EDITORIAL
Student funds spent
on women’s retreat
The Incidental Fee Committee recently granted $3,500
dollars of student funds to the ASUO Women's Center.
Keep in mind this is above and beyond its normal oper
ating budget.
Tho money was allocated in order to fund food, advertising
and child care for committee meetings, a facilitator to help
organize committee meetings, and a retreat.
If money is being distributed adequately, then so be it. But
$1,000 for a retreat seems like an impressive rutruat. It seems
there would have to have been some pretty intense persuasion
on the part of the Women-* Center toward the IFC. Especially
if the procedures below wore followed accordingly.
1. Write a short, half- to one-page explanation of your
request. The explanation should include the amount request
ed. what the money will be spent on and the reason for the
request.
2. Make eight copies of the explanation. Give seven to the
IFC, and one to the ASUO Coordinator of Finance. This paper
must t>e received at least 48 hours Indore the meeting at which
the IFC will hear the request
3. Meet with tho ASUO Coordinator of Finance to discuss
your request. The ASUO Executive will then develop un Exe< •
utivo Recommendation. This meeting must occur at least 24
hours before your IFC hearing.
4. The IFC will place you on the agendo and notify you of
the date of the hearing. At the hearing, you will he given a
chance to expound upon your written request and then answer
questions before the IFC votes cm the request.
These procedures for special requests are used in order to
fairly distribute funds, and. when used in that fashion, the
process has the potential to be fair and respectable. However,
in the case mentioned above, it was not.
It is clearly stated in tho procedures that the organization
must submit its reciuost and meet with the ASUO Coordina
tor of Finance. He then gives his advice to develop an Execu
tive Recommendation. Unfortunately, ns the finance coordi
nator said, these proceedings were not fallowed.
Somehow tho IFC in this case felt free to abolish their own
procedures and avoid the meetings and advice of the ASUO
Coordinator of Finance.
If $3,500 dollars seems like a large amount, especially when
at the beginning of the year there was only $7,000 dollars
available in special request funds, maybe it was. The ASUO
Coordinator of Finance never even knew of the request let
alone the grant of the request until it had already been final
ized.
These procedures have lieen created for the liesl interest of
University students and must be followed. We are tulking
about a great deal of money. Though $3,500 dollars may only
be a small sliver, this is merely one example.
OMIIy Emerald
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LETTERS
Ed the editor
Your recent article regarding
the multicultural center (ODE.
Oct. 11) left out important facts.
As a result, a reader with no pre
vious knowledge of the subject
would probably assume there
was no opposition to the center.
The article implies that the
only parties involved in provid
ing funding for the multicultur
al center were ASUO President
Eric Bowen and Vice President
Diana Collins Puente, and the
University administration. This
is false.
During their election cam
paign, Bowen and Collins
Puente sponsored an ASUO bal
lot measure that would have tak
en $125,000 from the students
for the multicultural center. The
students voted down the mea
sure. Then the proposal was
brought to the Incidental Fee
Committee, of which I was a
member Despite the students'
u isbes, the IFC saw fit to allo
cate $50,000. in dollar-for-dol
lar. matching funds with the
administration.
The writer went on to suggest
that "many people'' see a need
for a multicultural center and
quoted ASUO Multii ultural
Advocate Eden Aijriau-Omari as
evidence ol this widespread
support. Eden’s support lor the
center is about as surprising as a
farmer supporting farms or
Emerald Editor Jake Borg sup
porting the campus liars
The omitted information is n
matter of public record and cru
cial to the readers' understand
ing. The reporter relied too
heavily on the ASUO for his
information. Emerald writers
can't accept one side of the sto
ry — particularly the govern
ment's side — as the whole sto
ry.
Ed Carson
Co-Editor and Publisher
Oregon Commentator
Mideast ignored
In mv Emerald article of Juno
23. 1992, I wrote regarding the
lack of Middle Eastern represen
tation at administrative, adviso
ry and professional levels at the
University.
Subsequently, the Universi
ty's Office of International Stu
dents hired an Iranian as an
adviser. At the administrative
and professorial levels, the hir
ing of Middle Easterners unfor
tunately remains sadly ignored.
The University endeavors to
be international, hence the addi
tion of an international studies
department and formation of the
International College. While
these might be steps in the inter
national direction, the glaring
absence of Middle Eastern staff
and courses belies legitimate
international status.
There are no courses on the
Middle East offered in the cur
riculum, thus making it possible
for students to complete a bac
calaureate degree without any
exposure to the literature, lan
guages, societies, politics or reli
gions of the Middle East.
Given the prominence of the
Middle East in world politics,
tins omission is particularly sig
nificant. In the absence of the
Middle East perspective, stu
dents are fed stereotypical
analysis of the region's politics
and people that is reported by
the Western media and rein
forced by Western intellectuals
II the University is to tran
scend parochialism, it must
open up its curriculum to other
cultures and hire faculty from
those cultures to bring new vis
tas to the marketplace of ideas.
M. Reza Behnam, Ph D
Eugene
Not 10 percent
This letter is in response to
the advertisement in the Emer
ald of Oct. 11, which pictured
10 students and a slogan that
said, "One in Ten: That's What
the Experts Say." Well, that may
have been what the experts
thought 30 years ago, but the
figures today are quite different.
In fact, the last survey done in
the U.S. found that 1.2 percent
of men and women had same
gender sex within the year pre
ceding the survey. However,
there has been much disagree
ment from the gay community,
who believe that the survey of
1,537 adults was inaccurate and
too small a sampling. This is a
legitimate concern, but there are
more surveys beside the latest
U.S. one.
According to the March 31
edition of the Wall Street Jour
nal. the one-in-10 figure has
been refuted in other countries
as well. A 1990-91 British sur
vey of close to 19,000 adults •
aged lf> to 59 found that 1.4 per
cent of men had bad same-gen
der sex within the last five years ,
of the survey. In 1991-92 the
Mitterand government of France
surveyed over 20,000 adults and
found that 1.4 percent of men
and 0.4 percent of women had
had same-sex intercourse within
the five years preceding the sur
vey.
While 1 do not believe that
homosexuals should be perse
cuted. I do believe it is inappro
priate that the Emerald and oth
er media present out-dated
research in order to help homo
sexuals feel more comfortable.
There is nothing wrong with a
strength-in-numbers mentality
hut only if the numbers are cor
rect. And the 10 percent number
is incorrect. If homosexuals
want mainstream society to face
the possibility that there is a gay
gone, then homosexuals should
also face the possibility of the
number of people that it actual
ly affects.
Chris Stringer
Russian
LETTERS POLICY
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