were given the death
penalty there would be no
chance for them to hurt anyone
else For instance, Gary Gill
more, after being executed
several years ago, certainly
hasn't been able to kill anyone
else
Myth Number Two: The death
Page 2
penalty is cruel and unusual
punishment and therefore un
constitutional
Fact: Before, during and after
the Eighth Amendment was
adopted in 1791 execution for
murder was common In Gregg
vs Georgia. 428 U S 153(1976)
the Supreme Court, through
Justice Stewart, wrote: "We
now hold that the punishment of
death does not invariably violate
the constitution " He
further stated "The imposition
of the death penalty for the
crime of murder has a long his
tory of acceptance both in the
United States and in Eng
land . "
Myth Three: The death pen
alty is a ritual which merely
serves to satisfy "barbaric"
lusts for vengence
Fact The primary purpose the
death penalty served through
out history was to eliminate
murderous elements and to
protect innocent citizens Isn't it
better to execute 100 murderers
if there is even the slightest
chance It could protect just one
innocent person's life in the
future?
That's certainly more than
sufficient justification in my
opinion
Let's stop freeing murderers
and, instead, give them the
punishment they deserve It's
more civilized to maintain capi
tal punishment than to allow
murderers the chance to prey
on society again
Michael Croat
senior, political science
r
I letters
Interdiscipline
I would like to compliment the
Emerald's recent series ot arti
cles by Sandy Johnstone on
interdisciplinary research The
articles did a good job of show
ing the value of overlapping
disciplines in both education
and research
Since 1974, a rare opportuni
ty has existed at the University
for undergraduates of all majors
to participate in an interdisci
plinary program at the Oregon
Institute of Marine Biology near
Coos Bay
The program is called People
and the Oregon Coast (POC)
and students paticipating in it
live and study in the small fish
ing community of Charleston,
only a jog away from the ocean
POC offers a means of study
ing biology, political science,
geography and landscape ar
chitecture in a way that inte
grates all four disciplines;
students apply what they learn
in an interdisciplinary research
project of their own choice
Topics for projects are limitless,
and usually students choose
projects which focus on local
issues and problems
It's often easy to feel that
academic responsibilities on
the main campus in Eugene pull
one away from possibilities of
community involvement, but the
project work done by students
in POC encourages involvement
with local people and in com
munity problem-solving
Equally valuable, these
projects also crystallize the fact
that few problems are ap
proached and solved effectively
from only one viewpoint.
Whether a biologist, a journalist,
a physicist — all come to realize
that environmental, political,
geographical and economic
angles of a problem must be
examined carefully before wise
and sensitive decisions can be
made
The program happens each
fall term Additional information
can be obtained in Suite One.
EMU
Linda Mutch
senior biology
Superdiscipline
It might be easier to digest
Sandy Johnstone's thought
provoking series on interdisci
plinary studies if we sharpen the
semantics a bit
The everyday phrase of
"interdisciplinary" is used to
describe two different con
cepts
In the first we talk about a
disciplinary narrow field of
study which, however, happens
to fall in between two of the
traditional disciplinary designa
tions, or constitutes a region of
overlap between two traditional
disciplines which came about in
the course of the evolution of
these disciplines. Of the exam
ples given by Johnstone,
chemical physics is in this ca
tegory of literally interdisciplin
ary efforts
The second concept pertains
to a usually problem-oriented
research effort in which the na
ture of the problem calls for
ingredients from a large number
of disciplines International
studies could serve as an ex
ample We should really call this
category superdisciplinary
studies.
The characteristics of the two
types of studies are quite differ
ent The first is quite similar to
the conventional fields, the
second quite different, with a
research methodology of its
own
The first type continues in the
direction of specialization of
knowledge, while the second
type moves toward integration
of knowledge
Instances of the first type
have been in evidence through
out the history of knowledge,
while the second type has been
on the upswing only in recent
times when our interest has
been increasing in the "systems
approach to knowledge
Instituting the second type is
much more difficult in the un
iversity environment, and ther
efore it has. in general, been
relegated mainly to the best
private universities in the
country which have a suitable
faculty and a relatively light
bureaucratic overstructure
It Is to the credit of the
University that it has also begun
to develop in this direction
Michael Moravcslk
professor, physics
Oregon daily _ .
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Harry E sieve
John Heaiy
Marian Green
Cort Fernald
Joan Nyiand
Bob Baker
Mike Riplmger
Paul Danger
Jonathan Siegie
Mike Riplinger
Sandy Johnstone
Frank Shaw
Richard Burr
Sean Meyers
Michele Matassa
Aieta Zak
Darlene Gore
Sally Ol|ar
Victoria Koch
Jean Ownbey