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
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■ 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
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containing comments on topics of interest to the University
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