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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 22, 1999)
Perspectives Do what you will with this, it is a pressing issue More than 1,000 higher education advocates convened on the capi tal steps March 31 in a powerful rally. The rally, which in cluded bands, balloons and hoot ing participants, was the people’s way of saying we’ve had enough. We’ve had enough disinvest ment in higher education. We’ve had enough program cuts. We’ve had enough drastic increases in tuition. A decade of disinvestment is enough. Students have weathered sig nificant increases in tuition with an increase of more than 80 per cent from 1989 to 1996. From 1989-1996 the percent increase in tuition at Oregon public universities was: Uni versity of Oregon, 98 percent; Uregon State University, 100 percent; Portland State Univer sity, 79 percent; Western Ore gon University, 83 percent; Southern Oregon University, 85 percent; Eastern Oregon University, 90 percent; and Oregon Institute of Technolo gy, 78 percent. This far outpaces the average inflation rate, the average annual wage increase and the Oregon minimum wage. Increased tu ition affects enrollment rates, the number of students who can afford to go to school, the amount of money a student will borrow and the amount of time students have to work during their education. Oregon is at the top of the tu ition pile in the 13 western states. Without the $15 million for a tuition freeze that has been in cluded in both the governor’s and Senate president’s budgets, tuition will increase 5.2 percent per year. With this tuition in crease, enrollment can be ex pected to drop. Enrollment drops hint Commentary Matt Swanson Oregon’s stu dents and the Oregon Uni versity Sys -“-■■■■■■■■"I'lir "" tern. The undergraduate tuition freeze has already been recog nized as important by the gover nor, Senate President Brady Adams, House Speaker Lynn Snodgrass and many others. The Oregon University Sys tem has reworked its budget model as it was directed to do. The model was the product of two years of work by a task force on higher education that included members from the government, business and edu cation sectors. The budget model is designed to be mar ket-driven, more accountable to the state and more effective for students. The Oregon Student Associa tion is advocating for full fund ing of the Oregon University System budget model, including a tuition freeze. Funding the Oregon Univer sity System is fundamental for Oregon’s future. The more than 1,000 people who took time out of their day to rally in Salem realize the importance of higher education for Ore gon’s future. Forecasts estimate that 45 per cent of Oregon workers will need at least a bachelor’s degree in the workforce of 2010. It is vi tal for Oregon’s future economy that the Oregon University Sys tem be fully funded. The March 31 rally was suc cessful. It culminated in Senate President Adams and Speaker Snodgrass signing a $100 mil lion dollar check for the Oregon University System. The state’s investment in higher education is too low. This lack of support directly af fects the cost of tuition. Oregon University System students need a zero increase in instruc tional fees for the 1999-2001 bi ennium to keep them in school and out of debt. Matt Swanson is the ASUO state af fairs coordinator. Responses may he sent to asuostat@gladstone. uoregon.edu. Letters to the Editor Election outrage Unbelievable. F or those of you still hang ing onto a sliver of hope that our current stu dent government is not corrupt or incompe tent, please let it go now. OK, some parts aren’t, but the ones that are go big and it’s messing with some innocent students. I m talking about the ASUO Elections Board s decision to have a runoff between Wylie Chen and Dan Reid. Jessica Timpa ny, a Reid campaign supporter, filed a griev ance against Chen for distributing campaign materials in the residence halls. The Elec tions Board’s decision means they believe that Chen’s campaign had unfair access to the residence halls. In reality, Chen’s cam paign didn’t break any rules, it was just more intelligent. Reid could have had the same access had he had the foresight to use it. Chen/Anoushiravani got permission to dis tribute their campaign material in the resi dence halls. They read all of the rules and followed them religiously. No one wanted a repeat of last year’s paper wasting fiasco, so both candidates ran clean campaigns. The Elections Board is doing students a significant injustice and people need to know about it. If you’ve been apathetic, dis enchanted or jaded by student government, find it in yourself to care — VOTE. Read the Emerald’s coverage of the elec tions, write an e-mail to either candidate, arrange a meeting with them — figure out who you can trust. The people we elect have more power than the average student knows about. Serena Maria Selah Markstrom Journalism/Spanish OSPIRG misuses fees Reasons why you should vote no on OS PIRG: 1. A no vote does not mean you are anti environmental. It means you are tired of OSPIRG’s misuse of student incidental fee money. 2. OSPIRG’s budget reveals that the or ganization spent more than $88,000 on salaries for professional staff in Salem and Portland. Why isn’t that $88,000 be ing spent here on campus to benefit stu dents? 3. The EMU doesn’t charge rent, so how come OSPIRG’s budget shows $1,333 for rent off campus? 4. The 1997-98 OSPIRG budget reveals that only 22 percent of OSPIRG’s money stays on campus. This is reason alone to question its funding. Of this 22 percent, only 12 percent is seen by students in the form of publications, fliers, seminars, speakers, etc. Don’t you think that is irre sponsible? 5. OSPIRG claims to be an environmen tal organization, among other things. If this is true, why does OSPIRG print on neon pa per? Or print colored fliers that are much harder to recycle? This doesn’t seem very environmentally sound to me. These are just a FEW of the reasons why a no vote on OSPIRG is the wise choice. OSPIRG spends most of it off campus. Don’t you think there are better ways we could be spending $128,000? Courtney Konopacky Political Science/History %;# i fc ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ \ \ GENERAL ELECTIONS Polling Sites: EMU Amphitheater Gilbert Breezeway Chapman Hall Carson Hall * For absentee voting call 346-0611 VOTE ✓ VOTE ✓ VOTE ✓ ✓ in ✓
