EDITORIAL Senator allegations no surprise to us You know, we knew about Packwood. too. We did. The Oregonian and Willamette Week weren't the only newspapers to hear about Par.kwood's alleged sexual harassment. We've known about it for years — ever since it started happening. Every year we wonder whether we should do a sto ry on Packwood's rumored indiscretions. But every year we sort of forget about it. Next time, we say The story will still be there. In fact, we have a feature photo of Packwood mo lesting The Duck We just never published it We de cider! the picture w;cs a little too graphic for our read ers. Trust us. a topless Packwood is not a pretty sight Packwood even kissed one of our editors. And boy. he didn't like it one bit And guess what? The Washington Post contacted us about the Puck wood story because it knew we were sitting on valuable information So we told the editors everything they needed to know, but then we decided it wasn't worth our time to do a story ourselves. We were more interested in following the lead of the Ore gonian and The Register-Guard in printing revealing photos of the president-elect's cut. We couldn't even get that right, however, because our photographers were too busy following Packwood around to local porno shops, where he was loading up on "instructional" videos — at least that's what his ex pense account said. And then there was the time Packwood came up to our offices and ranted about how cute Michelle Pfeiffer is We have it on video. Well, actually, we don't really have it on video. To be honest, we made up all the information listed above. But already we put more work in this story than The Oregonian did. and we didn't even break a sweat. In Tuesday's edition. The Oregonian admitted a sloppy job of reporting for not investigating the allega tions against Packwood. According to the story, Pack wood rumors had "circulated widely for years." The paper reported that one of its female reporters even had Packwood give her an unwanted kiss. But after a meeting between political reporters and editors, the paper decided not to pursue the allegations — despite solid leads and several months to go before the election. The Tuesday story was reprehensible bv itself Rather than accept direct blame for failing its readers, the paper's editors said several times that they made the best decisions they could based on the circum stances. The paper's concern was being scooped, not committing bad journalistic practices. There's only one way to respond. Baloney! A newspaper has a responsibility to investigate sto ries in the public interest. This was clearly one of those stories, as it questioned Packwood's character, his sen sitivity and his commitment to women’s issues. But the Oregon media blew it. They could have toppled a ma jor-league hypocrite, but they didn't. In the end. the only people who didn't know about Packwood's al leged harassment in time were the public and the Em erald Oregon Doily PO BOK3’4» tUCINi OHIGOK 97403 IN* Oogon OfttTy f m#ratf « OAihf Monoay IfvougN i r*Jay Uunny fccNoc* y«,v and K/a*d«y *rt1 Thursday dunng !N* *urr>m«f &y tN* Oagon Ott/fy t PuW*N»ng CO Inc ml tN* Uruv^vry of Oagon. i ugana. Oogon TNi ( rrtmfMta opfmim indapandamfy ol tN» Urvvartrty *r«n o"*ja* «1 Sole 300 of in* f rt> Mvniyiii Urvon and » a '•amba of tna Askk ^‘'ms In* l m#raW f* tytvaia p*opady Tha unlawful rarxivaJ O' u*a o« pap**"* «» {KoaocuiaO* 0y law F dRof Pa; Ma*Acn Hn>« Editor Editorial Editor Graphic* Editor E nt*rt*o»w Suppiomonu Editor Caftoy KrOfXO^ yegni t on or ja«u «erg tawewi Edaori lenmy Belay Student C-owrvrw* Acrmties Oaratyn loop* Commu rvry C ocean f'oMig. tapper l OuiJKOn AdWvrwIrafon New* Staff Chester Allan Mendy Baocum Man Bandar Jusnn Brown, Satan Cw» Wag Dedorph. Amy Oevenpori Amanda Fana Alicia ftrtr lisa Haggary Teresa Hurtsmger L,v» Kneair* Damian Mclaar Slava Mum Min. ‘tuaner Aim Mg.yan Tuna Noe'. E»en Shaw Ucnaai Snmder F rtek Sijdaracka, Maroo Setor. Menaat Thompson Aguiar. Amy Van luyi. Todd Witoams Jacquacne Woge Haainar rMPauar General Manager Judy Had Adverttetng Otraeter Bryan R Coppadga Production Manager kAc'aa Hoaa Advertising Shewn Barren Scon Dana Janmier FtucAms Jana It our Chn» Kanon Tom l eecf Jaramy Mason Gtfian On. Dustin Slade. Sharon Vat Anga wmh»T Claaadlad F*aggy McGinn Manage< Bary l age." Snaron Sauva Susan Updegran Dtatrtbutioo Reowcca Brocas Ansi. Van Gower Anthony Wynn Buaasaaa Aathy Carpono Superveor AaJy Connolly Production ingnd Whaa. /’raAafwn Coortfcnefor Ara na Granger Dee Mrt'ntin. Siay Mtcnatr. Jennie FVAand Jervuier Smart. Anna Slapnanaon. DaraTyn T'appa Ntmoom....W-JI1I Buunm onic* -J4*-JJ12 Diftpfty Adv*<1tttng ClataKiM) M6 3712 344-4 M3 ‘Our date was going OK then all ol a sudden he starts acting like a U.S. senator!" Day madness I would llki> to respond lo Christopher Lancefield's letter expressing Ills outrage at the University s failure U) observe Veteran’s Day (()L)1 Nov -4) To illustrate Ins point, he contrasts the University's ob servance of Martin Luther king’s birthday lo its non-ob servance of Veteran's L)ny