Thursday, July 8, 1999
Weather forecast
Today Friday
Sunny Partly Cloudy
^ High 84, Low 44 High 88, Low 51
Ducklings invade campus
IntroDUCKtion begins today with
seven summer sessions planned for
throughout/w/y/PAGE 3
Summer of Spike
Director Spike Lee’s newest
movie, “Summer ofSam,” is mak
ing controversial waves/PAGE 5
An independent newspaper
Volume 101, Issue 6
University of Oregon
www.dailyemerald.com
GTFs fighting
for health-care coverage
Following a
90-percent
climb in
premium
prices, the
GTFF and
University are
negotiating
By Sara Jarrett
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federa
tion is battling to protect its health care. In
negotiations with the University since June
1, the GTFF is back at the table Friday.
The coverage, through ODS Health Plans of
Portland, is in jeopardy because of a sudd en 90
percent increase in premium prices, according to
Yaju Dharmarajah, GTFF vice president for Uni
versity relations and part of the negotiation team.
The amount of the increase looks huge at
first, but the coverage is “more than appro
priately priced” if compared to other insur
ance companies, said Ken Pendleton, GTFF
health-care consultant for the summer and
part of the negotiation team.
There was also a 15-percent cap on insur
ance increases in the past, according to Paul
Prew, another member of the negotiation team.
“Instead of increasing gradually over time,
[the rise] hit really quick because the cap is
now off,” he said. “It seems'uutrageous, but
basically the University has been getting a
really great deal for the last two years. ”
The group also approached the University
with a theory that in the long run, it could
actually cost more not to cover the increase.
With the low wages GTFs are currently earn
ing, they think only the extremely sick will
be willing to pay for coverage. This drop in
participants would cause ODS to increase
their rates even more so it could make mon
ey. The University would end up paying
more to insure fewer people, said Tim
Adamson, a member of the negotiation team.
The current health plan, before the in
crease is implemented in the fall, requires
recipients to pay an added premium for de
pendent and spouse coverage. It is also non
applicable in the summer, regardless of
whether a GTF is teaching. This means it
could annually cost more than $1,000 for a
GTF to cover his or her family.
One proposal made by the GTFF asked the
University to pay the added increase and cover
the summer, for a total annual amount of
$1,900,000. The result would have been zero
cost to the recipient plus coverage for his or her
entire family. A second proposal asked the Uni
versity to cover at least 90 percent of the increase.
The University proposed an 80-percent
coverage of the increase.
“[That] was still way less than what we
need, but higher than what we expected from
the University,” said Lisa Oberbroeckling, an
other member of the GTFF negotiation team.
^ .. .[the rise]
hit really
quick because
the cap is
now off. ”
Paul Prew
GTF
Local group protests Navajo relocation
1 he Indigenous Support Coalition
of Oregon hosts a mtty supporting
Navajo rights in Arizona
By Sara Lieberth
Oregon Daily Emerald
In recognition of the 13th anniversary
of the July 6,1986, deadline for the forced
relocation of traditional Dine’h (Navajo)
Indians from their tribal lands in Black
Mesa, Ariz., local supporters held a press
conference and protest Wednesday on
the steps of the Federal Building in
downtown Eugene.
The Indigenous Support Coalition of
Oregon (ISCO) hosted the rally and per
formed a skit depicting two Bureau of Indi
an Affairs police officers repeatedly im
pounding the sheep of two “grandmothers”
at the booming insistence of a 15-foot Uncle
Sam/representative of the Peabody Coal
Company totem pole. The enactment sym
bolized the unfair treatment protesters be
lieve indigenous peoples have suffered for
the sake of corporate greed.
“There is ethnic cleansing happening in
the United States as we speak,” one protest
er said. “This is your tax dollars at work. ”
The conflict arose from the Relocation
Acts of1974 and 1986, in which both Hopi
and Navajo tribes were issued deadlines
to “voluntarily” relocate from the lands
they have occupied for nine generations.
The initial deadline was scheduled for
July 6, 1986, and although more than
10,000 Indians have moved, some 150
families refuse to do so, continuing to live
on the land partitioned to them in 1882.
The next deadline is February 1,2000.
A number of austerity measures, includ
ing water diversion, sacred burial desecra
tion and livestock impounding, have been
implemented by multi-jurisdictional law
enforcement agencies against the Indians.
Herding sheep is the principal means of
subsistence for the Navajo.
The impetus for relocation is alleged to
have come from the coal-mining compa
ny that has mined the northernmost tip
of the reservation since 1966. It is expect
ed to purchase the mineral-rich reserva
tion lands if total relocation occurs.
Wednesday also marked the 33rd an
Turn to NAVAJO, Page 3
University
grads create
pilot show
KEZI airs “In Visions ” at 5:30
p.m. on Sunday and will then
decide whether to pick it up
By Jack Clifford
Oregon Daily Emerald
Some days you wake up, have your cof
fee, go put in the ol’ eight hours at the office,
then return home with not much to show
Utner days you wake
up, have your coffee,
then work to accom
plish one of your life
goals.
Two recent Universi
ty graduates are taking
the latter approach,
with high hopes intact.
Valerie Stiwell and
Mary Ann Fabry are the
blood, sweat and tears
behind a new local tele
vision venture called
“Eugene Energy!” that
the pair has been nur
turing for nearly two
years.
Their endeavors are
realized Sunday, when
Eugene’s ABC affdiate,
KEZI, airs the first of
perhaps a series of
shows that will offer in
FABRY
STILWELL
sight and thought-provoking commentary
on Lane County’s most pressing issues.
“People spend their whole life trying to
break into TV, and we did it in a year and a
half,” said Fabry, the day after filming the
pilot show’s studio segment. “And I was sit
ting at the breakfast table this morning, say
ing, ‘OK, what’s next?’ ”
“I still can’t believe it,” added Stilwell, as
the high-octane duo discussed where it is,
where it’s been and where it hopes to soon
be on its journey.
Fabry, who in the spring received her
master’s degree in sociology, and Stilwell, a
1996 graduate with her bachelor’s in jour
Turn to INVISIONS, Page 8