Oregon Daily THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 4, 1993 Assembly votes to remove cluster requirements □ Decision effective immediately; no courses will be added or eliminated By Julie S wen sen Oregon DMy i r net aid In a move that likely will clear up confusion, the Uni versity Assembly voted Wednesday to eliminate t luster requirements for undergraduates. Instead, students now must take lf> credits in group satisfying courses in each of the sciences, s an take a si altered group of courses instead of having ill-depth study in one field Hut. since tile new system eases confusion and helps students plan their i urrli ilium. tie- pros outweigh the tains," hi1 said Native architecture class a unique study □ University is one of only two in the Northwest to offer the American Indian course By Jennifer Cosgrove fey ine Oregon Daily Emerald The University is one of only two col leges in the Pacific Northwest offering a course surveying the history of American Indian architecture, says the University's art history departmental head. The class, which was initially taught for the first time last spring by Professor Leland Roth, the department head, features not only the scope of building undertaken by American Indians in all regions of the North American continent, but also a unique study of many American Indian cultures and their lifestyles reflected through the period of time American Indi an built structures. Course studies span from the earliest remains so far discovered up to the IftOOs. "The course objectives are designed for the students to learn about how American Indian cultures contain a rich ceremoni al lifestyle and intimate relationship with the earth and its natural resources, and how this aspect is scarcely present today in anv modern architecture, particularly western civilizations, Roth said. "All American Indian buildings physi lallv reveal individual and original expres sions of religious, cosmological and philosophical feeling, differing from one another due to so many types of American Indian tribes and their heritages, natural materials and resource* available, climate conditions, the period of time and area in which construction took place," he said. Several students who took the course last spring observed how traditional Amer ican Indian lifestyles were and still are dif ferent and opposite to the values that govern Western/American culture. Many students commented after taking the course that they began to notice that American culture has traditionally con veyed Native American cultural heritages in a dated, fragmented and prejudicial manner. ■‘There is a real lack of awareness that American Indian cultures still live very in tune with many of their traditions today, and that American Indians are still sub jected to discrimination by westom civi lization biases." Roth said. To date, about 25 colleges nationwide offer courses involved with surveying Native American architecture and indi vidual variations of tribal housing, said Turn to NATIVE, Page 6 The Klckapoo Indian's (above), wlklup (winter house) was made from tulea, reads, hackberry, Montezuma bald cypress and sycamore. Professor Leland Both (left) uses the King Island house model to recreate the architecture of the UkJuok Islanders. Architects cut from Amazon housing plan by University j Contract's termination shouldn't affect scheduled demolition in spring 1994 By Rivers Janssen Oregon University of fit i.«K terminated their ion trai t Wednesday with the an hilts tur.il firm si hedulod to plan the rebuilding of tile Amazon family holts I*N*S*I*D*E ^ An analysis of Christopher Alexander's background ^ Reaction to the firing from residents of Amazon mu projei I. i illii)4 11 Ini k of under standing fret ween die 1 hlivnrsi t\ mil (he design team .is reasons lor the ills missal 1 )an Williams, vii e president tor adminis (ration, said the i on trai t contained an option lor the I hover sity to i iini lode its agreement with CKS/TM\ provided I lull it settle dll < us!-, for work Inal's tieen completed Thu IJniv*»rs11v will exercise (lull option, liit -..ml The University will not. however, t hange its schedule on tin’ Am.iron project. Williams said. It ‘.till plans to tiegiu demo lition and site preparation in the spring, followed by construction and student is i u pancy of the first phase of the new Ama zon units by fall lOfTi Williams said that in lieu of hiring a new architect and Imginnmg the entire prm ess anew, the University w ill instead use an approai h known as design-build, which allows the l Jniversity to ui cept a proposed design and then accept hills from contrac tors for the construction of that design. The dismissal comes on the heels of months of difficulties between the head designer of the projis t, (Ihrislophor Alexan der. and University offu nils. Alexander's Berkeley, Calif. - based Center for Envi ronmental Structure joined with the Eugene architecture firm of Thai Ion and Kdrington for the sole purpose of designing the Agate family housing complex and redesigning the Amazon housing facility The Univer sity claims that Agate was going over bud get and contained several unapproved changes by the architects That was the first major problem between the two sides that led to the termination of Turn to AMAZON. Page 4