Oregon daily
emerald
Four Emerald commandos
slipped into Cowvallis this
morning and swamped
Moo IJ. with 3,500 copies
of the yearly “Fake
Baremeter” to kickoff this
year’s Civil War game.
See page IB
Wednesday, November 16, 1983
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 85, Number 52
Fighting financial red tape
Bank s error
riles student
By Doug Nash
Of the tmerakf
A University student who says the
financial aid process is an "inflexible”
bureaucracy will take his case before
the Oregon State Scholarship Commis
sion Friday.
Steve Richkind, a senior English ma
jor, says the OSSC erred when it refus
ed to make an exception in dealing
with his Guaranteed Student Loan re
quest, which he says was delayed this
fall by no fault of his.
Richkind says he filed for his $2,400
GSL Aug. 20, after returning from a
summer study program in Mexico, and
was assured the loan would be pro
cessed within six to eight weeks.
However, when he visited Eugene's
main branch of First Interstate Bank six
weeks later, he found his request had
"laid untouched" on a junior bank of
ficer's desk, Richkind says. Since he
needed the money to pay fall term tui
tion. he asked OSSC to speed up the
process.
But Richkind says his efforts were
unsuccessful.
"They told me, If we make an ekcej>
tion for one, we'd have to make an ex
ception for all,' " he says.
First Interstate provided Richkind
with a $500 loan until his GSL came in
last week. Still, he says the whole affair
represents a flaw in the system.
"The OSSC is totally inflexible and
unserving," he says. "There will always
be special cases. Every bureaucracy
should recognize that."
But OSSC Director Jeffrey Lee says
making individual exceptions to the
"first come, first served" rule would be
unfair.
University student Steve Richkind says he doesn't think he was treated
fairly by the state’s financial aid bureaucracy.
"We put those loans out in the order
they come into us," he says. "Many
students that apply late feel as though
they have problems that aren't their
fault.
"I don't think we have what I would
call a programmatic problem. For us to
sit in judgement as to who made the
mistake is probably not our place," Lee
says.
Richkind intends to discuss the issue
at the OSSC meeting at 10 a m. Friday
at Chemeketa Community College in
Salem.
“I don't know how many of these
folks on the committee have had to
borrow money and endure the pro
cess," he says. "But I think that my
case is representative of a number of
cases that probably go unmentioned."
Rather than emphasize his specific
case, Richkind says he will address the
commission in more general terms.
"I think my speech to the commis
sion is going to try to appeal to the
need for sensitivity and the awareness
that they're dealing with human beings
and not machines."
Planners look for
a good entrance
By Melissa Martin
Of the Emerald
To enter or not to enter the campus. That is the
question.
It Shakespeare were visiting his < hild at the
University, would he be contused at the 13th Avenue
and Agate Street entrance? Would the 18th Street en
trance by the cemetery cause him grief? And would
he sneer at the litter around the 12th Avenue and Kin
caid Street entrance?
When University visitors approach campus
boundaries, they may find confusion instead of an of
ficial entrance, according to Ron Lovinger, landscape
architecture professor.
"All major entrances to the University of Oregon
campus are not gracious and not dignified but
basically confusing and a real source of embarrass
ment to the institution," Lovinger says.
The need for an official entrance was brought
before the Campus Planning Committee Tuesday by
Bill Ballester, who coordinates student tours for cam
pus visitors.
The University needs a centralized information
source, says Ballester, who works in Oregon Hall as
coordinator of special services.
Architecture students in lovinger's Lawrence
Hall studio have been working all fall "trying to
beautify and make functional the various entrances
bf the campus," he says.
A subcommittee of the planning committee has
been recommending an official campus entrance for
two years now, says chair Adell McMillan, director of
the EMU.
The implementation committee is making a
capital construction recommendation priority list for
the campus planning committee for the next bien
nium, McMillan says. An entrance way at 13th
Avenue and Agate Street is on the list.
The subcommittee will hold a public hearing to
announce the recommendations November 29 in the
EMU, McMillan says. Time and exact room location
will be announced.
Lovinger calls the 18th Street entrance by the
cemetery, "dismal," the 12th Avenue and Kincaid
Street entrance, "disgustingly ugly," and the 1 ith
Avenue and Agate Street entrance, "a place where no
one knows where they are going."
