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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 1987)
Convocation seminars give students food for thought Constitution excluded women, says University law expert By Kathy Proffit Emerald Contributor From the beginning of constitutional planning, women were excluded from participating in the pro cess. and they were considered irrelevant and ex traneous by the founding fathers and the intellectuals whose conceived notions formed the core of this docu ment. said a University law professor Monday afternoon Susan | Swift, an associate professor of law. spoke at the "Women and the Constitution" seminar Monday afternoon during the University's t'187 convocation seminar Hoi ause of this exclusion, coupled with the denial of the right to vote, women were not considered citizens in their true politital content, according to Swift ‘If you insist that woman be the same as men in terms of the moral judgement standard, then they will obviously be considered inferior to men.’” — Susan J. Swift Swift's topic. "Original Intent and the Language of the Founding Fathers." was one of three parts of the seminar. Swift asked if women shouldn't be concerned that the Constitution of today, written in 1787. reflects sole ly the thoughts and notions of men as women were not allowed tu actively participate. doth women and men have the capacity to unders tand morality, yet the male standard is considered to be the norm, she said. In order for changes to lie made, that measurement has to bo changed "If you insist that women lie the same as men in terms of the moral judgement standard, then they will obviously lie considered inferior to men." she said because women an1 a victimized group, they need articulation to offset the male hierarchial society underlying the Constitution. According to Swift, this should come through a reconstruction of the document where the voice of women is heard Human and institutional contexts along with abstrac t rules are needed in the Constitution to encom pass life and morality in the female population. Swift said Turn to Women, Page 5 Photo* b> Ttd Shepler Susan Swift (above) spoke on “Women end the Constitution" Monday afternoon in one of two con vocation seminars. Swift is an University associate professor of law. lostie Harris, also an associate professor of law. spoke later in the same seminar on whether equality could be gender nueiral. Seminar on First Amendment and advertising invokes debate By Mike Fisher Emerald Contributer The founding fathers could not have foreseen the growth of the advertising industry or imagined the need to address it in the Bill of Rights, agreed Universi ty professors Daniel Pope and Tim Gleason during a convocation seminar Monday. The seminar, entitled "Advertising and the First Amendment: Madison and the Marlboro Man," dealt with the appropriateness of protecting commercial speech under the First Amendment. Gleason, an assistant professor of journalism, began by outlining the history of Supreme Court atten tion to commercial speech from its stance in 1942 that such speech should not receive constitutional protec tion to its recent rulings expanding the limits of com mercial speech. ‘If free speech is grounded in per sonal liberty, it should be an in dividual and not an institutional "The distinction between commercial and political speech is inadequate." said Gleason. "The underlying argument for protection of com mercial speech is not for the right of advertisers to advertise their products, but for the right of consumers to receive information about these products," he said. "Both the regulation of advertising and the protec tion of commercial speech are based on the notion of promoting the public good." he added. Pope, an associate professor in history, linked the growth of the advertising industry in the mid-19th cen tury to the Industrial Revolution of the same period and pointed out that "the advertising of this age was stigmatized by the grossly false nature of many of the ads.” This led to self-regulation in the ad industry and acceptance of government control, characterized by the creation of the Federal Trade Commission in 1914, Pope said. He noted that such regulation has decreased the amount of deceptive advertising but has led to an "unsettling" number of ads that'make no useful claim about their products." "Our concern for advertising and free speech and — Daniel Pope Turn to Advertising, Page 5 set through college hr the seet oi your mis! LTD makes it cheap aixl easy to go to college Just huv a Term Pass it's good for unlimited rides all term long University of Oregon (students and faculty $44 each)-Passes at LTD Customer Service Center. U oi O Bookstore, or EMU Mam Desk Passes also available tor Eugene Bible College Northwest Christian College and Trend College students faculty and staff 0 Timetables available at participating 7 Eleven ’ stores. First Interstate Banks, and other area outlets (mss mm ttD LaneTtansit District For information call 687-5555
