Crew maintains campus beauty
Keeping the summertime grass green
Mxrto by Kara* SUHwood
Palanuk. a maintenance worker from the Look
Glass Program, strives to keep University
lush and green.
By Fr*Ie de Guzman
Of III* CawraM
Maintaining green lawns so University students
can sunbathe between classes and pruning trees that
provide shade from Eugene’s summer heat are some of
the campus maintenance crew’s duties, says Ted King,
landscape maintenance supervisor.
Twenty-two workers, nine full-time and 13
students, are employed to maintain the well-kept ap
pearance of the University grounds during the summer.
The Looking Glass Program, a federally funded pro
gram that aids the mentally disabled..provides addi
tional summer help, bringing the total number of
workers to 30. King says.
The number of workers decreases to 11 full-time
and three student workers during the regular academic
year because of a drop in necessary maintenance. King
adds.
In the summertime the workload is substantially
higher because the lawns require greater watering and
more care. And maintenance workers also must clean
and do repairs in all the vacant dormitory rooms.
The |ob of the maintenance crew is wide and
varied. Workers do everything from trimming and
weeding lawns to digging trenches, planting trees and
setting lawn sprinklers. They also pick up litter. King
says.
All this costs the University $282,000 a year,
which covers employee salaries, supplies and
maintenance equipment Because of budget cuts, fun
ding has stayed constant for the past several years, he
adds.
Yet despite cut backs, gradual improvements are
being made in the campus environment. Workers are
playing more of an active role in the maintenance of
tree life by replacing stumps and dead trees with young
trees that have been donated to the University by com-.
munity members. King says.
"It’s a beautiful campus and the crew members
have a strong interest In actively maintaining the
grounds," King says.
One way the University has attempted to combat
the effects of fewer workers has been to invest in better
equipment that is making the job easier and more effi
cient. Some underground sprinklers and advanced
machinery, such as power mowers and electric shears,
have been implemented, says Harold Babcock, physical
plant director.
Workers appear to welcome the replacement of old
equipment with more modernized machinery. Babcock
adds.
"Any new change that makes the Job easier. I’m all
for." says Craig Swelling, an architecture major who
has worked with campus maintenance for one year. ^
The grounds of the University are maintained not
just for aesthetic reasons, but for a functional purpose .
as well, says Ted Burns, assistant director for services.
"It’s nice to go out and relax on cool, grown lawns .
and know that somebody cares about the way it looks?'
Burns says.
And he believes that a well-maintained campus at
tracts more people here and-thus makes people more
willing tq lupjxHt ths Univmity through donationi. .
■The University grounds are maintained to adhere,
to Oregon's "grown" image and for its historical vajue. . „
says Hana Lae. a graduate student in landscape ar-'
chitecturo who has Worked with campus maintenance .. •
for one and a half years.
"People want to see the lush, green environmental
image of Oregon reflected at the University." ’/Lee says.
"Some appreciate the University’s history.and want to • . .*
see the older sections maintained as a connection bet
ween the past and the future." • _ %
And Lee does not mind doing the herd work ‘ ,
necessary to keep the groundsTush. ' .
"Working outside gives .you the Opportunity to get .* •
away from the closed indoor feeling." Lee says. " Also; s- —
the hard work makes you feel good."’; *
. . . * * * • * •
u—o
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
‘Bevond Thunderdome ’ is adventurous fun
“A lone warrior searching for
his destiny, ” the lobby poster
read, seeming to allude to an
epic plot. My imagination
echoed Charlton Heston, John
Boorman movies and “The
Seven Samurai" by Akira
Kurosawa. “A tribe of lost
children waiting for a hero"
(Steven Spielberg, eat your
heart out) "In a world battling
to survive, they face a woman
determined to rule" Heavy
stuff, I thought to myself. Then
came the punch: “Hold out for
Mad Max. This is his greatest
adventure."
Wait a minute. Mad Max?
The Road Warrior? I'm about as
fond of those movies its I am of
the Cannonball Run series.
Then again, there was
something different about this
one it seemed. Sure, there was
going to be the typical high
speed race of death through the
desert; it wouldn’t be Mad Max
without it. And yeah, it pro
bably would have the random
repertoire of odd, inane,
wordless post-holocaust punk
folk whose main purpose is to
show off the neat hardware of
the savage land.
Still, there was a feeling of
substance to this one. Tina
Turner was too shrewd a per
former to wander through a car
chase. And Mel Gibson has ad
vanced too far in his career to
grimly leer, sneer and yell his
way in and out of brawls and
freaky crowds. My hard-earned
respect for both of them, along
with the security of a second
director to share the chores of
filmmaker George Miller, told
me to take the chance. “Mad
Max: Beyond Thunderdome ’
was well worth that chance.
Clearly. Max's world hasn't
changed much since “The Road
Warrior,” but I was pleasantly
surprised to find that Miller and
his co-hort. George Ogilvie.
have developed it more,
fleshing it out to create an en
tirely new and different culture,
a whole new mythology.
It is a visual feast; the gags
and strange structures work
well, placing the audience right
in the middle of the brave new
society Max calls home. There
is the dive-bombing airplane
pilot from the last installment.
There is a hilarious multi
levelled fuel refinery (I use the
term loosely). There is Master
Blaster, a huge human wrecking
machine, complete with a con
trolling driver harnessed in a
cage on his back. There is Tina
Turner as the street-smart
nobody who became a
somebody named Auntie
Entity.
And, as Entity throws open
her arms (“Welcome to the
latest edition of Thunder
dome”), viewers are treated to
one of the most bizarre arena
combats in film history. The
participants must leap and fly
about the interior of a dome
framework, suspended by flexi
ble cords, which they use to
reach various weapons secured
about the dome.
Needless to say. Max escapes
the danger of Thunderdome.
which isn't giving anything
away since it happens too soon
in the film to generate suspense.
If Max really wasn't going to
make it, it would be a short
movie indeed.
Max finds a tribe of lost
children, leads them out of their
lush, green paradise and into
his rugged world.
Again, to do otherwise and
remain in paradise would
deprive Max and the viewer the
excitement of hit violent, often
nihilistic environment. There
are at least three very solid
stories running in and out of
“Beyond Thunderdome," but
they are so disjointed, and
episodic that there is an in
advertent denial to explore any
one of them. Instead, the action
packed race formats pull the
plots along, and the audience is
resolved to be carried along
with it. .
Perhaps it's for the best that I
stopped trying to find some
kind of coherent, unifying
meaning to the continuous sub
plotting of Miller and co-writer
Terry Hayes' screenplay.
Perhaps, as my former room
mate, suggested. the point of it
all U that.it's absurd to think
about the meaning of anything
in a post-holocaust worid So
you keep moving, unless you
want to go north and play • •
"Quintet” with a few paranoid
existentialists.
"Beyond Thunderdome” is
high adventure at some, of its
unpretentious best; it's fun to
watch, it's simple to follow, and . .
it's less expensive'than pizza
and boer.
You can see it at. the Valley
River Twin and Springfield
cinemas.
By )ohn Bock ..'
.... ...; i ’
Oregon ooiiy
emerald
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