Is there a
'Morning After?'
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Oregon daily
em era la
Monday, November 21, 1983
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 85, Number 55
Policy on Central America elicits anger
Panelist claims guerrilla movement controlled by Cuba, Soviet Union
By Brooks Dareff
Of Iht Emerald
Central America panelists fought the
final battle Saturday in a three-day war
ol words over U.S. involvement in that
troubled region.
The lines were drawn unevenly in this,
.the final event of "Crisis in Central
America: an Educational Conference," as
several members of the crowd took turns
taking verbal shots at panelist Col. Larry
Tracy, who was in Eugene representing the
Reagan administration.
The four-member panel turned its atten
tion to "Prospects for the Future," and
while both sides saw storm clouds looming
on the horizon, one side forecast those
clouds as emanating from the east, from
Cuba and the Soviet Union, and the other
looked north to the United States.
Tracy acknowledged — as other members
of the Reagan administration have not —
the "economic underpinnings" of the guer
rilla movements in El Salvador and
Guatemala, but he insisted they are being
infiltrated, controlled and used by Cuba
and the Soviet Union.
He also claimed, as did Honduran Consul
Javier Pinel, that the United States is en
couraging the development of popular
governments in the region.
Prof. Milton Jamaii of the University of
Texas said the guerrilla movements
themselves are popular and indigenous,
and that these movements have only
resorted to clandestine or military footings
because participation in elections has con
sistently resulted in the death of opposition
leaders. He added that “any popular
government in Central America will never
be recognized by the United States,"
because such a government would have to
include Marxists.
He predicted "a long, protracted, brutal
struggle in Central America."
The United States, he said, is "on the
verge of a major invasion of Nicaragua."
The U.S. government has been planning
the destruction of the Sandinista govern
ment since its 1979 inception, he said.
To the question "how will the policy be
put into effect?" Jamaii offered "economic
strangulation,” "massive bombing," sup
port of troops from other countries like
Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras and
sending in U.S. troops.
lamail corroborated Tracy's statement
that the Defense Department is less
hawkish than other factions of the
administration.
"Defense has urged caution," Tracy
said."We're the ones that will have to go
first."
Panelist Renny Golden of the Chicago
Religious Task Force said that military
forces cannot overcome the struggle of the
people in Central America and that even
tually the military forces will knuckle under.
She recounted the story of a man who was
pursued by troops in his El Salvador village.
The women of the village encircled the man
and after the troops moved them away, the
children encircled him. The troops were
moved by the heroism of the children, she
said, and left the man untouched.
From the perspective of the people of
Central America, Golden said, the future "is
quite simply, hope."
Tracy first drew comments from the
crowd of about 400 when he com
plemented the University on not being "the
Berkeley of the Northwest," as he had been
told. However, the crowd seemed to like
the comparison. After Tracy said he was not
given a chance to express his views at the
University of California, someone in the
crowd shouted "or in El Salvador." This
drew more crowd comments, eliciting the
comment from Tracy that "maybe," he
"was wrong" about the University.
From then on, his comments were often
punctuated by an unsolicited shout of
"bullshit" from the crowd.
One crowd participant suggested that
the emotion of many people may have
been the result of frustration at feeling they
have no input into foreign policy.
"I don't think they care at all about your
opinion," Jamail said of the Reagan
administration.
Golden went further, calling the United
States "fascist" in regard to foreign policy.
Waiver exams allow students to skip classes
»y loan Herman
Of the Emerald
Fact: A University student earned 72 college credits
without taking one class.
Fact: She paid $336 for all 72 credits. (That's less than $5
per credit, compared with what most in-state students with
a 15-hour load pay per credit — about $32.
Fact: The student didn't bribe her professors, nor did
she have ' connections” in Oregon Hall's accounting or
registrar's offices. And not only was her method legal, the
exams were approved by faculty legislation at the
University.
Kathleen Lawlor's method was CLEP, or the College
Level Examination Program, which enables students to earn
college credits by passing waiver exams for many lower
division University courses.
Depending on the classes students waiver, they can
earn from three to 12 credits for a $28 fee per test,
regardless of how many credits the test is worth. CLEP ex
ams are available to anyone who wishes to take them,
regardless of whether they are University students.
"Essentially, it's a way for students to get credit for
something they already know," says Evelyn Rowe, who ad
ministers the CLEP exams through the University's Testing
Office. "It boils down to an alternative to educating
r
oneself.
For Lawlor, a mother of two children, CLEP has "made
the difference between having school be a pleasant ex
perience instead of a horrible one."
"It's easier than trying to schedule classes around run
ning a family," Lawlor says. "These I can do on my own
time.”
Surprisingly, few University students take advantage of
CLEP — about 10 each month — yet the tests are no more
difficult than are final exams for equivalent classes, Rowe
says.
In fact, about 75 percent of students who take CLEP ex
ams pass them. A ”C" grade is needed to pass the tests. If
students flunk the tests, they cannot re take them.
At first glance, CLEP seems deceptively simple, a too
easy method for earning legitimate college credits. But,
"It's not necessarily the easy way out," Lawlor says. For ex
ample, Lawlor studied five hours daily for about five weeks
to pass the American literature exam.
The University has "put a cover over CLEP so that
students can use it but not abuse it," Lawlor says. Students
cannot receive credits through CLEP for classes in which
they already are enrolled. Nor can they earn credit through
CLEP if they have earned credit for or are enrolled in a
higher level course.
Students who received credits only through CLEP could
not graduate anyway, Rowe says. Because CLEP credits are
treated as transfer credits, students still must earn 90 resi
dent credits to graduate. With the exception of one test,
CLEP grants only lower division credits and does not meet
upper division requirements for graduation.
Nor is CLEP the best way to gain an education, Lawlor
says. "I think there's a point at which you should take
classes from the University. Otherwise, (going to college) is
like a correspondence course. There's things to be had
from college besides a degree,” such as student-professor
interaction in class, Lawlor says.
Some of the classes for which CLEP grants credits in
clude American history, American literature, English
literature, biology, chemistry, introductory economics,
sociology and the humanities.
A similar program. Credit By Examination, enables
students to earn college credits for non-CLEP classes.
Students must first file petitions at the registrar's office. If
the petition is approved, students can attempt to waive ex
ams and earn credits for a $15 fee per test.
Descriptive material about both programs is available
in the Testing Office, located in the Student Counseling
and Health Center Building. Or from Rowe at 686-3227.
1
Civil War run
also ends in tie
Eleven young men suited up last
Friday for what was destined to be the
sporting event of the year — maybe of
their entire academic career.
The Civil War? Right.
The Civil War football game? No,
no, no, sports fans. We’re talking
about the fifth annual Civil War Pigskin
Pass.
History will remember that it
began at 10 a.m. at the OSU Memorial
Union in Corvallis. From there three
University students of Lambda Chi
Alpha and eight of their OSU fraternity
brethren began a tag-team run to the
University’s FMU, some 40 miles away.
In their hands they clutched a football
with the legendary letters U of O
printed on one side and OSU on the
other side. History will also remember
that this Civil War ended in a tie.
. Photo by Ken Kromer