Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 6, 1987)
Editorial Community colleges need greater voice House Bill 2530 would be an effective way to promote the interests of community colleges at the state level. It would also increase their visibility at the state Legislature, thereby upgrading the quality of the collges. Currently, community colleges are in the same jurisdic tion as kindegarten through grade 12 programs. Supporters of the bill, headed by the Oregon Community College Association (OCCA), argue placing community colleges on an equal level with primary and secondary education forces the colleges to compete for funds. Four-year colleges and universities are represented by the State Board of Higher Education and remain separate from community colleges and lower education. Because of this, four-year institutions do not have to compete for legislative attention. Their problems are addressed directly to the state. HB 2530 would divide the community colleges from K-12 education and provide a chancellor to head a new board established specifically for the community colleges with their interests in mind. The process of reporting to the State Board of Education would remain the same, and the community colleges would still be on the same level as lower education. However, the two programs will not have to compete for attention in the state Legislature for funding. Opponents of the bill say there would be increased costs for a new agency and fear the state would take over com munity colleges, originally created by and for local citizens. The argument goes that a state chancellor would destroy community college autonomy. A compromise bill has been proposed to relieve some of the representation problems of community colleges and eliminates some of the fears of state control. The bill would require the state to consider community college issues at least six times a year. But this does not adequately deal with the problem. It only acts to pacify the OCCA. The concerns surrounding bill 2530 are unfounded. Almost no new costs would be incurred because personnel representing the state’s 15 community colleges already work for the superintendent of Public Instruction. No new funds would have to be allocated for this new office — the money would come from the existing community college budget. Community colleges were created to provide higher education at the local level. A new agency created to pro mote colleges’ ideas and interest would not take away this concept. The chancellor would be hired to represent the community colleges. This office would not wield broad, un checked powers, but simply would act as a centralized mouthpiece for community college concerns. Community colleges are intergrai to the wider concept of education. As four-year colleges and universities become more expensive to attend, community colleges become a more popular outlet for students to begin their education. Letting this outlet to the community deteriorate is a greater risk than the unfounded fears of state control of the program, The bill promotes community colleges and recognizes their importance. It moves the colleges away from the level of lower education and equates them with four-year institu tions. The local citizens can only benefit from this bill. It has the propensity to provide a powerful voice for community colleges. m ~ “Am I supposed to got mod at somsbody now?...” Letters An old flame Last month Surgeon General Koop called for practical pro phylactics, as being the most ef fective precaution against the spread of AIDS...“next to abstinence.” AMA president Dr. John Coury assented to this medical wisdom. But he likewise plead ed for the application of' ‘a little more morality” in combating the disease. Old words — abstinence, morality. Like virtue, continence, courtesy: discarded notions. But virtue, like morality, is not just an unfashionable con cept; not a farce, thrown into caricature by the posturing of the self-righteous. . .Falwell, Oral Roberts. Virtue. It is our own abandoned ideal. It is our own lost vision. Where is it? St. John foresaw a day when love would wax cold. Bruce Springsteen laments: Now young faces grown sad and old And hearts of fire grow cold. And (not to put words in his mouth) it seems ‘'even the youth utterly fail and faint.” The young surrender to self indulgence, trading away their ideals for a few scattered moments of pleasure. Vanishing moments. And somewhere in the midst of all the pleasure love dies. Yes indeed, condoms... if we are resigned; if we are 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 of 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 properly. The unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law General Slatl Advertising Director Production Manager Classified Advertising Assistant to the Publisher ArluAallelM CeUe. I «C Susan Thelen Wayne Michael Lottinville Alyson Simmons Jean Ownbey Teresa Acosta, Brent Collins, Beryl Israel, Janelle Hett mann, Laura Goldstein, Catherine lilja, Rick Martz, Joseph Menzel, Peter Miller, Joan Wildermuth news ana cuuonai Display Advertising and Businas* Classified Advertising Latter Perfect Graphics Production CircuJfeflon tmwn 666 3712 686 4343 666 5511 6664381 666 5511 Editor Managing Editor News Editor Spectrum Editor Spectrum Assistant Editor Editorial Page Editors Sports Editor Photo Editor Spectrum Photo Editor Graphics Editor Night Editor Associate Editors Community Politics Higher Education / Administration University Affairs Student Government Student Activities General Assignment General Assignment General Assignment Michelle Brence Lucinda Dillon Michael Rivers Stephen Maher Stanley Nelson Michael Drummond Angle Muniz Capi Lynn Michael Wilhelm John Glustlna Lorraine Rath Stanley Nelson Jolayne Houtz Nick Reed Chris Norred B.J. Thomsen Carolyn Lamberson Sarah Kitchen Karen Creighton Dennis Fernandes Scott Maben Reporters: Sean Axmaker, Mary Courtis, Gary Henley Janet Paulson. Photographers: Sherlyn Bjorkgren, Shu-Shing Chen, Maria Corvallis, Derrel Hewitt, Bobbie Lo, Dan Wheeler Production: Michele Ross / Ad Coordinator Kelly Alexandre, Elizabeth Asher, Ronwin Nicole Ashton, Virginia Baniaga, 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 weak. But further indulgence of the same excess — substituting a latex prophylactic for spine and self-control — won’t slow the spread of moral and psychological contagions. Protect yourself; protect the one you think you could love: practice continence, as foremost medical authorities recom mend. Not only is this medical ly “safe sex,” it just might preserve a spark of your heart of fire...to be rekindled. Roch Steinbach Law Lighten up Blake Louis Sliter, you’re beginning to get on my nerves (ODE, Feb. 25). Your obsession with the greek system has overstepped the bounds of com mon sense. I think it is very clerar to everyone that the only people who actively admire the greek system are already members of it. “Beer sluts” and swimming pools will not lure unsuspec ting students into the greeks. Yes, the greeks are “cli quey”; yes, the system prepetuates sexual stereotypes; yes, they react xenophobically to any criticism; yes, they can even be drunk, obnoxious and belligerent. So what? It is their system. No one is forced to join. Those that do, do so because they like the system the way it is. You can’t change them, so you might as well leave them alone. They can sit, smugly confi dent that they are envied by non-greeks, while the rest of us sit, confident that Charles Man son with a flamethrower couldn’t force us to join. Mr. Sliter, last year I admired r your stand. This year you’ve progressed from grudge to neurosis. Everyone has the right to go to hell in their own fashion. Leave them theirs, and they’ll leave you yours. After all, they haven’t bothered mine. Tom Jeffries Journalism Motherhood I just completed reading the first in the series on surrogate motherhood (ODE, Feb. 24). It is most interesting if not pro vocative. I was particularly drawn to the comments by much maligned Jenny Cassem who, upon being identified as a high-class hooker, remarked, “...Mary was a surrogate mother and she got into heaven all right.” It appears, historically, at least, that Jenny is only half right. In the late ’40’s, the Pope celebrating the Marian Year, did declare that the Virgin Mary ascended bodily into heaven; certainly an in disputable dictum. But sur rogate mother, Mary was not. She kept the boy and it appears that no one objected. In the instance cited, the Holy Ghost was the surrogate father. The difference then and now is that now, the surrogate mother and the hopeful parents-to-be are well aware of what the plan is. Then, Joseph was not, in itially, taken into the partner ship as to who would do the seed planting. In fact, there is some reason to believe that he was somewhat irritated about the whole affair. R.N. Lowe Counseling Psychology Letters Policy The Emerald will attempt to print all letters con taining fair comment on topics of interest to the University community. Letters to the editor must be limited to 250 words, typed, signed and the identification of the writer must be verified when the letter is turned in. The Emerald reserves the right to edit the letter for length or style. Letters to the editor should be turned into the Emerald office, Suite 300, EMU.