OPINION
Election results: Apathy by a landslide, IFC just slides
Election time has come and gone here at good of
Oregon. This current political season has wit
nessed a 5 percent bumper crop of the student
body taking five minutes to vote on nearly a half-million
dollars in student fees
No wise-guy punch line is necessary here.
As someone paid to determine what students want to
read about, however. I can only come to the conclusion
that trie r.mrrnm nos given
VVAAAAVYYYY too much coverage to
student government. Only 9«5 students
out of nearly 17,000 actually voted in
the general election.
On a strictly percentage Iwsis, only 5
percent of our space should be devot
ed to the inner workings of Suite 4
1 apologize for the lack of insight and
will use all my pull around here (slim
to none) to make sure we cover the
important things such as the barrage of
theme weeks coming up the rest of the
term. Cliche Sensitivity Awareness
Week or Endless Drone of Marimbas Week are |iist a cou
ple of examples.
Or better yet. we could run issues entirely Tilled with
the mean-spirited, oft-times unbelievably repetitious let
ters to the editor.
But there's always room for some post-election
insights. So for the lfi.000-plus students who couldn't
give a damn about student government and its elections.
Calvin and Hobbes and the crossword are on Page t r>
Now. the rest of the story.
As usual, the small, incestuous voting block of ASUO
inbreeders has elected its hand-chosen leaders to push
the interests of a handful of students on campus. Other
than deciding how much money the "student govern
ment" will take from the apathetic majority’s wallets,
there really is no reason to care who is running the
ASUO "add-a-line-to-mv-resumo" office.
As voters (or lack thereof) point out year after year
after year, student government is irrelevant — unless of
course you care how much money it takes from you and
where that money goes
Enter the incidental Fee Committee.
In a rational world, the 1FC would be a group of well
trained, professionally acting budget analysts larefully
reviewing each program's fiscal allocations to decide
how much money the programs need to operate effi
ciently
But this is Oregon
Throw the word "rational" out the window.
Until a common-sense minded voting
block rec ently evolved on the IFC. the
committee was led and dominated by
several ideologues who voted politics
rather than fiscal prudence.
Although the committee is beck on
track and its members seem determined
to follow through with their elected
duties, the political conniving and
manipulation exhibited throughout
most of the budget season nearly ran the
committee into the ground
The typical recipe for an IFC Increase
consisted of ns ding a few simple buzz
words, diversity, empowerment, diver
sity. indigenous, diversity, access,
diversity, hand-ground corn, diversity.
multicultural, etc.
A liberal sprinkling of these words
would ensure an increase, whether you
wanted to pay for karaoke night, parties
at the Milton or tortillas made ot corn grown hv a I -tit i nn
It worked even if you wanted $2rt.0(M) to bring in speak
ers to a conference that less than 5 percent of tfie student
body would over attend
Throw out the ledgers and fis< al examination, throw
in the magit words.
Hocus |uh:iis, this picture's out of fix us
And surprise, now the administration wants to take
I Kick the magic wand.
In one year, the special-interest politics of the i h.nr
uiiin and vice chairwoman have managed to provoke a
proposal that would limit the (lower students have ever
cised over incidental fees for years By abusing the (low
er inherent in a < ommittee that allm ates nearly $r> mil
lion, the power-seekers have caused not tieen vi< tims
of — a move to "disempower" students.
What's tlint phrase again7 Oh, yeah, self-fulfilling
prophet \
The s|hh ial interest politit s o( oihi or two I Ft! leaders
h«s created friction, tension, divisiveness and a death
mart h atmosphere at the committee's hearings Is it am
wonder three memhers just weren't having enough fun
to stu Ik it out for the entire year'
... she returned
with said tape in
hand. And a couple
of donuts. And a
Coca-Cola. And
several CDs she
had picked out
while the rest of us
waited in the
claustrophobic
confines of Century
Room A.
Nadlv. lint outlook for next vttar s
IFC is oven mom dismal l lie upathel
ii majority hasn't learned, itllnsving
the ASlIOnrs and thttir groupies to put
their hods in government yet again
The most frightening pit k of the
election is that of Tonija l.ynelle
Edwards for a one sear IFC. position
This personal reaction to 111 wards
win does not stem front her polities or
list al agenda, hut rather a mentors
front a lowly tan r raid freelance
reporter who recolloi ts her tenure as
IFC. chairwoman in 1989-00
It was ms first ever assignment for
the hmrrald I nervously shosved up
prepared to do ms host and impress
ms peers Unfortunate!v. the commit
tee svas not so inspired No one had a
tape to record the meeting for minutes,
so Kdsvards selflessly volunteered to
go miy a t assette
Forty-five minutes lo an hour later, stu> returned with
said tope in hand And a couple of donuts And a (!ih a
Cola And several ( IK she had pit ked out while lint rust
of us waited in the t laustrophohu confines of Century
Kooin A
The "professional'' standards of the 1E‘C are sure to
increase under Edwards' influeiue
Despite Edwards' apparent lack of < onsitleration for
others, site may a! least make i ninmittee its n.iinit s inter
esting for nest year hy being what the i oinmittee m etis
.1 strong-willed, sell assured woman aide to see
through It ( C hairman Steve Masai's groveling vet
destrut live potty power polite s and stomp the load out
of him like the softest of No. pent ils
/’of XUilnt h is rdltur of the Emerald
LETTERS
In writing please
In regards to the article about
the ASUO recount {OPE. April
27), I would like to make several
comments. First off. as the Leslie
YVarren/Mark Johnson campaign
representative, the elections
tuiard informed me Wednesday
that there would be a recount at
an undetermined time and plate
and that the candidates would
lie contacted.
I inquired if they would let
me know by 12:30 p.m. Thurs
day. The said they would. I told
them if they could not find War
ren or Johnson that I could bo
contacted at work before that
time, and I would make the
appropriate arrangements.
I left work at 12:30 p in. and
checked hack between classes
throughout the day. but because
I had not heard from them. 1
assumed they had contacted
Warren or Johnson. They had
not
This is just one of several inci
dents I was referring to when I
said, "we had not been notified
about anything." This lack of
communication was typical and
problematic throughout the
campaign.
Elections board member
James McCafferty said they
began counting at 3.30 p.m
Elections board coordinator Tra
cy Dennis said they notified
campaigns at ■» p.m. Does any
one else see a problem here?
To respond to McCafferty —
No. we did not ask for a written
invitation. We merely expected
the common courtesy that
should be accorded to any can
didate. to be told what's going
on.
Next lime, we will ask for a
written invitation. Apparently,
the recount was an invitation
only event.
Michelle Kuwasakl
Journalism Sociology
More than obey
I would like to make a few
comments on the letter written
by Eric Ei khart titled "Hove
faith" [OUt:. April 27)
It is true that people need to
have faith in Jesus Christ, hut that
is simply not enough I n oliey ills
commandments and Ins word is
what ho calls us to do
I In gave us a choice I le doesn’t
want rolMits, yet at the same time
we can't only give him half of our
lives
It is my pmver that people will
have faith, obey God and read the
llihle all of it with an open
heart
liven the New Testament talks
about how homosexuality is
wrong
Kristen Kessler
Psychology
Lloyd Jones
Struggle
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