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Editor in chief: Jack Clifford
Managing Editor: Jessica Blanchard
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E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
EDITORIAL EDITOR^M1CHAF.LJLJ£LECKNER opededitor@journalist.com
By six o’clock Easter Sunday, I was in
dire need of a nap. My muscles
ached, my eyelids felt heavy and my
bed seemed like an oasis. What had
caused this state of exhaustion? A late night
finishing up homework? No. Working a 13
hour shift waiting tables at the restaurant
where I’m employed? No. The source of my
physical and mental exhaustion was the af
ternoon spent with my family and, specifi
cally, a small mass of children with a seem
ingly endless supply of energy.
My 8-year-old brother and four little
cousins (ages 6, 7,8 and 9) bounded from
one activity to the other while my older
cousins and I supervised and tried to catch
up on the progression of our lives since the
last family get-together. Overseeing the
placement of candy and nickels and dimes
into the plastic Easter eggs was a short-lived
activity, as the kids’ attention spans waned
quickly and the giant trampoline beckoned
to them.
Outside, I held my breath as the j
young’uns bounced crazily, and I hoped
none of the flying little bodies would collide
or fly right off the trampoline. Their jumping
soon turned into a game of dog pile, and it
seemed time for me to interrupt before
someone got hurt. Of course, my presence
on the trampoline failed miserably in termi
nating the game; instead, I turned into the
subject of the dog pile. Pinned underneath
five little kids, all laughing and pinching
me, I seriously wondered how I was going to
make it through the Easter-egg hunt with
both eyes open.
Somehow I survived, and after my nap, I
reflected on the day, wondering how parents
find the energy to raise young children. I
find that my own life takes all my energy,
and I still never seem to have the time I
would like to do everything I need. Put a few
toddlers into the equation, and it spells mass
insanity to me. Not to say that I don’t love
kids and plan on having a few (in about v|
a decade), but how do young people cope \
with having children?
When I graduated from high school,
roughly 20 girls out of my graduating class
of 200 had kids — yes, at 17 or 18 years of
age, I think they are still girls. Our school
had its own day care center just for the chil
dren of students. Needless to say, the term
“kids having kids” seemed to fit. These
young adults, few even old enough to vote,
were responsible for the life of another hu
man being when most of them still relied
upon their own parents. Most couldn’t legal
ly buy a cigar to smoke in celebration of
their child’s birth.
When discussing the subject with several
friends, the tales I heard were even more dis
turbing. One friend knew a 31-year-old
woman with a two-year-old granddaughter!
Apparently, the “grandmother” had a
daughter at age 14 or 15, and in turn, her
daughter had a child at the same age. I don’t
buy the excuse that kids are more mature
these days — if they were, they would know
better than to have unprotected sex before
they are old enough to drive with a learner’s
permit.
Another friend of mine has a niece, a 20
year-old girl, pregnant with her fifth child!
Yes, at 20, she already has four kids, ages 4,
3, 2 and 1. To my understanding, she isn’t
trying to break the world record for child
bearing (currently held by a woman with 65
children), but practices a religion which for
bids the use of birth control. I guess that the
idea that premarital sex is also forbidden
was forgotten.
Don’t misinterpret my puzzling to be a
message for abortion or adoption, because
it’s not. I’m asking a question. Why are these
children (now parents) forfeiting their child
hood and young adulthood?
Where have we, as a society, gone wrong
when a young mother is raising a Brady
Bunch
sized family
before she can
legally buy the ingredi
ents to make beer-battered fish
and French fries? Shouldn’t these
teenagers learn to balance a checkbook and
practice time management between
school, a part-time job and a
social life before they juggle
day care and feeding
schedules?
According to statistics
from Planned Parent
hood, 10 percent of girls
age 15-19 in the United
States are having kids,
highest teenage preg
nancy rate in the de
veloped world.
Why? Maybe
we’re concen
trating a little
too much on
telling
Bryan Dixon Emerald
teenagers not to have sex, not to have sex,
not to have sex. It’s pretty repetitious and
obviously ineffective. Instead, we need to
concentrate on promoting responsible sex.
After all, organizations such as the Stu
dent Health Center and Planned Parent
hood don’t distribute condoms.just for
freshman boys to blow up and pin to the
walls of their residence halls.
