ter her husband’s death to become an international
advocate for peace and civil rights. All proceeds go to
Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon, which
we believe is a cause Eleanor would have eagerly sup-
ported.
This is EW’s first effort at producing theater. We’re
so thrilled to have been able to raise money for a good
cause that you can bet we’ll be producing more such
events in the future. Stay tuned!
• Oregon: Stop slashing education! The competi-
tive local K-12 school board races are reminding us
of how tenuous education funding is here in Lane
County. And it’s not just K-12 that’s getting hurt by
underfunded education. The University of Oregon an-
nounced earlier this year that it’s planning a tuition
hike. Then in March, the United Academics faculty
union said that the UO was planning to cut 75 facul-
ty jobs from the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS),
the College of Education and other university units.
On April 21, CAS said it plans to cut 21 non-tenure-
track faculty and 10 staff workers. CAS offers the
core liberal arts and sciences curriculum that serves
the entire UO undergraduate population, and cuts
there hurt, as do tuition hikes. Meanwhile over at
Lane Community College, a statement on the 2018
budget from the LCC Faculty Council points out that
“Students are the big losers. Cuts to instruction,
counseling and support while posting new manage-
ment positions sends a clear message to students:
We’re not here for you.” According to the Lane Com-
munity College Education Association, proposed cuts
include “early childhood education, GIS (geographic
information systems), respiratory therapy, religion
and philosophy, watershed science, and the reduc-
tion of two faculty counselor positions, which, if ap-
proved, would eliminate 10 contracted faculty posi-
tions, impacting part-time faculty in each program as
well.” For more on the budget and to see comments
from faculty and administration go to blogs.lanecc.
edu/budget.
• It’s prom time in Eugene public schools. That of-
ten means special dresses, hairstyles, dinner, even
limos and drivers. It’s also a time when 21,340 home-
less kids are enrolled in K-12 Oregon schools, 3.7 per-
cent of our public school population. We wonder how
many of the homeless high school kids will be going
to the proms or, more important, even doing their
homework and attending their classes. This is what
we call the rich-poor gap in America, an inequality
that hurts the most when it hits our children.
• Mike McGinn just announced that he is running
again to be mayor of Seattle. A former staffer for
Congressman Jim Weaver of Eugene, McGinn came
out of the environmental movement to be elected
mayor for one term, only to lose when he ran for a
second. His first priority: “We must house the home-
less.”
• The April 20 benefit performance of Eleanor Roo-
sevelt: A Barrier of Fear at the Wildish Theater is sold
out. Sponsored by Eugene Weekly, the one-woman
show features former Eugene actor Jane VanBoskirk
as Eleanor Roosevelt, the first lady who went on af-
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