When Oregonians mark their ballots for the general election Nov. 5, they will face a near-record 23 ballot measures. If passed, several of the measures are expected to have significant financial impact on the university and on the Oregon State System of Higher Education (OSSHE).

Of all the ballot measures, Measure 47 would have greatest impact in Oregon higher education, according to information published by OSSHE. Others worthy of special attention are Measures 45, 46 and 41, as well as 27 and 29.

MEASURE 47

What it does: The so-called "Cut and Cap" property tax limitation initiative is a complex constitutional amendment. The measure rolls back property taxes, limits the amount of future growth of property taxes and adds new restrictions that would affect local government bond authority.

The proposal leaves to the Oregon Legislature the division of the loss in local tax revenues experienced by local governments and school districts because, unlike Ballot Measure 5 in 1990, this initiative does not spell out what is to be done about making up lost revenues or distributing the shortfalls between types of governments.

"Cut and Cap" earned its name because it proposes to roll back property taxes to their 1994-95 level, or alternatively, cut them to 10 percent less than the 1995-96 tax, whichever is lower. Once set at this base level, future growth in taxes, for tax years following 1997-98, is limited (capped) to no more than a three percent increase per year. For most properties, the 10 percent cut from the 1995-96 tax will yield the greatest reduction.

Its effect: The fiscal impact of the measure on cities, counties and school districts has been estimated to be a loss of $467 million in fiscal year 1998 and $553 million in fiscal year 1999.

If the reduction in property tax revenues created by Measure 47 were to be distributed proportionally among the taxing districts (although this is not mandated by the measure), the average reduction in the first year would be between 20 and 21 percent. Over time, the gap will widen between the tax revenues produced under the three-percent growth cap and what would have been produced under current tax law, and the impact on local governments and schools will become larger.

Because Measure 47 does not mandate replacement revenues from the state General Fund, the potential impact on state services, including OSSHE and the University of Oregon, is hard to project. To give some feeling for the context, however, the local government loss of revenues in the first biennium under Measure 47 would be more than twice the state General Fund appropriation to the state system in the current biennium.

Measure 47 directs that these local government revenue reductions be implemented so as to "prioritize public safety and public education and ... minimizes any loss of local control of cities and counties to state government." However, the measure gives no guidelines to the legislature on how to accomplish these goals. Unlike Measure 5 in 1990, this measure is silent on how much, if any, of the loss is to be made up from state budget resources, and if any of the loss is made up, who is to get what.

Under the terms of the measure, the legislature could replace none, some or a significant portion of the lost tax income from state revenues. It could adjust the amount of replacement revenues from year to year, based upon state budget needs and revenue projections, and reallocate the losses between schools and other governments at the same time.

Other parts of Measure 47 would change tax levy elections and restrict the use of property taxes to pay bonds.

Besides Measure 47, several other measures are likely to impact OSSHE and its institutions:

MEASURE 45 would affect Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) benefits. It would raise the age for full retirement benefits to Social Security age for all public employees except police officers and firefighters; prohibit benefits that exceed 75 percent of final salary; eliminate any guaranteed level of interest on retirement accounts; and eliminate medical or hospital benefits except for disability. It does not affect benefits vested or accrued before the effective date.

The measure could apply to people hired after its effective date or to benefits accrued after the affective date. If the latter is the case, current covered employees would be affected.

MEASURE 46 amends the Oregon Constitution, barring voters from passing a new tax, a tax increase or other revenue measures unless a majority of the registered voters affected approve the law. The proposal, by calling for a majority of registered voters rather than a majority of those who cast a vote, makes nonvoting an affirmative action.

MEASURE 41 is a constitutional amendment that would require all publicly funded employees to have their earnings expressed in terms of "total compensation" per hour actually worked. If the measure passes, its provisions must be implemented by July 1, 1997.

MEASURE 27 amends the Oregon Constitution to give the legislature greater authority over administrative rules adopted by state agencies.

MEASURE 29 amends the Oregon Constitution requiring gubernatorial appointees to vacate office if a successor is not confirmed by the state senate within 90 days.

You may be sick of candidate and ballot measure ads, negative or not, during what seems to many an interminably lengthy campaign season, but keep in mind that you, as a state employee, may add to the electioneering din--on your own time.

That's the message that Peter Swan, assistant to the president for legal affairs, wants UO faculty and staff to take to heart.

Here's a quick reminder of what you can and cannot do. As a state worker, you:

Can provide balanced, objective informational background on ballot measures or other political questions, but you...

Can't take partisan positions in your role as a state employee.

Can write letters to the editor or opinion pieces expressing partisan views on political questions, if you do so on your own time as a private citizen, but you...

Can't sign letters to the editor or opinion pieces with the title of your state position.

Can use your own time, including lunch hours and coffee breaks, for political work, but you...

Can't use state resources (postage meters, computers, copying machines, etc.) for political work.

Can wear campaign buttons at work, but you...

Can't argue or solicit for a candidate or measure during working hours.

