EDITORIAL
Supercollider tunnel
has been sealed up
The estimated $5.5 billion project that has turned into
an $8 billion. 54 mile tunnel is dead. The supercollider
project that has been in the works since 1983 was voted
out by Congress. For many they say. it is a sad day in sci
ence. Republican Jake Pickle, D-Texas. said,"The people
who killed the collider are worse than the people who
killed Santa Claus."
Sania Claus seems to have been missing his rounds for
quite some time now. Actually, there has never really
boon a Santa Claus, as far as politics is concerned. Hope
fully, that won’t come as a
shock to Pickle. There is no
super collider either. Pick
le. equating the death of the
project with the death of
Santa Claus, should pro
vide a little insight to the
significance of the project,
that was to far surpass its original cost. Its estimated
completion date of 1999 is as far off as the project itself.
The 54 mile
tunnel was to be
used to study the
origin of matter.
The 54-mile tunnel was to be used to study the origin
of matter. This would be accomplished by forcing pro
ton beams to collide in the tunnel. Projects like those are
of the upmost interest and importance in the science
community, but an estimated one billion dollars will be
spent on the shut down. This billion dollars will enable
the project to slay intact for possible future use, when
Santa Claus is of significance important in the manage
ment of this country.
This is moro than Congress merely flexing its political
muscles. It is a great use of political power to scrap a
project that should have been scrapped many years ago.
The origin of matter seems of little importance at the pre
sent or even the future when compared to the trillion
dollar debt that the US has acquired. Cuts have to be
made, and finally, it seems a clean cut was made. If
deficit reduction is going to happen, then continuing to
deduct from projects like the supercollider is a wise
choice. Science is a long term investment. Fortunately it
is not long enough to see the light at the end of this 54
mile tunnel.
This recent decision will probably make the future
dismissal of funds to science related projects somewhat
more difficult. The supercollider will no doubt be used
as an example of the management of science-related
money. Maybe that will be in the benefit of everyone,
and future projects will be required to be scrupulously
researched prior to the disposal of funds, at least to the
point of seeing a trace of light at the end of the tunnel
before digging at the beginning.
Science is an endless quest of money reauests to fund
longterm projects to answer, in this case, the unanswer
able. Science does hold many of the necessary keys to
tho future. If the supercollider project would have beon
one of these keys, then the funding would have
remained.
Oregon Doily
Emerald
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OPINION
Seats sold; students left in cold
Scot Clemens
1 don‘I like football.
Not that I'm one of thorn nam
by pambys who deplore the vio
lence and seemingly incompre
hensible pointlessness of the
game. It just never caught my
fancy.
Yet 1 realize that I stand in the
minority, and therefore don't
mind the fact that I pay for other
people's football games through
my student fees. For those who
don't know (or never bothered
to think about it), the ASUO —
via the IFC — pays the athletic
department about a million
bucks a year so that students (an
get into athletic events free, or
nearly free. This system hos
worked for many years Indeed,
it worked well until about two
weeks ago.
The I)ui:ks ware to play USC
that weekend. Yet, Coach
Brooks had some other things on
his mind. According to the min
utes of the October 4. athletic
department meeting, "There
was a discussion about selling
section five as reserved seating
for the USC game if student tick
et sales do not improve."
Ah, section five. This is the
section nestled up in the South
west comer of Autzen Stadium.
(It’s a lovely view of. . ., well,
the corner of the football field.
And some football players,
when ever they happen to be in
view. In sports parlance, these
seats suck.) It is also the station
the ASUO — again, via the IFC
— tried to give back to the Ath
letic Department last year.
However, the Athlete Depart
ment didn't want them back
(<.,in you blame them?). Accord
ing to associate athletic director
Sandy Walton there wero two
reasons they didn't want the
seats back. First, they felt that
students would lose out if they
sold the seats back. Once you
sell a section back to the depart
ment they don't often give them
back evidently. (Thank God we
have the athletic department to
stop the IFC from making dumb
decisions! If it weren't for the
department the IFC would have
been a mess for the last few
years.)
Second, the athletic depart
ment is not dumb, they know
they can't sell these tickets to
anyone but the most desperate
football fans.
So a deal was struck and the
students had section five to
themselves, almost.
Why almost?
Because according to the con
tract the department can sell
tickets in the student section if
students don't pick up their tick
ets by the Thursday l>efore game
day.
In the past this meant that
general admission seats were
sold in the student section. But
on the fateful day of October 7.
Brooks decided to sell them
reserve. Once this decision was
made, the entire section became
reserved and the prices for all
the seats went up to $19.
When game day finally
arrived, a large group of students
waited to purchase tickets
(granted the smart ones bought
theirs before Thursday and were
already sitting down). That day.
over a hundred students were
turned away (The ASUO esti
mates it was between 300-400,
the department says 100-200).
The estimates notwithstanding.
SON reserve tickets were sold in
section five, leaving over four
hundred seats unoccupied. (Yes.
you number-crunchers, there
was room enough for all.)
U<t's do a little math: nineteen
dollars, times 50H seats, equals
$9,662, Two dollars (the price of
student admission), times 200 (a
good average), equals $400. Fif
teen dollars (general admission
price), times 5UH, equals $7620.
It seems it is much more
lucrative to turn the section into
reserve than to leave it general
admission. So what did we
learn? The athletic department
would rather sell few seats to
fetch a higher price regardless of
the spirit of the agreement with
the student body. We also
learned the department doesn't
mind selling the students seats,
then kicking them out. then re
selling the seats for a higher
price. ^
Now — I want to make this
perfectly clear — the athletic
department did not violate the
contract. It is allowed to sell
those tickets as reserve. The
problem is that it did not warn
students, nor was it done in a
spirit that many people appre
ciated.
According to ASUO President
Eric Bowen, he called the
department when he got word of
the plan the week before the
gume. He then called to confirm
them and was told that section
five would not be sold as
reserve. Yet. on Thursday the
department phoned him saying
that, sure enough, the plans
were back on. Bowen, not a hot
head. was miffed.
Brooks did apologize for send
ing the students away and said it
would never happen again. He
also stated that he was respond
ing to a funding problem. Cod
knows the department has bills
to pay. but perhaps in the future
they will see to it that students
don't lose out on a deal they
should be able to count on.
Bowen, however, would be
well advised to look over the
contract when it is up for renew
al and recommend that the IFC
get rid of the loophole and any
other clause that may be mis
used. Perhaps the ASUO can
even unload section five.
Scot Clemens is an associate
editor for- the Emerald.