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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 22, 1984)
Changing of the guard See page 5 Oregon daily emerald Tuesday, May 22, 1984 Eugene, Oregon Volume 85, Number 160 Hotchkiss vetoes Commentator funding By Paul Ertelt Of the Emerald ASUO Pres. Mary Hotchkiss has vetoed the Incidental Fee Committee’s decision to allocate $5,000 for the Oregon Commentator. In a memo to the IFC Monday, Hotchkiss said the allocation was "extraordinary" for a group that has only been in existence for seven months, and claimed the IFC disregarded "the fact that students voted by an over whelming margin not to fund this program." "Many would like the Com mentator to become an alter native to the Emerald,” Hot chkiss said, "but the purpose of the Commentator is to expound a conservative viewpoint on a liberal campus." The IFC will meet Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. to hear further testimony on the issue and decide whether to override the veto. The veto was announced at an IFC meeting Monday even ing, but not enough IFC members were present to vote on the issue. Last month, students defeated a funding measure for the Com mentator, 1,715 to 790. It was the only ballot measure that was defeated in ASUO elections. But Commentator publisher Dane Claussen said that the vote was "pretty good" for a new organization, and that the IFC funding was only half of the ballot measure proposal. "The vote was not against the Commentator, it was against the $10,000," he said. "There are a lot of other ASUO programs that would not get 32 percent if put on the ballot." Claussen said Hotchkiss'com ments are irrelevant to the fun ding issue and show why a con servative publication is needed on campus. Hotchkiss said she would "welcome the voice of conser vatives" on campus, but said the IFC should not allocate funds to support a publication with a particular political viewpoint. She rejected the argument that the Emerald is a liberal publica tion per se, since it reflects the viewpoint of editors who change every year. "In the past, I believe a member of Young Americans for Freedom has served as Emerald editor," she said. The Commentator "con sistently bordered on violating ethical practices," Hotchkiss said. "When a student newspaper calls one of our pro fessors a 'sourpuss,' it does not help the image of students. "Even one of their staff members admits that at least one of their issues 'exceeded the bounds of good taste,' " she said. But Claussen said the staff member's comment was made off the record and charged that it was unethical for Hotchkiss to use it in her memo. Also, good As the Incidental Fee Committee met with Assistant Athletic Director Chris Pres. Mary Hotchkiss vetoed an Oregon Commentator funding request. Photo by Michael Clapp Voelz Monday, ASUO taste is a matter of opinion and irrelevant to the question, he said. Hotchkiss said she does not necessarily oppose future fun ding for the Commentator. "I would recommend that this program, like 4II others, be given a chance to grow and mature before it receives any in cidental fee funding," Hot chkiss said. "If students were really dissatisfied with the Emerald they would have pass ed the Commentator's referendum." In other business, the IFC discussed its tentative contract with the athletic department. Assistant Athletic Director Chris Voelz said her department was willing to accept the IFC's pro posed funding of $602,439, but said some details had to be iron ed out. IFC chair Julie Davis said the matter will be discussed at their Wednesday meeting, but a definite agreement must be reached by Thursday morning. Physicist 'never stopped thinking about war' Freeman Dyson By Costas Christ Of the Emerald In what was the biggest turnout this year for a guest speaker sponsored by the Faculty Arms Control Croup, Freeman Dyson, a world-renowned physicist and author of the book "Weapons and Hope," presented his views on nuclear weapons, the arms race and the Soviet Union Monday. Dyson, who worked as a civilian scientist for the British air force during World War II, said that the ex perience "burned the nature of war deep into my soul." Ever since he was involved in strategic bombing cam paigns, Dyson said he has "never stopped thinking about war. "There is something very grotesque about the dou ble life which we lead both personally and in society. On the one hand we are nice and polite to each other and on the other hand we blow each other to pieces," Dyson said. Unlike many people, Dyson said he does not believe that the arms race is such a big deal. "It's not the arms race that is the problem, it's the weapons which we already have that are the biggest threat to peace. Adding a little more each year doesn't mean much, considering the nuclear weapons stockpiles that currently exist. We must get rid of what we already have," he said. The first step in this process is a change in the way people think about nuclear weapons, he said. "Why are Americans so proud and happy in having developed and used nuclear weapons?" Dyson asked. "This pride is very strong and is bound up in the events of World War II," he added. If Hitler — instead of the United States — had developed the atomic bomb, it would have made a big difference in the way Americans view nuclear weapons, he said. "They would be viewed as evil weapons, developed by an evil man doing an evil job," Dyson said. "If Hitler got the bomb instead of the United States I don't think it would have made much of a difference in the outcome of the war. Moscow would have shared the same fate as Hamburg and Dresden, but I don't think it would have delayed the arrival of Russian troops in Berlin or American troops in japan," he added. The important thing, according to Dyson, is that it would have resulted in Americans viewing the bomb with disgust instead of pride. "This is the way the Soviets see nuclear weapons," he said. "They see them as evil, developed by a people who are their enemies and who seek to use them on Russia." For this reason, and because of their much closer experience in World War II, Dyson said he believes the Soviets will have an easier time "kicking the habit of nuclear weapons" than the United States. Despite these beliefs, however, Dyson said the Soviet Union should be seen for what it really is — "a more than amateurishly brutal government with a rather bad record of over-running neighboring countries." Vet, when asked who he thought might be the first to use nuclear weapons if a military conflict arose bet ween the United States and Russia, Dyson said he was more afraid of the United States pushing the button first. "We have a first-use policy which the Soviets don't have," he said. According to Dyson, the struggle to get rid of nuclear weapons is not that much different from the struggle to abolish slavery. "First we started by perceiving that slavery had to be abolished," he said. "It began with the Quakers as a small movement and slowly grew as more and more groups came out against slavery. Despite the fact that support for slavery had been deeply rooted in society, in the end it was the abolitionists who prevailed. We too shall prevail when we realize that nuclear weapons are a moral and not a political issue."