Can post political fliers or posters in a private workspace, but you...

Can't post political posters or flyers in public places at work or facing out on your doors or windows.

Can make occasional and infrequent local phone calls related to political activities, but you...

Can't use the phones in a programmatic way or to coordinate any political activism.

Keith Richard still has not gotten into some boxes.

"I still haven't looked at a lot of material. Yet to me, that is part of the `idealness' of this job: always working with original documentation and being immersed in history," he says.

After 24 years as the university's archivist, Richard retires in November. A reception honoring his service is set for 3:00-6:00 p.m. Oct. 30 in the Alumni Lounge of Gerlinger Hall.

Richard says after he retires, he plans to tackle some writing projects and become a user of the treasure trove of university lore stored in Fenton Hall.

Of all the material he has discovered, one box that he looked into in 1984 as he put together a World War II exhibit for the library is most memorable. In it was correspondence about a student, Michi Ando.

"In 1942, she was preparing to graduate. But, the federal government had quarantined the movement of Americans of Japanese ancestry and imposed a 6 p.m. curfew," Richard says.

When the university asked permission for Ando to go through commencement, the request was denied.

"She ended up taking her finals, walking downtown with all her luggage, and getting on a bus to Denver. She never got to go through it."

Richard called Ando in Colorado to ask if she would want to come back for the 1984 spring ceremony. "She was quite shocked by the phone call," he recalls. "She had to catch her breath."

Ando was hesitant and did not accept Richard's first invitation. Not discouraged, he sent her a letter that fall, asking if she would consider Spring 1985.

"One day I picked up my mail and there was a letter from her. The very first line read `In the words of General McArthur...' and I threw the letter in the air, because I knew McArthur's words, which are `I shall return,' " he says.

Ando did return, and the event was broadcast across the country and around the globe, including France, South America, Mexico, China and Japan.

"I had letters from people all over the world saying they had seen it on their television. It was probably the single most publicized event the university has ever been involved in, and I took a great deal of pleasure in having a small part of it.

"When I first came here," he continues, "the archives were barely started. I wanted the university to learn they had an archive, that they could make use of it, and that an archivist would be there to help. And that is what I was able to do. I only wish I could have gotten to it all."

"We ask much of our local community members, including their support with the legislature, their votes on ballot measures and their attendance at our events and activities. We would not be able to succeed without that support. The Charitable Fund Drive gives all of us the opportunity to contribute back...."

The Student Health Center is offering low-cost vaccinations this fall for faculty, staff and students wanting to ward off the aches and pains of flu.

From 8:00-9:00 a.m. Wednesday through Friday, center staff will administer shots for $4 apiece to faculty and staff. Students may get shots for $3.50 each from 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. weekdays.

Vaccination clinics will continue at least until Thanksgiving, says Sharon Harbert, R.N.

For information, visit the Student Health Center for an information sheet, browse http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~uoshc/ or call 6-2739.

Helen Stoop, Human Resources benefits administrator, reminds faculty and staff that open enrollment for insurance ends on Friday, Nov. 15.

"This annual open enrollment period is, except in the case of family status changes, your only chance to change plans or coverage amounts and add or delete eligible dependents," she says.

"This year, there are a number of benefit plan and cost changes for academic employees (includes teaching, research and officers of administration--plus newly converted management service staff) and GCIU employees that will take effect Jan. 1, so I urge you to review carefully the information packets you should have received," she adds. There also are a few minor health plan changes involving prescriptions, for instance, for classified staff.

Meetings to answer questions about the plans are scheduled in the EMU Walnut Room at 9:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 29, for classified staff and at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 30, for academic employees.

Anyone who has questions or who has not received an open enrollment packet should call Stoop, 6-2967; benefits coordinator Lisa Bellis, 6-3086; or benefits clerk Cindi Peterson, 6-2956.

For Jim Leinen, a Western Regional Resource Center research assistant who uses a wheelchair to get around campus, the Oct. 7 ceremony was his first visit to all three floors of Johnson Hall.

The significance of Leinen's visit wasn't lost on the building's occupants, who had gathered for a brief celebration marking completion of the Johnson Hall elevator. For the first time, administrative offices on each floor were accessible to all.

Key participants in the elevator project were Tom Nice, 2-G Construction; John Bramwell and Carl Sherwood of Robertson Sherwood Architects; Alex Gordon, Facilities Maintenance and Service; and Dee Rawson, Resource Management.

By the time you receive this issue of News & Views, you also should have your new UO Card.

Staff of the UO Card office have spent much of the past few weeks printing the new photo identification cards stored in their computer system and distributing the bar-coded cards to faculty and staff in offices across campus.

"Any staff member or GTF who has not received his or her UO Card by the end of October should come to Room 12 across from the EMU Recreation Center anytime between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. weekdays to get a new card," says Director Trent Spradling. "It should take just three or four minutes to shoot a new photo, print the card and have you on your way because at this time there are no lines."

Spradling says many deans or department heads have received cards for faculty and staff members, who should consult those offices first before visiting the UO Card office about a missing card.

