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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 3, 1988)
Inside: •Jello Biafra drops in. Pages 6, 7 •Three Ducks' last war, Page 9 •Post-holiday food drives, Page 10 nOregon Daily._ ¥ Emerald Thursday, March 3, 1988 Volume 89, Number 113 Eugene, Oregon Assembly adopts changes for semester curriculum By Paula Green Emerald Reporter The University Assembly on Wednes day passed three curriculum changes brought forth by the General Education Subcommittee of the Special Semester Cur riculum Committee. After heated deliberation, the assembly amended the "Non-Western; Race; Gender" requirement to become the "Non Euro-American; Race; Gender" requirement. History Department Head Mavis Mate originally presented the motion to include courses dealing substantially with areas outside Europe and the Americas, non white races or interracial relations and issues of gender. Neighbors, businesses lack parking By Betsy Clayton Emerald Reporter Editor's Note: This is the second story in a two-part series on the cam pus parking problem. Today’s story examines community and campus concerns. “Our help has to park out there," said Phyllis Parker, kitchen manager at Bubba's Place restaurant. 1249 Alder St., referring to the traffic on the congested street in the Univer sity's business area. "We set a timer for the help so they can run out and feed the meters and avoid tickets." she explained. In the past 15 years the parking pro blem has become increasingly worse for business employees, students and neighbors, said Shirley Gall, manager of U.S. Bank’s campus branch, 810 E. 13th Ave. "It’s a no-win situation for everyone.” she said. Gall said businesses like hers that have private parking lots have tried various solutions to accommodate customer and employee needs. "The range goes from hiring parking atten dants to towing to verbal warnings. I know a lot of businesses are having problems," she said. Both Gall and the manager of Kauf man's clothing store, 840 E. 13th Ave., agree that signs indicating "customer parking only" don’t have much of an effect on people. Kauf man's signs state that a $40 ticket will be issued if a non-customer car is parked in its lot. Bubba’s doesn't have any designated parking for its customers, "and probably we lose business because of it,” Parker said. The business has problems with its delivery trucks, too. "We’ve had a lot of good arguments out there in the alley," she said. Delivery trucks stop and motorists want to drive through. Turn to Parking, Page 3 However, several assembly members found the proposal's wording vague and failed to understand Mate's use of geographical alignment. “What we're saying here is that American Indians. Eskimos and natives of Latin and South America are being exclud ed because of this 'non-western' idea given to exclude people in the Americas," said Keith Richards. University Archivist. In a majority vote, the assembly passed the amended motion, which will require undergraduate students under the proposed semester system to take three semester credit hours of approved coursework in volving a Non-Euro-American topic, or issues of race or gender. The assembly also discussed the removal of the field requirements for Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees. In another majority vote, the members eliminated the 36 hours of re quired course work for B.A. and B.S. degrees. However, students still will be required to demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language for a B.A. degree and proficiency in mathematics for a B.S. degree. In a final majority vote, the assembly accepted the minimum credits required for a degree as calculated for conversion to the semester system. The three curriculum issues, which were approved by the University Senate at an earlier date, will be presented to the State Board of Higher Education in 1989 when the system begins converting to semesters. Detail University School of Architecture and Allied Arts students Jill Chappel (left) and Andy Curtis inspect the finer points of Villard Hall’s east porch, restored last summer by students in the Historic Preservation Program. The historic building will soon receive fur ther renovation. Photo by Jeremy Choo Greeks work to curb substance abuse By Andrew LaMar Emerald Associate Editor The incident involving Robert Seyler more than three years ago alerted University officials to the seriousness of drug and alcohol use problems in the Greek system. And as a result, there have been in creased efforts to educate Greek members about drug and alcohol use and involvement with house leadership and alumni groups. University officials say. "What happened at Beta (Theta Pi fraternity), happened three years ago." said University President Paul Olum. "In that period of time, a lot has chang ed. For one thing, the fraternity has changed.. . . Second, the people in stu dent affairs over this period have really been working extraordinarily hard to change campus attitudes toward both alcohol and drugs." On the morning of Oct. 28, 1984, Robert Seyler was found half-naked and unconscious in the rain on the sidewalk beside a campus sorority. Seyler sued the Beta fraternity and its alumni association for negligence and two students at the time for physical assault. On Tuesday, the Lane County Circuit Court trial ended when a jury awarded Seyler $30,000 in punitive damages. In addition. Seyler will receive $500 in general damages, less 3H percent for his own negligence in the case. The jury apparently responded to Seyler's attorney, Douglas Haldane, who said it had a duty to send a message to Turn to Problems, Page 4 History of GTF union reflects growth, progress By Mike Drummond Emerald Associate Editor The times have changed since the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, Local 3544 took root at the University 12 years ago. Although the union's leadership has switched hands numerous times since then, its mission of striving to improve working conditions for graduate teaching fellows remains intact. The year was 1969 when campus graduate teaching assistants first enter tained the idea of organizing. It was a time of conflict, idealism and protest. It also was a time when students across the nation began rallying for empowerment. Dissatisfied with salaries, working conditions and the Vietnam War, University graduate teaching assistants hitched their wagon to this empower ment train and formed the Graduate Stu dent Employees Association (GSEA). The University signed a contract with the fledgling GSEA, which covered ap pointments, job terminations and grievances. However, this proved to be a short-lived venture. The University and the GSEA never renegotiated a contract and the association dissolved a year later. Graduate teaching assistants' interest in organizing went on a brief hiatus following this but returned in the fall of 1975. Unionizing was in vogue on cam pus. Food service workers and classified staff gained union status, and faculty members in the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) were gearing up to renew representation rights. It was then the graduate teaching assistants’ turn to organize. According to GTFF records, campus organizers filed for an election with the State Employment Relations Board (ERB) in December 1975, whereby GTFs could vote whether they wanted collective bargaining rights. The ERB approved their application on Jan. 20, 1976. But this didn't play well with the University administration, and it re quested that ERB grant a hearing to con test the GTFs' desire to unionize. The University argued that GTFs were students, not employees; ergo, they weren't entitled to collective bargaining. Moreover, the University also threatened that jobs would be cut, faculty and graduate student relationships would suffer and frequent strikes would cripple Turn to Union, Page 4