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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 16, 1987)
Editorial OSL should support merit scholarships Amongst Neil Goldshmidt’s budget proprosals is a plan for a $1 million merit-based scholarship program, designed to keep Oregon’s top scholars in the state. The Oregon Stu dent Lobby, which lobbys on behalf of students in the Legislature, will ask the legislature to put the money into the need-based aid program instead. The OSL’s position is short-sighted and ignores the im portance that Goldshmidt correctly attributes to the value top scholars bring to the state and to state universities. Oregon loses too many of its top students not just to church-affiliated schools or schools with programs not available in Oregon, as the OSL claims, but to private “name” schools as well. The merit-based scholarships may be particualarly good incentive now, as many students facing the rising costs of at tending private institutions — to which most outstanding students go — are turning to state institutions instead. Oregon merit-based scholarships would increase the advan tage Oregon schools have in competing for these students. Since the scholarships are indeed an investment in the quality of Oregon college students, it is reasonable for this tax money to support students attending private institutions in Oregon. Not only do the students stay in the; state, but so does the money. The merit-based aid program is less than 5 percent of the Oregon Scholarship Commission's budget, and comes in addition to increases in need-based aid. This amount seems a reasonable compromise between the goals of providing aid and retaining good students. The state will never have enough money to meet the needs of all the students seeking financial aid. The state is committed to making it financially possible students to at tend college, but the state should also commit itself to ex cellence in both the educational opportunities it provides and in the type of students who stay in the state. The merit-based aid proposal is an excellent idea — one of the many for which Goldshmidt was elected. Although many details of the program are unresolved and the final verdict on the program cannot come until Oregon has had time to try it, the program deserves the support of OSL and the legislature. Court ruling protects pregnant woHdng women The Supreme Court Tuesday upheld a Califorina law protecting the jobs of women who are unable to work during their pregnancies. The decision comes as a victory for the maternal rights of women in the workplace. The California law requires that employers grant women physically unable to work because of pregnancy up to four months’ leave, even if the employer does not offer similar leave benefits for other disabled employees. The court held that federal legislation does not mean that pregnant workers must be treated the same as other workers — meaning no worse and no better — but insisted that Congress intended to “provide relief for working women and to end discrimination against pregnant workers.” The court's decision is another step in protecting the place of working mothers, and preventing discrimination against a growing segment of the work force. J MteUrioid*. C*9vC1 t*» WcT >NE GOTA Q3NTBDLVIES1ERN IKlfUJENCE...TWEBE^ *QDPf OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS IN MV FORTUNE QX*CiE_ No parking This letter is addressed to all students, faculty and com muters who use (or used to use) the 15th Avenue and Agate Street parking lot. As you have already, or will soon discover. Lot 34 will be closed as of Jan. 16. The University graciously gave us less than 24 hours notice to find a new location to park our vehicles. After contac ting the Public Safety Office. I was informed that there were no provisions made for additional parking areas, and that we were on our own in finding a home for our cars while on campus. Speaking for myself, I only drive my car when absolutely necessary in order to avoid the frustration of an already critical shortage of parking areas in Eugene. I’m sure others are in the same situation. I am not contesting the con struction of the museum, but 1 am bewildered and outraged that no new space was made available for the cars of Lot 34. 