letters
TO THE EDITOR
UO’S ANGRY MOB
A mob formed at UO’s Mac Court last
night (11/30) — an angry mob of faculty,
staff and students ready to confront the
demonized OUS Chancellor Pernsteiner
and board member Lynda Ciufetti. It was
called a UO Faculty Senate meeting, but its
tenor was that of a mob.
As I sat, daring with a handful scattered
around the arena applauding the demonized,
I was harassed by a person sitting nearby.
To be demonized for applauding — that is
mob-inspired intimidation.
A line formed for audience comments.
Here are the questions I would have asked:
How many of you support the UO
becoming a more corporate, a more private
university — as would ultimately happen
under the new partnership plan? How
many realize that we are showing the state
our back side — acting as if because of
Phil Knight and other corporate donors, we
can go it alone?
How many classifi ed staff realize that
if we lose the connection to OUS, we will
stand alone against this mob to bargain for
que pasa
our fair wages and benefi ts? How many
realize that going it alone makes each OUS
university easy pickings for corporate
scavengers to gain control of Oregon
higher education?
How many of you support taxing those
corporations and wealthy individuals so
we can fairly fund all OUS universities,
rather than let them control us by throwing
their money around? How many faculty
canceled offi ce hours or appointments with
students to be here today? And aren’t the
students the reason we’re all working at
this university?
Hope Marston
Eugene
4J’S GOOD CATCH
The EW interview with Shelly
Berman (cover story, 12/1) demonstrates
what a “good catch” 4J made in a new
superintendent. Shelly’s expressed views
are in accord with progressive educational
leaders in this country.
This is especially the case with respect
to the way to approach evaluation to
encourage positive professional growth.
Shelly has a long tradition of excellence in
fostering this approach. The professional
growth evaluation system he developed
for his district in Massachusetts became
the model for that state. Shelly also has
the same approach to student assessment
— use of assessment to encourage and
support student achievement.
It is nice to know that Shelly has the
school choice issue on his “to do” list of
issues to address. I have begun to gather
this year’s data. Predictably, the disparate
impact of choice has continued — despite
a decade of attention to 4J’s two-tiered
system of inequitable schools.
For example, only 15 percent of
Charlemagne’s students are on free and
reduced lunch, compared to nearby
Edgewood, from which it pulls 88 students,
which has 28 percent of its students on
free and reduced lunch. Family pulls 77
students from Chavez and River Road.
Only 9 percent of Family’s students are
disadvantaged racial minorities (American
Indian, black or Hispanic) compared to
Creating a common community
C
ommunity is what you make of it. I would have
a tendency to agree, but how is community
defi ned?
I remember when I became a U.S. citizen several
years ago, up to that point, I considered and described
community as my barrio, but it was one that did not
look like Lane County. In retrospect, I was hanging
on to an image of a community that in the end had
evolved, changed and ultimately left me behind as I
was transitioning and adjusting to my new reality. I
belong here, my family is here, my interests are here,
my whole life, connections, desire to improve my life
and my investment for many outcomes is here. At the
same time, my heart and soul will always have the
extra richness of my roots and family’s ancestry. So
how do we defi ne and who is the community? Where
is the community?
A sense of belonging to a place was not in my
vocabulary for many years; I could only focus on the
tasks at hand, on surviving the day, on ensuring my
family’s well-being. Being a part of a community, invest
in it, take interest in it, even learning about it was
simply not an everyday occurrence for me. I am talking
about a type of investment or lack of, in my case, in the
years I was a migrant worker and about the investment
and welcoming systems that would make any migrant
or immigrant want to call Lane County home.
Community is not a physical place. In defi ning
community in terms of a generic description, it might
include interactions, values, and the way its residents
behave as to meet certain expectations between
members of like groups or neighborhoods. Many
neighborhoods purposely chose their own identity,
yet they are also a part of the larger community. Crest
Drive with its winding narrow roads and forested
hillsides, a country in the city experience, with
noticeable feel of season changes; and Whiteaker with
its many unique buildings and home of artists’ studios,
funky bars natural food stores and best coffee and
ethnic restaurants, the reborn micro economy in the
neighborhood are just two examples of communities
defi ned by physical descriptors. Describing community
that way only gets us a general idea of what it is;
however, community is not something you can touch.
