Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 19, 1995)
EDITORIAL Students needed in plan revisions At .1 time when tuition is rising and programs are being t ut. it is important that students have a powerful voice in making policy dec is ions at the University. The students pay many tuition dollars to attend the University and get the best education they can. For that, they expect their interests will have representation in the decision making processes that occur on the c ampus. However, at Wednesday night's University Senate meet ing.the fat ulty t<m >k steps to dispel that notion. The number of student representatives fur the now Universe t\ Senate system was cut from the present number of 1H down to five The Governance Reform Committee, started last spring to look at governance changes, pro posed that nine students be included. This is a poor decision on the part of the faculty. Stu* dents are the .mein reason this i Iniversity is here They are also tin; largest group on campus and most affected by any policy that comes out of Inis governing body It stands to reason they should have a significant share of the der ision making power in the Senate, But things are not as they should be i no initial proposal tor in© new i wiversity Senate was headed in the right direction ll a Hot tod students suffi cient representation in the new system On May 2. the governance reform committee proposed 52 person Senate to the Assembly with i •• • senators, This was a big improvement from IK repre sentatives on the existing 1.200 member University Assembly- The proposal allowed students the chance to voice their concerns and gave them the opportunity to have an offer t on decisions. We were headed in the right direction until Tom Uivon, a linguistic professor who helped draft the amendment to lower the number of students, said although the University Senate needs to solicit a con siderable amount of input from the students, to give the students 17 percent of the vote is excessive. There is nothing excessive about that number it isn't even proportionate to the number of students on this campus. Nine students, 17 pen out of the vote, is ado quatn representation for almost 17,tX)0 people. The rest of the representation comes from only a few thousand faculty, staff and administration members. Mark Khinard. ASUO vice president and the only stu dent to sit cm the governance reform committee, sat on the side of the students. He objected to the change say ing students need to have a voice Indeed, students must be able to influenttheir < orn munity and their school. it is true this new system does nothing to advance stu dent input in decisions Each of the student representa tives will have ;t,4()0 constituents as opposed to 1,888 for nine representatives. it would be wise for faculty and staff members to rethink this proposal and < hangu it back to the way it was originally Students should not tie denied a voice in their own fall1 at the University. Oregon Doily PO BO I )n« tuOtNt Ofl£&Ow *r«o *'*«» 'W-' f •* >>.»•• * Mkr-rKJat) f <>urir»Q »*« tcftw y«Mf iv'Xj T ,V\1 TNtfada* tNs b*y tN* C^C^iX’ D#y t 'r^aM Co UK <H tN» IM»v«*»4y 0* (>«NQOO. t 0«OOn *Nl £‘***##3 Optf'dlOa Of »h# IM»v4wa*ty wrt* ©•?* t»* At $u4« 300 Of tHe £ ft' Memo; .tl t.«#'---:y* £W) i% a n^«»mb©r at IN» AAiiOoatvd IN? i <* pr>vati» property ?h* ««aw«^ jomowoi or um o* papor* ** proa-ecutattf# try tw Editor-In-Ch*#t **> So<0 ' tan or ECMlOrWM Editor N*w» Aft Eaito» Fr****nc« Editor 1-MvxJ I nty r, •toWxi .hit1 P&fUAy Utft BatixwHk' t (jito# Kob<* « Sport* Cditof 0»t* Met; Supplement* Etfittw 1 'H» Night Editor €**<**' JV *a Afttociate fcdJtof* * Ca; tifro Sr* >?* ‘ Go^tt/nme- £ 4c*.?«* Mvt f .*»&•<!» - Cotaon f'ofihj Hsjhet iauc&ionfAjnf^.fir&Qn Hvw% Staff Sr«v* A*t*j-, flegp.4 Brow Convoy 0*vw>pOfi. Pnmo f <y-Urw*. ’ ’ •*• • * . ’ <". * ra *-"•> t\m S*arwx*'*4 M*! • Mas W.tVrte. M,v* Mfc 1 y*», Pat'* * M •• '0*13. tk*-> Mo«t*ufc. tastah* Mk.-’---‘y*>«*ery -rt M. -.*•>’ Hty'VpfeJ Vw> R.v S^apartl Paul V*r* Sc*** Stan v*>4n S? ”•«** MfW.i V •■•« Met*") Ss ***.-• K^n W«m, B# ar» A .; • acfc. l«* ?*£!*"» G«rvef*J VL*n*y€« fW$ Advftrtifttng Dlf«<U>r M..t * Production M«f>*ger M»c^u«o U^r.-. AdvtrUilftg A Ar^^fc- A m Bo< Mjrco Ovr^ fo^jt fo» Hu -«l M&imat* lyon Jerwrty Md.vM, &.v.*n »W Mt«c*sla«JI K<*?wrrj Cl»»»ifWKi fW**> Merchant MafMitj** Kyi# Dav-.s Jo* 5o*«n Dr ft tn button Jo**n l;>'*j *'pok' fLftfcOC/ Graham Stmpaon Buftirvftftft : Cartx>' »• \'i»«v v Judy Cckvv.:", Production Don*,» VLCobb. ProdUrfton Cco-J^afur Staw'A t*?* Gduftnoy, IVaO Jbftft. Mo*y McCftrta. J«»v‘.i»«r Roland, Clayton Yaa Ntwt/oom Butin«M Off vet 34ft-MU 34ft 5512 Oiipiay Adverting Cl**Slft«d Advertising >4*3712 346-043 I AM NOT IR R-ELEVAWT. IL. mmm f « t / WOW m€V OoM'r I_V^£MfWBfR Kf A(-f TH^T MOPf WMtMfifS VW ■ LETTERS Thanks, Brian? Many thanks am dm* to Brian Wntiwi k for his attempt to i lar ifv the various meanings of i on ••orvatism [ODI May Jfi) With that prefect out of th« way, I hoj»* that now Mr Womack might think aliout undertaking an exam ination of his own views of lib eral i sin Mis < oluinn of Mas lb expos es w hat I think has been a prob lem with his writing all year long he hasn't got a due what liberal ism is. either generally or for sjte < ifit; individuals on thiftCAmpus This is made clear by his ridiculous <.