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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 18, 1985)
letters New service A very important breakthrough and service to students will be provided next term with the publication of course evaluations, thanks to the Student University Affairs Board (SUAB). Publication of these evalua tions in the course guide is an important step toward the com plete opening of student evalua tions to students. This is one of the best uses of incidental fees I have seen this year. I find it disturbing that while the University faculty and com munity advocate a free and open society, with regards to free speech, so many faculty members oppose the publica tion of scientifically gathered and statistically correct course evaluations. To address fan fin's (ODE, March 13) specific points: 1. Research at other univer sities has shown that students do not simply evaluate ‘‘easy” classes highly, nor do they flock to “easy” classes. 2. Students' opinion alone ■ may * not > be a good judge;' however, students currently re* ly.on-.the time schedule, advice,' from ’ academic--advisors *and • Hearsay froiiri'friends. None-of' • .'. "these are'a reliable source of in formation on-the Content of the •. • course, ‘quality"of the professor, . ' and"other subjective measures. - • 3". .Taking courses in which the. student knows what io ex-. .. pect and'has chosen the courses. ; based"on- mQte then hearsay would greatly-.improve any stu: dent's education. ' . '. *.• ■•• • •*.: 4; This 'pilo.t ;projeet is'only costing .students abqiit $180 total, for; evaluations, of- 20 • courses. Furthertnore," all of this money Is.from already allocated funds within. SUAB’s budget. Incidental fee’s, were not in creased.to pay for this.projbci. • ■T encourage- all students to take, "advantage., of . this' pilot . ■_. project.'. .. . .• : • .• • ; Adam Apalategui •. . (Concerned student Defamation 'I fear, that' the Oregon Com mentator's article. last month on ' campus" redbaiting" featuring Professor VVixman o.f the' ' geography department could have contributed to the recent suicide of Dr. Albert Syzmanski of the sociology department. This article, which featured an unsubstantiated and unrestrained attack on the motives and ethics of an un named Soviet expert clearly recognizable as Syzmanski, surely does not deserve to be called journalism. Syzmanski’s response in the current Com mentator speaks for itself. The pattern of unsubstan tiated public charges concern ing an individual’s political af filiation followed by personal tragedy for the accused was a common one in this country during the McCarthy period in the fifties. 1 hope that Dr. Syz manski is the last individual the Commentator chooses to defame. Students may wish to join me in gathering the 1,000 petition signatures needed to place on the next ASUO ballot a measure denying the Commentator any University funding until they win funding by popular ballot. Oregon Daily Emerald The petitions should be ready by spring term registration. One thousand signatures must be collected by April 8. Call me at 344-9077 if you want to help. Paul Ferguson Industrial Relations Tennis courts Your article on “Students Protest Tennis Court Changes” (ODE, March 8) pointed out that building this temporary parking lot was severe depravity of students rights. In addition to this, it’s also depravity of the tennis courts’ well-being. Building this parking lot is not only useless, it will also ruin perfectly functional tennis courts. In making parking tem porary, by the time they put the fences and nets back up, the pools of oil that the cars and trucks have dripped will be in all vicinities of the courts’ play ing surface. I've heard of sliding forehands, but this is ridiculous. Also, the weight of the cars will put pressure on the surface, creating hills and valleys" in the concrete that not only produce “bad bounces;”, but also pose a real health hazard. This is" not to mention •the car heels blemishing.out ;the baseband service ,lines! but "wtfy. have courts with tru.e . boundaries.;' who- keeps’ score, ’’anyway?’,... . • ; * ‘ - In’addition to" this, the’tennis, courts on 15th Avenue (the only. ’ other o.nes on campus),, are con tinually, Crowded,' with a long % 'waiting list,-during the’spring. Taking...away, the-Alder Street courts-will make available court - . time virtually non-existerit. • Instead of spending. $3.1,900 •on. a temporary- parking lot which is only-a short-term solu. tion • to’ a long-term problem: let’s, save oiir money .to give, it back to the students or look for a better solution, arid keep o.ui" tennis community ali.ve and well! ’ : Wade Judy Tennis