DECEMBER 8, 2011
WE’RE NOT TO BLAME
Judging by the appearance of identical
letters in The Register-Guard (11/22) and
EW (12/1), Pete Mandrapa is really trying
to convince a lot of people that the group
Citizens for Jobs and Schools is somehow
responsible for the dire situation in our
public schools. What Mandrapa doesn’t
understand is that this group had very
BY JUAN CARLOS VALLE
Paving the Future
4
34.5 percent at Chavez and 44 percent at
River Road. Corridor pulls 90 students
from Howard. Only 11.7 percent of
Corridor’s students are disadvantaged
racial minorities, compared to 27 percent
at Howard. All of the alternative schools
have far fewer students than the board has
determined is the minimum size for an
elementary school.
Perhaps under Shelly’s leadership, 4J
can fi nally become a district that ensures
high quality equitable education for all
students, not “exclusive schools” for the
more advantaged.
Nancy Willard
Eugene
EUGENE WEEKLY
Community begins when you make it
your own, take pride in it, and are even
willing to talk about it.
So when you are outside the
area and someone asks about your
community, about what it is your
community believes in, what would you
say? Would you initially describe who lives
here? Would you have a solid idea of where
to start? When I am asked those questions, I
start with our children. I would say that our younger
generation is our future and our present. In schools,
for example, of the total school age population, Latino
children compose 16 percent in the Springfi eld School
District, 12 percent in Eugene and 18 percent in Bethel,
thus giving people a glimpse of the composition
of not only the demographics, but what wonderful
opportunities and challenges that lie immediately
ahead for our community. Some of the challenges
include whether or not the districts have the capacity
and appropriately trained personnel to deliver
services to help support a community of individuals
that contribute to make a vibrant community.
Defi ning your community. Creating a community is
to be willing to put your face on a video, share your story
with others in hopes of a little encouragement to others,
getting involved with entities that make and create a
community, such us United Way, Rotary clubs or Centro
Latino Americano to name a few. Needless to say, there
are communities that are created by common interests.
For example an interest of improving our school system,
and improving the physical appearance of our streets,
homes, businesses and parks. Better yet, what about
communities whose interest is the advancement of a
cause or a group seeking inclusion and consideration such
as the horticulture/gardening community, or communities
named neighborhoods that seek attention of city offi cials
such as the Whiteaker or Bethel neighborhoods. No, I
do not dare to leave out our Latino community as its
complexity, multifaceted, multilingual, multilayer and
multicultural communities within our community is in
itself enough for us to have a sense of pride and a strong
and fl exible bond and, of course, a community. In fact, this
is about community as a whole.
We are neighbors, we are community.
Community is also defi ned by its worth
and the dignity from which residents
would relate to each other thus creating
a type of virtual community; a common
bond. This is better captured by his
holiness the Dalai Lama You can relate
to community and its people because
you are still a human being, within the
human community. You share the bond.
And the human bond is enough to give
rise to a sense of worth and dignity. That
bond can become a source of consolation in
the event that you lose everything else. That is,
once we go beyond that basic descriptors such as
language, skin color, culture and beliefs, then we would
see many commonalities among us as it relates to
the larger community such as our Latino community,
Asian, African-American, etc. We are all neighbors and
we are all community.
Taking care of your community. Creating,
defi ning, and knowing your community starts with our
involvement and interest of making it what we want
it to be and it all starts with voicing our desires for a
community self-fulfi ll prophecy. One that is willing to
say this is the type of standards we want, this is the
type of community values we want for all of us and this
is what we will become.
Whether you are here for a short time, or long-
term, I call out to you for action, to get involved, show
you care, and show them you have something to bring
to the table, bring in your piece of stone to pave the
future for all of us. Without the piece, the foundation
for a strong community is not complete and it is not
as strong. Someday, we could all walk on that path
called community and all because of your piece that
completed it or helped build it. As history repeats itself
in how our economy sputters and teach us lessons,
one lesson we need to learn once and for all, is what
is at stake: The creation, refl ection or refi nement
of a community we all want as the differences and
diverse ways of being a community actually make us
stronger and with a more defi ned identity. Ours is NOT
a common community.
Que Pasa is an occasional column submitted by members of Lane County’s
Latino community. Juan Carlos Valle is a longtime resident of Eugene who
serves on numerous boards and commissions dealing with civil rights, human
rights and the environment.
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