I have no problem with his dis content at the University's non recognition of Veteran's Uav. hut why does he lis'l it nix es sarv to compute it with obser vance of MLK Day7 It's as if lie is expressing as tonishment that Ml.k Day is ob served and Veteran's Day is not Recently, a newly formed law student group < ®hed the Foundation for the Advance ment Conservative Thought published an article expressing the same discontent and using the same analogy Frankly, I. along with other African-American students, am sick of students such as Luncefield and organizations such as FACT surreptitiously implying it is outrageous we observe MLK Day and not Vet eran's Day It is a not so subtle form of ra< ism under the guise of patri otism The University also ob serves Memorial Day, but I guess Luncefield feels this holi day is more deserving of recog nition Monica Hardy Law Close house Because of the confusion among some observers of the (Nov. 23) protest at tho I’hi Kappa Psi house, i will explain my participation. Niki Kauch wants this house closed for perpetrating an at mosphere of sexual assault. I support Rauch's fight by my presence at demonstrations The cause of this protest was to encourage the closuro of the i’hi Kappa Psi house. I reject the criticisms of the observers. If they condemn our methods, they need to person ally act on their convictions rather than lounge in apathetic non-activism. VVo were not a lynch mob; there were no lynchings, no broken windows, no assaults ! will not tolerate violence against women in any form or in any setting I need not hear where more rapes o< cur. this is not a study in rela tive frequency, this is opposi tion to evnrv assault 1 support thi' greek system under the condition that it ful fills the six.ad responsibilities that are placed upon it because of its powerful position One of these responsibilities is abso lutely prohibiting any sort ol gender-based Bissau It or harass ment When this responsibility is not met, my support switches to stopping this system The message I want to send by clos ing tlie I’hi Kappa I’si house is that fraternity existence is a privilege, not a right I support Greeks Against Rape because it believes in internal change, but there are also times lor outside intervention such as house closure Rape is wrong, even when It s "only" a few times Haidi Bowman Comparative Literature no options In Tuesday's (Dm 1) fcijter old. the editorial slated, "A tax payer who has lived in Oregon for many years deserves au ess to un affordable education An out-of-slute student who wishes to take advantage of state fund ing does not have the same right to taxpayer support As a native Seattle resident, my first choice was the Univer sity of Washington But in my major, Washington has one of the top-10 departments in the nation, and I was not accepted. Thus, I vvas faced with the following choices: go to Wash ington State University, Central Washington, etc , and get a me diocre education; go to un ex pensive private school, or pay steep out-of-state tuition in an other stale As "a taxpayer who has lived in Washington for many years,” don't I also 'deserve access to un affordable education"? True. I have not paid taxes in Oregon, but I'm not getting credit for the many years I've paid taxes to support Washington schools. Thus, the people in my situa tion get screwed by the whole slate? residency system I don't know what the solution is (maybe move the funding to the federal level), hut the? current system is nol right Eric Sieverling Computer Science Think Greek With this letter we would like to express our objections and deepest concern regarding the content of a speech titled "Current Ethnic Conflict in Yugoslavia — Geographical Perspective," given by Profes sor Ronald Wixman on Nov 1(> at the University This man, hidden behind the title "expert," presented his opinions alxiut the situation in former Yugoslavia We are not able to evaluate everything Wixman said What we do know is he intentionally abused the truth concerning the actions and positions of our country, Greece, with regard to our relationship with a newly formed country that has not been recognized by the United Nations, United States, Europe an Community, etc Wixman deliberately misled his audience on this particular subject Furthermore. the style and content of tho locturo strongly implied only one part of the country is responsible for everything happening during the war in Bosnla-Her/egovina At the end, there was no time loft for people to rebut his speech It was extremely disappoint ing for a man endorsed by the University to deny the possibil ity of a dialogue and thus reject the very essence of democracy, as it was born and developed in our country. His whole attitude makes us wonder: Is this the way this man is teaching — by present ing his opinions as facts, by no. offering the opportunity for dia logue, by offending countries, their history and their tradi tion? Is this what the Universi ty presents? Is this the kind of education we're seeking? We think hot. Stas Stavriansas Univarslty Hallanlc Club