Monday
Editor in chief: Jack Clifford
Managing Editor: Jessica Blanchard
Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
EDITORIAL EDITOR: MICHAEL J. KLECKNER opededitor@journalist.com
Making higher education a necessary good
Editor s note: As this year’s leg
islative session kicks into high
gear, education is on the minds of
many people. Teaching standards,
testing, performance and funding
will be debated through the sum
mer, as a final state budget for edu
cation is prepared. To get our
selves (and our readers) in the
mood, the editorial page is em
barking on a two-week discussion
of higher education. The Emer
ald’s columnists and editorial
board members will examine the
theory, practice and purpose of
providing students a college expe
rience, writing on topics from
tenure to the incidental fee to out
of-state tuition.
This is the editorial page, so cri
tique will be our primary tool. In
keeping with our desire to stimu
late campus discussion, we strong
ly encourage readers to submit
their own thoughts about higher
education, whether critical or sup
portive. As always, letters to the
editor are limited to 250 words.
Please contact the editorial editor,
at opededitor@joumalist.com, to
discuss writing a longer guest com
mentary.
f I i he Emerald editorial
•JL. higher education when
we examined the complex process
of funding education in Oregon.
With a tight overall state budget,
elected officials will have to
choose carefully to fund public
safety, entitlements and pet pro
grams while still ensuring a mini
mum level of education funding.
Part of the discussion involves
how much money K-12 schooling
should receive compared to high
er education. It is shameful that
the state funding model requires a
choice between primary and sec
ondary education. In order to
have intelligent, productive citi
zens, clearly both levels of learn
ing need ample funding. If the
state scrimps on K-12, students
aren’t prepared for the adult
world. If higher education funds
are reduced, then the state suffers
because the brightest students
will look elsewhere for an educa
tion. Oregon should be trying to
keep its most intelligent citizens
here in the state, to ensure its fu
ture success.
Oregon’s current funding mod
el, implemented partially in re
sponse to the passage of Measure
5 in 1990, allows each college to
keep its own tuition money. Previ
board was originally in
spired to write about
GIOVANNI SALIMENA Emerald
ously, tuition dollars were spread
among the state campuses and
supplemented with state money
to provide an adequate level of
funding. With less state dollars to
rely on, tuition is a big deal. In re
sponse, campuses are eagerly in
creasing enrollment. This reliance
on tuition has had a negative ef
fect on entry requirements, class
sizes and the quality of teaching.
Once students are enrolled, col
leges need to keep them — those
tuition dollars are critical. This
has led to lowered standards and
grade inflation. Professors seem
all too willing to make exceptions
for students (who, in some cases,
haven’t paid attention or done the
work) with a good story to tell. Pa
pers can be late and grading can
be easy; after all, if it’s too hard,
students will drop out and the
college loses money.
! College education isn’t only
lacking in Oregon, however. Na
tionally, the college experience
has shifted from one of higher
learning — where students tradi
tionally have expanded their un
derstanding of themselves and the
world around them and become
civic-minded citizens — into little
more than a job-training industry,
employing millions in the service
of providing businesses with
properly functioning drones.
Certainly, the above paragraph
is a generalization. There are good
professors out there, intent on im
parting wisdom and knowledge to
their students. But the job has be
come increasingly difficult. Amer
ican society has shifted toward
demanding, rather than encourag
ing, higher education. Increased
numbers of students enrolling in
college means increased costs. But
taxpayers, while certain that their
children should go to college, don’t
seem to be willing to foot the bill
for a quality education. Instead, tu
ition has skyrocketed.
As a society, we need to reinvig
orate and reinvest with meaning
the college educational experi
ence. Smaller class sizes, especial
ly in 300- and 400-level courses, a
higher level of discourse and
higher standards are necessary to
ensure that receiving a college de
gree actually means something.
The government needs to increase
funding (and this means taxpay
ers must agree that higher taxes
for education is a necessary good)
to universities so that they are not
so beholden to private interests
and businesses, which demand
ready-for-work employees and
job-applicable curriculum.
It used to be that people went to
an employer and apprenticed or
job-shadowed to learn the ropes,
and they went to a university to
become more educated and en
riched. While those roles need
not be mutually exclusive, the
current industry of education de
values both job-training and per
sonal exploration. We hope steps
can be taken to restore colleges
and universities to their previous
role as institutions that produce
well-rounded citizens.
This editorial represents the opinion of
the Emerald editorial board. Responses
can be sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
Poll of the Week
Every week, the Emerald prints the
results of our online poll and the
poll question for next week. The
poll can be accessed from the main
page of our Web site, http://dailye
merald.com. We encourage you to
send us feedback regarding the poll
questions and results.
Last week's poll question: What
does “PFC” stand for?
Results: 70 total votes
Personal Fun Center—20 votes, or
28.6 percent
Progressives For Change—4 votes,
or 5.7 percent
Programs Finance Committee — 37
votes, or 52.9 percent
Personal Finance Club—9 votes, or
12.9 percent
The correct answer is “Programs Fi
nance Committee. ”
This week's poll question:
How many hours a day do you
spend on the Internet?
The choices:
1-3 hours
4-7 hours
8-12 hours
More than 12 hours
Letters to the editor
Spreading the message
When I picked up the Emerald
this morning, the Human Life Al
liance insert surprised me. Strong
anti-abortion messages are not a
common feature of the Emerald.
As a paper that advocates toler
ance and community dialogue, the
Emerald scored a perfect ten to
ward that goal today! In general,
pro-life views are not esteemed or
are ignored on the U of O campus.
Thank you for stepping out and
publishing information that will
widen campus discussion of abor
tion.
Jason Spies
junior
history
CLARIFICATION
Ty Baker was pictured on the front
page photo on Friday, Feb. 2, with
out being identfied. The photo was
taken by Azie Malinao-Alvarez.