Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012, May 12, 2000, Page 8, Image 8

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    Feminist Fair
Live Music
Culottes & Shelakattack
11-12 pm
Stand-up Comedy
Lynn Sconyers
12:30 pm
Book Signing
Stone Soup Cartoonist Jan Eliot
Signing her new book “You Can’t Say
Boobs on Sunday”
And much more
TODAY!
EMU Amphitheater 11-3 pm
— Fund Raising Event for Planned Parenthood —
Brought to you by ASUO Exec
Gore criticized for silence
By Landon Hall
The Associated Press
PORTLAND — Seeing a chance
to put A1 Gore on the spot when he
brings his presidential campaign to
Oregon, rival George W. Bush and
two Republican senators from the
Pacific Northwest on Thursday
criticized the vice president for not
taking a clear stand on breaching
dams on the Snake River.
“My opponent ought to take a
position on this important issue,”
Bush said in an interview with
KGW-TV in Portland. “And the fact
that he will not may indicate what
kind of president he will be.”
Republicans Slade Gorton of
Washington and Gordon Smith of
Oregon took to the Senate floor to
also call on Gore to speak his
mind on a proposal to remove
four dams on the Snake River.
“He’s quite comfortable telling
the people of South Carolina what
flag to fly over their statehouse,”
Gorton said. “But when it comes to
an issue of vital importance to our
regional economy, the vice presi
dent pretends that he hasn’t made
up his mind when I fear he has.”
Gore will stop here Friday
morning to give a speech at Port
land Community College. About
150 students and their families
will attend the invitation-only
gathering, where Gore plans to fo
cus on his plans for preserving
Social Security.
“ A1 Gore is coming to discuss is
sues facing working families,” said
David Chai, spokesman for the vice
president’s Oregon campaign.
Oregon has voted Democratic
in the last three presidential elec
tions, but Gore and Bush are in a
dead heat in the polls.
Retirement has become a divi
sive issue already in the cam
paign, but assisted suicide and
dam-breaching are more pressing
issues for Oregonians. And so far
Gore isn’t touching them.
A bill in Congress would block
the Death With Dignity Act, Ore
gon’s groundbreaking law that al
lows the terminally ill to take
their own lives with help from a
doctor’s prescription.
Democrat Ron Wyden has
threatened a filibuster to stop the
legislation, while his fidend Gordon
Smith joined his fellow Republi
cans and turned against the bill.
The dam-breaching issue is just
as thorny for Gore. Environmen
talists and some biologists say
breaching four dams on the Snake
River would boost survival rates
of salmon, but others say that
would threaten their livelihoods.
Gov. John Kitzhaber, who has
had a chilly relationship with Gore,
is in favor of breaching and wants
Gore to take a stand on the issue.
The Democratic Party leader
ship in Oregon wants Gore to
weigh in, even if only to call for
further study. The longer he stays
out of the fray, the more Bush can
claim that Gore is waffling on the
subject.
“What the American people
want is a leader who doesn’t try to
take polls and focus groups to de
cide an issue,” Bush said Thursday.
“I believe that we should not
breach the dams in Eastern Ore
gon and Eastern Washington,” the
Texas governor added. “We can
figure out ways to use our tech
nologies to enhance the salmon,
while understanding the human
needs, the human concerns and
the benefits that those dams bring
to Eastern Oregon.”
“We can have our power, and
there’s many things we can do
short of destroying our energy in
frastructure,” Smith said.
Gore is under pressure from all
sides. A coalition of environmental
groups is also urging him to state
his views on National Forest poli
cies, such as whether he supports
the logging of old-growth forest.
The environmental groups have
invited Gore to speak at a rally in
Pioneer Courthouse Square, but he
is not expected to attend.
“We see a public commitment
as essential for A1 Gore to pick up
progressive voters in the West,”
said Donald Fontenot of the Cas
cadia Forest Alliance.
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Grants
continued from page 1
organized its own effort in con
junction with that of the OSA and
contributed roughly 500 of those
letters.
Despite having been asked for
$670,000, the Emergency Board
released only $260,000 for the
grant. John Wykoff, communica
tions director with the OSA, said
that because enrollment in Ore
gon colleges and universities has
been increasing, this amount was
just enough to push coverage up
to the set goal of 82 percent of stu
dents.
“We were hoping to exceed that
a little in the interim, but we did
n’t,” Wykoff said.
At its inception in 1971, the
program was intended to cover a
much higher percentage of a stu
dent’s cost of education than it
does now, OSAC spokesman
Gene Evans said. The program
was set up to cover no more than
50 percent of the expenses, but
over time the percentage has con
tinued to decrease, and right now
coverage is about 11 or 12 per
cent.
The real issue that proponents
for increased educational funding
are pushing, however, is not how
much is covered, but how many
students receive aid. Out of
76,180 students in Oregon who
meet the requirements for the
Need Grant, 13,593 come out with
nothing from the fund.
“There are people who qualify,
but who aren’t able to get it,”
ASUO State Affairs coordinator
Arlie Adkins said.
Whether a student comes out
with money from the Need Grant
is based on when he or she ap
plies for financial aid with the
Free Application for Federal Stu
dent Aid. Generally, students are
encouraged to apply for the FAF
S A at the beginning of the year.
“It is a first come, first serve ba
sis,” Wykoff said. “If you apply
too late, you’re out of luck ... You
might be eligible, but you won’t
get a grant.”
The Emergency Board is not the
only group that provides money
for the Need Grant; money comes
from the federal government and
the Oregon Education Endow
ment, as well.
Even though the Emergency
Board has distributed what it will
for this year, that does not mean
the fight for more money is over.
OSAC and OSA will continue to
ask the Legislature to provide
enough funds to help all low-in
come students in the state.
The Oregon Need Grant is an is
sue at every legislative session,
Adkins said.
OSA plans to work with poten
tial legislators during the summer,
Wykoff said, educating them
about both the Oregon Need Grant
and other related issues, such as
i i If you apply too late,
you're out of luck... You
might be eligible, but you
won't get a grant.
John Wykoff
com m u n ications d i recto r
—^_n
child-care support for students.
OSAC plans to ask the Legisla
ture in January for a “more full
funding of the program,” Evans
said, so that coverage can reach 15
percent of the education cost for
students. It also is looking into
making money available year
round so that if students decide
after the priority date that they are
going to attend school, they will
still be able to get grant funds.
The issue’s importance reaches
beyond student groups. The office
of Oregon University System
Chancellor Joe Cox is in favor of
placing more funds into the Ore
gon Need Grant, OUS spokesman
PhilipBransford said.
Bransford said that as Oregon’s
economy moves from one cen
tered on natural resources to one
that relies on highly trained work
ers, the state needs to make sure
students are being given the op
portunity to be educated so the
state can keep up.
“If Oregon is going to maintain
its competitiveness and econom
ic health ... [it’s] going to have to
provide access to higher educa
tion,” he said.