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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1986)
Commentary_ Divestment task must continue Nine years have passed since students on this campus decided that their university would not invest in South Africa. Why so long? The April issue of Newsweek On (Campus briefly describes the history: "In 1977 students at the University of Oregon voted for the complete divestiture of $20 million in stocks with a South African connection. The state board of higher education agreed, but the Oregon Investment Council vetoed the decision — and the students sued.” Nino years the controversy has raged and our position has not changed. A state circuit court decided in December of 19B4 that divestment violates the prudent investor .rule. The fear that divestment would be a substantial cost does.not seem to conform to the reality. " ; Eighty-four school# across thecountry have at least partially removed their apaHheid cqnnnctn.d investments. Some, among them Cob umbia and Michigan.State, "saw the.rate of return on their portfolios increase after divestment.. . “ • Another "prudent investor" concern is. the safety of the; funds in question. The need for. diversification, in a portfolio "is Understandable,. However, one must wcSnder when, the basis for that diversity remains investment in-a. patently.' unstable political and economic system. The stucients have appealed arid the case now awaits decision by the' Court of Appeals/ • *. ,' WHy solong? 'We Have beemopposed pot on ly by the.courts°and the Oregon Investment Coun cil. biit alst;! by; some* .within bur .University' system. Even though.the Board of !Iighor Educe-, tion and our University President support us,0the Chancellor's office-has. restricted our.bbility to continue the suit. ' • . .. ". . * ■ **•. • * ■ * * •-*. They decided that student fees could not be used for political purposes — we cannot pay our lawyers! We are thus unable to either remove our , money to oppose-them. • ' * \ •' ,v" • V Why.so long? Perhaps .we .'should stop asking ourselves this question and. address, the. task'at hand. The Chancellor’s office must understand . that if w6 want to -use -our ;rnoney to tight for. divestment, then w'e have-a right to do so: ■ The Court of Appeals must know that we will. : npf be “silent. Judges read the newspapers,and they remember the. headlines when they decide” . - cases .Fort hem to hear us requ ires, a .conceded1 ef . fort. We’ must rally together and let them,know • that nine’years is' tod long FULL- DIVESTMENT % IS UDNG OVERDUE! • v . . • ’ .' , ' • » . i. .’ v ••/. ,. Chris Green ; ‘i < .•*. ‘ Eugene Free .South Africa Movement Name source If Christianity is truly what j Ronald Rousseve claims —. i.e.,° an "irrational faith" in a myth, then I agree with his conclusion we would be better off without it. In his letter,.-however.. Prof. Rousseve merely makes asser tions about his own.' point of view, labels rthem ‘'reality," and neatly dismisses all that doesn’t fit his owniworld view. I suggest that unless Prof. Rousiwve has some irrefutable source of verification for his opinions, then all he has done is say'Tm right because I think I am.” . /. ° -' The writers of the New Testa m o n I (I tit tt m as n t a u* n r n Support needed Till Monday, ‘ I had been fostering the dim hope the Emerald .is a comparatively, well-informed newspaper whose aim is to serve the in- ~ forests of the student communi- *• ty. Monday's article about the GTF rally on Friday, however, was definitely not a piece of joumalispi that enhanced the student's knowledge of what is really happening on campus. It is true Chancellor Davis told the crowd his office had contacted other schools. It does not correspond to the facts, however, that those schools are J •' • V • : r r. :»• 1 . also withholding taxes,on their GTFs‘. tuition waiters. So far, Ohio State is the only one that does. ‘ • GTFs generally, do no/ make StiOO.a month. $500 would be a. more adequate estimate. And this is- before any taxes are withhold. The current fax policy, hits foreigners (like *. myself) especially hard.-' ’ Chancellor Davis also saicl the University would not be as good as it is-now without .GTFs. d would'state this in-a somewhat more blunt manner: Without GTFs. this university would not be able to function at all. ". eyewitnesses of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. As shown by their writings and those who knew them, they all possessed a degree of moral character that would make exaggeration or falsification of their accounts of Christ's life and teachings un thinkable. The fact most died as martyrs rather than renounce their beliefs shows how they viewed the reality of what they wrote. The British scholar Brooke Foss Westcott said. "Taking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ. Nothing but the antecedent assumption that it must be false could have suggested the idea of deficiency in the proof of it." It has long been acknowledg ed that Christians' belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ enables them to "die well." I wonder if the same will be said of Ronald Rousseve’s beliefs and values. William Moore Music School WOME MI'eY SYMPOSIUM --... 