EDITORIAL
ODE board seat
open to students
Applications for The Oregon Daily Emerald Corpo
ration's community at large seat are now being accept
ed. This position is open to students, faculty. Universi
ty staff and community members.
We urge all interested parties to apply before the
Nov. 15 deadline. We would especially like to ask con
cerned students who have an interest in journalism to
apply
The board meets once a month to deal with finan
cial and personnel matters They also hire the next
year's editor at the end of every school year
Minority participation is sorely needed on the
board The current board is made up of two women
and eight men all are white. It is time for minority
viewpoints to la* expressed on the board, and the best
wav to accomplish this is for a minority person to gain
a board seat.
We would also like to see a student from the jour
nalism school apply for the position. Sitting on the
board of directors of the Kmontltl would In* a great way
for a future journalist to learn about the newspaper
business
The world of journalism is more than just writing,
editing and taking photos. These days especially,
there's a strong emphasis on business management and
advertising that may be appealing to students in the
University's business school.
In any case, those applying for board seats should
be outspoken, open to new ideas and strong-willed.
The current board is dominated by two or three non
student voices whom student representatives follow si
lently. with little dissent.
We would also like to see applicants who are
strong advocates of a free student press and who want
to see students make all the decisions pertaining to ed
itorial content of the paper
Having a board dominated by number-crunching
accountants has benefits: as long as space for ads con
tinues to outweigh space for news, the board doesn't
concern Itself much with anything that goes on in the
news side of the operation.
However, there may come a day when the account
ants think the paper will be safer from potential law
suits if an adviser is on hand. And let there be no mis
take: an adviser means content control.
So. take a chance and get involved. You may have
a good time and learn something, loo.
®*> Dry**i3*ch fKiJiumdjdfutf k~s Sat#/<*
Commission should benefit Eugene
The huge in; City Council took a giant
step Monday when it voted to create a hu
man rights commission.
Its predecessor, the Human Rights Task
Force, was formed in 1989 to re-examine Eu
gene's Human Rights Program
The Human Rights Commission will be
composed of 15 members. Fourteen will
come from the community and one from the
city council — possibly the mayor
The new group will incorporate five dif
ferent sub-groups into an all-encompassing
commission. Instead of separate committees
for women, the elderly, gays and lesbians,
disabled citizens and children, ail will come
under one umbrella group
Standing committees that address each
of the five groups will remain. In addition,
the Human Rights Commission will be di
vided into ten-member sub-committees on
discrimination, harassment, accessibility,
and community outreach and education.
Specific details and implementation of
the commission will be discussed at a later
date. Since the city council hopes to select
the members of the commission in early Jan
uary. it is very important that guidelines and
specific details be discussed before then.
It would be easy for this committee to
get bogged down in bureaucratic red tape.
As long as it remains focused and openly en
courages community participation, the com
mission should be able to tackle some of the
problems facing the city, such as the rising
number of hate crimes and the increasing
discrimination against minorities.
Recruitment for the commission will be
gin immediately so that nominations can be
received by mid-December. About 35 posi
tions are available, either on the commission
itself or on sub-committees.
If you are disgusted with the people
problems of Eugene, can spare some time
and really care about the issues, now is your
chance to make a difference in Eugene.
LETTERS
Professionalism
I would like to take this op
portunity to thank the person
who stole my mountain hike
Ck:t 17. in front of Gerlinger. I
appreciate your leaving the bro
ken kryptonite lock for me so
that I can get the insurance
money
I wish you had stolen the
hike I had last year That thief
didn't leave the lock and I lost
a lot of money. It's nice to
know that in this crazy world
of ours, there are considerate
criminals like yourself who
i are enough about their victims
to leave the broken lock behind
and just when 1 thought peo
ple didn't care
1 would also like to commend
vour pride in your profession
o 1m- good enough to steal a
Mountain hike l>etween H to
and n ip Hi a busv area ot cam
pus takes a true professional I
have .i hard time (relieving that
io one saw vou. (nit maybe
those who did were so im
pressed with your performance
that they chose not to interrupt
Anyway, if anyone out there
needs a bike sent. I've got one I
( an sell real cheap.
lennifer Hanson
Math
... but fear itself
I din a heterosexual with lit
tle understanding as to how
anyone could prefer homosexu
ality. Hut I was saddened by
the tactics of Ron Williams
(0/J£, Oct. 24). Williams de
fended gay-hashing with his
"fears that these people might
approach me and try something
on me." and his viewpoint that
anyone not adhering to a social
"norm" automatically de
served criticism. This is a good
example of fear itself being far
more dangerous than the imag
ined thing feared. It is not con
formity that made this country'
spei ial. but diversity and toler
ance for variant lifestyles and
beliefs
l.ynn Dahlstrom
(•raduate student
Deadication
It ■if*-ms highly irrational to
me that an event tlr.it draws
S.’tHMKM) fur the ailing athletic
department and min h for the
Kugene community is banned
Im'< ause a dozen or .so people
don't understand what it is all
about The Grateful Head is
about music whether there
were a few drug users screwing
it up for everyone else or not
All three occasions on which
the Dead have played Autzen
Stadium have been trouble
free If everyone in the world
was as polite, considerate and
courteous as people 1 experi
enced at Dead shows, the world
would lx? a much better place
Garrett Keeton
Accounting
Let’s survive
In response to Phil
Nebergall's recognition that the
University Survival Center is
"not the end-all and be-all (of
environmental activism) at the
University." (ODE. Oct 24);
I'll say! l-ast spring 1 tried to in
stigate a petition protest against
the planned parking garage,
with hopes of getting a measure
on the May ballot. Though I ap
proached them for help, the
Survival Center did nothing to
support this extremely critical
cause.
I applaud their involvement
in national (and international)
issues: thinking globally is nec
essary for our planetary surviv
al Hut I urge the Survival Cen
ter. and everyone else, not to
forget to ‘ act locally." Think
ing about building a parking
garage on this campus is part of
the same stupidity that led to
acid rain, massive deforesta
tion. the 1-os Angeles syndrome
and potential war with Iraq. If
we don't make every effort to
take care of the messes (and
threatened messes) in our own
back yard, we have little right
to gloat over our involvement
elsewhere.
1-et's all put on our thinking
caps and rally to the cause: NO
PARKING GARAGE!
Jeff Harrison
GTE, English
Logical violation
Dr. |atk Vanderlip suggests
animal rights activists achieve
then goals by means "other
than violence and vandalism."
kath\ \ linker says this sugges
tion "implies only the ap
proach animal rights activists
have taken to stop research is
violence and vandalism.”
[ODE. Oct. 26).
I am not against animal
rights but 1 don't understand
how Yonker derives her inter
pretation. The basic premise of
a debate is that both sides fol
low a set of rules called logic. If
one side makes a wild guess
about what the other side ' im
plies” and starts to criticize,
then there cannot be a decent
debate.
If one wants to stop violence
against animals, one should
first stop violence against oth
ers' points of view. If one re
spects animal rights, one
should first respect a person’s
right to have a decent debate.
The gross violation of formal
logic does not help those mon
keys
Xiaoyan Yan
Education
LETTERS POLICY
I he Oregon Daily Emerald will attempt to print all
letters containing comments on topics of interest to the
University community. Comments must be factually
accurate and refrain from personal attacks on the char
acter of others.