Oregon daily
emerald
Kicking
success
around
See Sidelines
Wednesday, May 15, 1985
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 86, Number 154
University’s enrollment
of minorities is ‘too low’
By Scott McFetridge
Of the Emerald
Although minority enrollment at the
University has increased slightly in the
last three years, programs must be
modified to ensure that more minority
students enroll at the University, a
higher education official said Tuesday.
There were six more black students
and 134 more Hispanic students enrolled
at the University in the fall of 1984 than
in the fall of 1982, but these numbers are
still too low, said James Payne, a student
services assistant for the state's higher
education system.
Blacks make up 1.8 percent of the state
population, but only 1.2 percent of the
state system enrollment. Hispanics ac
count for 3.3 percent of the state popula
tion, but only 1.2 percent of the state
system enrollment.
The state system needs to find out why
so few minority students are enrolled at
state institutions and reassess its minori
ty recruitment efforts, Payne said. The
schools need to personally contact
minority students and encourage them to
consider state schools, he said.
Wayne Nishimura, head of University
minority recruitment, agrees with Payne
that more should be done to attract
minority students, but he believes that,
considering the small funds available,
the Office of Admissions and Records
has done an admirable job of recruiting
minorities.
‘‘We are doing more with our money
than any other institution in the state
system.” Nishimura said. “I know they
aren’t recruiting as much as I am.”
Nishimura said he spends seven weeks
on the road every year recruiting
students and makes a point to visit high
schools with high minority enrollments.
He also spends two weeks in areas of Los
Angeles with a high minority popula
tion, Nishimura said.
The small number of minority
students at state institutions is an “in
dication of the lack of commitment by
the state in general towards implementa
tions” of more progressive programs,
Nishimura said.
David Sarju, director of the Black Stu
Photo by Dean Guernsey
In one effort to attract minority students to the University, history Professor
David Anthony addressed about 125 black high school students from around the
state Tuesday in the EMU.
dent Union, said the University is not
doing enough to enroll minority
students. Minority enrollment has drop
ped since the late 1960s when there was
pressure for greater civil rights, Sarju
said.
Blacks won’t want to attend the
University if there is only a small black
enrollment, Sarju said.
“A lot of black students want to leave
here because there are so few blacks and
no effort to change that,” Sarju said.
‘‘It’s going to take student effort to
change that movement.”
Sandinistas pose no threat to
U.S. security, minister says
By Paul Ertelt
Or the Emerald
The only threat the San
dinista government poses to
other nations is the “threat of a
good example,” a Nicaraguan
official said in 150 Geology
Tuesday night.
Francisco Campbell,
minister-counselor at the
Nicaraguan Embassy in
Washington, D.C., criticized
U.S. policy towards Nicaragua,
particularly the recently impos
ed trade embargo, and said that
his country posed no threat to
the United States.
But peasants in other Cen
tral American countries may
witness the social progress in
Nicaragua and seek to emulate
the Nicaraguan Revolution that
overthrew the Somoza govern
ment in 1979, Campbell said.
Campbell said his govern
ment has made a “profound
transformation” since that
revolution, bettering the lot of
the peasants through education,
agrarian reform and health im
provements. But the present
U.S. administration wants to
overthrow that government, he
said.
“We reject the assertion
that our effort to build a just
society is somehow a threat to
the security of the United States
of America,” he said. Campbell
said the United States needs to
respect the right of other na
tions to determine their own
form of government.
Campbell said the
Nicaraguan government is will
ing to resolve its differences
with the United States, but the
Reagan administration has not
cooperated.
“The U.S. administration
is not interested in a peaceful
resolution to the problems of
Central America,” he said.
“The administration is in
terested in a policy, in the
words of the president, ‘to make
the Sandinista government say
uncle.’ ”
Campbell cited the mining
of Nicaraguan harbors, the
breaking-off of talks between
the two countries and, most
recently, the trade embargo as
examples of that policy.
