News brief
CAER sponsors annual
environmental conference
The eighth annual Environmen
tal and Economic Justice Confer
ence begins today with a keynote
speech by Jeri Sundvall, director of
the Environmental Justice Action
Group in Portland.
She will speak in 110 Knight Law
Center following an opening presen
tation by University School of Law
Professor Robin Morris Collin.
The conference is sponsored by
the Coalition Against Environmen
tal Racism and will continue
through the weekend with panel
presentations and workshops.
Saturday’s panel and workshop
topics include institutional racism,
environmental justice litigation, le
gal ethics and health mapping.
Rev. Damu Smith of Green
peace will speak at 7 p.m. Satur
day in 175 Knight Law Center.
Community Coalition for Environ
mental Justice director Yalonda
Sinde is tentatively scheduled to
speak as well, but she may not be
able to attend because of travel
considerations, CAER co-director
Matt Murphy said.
On Sunday, conference events
include a lead poisoning and pesti
cides discussion in Spanish and a
Northwest People of Color informa
tion session.
Admission is free. For more in
formation about the conference,
contact CAER at 346-4168.
— Kara Cogswell
PFC
continued from page 1
budget increase, known as the
benchmark, tops 90 percent, more
than allowed after the fall ASUO
Special Election that decided the
total budget can’t increase by more
than 80 percent.
Usually, PFC can’t increase its
budget by more than 7 percent per
year. The ballot measure granted the
committee a one-year exception.
“We thought we had a nice
cushion” between 68 and 90 per
cent, PFC Chairwoman Mary Eliz
abeth Madden said. “Sometimes
something little gets overlooked.
Sometimes something little costs
several thousand dollars.”
She said PFC caught the error
earlier this week when members
noticed they were already pushing
the 68 percent benchmark.
Although the recall process
starts Tuesday, Madden said no de
cisions have been made about
what budgets will be recalled and
where they will find the 10 per
cent to get back under the 80 per
cent benchmark. She said a budget
may receive a total decrease, or
PFC may cut from specific line
items in a budget.
“People are just thinking of
ideas,” she said.
Timeline:
* Wednesday, November 14: The ASUG Special Election ended, allowing RFC
a one-time 80 percent budget increase to fund groups that previously went
to the ballot.
M Thursday, November 15: ASUO Accounting Coordinator Jennifer Creighton
received the 2002-03 projected enrol Iment from EM U Di recto r of Student
Activities Gregg Lobisser. Using the figures, she calculated how much it would
costto fund the ballot groups, but she only figured for one term instead of three.
M Friday, November, 15: PFC met at 8 a. m. and, using the 80 percent ceiling and
Creighton’s figure, set a 68 percent benchmark.
V Monday, November IS: The ASUO Student Senate met and approved the PFC
benchmark. Usually the senate meets Wednesday nights, but It heldthe Monday
meeting because it needed to approve the benchmark before Thanksgiving break.
Creighton took full responsibili
ty for the error, but added that it
didn’t help having the deadlines
for the special election, enrollment
figures, fee totals and PFC bench
mark to the ASUO Student Senate
all hit during the same week.
“There were just too many dead
lines pushed together,” she said.
Creighton and Madden said the
ASUO wants to move forward the
deadline for enrollment figures,
which is set in the ASUO’s Clark
Document, and Lobisser agreed.
Lobisser sits on a committee of
administrators that projects the
coming year’s enrollment, but he
is responsible for delivering to
the ASUO numbers that affect
student fees.
“It really is a bit of a crystal ball
effort,” he said.
Lobisser added that after the
fourth week of fall term, around
Nov. 1, enrollment figures stabilize
and the group can make a solid
prediction, so the deadline could
be moved forward by a week.
He said he delivered the figures
right before the deadline this year
in part because the group didn’t
realize that timing would be an
issue.
“I think the special election
complicated things this year,” Lo
bisser said. “Certainly we can back
it up a week.”
