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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 12, 1995)
EDITORIAL Include all students in center’s mission The debate over multlcultirralism has. at times, divided this campus. At a University Assembly meet ing last year, professors almost resorted to duking it out because they disagreed on the subject. Even with the emotionally charged debate that sur rounds mulliculturnlism, voters on this campus last spring approved an operating budget for the newly opened Multicultural Center's first year. The center opened last semester and members of the big four student unions wore appointed to run the cen ter. Wo applaud the decision to hire these people to head the center. After ail, the center grew out of plans and proposals from those same student unions. This center was built with money from the now defunct Incidental Fee Committee, which agreed to kick in $50,000 and $50,000 in matching funds from the University administration. When the administration agreed to help build the center, the only condition was the center would “raise elements of different cultures up for review and discus sion," said Cerard Moseley, vice provost for academic support and student services. Our hope is that tin* center will do just that In a letter distributed by five MEChA members to members of the Black Student Union, the Native American Student Union and the Asian/Pacific American Student Union, the authors wrote. “What business do white people ... have being on the center's board anyway." We hope this is not the attitude that prevails at the center. The directors of the center should see it a wav to make all students, especially white students, aware of the triumphs, struggles and uniqueness of other cul tures. Isn’t that what the struggle for mu It {cultural Urn is all about? Wo want every person of every ethnic background to fool that his or her heritage is important and valued. If wo shut the door on any one culture we close our hearts and our minds to the value of that culture. They will in turn shut the door on ours. We all have to live in this country and on this campus together; the more familiar we are with each other's struggles and cultures the easier it will be to do so. We are coming up on the Martin Luther King Jr. holi day. King preached non-violence and oquality. As a society we have not yet reached that goal, and putting separatist policies into place will not help. It will only make the chasm between the ethnic groups bigger. The Multicultural Center has the potential to be a place of education and understanding for all students on this campus. The name says it all: Multicultural, being of many cultures. We hope it will live up to its potential. Oregon Daily PO SOUIH ivK4*4. 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MOW (M pDO'UPI . 0 ..WTMOUT PNKXJc ■ OPINION Sports get priority at University Since !hi* recent exidement over lho Rose How), it has rx < um»d to me to express somo i oncem over the pin of colloid sports at the modern college i am pus The United States ns a notion has always plan'd a high impor tance* on sports in general, espe cially football. The college com munity doesn't seem to be an exception It seems that sports have a duproportionally high place relative to the purpose of the University. College sports, foot twill specif ically. appears to attract more attention, both totally and statewide, than any other col lege event. When was the last time peo ple turned out by the thousands to see the invocation of the new University president or the com pletion of the Knight Library renovation? From on informal perspective, academics have been given a Iwick seal to the college's sprawl ing athletii s department At the very least, we should Ixs concerned because the word "university," according to my dictionary, means "an institu tion for higher learning with teaching and research facilities constituting graduate and pro fessional schools ...” the opera tive terms being "learning" and "teaching." Yet, from what ! read in the newspaper and from what I know about the administration of college sports, the University is no longer for "teaching and learning" — it is for "playing and winning." Still, it is comforting that the school is propping their players for life after college Students are recruited aggressively from high school to play on college teams, tempted with scholar ships These players aren't pur sued for their intellectual abili ty, hut for where they can place the team in next year's playoffs This can't be cheap for the athletic department. Nor can it be cheap for the University to have students on campus that were preferentially admitted on condition they would play sports for the school. 1 separate the two entities, the University and the athletic Pul VwSicKik department because school ath letics must I hi granted an enor mous amount of independence in order to have the budget and power of admissions that it has My freshman year. I e-mailed former University president Myles brand to ask him about his salary He responded by say ing when someone has obtained a certain station and responsi bility in life, it is often rewarded with the appropriate compensa tion In ms case, it was a $ too.000 a year, plus housing, etc Football coach Rich Brooks does similarly well, that is. in the $100,000 range 1 wonder then, does his posi tion in life and responsibility reward him with such compen sation!1 His responsibility is to assemhle a college football team and push them to an ath letic performance that will win a lot. I don't want to belittle such a responsibility, yet I am curious as to what this elephantine responsibility moans to the Uni versity. Publicity? Money? Pres tige? Aiadtunic improvement? Tile answer to the latter is no. Winning a bowl game does not a great university make. Even the millions given to the school upon reaching Rose Bowl status never saw the library, the romance languages, or even the school's highly rated biology department. Rather, i spw uloto the money went to flying the team to Pasadena, feeding them steak, dinners and new band uniforms for their appearance at the game Still, I'm not bitter. I have nev er been rnu< h of a sports fan, particularly since I came to the University. My concern steins solely from the lack of connec tion I see between college sports From an informal perspective, acade mics have been given a back seat to the col lege s sprawling alhlet ics department and higher education. The way I see it. a college edu ( ation is too expensive already without resources being spent on trying to get to the next bowl game or becoming national bas ketball champions. i only wish some of that mon ey could l»e reallocated for gen eral student use. even for those students who don't go to foot hall games. The ancient Romans promot ed public games because they would entertain the people and keep them from causing trouble in the city or otherwise inciting rebellion What is the Universi ty’s excuse? Paul Van Sickle is a columnist for the Emerald. ■ LETTERS & COMMENTARY POLICY The Oregon Daily Emerald welcomes letters and commen taries from the public concerning topics of interest to the Uni versity community. Letters to the editor must be limited to no more than 250 words, legible, signed and the identification of the writer must be verified w hen the letter is submitted. Commentaries should be between fi(>0 and H00 words, legi ble, signed and the identification of the writer must fie verified when the commentary is submitted 1 he Emerald reserves the right to edit any letter for length nr style
