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
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