E-mail managing editor Jeremy Lang
at jeremylang@dailyemerald.com
Online
continued from page 1
However, University Vice
Provost for Academic Affairs Jack
Rice said the school has no plans
to replace live bodies with 14-inch
monitors and HTML.
“If you’re asking if the Universi
ty will increase distance education
at the expense of faculty who teach
courses here, the answer is em
phatically, ‘No,’” he said. “I don’t
see how it could cut costs by re
ducing faculty on a campus like
the UO where the bulk of the stu
dent body is on our campus.”
But Flower said some campuses
are examining the possibility of
designing Net-based courses that
function independently. As tech
nology advances and provides the
means for that independence, a de
bate about intellectual property
rights arises, she said.
The AAUP debated in the
pages of the November-December
issue of Academe, the bimonthly
magazine of the nationwide or
ganization, who has intellectual
property rights to course materi
als published by professors — the
professors or the universities that
employ them to teach and con
duct research.
“Our sense is that written ma
terial is owned by the author, and
if the professor is the author, it’s
the property of the professor,”
Flower said.
But Rice said Oregon Adminis
trative Rule Division 43 mandates
that materials developed by a
University faculty member in as
sociation with course work is the
property of the State Board of
Higher Education, not of the pro
fessor.
“That’s my understanding,” he
said. . ...
Mark F. Smith, AAUP govern
ment relations director, said differ
ent interpretations of copyright
law have led to different intellectu
al property right policies created
for universities. He said an institu
tion’s interpretation of the “Work
for Hire” doctrine, which deter
mines ownership of material de
veloped by an employee of a com
pany, is critical. Smith said
newspapers, for example, own the
work produced by their reporters
because they are paying those re
porters to produce it.
7 don’t think students are
as willing or able to come
to a campus. They want
an education that can be
delivedtothem.”
Ronald Trebon
director, summer session
“We show how the ‘Work for
Hire’ doctrine doesn’t apply to aca
demic work,” Smith said. “A num
ber of institutions have recognized
that the faculty member who cre
ates the work owns it.”
As the debate presses on across
the nation, enrollment in Web
taught courses at the University is
swelling. Some attribute the trend
to a more active student lifestyle.
“I don’t think students are as
willing or able to come to a cam
pus,” director for summer session
Ronald Trebon said. “They want
an education that can be deliv
ered to them.”
Some students, like junior
Heather Kaplinger, just want to
avoid the masses of humanity
found in most lower-division
classrooms. She enrolled in Lin
guistics’ 150 and Economics 201
last year, the first distance educa
tion courses she’s taken at the
University.
“It’s better than being crammed in
a room with 200 people,” she said.
“And I can take a test at 2 a.m.”
The class schedule enabled
Kaplinger to hold her job and earn
undergraduate credit, but she
missed the interaction with her fel
low students, she said.
Distance education has provided
greater flexibility and access to
classes for students who work, like
Kaplinger, or for students who are
raising children, Rice said. But
some, classes aren’t compatible
with an online format.
“One example of a course that is
not geared for learning from a dis
tance ed course is more of an ex
planation-type process, rather than
a discussion and debate-type
process,” Rice said. A class such as
Argumentative Writing relies heav
ily on in-class debate. “How could
you do a course like that through
distance ed?”
But Rice said he expects dis
tance education courses to grow
exponentially as Internet technol
ogy becomes more sophisticated.
The advent of video conferencing,
which presents class discussion
via video cassette, provides only a
glimpse into the possibilities. With
interactive Net technology, more
courses could be offered in an on
line curriculum, he said.
“The use of technology in dis
tance education is going to grow,”
Flower said. “It’s not growing just
in the sense that it’s replacing cur
rent teaching methods, it’s reach
ing different audiences that are not
on campus. That’s exciting. I’m
thinking of taking an anthropology
course myself.”
E-mail reporter Eric Martin
atericmartin@dailyemerald.com.
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