EDITORIAL
ASUO to build center
rejected by students
In the recently completed ASUO election*, students
defeated a ballot measure that would have raised money
to fund the start-up of a multicultural center in the EMU.
Nonetheless, creation of the center begins this summer.
How did this come to be? After student’s rejected the
proposal, the IFC and ASUO worked out a deal with the
administration to split the start-up costs 50-50. At the
new. downward-revised cost of $80,000. that comes to
a contribution of $40,000 in student fees.
The money is coming from a reserve account, so stu
dent fees won’t bo affected. Yet. Reserve fees, if they are
going to be used at all, should bo used to either fund
under funded groups (or groups who took cuts this year),
or should bo applied across the board in an attempt to
hold down next yoar’s incroase in incidontal foes.
Bettor yot. tho ASUO could have simply held onto the
money. The key to reserve funds is that they're reserves,
saved for a rainy day. etc. But apparently tho money was
burning a hole in tho ASUO's pocket.
But tho big flaw in this plan is that it provides no mon
ey for operational costs. Guess who’s going to got the bill
for running tho center? Students. Students have already
said they don’t want to pay for creating a multicultural
center, so tho ASUO is only going to make them nay for
tho operation of tho center. Hardly an equitable deal.
The multicultural centor suffers from the same flaw as
the recently roturnod-to-committoe multicultural
requirement revision. Tho center lacks a focus of pur
pose. According to the ASUO. "The center's purpose is
to foster a sense of community through the celebration of
diversity for student involvement in workshops, fonims
and discussions about tho various cultures represented
on the University campus."
Isn't that what the multicultural curriculum is sup
posed to do? Why do wo nood both? What can tho mul
ticultural conter offer that tho combined resources of the
ethnic studies department, the multicultural curriculum
and other University offices do not already offer?
The center is also supposed to serve as “a clearing
house for resource material” about raco, ethnicity, cul
ture. etc. However, such a clearinghouse already exists.
It’s called the Knight Library. Rather than create simply
another repository for resources, why not work with tho
library, which is still undergoing renovation, to create a
multicultural resource room?
The library could simply consolidate whatever mate
rials students believe to bo relevant to muiticulturalism
and make them available in a contralizod location. This
is exactly what tho multicultural centor would do, but it
would do it for far less money and would not creato a
redundancy of services.
Unless tho ASUO can justify this expense with specif
ic expectations for the center, it should be abandoned
until its purpose is clearly defined and questions ns to
cost, effectiveness and need are determined. Tho ASUO
should follow the oxample of the University Assembly
and send this one back to committee.
Oregon Daily
Emerald
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LETTERS
Good outcome
As o voting member of the
University Senate and as a stu
dent. I was very pleased with
the outcome of Wednesday's
curriculum meeting Referring
the important and debated issue
of multiculturalism in curricu
lum helps the Senate roach an
eventual, informed and decisive
decision
The motion, which referred
the (tending legislation to an ad
hoc committee for review,
passed by an overwhelming
majority. Nevertheless, many of
the students and non-voting
members voiced complaints
about the outcome. Many felt
that such a postponement was
merely a way of avoiding the
issue.
That is absolutely not so
Some people were hoping for an
immediate solution, nut by not
investigating and considering
the options and outcomes liefore
us. wo can avoid making a hasty
and ignorant decision. Commit
tee members will Ihi individuals
chosen from a diverse group of
University departments, com
mittees and programs — includ
ing a student representative.
For those who are frustrated
by the committee referral of the
multicultural requirement legis
lation. realize that this is simply
a logical part of the decision
making process If something is
to be done, it must be done
right There are no alternatives.
Making an uninformed decision
without considering implica
tions is never a solution in any
situation.
Joshua William Thomas
Journalism
Yes we can
I would like to respond to
Henry M Goldstein's commen
tary (ODE, lune 2). particularly
his "non-PC" explanation of the
lack of women as tenured facul
ty in mathematics, physics and
economics.
I know far too many women
who are intellectually gifted in
quantitative thinking to accept
the statement that women have
"much weaker quantitative abil
ities than men." I also know that
most people choose not to enter
a field simply because it does
not appeal to them, not because
they Sack the ability.
This assumption on the men
tal faculties of women is exactly
where prejudice starts. It says,
"You can't," "You don't have
the ability." "You won't make
it," and "Don't ever try." It takes
away one's freedom to choose
her own educational path. It dis
courages It places a woman in a
stereotype nnd takes away her
individuality.
Concerning the "proof from
the SAT scores, my question to
Goldstein is this: How many
girls were told "you can't"
while still in elementary school,
in middle school, in high
school? How many girls were
discouraged in math before they
even heard of the SAT?
A woman has the right to
choose her own educational
path, whether it lie language,
social studies or mathematics.
Don't assume she can’t make it
simply because she is a woman,
liecause I guarantee that our
reply will be, "Oh yes we can!"
Sharon Graville
English
Psychology
Rude IFC
After surviving an appeal to
the Incidental Fee Committee on
behalf of the ASUO Women's
Center's program Women in
Transition. I felt belittled and
humiliated
The other co-director of the
program and 1 were trying to
convince the members of the
IFC that we needed more money
in our budget to pay child-care
expenses for a successful single
mother student-parent support
group that began in the fall of
this year. The group wasn't
around last year, so of course
money hadn't been budgeted in
previous years.
The response we got from the
IFC was shocking to me Mem
bers whispered among them
selves about other things, casu
ally wandered away and seemed
to not be listening to what we
were saying. Only Steve Masat
seemed supportive and con
cerned about the plight of older
single-parent students on cam
pus.
We asked the committee
members why they refused to
allocate the money and they
refused to answer. Their behav
ior seemed very rude. Strangely,
the only person who did pay
attention and seemed support
ive is now ousted from the IFC.
1 wonder if the IFC wants him
out because he is more open to
diverse ideas?
Mary Wertz
Student Insurgent
With or without
"There are three kinds of lies;
Lies, damned lies and statistics"
(Disraeli).
Henry Goldstein's ramhling
commentary [ODE. June 2), with
his selective distribution of
undergraduate grades, provided
pathetic support for Disraeli's
warning Goldstein compared
apples with oranges, something
we learned not to do in junior
high school.
He matched the grades of
small urograms (women's stud
ies and folklore and ethnic stud
ios) with major departments
(economics and mathematics).
He compounded this absurdity
by again selectively using one
point in time (spring term 1992)
to imply that such grading per
centages were traditional.
He went on to suggest that
core departments like econom
ics and mathematics, with their
permanent faculty, stability and
resoun.es, are somehow compa
rable with the struggling pro
grams (those that directly
involve women and minorities,
interestingly) he conveniently
picked out and picked on.
One more thing. The point of
multiculturalism is that it
should be integrated into all
existing departments and pro
grams. With or without the sup
port of people like Professor
Goldstein, eventually, this inte
gration is going to happen.
Clarence Spigner
Assistant Professor
Anthropology
LETTERS POLICY
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