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? Cultural Forum
EMU, Suite 2
1 V 346-4373
485-4422
w\* JQo
561 E. 13TH AVE
formerly Care n' for Hair
Got a story idea?——
—Give us a call. 346.5511
020373
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14 1 topping pizza
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Eugene
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