Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012, April 03, 1992, Page 2, Image 2

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    EDITORIAL
Green probably best
Oregon could get
Oregon has Ion# boon known as a university that
breaks with tradition, especially when it comes to
coaching changes.
Whereas some sc hools change their coaches about
as regularly as the athletes change their gym socks. Or
egon prefers to give a coach the benefit of the doubt
and remain patient for success From 192.'t to the end
of this season, there have been but eight men's basket
ball coaches. The shortest tenure, by both Bill Borcher
and Jim Haney, was five years.
To be sure, an NCAA coach does not have the best
job security. Only the rare few, such as John Wooden,
retire with grace Most are forced out or fired. It is the
nature of the beast.
With Don Monson. Oregon finally had to make a
choice Athletic director Bill Byrne called it a tough de
cision. but in the face of a nine year program with no
suusianuai impnivnnnu
and a <» If 1 record this
year, patience turned into
lingering. It was time to
move in another direction
Some of the problems
with the team were out
side Munson's domain
(untimely injuries) and
some within (recruiting).
Hut what probably cost
Munson his job was the
usually rabid Duck fans
turning into empty seats at
Mac (iourt
Now enter Jerry
Green.
The words used to de
scribe the 48-year-old
Green run in the same
vein. Excellence, well-or
From what has
been seen so far,
the former
Kansas assistant
is a down-to
earth type,
brooking no
nonsense from
his players and
truly believing
the word
ustudentn is the
most important in
student-athlete.
gdiu/ru unci with ■ jnrjuuni
arc jus! a few of his general characteristics. From what
has been M*en so far. the former Kansas assistant is a
down to-earth tv|>e, brooking no nonsense from his
players and truly believing the word "student" is the
most important in student-athlete.
(ireen is probably tin; best Oregon could have
fetched, which in no way should be seen as am sort of
intended slight of the new coach. Simply put, Oregon
cannot hope to compete Financially with the Pac 10
powerhouses. The money, especially in a state under
going Measure 5 pains, simply isn't there. Green's
$200,000 salary —- $80,000 base, $00,000 from radio
and television, and $(><),(KM) from Nike — is nice, but
does not put him in the higher financial echelon of
coat lies The salary is fair and reasonable given the Or
egon market and situation.
The new coach is not promising quick success, nor
should he. It will take time to build the men's basket
ball team up to the point where it can compete in the
top level of the Pac 10. Green seems to have the pa
tience needed for the job.
Oregon Daily
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146-4 343
CAN HE DO THAT?'
COMMENTARY
Russian reforms rest on U.S. aid
By Ma:rew Renda
Since mv roliim from Rus
sia Iasi spring. 1 have tieeri
repeatedly asked whether
I fount) anything to oat Slot e I
obviously didn't starts. the
shortest tinswi-r would in'
yes Hut sin« ■■ I Iost 10
pounds in ninr months, a mom
precise answur would lie yes,
bul not vary mill h
Lnltl now fond shortages in
Russia and tin- other republics
of tilt' former Soviet t'nion
have atlrai led a very limited
amount of I s aid These ef
forts ought to Is- expanded
However, they should not he
expanded bet ause millions of
Russians are in danger of si.irv
mg Aid IS needed to support
deUHN'rut v and prevent the re
turn of a inihlary-hat ked dn ta
torship
Conditions in Russia are
hardly ideal From Dei ember
l*c*0 meal, sausage eggs, sta
ples and looking oil were till
rationed in Leningrad (now St
Petersburg) Ollier bash foods,
like i heese and rue. were sim
ply not to be found \\ hen 1
traveled south to the ant lent
ventral Asian tils of Samar
kand, the souvenirs I brought
lull k were noodles, matt ties, to
mato paste and toilet paper
\\ li.it is more an Ament an
survey taken in lout) suggested
the food supply in Moscow and
Leningrad was heller than in
most ol the rest ol the Soviet
t nion liven bread was ra
tinned 111 Hi Russian territories
