VOTE
TODAY!
Oregon daily
emer
Tuesday, November 6, 1984
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 86, Number 48
Opening delayed
Morning blaze guts new fitness center
By Lori Steinhauer
Of the Emcrtld
A fire Monday morning caus
ed extensive damage and
delayed the planned opening of
the Oregon West Fitness Center,
formerly the B.J. Kelly’s
nightclub, fire officials said.
There were no injuries in the
blaze, but much of the building
was charred by the flames and
the entire structure was damag
ed by smoke and heat.
Estimated loss is about
$150,000, Eugene Fire Marshall
Dick Christensen said.
“That's just a guestimation at
this point in time,” he added.
The cause of the fire is still
under investigation. Nothing
indicates the fire was caused by
arson, although it has not been
ruled out, Christensen said.
Remodeling work on the
building was nearly completed,
and the fitness center was
scheduled to open for business
on Nov. 13. said Brian Vik, the
center’s managing director.
About 1,000 invitations were
due back from the printers to be
mailed this week for a “sneak
preview” wine and cheese par
ty on Sunday.
“It looks like it {the fire) will
probably set us back two or
three months,” Vik said.
The fire department sent six
trucks and a crew of 25 to the
site after receiving a call at 1:38
a.m. Monday, said Jim
Wechsler, a fire department
spokesperson. .
The fire, which began
upstairs in the building, was
declared under control at 2:44
a.m., Christensen said.
“It was a two-alarm fire. Nor
mally it’s just a one-alarm fire,
and if they think it’s getting
pretty dangerous they’ll send
out another group.” Wechsler
said.
Repairs will begin after debris
is completely cleared from the
building, possibly later today,
Christensen said. Air condition
ing units and timber will be
lifted out with a crane.
The property, which is in
sured by Great American In
surance Company of Portland,
will be appraised this week,
said Dick Wong, claims
manager for the company.
“Right now we’re in the pro
cess of finding out what we do
Photo by Michael Clapp
A two-alarm fire early Monday morning turned the newly-remodeled Oregon West Fitness Center
into a charred shell. Plans for repairs are already underway, but the center won’t open for another
two to three months.
cover, what policies we have
and the scope of damages,”
Wong said.
The builder’s risk-fire policy
is held by Tom Connor of
Eugene, who is co-owner of the
fitness center.
The remodeling plans for the
building had previously passed
approval by the Eugene Fire
Department and the building
commission, Christensen said.
Salvadorans resist intervention
By Thomas Henderson
Of the Kmerald
joining her wrists together to symbolize binding
the hands of intervention. Baptist minister Marta
Benevides spoke at the Law School Monday night on
the anguish of native El Salvadorans and the folly of
United States foreign policy.
Benevides told the audience that, regardless of
the outcome of today’s election, they must
“conspire” to end U.S. intervention in Central
America. Despite a sometimes negative connotation,
conspiracy is a word only “as dirty
as it ends,” she said.
In fact, she chided Americans
for their inability to plot. “How are
you going to conquer anyone?” she
asked. “You don’t conspire right.
“I have always conspired, but
that's because 1 love my country,”
she added.
Benevides was an adviser to Ar
chbishop Oscar Romero on the
Ecumenical Committee on
Humanitarian Concerns before he
was assassinated in 1980. She also
directed the ecumenical committee
that started the first refugee centers
inside El Salvador.
She is currently the U.S. coor
dinator for Medepaz, an ecumenical
organization providing technical
support for theological reflection
and economic survival. She also
represents the Unity Committee for
Salvadoran Women and the IJnitv
Committee of Salvadoran Trade Unionists, as well as
various committees of the National Council of
Churches.
Benevides studied in an American seminary,
thereby proving that she is not the product of some
communist indoctrination, she said.
She said that U.S. intervention in Central
America, particularly El Salvador, is characteristic of
the imperialism that has plagued the region
throughout its history.
From the Spaniards to the Americans, Benevides
said Central America has been exploited by foreign
powers with little regard for the region's self-interest.
The current struggle in El Salvador is a conflict bet
ween self-determination and external manipulation.
She likened El Salvador to a young adult needing
to leave home for independence. This does not mean
the child cannot maintain a close relationship with
his or her parents, she said, but that
individuals, like countries, must be
allowed to pursue their own lives.
Benevides applied a similar
metaphor to Nicaragua, saying its
faults should be viewed as those of
an infant learning to walk.
Nicaragua’s fledgling government
should be encouraged toward pro
gress rather than criticized for its
faults, she said.
Dismissing concerns of com
munist subversion in El Salvador,
Benevides said the oligarchic ruling
class, which owns 70 percent of the
country’s land and keeps the
Salvadoran people in poverty, is
much more an immediate threat
than any Soviet amibitions. “In El
Salvador, the last thing we’re wor
ried about is the Soviet Union, Cuba
or Nicaragua.’’
Benevides described the “liberation theology” of
churches in the Third World as a conversion of the
church by the people rather than the other way
around. Liberation theology, she said, puts the church
in its legitimate place as the servant of the people and
the champion of the oppressed.
Marta Benevides
i
Center criticizes
Wood’s pricetag
By Kirsten Bolin
Of the Emerald
The marketing techniques and promises of Evelyn
Wood’s Reading Dynamics course drew criticism from
the University’s Learning Resources Center when the
reading program began an ad campaign on campus in
October.
In a recent session of the course in Eugene, Evelyn
Wood’s employees exaggerated the results of their
course and unfairly discredited the Learning Resources
Center’s speed-reading program, says Dave Hubin,
director of the center.
When reached at their San Francisco offices,
Evelyn Wood employees would not comment on what
was said in their seminar. Evelyn Wood’s course costs
$400; the Learning Resources Center’s course costs $40.
Contrary to Evelyn Wood’s ads, all material is not
speed-readable, Hubin says. Learning when to speed
read and what material to speed-read is as important as
increasing speed, he says. Students respond to speed
reading training in individual ways, and because of this
it is impossible to guarantee a specific improvement for
anyone, though most students should comfortably be
able to double their speed, he says.
During the Evelyn Wood seminar, the speed
reading course offered through the Learning Resources
Center was erroneously reported as using rate-building
machines called tachistascopes, a speed-reading
method that has been thoroughly discredited.
These machines are not used at all during the train
ing sessions, Hubin says, and he attributes these reports
by Evelyn Wood's trainers to their need to convince
students that their program is worth an extra $360.
Commercial speed-reading companies like Evelyn
Wood’s also raise questions in the minds of students
about the caliber and qualifications of instructors at
University-run programs, Hubin says.
These questions are completely unfounded, says
Susan Lesyk, developer of LRC’s program.
“Our instructors for all of our courses have a
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