Tuesday, July 2", 1999
Mr
V
W
»H
weather forecast
Today Wednesday
Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy
High 86, Low 55 High 85, Low 56
More water on the way
Amazon Pool’s impending renova
tion is the topic in today’s open public
meeting at theHilyard Center/PAGE 4
Ducks hungry lor repeat
The women’s basketball team
is eager to defend its co-Pac-10
championship /PAGE 5
r independent newspaper
Volume 101, Issue 11
University of Oregon
ww.dailyemerald.com
University, GTFF still at odds on contract
The GTFF is one step closer to
striking at the outset of fall term
after Friday’s unsuccessful talks
By Sara Jarrett
Oregon Daily Emerald
Nothing was resolved in health-care nego
tiations Friday between the Graduate Teach
ing Fellow Federation and the University.
A strike by the GTFF and the Oregon Public
Employees Union at the same time is now a real
possibility, said Ken Pendleton, GTFF health
care consultant for the summer and part of the
negotiation team. The OPEU is also currently in
mediation with the University about its contract
“GTFF members simply are not going to
accept that they will have to take either a sig
nificant pay cut or lose insurance all togeth
er,” Pendleton said.
The GTFF’s next step, therefore, will be
to “use every and any means at our disposal
to convince the University to keep health in
surance affordable,” said Yaju Dharmarajah,
GTFF vice president for University relations
and part of the negotiation team.
The University brought an analysis of the
GTFF’s last offer, made July 9, to the table
Friday. The proposal made at that time sug
gested the GTFF would take only a one-per
cent wage increase in an effort to create addi
tional funding for full health-care coverage
that would include spouses and dependents.
The University responded with its previ
ous proposal, offering to cover 51 percent of
the increase in health-care expenses.
The GTFF walked out of the meeting Friday
because the negotiation team felt it “explained
its offer of a composite plan to ad nauseum”
during the last meeting on July 9. There was
nothing left to discuss, Pendleton said.
According to Pendleton, the GTFF is asking
the University to consider die framework of the
composite plan, rgtjier than thinking of the
GTFF’s last proposal as its final offer, because
there are a lot of options within that framework.
Marian Friestad, dean of the graduate
school, “wasn’t even willing to discuss it,”
Pendleton said.
Friestad denied these accusations and
claims both time and money are the factors
hindering a resolution.
She said the summer negotiations were
supposed to involve just health insurance af
ter the University received petitions signed
by GTFs at the end of spring term that simply
asked for coverage of the 90-percent premium
increase of ODS Health Plans of Portland, the
Turn to NEGOTIATIONS, Page 4
Mariah Malcolm and her son Elijah sit on the steps of their house in Eugene. Both are bound for Queretaro,
Catharine Kendalt/Emerald
Mexico, for Mariah’s study abroad program.
foreign study becomes a family affair
Entire families can now benefit
from partaking in a UO
foreign-language program
By Sara Jarrett
Oregon Daily Emerald
The University will send approximately
3.4 percent of its student population to other
countries during the 1999-2000 school year.
Most will embark on these once-in-a-life
time journeys alone, but a few will take up
to three generations of their family with
them. Three student-parents will be study
ing with their children, in Ecuador during
fall term. Mariah Malcolm, 25, will study in
Queretaro, Mexico, 130 miles northwest of
Mexico City, with her 4-1/2-year old son,
Elijah, and her mother, Annie Moore.
There they will spend fall term immersed
in a culture that Mariah has spent much of
her college career studying as an internation
al studies major with a special interest in gen
der issues and Latin American studies.
Malcolm is going to Mexico through the
Interamerican University Studies Institute
that was founded in 1985 as an Oregon not
for-profit education^ oiganization. Robert
Jackson, former head of the romance lan
guages department of the University, is the
executive director and administers the pro
gram from IUSI’s home offices in Eugene.
Malcolm admits she could never dream
of doing anything like this without the
help of her mother. Moore is quitting her
job as a nurse to move to Queretaro with
her daughter to be her grandson’s nanny
and is not ruling out the possiblility of
staying there permenantly.
“She’s so amazing,” Malcolm said. “I’m
saying ’Thank you, mother, so much for
J
doing this. I couldn’t do this without you.’
And she’s saying, ‘No, thank you for hav
ing this great adventure. ’ ”
Rebecca Easton, the University’s inter
national education and exchange overseas
program coordinator, has also been espe
cially helpful to Malcolm through the
year-long application process.
“Rebecca totally encouraged me,” Malcolm
said. “She has a son that goes to school with
Elijah. She told me to sell myself^nd tell them
I have something valid to contribute. ”
Malcolm is “disappointed with the lack
of awareness of parents with kids on this
campus.”
Through her endeavor, she hopes peo
ple see that just because students might
have children, doesn’t mean they don’t
have a life and something to offer.
Turn to LANGUAGE, Page 4
Task force
to tackle
health care
A taskforce will examine ways
to provide affordable health
insurance for college students
By Sara Lieberth
Oregon Daily Emerald
On the suggestion of Chancellor joe Cox,
the Oregon University System is currently
in the process of forming a special task force
to study the issue of health insurance for
college students in the state.
Comprised of representatives from OUS
member campuses, the task force will exam
ine not only existing programs and their
costs but also will investigate ways to pro
vide affordable insurance in light of rising
health care premiums.
In a statement released by the OUS, Cox
said, “The cost of student health insurance
has risen just as the cost of employee health
plans have risen. Premium increases for stu
dent plans have ranged from 31 to 90 per
cent for this year alone.”
The task force will look into the programs
other state systems employ, whether a col
laboration of sorts can occur between them
and whether providers might be willing to
create better-suited and affordable coverage
for students in higher education.
With a first meeting scheduled for early
August, the task force is expected to work
through the end of the year and then submit
a report on its findings to the Oregon State
Board of Education in January.
Denise Yunker, human resources manag
er for the University chancellor’s office and
appointee to the task force, said as student
insurance costs continue to rise “at an un
believable rate,” it is a good time for the
state to look at this issue facing students.
“Just as any organization or corporation
might do, we’re taking a step back and ask
ing, ‘Are we dealing with this in the best
way possible?’ ” she said. “And if not, what
can be done to improve it?”
She said increased costs passed on from
health-care providers is one concern and
will be a subject of negotiation discussions
during this process.
At the University Health Center, students
may opt for one of two insurance offerings,
Turn to TASK FORCE, Page 3