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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 24, 1985)
specializing in current and designer fashions in natural fibers. Great Selection... Great Prices! 343-1312 11-6 Mon-Sat 12W/7 E. 13th 6 *ceKiof * DO Behind tow» Bookv The Pad West presents Tuesday - Thursday HOT DOG NITES all the hot dogs you can eat 2165 W. 11th, Eugene only 25« each *1.00 OFF Hamburgers and Cheeseburgers : at. The Pad West 2165 W. 11th, Eugene Expires July 8, 1985 1 THINK BIG! 24” X 36” COPIES AG’s opinion may threaten ‘liberal’ use of student fees Oregon Attorney General Have Frohnmayer recently issued an opinion that may have substantial consequences for some of the programs now fund ed through student incidental fees. The opinion recognizes many of the concerns raised in recent years by students who are unhappy with the traditional use of fee money to support liberal causes, and it may cause problems for those programs with off-campus advocacy rules. One consequence of the opi nion is the almost certain, even tual prohibition by the Oregon State Board of Higher Education of such ‘.'activities" as the fee supported litigation against state investment in South Africa. The AG strongly im plied that such activities are un constitutional as well as con trary to Oregon law regarding the use of state funds, and the OSBHE will likely respond quickly to this point. This is good, for while. I believe. aS do most students, that investment in the economy of South Africa is both morally wrong and economically short sighted. student fees are not meant to be used to mount legal challenges on general social issues The litigation should be continued, but the ASHO should pay for it from other sources. . . . For some reason, the opinion notes that public employees can’t engage in certain political activities during working hours, then comments offhand that students are not public employees. In.fact, many of the students who work for advocacy programs are paid with public, money, a fact of which the AG may be unaware; Former State Senator and cur rent Supreme Court justice Wallace Carson once reminded the chancellor's representative at a legislative hearing that in cidental fees are intended to serve the needs of students. The AG cited this comment, but the general tone of the opinion is that the OSBHE should begin to more strictly oversee the use of the money, or provide some clearer, tougher guidelines to institutional executives direc ting them to do so. Incidental fees are public funds, no matter how often stu dent leaders holler that "the money belongs to the students.” The ASUO leader ship ought to rapidly prepare some constructive suggestions regarding the inevitable new administrative rules, and I hope that they now recognize, after years of talk and little action, the need to rapidly develop in dependent revenue sources not under the control of the Hoard. I hope, too. that they will con vince the Oregon Student Lobby Board to refocus OSL energy on helping all of the state student associations to do the same. The opinion admits that the state has a right, indeed a historic obligation, to make its campuses places of lively discussion and activities of the sort that make students better informed and more complete citizens. However, the AG goes on to conclude that •'advocacy" activities such as lobbying and administrative taiput. while valuable on campus, acquire a taint of impropriety when taken, say. to Salem. Commentary The theory behind this ap proach is that benefit to par ticipants is not enough; then! must always be a sort of macro benefit. an osmotic exchange that can only happen when students are together on campus in a critical mass How is this concept to he ap plied. for example, to Hn in- . tramurals program? To a school like Portland State University that, for practical purposes, has no traditional campus? Why. should students on field placements or professional In terrtships pay the fee at all? There is a mom fundamental problem with this theory. The opinion seems to deny the cultural educational legitimacy of taking an idea from the “what if‘/stage into the actual push- and pull of practical politics.. What could be more important. to an . informed citizenry than how to do precisely this? Some students have com plained that only liberal groups „• get money to do advocacy. These groups, which haye always tried io Involve students, are now the ones threatened by the opinion. While it may be time that the In cidental Fee Committee has a predilection to make subjective wrongheaded ness the tost of fundability. conservative, students have not mounted any effort to get funds for organiza tions they support, except for the Oregon Commentator, an atypical program. Some students, including Bob Davis of the Commentator, believe that conservative students are simply not inclined to seek public funding to ad vance their vlewpints. Perhaps th« question of access lo student few money for conservative groups will become moot .is a consequence of the AC opinion, but unless the OSHHB substan tially restricts the activity of groups that exist to advocate off-campus on issues, the con servative students may ask for a slice of the pie. If they don’t ask. they shouldn't complain. The AC said specifically that the burden of persuasion is on the OS HI IK to show the legitimacy of funding programs that act off-campus "in pursuit of fixed ideological goals " In practice, this may mean that a group that advocates off campus on any issue may have |o do to great lengths to con vince not the IFX*. hut the ad; ministration and the Hoard, that the programs' one-sided ad vocacy is educationally sound as culturally beneficial In the absence of student-funded op*, position views, as part.of a stu-' dent activities program . This, will not work easily, well or for long If .the A Stl( j leadership digs in its herds and" refuses to recognise this emerg Ing' reality, conservative - students, legislators and coin: m u n ft y me m b e r.s m a y met hod k ally snuff out student • based advocacy as we know it.. No amount of .'pious assertions, that "we work in the.public in terest" or "If this hill passe*,-all students benefit,'’, will do any. good'. Hall game over The good liberals on campus will trot out in response to the AC opinion and to mine their ... usual responses, among which will be "we were fairly elected ; ‘ to represent the student view point on the issues yye ran oh So what? The. issue is not ^ ma|orftarianU.m. :• t he Constitution, upon‘the .. first Amendment to which rests part of the AC’s opinion; is in tended in part to protect minorities from coercion by.the majority, even when the majori ty is made up of good liberals. The AG concludes that such coercion includes the collection . of mandatory fees for certain types of advocacy groups = lobbying is sexy, but how will we lobby if the OS1. sud denly has no fee dollars., no alternate funding sources und no.useful grassroots network? ASlJO programs, too. have rare- . ty pursued substantial alternate funding because the IFC gives it away and President Qlum. doesn't Intervene. Both may change soon, due to external pressure. It's time to wake up. By Alan Contreras U of O STUDENTS Are you making yourself miserable to be thin? / Do you go on eating binges in which you lose control over how much you eat? ✓ Do you vomit, fast or abuse laxatives or diet pills to lose weight? If so, the U of O Student Counseling Center has summer openings available now for group or individual counseling. Groups will be led by Susan Moseley, a doctoral student experienced in treating eating disorders. Groups will begin July 2. 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