f EDITORIAL
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:
Steven Asbury
MANAGING EDITOR:
Thom Schoenbom
NIGHT EDITOR:
Thom Schoenbom
EDITORIAL EDITORS:
Ashley Bach & Brian Diamond
editorials, letters, commentary and perspective
NEWSROOM:
(541)346-5511
DISPLAY ADVERTISING:
(541) 346-3712
BUSINESS OFFICE:
(541) 346-5512
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING:
(541) 346-4343
OPINION
Diamond
If college is
the best time
of a person’s
life, the
pressure is on
to live it up
while it lasts
cc
S
on, your college years
will be the best ones of
your life, so enjoy them.”
No, my father never
said this to me — but he could have.
There seems to be a general consen
sus in our society that the best times
you will ever have will be in college.
Ten, twenty, even fifty years from
now we will still be talking about
those “crazy college days.” It’s nice
to think that we are now living the
best days of our lives, but at the
same time, it’s also a little disturb
ing.
Just think about it for a second.
Eighteen years of your life are dedi
cated to getting ready for college.
You suffer through the cruelty of ele
mentary school, the confusion of
middle school and the monotony of
high school all so one day you can
reach the golden college years.
But college itself is only a four
year experience, five or six if you’re
really lucky. And just ask anyone
who has been at college a while;
those years fly by fast. If there wasn’t
life after college, there wouldn’t be
much of a problem. Our whole life
would be one big build up for our
college years — the reward of our
labors.
However, there is life after college,
and this raises some problems. Be
cause if a person’s college years are
the best years that person ever will
have, the implication is that it’s all
down hill from there.
With the average life span at about
75 years, that leaves 50 years of post
college let down. Eighteen years of
build up, four short years of happi
ness and then 50 years to reflect on
the “good old days.” With only four
years of our lives designated as “the
best years,” the way we spend our
college days is a matter of great im
portance.
For example, when I first entered
the University, I was baffled by the
fact that students in lecture classes
could never sit through the last five
minutes of a professor’s lecture. As
soon as there was any sign the lec
ture was winding down, the sound
of a hundred students shutting
M°re Fun j
GOOD TIMES
UNIVERSI
CHRIS HUTCHINSON/Emerald
Ahhhhh...
The Good
Old Days!
binders, stashing away papers and
zipping up backpacks overpowered
the professor’s voice.
I was confused at first, but I soon
figured out what was going on.
These students know all too well
that they are supposed to be experi
encing the best times of their lives.
How can the best times of someone’s
life be spent in an overcrowded lec
ture hall? Every minute not spent on
zany college fun is a wasted minute.
That puts a lot of pressure on the
average college student. It shouldn’t
be surprising that many college stu
dents suffer from stress-related ail
ments. With only four years to col
lect enough stories to tell for the
next 50 years, who wouldn’t be
stressed out?
You can well imagine the chagrin
of the poor soul who graduates from
college only to realize that it wasn’t
the best time of his or her life. It
would be like... sex without an or
gasm. All that build up for nothing,
and when it’s over, you’re left with
the sinking feeling that you just
wasted a whole lot of money.
I remember one time a professor of
mine canceled Friday’s class. Most
of the class was elated with the
news, but the person next to me was
noticeably disturbed.
“What a gyp! We’re paying money
for these classes,” he complained.
He was wrong. We’re paying mon
ey for a promise. A promise that
these will be the years we forever
cherish, and if we miss out now,
we’ll have the rest of our lives to re
gret it.
Making these years the best of our
lives won’t be easy. There are plenty
of obstacles: classes, exams and the
sis projects just to name a few. But it
is our responsibility to get through
these setbacks and live up to soci
ety’s expectations.
As for myself, I’m doing my part
every day to try and live up to the
standard that has been set — to ful
fill the vision that these days be the
best of my life. The only question I
have is, if I can’t remember where I
was last night, how will I remember
my college days ten years from now?
Brian Diamond, a sophomore
majoring in Journalism, is an
editorial editor for the Emerald. His
views do not necessarily reflect those
of the paper.
LETTERS
For education’s sake
Why would the EMU Board of Directors
want to eliminate Footnotes? Footnotes is a
self-supporting (meaning no student fees
are needed) non-profit organization that
serves a wide spectrum of the student
body. I can think of several organizations
which do need student fees to survive and
which only reach a narrow section of the
student body.
It does not make sense to eliminate an or
ganization which helps one gain an educa
tion and serves the general student body as
opposed to an organization which causes
student fees to rise and only serves a select
few.
I used Footnotes throughout my under
graduate studies. Footnotes helped me to
organize my own notes and allowed me to
compare what I understood a professor
stated to what a note taker understood the
professor to mean. Footnotes is a good ex
ample of an educational resource that ben
efits a student's understanding of the often
complex lectures professors give.
Lately, the University of Oregon has
done an increasingly good job of hiring a
diverse faculty. However, with the diversi
ty often comes professors where English is
their second language. It is difficult enough
to understand economics, but to under
stand economics taught by a teacher who
doesn’t speak perfect English is impossible.
And what about the 10 percent of the
student body who have English as their
second language. Imagine how difficult it is
for them to understand physics in a lan
guage they still don’t completely under
stand.
Footnotes is run by a student board of di
rectors and employs 25 to 30 students to
run its office. I worked at Footnotes while
an undergraduate earning a needed supple
mental income. Further, as a law student I
sat on the board of directors for Footnotes
and gained immeasurable business experi
ence learning how to run a business.
Footnotes still provides learning and em
ployment opportunities to the University
student body. In the past years, Footnotes
has also provided community services
such as care baskets and offering $1,000
scholarships to worthy students.
Most students come to the University
with a goal to gain an education. It would
be a great travesty to eliminate an organiza
tion which actually benefits one’s educa
tion.
Jason M. Anderson
Medford
Protect wages
Once again Oregon’s lowest paid work
ers are under attack. In direct defiance of
voters who overwhelmingly supported the
increase in Oregon’s minimum wage, anti
Labor Commissioner Jack Roberts and the
Oregon Restaurant Association (ORA), are
seeking legislation that will subvert the
gains made by minimum wage workers.
One of the greediest attacks is proposed
legislation that would allow “tip credit” for
waiters and waitress. Simply put, “tip cred
it allows restaurant owners to count some
of their workers tips toward their hourly
wage. This means that the restaurant own
ers would be allowed to pay less than min
imum wage, claiming tips make up the dif
ference.
Contrary to claims by the ORA, waiting
tables is not a high paying job. Even at the
present minimum wage of $5.50 an hour
plus tips, many workers find themselves in
poverty-level jobs, usually without bene
fits. Secondly, tips are arbitrary on the part
of the restaurant patron and can vary for a
multitude of reasons.
Even financial institutions do not con
sider tips a reliable source of income and
will afford credit to tipped workers based
only on their minimum wage income. “Tip
credit” will mean a pay cut for restaurant
workers who deserve a living wage just like
any one else.
The food and beverage industry should
not be exempt from paying Oregon's mini
mum wage. Likewise, you the restaurant
patron should not be expected to subsidize
the restaurant owner’s payroll with your
tips.
When the voters of Oregon passed Mea
sure 36, we did so with the intent to im
prove the quality of life for our state’s low
est paid workers. Let your state
representative and state senator know that
you are opposed to greedy, self-serving
schemes like “tip credit.” Protect minimum
wage for all workers.
Lee D. Lasse
Springfield