State Supreme Court candidate
speaks to UO
■ Paul DeMuniz, who was
twice elected to the Oregon
Court of Appeals, presents his
case to campus
By Jeremy Lang
Oregon Daily Emerald
Paul DeMuniz admitted he’s
counting down the days until the
November election.
But the candidate for the Oregon
Supreme Court took time out of
the last 40 days before ballots are
cast to speak to students across
campus about law and his political
ideology Thursday.
DeMuniz, who was twice elect
ed to the Oregon Court of Appeals,
spoke to the Introduction to the
Legal Profession class before a very
small town hall session with four
students at the Knight Library.
Dan Katz, a senior political sci
ence major who coordinated the
event, said he was a little disap
pointed with the turnout but was
glad the judge had a chance to
meet and discuss his legal ideas
with students.
DeMuniz gave a speech outlin
ing his background and legal ide
ology and the students had a
chance to ask a few questions.
First-year doctoral student Bill
Calderhead asked about the indi
vidual rights of the disabled be
cause he works with students in
special education.
“I’m interested in the courts and
how they work with special ed,”
( { You always have an
identity. This is still a place
where you can know who
is in government.
Paul DeMuniz
Candidate
Oregon Supreme Court
he said.
Calderhead added that he re
cently moved from Maryland and
wanted to get more information on
Oregon politics and the people in
volved.
DeMuniz is no stranger to Ore
gon politics. He’s spent all of his
life, including high school, under
graduate and law school educa
tion, in Oregon. He completed a
tour of duty in the Air Force in
Vietnam, and said he didn’t think
twice about returning to the state
when he was done.
“You always have an identity,”
he said of living in Oregon. “This
is still a place where you can know
who is in government.”
He added that he keeps coming
back for the familiarity and close
ness of having his family around.
Before his meeting at the library,
he discussed some of the current
cases that could affect University
students. He said there aren’t any
cases that specifically pertain to
students now. but there are many
that have repercussions on stu
dents as Oregon citizens.
For example, he said students
should be concerned with a recent
case that bars people from collect
ing petition signatures at public
shopping centers.
“This has a profound effect on
how our initiative process works,”
he said.
.
Photographer Emerald
Oregon State Supreme Court candidate Paul DeMuniz emphasizes a point during a
speech in the Reading Room of the Knight Library on Thursday.
GTFs
continued from page 1
employees rather than having
GTFs pay $32 per term, which was
the original University proposal.
“We recognized that this was a
crisis this year because of the dra
matic increase in health insur
ance,” said Richard Linton, nego
tiator committee member for the
University, vice provost for re
search and graduate studies and
dean of the graduate school.
Under the new agreement, just
like last year, GTFs will be able to
choose from a list of preferred care
providers. The University will
spend $1.7 million to fully cover
individual employees.
“There is a great selection to
choose from,” Max Brown, a polit
ical science GTF, said. “There is
also good coverage for prescrip
tions and low deductibles.”
Many GTFs expressed approval
of the outcome of the negotiations.
“I am personally very happy
about it,” said Sarah Hardgrave, a
lead negotiator for the GTFs.
But while many are grateful,
there are still worries over what
will happen in the coming years.
“I am concerned about how the
plan is always on a temporary ba
sis,” Carpenter said.
Other GTFs have voiced similar
concerns.
“I think it is a good short-term
resolution to the problem,” Brown
said.
In addition to questioning the
stability of the plan, some are be
ginning to find that the increases
are not enough to cover depend
( ( The GTFF’s primary
goal was full coverage for
employees. We did man
age to negotiate that
Sarah Hardgrave
Lead negotiator for GTFs
ents and partners and thus make
the plan not worth keeping
Brown said his partner had to
be dropped from the plan because
she wasn’t fully covered.
“We did the calculations and
found that she would be better off
with an alternate insurance
provider,” he said.
Hardgrave said she regrets that
the new agreement is not benefi
cial for families and dependents,
but coverage for GTFs had to be
the priority of the negotiations.
“The GTFF’s primary goal was
full coverage for employees,”
Hardgrave said. “We did manage
to negotiate that.”
During negotiations, a number
of GTFs set up tents outside John
son Hall to help bring light to the
issue.
Paul Prew, president of the
Graduate Teaching Fellows Feder
ation, said he credits the outcome
of the negotiations to media cover
age, faculty support, letters, rallies
and political support.
The University receives state
funds based on the number of
credits that GTFs are registered for.
Prew said GTFs, who conduct
about a quarter to a third of all un
dergraduate teaching, had threat
ened to only register for the mini
mum number of credit hours,
which would have resulted in a
large loss of money to the Univer
sity.
Although the road to reaching
an agreement was long, both sides
seem to be content with the out
come.
“This does give us one of the
best plans in the country,” Linton
said. “It’s also important for re
cruitment.”
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