_Editorial_
Law school should
heed ABA's threat
lust when you think things can't gut any worse,
along comes something else to kick you right in the
teeth.
Hy now, most people know the Oregon State Sys
tem of Higher Education is in dire financial straits
caused by inadequate funding from the state legisla
ture. But last Friday, the issue took on a new twist
when it was learned the University’s Sc hool ot I .a w
has been threatened with the retraction of its accredit
ation.
Law School Dean Maurice Holland recently re
ceived a letter from the American ll.tr Assoc iation.
which certifies all law schools, detailing ways in
which the school is deficient.
To summarize' some of the ABA’s concerns the
law library budget, poor faculty-to-student ratios, no
"externship" program and low fac ulty salaries
Boiling all of these things down, money or the
la< k of it is the root of the law sc bool's problems In
adequate funding is damaging the* reputation of what is
considered one of the best law sc bools on the West
(Iciiist.
Holland said the letter amounts to a hollow threat,
and only a slim chance remains that the1 law sc hool
will ac tually lose its accreditation. The AHA rarel\ re
moves its stamp of approval and has never done so to
an Oregon school.
The University's law school is not the; place' to
start.
The AHA first came to the law school three years
ago Apparently, it was not happy with what it saw.
The letter is just another step in hounding the law
school into cleaning up its act or c learing out of town
Even if the* accreditation is left intact, the warning
should not bo taken lightly. Reputation is an extremely
important part of any school. If prospective students
feed the University's law school is going downhill,
they'll take their studies — and their tuition — else
where.
To his credit. Holland has taken the warning seri
ously lie called a meeting with the law school faculty
and administration to discuss the problem and is hon
est enough to admit there are problems.
However, admitting mistakes and actually doing
something about them are two different things. The
ABA is not going to make idle threats forever. Push it
far enough, and the ABA may turn the unthinkable
into reality.
If it seems we’re harping on the lack of money in
the higher education system, it’s because we are. We
don't think the law school deserves to lose its accredit
ation. but even the threat of it cannot be ignored. High
er education and legislators are receiving a pretty clear
message:
The University, along with the rest of the OSSHE
schools, needs money. Fast.
HANG IN
TUERE, KID...
I THINK YOU'RE
WEARING HIM
OUT..
Noriega
Oregon is ahead of the game in recycling
This wee*h is Onion's Km y< ling Aware
ness Week (lov Neil Goldschmidt initiated
(lie event four \ears ago when c urbside re
i v< ling was implemented around the state.
The purpose of the event is to help cre
ate awareness of various recyc ling programs
in the state, to help preserve the heautv of
thi‘ st.ite. and to send out a clear message
that Oregonians are concerned about their
state* and environment.
The name of this year's event is "Recycl
ing: It s the Oregon Way.” And it's true —
Oregon is a national leader in recycling.
Uurbside recycling is offered to almost 75
percent of all Oregonians Residents here re
t vc h* 05 percent of their newspapers as com
pared with a national figure* of 54 percent.
So what's the* big deal about recycling
anyway? Some people think it takes too
much time and trouble to tie up their news
papers and crush all the*ir tin cans.
Well, in some respects they are right —
it does take some extra time and energy.
Hut. it also saves a lot of energy. Department
of Environmental Quality statistics show
that recycling one ton of office paper saves
the* equivalent of 480 gallons of oil.
The* amount of garbage that is produced
in this country or even just in this state is as
tounding. 'flu* United States makes up about
five percent of the* world’s population hut
produces 15 to 38 percent of the garbage.
Recycling is vital to our survival on the
earth. Millions of trees are cut down every
year to fulfill our paper needs. A vast major
ity of this paper can be recycled. Sunday pa
pers are a gooil example; 88 percent of them
art; not recycled, and it takes 500,000 trees
to product; (lit; nation’s Sunday papers
Creating awareness about how, what and
when to recycle is important, but more im
portant is making it easier for people to recy
cle.
Recycling on campus has been on the
upswing these days. Recycling bins on cam
pus have increased. This is due largely to
tin; efforts of the people at Pearl Buck Re
cycling. who run the on-campus recycling
program. One person picks up recyclable pa
per from over 180 different spots on campus
every week — truly a superhuman effort.
The Survival Center is also working to
enlarge the campus recycling program and
to encourage students to take more responsi
bility when it comes to recycling. Recycling
creates continually renewable resources,
which are rare commodities in an age of
quickly deteriorating natural resources. Re
member, all those products that are so easily
disposed of can often be recycled, and it
they can't, we probably won’t be able to dis
pose of them for hundreds of years.
_Forum_
Civil liberties latest victim in war on drugs
B> Mit had Colson
Politic s makes strange bedfol
lows, but so. it turns out. do
drugs
In a Supreme Court opinion
involving the court's arc libber
al. Thurgood Marshall, and its
arc hconservative. Antonin Sc a
_Commentary_
ha. a similar warning was
sounded: In the war on drugs,
civil liberties mas turn out to
lie the latest victim
Sc .ilia thundered down from
the right in a case invoh ing the
government program to admin
ister drug tests to .ill emplovees
of the U.S Customs service,
whir h tin- court upheld
Safetv is not an issue here
The government wants some
thing called a drug-tree work
plat e, .mtl while that is .1 wor
thy goal, the question is at
what cost'? Is it worth a t lear
invasion of privacy'
St alia, on the losing suit1 of a
5-4 decision, said it is not And
he is right In the first place, he
has the fat ts on his side There
is no indication that drug use is
a problem among Customs
workers. Some t.tiuo workers
have been tested and only five
tested positive, hardly a cause
to humiliate a whole group of
federal employees by marching
them into the nathroom. paper
t up in hand.
As with other federal workers
slated for drug testing, the gov
ernment wanted to make a
point Drugs will not be tolerat
ed Hut St alia also wanted to
make a point “I think it is oh
viuiis that this justification is
unacceptable: that the impair
ment if civil liberties cannot he
the means of making .1 point."
When the left (Marshall) and
the right (Sealia) combine, the
rest of the court ought to pay
heed and so should the na
tion. The war on drugs is not.
tor all the rhetoric . a real war
The drug problem is different
It is a tragii social malaise and
an urgent criminal-justice mat
ter. but not all proposed rem
edies are apt
Take, for instance, the Dis
trict of Columbia's attempt to
impose curfew on teenagers
This was proposed as part of
the war on drugs an attempt
to appease the public that
something was being done. It
hardh mattered that the rights
of a whole class of people
would he restricted bei ause a
few of them pose a danger
Recently, k ite President Dan
Quayle raised the spe< tor of
McCarthy ism in condemning
the Senate's rejection of John
Tower (Juayle had his analo
gies all wrong If it is a latter
day McCarthy ism that he seeks.
Quayle ought to turn his atten
tion to drugs.
Here, as with communism in
the 1950s, we have a public
panic, a willingness to condone
violations of c ivil liberties, be
cause another threat is per
ceived to la> much greater
Drugs remain a serious prob
lem Hut not so serious that we
have to engage in w holesale in
fringements on civil liberties
and a loss of perspective es
pecially when the "remedies
are more symbolic than real
Wholesale drug testing, cur
few, and the death penalty
these are all placebos, not
panaceas.
Scalia on the right and Mar
shall on the left have sounded a
warning that should not go un
heeded. The shots being fired
in the war on drugs are rico
cheting. riddling our civil lib
erties and endangering us all
Michael Colson is a political
science student at the l 'niversi
tv.
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