"Also, I want to remind everyone that these new cards do not need stickers to ride the LTD bus or for other purposes," he says. "In fact, no stickers are to be placed on the UO Card because they gum up some of the card readers."

Regular full-time faculty, staff and students receive a UO Card bearing a color photo of Deady Hall. University associates, courtesy faculty and part-time students get a card with a color shot of the southeast entrance to Willamette Hall.

The small magnetic strip on the back of each card can be used in library copy machines. The large strip can be encrypted for "key card" door access.

For faculty and staff, the number on the front of the card is sequentially assigned by the UO Card system. The bar code and the larger magnetic stripe contain each employee's actual UO identification number, usually the Social Security number.

On student cards, the number shown is the student identification or Social Security number.

For information, call 6-3113.

Faculty, student and staff parents still looking for high-quality child care or child sitting resources are in luck. In addition, parents of children ages 6 to 11 can preregister for the limited on-campus child care provided on Eugene District 4J no-school and snow days at the new Vivian Olum Child Development Center.

For child care openings, call the Olum Center, 6-6586; EMU Child Care and Development Centers, 6-4384; Agate Baby Cottage, 6-2962; and Spencer View Co-op Family Center, 6-7400.

For copies of the fall term Child-Sitting Directory or information about any of these services, visit Human Resources, 463 Oregon Hall, or call Karen Logvin, Child and Family Services, 6-2962.

CORRECTION:

The last name of Eloine Melançon, Neuroscience, was misspelled in the article on the Vivian Olum Child Development Center in the Oct. 14 issue of News & Views, thanks to the improper translation of a cedilla by e-mail. The editor regrets the error.

In the spotlight

Greta Fryxell, Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, has received one of two new awards from the Phycological Society of America. She studies unicellular algae that produce domoic acid which causes amnesic shellfish poisoning.

Saturday Academy, a statewide program for youth in grades 4-12, has received one of 20 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. The Lane County program, administered by Marjorie DeBuse, Education, features UO research scientists and art students among the cadre of professionals who teach hands-on courses after school and on weekends.

Andrew Goble, History, has received a Japan Foundation grant to hold a binational conference, "Tools of Culture: Japan's Technological, Medical and Intellectual Contacts in East Asia, 1100-1600," on campus in September 1997. The bilingual conference is expected to attract more than 20 scholars from Japan and the United States.

Barbara Welke, History, has won the Edward C. Surrency Prize which is awarded annually for the best article published in Law and History Review, the principal publication for legal historians.

The New Media Center, directed by Mike Holcomb, Fine Arts, has won the "Multimedia Educator of the Year" award for Higher Education from the Oregon Multimedia Alliance.

Marshall Sauceda, Multicultural Affairs, was appointed Oct. 16 to the Lane Community College Board of Education. Sauceda was the unanimous choice of the board from a field of six applicants.

On the move

Seventeen faculty have assumed new department head or other academic administrative posts during 1996-97. They are G.Z. "Charlie" Brown, Architecture; Sherwin Simmons, Art History; Bryan Downes, Planning, Public Policy and Management; Russell Tomlin, Arts and Sciences associate dean, humanities; JoAnna Gray, Arts and Sciences associate dean, social sciences; William Ayres, Anthropology; Wendy Larson, East Asian Languages and Literatures; Marjorie Woollacott, Exercise and Movement Science; Alexander Murphy, Geography; Doris Payne, Linguistics; Augustine Thompson, Religious Studies; Julian Weiss, Romance Languages; Alexandra Bonds and Grant McKernie, Theater Arts; Janet Wasko, Journalism and Communications director of graduate studies; Dale Morse, Accounting; and David Boush, Marketing.

George Pernsteiner, PSU vice president for finance and administration, is returning to UO as chief financial officer and vice provost for resource management beginning Nov. 1. He will continue at PSU part-time during a transition through January.

In Print

David Jacobs, Honors College director and Political Science, and Ronald E. Helms, Political Science graduate student, authored the lead article in the September 1996 issue of the American Journal of Sociology, "Toward a Political Model of Incarceration: A Time-Series Examination of Multiple Explanations for Prison Admission Rates."

On the podium/stage

Julia Neufeld, Music, will celebrate the release of her new compact disc, "What Is This," in a Nov. 7 concert at the Eugene Faith Center. Among the CD's traditional and contemporary gospel music selections is one of her original compositions, "O But To Touch the Nail Scarred Hand."

Martin Acker, Counseling Psychology emeritus; Douglas Anders, Career Center; Ewart Baldwin, Geological Science emeritus; Roxanne Easley, History GTF; Alan Kimball, History; Bertram Malle, Psychology; and Timothy Rawson, History GTF, are leading fall classes offered by the Older Adult Service and Information System (OASIS).

In September, Aletta Biersack, Anthropology, presented "Reproducing Patriarchy: The Gender Politics of Male Cults in Melanesia and Amazonia" at a conference in Spain sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.