1 I CREATIVITY J I have heard the standard of American universities is not the highest in the world. If you can not make up your mind to pay foreign GTFs a salary they can live on, the standard of Americans’ proficiency in foreign languages is not going to improve. If GTFs in general are forced to work besides their lob at the University, the quality of teaching is going to deteriorate. fedwig Fraunhofer GTF, Comparative Literature , Quite creative I found the Emerald editorial on student activism to be quite, er, creative:-• ‘ . What, may ' I ask-, K ever,' possessed .you- to include ; the.... Gommehtatqr.in an editorial commendiiig. the -nationwide ituderiC c a hi p a i g n> *f-o r. divestineht?. . .. ‘ ‘ V:/ Please, don’t'” insult -pur .' intelligence'; ’ ’ .; ’ • ' v->- '.-"V;.;' , : . , . • Roscoe Caron, • •r. ' 1 >.! -Education'.''; ° Regain interest lets hear itfbr.’thenewASUO: administration! What?. Where'is all the applause for the-yvin ners?'You mean only, seven per cent of the eligible voters voted for Steve Nelson and Gaitlin . Cameron? f *?? .. . ...-TTiisfletter a .plea tothestu-., dent government "toraise stu- ;' dent awareness.!, ! have* been at. . the University for three year?' ./.And * to. my1!, know ledge, voter'., turnout has not been.any better in any of those yeans. .Could, it . be students . don’t care, what their student government does,* ’ because as far as the students know, the government does lit tle fo affect their lives here at .''the University. • ‘ It is apparent to me that students don’t vote because they don’t care who gets elected. 1 believe this is because , the current, party in power has spent too much time fighting among themselves and expen ding effort and money on things the student body see as unim portant or irrelevant to them. 1 think the newly elected ASUO government must remember why they were elected, to serve the students and the university, not just to use their office as an extension of their political and moral views. You’re losing the students’ interest and you have to fight an uphill battle to get it back. Steve and Caitlin, I wish you the best of luck in 1986-87/. You'll need it considering you have to govern a student body in which 93 percent either don’t agree with you or don’t care what you do. Michael E. Magee Management, Finance Sexist also In response to Leah Juniper -and Judy C. Finch and other.les- • bians on.campus. I believe a few .'attitudes need tohe discussed..'• ’ *. • I' am just what Leah and Judy would Consider .'a v “white;' Heterosexualablerbodied‘riqh . kid^’I.on the other hand;.wprk yfeiry.-harti at realizing and trying to- change my: sexist .^attitudes ■ builtjhroiigh my upbringing. 1; also have, absolutely nothing against any gays or lesbians, but have become alarmed when my attempts-.to socially interact with', these people (especially lesbians) have often been cut off because 1’m'white and rich (and obviously staunchly sexist).: 1 * • ° *» • . 0 ‘ Although sexism and racism have ^prevailed throughout the white populajions of the w.orld; • • /implying.that, l.pr any other. ; ' white*” male{are not^worth deal '. ihg with.v without' actually get ting* to know” Qs,".is’also sexist: .Judging others by their physical being •: or mental attributes is , wrong.in any. sense!•; °. . , \\ ' People are people arid should try to work together to solve the problems of sexism, racism and other judgmental abuses. These problems are not a one-way street, and alienating any group only hinders the - path toward the equality of everyone, v There are \ certain groups where this approach might be , useless. South Africa, for exam ple/ But many .of these ' ‘white... rich kids’’ just might be more reasonable than many lesbians might think. Thomas Jacobs Biology Thursday, May 1: Film Festival 8:00 p.m. 167 EMU; Shorts plus an Australian Film “On Guard” Friday, May 2: Evening of Literature 4:00 p.m. EMU Forum; Panel of Writers 8:00 p.m. 167 EMU; June Jorden, reception following Saturday, May 3: Explore the Art: 11:00-11:50 Women in Arts: Past and Present Slide Show; 177 Lawrence 12:00-1:15 Panel: Women in Art; 177 Lawrence 1:20-2:00 Art Therapy: Creativity; 177 Lawrence 2:00-4:00 Afternoon gig with “Righteous Mothers”, (co-sponsored with Cultural Forum); EMU Courtyard 4:00 p.m. Women and the Recording Business - Melissa Howden; EMU Forum 5:00 p.m. Women in Theatre Panel; EMU Forum 8:00 p.m.g of Drama and Dance Improv; EMU Forum Sunday, May 4: Alternatives 1:00 p.m. Big Mountain Support Group Slide Show; EMU Forum 2:00 p.m. “Women in Nicaragua: After the Revolution” Film; EMU Forum 4:00 p.m. Women’s Diverse Spirituality; EMU Forum 6:00 p.m. Closing Ceremony; EMU Forum For more information, call ASUO at 686-3724 /