Player ROTC issue In reply .to Mr. Hansen and •Mr. .HelBlin'g (ODE Marchr 14} of tbe ROTC: 1 did go to the ROTC program and "read every single piece, of . literature’,’ you distribute-.. I even looked at the ROTC history in the library. The Reserve Officer Training Corps is training entry-level officers. It’s in the name. I did not say, for the sources did not say, that the Army is not training cadets to operate in the upper ranks. I said, for that is what the source said, that the technical emphasis of the ROTC program is causing concern that the program may not be giving cadets the broad background re quired for advancement into the upper ranks. This is a concern of the Army's and not my own personal opinion. Mr. Hansen observes that the ‘‘literature does not require a mere vocabulary,” but presumably prepares students for life and for advancement in that field. Perhaps this is true of the ROTC program; in which case, the ROTC program is training soldiers for the business of the Army in combat. My belief that ROTC has a technical emphasis comes from reading that fact in almost every single source. 1 do not believe that dropping napalm on children, or in vading small countries, is what defends my right to write to a newspaper. I believe that the freedom of speech exists as it does in America because that is our tradition. The exercise of that freedom preserves that tradition, not the exercise of destructive powers of war. Shasta Hatter Eugene Open-minded Mr. Amos' letter (ODE, March 8) hit the nail right on the head. Most students on this campus are not staunch “liberals” and by the same token they are not staunch “conservatives” either. A lot of the students, I think, could be grouped as “moderates” or just plain prac tical, open-minded people. I believe those people are willing to listen to a speaker/group regardless of whether they agree with the speaker’s/group’s views or not. This was very evi dent at the Gorden Liddy lec ture. When a certain person yelled out thejr objection to one of Liddy’s points, it was met with some, favorable applause. On the other hand, when Liddy. .“reprimanded” that person for speaking, out before the ques . tion and answer session, his . remarks .to that person Were met; •with a . tremendous response. The' reason for this was because most of the' people who were •..present at that lecture were there with an open %nind and were'willing to listen to Liddy :as a person of knowledge about our government and one who has been a historical figure in > recent-years’ '. .As soon as those hecklers realize that the rest of the students, do.not respect them for .their blantant disregard for the ■ First "Amendment, and start relaying their viewsthrough the proper channels, the more respect'.; their causes will receive. Until these, groups realize this, students like myself will'continue to think that they are just trying to. keep something from us that might prove their cause wrong. ", Michael Magee .Business Vote no We need economic develop ment in Eugene to- benefit all our citizens, not just a few rich developers! The 6th and 7th Street widening project is a prime example of a government project that costs a lot of money, creates a big mess, and doesn’t help the people who really need it. By widening the streets, im proving the airport, and building industrial parks, the city and a few Chamber-of Commerce types plan to bring a lot of outside businesses to Eugene, especially high technology businesses. They say this industry is safe, clean, and will provide jobs for the unemployed. They don’t tell us that in San ta Clara County, California, home of “Silicon Valley,’’ there are 19 sites proposed for the En vironmental Protection Agency’s Superfund emergency clean-up list (more than in any other county in the nation). Most of these sites were created by the leakage of chemicals us ed in the manufacture of computers. They don’t admit most of the fancy, high-paying jobs in this industry will go to outsiders who will move here along with the companies. Voting “no” on measure 51 in the March 26 election will send a signal to the city bigwigs that they need to remake their plans, with genuine community participation. That’s why I’m voting against Measure 51, and I hope you’ll vote against it too. If you are going to be out of town on March 26, you can fill out an absentee ballot at Lane County Elections, 135 E. 6th Ave. Betsy Brown Eugene Nazi rise? All the recent notoriety about the Idaho Nazis, and related human trash, brings eerie shivers to my soul. If it wasn’t for the serious harm they do, they would be laughable buffoons. Although their numbers are now relatively small, do not underestimate the harm they