Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 25, 1983)
| opinion Passive, ineffective sums ASUO’s year Today the ASUO presidency officially changes. Pres. C. J. Balfe steps down and Mary Hotchkiss steps up. With Hotchkiss will come a new style of governance. At least we hope so. During a recent interview, Balfe said the ASUO under his direction “infiltrated" the University administration, the community and the state this year. Although it’s hard to understand exactly what he means by “infiltrate,” it’s even harder to see the results. Balfe cited attending city council meetings, getting on the city’s mailing list, shaking hands with state legislators and being chummy with University ad ministrators as examples of infiltration. Granted, ail of these gestures are a good start, something that could and should have been accomplish ed in the first month of his administration. But they are simply the means to an end — the end being an effective student body voice. Instead, we have seen an academic year of staff resignations, useless bureaucracy and an increase in the ASUO Executive's budget. The ASUO, despite Batfe’s apparent belief in strength through change, suffered from 10 resignations and one firing this year. Replacing some of these qualified people was not an easy task and in at least one case involved numerous trips to the Constitution Committee. At a time when many programs were receiving large cutbacks, the ASUO increased its own budget, fattening its advertising budget by nearly $8,000. There remains no guarantee that the money will go toward promoting all ASUO student programs, the stated reason for the increase. The Oregon Student Lobby Conference, which the ASUO hosted in the fall, was a good beginning for organiz ing student lobbying efforts this year in Salem. But it didn’t have to end there. Balfe admits that the ASUO did not spend enough time in Salem this year. The ASUO and its program of state affairs did not get students to participate in the lob bying effort. House members such as Rep. Mary Burrows, R Eugene, and state board members such as Bob Ingalls told us that students should be lobbying in Salem and working through the constituencies of their parents. A handful of student representatives having coffee with the Oregon Student Lobbyists does not constitute a force. The lobbying failure is probably due partly to Balfe's belief that demonstrations and presidential activism, such as Hotchkiss* recent participation in the POTC demonstrations, is the wrong tactic for the student body president. We disagree We like to see the student political figurehead take an active part in campus poli tics. Balfe, like most elected officials leaving office, knows that ‘the majority of the job is doing what students expect of you, not what you want to do.” But that sounds too much like a rationale for passive governing — going through the motions and waiting for crises to be brought to the Executive. The Emerald continues to advocate an active ASUO presidency which stirs student interest and speaks out to students as well as administrators on matters of interest to students; we await next year with some hope. letters Organize No one likes to be under paid. and it is right that faculty salaries should be widely and openly discussed Someone must identify, however, the hypocrisy of the local American Association of University Professors and its officers on this issue. They complain, in their current newsletter and elsewhere, that our saianes have declined dramatically as against those of faculty in the Eugene schools and the community colleges They even admit that the latter's gams are direct consequences of collective bargaining Why do they not draw the conclusion that the faculty should organize? The truth is that the local AAUP is the most important organized force against collec tive bargaining on our campus. Some years ago, when the AAUP filed as chief petitioner for our first campus branch election, and then worked against its success, its presi dent confessed to me that their object was mareiy to heighten the AAUP's lagging appeal to the younger faculty. The dissembling of the current leadership is thus not per sonal but the continuation of a long-term policy. It is quite at odds with naticnal AAUP policy, for the AAUP is now a labor organization Our salaries are low because we will not organize. The local AAUP has for years talked about saianes and op posed organization in the name of a tattered myth called governance.” which amounts to the right to petition the ad )regoncfariy emerald th* 0*900 Darty >• pvtmsftad Monday 1 Ff«J*y arcapi Ourmg ••*m .»