Oregon Daily
Emerald
What’s that noise?
See Page 8A
Wodnosday, November 13. 1985
Eugene, Oregon
volume o/, iNuinuci
Catchin’ rays
There’s just something about the sun that forces
people to sit outside, even on a day when freezing
temperatures accompany clear skies. Just ask Jan Luc
who bundled up and braved the cold /ust to bask in
Tuesday’s glorious burst of rays while he ate lunch.
The cool, crisp days are only expected to last
through today, however, with highs reaching the mid
40s. The weather service says rain is coming back on
Thursday.
Photo by Steven Wall
AIDS worries contribute to
homosexual discrimination
By Diana Elliott
Of Ibm Kmurald
In Houston last month,
mayoral candidate Louie Welch
exclaimed on live TV that a way
to stop AIDS would be to “shoot
the queers."
In Nebraska, the Lincoln Na
tional Life Insurance Co. has
decided to more closely ques
tion unmarried men between
the ages of 20-44 in New York
City. San Francisco, Los
Angeles. Miami. Newark and
Houston, all of which have high
numbers of AIDS victims.
Over the summer. U.S. Kep.
William Dannemeyer, R-Calif.,
hired anti-gay activist Paul
Cameron to act as an AIDS con
sultant at taxpayer’s expense
Cameron suggested that
homosexuals be quarantined.
Discrimination tojvard
homosexuals, which has inten
sified during the past year due
to a worldwide AIDS scare, has
not been contained within large
cities that have high homosex
ual populations.
In fact, discrimination against
homosexuals has increased
dramatically in Eugene, which
is considered to be a tolerant ci
ty, according to Jim Shoemaker,
Shoemaker says.
"A lot of callers say, ‘I hope
you all get AIDS and die,
Shoemaker says. “That kind of
thing used to bother me, but not
___ /I
Courtesy Graphic
co-director of the Gay and Les
bian Alliance at the University.
Shoemaker says that in
cidents of discrimination
against the gay and lesbian
population have always been
common but have become even
more prevalent within the past
several years, concurrent with
the AIDS epidemic.
For example, whereas GALA
has always received frequent
crank calls from people who
make derogatory comments and
then hang up. recently the calls
have made references to AIDS.
anymore. Maybe I’ve become
seasoned.”
While the crank phone calls
are always annoying, they
aren't as humiliating as an inci
dent that happened in July,
Shoemaker says. A Texaco sta
tion on River Road disDlaved a
sign that read: “GAY: Got AIDS
yet?”
When Shoemaker called the
station, the employee whom he
talked to thought it was funny
and refused to take it down.
Continued on Page 3A
Salvadoran student leader
seeks University's support
By Mary Lichtenwalner
Of the Kmereld
Bombed-out buildings, rooms without
walls and broken and stolen materials don’t
make for a healthy educational atmosphere.
Students at the University of El Salvador are
making do with such provisions, but it isn’t
easy — support is needed, said Salvadoran stu
dent Rodolfo Rosales.
Rosales spoke through an interpreter at a
luncheon held at the Black Angus Restaurant
Tuesday to discuss plans for an exchange pro
gram initiated by the ASUO between UES and
the University of Oregon.
Rosales, vice president of the General
Association of Salvadoran University
Students, visited the area with Antonio
Quezada, president of the student organiza
tion. Quezada, however, was unable to attend
the luncheon due to illness. Rosales said.
Rosales also presented a slide show Tuesday
evening. . _ . ,
Fast visitors to the University from Central
America have shown strong committment to
higher education and the role it plays in
developing that region. University President
Paul Olum said at the luncheon.
Olum said that the students from the UES
showed that dedication.
Rosales said that although the Salvadoran
university’s job is committment to its people,
the government has made it difficult for the
university to stick to that role.
' ‘The government has accused it of being a
terrorist and subversive institution,” he said.
The UES was closed after a major attack by
the Salvadoran Armed Forces in 1980, which
left 60 students and faculty dead, while 40
people were reported missing. The rector ot
the university, Feliz Antonio Ulloa, was later
assassinated.
Rosales estimated the damage to the
university at more than $25 million.
The university reopened in May 1984, but
life there is still unsettled. Rosales said. Ar
rests, disappearances and assassinations oi
University personnel are common. Rosales
and Quezada appeared on a “hit list ’ publish
ed in July by the Secret Anti-Communist Ar
my, a death squad.
The meeting Tuesday was a step toward
an actual exchange between the universities
that may develop into a sister university rela
tionship, exchanging materials, students and
faculty. So far. it’s symbolic, but it may
develop into an actual exchange, said Margie
Boyd, ASUO program coordinator.
To become a legal exchange, the sister
university resolution passed by the ASUO
must also be passed by the Student Senate, the
University Senate and the University
Assembly, then Olum must approve it.
A microscope and four solar calculators
were donated by the ASUO at the luncheon to
the university. Boyd said the donation is to be
used as an example for other University
departments to start giving.
The exchange can provide two types of
faculty and student interchanges. Rosales said.
One would be a technical exchange of pro
fessors; the other would allow anyone in the
University community to visit and see what is
happening, he said.
American students visiting UES would
not be threatened like the Salvadoran students
are because of the Salvadorans’ dependence on
Americans, Rosales said. Therefore, the
military and the death squads take care that
they don’t harm Americans.
"The function of the university has only
been possible because of the sacrifice of the
Salvadoran families and the support from
foreign universities who are supporting to de
fend our right to education,” Rosales said.
The answer to the terrorist problem is aid
through sister university relations, he said.
Rosales said students can become involv
ed by writing letters to their representatives in
Congress, and by promoting the idea of becom
ing a sister university with UES.