Oregon daily
emerald
★ EXTRA! ★
Alternative paper
hits the streets
PAGE 3
Tuesday, October 25, 1983
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 85, Number 37
GTFF officials
seek approval
of new contract
By Doug Nash
Of the Emerald
The University's graduate teaching fellows'
union currently is seeking approval of a new two
year contract that offers members more benefits
and possibly higher salaries, say union officials.
And officials of the 3<XVstrong Graduate
Teaching Fellows Federation are urging the 500 or
so nonmembers to join the union and vote on the
contract.
“Most of the GTFs are represented by this con
tract and we want them to vote on it," says GTFF
President Brenda Cochrane.
GTF workload and salary arrangements remain
virtually unchanged under the new agreement,
which was negotiated last spring by the union and
the University adminstration.
GTF wages fall on four different levels determin
ed by experience, from $4,464 annually for a star
ting teacher's aide to $6,329 for a more advanced
student. GTFs work an average of 17'h hours per
week, Cochrane says.
“Basically, we managed to keep workload and
salary the same as last year," she says. "We would
have liked to have gotten a salary increase, but
given the financial state of the University, it wasn't
very likely. Also, if any more money comes out of
the Legislature, there's the possibility we can
negotiate for health care coverage."
The state Legislature passed a resolution last
year allowing GTFs to negotiate for health in
surance, which has been a major issue for the
union since its founding in 1977.
Cochrane says the new contract provides more
specific protections for GTFs whose classes are
canceled and who are not retained by the
University.
"The language in the contract means depart
ments in the University have to specify why
they're not reappointing people."
Under the new provisions, each department
must use a reappointment priority list to give
those GTFs whose classes are canceled first
chance to be appointed to new sections.
The contract also will have financial advantages
for GTFs, Cochrane says.
"GTFs can get an interest-free loan to cover tui
tion until their paycheck comes in," she says.
"And a GTF who doesn't have an appointment in
the summer, but has had appointments the
previous year and is going to have an appoint
ment the following fall, will have free tuition that
summer."
The union, which is the only GTF bargaining
unit of its kind in the country, will have a table in
the EMU lobby to attract new members and to
seek ratification of the contract.
Read it twice
in the Emerald
Readers of the Oregon Daily Emerald may
have done a double take Monday when
looking at page "3" of the paper.
Page 3 was page 9 and page 4 also doubl
ed as page 10.
What happened?
Well, when the paper was put to bed at
around 12:30 p.m., pages 4 and 10 were
delivered to the Springfield News with the
rest of the paper.
But those pages must have come
untucked.
A Springfield News employee apparently
grabbed pages 4 and 9 twice when printing
the paper.
Oops!
Emerald staff members were as surprised
as readers were. Bloom County fans will be
disappointed, but never fear — the rest of
the stories and advertisements will, for the
most part, make it into the paper
throughout the week.
The last time the same pages were
printed twice in the paper was four years
ago.
Photos by Dave Kao
A few feet away from recognition
By loan Herman
Of the Emerald
)im Fitzgerald gets a kick out of footbagging.
In fact, the 30-year-old Eugenian kicked his way — and his
footbag — to a 5,000 consecutive-beat personal record in the
EMU breezeway last Thursday.
At about 70 beats per minute, the feat took Fitzgerald only
55 minutes to accomplish. "I was surprised," Fitzgerald says of
his record. "When I hit 2,000 I was smiling because that was
my previous best."
The world record of 17,872 kicks is held by 18-year-old An
dy Linder of Geneva, III., Fitzgerald says, who estimates his
own record ranks about fifth in the nation.
Most nonkickers call the sport hacky sack, but the correct
term is footbagging, Fitzgerald explains. "Hacky sack" is a
specific brand name, he says.
Although Fitzgerald stopped at 5,000, he says he could
have kicked even longer. "I'd like to get 10,000," says the
former construction worker who's been kicking for five years.
