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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 1983)
I opinion Superfluous board The Oregon Education Coordinating Commission is not doing much coordinating these days. But increasing its powers, as Rep Vera Katz is proposing, won’t help. The commission has evolved into a group that acts as the Legislature s alternative source on the budget and plans of higher education. It rarely coordinates the State Depart ment of Education, which represents elementary, secondary and community colleges. Vera Katz, D-Portland and a member of the Legislature’s education committee, proposes abolishing the State Board of Higher Education and the State Board of Education, and wants to hand their governing powers over to an expanded OECC. As the committee is functioning now, Katz would have written a better bill if she had proposed abolishing the OECC and letting the state board do the ’coordinating'' for the state's educational policy. The OECC theorectically coordinates all the branches of education in the state. They supposedly look at the needs of the state and the funding of all the branches of education in order to advise the Legislature In fact, if any group is looking at the long-term policy for education in Oregon it is the state board and the chancellor’s office. The Strategic Plan, particularly the recommendations for better coordination among community colleges and state system colleges and universities, is exactly such an action. The chancellor's office has been the force behind tightening high school curriculums to prepare students for college. The chancellor's office has been the group gener ating ideas on working with business, finding alternative funding and keeping excellent students in Oregon for their college education. T K. Olson, executive director of the OECC, says a seven-member superboard would be bogged down in the day-to-day governing of all the branches of education in Oregon. Pres Paul Olum questions the OECC as the t©~. handle all educational policy in the state. In the past, Olum notes the OECC has done little to alleviate the disparities in funding between Oregon’s elementary and secondary schools and higher education. A seven-member superboard would only relocate the center of governing power of higher education from the state board to the OECC; from the governor s office to the Legis lature. It certainly would heighten the tension between the state's colleges and universities and the OECC. It would establish, at least temporarily, an antagonistic situation between state bureaucrats and local school boards. A state superboard for education would deprive the locally funded branches of education of local control Oregon could use some coordinating of policy from kindergarten to graduate school, but a seven-member superboard tied up in arguments over who shall get the money would create exactly the scenario Katz says she wants to stop — a group of separate entities vying for limited resources without any accountability to the Legislature As Olson says, “You can't avoid the fight You can only change the arena of the fight " It is the Legislature's responsibility to decide who wins the fight every two years They should not establish a superboard to do their homework for them The education committee should table this superfluous bill and get down to their job of weighing the arguments for funding various branches of education in the state 'OESERVE HCW THIS ELEVATION IMPROVES TUE VIEW,' I letters L Represent In Monday's Emerald Randy Shepard, a business major, cri ticized the ASUO for funding “subversive radical organiza tions.” Groups he named in cluded Students for a Nuclear Free Future (SNuFF), the Asian-American Student Union and the Campus Civil Liberties Union While Randy has a point in not wanting his incidental fees to be used to fund political speech, I belive that he has serious mis conceptions of what the funding of ASUO programs represents ,A§UO. is-. Charged with using, inciderHat-tees to fund culturat and educational programs of benefit to students The Univer sity community has widely dif ferent cultural and social backgrounds in its members and it is a benefit of a university education to both be exposed to these differences and to find outlets for expression of one’s own cultural and social identity Additionally, there is the recognition that education is not limited to the classroom and that students have much to teach each other Sometimes this education deals with sub jects that are under political debate The same is true of the state funded curriculum Groups such as SNuF and the Campus ACLU are engaged in bringing discussion of issues to the campus. The Asian-Amer ican Student Union contributes an awareness of cultural dis tinctions beyond the dominant white middle-class culture of Oregon Yes, part of the in cidental fee is used to support these types of programs; just as it does the EMU and the athletic department. The purpose is to introduce the awareness that is a univer sity education. Doug Marker director, campus ACLU Ying-yang Sean Meyers’ article “Save the Veals” in the Feb 8 Emerald was quite a poor attempt to kin dle empathy for the young calves that face slaughter ever yday While Meyers' may indeed “feel a churning of discontent in his bowels" (to coin one of those cutsie ineffectual phrases that plagued the work), he would have been more suc cessful using true facts gathered from other sofirces ' Instead, he appeared as an idiot for actually believing that the “Bobby” in the ad was only one calf somewhere destitute in the nation waiting for the mighty Emerald's generous hands I tend to believe that Meyer's heroic efforts to gather “almost a hundred dollars in a few hours” and phone (with trem bling fingers no less) a startled Dr Hershaft (who must have received quite a laugh from the ying-yang who called him from Oregon actually believing that the ad represented one calf) These are rather fanciful tools attempted to move the readers into pity and action If this was indeed the objective, simple and innocent description of what the young calves do live through would have acheived the pur pose Employing what appears to be fictional sidekicks to hype the image only arouses sus picion. Instead of garbling words to spice a tritely written article, one could have present ed the markets side and thus even draw more pity. Maybe these facts would of indeed of J grabbed Meyers’ by his "intel lectual groin.” Please, let’s not waste valua ble space with ineffectual bab ble used as a showcase for the writers cute phraseeology. Let's use it to present the subject in an honest way: the plight of the calf deserves it. R. Jones junior Incorrect A brief response to Frank Shaw's story about the "Free Enterprise" petition, which ap peared in the Feb. 10 issue My name is Alan Brown, not Alan Brom as appears in the story This is in response to the statements made by Jack Kalin kowski, a lobbyist for the As sociated Oregon Industries, supporters of the petition I have read the petition several times, as a matter of fact I gave a copy to Mr Shaw Despite Kalin kowski's statement that the pe tition will not affect higher education, it contains no exclu sion for higher education. He further states tha the petition only requires construction to be contracted out That statement is incorrect. The petition requires all construction, main tenance, and »epair, of capital improvements to be contracted out Those last two items alone could affect 200 employees on this campus. In the concluding paragraph of the story Mr Kalinowski is quoted as saying, "State em ployees’ fears that that they will be laid off are groundless." The Germans told the Jews they were only going to take a shower Alan Brown custodian emerald The Oregon Deity Emerald is published Monday through End«y escept during e*em week end vacations by me Oregon Deity Emerald Publishing Co al the University of Oregon Eugene OR 97403 The Emerald operates independently ot the University with offices on me third floor of the frb Memorial Union and is a member of the Associated Pres* News end Editorial sea ts tl m-JM* MWM1 HMIIt ssatsn Editor Managing Editor News Editor Asmalant Now* Editor Editorial Pag# Editor Photo Editor Sport* Editor A**ociat* Sport* Editor E ntartammant Editor Night Editor AasociM* Editor* Highor Education Department* and School* Student Government Feature* Politic* Politic* Education Reporter General Matt Advartismg Manager Claaaitiod Advert I*«ng Production Manager Controller Harry E sieve John Heaty Marian Green Con Fernaid Joan Nytand Bob Raker Mike Riplmger Paul Darner Jonaman Siegl# Mike Riplinger Sandy Johnstone Frank Shaw Richard Burr Sean Meyers Michele Malatsa Aieia Zak Darlene Gore Salty Olfar Vic Iona Koch Jean Own bey 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 Emeraid reserves the right to edit any letter for 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
