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
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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
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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