Don't let new search
end as last one did
The search for a new chancellor is on again, and the
Oregon State System of Higher Education apparently needs
your help.
The effort to replace former Chancellor William E.
“Bud” Davis, who resigned June 30, is resuming after the
first search failed to deliver a candidate of whom the board
could approve The search process itself seemed rather
chaotic, with finalists dropping out at the last moment and
several search committee members not participating in the
final vote.
There is every indication that this new search could be
as frustrating as the first. In order not to frighten off quality
candidates, the Executive Committee was being pressured to
delay the next search until the perceived turmoil in
Oregon’s education system subsided.
No such luck, but it does appear that the board is taking
the search a little more seriously. The committee is planning
a more aggressive strategy that will seek out and pursue can
didates, including those previously considered untouchable
or out of Oregon’s reach.
Also, search committee chairman George Richardson Jr.
has encouraged faculty and administration members from
the state schools to become actively involved in the search
process by finding and nominating potential candidates.
Allowing administrators and faculty to participate in
the search is both a wonderful and necessary idea. Failure to
select a chancellor after this dragnet could further damage
the reputation of Oregon’s education system. A fiasco must
be avoided.
The call to get others involved in the search is also an
unusual admission of failure from the state board. We en
courage University members to take up this opportunity,
both to select a chancellor that we can live with, and to
begin a constructive dialogue that the board cannot simply
ignore, as it has done in the past.
City council must face
nuke free zone vote again
It looks as though the Eugene City Council’s disappoin
ting rejection of Nuclear Free Zone (NFZ) Option A, and its
betrayal of the majority of voters who twice approved this
measure, will not go unchecked after all.
Members of the Committee to Keep Eugene Nuclear Free
are confident that they have gathered enough signatures to
take the matter before the voters — again. If they are suc
cessful, in November the NFZ measure could appear as an
amendment to the city charter. The petition with its 5,000
signatures is due July 29.
Opponents of Option A charge that its more stringent
anti-nuclear stance will hurt Eugene business opportunities.
Option B, the one adopted by the City Council in a 5-4 vote
last month, is more symbolic gesture than activist stance.
The question of whether Option A does damage
business interests can only be answered once the measure is
in practice. If the tougher nuclear free zone is harmful, it can
be rescinded later. Until then, it remains the job of the City
Council to enact the measure that the majority of voters ap
proved, not the one that Eugene’s business leaders feel com
fortable with.
If you have not already done so, we encourage you to
sign the Nuclear Free Eugene committee’s petition. Carry
the message to the city’s leaders that the will of Eugene’s
citizens will not be denied.
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“The main event? Really? You two? I’ve been waiting all night for this?!”
1
Commentary
Japan could teach family lessons
Japan and the United States
meet at an important crossroads
on issues of women and work.
We have much to learn from
each other.
Commentary by
Linda Tarr-Whelan
For historical and
philosophical reasons, the
United States has approached
equality for women workers
through the development of
equal employment opportunity.
Recently we have begun to
develop the systems necessary
to provide an adequate support
structure for families.
Japan, on the other hand, has
approached equality from a
feminist perspective which is
rooted in the protection of
motherhood as the dues which
society should pay in apprecia
tion for the unique role of
women. Now they are im
plementing equal employment
opportunity.
Two wage-earner families are
becoming commonplace. In
1984, close to half of all
Japanese women — only three
percent less than in the United
States — worked. During the 10
years from 1975 to 1985, 4.12
million Japanese women joined
the labor force.
The occupations showing the
greatest growth for women in
Japan cluster in the areas where
competition with the United
States has been most intense. In
the last decade, the employ
ment of Japanese women in in
formation, science, technical
and professional careers has
doubled.
But when Japanese women
enter the workforce, they do so
with a comprehensive system of
family supports already in force
— programs the United States is
only now debating.
• Mothers are entitled to paid
maternity leave — up to 16
weeks at 60 percent of their
the school.
Such policies, we hear in the
debate over these issues in this
country, are bad for business.
The Japanese don't see it that
way. Over and over, in lectures,
in interviews and in conversa
tion, they asked me the same
questions:
"Isn’t a lack of family policies
bad for the children? isn’t is bad
for workers and the economy?”
A statistical comparison of
some important indices of
social and economic health sug
‘But when Japanese women enter the
workforce, they do so with a comprehen
sive system of family supports already in
force — programs the United States is only
now debating.’
— Linda Tarr-Whelan
salaries, paid by the
government.
• Day care centers are funded
by national and local govern
ments. Parents’ share of day
care costs is never more than
half. Some special facilities ex
ist for babies, disabled children
and extended day care.
• Families have access to na
tional health coverage, in
cluding excellent maternal and
infant health care.
• Kindergartens are within the
public school system and take
children from the age of three, if
parents make an application to
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gests that they have a point.
How many infants din before
their first birthday?
Japan’s infant mortality rate is
six per 1,000 births, tied with
Finland and Sweden for lowest
in the world. Our rate is 11
deaths per 1,000 births — the
19th worst — while the mortali
ty rate for black infants is 19 per
1,000 births — tied with with
Costa Rica, Poland and Portugal
for 28th place.
How many young people
complete high school?
In Japan, 90 percent. In the
United States, the range by state
goes from a high of 92 percent
in Minnesota, down to a low of
54 percent in Louisiana.
Our workforce, one of our
greatest resources, is handicap
ped by lack of family support.
And our economy will fall fur
ther behind unless we act firmly
and expeditiously to develop
family policies. We can't afford
not to.
Linda Tarr-Wlielan is presi
dent and executive director of
the National Center for Policy
Alternatives, a nonpartisan,
nonprofit public policy center
focusing on innovation at the
state and local level.