Fitzgerald used a basic kick to reach his record, but has
mastered some flashier moves, as well, which fall under
freestyle kicking. "A lot of times when we re out showing ott,
people say 'Gee, I didn't know you could do that with a
footbag.' "
Best of all, footbagging enables Fitzgerald to "work and
play at the same time."
Fitzgerald and fellow kicker Reed Gray have their own
business, Flying Clipper Leathers, which produces handmade
footbags and juggling balls in brightly colored leather. Since
April, Flying Clippers has sold about 3,000 footbags all over the
nation. The business is definitely alive and kicking, both men
say. They hope to gross $25,000 after their first year of business
— and double that their second year.
Both men also say there has been "serious talk" about
making footbagging an Olympic sport, complete with a five
foot net.
But until then, Fitzgerald will continue to kick his favorite
habit.
Both Fitzgerald and Gray invite interested kickers to join
their new club, Free FLOE (Footbag Lovers of Eugene). For in
formation, call Fitzgerald at 344-9172.
Eight PIRGs meet at University
By Jim Moore
Of the Emerald
The keynote speaker at a dinner Satur
day honoring the 13th birthday of the
Oregon Student Public Information
Research Group told an audience of PIRG
members to be confident in the future
because of the "incredible depth of the
PIRGS."
Nearly 200 students from eight states sat
crowded in the Amazon Community
Center to hear Donald Ross, a former
member of "Nader's Raiders," a group of
four attorneys who played an instrumen
tal role in the 1970s in the enactment of
seat-belt legislation.
Ross, who helped found OSPIRG in
I970, traced the beginnings of the, PIRG
movement and recounted a 1970 trip to
the University by consumer advocate
Ralph Nader.
"In a very real sense the PIRG move
ment began in the very building we're
holding our conference," he said,-referr
ing to the EMU.
The students were in town to attend the
Western-PIRG conference hosted by
OSPIRG. The group conducted
workshops and programs about con
sumer issues and student involvement.
Ross, who built the New York PIRG into
a $2.8 million organization by creating
chapters on 17 New York college cam
puses, said "the mood was electric" when
600 students squeezed into the EMU
Dad's Room 13 years ago.
That night Nader and Ross generated
enough excitement to begin a petition
drive to form a statewide public interest
research group in Oregon, the first PIRG
in the country.
"Out of the efforts here (the University)
came the PIRG movement," said Ross, a
graduate of Fordham University and New
York Law School.
PIRG leaders formed groups
throughout the nation and from then until
1973 a social movement spread and grew
across the country, he said.
OSPIRG celebrates 13th year
By Jim Moore
Of the Emerald
Obscured by the clatter and activity of
the University-Husky football game this
weekend was some clatter and activity
from another meeting of college
organizations.
Those students who spent Saturday giv
ing the Ducks moral support and perhaps
Sunday recuperating from too much of
that moral support, missed the nearly 200
students from eight different states who
breezed through Eugene to attend a
Western conference of public interest
research groups.
And breeze they did; not only from one
PIRC program to another but from their
campus to the University, and back again.
The typical mode of travel was car
pools. For the typical student that meant
piling into a car after Friday classes, driv
ing non-stop to Eugene and piling back in
to the car when the conference ended
and driving home Sunday — in time for
Monday classes.
Twelve students used three vehicles
and spent 12 hours on the road travelling
to the conference from Missoula, Mont.
And people also came from as far away as
Colorado, Utah and New Mexico.
Once here, they hardly enjoyed the con
veniences of the Hilton Hotel. Careful to
bring along their own sleeping bags, most
crammed into the houses of friends or
local OSPIRG members.
Connie Lee Monson of the Montana
group explained why she travelled so far,
so uncomfortably for such a short time.
"I just joined (Mont-PIRG) and thought
this was the best way to find out about the
group," she said.
But there were also students at the con
ference who were no strangers to the pro
cedures of a PIRG conference.
Annette Talbott, a member of the Col
orado group, helped conduct a program
on consumer issues Sunday.
This was Talbott's third conference and
she said there was something special
about this one.
"This year is exciting because there are
so many people from so far away," she
said.