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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 1993)
EDITORIAL Sex content should be told to students In the past few months, virtually every student on this campus has had the experience of perusing the Sched ule of Classes, Many undoubtedly noticed the column on the right hand side of each page that lists ’'Notes’* about each class, designed to help students pick their classes care fully. Some classes require instructor approval. Some have a prerequisite course. Others may include an extra fee for enrollment. All of these notes are signified by initials or abbreviations. Now imagine if all those classes contained another descriptive note: PC, K or NC-17. Such a scenario may just come to pass at the public universities of Iowa, if current trends continue. Instructors in three of Iowa's state universities have been ordered to provide warnings before showing films or videos that contain “explicit representations of human sexual acts." This comes in the wake of two recent incidents at the University of Iowa, which result ed in a storm of complaints from students, parents, alumni and legislators. In the first of these incidents, students in a German language class were shown the movie Taxi zum Klo, or Taxi to the Bathroom, which was billed as an erotic comedy and a landmark in gay filmmaking. In the other incident, 160 students enrolled In an art seminar were shown an eight-minute video that con tained three scenes, totaling about 15 seconds, of men engaging in oral sex. The immediate argument that was raised against the new policy, which so far only includes a verbal warning to be issued just before the display, was that it consti tuted a form of censorship — a hefty claim that simply isn't supported by the facts. A policy can only be considered censorship if it restricts in some way a person's access to certain infor mation. There was no attempt made to remove these films from the curriculum, or to edit out any of the so called “offensive" parts. The only difference is the warning. The effect of such a warning will bo negligible because only a handful of people will pay any atten tion to it anyway. College students are not exactly the typo of people to say, "You better not show me that. 1 don't think 1 can handle it." The policy is aimed only at the relatively few students who are easily offended. It's just a courtesy. If the warnings did end up scaring more moderately minded students away, however, that would be a shame. People need to be shocked from time to time. Students who are afraid to bo shocked are essentially afraid to learn. Despite this, a university must be responsive to t he desires of the students, and if some of them want to escape images that they find unsettling, then they should have that right. Daily PO OOl JtV* tuOtht 0«tGON9'*CO Th« CVtQon OsMy t'm&Ok} i* pubtoNxl d»*ly Monday IhfOugh Friday (kiting th* Khool y«a» and Tuesday and Thursday during in# by !h« Oregon Oa*iy Em#f«*d Pubt*sh*na Co . tnc al ?h« University o* Oregon Fugene. Oregon The tm&iMkJ operate* independently o* the Untvers*ty *rrfh oh*cm at Surf* 300 erf tt>e £rt> Mtmorttf Umon and *s a member ot the Associated Press The fmeraAt *a pnvate property The untawM removal or use oi papers »s prosecutat>*« Oregon by law Managing Editor Editorial Editor Orapntca Editor Freelance Editor Edllor-ln-Chlel: Jake Beig Canny Anderson Sport* Editor David Thom Editorial Editor Jolt Paetay Photo Edllor Jail Winters Supplements Editor Night Edllor: River* Janssen Slava Whs Ja« P.cfchar<* Anthony Fomay Kaly Solo Aaaoclata Edltora: Scot Clemens. SlwJanl GownmtnirActimtits. Rebecca Merrill. Community. Rivera Janaaen, iAgner EOuCIhonfAdninit^tton New* Stall: Dave Charbonneau. Ricatdo Bavtco Mag Dedolph. Amy Davenport. Cara Echevarria. Mal.a Fieida. Marim Fiahei. Sarah Hendeieon. At* Haaaaidahl, Edward Ktoplenslem Vm leng Leong. Marius Meland. Trial* Noel. Elisabeth Heensijema. Robow Reeves lia Saicicoa Scott Simonaon, Siephanie Siaaon. Suaanne Siailena. Julie Swensen. Ivkcheie Thompaon Aguiar Kevin Tnpp. Amy Van Tuyl. Darnel West Oenerei MeneQec: Judy Med Advertising Director: Mora Wader Production Man agar: Afccheio Ross Advertising: Su0« Dutta. Nicole Mettmar*. Teresa Isabelle. Je« Mai on Jeremy Mason. Mnrhaei (vkaoete. Van V O'Bryan II. Rachael Trod, Kelsey Waken. Angie WexfieMii ctesalhed: Becky Merchant Manager Vidor Mey*. Sim Tre Ted DlatrltxiUon: Itwangyoog Kim, John long. Graham Simpson Business Kathy Carbone. Supervisor AKty Connolly Production: Dee McCobb. Production Coordinator Shevma Abele. Greg Desmond. Tara Gajdney. Brad Joss. Jennifer Roland, Nan Thangvtyt. Clayton Tee Newsroom....MB-5S11 Display Advertising -MB-J712 Business Office__J4B-SSI2 Classified Advertising-MMM1 [ THE FAT* OF ! IHf*PQT4L soul is F4>RlVS£CuQ£ I THINK ALTHOUGM MV JOe /5 A LITTLE WAKV. MV DOG LikEs M£. 