Editorial
ASUO should push
escort plan ahead
Requests for nightly escorts surged by about 140 percent
last term, but the University has yet to see the ASUO’s pro
posed shuttle van service. The increase in escort requests
should prod the student administration to move the plan
from the drawing board to the streets.
Student requests to the Office of Public Safety, which
operates its own service in addition to the Lambda Chi
Alpha fraternity’s walking escort service, jumped from an
average of 35 per night to 85. To try to accommodate the ad
ded demand, the office recently replaced its door-to-door
service with a shuttle that makes hourly rounds. The system
is less convenient for students, but the office appears to be
making the best of a bad situation.
The ASUO-sponsored shuttle service has been the
crown of the current administration’s proposed fight to stop
violence against women since Lynn Pinckney and John
Dreeszen campaigned for their respective offices of ASUO
president and vice president last April. The proposed
system was spotlighted in October when the project’s com
mittee announced plans to implement a women-only
system, which would bar men from using or participating in
the service.
The plan’s committee, composed of members from the
ASUO administration, the Creek system, the Rape Crisis
Network and the Women’s Referral and Resource Service, is
divided into two subcommittees. ASUO University Affairs
Coordinator Ray Veillet heads the subcommittee responsible
for obtaining program funding. ASUO State Affairs Coor
dinator Debra Kester chairs the subcommittee responsible
for mapping out the program itself.
Initiating an escort service is not easy. I ne committee
must obtain vehicles and liability insurance. It must deter
mine the route, secure funding, determine administrative
policies and obtain security clearances for proposed drivers
from the Public Safety Office.
But even though the program's committee appears to be
sincere about providing the service, it has not pursued im
plementation vigorously In the seven month’s since Pin
ckney and Dreeszen announced they would instigate the
plan, the project’s committee has failed to raise a single pen
ny. It does not know where vans will be obtained. It has not
settled on a final route. And those at the forefront of the pro
gram’s planning, Kester and Veillet, seem confused about
program details.
Kester blames the plan’s stalled introduction on a lack
of funds. She said if the committee had the funds in hand,
the program would be off the ground within two weeks. As
it is, the program will begin operation by the end of this
term, she said.
Veillet said the committee won't request funds until a
comprehensive package can be presented. He does not know
where funds will be obtained. He set the operation date at
somewhere between the end of this term and the middle of
spring term.
It is interesting to note that it took Lambda Chi Alpha
only one week to implement its service following the final
decision to provide it. A walking escort service requires less
planning than a shuttle service, but the exceptionally short
time span demonstrates what determination can
accomplish.
The ASUO shuttle van service would be a welcome ad
dition to the University. Campus Security has offered to
discontinue its service and focus on other areas of operation
if the ASUO’s shuttle service can adequately meet demand.
The ASUO should step up efforts to deliver the system it
promised.
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Commentary
Germany's
mirror future for U.S. forests
Every weekend, an average of
50,000 people stroll through the
forest outside of Stuttgart. West
Germany. As they walk, they
are confronted with yard-high
white crosses painted on dead
and dying trees.
The cause of this forest's ail
ment, German scientists
believe, is air pollution
deposited directly on the trees
by fog. mist, rain or dry par
ticles. or absorbed through the
soil — or a combination of these
factors. Nationwide, the effect
of this pollution, coupled with
insect infestation and other
natural forces to which the ail
ment trees are doubly
vulnerable, is ominous.
•By November 1984. 50 per
cent of Germany’s forests show
ed some degree of stress and il
lness. ranging from premature
leaf loss to standing dead;
•In the Black Forest of the
Southeast, where the first signs
of tree damage were seen in
1970. the proportion of “nearly
dead” trees went from 11 to 25
percent in two years; and.
•In the Fichtelgebirge Forest,
a remote area stretching over
the border of Czechoslovakia
and East and West Germany, the
damage level has reached 79
percent. , •.
last November. °thd. German
Marshall Fund'°bf the. United
States organized a tour*of Ger- .
many's forests so that' U.S.
forest company executives,
Congressional .aides and en
vironmentalists could see first-’,
hand what is happening in the #
Federal Republic. The tour par- •.
ticipants met ‘scientists,
foresters, private citizens' and
government officials ' involved
in the increasingly frantic race
to diagnose the cause „of (Ger
many’s dying forests and
recommend solutions before
time runs out.
What are the implications
for the United States? The
Director of the German go.vern-0
ment's Air Pollution Research
Program believes that forest ,
stress “is not only a Germany
problem any.-.‘more” Citing
forest problems .-in New
England, the Rocky Mountains, _
Central Europe and. southern
Sweden, he contends that
“forest stress is a problem of the
Northern Hemisphere." Indeed,
high-elevation forests . in the
North and Southeast of the
United States are decreasing in
vitality, and in some instances,
dying.
Yet, it has been known for
over a century that air pollution
causes vegetative damage An
English scientist noted this in
1852, and decades later the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) corroborated it
with research showing crop
damage from air pollution.
The current scientific
debate, therefore, centers on
which pollutant or pollutants
contribute to forest stress. Dr.
Peter Schuett, professor of
forest botany at the University
of Munich, believes that “it is
difficult to look for the answer
in a single (air pollution) com
ponent.” The question, then, is
first, which of the many air
pollutants are the principal con
tributors to forest death, and se
cond, do these pollutants act
alone" or In" combination with;
/one another? » f'
/ .In* an effort' to find the--'
.elusive aftswers, .Congressman •
Jim Weaver,' D-Cke.. held *hea*r*.
ings on July 17’bnthiaeffecisof,
air pollution on;:fore,st--.
ecosystem* Representatives'
from the'£PA,°4h'e U.Sf forest Tn:
. dusiry.'and-the sclentifid-and eh-,
viroiimental. communities' ;
testified- *on both /the issue ; at:
hand’ana'Weayer’s bill
2983 »t- authorizing a’ lQ-yoar.'."
rtiseiirch' program ' within" the" .
0‘U S..forest'Service.*
Meanwhile, the 0,S.\ forest .
industry ' is , investing ,$j.3o
million this year into resear
ching the effects of air'pollution.*- •
on forest health. As the Naticinal •
Forest Products Association and'
the American Paper Institute
said at Congressman We«v«F'® •
hearing,. ",. .our business, like
no one else's, depends on rnaln-:'^
taining the health of America's
forests.’' But it will be what,
scientists find and Congfoas .'
does that will in large part ;
determine the health «of U.S. ,
forests.
However, the time, for. fin- .
ding the answers to Our quo*-;
tions is now. West Cermarty's
experience has proven this with
the increase from eight percent
of its forests damaged in 1982,
to 34 percent in 1983, to 50 per
cent damaged in 1984.
indeed, as he stood among
his sick troes last winter, a
forester in West Germany's
Black Forest captured the sense
of urgency that we may soon
hear in our country: "Wo can
research as much as we want,
but the forest will die if nothing
is done."
By Beth Millemann
Beth Millemann is an en
vironmentalist who recently
toured German forests as part of
a German Marshall Fund
project.