Governor touts scholarship program in Legislature
Gov. Ted Kulongoski said he wants
to amend the state constitution
to expand education opportunities
By A. Sho Ikeda
Reporter
Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski
pushed to increase funding for stu
dents early last week by introducing a
plan to place a financial aid program
in the state Constitution.
The governor made his first legisla
tive committee appearance of the air
rent session June 24 to support Senate
Bill 644, which would create a new
endowment fund to provide need
based financial aid for Oregon high
school graduates, and Senate Joint
Resolution 28, which would amend
the state Constitution.
"Our economy and quality of life
will be paid back many times over to
morrow if we invest in the minds and
potential of young people today,' Ku
longoski said in a speech.
The Access Scholarships for Educa
tion Dust is one of Kulongoski's center
piece initiatives. Kulongoski made ac
cess to higher education a major public
policy issue and platform item during
his gubernatorial campaign last year.
The fund would receive money
from interest earned on university tu
ition and fees, and from a five percent
portion of the capital gains taxes paid
by individuals and corporations.
Only interest from the ASET would
be used to grant scholarships to eligi
ble students for use at private and pub
lic colleges in Oregon. Kulongoski said
that he wanted the fund to established
the fund in the state Constitution so
that it would be protected from legisla
tors who would want to use the money
for filling future budget holes.
"If it can't help you today,
it would be great
if it helps your kids
go to college."
Mary Ellen Glynn
spokeswoman for Kulongoski
Mary Ellen Glynn, spokeswoman
for Kulongoski's office, said the gover
nor hopes that private investors will
contribute to the trust hind.
"We hope to have around $2.5 bil
lion in the fund when it is estab
fished," Glynn said. "We could then
have more than $100 million avail
able for scholarships."
Glynn noted that it could take
awhile to find money for the fund, but
that the results would be well worth it
"If it can't help you today, it would
be great if it helps your kids go to col
lege," she said.
Some people criticized Kulongos
ki's proposal, however.
Some complained that the trust
fund would allow students to use
scholarship money to pay tuition at
private religious colleges.
Andrea Meyer, legislative director for
the American Civil Liberties Union of
Oregon, believes that the proposal
would violate the state Constitution's
ban on using public money to support
private religious institutions.
Meyer alleged
that the propos
al conflicts with
Article 1, Section
5 of the state
Constitution.
"lliat part of
the Constitution
states that no
money can be j
used by the gov- I
emment to ben
efit any religious
Kulongoski
institution, Meyer said.
Hie Senate Ways and Means Com
mittee is currently considering the
bill, and the Senate Revenue Commit
tee is considering the resolution.
Contact the reporter
at shoikeda@daityemerald.com.
Privacy
continued from page 1
were unlikely to be present.
"Nobody I know heard a word
about this pre-hearing," he said.
"This should have been out where
people know about it. I think the
process doesn't smell good, although
we don't have all the facts yet." He
added that he doesn't want to accuse
the administration of being under
handed because he doesn't know the
details of the changes or its inten
tions.
In some respects, ASUO agreed
with Stahl, saying the administration
has not been as forthcoming as pos
sible. ASUO spokeswoman Taraneh
Foster said that the administration
has done a poor job of keeping the
group updated on the progress of
changes in the code. She said that at
the last Programs Council Meeting,
to which ASUO sent a representative,
University Registrar Herb Chereck
and Vice President for Student Affairs
Anne Leavitt presented draft 5.0 of
the privacy code. That was the first
time ASUO heard of the changes,
Foster said.
"We've still been scrambling to
find out why it was draft 5.0 we
were included in, and not earlier
drafts," she said, noting that ASUO
is still tiying to determine its role in
future drafts.
Chereck had a different perspec
tive, however.
He defended the administration,
saying that the June 3 meeting wasn't
even mandatory, but that it elected to
hold the conference in order to fur
ther inform interested parties. He
also said that at the June 20 meeting
he stayed an hour after the meeting
to answer questions.