may bring. During the early 1900s in Germany, the German people and the world regarded the Nazis with scorn and dis dain, even humor, for, at first, the Nazis were a small group of fanatics. By. the time those same people awoke to the thunder of a goose-stepping army mar ching by the windows and/or saw their doors kicked in by the jackboots of smartly-uniformed children of the swastika, it .was too late. And don’t forget, Hitler got plenty of support from U.S. citizens previous to World War n, as that scum began to froth on the surface of the stagnant cesspool of life, Now is the time to act Work for peace, and love for life. Tommy Walen Eugene No such luck Having attended the lecture by Gordon Liddy, I remain stun ned by the vacuity of the au dience Surely Eugene could do better than that! For instance, there was effec tively no audience response to Liddy's mention of Judge John Sirica, who presided over the Watergate trials. 1 was expec ting cheers for the distinguish ed jurist who brought Liddy and his criminal cohorts to justice for their attempts to undermine the American constitutional system. No such luck. Some of my younger fellow students, who perhaps don’t recall the pernicious plots which put Liddy in prison in the first place, tell me that this adulation of an anti-democratic thug is an indication of the “new conservatism” on cam pus. This strikes me as just the sort of muddle-headed misuse of language which Liddy himself decried. After all, the idea of supplanting legitimate constitutional procedures and open democratic debate with surreptitious police-state prac tices is the furthest thing from true conservatism, which Funk and Wagnall’s defines as “upholding the existing order and opposing premature in novation.” Liddy represents rather an extremely radical political perspective which would replace our cherished democratic institutions with an authoritarian, spy-infested state not noticeably distinguishable from a certain unnamed “evil empire.” Larry Taylor Linguistics Disinformation Gordon Liddy said many things with which I disagree when he spoke recently at the EMU. His evasion when asked about the connection between Operation Intercept, a mari juana interdiction operation in Mexico which cut deeply into the supply of pot coming into the United States, and Opera tion Red Horse, in short, the CIA conduit of heroin from Southeast Asia’s opium growing “Golden Triangle” at the same time, was to be ex pected. Not even a former member of the government can afford to admit that his employer was cutting off the supply of Mexican marijuana in order to facilitate the sale of heroin it was supplying from a country — Laos — against which it was waging an air war that killed tens, maybe hun dreds of thousands. But what really got to me, after he had finished evading my question, was something he said about winning. For Gordon Liddy to tell me that “If we had won the .Vietnam war, you wouldn’t be so bitter” is to imp ly that the U.S. could have “won” the war by anything less drastic than turning Vietnam and its immediate neighbors in to parking lots, and that doing so would have been somehow in the best interests of the U.S.A. . Gordon Liddy's four-fjgures a-night campaign of disinforma tion will not stop because of this letter; the curious will always vastly outnumber those with political axes to grind. But it is imperative that we do not har bor any • illusions about what manner of rogue Gordon Liddy is. William Homans Journalism Source of hope We mourn the death of a man whose presence among us was always a source of strength, hope, and commitment. A man who dedicated the ma jority of his life to the struggle against oppression, inequality, and injustice wherever he found it; both here and abroad. A man respected by friend and foe, for he had that rare ability to befriend even those with whom he disagreed. He was a man who spoke out openly against the unjust prac tices and institutions of this country; threatening many while inspiring others. A man who was as gentle and considerate inside as he was serious and determined on the outside. We mourn the death of A1 Szymanski. May his memory live as a source of strength for those who follow in his footsteps. Iranian Students Association Arab Students Club A proposal This is a simple proposal directed at our University’s ad ministration: 1 would like you to allow the student body to decide by plebescite whether or not it would like to have the Aider Street tennis courts con verted into a parking lot. If you reject this proposition, could you then please tell us publicly why you feel that democracy in this case is not appropriate? Mark Grant International Studies Page 3