editorial
University athletics
can ignore the IFC
ASUO President Julie Davis vetoed the athletic depart
ment’s fee allocation for 1985-86 on Friday. Davi$ is con
cerned that the Incidental Fee Committee gave too much to
the department and received little in return. (The depart
ment received an 8 percent increase totaling $50,000 in their
fee allocation, as well as 199 McArthur Court seats that had
been reserved for students.) Even if the IFC decides to
uphold Davis’ veto, the athletic department has little incen
tive to participate in a budget renegotiation.
Assistant athletics director Chris Voelz has already said
she will disregard the veto. Voelz’s statement is a perfect ex
ample of why students must have control of their incidental
fees. Currently students do not.
University students are allowed to set the incidental fee
through the IFC. The seven-member committee, which was
established in the early 1970s, conducts an annual budget
process to determine fee allocations. The committee sends
its budget recommendation to President Paul Olum, who
passes his recommendation to the State Board of Higher
Education.
The board ultimately determines the fee allocation at
the University, although it generally acquiesces to the
University president’s decision. The state board has vetoed
an IFC recommendation twice since the process began.
The most recent veto came in 1980 when the state board
agreed to grant the athletic department a 75 percent increase
in their fee allocation. The IFC had recommended an in
crease of 35 percent.
university /\uiieuc uireuiur 0111 joyiiie tuny awmc
that the state board ruled in favor of the department five
years ago. (John Caine was athletic director at the time.) His
unwillingness to renegotiate the department’s allocation
demonstrates his confidence that the board would again rule
in his favor in any funding controversy.
The present system gives the athletic department very
little incentive to respect any controversial IFC decision.
Past experience has shown that the state board and the
University president will support the athletic department
$ over thofrG in a budget controversy.
In order to remedy this situation, the student govern
ments at Oregon’s seven major universities have worked m
past years for the passage of state legislation that would give
students control over the fee process. But state legislators
have been reluctant to eliminate the state board’s control of
the process.
University administrators opposed legislation introduc
ed in 1981 because they feared that students would not
responsibly manage the fees. (At the same time, the athletic
department had a $300,000 budget deficit.)
As long as the state board controls incidental fees there
will be little incentive for the athletic department to respect
any final decision by the IFC. The overall IFC budget totals
more than $2 million and the athletic department receives
about 28 percent of this total.
Unlike tuition, students should have the final say on
their incidental fee assessment. The fee is intended to
enhance a university education. And it is intended to be in
dependent of the University administration’s control. It
belongs to the students, but students do not control it.
The incoming ASUO presidential administration
should set the groundwork for the introduction of legisla
tion, during the next legislative session, mandating student
control of the incidental fee.
It is high time that students control what is theirs. Until
such a bill passes the Legislature, Bill Byrne and his suc
cessors will continue to place IFC and ASUO recommenda
tions in low regard.
Oregon doily . _
emerald
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Violence
The Commentator (April 22)
carried a full page ad by the Col
lege Republican National Fund
soliciting money to support the
Contras. Why should we find
this so disturbing?
In the first place, the fellow
holding the machine gun in
tends to use your money to fur
ther his political ends through
violence. He means to kill peo
ple with your money. A dona
tion then would be a private act
of violence, making you a direct
accomplice to any killing he
does.
We believe that human life is
too sacred to be taken by private
individuals without due pro
cess of law. We should have no
more right to act as private in
dividuals to kill people outside
our country than to kill our
fellow citizens.
If violent action against
another country seems
necessary and just, then we
have the freedom to advocate
war. But direct financing goes
beyond mere advocacy.
Acts of war ought to be
reserved to Congress. Killing is
too serious a business to be
decided by people acting
privately, outside the
framework and safeguards of
the law.
Our Congress recently voted
against supporting this war. But
simply allowing private dona
tions could be construed as an
act of war.
A government is responsible
for the violent acts of its
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letters
citizens. If the Nicaraguan
government encouraged and
permitted its people to privately
finance kill squads to
assassinate citizens in our own
country, rest assured that we
would hold that government
accountable.
Surely we are equally ac
countable for our own citizens.
W. f. Holly
Philosophy Dept.
The best
As a part of the Black Arts
Festival. Hayward Coleman is
on the University campus.
Mr. Coleman is a mime, a per
former of internatonal reputa
tion; one European newspaper
calls him “the Nijinsky of
mime,” he has studied with —
and is highly respected by —
the French master Marcel
Marceau, and he is considered
to be as good as Marceau —
some say he’s better.
Mr. Coleman has performed
in the United States and
throughout Europe. He incor
porates many forms of dance
and Hatha Yoga, in his art.
He is one of the most impor
tant black artist/performers this
campus has been privileged to
see.
Hayward Coleman will be
giving a performance in the
Condon School gymnasium on
Thursday, May 16, at 8 p.m.
There is no admission charge.
This promises to be one of the
most exciting and fascinating
events at the University this
year; faculty, students and staff
should not miss this chance to
see something so unusual and
very, very special.
Michael Stamm
Graduate Secretary,
English Dept.
Show support
The EMU Cultural Forum has
once again decided to spend the
money allocated for its annual
Willamette Valley Folk Festival,
entirely upon performers from
out of state, paying nothing to
local artists.
The implication is, of course,
that local talent is second rate
and unable to draw a substantial
following, a charge that is
demonstrably untrue, as we
shall see.
The 18 or so local groups
selected for this year's festival
were chosen from a field of
nearly 70 entries, a fact that sug
gests rather high standards
for acceptance. Now, the
cultural forum is quite right to
bring in some national
headliners and pay them more
than lesser known groups; T
Bone Burnett, and the New
Songs group from Nicaragua are
excellent choices for the
festival, and I look forward to
hearing them.
But to bring in performers
whose songs and whose
presence speaks to our social
and political conscience while
at the same time providing
nothing for the artists in our
own community, is simply
hypocrisy.
Musicians do not expect to
get rich, but we would like a
token honorarium, however
symbolic, in recognition of ser
vices rendered.
As the old saying puts it, ‘if
you want to dance, you have to
pay the Piper.”
Students who pay for the
event through incidental fees,
and who find the cultural
forum’s policy unfair, are urged
to speak to or write the cultural
forum on this issue.
Support local music! Our sur
vival depends on your
patronage.
Barney Lindsley
Religious Studies
- .. ——*
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