Outdoor Celebrations!
See Special Supplement
Oregon daily
emerald
Thursday, May 16, 1985
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 86, Number 155
House passes
right-to-know
bill on waste
A bill designed to inform citizens about toxic
chemicals used in their communities was passed out of
the Oregon House on Wednesday, 54-5.
The so-called Community Right-to-Know Bill
(House Bill 2255) directs the state fire marshal to survey
Oregon industries to determine the types, quantities
and locations of toxic chemicals used in the state.
The survey would be distributed to the governor,
the state Legislature and local police and firefighters.
The information would also he available in public
libraries.
The survey, which would involve approximately
4800 Oregon industries, would cover 700 chemicals
that are listed as hazardous by the state Accident
Prevention Division.
The fire marshal also would compile an annual
report of all hazardous waste emergencies. The cost of
the survey and report, estimated at $470,000, would be
financed through a 1.5 percent increase in state fire in
surance taxes.
The bill is a “bold, farsighted approach to the toxic
waste problem in Oregon,” said Jon Stubenvoll, toxic
campaign coordinator for the Oregon State Public
Research Interest Group. OSP1RG was the main propo
nent of the legislation.
The original bill was modeled after similar legisla
tion in New York state. The bill now goes to the Senate.
Blowin ’ a horn
in celebration
ofMayfest ’85
Trumpet-player Dana Heitman, a
member of the University's Green
Garter Band, enjoyed Wednesday's
warm weather in the EMU Cour
tyard, when the band contributed
to the fun ofMayfest ’85.
Many other University
community members also frolicked
— listening to music, sampling
goodies from the ASUO Street
Faire, playing frisbee golf or simply
studying in the sunshine.
What's more, the forecast for to
day looks good, as Mayfest ’85 con
tinues with the street faire and lots
of entertainment, including a noon
gig in the EMU Courtyard with the
Ben Ferrell piano duet, followed by
the University Song and Dance
Troupe at 1 p.m. and a club sports
Tae Kwon Do demonstration at
1:30 p.m.
In addition, the Willamette
Valley Folk Festival gets underway
Friday afternoon on the EMU’s east
lawn, and continues through the
weekend.
Photo by Brian Erb
Only negotiation can alleviate
East-West tensions, says expert
By Thomas Henderson
Of the Kmerald
The United States and the Soviet
Union have several policy options in
dealing with the threat of nuclear
weapons, Prof. Kosta Tsipis of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
said Wednesday night.
Of these options, only negotiation has
a realistic chance of alleviating East
West tensions, he said.
Tsipis spoke in Room 150 Geology to
inaugurate the Distinguished Lec
tureship program of the University Arms
Kosta Tsipis
Control Forum, a group of University
faculty and staff organized to educate the
public on nuclear weapons issues.
Tsipis said if the world’s superpowers
are to deal effectively with the nuclear
dilemma, they must accept certain facts.
First of all, he said, nuclear weapons
are not going to go away. Though their
numbers may be decreased, the weapons
themselves are a fact of whatever re
mains of human existence. “Human be
ings cannot de-invent something,” he
said.
Secondly, East-West tensions are real
and substantial and cannot be lightly
dismissed from any consideration of
nuclear weapons issues, he said. Lastly,
the pragmatic benefits of relieving bi
polar hostilities are greater than those of
alleviating an unbridled arms race, he
said.
Tsipis outlined several policy options,
dismissing both total disarmament and
military victory as unrealistic.’ Military
victory is impossible with mutually
assured destruction but, in a nuclear-free
world, any small, aggressive state could
easily gain military superiority over the
rest of world, he said.
President Ronald Reagan’s “Star
Wars” proposal is absurd, said Tsipis,
because any defense against nuclear
weapons must be perfect, lest the enemy
overwhelm with superior numbers. Even
if such a system could be perfect, it
would still be too vulnerable to enemy
sabotage to be effective, he said.
Deterrence, the “balance of terror”
that supposedly keeps the superpowers
at bay, is also ineffective as a policy op
tion, he said, mainly because it has mov
ed beyond the matter of choice. “It has
become an avoidable situation rather
than an option,” he said.
Tsipis said the only effective strategy
is broad-based negotiation that goes
beyond self-serving squabbling over
numbers and strives to create a consen
sus on the need for peace and the
necessity to reduce destabilizing
weapons systems.
“We need the voice of life, not of
death, to speak up,” he said.
Tsipis, a native of Greece, came to the
United States in 1954 to study electrical
engineering and physics. He has a
bachelor's and master’s degree from
Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in high
energy particle physics from Columbia
University.
He joined the physics department at
M.I.T. in 1966. Since 1973, his research
has been devoted primarily to scientific
and technical questions involved in the
possible effects of nuclear war. He has
made frequent speeches on national
television and radio on the subject of war
and peace in the nuclear age.
Before Tsipis’ lecture. Aaron Novick, a
University biology professor and
founder of the Arms Control Forum, was
awarded the faculty group’s first Arms
Control Peace Award.
Hodel, others
honored with
alumni awards
Interior Secretary Donald Hodel and
foreign correspondent Bill Drozdiak will
be honored by the University Alumni
Association as outstanding alumni.
Hodel, a native of Portland and a 1960
graduate of the University law school,
will receive the Distinguished Alumni
Award. Hodel will attend a recognition
dinner Saturday at the Valley River
Center.
Drozdiak, currently on assignment in
Bonn, West Germany, for the
Washington Post, will receive the se
cond annual Outstanding Young Alum
nus award. Drozdiak received his
bachelor’s degree in political science
from the University in 1971.
Drozdiak was a guard on the Universi
ty basketball team during the 1968-71
seasons. He ranks 13th in career scoring
at Oregon, and, with a .835 average, has
the second highest free-throw record for
the Ducks.
The association will also honor Lane
County Circuit Judge Edwin Allen with
the first Lane County Distinguished
Alumni Award. Allen received a
psychology degree from the University
in 1946 and a law degree in 1949.
Douglas White, chair of Lane Com
munity College’s health occupations
department, will receive the group’s Past
President’s Award. White has served on
the association’s board of directors since
1979 and as its president since 1980.