during late 1‘Ril. according to
the RFF RI. research report,
and "food riots were reported
in Mosi nw Perm, Prevail, and
elsew here
Finally, even when food was
available, prn es have rapidly
gone up Those who rely on
small fixed incomes, partu ular
Ix old people, are likely to suf
fer the most They may not
starve, but they will spend their
golden years oil a diet of bread,
potatos and tea And. if they get
mi k there s no guarantee that
the dot tor will have the modi
i al supplies to treat them
Russia, lo fie sure, is not
Flhmpiu But tor the outside
world, this crisis is much more
dangerous Russia alter all, re
mains one of tie. world's great
military powers \nd while tru
ly starving people seldom have
1 It i- e n t; r g y to s u p port
ultranatiunalist extremists. an
gry .m<i frit[xioplo often
(t(>
Robert Ley-gold, it leading ex
port on Soviet politic s at Co
lumhia University, observed
last year in tin* /Vow VorA
/mice that thee c urrent crisis in
Kussta in frighteningly similar
to the instability in Germany ut
ter World War I And wr all
know what happened in (lor
many
( ho Communists, to he sure,
are pmhahlv history In all the
months I spent in Russia. 1 only
once met anyone who truly
supported them Both election
results and my personal experi
one es suggest the majority of
people really do helieye in de
inoc rac y But lor many Rus
sians. probably most. Western
style demtx rac y is less impor
tant than a Western St y |e of l)y
mg A right yy mg. even neo las
cist dictator wlio could make
tiie trains run on time might
stand a real c.ham e
lids Is-ing tin* c ase, we'd be
cra/y not to do everything we
i an to help Russia's reforms
succeed Any dictatorship that
i (mil's to power 111 Moscow VS 111
rely heavily on the armed
tori es tor support lids means
we can forget about further htg
cuts in the Russian military
Coodbve Yeltsin, hello Cold
War
(ioodbye peat e d i v idond .
too I'he amount oi money t>e
mg proposed .is aid tor the for
mer Soviet t mon is spare
change next to the sums we
will spend d Russia rearms Be
tween 1UH5 and 19'X) alone, the
t lilted States spent roughly SJ
trillion on its military, largely
in the name of making the
yvorld safe for demex rai y Yet
people like Pat Buchanan want
us to believe yse can't afford
SIS billion to S2t) hellion, large
ly in the forms of loans, to help
prevent a dictatorship in Rus
sian from returning Go figure
liven il the U S government
offered S10 billion in outright
gifts, the cost would still fie
some 5275 billion less than
Hush is proposing to spend on
the military in fiscal llt'i:t Yes,
more money is needed for Litfii
opia, and for people here at
home Hut if democracy tails in
Russia, without our having
raised a finger to help it. we
vs 111 he spending lots more
money on guns and fxrmbers
not on si bools, hospitals or un
employment benefits
After dithering for months,
the While House lias finally de
i ided to hack a significant aid
pat kage. Some money will be
spent on humanitarian aid, an
other fund will help Russia en
act monetary reforms They'll
have a tough light, though,
against legislators who want to
spend the money on more im
portent tilings, like the Seewoil
submarine
It’s lor these reasons I hope
to start a new group, provision
ally called Aid to Russia, to
lobby Oregon's congressional
delegation for aid to demo* ra
l ies in the former USSR
Sui h a group could also do di
rei t fund-raising for reliel
1 here are a number of Western
organizations, such as the Red
l ross. licit are distributing aid
directly in Russia, and can
make sure it gets to the people
wlio need it Aid lor Russia will
meet Tuesday . April 7 at 7 it)
p m in the Janet Smith Oooper
atlve, 1 7>K) Alder St
Russia's democrats have
ended the (add War and begun
the transformation of their
country No amount of aid can
ensure their reforms will suc
ceed, but we can help give
them a fighting i bailee
Matthew Kendall, a former
senior editor with The interna
tional forum at Yale, sludietl at
Leningrad Stale University for
three semesters between 19H9
and 1991
LETTERS POLICY
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