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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 2004)
Ireland's rising university fees cause protest Union of Students members make their way into Dublin government building; no arrests are made THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DUBLIN, Ireland — About 20 col lege students on Tuesday burst into the headquarters of Ireland’s ruling Fianna Fail party to protest rising fees at universities. Security guards locked the doors after the students, who were part of a larger protest outside the central Dublin building, suddenly dashed inside. About a half-dozen police kept watch on the standoff, but did not intervene or make any arrests. The students left voluntarily after about two hours. “We caught them by surprise. We were walking along and then ran in,” said protest leader Rory Hearne, deputy president of the Union of Stu dents in Ireland, in an interview by cellular phone. The government of Prime Minister Bertie Ahern has raised registration fees at Ireland’s univer sities to an annual euro 750 (US$925) and has also set limits on the availability of financial aid. Hearne said less than a quarter of students qualify for the available grant of euro70 (US$85) a week, while students like himself — with parents earning more than euro36,000 (US$44,000) annually — receive no such grant. “The government claims to be in support of free education, but the reality is that education is not free,” said Hearne, who also led anti-capitalist protests in May dur ing Ireland’s presidency of the U.S. puts pressure on NATO to deploy more peacekeepers The U.S. mission in Afghanistan aims to combine with NATO under an allianced commander Audit says sick leave abused by Oregon's state employees Poor incentives to save leave result in more than 40 percent of days taken for reasons other than illness THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SALEM — Oregon state employ ees use sick leave more often than their counterparts in other states, a state audit says. The report issued Tliesday by Secretary of State’s Bill Bradbury’s office also said Oregon is one of only six states in which most em ployees have no incentive to save unused sick leave. For every 100 hours of paid work ing time, auditors said, state agencies pay for 2.3 hours of sick leave. The national average is 2.0 hours. The report estimated the value of the above-average rate of sick leave at between $14 and $16 million. “Reducing sick leave use may or may not result in immediate sav ings,” auditors said, noting that less use "would reduce the amount of unproductive time for which em ployees are paid and further elimi nate indirect costs associated with sick leave,” such as overtime pay. Most full-time workers accrue eight hours of sick leave per month, which they use for personal or fam ily illness or injury. The report said 44 other states provide financial rewards for em ployees to conserve unused sick leave. Because most Oregon state workers have little incentive to save their leave, auditors said, they might see it as a “use it or lose it” benefit. A relatively small number of Ore gon state employees receive some added benefit for unused sick leave when they retire. That’s limited to workers hired before 1996 who choose one of several retirement options. For other employees, any unused sick leave balance is canceled when an employee quits or retires. A national study indicated that more than 40 percent of sick leave is taken because of stress, personal needs or just to use up the benefit and not because of illness, the re port said. In other states, incentives for saving the benefit include reim bursing employees for some or all of the cash value of unused sick leave when they retire or quit, and converting unused leave into addi tional vacation time. Auditors said paid “leave bank” programs, which give workers a block of leave hours instead of sep arate vacation, personal, and sick leave, also can be effective in reduc ing unscheduled absences. In a written response to the au dit, the state Department of Admin istrative Services said it generally agreed with the recommendations. Kathie Best, president of the Ore gon Public Employees Union, said other forms of time off “rather than just sick leave should probably be addressed.” She said the biggest state em ployee union has been interested in working with the state toward flexi ble scheduling by which employees could adjust work schedules to make up for time taken off for ill ness or other needs. BY ROBERT BURNS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS POIANA BRASOV, Romania — The United States is pressing NATO to take over the U.S.-led military mis sion in Afghanistan, possibly as early as 2005, the U.S. ambassador to the alliance said Tuesday. NATO currently commands the In ternational Security Assistance Force in Kabul, the Afghan capital, and it has set up five Provincial Reconstruc tion Teams in northern Afghanistan. Its troops do not conduct combat missions as U.S. forces do. Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambas sador to the alliance, told American reporters traveling with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tliesday that the aim of the United States is to combine the U.S. and NATO missions under an alliance commander. “There will be a lot of discussion about that tomorrow, but no deci sions,” Burns said, referring to Wednesday’s NATO defense minis ters meeting. “It’s a very complicated issue, how you put these two very different mili tary missions together,” Burns said. “But there will be a number of people who will support — we will certainly support — a direction to the military leaders of the alliance to go and look at this question and decide how we can best do that — give us a sense of how you put these two missions together. ” Burns said he expects the alliance’s military leaders to present answers at I--- • ■ .- i a planned February meeting of defense ministers in Nice, France. He said integration of the forces could happen by 2005 or 2006. The ambassador also said the United States is pressing NATO’s newer members who once were part of the Soviet bloc, like Romania, to donate older Soviet-era military equipment that is urgently needed to equip Iraqi forces. In the shorter term, the United States is pushing its NATO allies to accelerate the deployment of extra peacekeepers to Afghanistan. Ahead of two days of talks begin ning Wednesday, U.S. officials said they were seeking commitments that the alliance would expand its peace keeping operation into western Afghanistan, which would free up U.S. troops to hunt Taliban and al Qaida remnants hiding out in the south and east. “NATO is behind. We should have been in the west by now, and we’re not,” Burns told reporters ear lier at NATO headquarters in Brus sels, Belgium. NATO allies reinforced their peace keeping mission from 6,500 troops to more than 9,000 for the Afghan elec tions held over the weekend. Despite that temporary deploy ment, the alliance is slipping behind with plans to expand its longer-term peacekeeping operation into the trou bled western provinces from its bases in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and five northern cities. European Union. Fianna Fail spokesman Gerry O’ Connor said the protesters delivered a letter addressed to Ahern, who wasn’t in the office. O’Connor said the protest didn’t disrupt party business because the demonstrators were confined to the main lobby, not the party’s suite of offices. The building, which has other points of entry and exit, also houses a recruitment firm and a software house. Happy Birthday Donald! October Birthday Events Celebrate Donald’s 75th Birthday during October with great events brought to you by: Cultural Forum, ASUO, Greek Life, UO Alumni Association, UO Presidents Office & Knight Library Oct 1st - 29th Adell McMillan Gallery Donald Duck exhibition located in the EMU, 2nd Floor next to the Ballroom. Disney reproductions & original sketches mixed with historical University photographs Oct 13th @4pm Adell McMillan Gallery Child Care Development Center Birthday Party Oct 16th Adell McMillan Gallery Parents Weekend Brunch 9:30 am to 11 am Oct 19th EMU Ampitheater Donald Duck Birthday Party Everyone welcome. Music, Prizes and Cake 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm VZsS? 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