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 PO 00 ■ 3* V» fuGfH* 0«l GO** *'4C0 Tha Oapon D»iy tmmrnd .» put**n«d dory Monday mrough Fnday durmfl ">• •choo‘ ,oa and Tuesday and Thur»day during ih# iummn by lha Oregon Daily Fmawer»ity anth once* at Sole 300 private proparty Tha untarrtui i amor a or oaa o* paper* it proaecutapie Oy M Nm Editor Editorial Editor QrapMca Editor Entartammant Editor Editor Pat Maiacti Jafce Barg Eraalaoca Editor Martin f t»it#r Editor tat Editor Ja« Pawy Sport* Editor F irrya Flom Suppiamantm Editor NtvjM Editor Jake Barg Md'XJ* Baucurn ,lan»Mn D«v» Ca»*y Andwion Associate Editor! Timmy Batay. Student Government* Acttvtiet Daraiyn Trappa. Community CoOeen Pohhg Mghar tituatbon Aam*nOon Heme Son Owl* Men. Matt Bender Ju*tm Brown. Satan Oar*. Mag Dadotpn. Amy Dwvarpon Jam E«-»on, Amanda feme Anthony Tot nay. Both Mega Tateaa tAmtamgar. HoCmta Mama. Stovo ItAmi, Katy MoeSet T,H*t. Mjener Tn»u Moat. E»en Shaw. Enc* StudamcAa. M»«m Sotot, Kandy TNeban. Micheta Thompoon Aguiar. Amy Van Toyt, Todd W».am». Clayton Yaa Qanarat Man agar Judy IW* Production Man agar: UchaU «om Advartlalng: Tom loach Saras Manapwr Shawn Botyen. QMpa Manager Jarva Itoia Tarawa luMM, Pnao John won II. Chn* Kanolt. Jeremy Maaon Van V O'Bryan II GrUan Oh Bachaoi Tru«. Ange W-ndh#«ti Cleaarhed: Bacny Marcham. Manager Barry logon Sharon Sauva DiatrtbuUon: BrwxJon AndorvX’ Graham Srmpaon BuaMeaa Kathy Cortona Suparvwv Judy Conno»y Production: Ingd While. Production CoorOneey Knatma Granger Dee Me Cot* Stacy kAtchee. Jannrlar Boland. Janmtar Smith Suita*** Offtca. J44-&SI1 MMSI2 Ottptoy Advwttatog.— 34^712 O—ffl+d Advctfring. 343 4343 which o&EOort Retail inpostrv will now be Further re6ulatep ey the uhpercover'cops (M SHOPS" PKO&RAh^ V HAVE A PLEASANT PAY/ SIR./ <£><99.3 _ ; / cxjfoOM ~ • . *—■ ' \_ WI.Y f Mt»*>U< NO IV> £H mTsSV?'^ wen thcn, i Guess l'u be , TfsxjN' You PCMNloWNf J 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 Letters to the editor must be limited to no more than 250 words, legible, signed and the identification of the writer must be verified when the letter is submitted The Emerald reserves the right to edit any letter for length or style.