Birth parents and adoptees differ over Measure 58
The measure would
abolish a law passed in
1957sealing adoptees’
birth certificates
By Jaime Vasconcelos
lor the Emerald
Birth parents and adult
adoptees have clashed over a bal
lot measure that would abolish an
Oregon law passed in the late
1950s that closed adoption
records.
State Ballot Measure 58 would
allow adoptees 21 years and older
to access their original birth cer
tificates. Since 1957, adoptees’
original birth certificates have
been sealed and replaced with
new certificates showing the
names of their adoptive parents.
The law was intended to protect
unwed mothers from the shame of
having a baby and their children
from the stigma associated with
adoption. But attitudes toward il
legitimacy and adoption have
changed during the last four
decades. More birth parents and
adoptees are making themselves
available should the other party
wish to contact them, said Mar
garet Godfrey, regional director for
Open Adoption and Family Ser
vices. Godfrey said she believes
the bill is righting a wrong that
took away the rights of adult
adoptees born before 1957.
The assurance of confidentiali
ty, however, is still important to
birth parents who have given their
children up for adoption.
"Some of these women have
built their lives around this
promise,” said Warren Deras of
Concerned Adoption Profession
als, a group of adoption social-ser
vice workers.
“These are now 60- or 70-year
old women who never told their
children or spouses,” Deras said.
“Relations would be seriously dis
rupted by this revelation.”
Helen Hill, a 43-year-old
adoptee who grew up in the
closed-record system, is the chief
petitioner for Measure 58.
“I know first hand the shame of
secrecy that
closed records
engender,” she
said.
Hill said adult
adoptees suffer
from a lack of in
formation. Many
adoptees be
tween the ages of
Veftc
BALLOT
MEASURE
30 and 60 have
no way to uncover important med
ical information about their genet
ic background.
“There is absolutely no medical
information available to these peo
ple,” Hill said.
But Deras said there are some sit
uations when disclosure would be
inappropriate and harmful to both
parties. When a woman has been
sexually assaulted, Deras said, the
child would be better off not know
ing the details of conception.
Deras, whose adopted daughter
is a freshman at the University,
said Measure 58 is unbalanced and
favors the adoptee. He also said
Measure 58 is unnecessary be
cause state law revisions in the last
decade have given adoptees new
ways of getting the information.
An Oregon statute requires
adoption agencies to keep volun
tary registers of both birth parents
and adoptees should they wish to
establish contact. Agencies must
also conduct searches for both par
ties upon request.
But Hill said these searches are
insufficient for two reasons. First,
the adoption search is expensive
($450). And second, the parties
have no way of knowing how thor
oughly the ^search was conducted.
The statute also requires that
non-identifying medical informa
tion be available to the adoptee
upon request. However, because
agencies have only been collecting
medical information from moth
ers for the last decade, only adopt
ed children 10 years and younger
can have this information. '
Hill said 6 percent of Oregon
residents do not have access to
their original birth certificate, a
right the rest of the population
takes for granted. She said this is a
violation of the 14th Amendment
and the Oregon Bill of Rights,
which states, “no law shall be
passed which excludes a group of
citizens from the same privileges
all others are granted. ”
“Above and beyond all of this is
a constitutional right that has been
violated in the case of adult
adoptees who have a fundamental
document withheld by the state of
Oregon,” Hill said.
Assistant dean of student life looks to 'be there’for students
oy LdUld DdKCI
Oregon Daily Emerald
There’s a new face in the student union
hall of the EMU. Troy Franklin isn’t a stu
dent, yet he can be found there late at night
organizing events or attending meetings.
His job is to be with the students as the new
assistant dean of student life.
Franklin is starting from scratch. His po
sition for multiethnic student programs is
new to this University. Franklin said the job
was created because of the Race Task
Force’s request for a staff member to facili
tate communication between the adminis
tration and ethnic student organizations.
Franklin spends his mornings in the Stu
dent Life office and his afternoons and of
ten his evenings in the student unions. He
said the hardest part of his job right now is
educating the campus about what he does.
