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Oregon daily
emerald
Tuesday, July 10, 1984
r
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 86, Number 7
1
Torch relay sparks enthusiasm, spirit
By Paul Ertelt
Of the Emerald
University student Vickie Van Artsdalen knows
she will never get to run in the Olympics. But carry
ing the Olympic torch down Franklin Boulevard
Sunday night was close enough for the 22-year-old
physical education major.
Van Artsdalen was of one of a handful of
Eugene/Springfield residents who carried the Olym
pic flame.
Van Artsdalen said she waited more than three
hours for her turn to carry the torch for her allotted
kilometer. The torch was scheduled to reach
downtown Eugene about 9 p.m., but it arrived more
than two hours late.
About 11:30 p.m., Travis Kizer, surrounded by
a police escort and an honor guard of twelve boys
and girls, jogged up to the corner of Broadway and
Hilyard Street to light Van Artsdalen’s torch. Ten
year-old Kizer, a student at Meadowlark School, was
chosen to carry the torch in a drawing held after the
YMCA’s recent Youth Run.
Though she had no official honor guard, Van
Artsdalen was escorted during her seven-minute run
by an impromptu entourage of about 50 people who
cheered her on.
“It was a real honor guard,” she said after her
run. “It’s a real honor to have all these people here I
don’t even know.”
But the real honor for Van Artsdalen was carry
ing the torch itself. “It’s like taking part in the Olym
pics,” she said. “In fact, it is taking part in the
Olympics.”
Van Artsdalen began running when she was a
student at West Albany High School. She trained
with the track team, but injuries kept her from com
peting two years in a row.
Now Van Artsdalen has a private trainer and she
competes in local “all-comers” races, doing mostly
five-kilometer runs, she says.
Running with the torch was something Van
Artsdalen has dreamed about for several years, but
she did not know how to go about doing it. After ask
ing around, she finally found an application for
torchbearers in a sporting-goods store.
In December, Van Artsdalen found a sponsor.
As the Worm Turns, a Portland engineering firm
owned by a family friend. Her sponsor paid the
$3,000 donation for the “Youth Legacy Kilometer,”
part of which will go to support programs by the
Eugene YMCA.
Other area torch runners included Barbara
Nicholls, a consultant to student athletes at the
University, and Jo Dellinger, the 16 year-old son of
Photo by Michael Clapp
Vickie Van Artsdalen and Travis Kizer are among 4,000 people nationwide participating in the Olympic
torch relay. The torch will reach Los Angeles July 28 for the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics.
University track coach Bill Dellinger
Nicholls, who carried the torch to the Hult
Center for the Performing Arts where an estimated
crowd of 7,000 people was gathered, said she was
overwhelmed by the crowd’s show of patriotism.
“They were cheering their country because it
was something they could feel good about,”
Nicholls said. “They were waving flags, crying and
cheering. It was marvelous.
“I was absolutely elated. The torch was fairly
heavy, but the crowd just lifted me,” Nicholls said.
At a little alter 8 a.m. Monday, Dean Pape, ac
companied by his 13 grandchildren, picked up the
relay at the corner of Walnut Street and Franklin
Boulevard.
The relay continued into Springfield and then
east along Highway 58. After crossing the Cascades,
the torch relay will head south to Klamath Falls and
into California.
Approximately 4,000 people throughout the
country will have carried the torch by the time it
reaches Los Angeles. Also, about 250 employees of
the American Telephone & Telegraph Co., the na
tional sponsor of the torch relay, will have carried
the torch where no kilometers have been sold.
The relay began in New York City May 8 and is
scheduled to arrive at the Los Angeles Coliseum July
28 in time for the opening ceremony of the Summer
Olympics.
See related story on Page 8
Court’s Solomon ruling elicits local criticism
By Paul Ertelt
Of the Emerald
The Supreme Court’s recent
ruling upholding the Solomon
Amendment has met with local
criticism, but the decision pro
bably will affect few students,
says the University’s financial
aid director.
In an 8-2 decision Thursday,
the court upheld the constitu
tional basis of the amendment,
which withholds financial aid
from draft-age males who will
not register with the selective
service.
“What the court said was. . .
(the amendment) is not a bill of
attainder nor a violation of a
young man’s right to avoid self
incrimination,” says a
spokesperson for the court.
Justices Thurgood Marshall
and William Brennan dissented
from the court opinion, main
taining .that the law is un
constitutional because it
violates equal-protection
guarantees and the right to
avoid self-incrimination.
The amendment had been
challenged by six Minnesota
college students and the Min
nesota Public Interest Research
Group. But in the majority deci
sion, Chief Justice Warren
Burger wrote that the amend
ment is “plainly a rational
means to improve compliance
with the registration
requirement.”
At the University, between 60
and 65 percent of all students
receive some form of federal
assistance, says Ed Vignoul,
director of the financial aid
office.
And of those recipients, “I
don’t think a significant
number of people are not
registered,” Vignoul says. “By
most reports, 95 percent to 97
percent are complying. And of
those who are not, many are not
students.”
Supporters of the amendment
maintain that those receiving
the benefit of government aid
should be required to obey the
laws of that government. But
ASUO Pres. Julie Davis says she
is ‘‘very disappointed” with the
ruling.
‘‘Though the Supreme Court
views it as legal, it is still highly
discriminatory,” Davis says.
The amendment singles out the
disadvantaged who need the
financial assistance but takes no
action against others who refuse
to register, she says.
The issue here is much
broader than the Solomon
Amendment, says Ron Phillips,
coordinator of the Alliance to
Counter Militarism. The ques
tion is whether a draft is con
stitutional and whether it is ap
propriate in a democratic
society.
Many of the nation’s early
leaders, including Daniel
Webster, were strongly opposed
to the idea of a draft, Phillips
says.
“A draft takes away your
power to choose,” he says.
Though there may be cases
where military action is
justified, the draft system does
not allow an individual to
refuse service in a conflict he
finds immoral, unless he op
poses all wars, he says.
‘‘The only position the
University has taken is that it’s
the law and we will abide by
it,” Vignoul says. ‘‘We are not
going to put a $23-million pro
gram into jeopardy.”
Many offers of financial aid
are turned down by students,
Vignoul says, but there is no
way of knowing how many are
turned down because people are
refusing to register.
Under the Solomon Amend
ment, all students seeking
financial aid must sign a state
ment saying they have
registered for the draft or stating
the reason they are not required
to register. Last fall, a female
student here was denied aid
because she refused to sign the
form in protest to the
amendment.
Failure to register carries a
maximum penalty of five years
in prison and a $10,000 fine.
There is an additional penalty
for making a false statement on
the verification form.
The financial aid office does
not require students to prove
they have registered, Vignoul
says, but the federal govern
ment audits the office every two
years and will check a random
sampling of forms to see if the
signers are actually registered.