y01,3,4RW 1/26/01 12:50 AM Page 1 (Black plate)
_Q__nh. r_w e h
www.dailyemerald.com
Friday
An independent newspaper
Lengthy discussion
Debate dominated the Multicultural Center’s
Programs Finance Committee hearing. PAGE 3
A hard pill to swallow
Jamie Craighead and the Ducks lose to upstart
Southern California, 55-53. PAGE 5
January 26,2001
Volume 102, Issue 81
Weather
TODAY
RAIN
high 50, low 37
Laura Smit Emerald
Paul Olum’s daughter, Joyce Galaski (center), and his two granddaughters, Aviva (left) and Rebecca, shared stories that evoked laughter and
tears among more than 100 people attending Olum’s memorial service.
Tears, laughter hail Olum’s life
During a
memorial
held
Thursday,
friends and
family
shared fond
memories of
former
University
President
Paul Olum
By Brooke Ross
Oregon Daily Emerald
When University Professor
Emeritus of Mathematics
Theodore Palmer asked Paul
Olum in 1981 what he thought
of his new job as University
president, Olum told Palmer he
had learned he should always
go to the bathroom whenever
he had a free moment.
This was just one of the
many shared stories that
evoked laughter and tears from
more than 100 people attending
Olum’s memorial service yes
terday afternoon in the Paul
Olum Atrium in Willamette
Hall.
Olum, who served as Univer
sity president from 1981 to
1989, died on Friday, Jan. 19,
but the mark he left on his fami
ly, friends and colleagues will
not be forgotten.
“Truly, he was a giant among
people; he had so many quali
ties that stood out,” Palmer
said.
During Olum’s presidency,
the University faced budget
cuts and could not afford facul
ty pay increases for three con
secutive years. Palmer said
Olum struggled to keep the
University together by convinc
ing the faculty that teaching
was noble, and they were all in
the situation together.
“Paul loved people and was
always caring,” he said. “He al
ways thought before he spoke,
but said what he truly be
lieved.”
Besides being president,
Olum was a lover of both math
ematics and poetry, and he
Turn to Memorial, page 4
List of closures
sparks reaction
■A4J School District proposal to make budget cuts
by closing schools has the Eugene City Council and
the community seeking alternatives
By Rebecca Newell
Oregon Daily Emerald
As always with budget cuts, some
thing has to go. And for the Eugene
School District, closing schools seems
to be the only solution to the financial
strain facing the district.
A committee of school staff and com
munity numbers examined elementary
schools to decide which would be the
best candidates for the closure, said Jim
Slemp, assistant superintendent for the
4J School District. After reviewing ex
tensive data covering attendance and
operational costs, the committee last
week announced its list for possible
short-term closures. No schools will be
added to the list, though some of the
schools marked for closure could be re
moved.
The committee will review the
schools on the list, and after its Feb. 5
meeting, it will make a recommenda
tion to the school board.
Since the district must cut $3.5 mil
lion to $4 million in next year alone,
Slemp said cuts could be in effect next
fall.
“We are looking for ways to save
money, and for each school cut you
save about $200,000 a year,” Slemp
said. “You eliminate the administrative
staff of principals and secretaries, and
the teachers stay with the kids.”
Shutting down the schools is a solu
tion to two problems: low enrollments
in the 4J district, coupled with budget
cuts.“Over the next six years, our en
rollment is decreasing by 600 kids,”
Slemp said. “We have a lot of small
schools of 150 to 200 students, which
can’t offer as much to students.”
But the announcement that there was
a proposal to shut down schools was
Turn to Schools, page 4
Schools
targeted
for
closure:
Short-Term list:
Whiteaker, Santa
Clara, Coburg,
Willakenzie,
Bailey Hill and
Silver Lea. Silver
Lea includes
Corridor and
YujinGakuen
alternative
eiementaries.
Long-Term List:
Westmoreland,
Edison, Fox
Hollow,
Washington and
Bailey Hill.
For more
information, call
687-3309 or visit
the district’s
Web site at
www.4j.lane.
edu.
LaDuke tops speaker list for environmental conference
The
Environmental
and Economic
Justice
Conference will
focus on the
relationship
between the
environment
and racism
By Beata Mostafavi
Oregon Daily Emerald
Environmental racism will be the hot
topic at the 7th Annual Environmental
and Economic Justice Conference,
where featured speakers such as former
Green Party vice presidential candidate
Winona LaDuke will share problems of
their respective communities.
The annual conference, titled “The
Environment Sees No Color,” begins at 6
p.m. today in the EMU Ballroom and
will continue with events Saturday and
Sunday.
LaDuke, who has stepped into a
whirlpool of environmental and eco
nomic policy issues since her last visit
to the University four years ago, is
tonight’s key speaker. She said she plans
to address environmental issues that
will surface in the years to come.
“I will speak about the challenge of
facing the new.xniUennium. in terms pf
where we are and reconciling relations
with thb environment and each other,”
she said.
The Coalition Against Environmental
Racism (CAER) organizes the event. The
group is unique because it tackles envi
ronmental issues from the local to the in
ternational level, but focuses on how
communities of color fit into the wide
variety of environmental problems.
CAER director Glen Banfield said the
relationship between the environment
and racism will be one of the confer
ence’s biggest themes, because most
people don’t understand how the two
relate. Banfield said environmental
racism occurs when industries place
themselves in areas where “disenfran
chised” people live, because those resi
dents usually don’t have the power to
make changes or voice their health con
cerns.
He mentioned that many, indu$$£l
regions are in communities of color in
big cities because residents are minori
ties or live in poverty, and not because
of the land’s geology.
“Race and economics [are] the No. 1
indicator of where America is dumping
garbage and polluting the air and water,”
he said. “Most people have no idea how
to make that connection.”
Banfield also said the conference will
unite people who can share their per
sonal experiences with environmental
racism and speak about successful
strategies to overcome injustices in com
munities.
CAER member Kristen Stiegler said
because of Oregon’s homogeneous pop
ulation, many local residents aren’t ex
posed to environmental racism issues.
She said during the coming weekend,
students will gain insight on community
of color issues that are overlooked by the
n^ip^treamiB^j^ -
LaDuke, author and program director
for Honor the Earth Fund, a national
foundation that supports Native Ameri
can environmental work, is the star of
this year’s conference.
Named by Time Magazine in 1994 as
one of America’s 50 most promising
leaders under the age of 40, LaDuke cur
rently lives on the White Earth Reserva
tion in Minnesota and works on restor
ing local land base and culture.
Although she was the running mate of
former Green Party presidential candi
date Ralph Nader and caused great con
troversy in last year’s chaotic election,
LaDuke said she stayed out of the lime
light and kept a less rigorous schedule,
mainly because of her 11-month-old
son, Gwekaanimid Gasco.
But LaDuke will take time out of her
life as a busy mother and activist to
speak at the University.
Turn to CAER, page 3