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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1996)
s MONDAY: Opinion TUESDAY: Politics WEDNESDAY: Opinion THURSDAY: Politics FRIDAY: Opinion editorials, letters, commentary and perspective BY MAIL: P.0. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 BY PHONE: (541)346-5511 BY E-MAIL: ode@oregon. uoregon. edu IN PERSON: Suite 300, EMU Enemies of etiquette: The usual suspects ■ OUR OPINION: Diversity takes a terrible turn for the worse, making our lives a little more difficult ■ ^ verybody would agree being in college has its prob lems. Besides the many tests, essays and projects re quired under impending deadlines, many of us have 1 ^financial problems that often force us to juggle mul tiple jobs outside of our usual class load. Our lives are not easy. Most people’s aren’t. Stress is a consistent and integral part of our daily routine. So when we walk into class and face an onslaught of new, fresh and completely unnecessary annoyances, one can understand our frustration. Irritating people, we have found, come in many shapes and sizes. “Annoying” as a character trait seems to tran scend all race, age and gender boundaries. To be annoying, in a sense, meets one of the University’s goals: to be a harbor for diversity. But all accomplishments aside, to be annoying is to be self ish and ignorant of other students’ needs, and the last thing any of us want is somebody who just makes our lives harder. The Emerald, through complex research and surveil lance, has pinpointed the primary violators of basic class room consideration and compassion. They are a ragtag group and must at all costs be avoided, and if possible, held liable for their actions. Energetic freshmen: While most first-year students lie low and survey the scene before speaking out and making themselves known, this select few begin talking at Orienta tion and keep talking until they feel they’ve proven them selves, by which time the whole class wants to send them back to high school. Sorority sweethearts: A lively, happy group. It’s just that we don’t care about what happened at that wild party or date over the weekend. We don’t care about what “Chad" or "Josh” did to you. Unfortunately, these girls feel like they have to tell the whole class about what happened in high, excited voices. Learn how to whisper. Sleepers: Snore in bed, in the EMU, on the sidewalk — but not in class. While we admire your aloofness to the pro fessor, we don’t need to hear every nasally breath. Besides, it makes us jealous. Hygienically confused: These are the bathroom extrem ists: They either do absolutely nothing to cleanse themselves or they go way over the edge with their friends Chanel or CKl. If one is sitting in class and smells either a very fresh or very processed, chemical scent, the hygienically confused are near. They annoy you just by sitting there. I CHRIS HUTCHINSON/Emerald Profs pals: In a classroom of 100, these therapy cases seem to think they’re involved in a one-on-one discussion with the instructor. Personal problems like crashed comput ers and lost essays pop up in whining, panicky voices. Hint: If it doesn’t concern the whole class, don’t say it. An infamous sub-group in this collective is made up of those few “returning” students who feel the need to be very loud, obnoxious and utterly meaningless. They love to ask questions — endlessly. Perhaps they need to prove they be long in a classroom of younger, less attentive students. A tip to all the pals: It’s called office hours. Use them. We don’t want to hear your personal lives unless it helps us. Social butterflies: First, it was the pagers. Then the cellu lar phones. Who knows what’s next? All of you who own these devices, here’s the truth: You’re not that cool. You don’t have that many friends, and even if you did, they don’t need to get a hold of you that quickly. Most of us rely on an swering machines to stagger communications with our friends. We don’t want to vibrate on each other’s hips all day. Hint: We’re not closing some big merger; we’re not hus tling business for our honeys. We’re students, and we don’t need this much communication. The offenders of basic classroom etiquette have been iden tified. Now they need to be educated and alerted to their of fenses. Perhaps then we can have relative peace in the class room. All we would have to worry about then is the boredom. This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald editorial board. | LETTERS POLICY The Oregon Daily Emerald will attempt to print all letters containing comments on topics of in terest to the University community. Letters to the editor must be limited to no more than 250 words, legible, signed and the iden tification of the writer must be verified when the letter is submitted. The Emerald reserves the right to edit any letter for length or style. P 0. BOX 3159. EUGENE. OREGON 97403 EdItor-in-Chief: Steven Asbury Managing Editor: Jennifer Carter Night Editor Jennifer Carter Community: Jennifer Schmitt, editor. Jean Bond Entertainment: Nicole Kreuger, editor. Jesse Stephenson Higher Education ristine Sohnrey. editor Tamyra Howser. in depth. Benjamin K wasney Opinion Ashley B :. editor Chris Hutchinson, illustrator Brian Oiami i ury Haiti Sonja Sherwood ° - ;s: Shana l :. editor Doug Irving S a. Piojects Tiffany Smith liley editor Angie Suchy, Tom Potter r Andrea DeYoung, assistant editor - •: • • • Ry;..!! . Ryan Halvorsen opv chief. Sarah K: • er, Mike mos Corbin t Garton Andrew Brack. nek, Joe '■ Shanv 1 iduff. Chad Pah - -.on r“ii'1 me: Nicholas Stiffler, directot The Oregon Daily Emerald is published daily Monday through Fri day during the school year and Tuesday and Thursday during the summer by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the Uni versity of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon. A member of the Associated Press, the Emerald operates independently of the University with of fices at Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is private property. The unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law. General Manager: Judy Riedl Advertising: Becky Merchant, director. Anne Amador, Lee Yen Beh, Marco Ching, Yujin Chi, Matt Johnson, Anne Miller, Trina Shanaman, Rose Soil, Matt Solomon, Greg Walsh Classified: Tara Sloan, manager. Natasha Lumpkin, Debbie Levy. Heather Moye Production: Michele Ross, manager. Ingrid White, coordinator. Shawna Abele, Laura Daniel, Tara Knight, Melissa Lebahn, Molly McCanta. Alli son Stormo, Mike Young Business: Kathy Carbone, supervisor. Judy Connolly Distribution: John Long, Jeff Johnson, Ferenc Rakoczi Newsroom. Display Advertising . .. Business Office. Classified Advertising ..(541)346-5511 .(541)346-3712 ..(541)346-5512 (541)346-4343 LETTERS Tax cut okay For many Americans, the words “tax cut” have become taboo. “Roads will become pot holed” and “schools will suffer” are among the laments when the words are mentioned. During the 1980s, America received the biggest tax cut ever, yet roads were still paved and schools kept teaching. So what is the problem with a proposal to cut taxes again? Why are people afraid the govern ment will cut a program and let us keep our earned money so that we could take care of ourselves in our own ways? Have we be come so hopeless we need to give our mon ey to people we don't know in the govern ment and say “you take care of us”? It would seem to me that no one would like those people digging in their underwear drawers, so why allow them to dig in our wallets? Can’t we as individuals in a capi talist free market do better at handling our own money? And since when did this be come a “scheme”? The people who can’t grasp this are a victim of a scheme all right, because the less money we have, the less control we have and ultimately, the fewer discussions we can make. No wonder peo ple are confused. John Eccleston Eugene Smart and safe Two or three days a week, I run along the bike paths between the Ferry Street Bridge and the University footbridge. Now that the University is back in session, the number of runners on these bike paths has increased significantly. Too many of these runners are lone women. Please remind your readers that Eugene is not that safe a place. Lone women have been attacked and assaulted many places in this town, including on the bike paths along the Willamette River, Please ask your read ers to be stnail and safer by teaming up with at least on - oteer person when going out on a run. odn< Tchaffer M.D., DHt Eugene
