I
Violating aid forms
A federal court judge recently ruled that a law requiring
students to register for the draft before being eligible for
financial aid is "likely” to violate students constitutional
rights.
The Minnesota case, heard by U S. District Judge
Donald Alsop is the ?irst step to getting what is known as the
"Solomon Amendment" off the books. The law requires male
students to show proof of draft registration before receiving
financial aid. It goes into effect July I.
As it stands, the amendment puts the financial aid office
in the role of investigator for the military. It ties students’
ability to attend college with their convictions about regis
tering for the draft.
The Minnesota decision is based on the arguments of six
college students who testified that the law forces non-regis
trants to incriminate themselves. Surprise.
The law makes no distinction between those who fail to
register for the draft because of political, religious, or moral
beliefs as well as those who fail out of negligence or
misinformation.
In what looks like a clause “in case” women become
eligible for the draft, the law has everyone mark the registra
tion line. By the way, the Department of Defense has recently
proposed that women — at least those with medical creden
tials — be eligible for the draft.
The law forces students to write down that they have
violated the law and have not registered for the draft. This is a
direct violation of the Fifth Amendment which says, “No
person shall be . compelled in any criminal case to be a
witness against himself.”
The Selective Service denies the law violates the Fifth
Amendment rights of students. They say the law is just
another financial aid qualification. That doesn’t wash with
us. Since when does the military get to write financial aid
forms?
Denying financial aid amounts to punishment. The
Selective Service cannot possibly go after the estimated
500,000 men who have not registered, but they now have it in
their power to punish those men who want to go to college
and cannot afford to without financial help.
In the words of Dave Fidanque, the Oregon American
Civil Liberties Union associate director: “In essence, what
the Congress is trying to do is punish people they think have
broken the law,” without giving them a trial.
The law is as unpopular with financial aid offices as it is
with students.
The financial aid office could choose to ignore the law
and go to court if government officials apply pressure, as one
University faculty’member has suggested
It would be even better if the law was simply repealed.
Rep. Robert Edgar, D-Penn., is trying to do just that.
The Minnesota judge’s decision should strengthen the
repeal argument, get the the amendment through Congress
and end this poorly conceived and unpopular law
opinion
Sexism
I would like to know why
nearly twice as many men than
women were interviewed in the
Emerald's survey of Univeristy
students on March 10
Obviously Frank Shaw did not
take speaker Jean Ward ser
iously when she cautioned jour
nalists of using sexism in
I. - .... *■-■*' 1 —.
-J
reporting and editing, or did
Shaw even read the article on
Ward in his own paper?
I hope in the future the Emer
ald wiH be more liberal in
reporting on, as the survey
called it, a perceived "liberal
school "
Kim Joan Taylor
aanlor, journalism
' HURW,$&»Rl®<jAN - WE Hi RUNNING LOW ON AMMUNIHON!
I letters
Sept, weather
I see the semester issue is
being considered again at the
University. I see also that the
faculty proposal completely cir
cumvents the idea of arv earlier
start in the month of September.
The proposal advocates carry
ing the winter semester over
past the Christmas break. The
reason, says the faculty propo
sal, is the "weather problem."
No one, after all, wants to go to
school when the weather is nice
in September.
When I was in grade school,
we started the day after Labor
Day, which followed the first
weekend in September, in jun
ior high, we started one day
later than that, and in high
school, we did the same At Wil
lamette University, where I did
my undergraduate work, we
started school the weekend
prior to the Labor Day holiday,
had fall semester finals in the
second week in December,
spent three and a half weeks at
home for Christmas, and fin
ished spring semester in the first
week of May
I've spent my whole academic
career going to school in Sep
tember I'm still alive.
Terry Smith
graduate, Industrial relations
Unacceptable
The announcement that
students not registered for the
draft are ineligible tor scholar
ships or student aid represents
an unacceptable invasion of
University and student affairs by
the federal government The
University should simply ignore
it and go to court if government
officials apply any pressure or
withhold any normally available
funds on this account <,
Eveyone is born, lives only
once, and has just as much right
to take charge of their own life
as does anyone else.
The only acceptable reason
for the existence of any organ
ization whatsoever, including
national governments, is that
they enhance peoples lives
without damaging anyone. No
officials, no matter what their
rank, how respected they are, or
what legalism their actions are
clothed in, have any right what
soever to enslave or to draft
anyone else. People do not owe
organizations anything. Organ
izations must continuously earn
the respect and loyalty of their
members.
When a government or any
other organization tries to force
people into courses of action to
which they deeply object, ob
jection, and if necessary, civil
disobedience, becomes both
their right and obligation
This legislation aims directly
at the small minority of students
bright enough to understand
this and courageous enough to
act according to their con
science — the very ones most
deserving of assistance
Furthermore, it is grossly sex
ist in that only young men are
affected — thus forcing univer
sities to discriminate by sex in
direct contravention to their
legal obligations under other
rules promulgated by various
agencies of the same govern
ment.
Bayard McConnaughey
professor, biology
Naivete
As I listen to some of the
younger students in my classes I
am continually amused and of
ten appalled by their naivete.
Last Thursday's ‘'poll” in the
Emerald underscored the prob
lem.
James Baldwin once
remarked that to be black and
conscious in America was to be
in a constant state of rage. One
might say the same thing about
being a woman. Yet, here on
page one we had one young
black man and two young
women calling themselves
“conservative."
For the unelightened, that
means favoring the status quo
That means that Devall thinks it
is OK that unemployment
among young blacks is 40 per
cent, that means that Sara and'
Jan think it is OK that the ERA,
which simply recognizes
women as equal, is defeated.
That means that all of you think
it is OK that Reagan wants to
spend $1.5 trillion aollars to
make us "safe'' while hundreds
of thousands of Americans are
homeless, hungry, and in pain.
I need to remember that you
were in diapers when Mario
Savio founded the Free Speech
Movement and when Malcolm X
was gunned down. I need to be
more tolerant of ignorance. I
need to keep it in perspective, to
recognize that you are the “me
generation,” with your focus on
video games and “getting
yours.”
It would be easy if I could do
that. I can't.
Michael Morrow
graduate
Oregon doily
emerald
Tha Oragon Daily EmtriW it putXIshad Monday through
Friday ascapt during nan waak and vacations, by tha Oragon
Daily Emaratd Publishing Co. at tha Univarsity of Oragon
Eugana. OP. 97403
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