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Oregon Daily
Emerald
Thursday, May H. l?»8f>
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 87, Number 148
Packwood committee approves tax exemption
Congress will vote on GTFs’ tuition waiver
By Chris Norred
<M ll»«* Knw*r«M
After three weeks of heated controver
sy over graduate, teaching fellows' tui
tion waiver tax; the Senate l-inuncHtaim
mittee approved a tax bill this week that
reinstates the exemption of tuition
Wafydft'fjrbm taxation - '
The provision reinstating the exemp
tion will closely resemble the exemption
that expired January f| an aide to Sen
Huh Back wood. R-Ore. said, Pack wood is
chairman of the Finance Comrhittoe and
chief author of the tax hill,
Hut Bill Lemman, vice chancellor of
the Oregon State System of Higher
Hducalioh. said he and his staff are
discussing "whether to continue
withholding taxes on tuition waivers
from dTFs* paychecks.
If passed and signed into law. the tax
exemption would la; retroactive to
lanuary . but enactment of the law cannot
be expected until this summer.
"Nothing has happened yet," lamiman
r
said, referring to.the political process
awaiting the bill before* it will become
law, .■
“We have to decide,'based on that set
<»f facts, ‘ whether it’s proper or ap
propriate to continue withholding.'’
I-omman said. Me did not speculate on
what the eventual decision might Ihc
The State System began withholding
the tax in mid-April to comply with the
l|.IS lax Code. The section of the code
that made tuition waivers tax exempt ex
pired (anuary 1 this year
University (|TFs claimed that the deci
sion to begin withholding the tax was a
mistake and that other states were not
withholding it while awaiting Congres
sional action to reinstate the exemption.
Lamman said Oregon's decision to
withhold the tax and the ensuing con
troversy that was brought to Packwood's
attention may have been partially
responsible for the reinstatement of the
exemption.
Huf someCTFs believe I^mman is try
ing to take undue credit for the exemp
tion's reinstatement.
"The (OSSHK) administration has
wanted to believe that (the exemption
reinstatement) was not going to hap
pen,” said Chuck Hunt, president of the
CTF Federation union local.
"We have been guaranteed (by
Packwood s office) for months that their
position was in support of reinstatement
of the exemption." he added.
bemman and his staff contacted
Pack wood’s office before deciding to
withhold the lax and were told that
Packwood was aware of the problem and
that it would be considered by the
Finance Committee in due course, lam
ina n said.
An aide at Packwood's office said
there was no way to predict the Finance
Committee's dec ision on the exemption
Chuck Hunt
provision, but Packwood expressed con
fidence that the tuition waiver provision
would be passed as part of the House and
Senate tax bills.
IFC cuts Commentator’s funding by one-quarter
Rob Young
By Stan Nelson
Iff I hr Knwrald
The Incidental Fee Committee on
Wednesday voted to appropriate $4.7:19
for the Oregon Commentator for the up
coming year, ending a twn-and a-half
month battle over its means of funding.
The 1FC originally recommended
placing funding for the Commentator on
the general election ballot February 18.
hut the Constitution Court ruled that it
could not be placed on the ballot against
its will.
Representatives of the Commentator
had requested $8,300. the same amount
the paper received last year, with the
provision that a refundable subscription
lie given to students who do not wish to
mad the paper.
"We fulfill our rol« on campus.” said
Commentator production editor Rob
Young. "Our very existence is setting a
precedent.” The paper serves a vital
purpose in discussing issues not ad
dressed in other publications, he added.
A motion to fund the Commentator
for $0,050 failed by a 2-.'t vote.
The ASUO recommended that the
Commentator be funded for $3,428 for
the 1980-87 school year. The lesser
amount was partially because the Com
mentator is not an Affirmative Action
employer, said ASUO assistant finance
coordinator Mary Kay Menard.
Excessive student criticism of the
publication was also a consideration in
the funding decision. The Commentator
has received 10 times the number of stu
dent complaints that all other student
organizations combined have received.
IPG chairman james Randall said.
But if the paper did not receive
criticism, it would not be doing its job,
Commentator executive editor Thomas
Mann said. The paper is an opinion
journal, and it should speak out against
the status quo. he said.
When the opinions amount to name
calling and petty squabbles, the paper is
no longer furthering discussion or
debate, said Donna Lawrence, Student
Senate chairwoman. She likened the
Commentator to the right-wing
equivalent of the National Enquirer.
The paper should try to raise more of
Continued on Page 3
J
University Assembly discusses new G.P.A requirement
By Craig l-oughridge
Of the Kmuralri
The University Assembly discussed
raising (he grade point average require
ment for entering freshmen students
from a 2.75 to a 3.0 for guaranteed ad
mission to the University at its meeting
Wednesday.
At the request of University President
Paul Olum. assembly representatives
provided ideas about raising the G.P. A.
requirement. Olum will present the
ideas to the State Hoard of Higher Educa
tion for discussion.
Olum said that during a time of pro
jected decline in University enrollment,
the number of students entering the
University increased. The University
had about 15.400 students in fall term
1983. and now has about 16.400.
University enrollment should top the
17,000 mark by next fall, according to
projected fall figures.
Thu primary reason for the new G.P. A.
requirement would be to limit the
number of newly admitted students and
hopefully stabili/.e enrollment at about
17.000. Olum said.
The University is approaching the
limit of its capacity, according to Univer
sity faculty and administrators, and it
will soon tie difficult to accommodate
any more students.
"It's hard to know what we'd do
without a new building program and
some changes,” Olum said.
The University is very close to capaci
ty. said Provost Richard Hill. With the
additional students expected in the fall,
the University will have to add more
night and afternoon classes, he said.
"We don't have the ability to add more
(students) without the quality of this in
stitution going down." Hill said.
Olum anti other administrators hope
that raising the University's G.P.A. re
quirement would boost the number of
new student applications the University
receives, giving the University the op
portunity to admit only the most promis
ing students.
Olum used the University of
Washington and the University of
California at Berkeley as examples of
what a higher G.P.A. requirement might
attain.
"The best schools are the ones that are
the most over-applied,” Olum said.
Photo bv Muhael Wilhelm
University faculty members discussed increasing the C.P.A. requirement for
entering freshmen from 2.75 to 3.0 at a Wednesday assembly meeting.
<
In other business, the University
Assembly decided to postpone until |une
the vote on a proposal to extend the
deadline for1 dropping and adding
classes from 10 days to 20 davs.
Student Senator Randy MacDdnald
motioned for the postponement, saying
he wanted a postponement of the vot,e
because of intense faculty opposition to . ■
the proposal.
If the assembly had voted on the pro
posal Wednesday, there would have
been “no way it could have passed,"
said MacDonald, the proposal's sponsor.