Campus 'candy store' creates crisis
A rape occurs every 26 seconds in the
United States, and one woman in four will
fall victim to a sexually related crime in her
lifetime, according to FBI statistics.
Eugene is no exception to the rule.
Eugene police say the University campus
hosts the largest concentration of crime in
the city, including rape, assault and
sodomy.
Within the past two months, six sexual
assaults have occurred on or near campus.
Police are still investigating the incidents
and have arrested no suspects yet, although
they believe one man is responsible for all
six incidents.
Sgt. Rick Allison of the Eugene Police
Department says it is a safe bet that a sex
Related story page 5A
crime occurs everyday on campus.
Allison is assigned to the University cam
pus and investigates most of the sexually
related crimes.
Allison recalls a recent case involving
John Paul Schroeder, who was apprehend
ed in 1980 by the police for multiple rapes.
He is presently serving a minimum
sentence of 100 years without parole. The
police believe he committed about 200
rapes and 400 burgleries during a three-year
period, primarily in the University district.
“That's the kind of guy that turns up
periodically at the U. of O. Unfortunately
more often than not," he says.
The University is known in the Oregon
State Penitentiary as "the candy store”,
Sexual assaults can be avoided
by using caution, experts say
Allison adds, for its large population ot
women.
"At any given time or place you can see a
woman walking or jogging alone on cam
pus," Allison says.
"I can go up to just about anyone who is
obviously not a student and is hanging
around campus, and find that the majority
of the time they have some kind of sexually
related crime in their background," he says.
One of the largest problems the police
run into, Allison says, is the failure of vic
tims to report an assault. Only about one in
seven cases are reported, possibly because
the stereotype of the insensitive police in
terrogator still exists.
"We are not monsters,” Allison em
phasizes. "We are trained professionals
who deal with this all the time." The police
have psychological experts and rape trauma
teams at Sacred Heart hospital to deal with
the victims, who are "plugged in im
mediately" with these experts, Allison says.
"We protect your peace of mind and your
sanity," he says.
The police encourage the reporting of
any sexually related incident, no matter
how small. Allison points out that many
times an important case is solved because
someone reported something they thought
was silly.
"Don't ever think something is too dumb
to report," agrees campus security otticer
Marjorie Bigelow.
Contrary to popular assumptions, rape
does not occur strictly at night or in dark
alleys. Allison says he has investigated an
assault just about everywhere on campus.
And often an assault occurs during daylight
hours.
The police don't want anyone to be
frightened, only to be aware of the problem
and take the proper measures to prevent it.
Not walking alone is one of the best ways
to avoid an assault, Allison says, pointing
out that he can think of no time when a
couple walking together was assaulted. This
includes two women as well as a woman
and a man, he says. Rapists seek out the
easiest targets they can — which are usually
women who are alone, he adds.
Weapons and sprays are effective, but "If
you are going to use a weapon, you better
be prepared to follow it through to the
hilt," Allison says.
Allison does not recommend guns and
knives because they can be turned around
and used against a victim.
There are, however, many anti-rape
devices available on the market. One of
these is a door-stop that emits a loud, high
pitched scream when the door is forced.
The door-stop is effective because many
rapes occur in homes or dormitory rooms.
Shelley Reecher, a rape victim herself, has
developed a program to aid runners, called
Project Safe Run. She provides highly train
ed doberman pinschers for students who
like to run alone. Her program operates on
a "pay-what-you-can” basis. The dogs are
available at any time of the night or day.
Reecher personally shows each runner how
to work with the dogs.
Another method that has proven effective
in deterring assault is walking in an asser
tive manner. Studies have shown that a shy,
docile and withdrawn woman is more likely
to be attacked than a woman who appears
aggressive and self-confident. The rapist
wants to assault the woman who will make
the least amount of noise and problems,
Allison says.
If the rape is already in progress, Allison
says talking to the assailant can often get
the victim out of trouble. Because the
typical rapist is a coward who has had
unhappy female relationships in the past,
talking to him may be the key to resolving
the situation, Allison says.
There are many services that are available
on campus for students' protection. The
public safety office offers an escort service
for those who wish to be accompianied
anywhere within a two-block radius of cam
pus. For more information on the escort
service, call campus security at 686-5444.
Private organizations offer self-defense
courses for those who desire to take that
route. They can be found in the phone
book and occasionally are advertised in the
paper.
Story by Ken Armstrong