**• and vacation* by ina 0*900 Daily Em#*ak> RwO*<*h.«0 Co at tti# OM«a<*>ty «l Otogot Eo9*n* OR »?403 Th* EmaraM 00a»*«*» wdaoaoOaoWy o* lb* Un.«*r*rty «<th offic** on I ha Ih.r0 floor of tfta Erft M*m©n#i Umon and to a mantai of fh* Aa*oc>a«*d R»#** MUli *»»(} WMMJ IM4MI WHIt I4M* n#»* la>ux A **.»»*"! •*#«,» f Ort<x EOtlCXi# Pag* JcWO' Pt»«» £<f»«C* Sport* EM«f AMOC'Jtta Sport* I ! •' EnfartamAont EtMof N.gf« t <S»to> tNKM i«Wt H*gh*r tOuCMion Dtoaintmt and Settoort A" j »- nn — ■*- ■ 9-fMCNPWl 5» £*#*«*** Psj**«e* Studon* $arr.cavComnwn<!, A>ia»» Qiiwm Staff *^a«t'*M»g Managa* CMidM Apv«ni»«ng P*Wlucl<«M Manage CprMttffar Harry Ektava Joan Nealy Manan Green Con FemaM Joan NytanO Bod Sakai Mike ffeptynger Saul Dan^*» Jonathan Saijta SanOy Joftftktona Sana? JoAnatane Frank Sftaw RtchanJ Bon Sean Mayer* M.cneie Mataksa Afckta Zaa Oartana Gora Sa»y Otjar ir•clone KocA Jean Oanftey ministration. The local AAUP is thus an accomplice to the present state of affairs; and any faculty member who listens to such a group, which opposes the evident means and cries about the unreached end, deserves what she or he gets. Or less. In a modern university, under the business principles of “sound management," the value of anyone or anything, from management's point of view, is its price. Our prices (salaries) may be low, but they reflect directly the value our managers assign to us. No moaning about “governance" will affect this transformation, through management, of the University in the image of the business corporation. We must use the instrument ap propriate to the situation in which we find ourselves, organization. If we do not use it. if we follow the University’s AAUP, we shall get precisely what we deserve. Or less. Thomas Brady protasso,, history El Salvador On Tuesday May 17, Oregon t “came the first state in the country to formally ask the federal government to stop military aid to the ruling junta in El Salvador. Senate Joint Memorial 6, sponsored by Margie Hen drickson of Eugene, asks that the federal government place a moratorium on all military aid to the government of El Salvador until there is substantial and widely verifiable proof that their cur rent policy of violent suppres sion of fundamental civil liber ties and human rights has been terminated. The memorial passed the State Senate by a vote of 29-1 and the House by a vote of 40-19 Such strong bi-partisan support is a strong expression of the fact that the American public is extremely hesitant to support a regime with no regard for even the most basic of human rights. The staff and supporters of the Eugene Council for Human Rights in Latin America, who participated in a concentrated lobbying effort, applaud the Oregon Legislature and hope that similar legislation will be taken up in other states. Help stop the more than 8,000 yearly killings of inno cent civilians, help stop the $205 million in military aid that Reagan wants to send to El Salvador this year, write to Washington and urge your representative to take action on Senate Joint Memorial 6. Jim Middaugh Eugene Council for Human Rights in Latin America Misguided I am always amazed by let ters like the one submitted by Brandon Shepard in the May 18 Emerald. In one paragraph he said we should have “nuk ed” North Vietnam, while in the next he said the United States has a “humanitarian du ty” to save people from communism. Shepard must believe that it is humanitarian to kill helpless civilians of a communist coun try in order to protect human rights. Such nearsighted con clusions ignore the complexi ty of the issues involved. In regard to Central America, I will accept the no tion that communist govern ments often repress human rights. However, heavy-handed efforts by the United States in the last 90 years to shove non communist governments down the throats of Latin Americans have been unsuccessful. It is a violation of human rights when Washington decides which national faction is "good" and then supplies arms, undertakes covert ac tions and supports dictators to enforce our misguided foreign policy. Such methods have not worked and will not work. The United States must seek different ways of ensur ing human rights in Latin America. Martin Jaqua law ‘Cutesy’ Regarding the May 19 headline “University alum to give artsy talk." How cutesy! Caroiy Steward secretary, physical plant
