Portland State University - Viking Yearbook (Portland, OR)

Page 8 text:

iiU i .. :2 w 2mm . u Something happened this ye Greg Wolfe said that it was a state of financial exigency' Others said that the students were tu rnedoff by rhetoric, burned-out by confrontatio turned inward in despair. But, the important truth we more nearly that we took a good look at ourselves and a PSU and we laughed For if laughter is a catharsis for grief, now then our mourning is over. We laughed quietly at first, then ironically, then with increasing confidence as we looked around us at the waste and fool ishness, the petty decisions, the arbitrar impediments to learning, the absurd system of accou nting that curtailed spending for needed academic programs allowing superfluous buildin to continue unchecked an we settled down to change the University, with a little help from our friends.

Page 10 text:

,, 74., W1 MM At first, we changed by simply not enrolling at PSU. Tuitions increased, enrollme decreased . Vote with your fee as the old folks say, and many of us did by walking to the nearest community col leg for cheaper ful ly-transferable credits. Voting via the ballot box was yet another way to effect change: the voting age was lowered to eighteen, and over seventy per cent of us newly eligible to vote registered at PSU. It made a difference, too, as a cigarette tax was approved statewide thanks in large part to heavy support in university areas, which would have been grievously hurt had the tax monies been withheld. Draft law changes wiped out the 2-8 student deferment for the men, and nobody was drafted out of the classroom this year. . . but the hated war continued.