Editor’s note: As trampoline Professor
Lani Loken-Dahle would attest, for no
reason should there ever be more than one
person on a trampoline, as this may result
in severe injury or death.
Rebecca Newell is a columnist for the Oregon Daily
Emerald. Her views do not necessarily represent those
of the Emerald. She can be reached at rnewell@glad
stone.uoregon.edu.
Letters to the editor
Despite change, things are the same
A gentleman doesn’t read another gentleman’s mail, no
more than a solid citizen incarcerates an innocent person,
yet civilized nations routinely spy on others for military se
curity just as they once made slaves for economic reasons.
The best rationale is that our spy plane was over interna
tional waters, and the Atlantic slave trade was done on the
open market.
Chinese fighter pilots, not liking the arrangement, harass
American planes by flying under them and then suddenly
popping up right in front. Americans of African descent sim
ilarly show their disapproval by getting riled up. This in
your-face attitude inevitably leads to clashes. Now it seems
the Chinese want an apology and blacks want reparations.
Mechanization obviated the need for slaves. We now
have the internal combustion engine, not to mention the jet
engine. You know, the French have a saying which trans
lates, “The more things change, the more they remain the
same,” but President Eisenhower just said, “There should
be no hyphenated Americans.”
Earl Gosnell
Eugene
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Academia slowly crushed by athletics
Guest Commentary
Richard
Sundt
The increasing tendency to
place athletics over academics
is distressing and evident on
this campus. It may be true that
scheduling athletic events during im
portant academic times cannot always
be avoided. But it is also true that when
the University can avoid schedule con
flicts, it doesn’t. This is why the Univer
sity Senate “scolded” the Athletic De
partment for setting the Civil War
football game during Dead Week.
Avoidable too was the recent decision
to institute post-season Pacific-10 Con
ference basketball play. Our University
voted for it even though it interferes with
finals. These actions are motivated by the
relentless quest for dollars in order to
meet rapidly escalating costs in every
thing from coaches’ salaries to fielding
100-member football squads. '
I was under the impression that the
$2 million annual subsidy given to ath
letics was needed to keep Oregon in Di
vision I, but I was recently informed
that this is not the,case. So why does
athletics need this revenue after having
signed generous TV contracts? Accord
ing to the president, a competitive
sports program is necessary in order to
provide a “window” into the Universi
ty, one that will draw students and do
nations to Oregon. This is a common
administration refrain, but the amounts
raised for academics since our last bowl
game have yet to be announced.
It is evident that the Athletic Depart
ment can boast state-of-the-art facili
ties, but academics cannot make a simi
lar claim. Disability access, space,
staffing, etc., are ever in short supply,
thus making it har d to be creative. Uni
versity presidents must therefore sum
mon courage and change strategies.
We should aim at making athletics
unnecessary as a funding tool for higher
education (if it is really that). This can
be done if institutions cooperate to cre
ate a level playing field, one that allows
each participant to focus on academics.
The administration seems adept at
finding ways to promote athletics, but
the same entrepreneurial spirit does
not spill into academics. The $2 million
subsidy for athletics could be making
the University academically competi
tive. Academic departments can make
each dollar stretch into 10!
The football coach’s projected million
dollar salary, at my current pay, can fund
21.2newprofessors. Inmy department
we sorely need more faculty, as “per
formance indicators” comparing art his
tory to the rest of the University demon
strate. For example, the average
faculty-to-student ratio (in non-GTF-as
sisted courses) for the University is 19.3,
but in our department it is 28.6.
In light of art history’s performance,
it is discouraging when a football coach
who makes more than 20 times my
salary can also get a $98,000 bonus,
twice my paycheck, for filling Autzen
Stadium. I regularly fill the seats in my
classroom, but don’t receive or expect a
bonus. Coaches say they are educators,
but where is their educational ethos? In
academics, we also don’t get a $10,000
bonus for graduating our students, but
the football coach does if his players
finish school.
I thought that whatever side of the
Millrace one happens to occupy, gradu
ating students was part of everyone’s
mission and therefore not subject to re
wards beyond the satisfaction of know
ing that we have met our responsibili
ties. Let us begin by narrowing the gaps
between academics and athletics and
aim for academic competitiveness.
Richard A. Sundt is an associate professor of art
history at the University.