EDITORIAL
Close Uni versity
when roads unsafe
When snow began falling over Eugene late Sunday
evening, dozens of school children who stayed awake
long enough to watch wore cheering, gleefully awaiting
the next day’s promise of snowball fights and sledding.
Watching over their children's shoulders, parents
cringed at the thought of braving Icy roads on the way to
work the next morning, or at the thought of baby-sitting
kids kept home by a stew of school dosings.
Hut even when those schools shut down citywide and
the freeway system was frozen over, the University
decided to remain open, maintaining its longstanding
tradition of teaching classes come hell or high water —
or. ns in this case, come t>*inch drifts of fluffy white stuff.
That’s a tradition that needs to change.
In the old days, most University students lived within
walking distance of campus. That number has been
dwindling steadily over the years, and now only 35 per
cent of the student body (.an make it to < nmpus on foot
That loaves the other 55 to bravo the dangerous streets
and overpasses and try to make it to school.
As anyone who actually went to class on Monday
knows, a good portion of that percentage was not willing
to take that risk And. as it happens, a number of pro
fessors weren't exactly willing, either; classes dosed
down all over campus lor lack of an instructor to teach
them.
These students and professors knew what the Univer
sity administration apparently does not — that a day's
worth of classes is not worth risking your life, your car
or your new Birkenstocks. Two University employees
were injured just walking around on campus yesterday,
according to the Office of Public Safety — victims of a
broken wrist and a broken ankle. Who knows how many
students were hurt?
Of course, there are always a few Midwest natives on
campus who laugh every time Eugene gets a few inches
of snow and, as a result, the whole town shuts down.
Four inches, they laugh. You're closing for four ini hes?!
But the fact Is, Eugene isn't prepared to handle even
that. The city has only six trucks available to sand the
roads, and even working 24 hours a day, they can't get to
most of the minor streets and roadways.
What’s more, most Eugene drivers don't have a clue as
to how to drive in the snow. We don't get enough snow
to bo experienced at traveling in it. so four inches of
snow will cause as many accidents here as a foot of snow
will do in Minnesota.
If this University will start the term a day late to
accommodate Rose Bowl travelers, in order to help them
get homo safely, it ought to he willing to close down the
University when so much snow falls.
Besides, with so many professors and students staying
homo anyway, a close-down policy would only make
official what's already happening — unofficially.
And. of course, we have a right to snowball fights and
sledding, too.
Oregon Daily
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OPINION
Orphanages best option for some kids
Pw i VanSkku
It's hard for me to agree with
anything Newt Gingrich ever
has to say. Hut he might actu
ally have something in his
orphanage concept Now. before
you get all disappointed with
"vet another die-hard liberal is
making concessions to the other
side.'' maybe I should explain
my logic
Children have long been with
out rights. Even in our “enlight
ened" age. we still (mat children
as if they are property, some
thing undeserving of our nesptai
and social attention.
When adults gel a divorce, too
often the kids in the marriage
suffer just as much, if not more,
than the parents seeking separa
tion. Lack of proper medical
coverage for poor mothers and
the high cost of abortion have
created more and more unwant
ed children and/or children
whose parents i,an't afford them.
With the prospect of the with
drawal of entitlement funding,
children and their single parents
are going to get the short end of
the stick again Not that the
refection of social funding is
going to solve any problems,
either
Despite what Chris |on»s,
mathematics major, may say in a
letter to the Emerald (Feb. 5),
increasing defense readiness,
building a supercollider or send
ing humans to Mars isn't going
to cut down on the illiteracy rate
or lift any one American out of
poverty If anything, it will make
things worse by taking money
from those welfare-dependent
parents whose children would
starve otherwise.
Therefore, considering the
number of hom«kids and
thorn now surviving in abusive
or unloving family situations,
something needs to be done to
give some structure to these
young adults' lives
Foster t are doesn't quite do
the job anymore. It is still, for
the most part, successful. Chil
dren live with parents who are
typically si retmed for criminal
record*, and interviewed pretty
thoroughly for their foster-care
ability These children live with
those parents until they are
adopted or grow up anil move
out on their own.
Unfortunately, many children
suffer the typical foster-care fate:
they are bounced around
between sets of foster parents for
years until they are of age.
Often, this cause* behavior in
young children that is so unruly
that the parents don't know how
to handle them and the problem
is exacerbated as the foster par
ents plead for them to be trails
(erred. The problem is even
worse with older teenagers for
whom the damage may have
been irreparably done
As an Adopted child myself, 1
wa%4f>dred the pain of multiple
foster parents: I was taken in at
an extremely you n g age And
Born this perspective, 1 can see
some advantage to an institu
tionalized orphanage system
1 hope, however, that Newt
Gingrich and his House of Rep
resentative cronies realize the
cost of such a system
Orphanages would have to be
extremely well-funded. Care
providers would have to be
extensively trained in child
care, both for infants and for
older teens. Orphanages would
have to be continually moni
tored for quality of care and
standard of living. Overcrowd
ing could not even be consid
ered as a possibility in these
houses, and attending school
would be mandatory in the
extreme.
Contrary to what Bob Parker
fears in his letter {ODE, Feb, 5),
a well-managed orphanage sys
tem would not "break up fami
lies,” just to put them in "gov
ernment orphanages," Where do
you think children are taken
when their parents are arrested
for abuse or child neglect?
County hospital's child services,
probably. If anything would lend
to a child's moral corruption,
sending them to an institution
that fits most kids' conceptions
of hell is one of the best ways
Oliver Twist horror stories am
what frighten many people
about an orphanage system;
children were put into an envi
ronment not unlike a work
camp Kids were told to work
from the time they were able to
walk until they left as adults.
The "spare the rod and spoil the
child" philosophy was the pre
vailing rule for the children, pre
sumably to build discipline.
In a modern-day orphanage,
children would be given the
chance at some stability in their
lives It was that lack of stabili
ty and consistent attention and
love that caused the failure in
both the orphanage and the fos
ter-care system. The consistent
environment, the availability of
funds for a life equal with at
least a middle-class lifestyle,
and child-care providers who
would actually provide a loving,
supportive environment are
what would make the orphan
ages successful homes for the
forgotten young members of our
society.
Very often, we can't blame
children for their bad behavior
or attitudes. As much as we
would like to feel it is not their
fault, iwinulls are responsible for
almost everything a child
becomes If a child doesn’t have
parents who care enough to try
and give the liest things possible
for that child, an orphanage may
be the best second-chance for
them
Paul Von Sickle is a columnist
for the Emerald.