1 am demanding a refund for my parking permit now that Oregon Daily Emerald The Oregon Daily Emerald is published Monday through Friday except during exam week and vacations by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co , at the University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, 97403 The Emerald operates independently ol the University with offices on the third floor of the Erb Memorial Union and is a member of the Associated Press The Emerald is private property The unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law General Staff Advertising Director Susan Thelen Production Manager Wayne Lottlnville Classified Advertising Alyson Simmons Assistant to the Publisher Jean Ownbey Advertising Sales: Peter LaFleur/ Sales Manager Teresa Acosta, Brent Collins, Beryl Israel. Janelle Heit mann, Laura Goldstein, Catherine Lilja. Rick Martz, Joseph Menzel, Peter Miller, Joan Wildermuth News and Editorial 686 5511 Display Advertising and Business 686-3712 Classified Advertising 686-4343 Production 686 4381 Circulation 686-5511 Editor Managing Editor News Eaitor Spectrum Editor Spectrum Assistant Editor Editorial Page Editor Editorial Page Assistant Editor Sports Editor Photo Editor Graphic Design Editor Night Editor Associate Editors Community Politics Higher Education / Administration University Affairs Student Government Student Activities General Assignment Michelle Brence Lucinda Dillon Michael Rivero Curtis Condon Stephen Maher James Young Michael Drummond Cap! Lynn Michael Wilhelm Lorraine Rath Jolayne Houtz Jolayne Houtz Shawn Wirtz Chris Norred Stan Nelson Sarah Kitchen Tonnie Dakin Dennis Fernandes Reporters: Sean Axmaker. Mary Courtis. Karen Creighton, Gary Henley, Carolyn Lamberson, John McBarron Photographers: Sherlyn Biorkgren, Shu-Shmg Chen, Maria Corvallis, Derrel Hewitt, Bobbie Lo, James Marks! Dan Wheeler, Michael Wilhelm Production: Michele Ross / Ad Coordinator Kelly Alexandre, Elizabeth Asher, Ronwin Nicole Ashton, Virginia Bamaga, Sandra Bevans, Sara Briscoe. Shu shing Chen, Janet Emery, Lisa Haggerty, Donna Leslie, Curtis Lott, Kelli Mason, Mike McGraw, Rob Miles, Angelina Muniz, Julie Paul, Ingrid White, X Kang Xie parking on campus is futile. In addition to all of our every day pressures, we must now deal with the hassle of com muting to a parking spot as well as to the University itself. Perhaps if our cars were simp ly left where they are. . .but far be it for me to inconvenience the wise and gentle Planning Committee in any way. Scott Janzen Freshman Crime pays Many people were not aware that last week was designated as Organized Crime Week, and others wondered why organized crime should have been celebrated at all. Well, most so-called organiz ed crime is not really crime at all. Real crime consists only in those activities that violate the rights or liberties of others, such as rape, burglary, forgery, assault and the like. But virtual ly none of those real criminal activities are perpetrated by organized crime. Most organized “crime” is nothing more than business ac tivity that provides pleasure and entertainment in the form of aex, drugs, gambling and high-interest loans to people who desire those things and who pay for them of their own free will. In recognition of the contribu tions that organized “crime” has made to our liberty and pur suit of happiness, we should all have given special thanks on Jan. 16, the 68th anniversary of the creation of organized crime in America, to the men and women of organized crime who worked so hard and take such great ris - to provide us all with the opportunities to make the free choices that our moralistic, puritanical government has tried so hard to forbid. Richard Sharvy Eugene Generalization If Brian Frary and Charlie Richards (ODE, Jan. 8) insist on advising Professor Rousseve to do his homework, perhaps they should do their research a lot more thoroughly. Instead Frary and Richards of fer us only useless sweeping generalizations in their attack on Rousseve. First of all, just because the Bible mentions the existence of some ancient Middle Eastern sites that have been confirmed by archaeology does not make it necessarily ", . .the key to the past,” but merely another source of documentary evidence of which there are many. To be truly “ . . .the key to the past,” the Bible would have to cover much more ground than the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean. I do not believe that such archaeological sites as Stonehenge, Teotihuacan and llallstat are even mentioned in the Bible. Secondly, if science was real ly your forte, as you claim, you would know that “punctuated equilibrium" does not disclaim (or for that matter even weaken) the overall theory of evolution, it merely challenges the original Darwinian theory that evolu tionary changes happen gradually through time, and sets forth an alternative hypothesis that species evolve relatively quickly — in the time scale of geology — during periods of environmental stress. Furthermore, both of you should realize that evolution is not just the progression from lower to higher forms of life, but a process of genetics and natural selection that enables a species to adapt to its environ ment. There is no implication, in the scientific community, that the second law of ther modynamics is contradicted by this process. Steve McCormick Anthropology
