THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING
SLANT
• It’s election time again and the state and local Voters’ Pamphlets are a hefty
quarter of an inch thick. It’s all fascinating reading (especially between the lines),
reflecting the brilliance and dimness of current political thought and our messy
experiment with representative government, aka democracy. Every voter should read
it, along with absorbing all the propaganda in print and on the web, in the broadcast
media, around the kitchen table and at the water cooler. If that’s too much, we offer our
humble perspectives in our endorsements this week.
The Lane County Circuit Court write-in race has been particularly interesting to
ponder since Judge Jay McAlpin’s filing error created a dynamic we have not seen
before. The voters get to examine the political process that put McAlpin on the bench,
for better or worse. Who’s a better “judge” of character and values, the legal
establishment or the people? Ever wonder why so many judges retire in mid-term and
we get so few open, contested judicial races? Many judges simply don’t trust ordinary
people to pick their successors and would rather be part of the back-room political
process leading up to gubernatorial appointments. Advantages and disadvantages can
be found in both ways of seating judges. Now we have a voice.
• Care to comment on our endorsements or add your own? We have two more
issues coming out before the Nov. 6 election. Send your (short) observations and
pitches to letters@eugeneweekly.com and we’ll run as many as we can.
A Celebration of our Oregon Landscapes Through Film
A BENEFIT
FOR:
LEAD
SPONSOR:
SUPPORTING
SPONSORS:
FRIEND OF
THE TRUST:
• Last week’s cover story on faculty unionization at UO talked about how the
average salary for UO profs is $80,000, which is accurate as an average, but it was
pointed out to us by one prof that salaries vary greatly according to the discipline. Full
tenured faculty in music, East Asian languages, art and architecture, for example,
make closer to $60,000, while profs just starting out make much less. What’s skewing
the average? Looks like faculty salaries in business and economics are much higher
in order to compete with the private sector. Biz school faculty pay was topping out at
$174,000 in 2011. Are faculty salaries too high? Absolutely not. Academic excellence
should be one of civilized society’s highest priorities. Insanely, we favor coach salaries.
See http://wkly.ws/f for a chart of faculty salaries at UO.
• Springfield Farmers Market has evolved into a permanent year-round indoor
market and food business incubator called Marketplace@Sprout! (see Biz Beat this
week) and it’s been a big, ambitious, collaborative effort. What about Eugene? The city
has $500,000 in urban renewal funds earmarked for our Farmers Market, but is
anything happening? We just get a runaround and finger-pointing when we ask about
it. Let’s get it together, Eugene.
• Another punt from our den of grumpy pigskin pundits: The first BCS rankings
came out and put Oregon in third place. So what? Does not matter one whit. If the Duck
footballers win the rest of their games, they will play for the national championship. If
they lose, they won’t. Stick that in your tail-feathers, BCS.
take a breath
fresh air
9 to 10 am
mo to fi
eugeneweekly.com • October 18, 2012
9