(aim; daring to say that multiculturolism has some flaws or i npilalism is n good thing, certainly means that one is not a liberal, i bis is in line with Ins habit of implying that "liber als" m Eugene march in mindless lockstep for causes that any thinking person would ns ognize ns unreasonable. Tins sort of myopic caricatur ing of mitt’s opposition m.n make good t opy. but it also makes it hard for me to take his views seri ously. In fact, liberalism as a political ideology is historically associ ated with capitalism Liberals are t apitalisls. not Marxists Liberals do not all share a single coherent vision of muhit ulturalisnc. some thing that Mr Womack might have figured out if he actually tried to talk to jx-ople with whom he disagrees rather than insult ing them If Mr Womack intends to con tinue writing opinion columns in the future. I would suggest that he make less use of misinformed anecdotes and do a better job of actually informing himself before going into spew mode, Ken Kirby Philosophy Union Diaries Maybe you may or may not know that today's hottest young Hollywood star is Hi-year-old Leonardo DiCapria, starring in the movie "The Basketball Diaries." a movie about the grit ty life of a teenager's downward spiral into the world of drug addiction. Well, I'd like to tell my story 1 «-«!! it "The Union Diaries," and It goes like this: I am just one of 17,000 QPKIJ meml>ers on strike and 1 .'00 of us work at the t fniversity We are former welfare single-parent mothers who earn St.100 a month (keep in mind all wages are Indore taxes) with cost-of-liv ing expenses to lie met everyday Hut your 12-year-old daughter tells us to stay out on the picket line "Do it for me. Mom." she tells you each day We are 40-somethings on the pick**! line who work at the Ph\ s u.al Plant and donate our day s wages to ()PKU s 1 hardship Fund. We :ire women who provide quality t.hildi are at the HMt Childcare and Development Con ter s seven sites on t .unpus and off with some of us earning as lit tle as $1,100 a month. Who i anw atiout those children out of tare this week ? Hut we also have families to feed We .ire OPEU rnemhers w ho rallied on Tuesday. May 0. at On* gon's state Capitol in Salem, w ho listened to the few supportive state legislators who have a con scious and haven't sold out to big corporate business, who are steamrolled by the vast Repub lican majority who continue to fiercely write anti-labor, anti union legislation These Republican politicians want to give corporations anoth er $153 million tax break (a 50 percent tax i ut) And they say there is not money for state employee salaries We are Oregon's state employ ees who are suffering a two-year wage freeze and vet have s«en the ( ost-of-living increase 3 percent to 3.5 percent each year Our pay lags behind comparable jobs in the private and public sta tor by 10 to 20 pen ent, respectively Wo fate a 0 percent pay rut Imm ause the statu voted tor Ballot Measure H (narrowly defeated by some 900 votes) On July I. state workers will pin for their own retirement Benefits. Benefits that were given to us to replai e the sting of the wage freeze but now soon to be taken away. We are Of’KU workers who know state revenues are up l‘l percent and know the budget sur plus is $'>4H million. We are proud state workers who spoke with our state repre sentatives and state senators in Salem on a cloudy, overcast day and were told it's okay to be on the poverty line, that we’re all "a bunch of lazy asses" and if we don't like it. “get another job" and "rest in peace." We are on the pit ket line in front of our work sites as early as 7 .to a.m. and receive coffee and cookies from ASl K). listen to the University faculty tell us of their loyal support and shake hands . w ith President I tiiv e I iohum.iv er ns we rally through Johnson Hall. But we also hear some 30 per- * cent of us have crossed the pick et lines around the state bei ause they have bills to pay and fami lies to feed. We are not every stereotype you may have heard of a union worker We an* you, Oregon, who want fairness and justice and miss being on the jol»s we proudly tare about doing We yvnn! justice We wanted it yesterday, we want it today and we will want it tomorrow We want you to mad this diary, and then never look at us the same way you may have looked at us before Victoria Bolz Assistant Childcare Teacher, EMU CCOC, Westmoreland Preschool ■ LETTERS POLICY The Oregon Daily Emerald will attempt to print all letters containing comments on topics of interest to the University community The Emerald reserves the right to edit any letter for length or style.
