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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 23, 1983)
I Tuition freeze reason to shout Students should be jumping in the streets and shouting “Hoo-ray!” And they should keep shouting, all the way to the bank. The Joint Ways and Means Committee of the state Legislature recently approved a S562 million budget for higher education that includes a two-year tuition freeze. The House passed the budget Wednesday. The approved budget is $21 million less than Gov. Vic Atiyeh’s proposal, which higher ed officials said was a maintanance level budget — meaning that the budget on ly would maintain current services, not improve them financially. With the state’s economic pinch, higher ed of ficials generally should be pleased. If students are pleased, and if higher ed officials are pleased, who was impacted by the $21 million cut from the Governor’s proposal? And perhaps, most importantly, who is displeased? At this University it very well might be the faculty. While the budget includes an across the board salary increase of 2 percent, $12.7 million allocated for future academic salary and fringe benefit adjustments was writ ten out of the proposal. The University faculty, who are nearing bottom in terms of national salary average, are, at best, disgruntled. And well they should be. Their arguments against salary cuts are valid, their reasons sound. They do indeed deserve more money, in terms of salary compensation, than they receive. The committee, which cut the $12.7 million, did so because all state employees were taking comparable cuts. While faculty may argue they aren’t run-of-the-mill state employees, they still are subject to the same cuts and financial bruises other state employees are. That is unfortunate. As with students, we encourage the faculty to shout, but not for the same reasons. opinion Recognize Sally Ride without exploitation Soon Sally Ride will put her feet back on terra firma, ending the historic event of putting the first American woman in space. But the end of this shuttle mission will not necessari ly be the end to all of the hoopla surrounding Ride. Ride's name, and any other association someone can scam, will continue to bring in easy money for a lot of hustlers and self-righteous entreprenuers. For instance, a man and a woman from Roseburg have produced t-shirts that may be ordered at the Univer sity Bookstore. The t-shirts have incorporated the earth and the woman’s symbol into a logo that bears the motto “Ride, Sally Ride." The woman says she hopes to earn a million dollars from the endeavor. The KEZI-TV newscast that showed this “news" segment had the presence of mind to end the piece with a few bars of a song containing the lyrics, “Ride, Sally ride..Tacky. “People" magazine put Ride on the cover of last week’s issue. They gave her the headline “O! What a Ride.” Whether “People" intended it or not, the message has several meanings, including blatant sexual overtones. A tribute to Ride is terrific. Admiration of her feat is terrific. And although one woman on one space mission smacks more of tokenism than equality, she deserves at tention and publicity. But, using Ride as a media symbol, and exploiting her name as an attention getting device are strong indica tions that women are still properties, to be used, and their privacy abused, regardless of their accomplishment. joan herman reporter’s notebook L Following my graduation June 12, still-fresh images linger from the commence ment ceremony. In a rare display of social propriety, the festive group of gown-clad graduates were asking each other the delicate question of which was the pro per side for wearing one’s tas sle. Somehow the bunch managed to solve the problem, as they all had their tassles dangling uniformly from their mortar boards' right sides. I still don’t know if our choice was “correct.” The plastic "corks” of smuggled champagne bottles joyfully exploded throughout the ceremony, as if to express their owners’ happy moods. Carefully crafted cardboard “buildings" glued to architec ture grads' caps bore evidence of their makers' education. "Just one more picture, dear,” my mother told me umpteem times, as I roasted under the black gown and squinted my eyes to avoid the sun. With “Pomp and Cir cumstance" playing in the background, I asked my brother and fellow graduate if he, too, weren’t as excited as I. He bitterly responded that commencement ceremonies were only for parents, not graduates. He is not alone in that opinion. I read with ambivalent feel ings a letter published in the Emerald several weeks ago ad monishing the University's "informal" graduation an nouncements and impersonal ceremonies. (Reprinted below) Oregon doily - . emerald The tummtr edition of th* Oregon Ostty it publish ad Tuesdays »o(1 Thursday* except during exam wees and vacations by th* Oragon Daily Emerald Publishing Co at th# Univarsity ol Oragon Eugene Oragon. 97403 Th* Emerald operates indapandantty of th# Univarstty with offices on th* third floor of th* Erb Memorial Union and is a mambar of tha Associated Press News and Editorial WMii Display Advertising and Pusiness Ml 371} Classified Adverbs log «M 4343 Production Mb *34t Circulation 44* 4§t t Editor Managing Editor New* Editor Editorial Pag* Editor Photo Editor Oabbta Howled Sandy Johnstone Frank Shaw Cort fernaid Mark Pynes Aaaoclata Editor* Higher EducationtDe part menu and School* Student Government Politic* Editor Community Editor Night Editor Joan Herman Jim Moore Brooks Darell Michela Matas** Frank Shaw Oanaral Stall Advertising Manager Cia**Hted Advertising Production Manager Controller Darlene Gore Sally CH|ar Victoria Koch Jaan Own bey j With the exception of Paul Simon’s speech, the ceremony was mediocre — but I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. At the risk of sounding preachy, those who feel as my brother and the letter-writer do are missing the boat. Like col lege, relationships and just about everything in life, the ceremony is what you make it, how you choose to perceive it. Out of sheer boredom I, too, read all the dissertation topics listed in the commencement program during the ceremony. I, too, felt a tinge of bit terness at the lack of recogni tion undergraduates received on their “big" day. Rising en masse for a moment’s worth of honor doesn’t quite cut it. Yet one salient image stands out in my mind that I J will never forget. As I marched into Hayward Field with about 2000 other graduates, I looked up into the West grandstand. The sight brought a lump to my throat. Literally thousands of proud hands belonging to parents, relatives and friends were wav ing madly to the graduates. I searched the sea of spec tators for my own family, but couldn’t find them. Then I heard a familiar voice bellowing out my childhood nickname, and my eyes follow ed the sound to the very top of the West grandstand. There was my own cheering squad, including my rambunctious father, waving frantically to catch my attention. The smiles on their faces mirrored my own. I wouldn’t have missed that one moment for the world. I letters Improve Ceremony As a member of the graduating class of 1983,1 feel the quality of our commence ment could be greatly improv ed. For many of us, graduating is a memorable occassion which I feel the graduation ceremony should represent. I think the simplicity and infor mality of the announcements is really an embarrassment to an Institution of higher educa tion. My high school an nouncements had more class and honor than did these. The ceremony also lacks the honor Bachelor degree can didates deserve. We all sit for two or more hours only to stand up anonymously and receive an empty diploma holder. I understand the time involved to recite each in dividual by name, but some how I feel after dedicating four or more years here at the University, we all deserve recognition for our ac complishments. I would also like to know why a U.S. Representative from Illinois is our speaker? So what if he went to the University years ago, someone reputable from Oregon would have been an improvement. I think the University is lack ing in its responsibility of honoring graduates with bachelor's degrees. I would like to see graduating classes having the option of choosing the type of announcement they prefer for their class. Some universities hold their ceremonies for two days to honor all graduates individual ly, this is another way com mencement could be improved. If the University would like to have more faithful alumni, they shoulds concentrate on honoring us while we are still a part of the University. They ex pect graduating students to contribute $15 to the Library Project '83 over the next three years and I ask myself “Why should I?" Karen Beaman Senior, Psychology Editors Note: This letter is reprinted from the June 3 edi tion of the Emerald.