"The trade embargo is an
Francisco Campbell
act of war,” Campbell said. "It
is similar to the mining of the
Nicaraguan harbors. It is viola
tion of the U.N. charter; it is in
violation of the OAS charter; it
is violation of international
law.”
In the short run, the em
bargo will affect the private sec
tor most, he said, noting that 60
percent of Nicaragua's economy
and 75 percent of its industrial
capacity are in private hands.
Cattle ranchers and banana
growers, and to a lesser extent,
cotton and coffee producers
would feel the effects the most,
he said. But Campbell was con
fident that alternative markets
would be found as they were in
1982 when the United States
lowered the quota on
Nicaraguan sugar from 58,000
tons to 6,000 tons.
About 17 percent of
Nicaraguan exports went to the
United States before the em
bargo, down from about 50 per
cent before the revolution, he
said.
Although most of the au
dience appeared sympathetic
with Campbell and his message,
he was challenged by several of
the questioners in a discussion
period following his talk.
ASUO President Julie Davis
asked Campbell to comment on
the timing of Nicaraguan Presi
dent Daniel Ortega’s visit to the
Soviet Union, immediately after
Congress voted down aid to the
Contras. That visit has angered
many members of Congress who
had voted against the aid.
Campbell said the meeting
was scheduled earlier at the
funeral of Soviet President
Konstantin Chernenko.
Nicaragua follows a policy of
non-alignment, and Ortega
would be happy to meet with
President Reagan, too, he said.
"Why, if you say you
believe in political plurality, do
you censor the press?” one man
asked. Campbell said Nicaragua
is "under a state of national
emergency” and censorship
would end as soon as the coun
try’s civil war ends.
Campbell’s talk was spon
sored by the Council for Human
Rights in Latin America, ASUO
and others.
IFC debates override
of ASUO athletics veto
By Mary Lichtenwalner
Of the EmeraJd
The Incidental Fee Committee tabled a decision Tuesday
on whether or not the fate of the athletic department’s budget
should be sent to the state Board of Higher Education.
The IFC will hold until Monday a motion to override an
ASUO veto of the department’s 1985-86 allocated budget of
$773,009, giving the ASUO Executive a chance to negotiate a
different contract if necessary.
“The ASUO should have to make a decision if they don’t
come up with a ‘Plan B’ (renegotiations). They should decide
whether or not they want to take a chance with the state
board,” said Lori Lieberman, IFC member.
Assistant athletics director Chris Voelz said renegotiations
of the budget are impossible and did not deny her intentions
to “go over the IFC” if the committee does not override the
veto of the athletics budget.
If the IFC does not override the veto and Voelz refuses fur
ther negotiations with the ASUO, the budget could end up in
the state board’s hands.
ASUO Finance Coordinator John Dreeszen told the IFC that
the athletic department is “backing (the IFC) into a wall” by
refusing to negotiate further.
The IFC agreed to table the motion after discussion reveal
ed committee members’ disfavor of the override.
“The whole reason I would vote not to override the veto
would be to give (the ASUO) a shot at it,’’ Lieberman said.
The ASUO “seems to think they can give the AD less
money, not give up the ‘OO’ seating in Mac Court and not
raise ticket prices, which 1 think is impossible, but I’m will
ing to put some trust in that,” she said.
IFC member Adam Apalategui said he would not vote to
override the veto.
“I’m willing to take a chance with the state board. I don’t
know what the outcome will be, but (athletic funding) is too
much for the students to bear,” he said.
“The AD certainly believes they need more money;
however, I believe students are paying all they can.”
The department’s contract includes a provision converting
the “OO” student seating section of Mac Court into general
admission seats.
While referring to the ASUO Executive’s opposition to the
issue, Voelz said that if the seating had been filled at the
games this year, “I would have been a little more sensitive to
that issue.”
Dreeszen said that although the 4,000 student seats
available are never filled, the “OO” section is “the most
sought-after” area by students.
“That’s the first we’ve ever heard of it,” Voelz said.