1 v**^**1* * i It £>*>*1 r*( ~^jK4^C/ Vi 6*JT TU£ £WH}(>N»\EislT OP 7W£ PlANEr /AI JfoAARDV' n ON THE OTWEr. HAND, Ccw^VPAajv '5 /AJ PftErrv 6000 j^ape AlTWooGH MV EX-VilEE IS MOV//A/G W/rH THEft\ Jb ANOTHER state. T [So I'D SAy CLIN7TWV /)o/ajg 4 'fairly c>ood' job ftf<w/r /vow. 4SK Mt A&Ain 7 Tomorrow - j COMMENTARY Campus radio is tuned into students By James Pierson As the debate rages about KWVA and its sound. I have to say I've yet to hear anything that isn't some clever, off-the-cuff, "this will impress everyone" stab based solely from the perspective of one or two people who want to hear more of what they like from their campus station Phillip Abraham's letters were quite on the boll with regard to what it tukes to appeal to his audience of friends, however, to suggest that KWVA start doing what it has been doing all along is a puzzler. There's a great deal more to what defines the sound of a radio station than the space of this column would permit, however, us anyone knows me will confirm. I'm willing to talk at length with anyone who wants to know anything about radio. In nearly 10 years of broad cast, I’ve learned (among other things) that if a station wants to ap|Hial to the largest group of lis teners possible, that station should plug into a country and western, news-talk, classic rock or classical format, which are pretty much enjoying thorough coverage from commercial sta tions. Anything else is likely to be block-programmed into obscurity, or pretty specialized in its approach to its sound. KWVA has undertaken the ambitious task of being a "col lege radio" station, while pro viding a resource to the commu nity for music that doesn't receive respectable coverage in this region. Contrary to the opin ions of the disgruntled few, there has been a great deul of praise and support from listen ers regarding our diverse format. After only five months on the air 1 know we're far from perfect, yet we're still rocking the pants off other stations. For legitimate confirmation of how many listeners we have, please spend the thousands of After only five months on the air I know we’re far from perfect, yet we’re still rocking the pants off other stations. dollars KWVA can't to subscribe to tilt* Arbitron rating service. I greatly urge anyone and every one who has ideas for how to improve KWVA to contact me diret tlv if thev feel that our quarterly new music surveys and 500-plus weekly requests don't make us responsive to what students and the commu nity at large want to hear. One very important oversight on behalf of both Philip Abra ham and Kevin Nakamura is that KWVA is here as a resource for students to learn radio, and there's nothing preventing their involvement if they or anyones else feels they know how to spend the roughly 50 cents of their incidental fee. I'm certain that it's a much better solution than impassioned letters that throw around numbers about our listeners and statements about our sound that are plainly false KWVA is currently home to almost 100 students who want to do more than write letters about how a station should run. and though we may not be the largest student organization on campus, I'd say it's a respectable use of the resource without the traditional genetic predisposi lion clause that can be found in some form or another with other Incidental Fee Committee-fund ed groups. I say this not to question the value or importance of any cam pus group, hut to illustrate that there is not one student-funded organization on this or any cam pus that operates for the pur pose of being representative of every student, to the satisfaction and happiness of every student. The few dozen pennies per student that we receive were in fact voted on and approved by students, unlike the few dozen dollars each term devoted to a ball team that has a better chance of winning the Publish er's Clearing House Sweepstakes than it does a home game that counts. These are unrelated situa tions. granted; however, we both share what seems to Ihj an over abundance of armchair quarter backs who would rather gripe about what they see as wrong instead of actually becoming involved and making it right. Criticism, dissent and sugges tions certainly have their place with any student-funded organi zation; however, when it takes the form of dishing dirt to impress friends and neighbors with one’s literary prowess, it's game over with regard to whether you hope to be taken seriously. Let’s remember that this whole debate started with the suggestion that we play more recognizable music that other people claim we play far too much. /omes Pierson is general man ager of KWVA COMMENTARY POLICY The Oregon Daily Emerald welcomes commentaries from the public concerning topics of interest to the University commu nity. Commentaries should be between 600 arid H00 words, legi ble. 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.