“I’ve had several students come up to me
and ask, ‘Troy, what is it that you do?’”
Franklin said. “For me the first order of busi
ness is letting people know what I do.”
Spending time in the student unions
mentoring, giving advice and “being there
as someone who cares” is a big part of
Franklin’s job description.
While getting his undergraduate degree
from Central State University in Ohio,
Franklin said he realized what he wanted to
do was work on a university campus with
students.
Franklin received his Ph.D. in 1995 from
Iowa State in higher education administra
tion with a concentration in student affairs.
After working in public relations for several
years he went to Weber State University in
Ogden, Utah, and worked as a counselor for
African-American students for a year.
Franklin said on of the first things he no
ticed coming to Oregon is the activism on
campus.
“Students are very proactive; they take
charge,” he said. “They have strong advo
cate perspectives.”
Franklin sees his job at the University as
an opportunity to advocate for ethnic stu
dents and encourage diversity on campus.
Franklin said his job is to make the ad
ministration and community aware of the
needs of these diverse groups and work on
recruitment and retention.
"If we tend to keep neglecting cultural
groups and their contributions to this cam
pus they’re not going to come here, and en
rollment problems are going to get worse,”
Franklin said.
Franklin’s job is to help students build re
lationships with the administration and fac
ulty so “they can create a better environ
ment here,” he said.
Franklin said a trust relationship with
students is key to his success.
“If I support the students, 1 can’t go
wrong,” he said. “The trust factor and
building relationships with students,
spending time and being resourceful to
them is important.”
Franklin said his first year here is about
educating people about his job and figur
ing out what works on this campus. He said
that it isn’t easy but that he is already look
ing forward to next year.
“Students can succeed,” he said. “That’s
what student development is all about.”
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Undergraduate business
program gets restructured
By Sarah Skidmore
Oregon Daily Emerald
The undergraduate business
program has quietly waited its
turn.
After going unevaluated for
many years, the Charles H.
Lundquist College of Business
undergraduate program is finally
being restructured.
“While we felt fairly good
about it, we knew that there were
a lot of things we should do to
make it a lot better,” said Wendy
Mitchell, associate dean of acade
mic programs and director of un
dergraduate programs.
The primary objective of the re
structuring is to raise the overall
quality of the undergraduate pro
gram. Although the program is
recognized as one of the top 50 in
the United States, it has not been
treated accordingly, said Roger
Best, marketing professor on the
development task force.
“No one was really stepping
forward and saying, ‘I want to
make our undergraduate program
one of the best,’” Best said. "We
want to step up and move quick
er, faster, better and bolder.”
The restructuring has two fo
cuses: curriculum and student
support. The goals and focuses of
the plan were developed by a task
force comprised of student, facul
ty and business community rep
resentatives. The task force creat
ed focus groups to determine the
needs of the school from the stu
dent, faculty and the business
community points of view. The
plans were determined from the
results of the focus groups
Some changes are already un
derway, although the entire plan
will be completed by the end of
next year.
The curriculum restructuring
plans have many facets. Redesign
ing and replacing some of the cur
rent classes, adding additional
classes, adding a qualifying en
trance exam and restricting admis
sion into classes are some of the
steps in changing the curriculum.
By changing the curriculum,
particularly by requiring an en
trance exam and restricting en
trance to upper-division classes,
the number of business majors is
expected to drop, Mitchell said.
The business school would like
to see these students participate in
the minor programs, Mitchell
said.
The goal is to better meet the
needs of all the undergraduate
business school students, accord
ing to the business school. To fa
cilitate this, the student develop
ment portion of the plans were
developed.
Student support expands pro
grams for students and adds more
services to help students succeed
at the business school. Adding an
honors program, expanding the
options for business minors, and
helping with career planning are
some examples of how the school
plans to implement the changes.
As a result of these changes, the
business school would like to
have students walking out their
door that are well-educated, pro
fessional, and prepared for the
business world, said Mitchell.
“I think both the employer and
the student will feel much better
when that match is made after
they walk out the door,” Mitchell
said.