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Oregon daily
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Wednesday, October 3, 1984
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 86, Number 24
Zajonc proposes funding for Oregon ports
By Paul Ertelt
Of the Emerald
A plan to use port fees for developing Oregon
port facilities would keep investment dollars in
the state and create jobs for Oregonians, Rep.
Donna Zajonc said Tuesday.
Zajonc, R-Salem, announced her plan at a
press conference in the Eugene Hilton. Zajonc is
opposing former newsman Don Clark and Rep.
Barbara Roberts, D-Port land, in the race for
secretary of state.
“If we are to accommodate increased interna
tional trade opportunities, we must offer the best
in international port facilities,” she said. Zajonc
called international trade essential if Oregon is to
diversify its economy and create new jobs.
Fees collected from port facilities are put into
the Common School Trust Fund. This money is
then invested, with the interest distributed to the
counties to support primary and secondary
education.
In 1977, the Legislature established the Port
Revolving Fund, which is funded by general fund
tax dollars, to finance port development.
But Zajonc said this fund does not provide
enough loan money for all the necessary port
projects.
Though accrued interest has swelled the
fund to $6.2 million, most of that money has been
r
loaned out, leaving only about $400,000 to fund
port projects, said Connie Chandler, an aide to
Zajonc.
Under Zajonc’s plan, port fees would create
the principal of a revolving trust, with the money
invested in Oregon ports instead of out-of-state
bonds.
“The real isssue here is the investment of
Oregon dollars,” she said. "I would rather have
the capital work here at home than export it to the
East Coast.”
Interest from the port fund would continue to
be distributed to schools, and the fund would be
managed by the Department of Economic
Development. The creation of the trust would re
quire the Legislature to make revisions in Oregon
law.
Zajonc said the money could be used to help
many of the state's smaller ports, as well as the
port of Portland. Under her plan, development
priorities would be set to create the most jobs and
to help projects that do not have other sources of
funding.
ARCO is prepared to create a new job site in
Coos Bay and create 400 jobs if the necessary port
facilities can be provided, Zajonc said.
If Zajonc is elected, she claims she will use
her position to assist the development of
Oregon’s 23 ports.
Donna Zajonc
Native American powwow
The Native American Student Union held its first
powwow of the young school year at the Long
House on campus Tuesday. Members, represen
ting many tribes, gathered to elect officers and
plan upcoming cultural events.
Photo by Dean Guernsey
University Senate still labors
over its own identity and role
By Michael Doke
or the Emerald
The interaction between the University
Senate and the University Assembly last year was
something akin to Abbott and Costello, says a
University professor about the two decision
making forums.
The comical episode English Prof. Bill
Strange refers to is the attempt by the Senate, the
advising body to the larger Assembly, to abolish
itself in February in favor of becoming a rules
committee. The motion came about because the
Senate’s advice was falling on deaf ears. Strange
adds.
The 54-member Senate meets on the last
Wednesday of every month and the full Assembly
meets one week later. The faculty and students
who make up both bodies act as the University’s
legislative force in the areas of courses, cur
riculum, academic requirements and student
conduct.
“I like the idea of a University Senate,” says
Strange, a third-term senator. But he questions
whether there is “one example where the Univer
sity Senate has made a difference.”
“One time, which now amounts to ancient
history, the Assembly listened to the Senate,”
says math Prof. Lew Ward, another longtime
senator. ”1 don’t think the faculty listens to what
the Senate says anymore.
“It’s irritating to spend time in the Senate —
just spinning wheels — and then being ignored”
at the Assembly, he says.
The inability of the Senate to be heard at the
Assembly, according to Chair Kappy Eaton, is
two-fold.
Faculty, both on the Senate and off, feel that
there is no real Senate role, Eaton says. Though
the body debates motions introduced into gover
nance, 90 percent of these arguments are repeated
in the Assembly, she says.
The other problem, she adds, is a reluctance
by the faculty to give the Senate power.
But the Senate has more power than it uses,
says Gerry Moseley, associate provost of student
affairs. This power could be realized if the Senate
were to become a pathway for decisions, he adds.
Moseley sees the Senate as a central controll
ing and channeling body for legislation.
The Senate should give the faculty the ability
to research issues, to talk with colleagues, and to
have time to respond to motions so the time in the
Assembly can be spent on more important mat
ters, Moseley says.
“The Senate could become more of a review
body — a spillover between departments, for ex
ample. Nobody does that now,” Moseley says.
The Senate has the right to reach this goal, he
says, “but the Senate is frustrated and this isn't
happening.
“There are those making decisions who
shouldn’t while those who should make deci
sions aren’t,” Moseley says.
Michael Prothe, last year’s Student Universi
ty Affairs Board chair, says the Senate is just too
cumbersome. As the only students on the Senate,
SUAB members represent the third problem of
the Senate, according to some senators.
As Strange pointed out at the first Senate
meeting of the academic year last week: “We are
not a faculty senate here because we have
students who are senators. We are a university
senate.”
Strange says that having students in the
Senate is not wrong, but the 18 student members
meet away from the faculty at SUAB meetings.
This creates a feeling of a “student senate,” he
says. In turn, a feeling of student bloc voting is
also present.
Ward says, though, that the change of Senate
effectiveness occurred with the entrance of
students into the body in 1974 when the Faculty
Senate was replaced by the University Senate.
“But SUAB’s role is to represent student con
stituents on campus,” Prothe says. The board
also informs the faculty through surveys and
research, he says.
“And nothing is done behind closed doors,”
Prothe says. “Anyone can come to our
meetings.’’
This year’s SUAB chair, Sara Tenney, argues
that SUAB members, who constitute one-third of
Senate membership, have never voted in a bloc.
At SUAB meetings, all points and sides of an
issue are made clear, but positions on issues are
not dictated, she says.
Some people are “putting the blame of the
Senate on students,” she says.
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