WILDERNESS FEES
Protest in Bend
About 50people rallied in Bend Monday
to voice their concern over what they call
the corporate slant of the Forest Service
PAGE 4
SPORTS
Cox is making the changes
The Emeralds rookie center fielder has had to
adjust to a neu> town, a neu’ league and a new
kind of baseball bat to get by in Eugene
PAGE 5
TUESDAY, JULY 28. 1998
TODAY
Mad Duckding)
Theatre has an 11
a.m. show on the
Robinson Am
phitheater laum.
WEATHER
Today
Sunny
I ligh 96. Low 62.
Wednesday
Sunny
High 92. Low 61.
Young student excels in Japanese
An 11-year-old taking
summer session said she isn’t
daunted by classes with
students twice her age
Amy Goldhammer
Oregon Daily Emerald
Among the many summer session stu
dents trying to survive the heat and won
dering how they’re going to get through
the next three weeks and eighteen cred
its, one stands a little apart from the rest.
Eva Sylwester could be classified as an
average 11-year-old. She plays video
games, likes to draw, has three birds and
loves the Beatles. So of course she has
chosen to spend her summer, not run
ning around and playing, but studying
Japanese at the University.
Steve Sylwester, Eva’s father, said she
has always been one step ahead when it
comes to education.
“She taught herself to read when she
was two years old,” Steve said.
Eva’s parents said they felt the public
education system was holding her back.
Around her second-grade year, they ap
plied for her acceptance at an accelerat
ed school in Eugene.
“You have to submit to a lottery and it
doesn’t matter if your child should be in
this school or that school,” Steve said.
“It’s by luck of the draw. If you’re in,
you’re in. If you’re not, you’re not.”
When Eva wasn’t chosen in the lotteiy,
her parents turned to the Yujin Gakuen
School, which focuses on computers and
Japanese.
“My wife did not want to consider the
option of home schooling, so we looked
at their Japanese immersion program,”
Steve said.
So Eva learned Japanese.
This summer, Eva is in second-year
Japanese at the University, currently
maintaining an A average in her 200-lev
el courses.
“I wanted to keep up on my Japanese,
so my dad suggested I take classes here,”
Eva said. “I just had to take a placement
test to see what level I would study at
[this summer].”
Eva said she doesn’t want to let her
Japanese go to waste and hopes to visit
Japan one day.
“I’d like to go,” Eva said. “It’s kind of
Turn to JAPANESE, Page 4
LAURA GOSS/Emerald
Eva Sylwester’s father, Steve, suggested she take summer classes at the University.
Chaney’s life
celebrated by
family, friends
Community members gathered
Friday to remember the unique
University anthropology
professor who died last week
By Peter Broaden
Oregon Daily Emerald
Friday’s memorial service for University
anthropology professor Richard Paul
Chaney was reflective. Friends and family
filled St. Thomas More Catholic Church for
the service.
A mass was held in memory of the pro
fessor who died July 20 of a heart attack.
The service concluded with an open mi
crophone for people to come forward and
share their feelings and stories about
Chaney.
The stories told of humor, elation and
spirit.
Chaney’s next-door neighbor described
how she and Chaney extinguished a fire on
a new section of his house, doing so with
out calling the fire department or waking
anyone inside the home.
One of his long-time colleagues de
scribed how Chaney had wall-papered a
room in his house with aluminum foil,
leaving rough spots for texture.
A more recent student of Chaney's re
membered the dialogues that would extend
for hours with Chaney. The student left one
six-hour session to find that his car had
been towed.
The time of sharing brought out many
doleful chuckles along with an abundance
of tears for Chaney’s passing.
Graduate student Bill Stephens com
mented, “Richard was a higher example as
a person ... he used to say, ‘Who do you say
I am?’”
Almost everyone who shared mentioned
Chaney’s energy and spirit as a person. He
was a person who will be remembered and
felt as much as he will be missed, they
said.
“Surely goodness and mercy will follow
me for all of my days," Rev. Vincent Benoit
read from the Old Testament’s Psalm 23.
“And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
for years to come.”
Non-custodial parents may not have to pay tuition
A wide effect
could be felt if
the state
appeals court
upholds a
previous
ruling
By Charles E. Beggs
The Associated Press
SALEM — A dispute between two divorced par
ents led to an appeals court hearing Monday on
whether a parent can be obliged by law to help pay
college expenses.
Marianne Groom, ex-wife of Dennis Crocker of
Portland, took the case to the state Court of Appeals
after Crocker won a ruling that a law requiring such
support payments is invalid.
Multnomah County Judge Paula Kurshner last
fall overturned the law as unconstitutional. She
agreed with Crocker that the law violates equal pro
tection provisions of the state and federal constitu
tions because it gives privileges to adult children of
divorcees that aren’t received by comparable chil
dren whose parents are married.
Her ruling for now affects only the single case.
But officials said it could have a wider impact if the
appeals court goes along with the trial court.
A brief submitted by state attorneys speculates
that eliminating the law could make the obligation
to support 18- to 21-year-old students "the respon
sibility of the state.”
Crocker and Groom were divorced in 1987. A
court ordered Crocker in 1995 to financially help
his oldest daughter with her education.
He brought the legal challenge when his ex-wife
attempted in 1997 to get similar aid for a middle
daughter, who was 18 at the time.
The state says non-custodial parents can be re
quired to pay support until a child is 21 under cer
tain conditions, including that they attend college
and maintain at least a C average.
Barry Admamson, an attorney for Groom, said
the law doesn’t make support a duty but gives
judges discretion.
The attorney general’s office, in a brief filed with
the court, said that laws on distributing benefits
based on marital status will survive challenges “if
they are a responsible attempt by the Legislature to
address a perceived problem.”