Oregon Daily
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1993
EUGENE. OREGON
VOLUME 94, ISSUE 96
Court rules fees
unconstitutional
j The University of California can no longer
require students to fund ideological groups
SAN FRANCISCO (API — Forcing students to help fund student
politic*! groups and lobbying is uim onstituiiena! m ausa it fort es
them to pay for causes with which they disagree, the California
Supreme Court said.
The court, over a blistering dissent, ruled the University of Cali
fornia cannot make students pay part of a mandatory $21 a year fee
for ideologically oriented campus organizations
For example, the five-justice majority said, groups whose expens
es are reimbursed by the UC Berkeley lee include both Berkeley
Right to Life and the Campus Abortion Rights Action League. To
force students who favor or oppose abortion rights to fund a group
they despise violates their freedom of expression, the court said.
Justice Edward Pnnelli acknowledged that political at tivity < an
serve an educational function
"At some point, however, the educational benefits that a group
offers become incidental to the group's primary function of advanc
ing its own political and ideological interests," he said
Panel I i declined to draw the line himself but said the university
must do so and must let students withhold fees that subsidize polit
ical activities.
Dissenting Justice Armnnd Arabian said the majority showed a
'shot king ignorance of the university s educational mission, which
includes exposing students to controversial ideas.
The distinction between "educationally benefh ial and ideo
logical” speech is false, and "fraught with peril to the academic free
dom of the university and to the right of all Americans to think and
speak freely," wrote Arabian, joined by Justice Stanley Mosk
For example, he asked, would an “educational or 'political label
he placed on a film by a Chinese student group about Tiananmen
Square, a student forum on minority admissions, or a leaflet urging
UC to sell its holdings in South Africa?
UC Berkeley collects the $21 activities fee to support student gov
ernment, which uses part of the $600,000 for 150 student groups,
ranging from folk dance clubs to campus political organizations I he
14 groups whose funding was challenged by conservative students
over a decade ago included chapters of Greenpeace, the Sierra Club
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Smile while you tile
Pnolo by I
Physical Plant employee Art Lund repairs the tile around Lawrence Fountain Thursday
Fwpnoio
Student* at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology experi
ence the great outdoors.
Coastal students ride wave of outdoor experience
□ Applications to study at the coast
are being accepted for spring term
By Colleen Pohlig
Emerald Associate Editor
Taking a break from his research project, iimior lake
Wagner perched himself on a fallen tree in the middle
of a clear-cut in Charleston on the Oregon (.oast
Suddenly feeling a pair of eyes on him, Wagner
hopped off the tree and gazed upward pist in time to see
a Croat Horned Owl swoop from a dead tree a few feet
from him and gracefully glide across the sky. leaving
Wagner awestruck
Lessons and experiences like this one. which took
place outside of the classroom at the University-owned
Oregon institute of Marine Biology, are far more educa
tional than those learned from books in stuffy class
rooms on campus, OIMB students said.
"It was the single best educational experience of my
life." said senior history major Chris Ball "All of your
classes are interconnected — political science, biology
— all of your classes focus on the same region. It's real
ly hanus on."
The program is launching into its twentieth year tins
spring, and for those wanting to experience an interdis
ciplinary program combining marine biology, political
science, cartography and landscape architecture, appli
cations are now being accepted for spring term.
The program is located in the small town of
Charleston about 120 miles west of Coos Hay. Program
Director Jerry Medler. a politic nl science professor, said
there is usually an equal number of men and women,
and the program's limit is 40 students
Students live in the dorms, but unlike the University
campus experience, ()IMH students and the four profes
sors eat, live and learn together
"The program is unique because it's a team teai lung
environment whore instructors get together with other
instructors and students and all learn from eac.h other."
Medler said.
Because the program is interdisciplinary, all mu|ors
are encouraged to apply, Medler said
"We've had a remarkable variety of majors; we're not
just looking for biology majors." Medler said. "It's not
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WEATHER
Light showers are possible in
the earlv morning, highs will
run in the upper 50s.
Today in History
One year ago. the U.S House
of Representatives authorized
an investigation into whether
the 1980 Reagan-Bush cam
paign conspired with Iran to
delay release of the American
hostages
CLINTON REORGANIZING AID
WASHINGTON |AP) - President Clinton s plan to let college students
repay education loans through community sendee will be phased in gradu
ally. not launched as a nationwide initiative, a White House aide said
Thursday.'
'It was always intended to be phased in. but I think the president's com
mitted to it." said Press Secretary Dee Myers. Clinton proposed a nation
wide community sendee plan during the campaign.
Presidential assistant Eli Segal said Clinton wants to avoid a 'massive
new federal program' and is instead considering measures to strengthen
existing sendee programs.
SPORTS
The Oregon men s basketball team will travel to Corvallis
Saturday night to face Oregon State in round one of the Civil
War.
The Ducks are in the midst of an eight-game losing streak
this season and are stuck in the cellar of the Pec-10.
The Beavers started out winning their first five Par-10
games, and were in first place, but have since slipped to 5-3
in the conference.
Scott Haslun has led Oregon State this season with 17
points and eight i abounds a game
Oregon has not won a Pac-10 games since Keb 15.1092.
when it defeated California at McArthur Court.