Congress comes
to campus
See Pages 4 and 5
Oregon daily
emerald
Tuesday, August 7, 1984
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 86, Number 15
Bookstore to sell computers
By Mike Sims
Of the Emerald
The State Board of Higher Education and bookstore
managers at the eight state colleges and universities are
making arrangements with several microcomputer ven
dors to sell machines to students and faculty at reduced
rates.
Bob Spencer, University bookstore merchandise
manager, expressed hope that a package deal between
the state system, bookstores and computer vendors
would be closed by early September. “It looks fairly
realistic that by the first of September we’ll be placing
orders,” Spencer said.
According to Spencer and Richard Perry, associate
vice chancellor for administration, the state system and
bookstore staff have been negotiating with Apple,
Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Zenith since March.
Under the proposed contracts, computers and soft
ware will be sold through college and university
bookstores at vendor’s cost plus shipping and handling
fees — bookstores will recover costs but won’t make a
profit from computer sales. “We’re not interested in
making money on the deal,”, Perry said.
Perry added that computers would be available at a
discount to students and faculty only, and that pur
chasers (who would be allowed to buy one machine on
ly) would be required to sign a contract stating that they
would not re-sell the computer for a period of two to
three years. The group hopes to discourage “black
marketing” by implementing these measures, he said.
The board is trying to work out a standard contract
with vendors for all eight college and university
bookstores, partially to eliminate any computer
afforded advantage one school might gain over other inr
stitutions in attracting students.
“We want students to choose, say, Eastern Oregon
over Southern Oregon or vice versa because of the
school's academic merits — not because of the price
and availability of computers in the bookstore,” Perry
said.
Jerry Rusch, associate professor of architecture,
said that higher education Chancellor Bud Davis
became interested in the discount computer plan after
negotiations failed between the University and Apple
Computers to join an Apple-sponsored consortium
dedicated to promoting microcomputer use in
universities.
Apple and the 24-university consortium had ar
ranged to sell $2 million worth of Macintosh microcom
puters at half-price through school bookstores over a
three-year period. Consortium members also exchang
ed written programs and software.
When the due date for university bids to join the
Apple consortium passed last winter, Dick Hill,
University vice president for academic affairs and pro
vost, formed a five-person committee to survey com
puter purchasing opportunities with several vendors.
Perry wrote “memos of understanding” to com
puter vendors, seeking their interest in what he called
“an educational endeavor.” Perry said he expects the
memos to be returned, signed, to the state system
chancellor’s office in “a week or so.” State college and
university bookstore managers will then sign the
memos.
The group tried to select companies that manufac
ture machines of greatest use to the college community,
Perry said.
"We hope that institutions will also try to help
students select computers that will be best suited to
their individual curriculums,” Perry said. He also ex
plained that the group will try to select computers for
sale at individual bookstores that will see the greatest
demand at those particular schools based on curricular
offerings — “whether for arts, liberal arts and
humanities, science, engineering or what-have-you,”
Perry said.
Spencer said that IBM computers are regarded as a
kind of “standard” for the industry, and thus firms that
manufacture computers whose software is “not 100
percent compatible” with IBM computers were not
considered.
Hewlett-Packard was an exception to this stipula
tion, Spencer said, because of the highly technical
nature of its products. Spencer said that H-P computers
and software are especially useful to students and staff
in science, math, engineering and other technically
related subjects.
“The whole learning environment starts to change
when you use these computers,” Rusch said. “It has an
amazing effect on education when professors start us
ing them in classes and students use them for study.”
Rusch added that he knows of at least two dozen
universities around the country that all but require
students to have a microcomputer.
World record
Friday night was a time for celebration as
Mary Decker tuned up for her Olympic
3.000- meter race, scheduled for Wednesday,
with a world-record 5:32.7 clocking in the
2.000- meter run before the hometown fans.
Photo by Michael Clapp
Professors implement program in American studies
By Mike Sims
Of tin Emerald
University Associate Profs.
Barbara Mossberg (English) and
Allan Winkler (history) have
journeyed abroad to teach
courses in American Studies,
each spending a full academic
year at the University of
Finland.
They agree that it was sober
ing to realize they could not of
fer their students at the Univer
sity what they were able to give
students 5,000 miles from the
American shores: an inter
disciplinary, scholarly look at
Americana.
When Mossberg returned
from Finland following the
1982-83 school year, she and
Winkler began to develop an
idea that bore fruit in July when
the State Board of Higher
Education approved implemen
tation of a University Bachelor
of Arts degree program in
American Studies.
Major and minor programs in
American Studies will be of
fered at the University beginn
ing in the fall of 1985. Mossberg
will teach a “preview”
100-level course, entitled
“Topics In American Studies”
this fall. Students intending to
enter either the major or minor
Photo by Hank Trotter
Prots. Barbara Mossberg and Allan Winkler have devised a pro
gram designed to give students a scholarly look at being
American and a B.A. degree as well.
program in 1985 are urged to
enroll in the introductory
course.
American Studies was first
established as a major at Yale
University in the late 1940s. Ac
cording to Mossberg and
Winkler, most major American
universities offer American
Studies programs.
Oregon State University of
fers a program through it’s Col
lege of Liberal Arts, though not
with the same intensity as that
of the proposed University pro
gram, Mossberg says.
OSU offers no “core” courses
and only provides an avenue for
students to take a variety of
courses for American Studies
credit. Higher education staff
assured the hoard at its July
meeting that the University pro
posal would not duplicate
OSU’s American Studies
program.
Mossberg and Winkler said
they received “positive, en
thusiastic response” from
everyone they dealt with in im
plementing their program pro
posal, from the University
Assembly up to the higher
education board.
Students enrolled in
American Studies can examine
any or all aspects of American
culture, integrating courses
from other disciplines into their
individual programs of study.
Studies in American
literature, history, art and ar
chitecture, as well as political
science, sociology and
psychology are combined
toward answering basic ques
tions such as: What does it
mean to be an American? How
and why have we developed as
we have?
American Studies students
will be able to focus on in
dividual themes and topics.
‘‘The program is very flexible to
student needs and ambitions,”
Winkler says.
For example, if a student
wished to focus upon urban
American life, he or she could
take existing courses in urban
architecture, political science,
and sociology, Mossberg says.
The student could also take
literature courses that feature
the works of such writers as
Studs Terkel, Ralph Ellison and
other American authors who
specialize in urban themes.
Degree candidates will be re
quired to complete existing
University requirements for a
B.A. degree. They must also
complete a 45-credit major in
American Studies with a 2.25
grade point average.
Majors will be required to
complete a three-course se
quence (three hours each) in In
troduction to American Studies,
and 30 hours (21 upper divi
sion) of history, literature, arts
and letters, and social science.
A three-hour senior seminar
and a 25-page senior thesis
round out the degree
requirements.
“We think of courses in, say,
15th-century French culture as
worthwhile, but not how we
Americans live, how we think,
how we dream,” Mossberg
says. “We take these for
granted; we don’t see them in
historical or cultural context.”
Mossberg and Winkler, who
will spend the 1984-85 school
year teaching at the University
of Amsterdam, hope that
through the American Studies
program, students will gain a
clearer and broader insight into
the American experience.