Chereck added that he wished ad
ministrators could have started the
process earlier to better match stu
dents' schedules; however, he said
Leavitt and himself have worked dili
gently to update numerous groups
around campus, keeping them in
formed of the changes.
"Anne and 1 felt very strongly
about the need to go out and meet
with various groups on campus,"
he said.
Both Chereck and Leavitt met with
the Faculty Advisory Council, the Lln
dergraduate Council, the Graduate
Council, the Associated Student Pres
idential Advisory Council, the Resi
dence Hall Association, the ASUO
program directors, the Student Affairs
Council and the Council of Academ
ic Deans, Chereck said. Chereck and
Leavitt told each group why the
changes were being put in place, but
didn't get into the details of the fed
eral rules unless they were asked.
They did tell each of the groups
about the June 3 pre-hearing, he said.
Chereck, Grier, Leavitt and Randy
Geller, the director of policy and le
gal affairs, will hold a meeting
Wednesday to discuss the policy. The
meeting is not open to the public,
and both Geller and Chereck said
that they weren't sure exactly what
was to be discussed. For now, the ad
ministration is scheduled to submit
the final draft of the policy code to
the Secretary of State on Aug. 11. Af
ter that, the changes will officially in
tegrate into the student privacy code.
The approaching deadline has
frustrated Stahl, who noted that the
final changes will be made before fall
term starts. I Ie said that effectively
prevents many students from giving
their input on the final changes. He
knows a number of people that have
submitted formal requests to delay
the final decision time in order to get
more student input, he said. Geller
confirmed that people have filed re
quests to delay the deadline.
Aside from updating the privacy
code to meet federal standards, the
University plans to make a handful
of other changes. The student direc
tory is slated to include e-mail ad
dresses, enrollment status and grad
uate teaching fellow status. Students
have expressed fears that printing e
mail addresses could lead to e-mail
spamming, Foster said.
Students will still have the option of
blocking that infonnation, however.
The new privacy code allows a stu
dent to submit a "restriction of direc
tory information" form, submitted to
the Office of the Registrar, to block
the printing of his or her informa
tion. The restriction would take effect
"as soon as is reasonably practicable,"
the new code reads. The new lan
guage marks a change from the sev
en-day wait in the old code.
Jared Paben is a freelance writer
for the Emerald.
SB 10
continued from page 1
"It has become one of the efforts of
this ASIJO administration to get this
bill passed," Kjos said.
Many other states, including Wash
ington, Texas and California, have
passed similar legislation.
Oregon Student Association
Spokeswoman Amelie Welden said
that according to the Oregon Univer
sity System, the bill would add about
20 to 250 students to a university sys
tem that serves 78,000 total students.
The OUS also stated that it can ab
sorb the enrollment increase without
additional cost.
Senate Bill 10, which was intro
duced in February and was approved
by the Senate on March 17, has
proven controversial in the Legislature
House Education Committee
Chairman Rep. Vic Backlund, R-Keiz
er, said that he had concerns about
the cost of the bill. He said that the
Oregon Legislative Fiscal Office esti
mated the bill would drain $780,000
from the state in lost tuition funds.
"You can see either side of the issue
easily," Backlund said. "I just had to
look at the issue in fiscal terms. The
cost was too great."
Rep. Billy Dalto, R-Salem, disagreed.
"Our state policy says that we must
educate any resident of Oregon, legal
or illegal, from kindergarten through
grade 12," said Dalto, who co-spon
sored the bill. "But once they get to
college, all bets are off. To me, that
doesn't make sense and it doesn't
seem fair."
The bill has seemingly stalled in
the House Education Committee,
but officials said that it could be at
tached to a new bill in the future if
it doesn't come back on the 1 louse
floor for a vote.
Contact the reporter
at shoikeda@dailyemerald.com.
FIND THINGS IN ODE CLASSIFIEDS (ROOMMATES, TICKETS, STUFF
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We will accept "Campus buzz" sub
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