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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 30, 1997)
T EDITORIAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Steven Asbury MANAGING EDITOR: Thom Schoenbom NIGHT EDITOR: Jennifer Schmitt EDITORIAL EDITORS: Ashley Bach & Brian Diamond editorials, letters, commentary and perspective NEWSROOM: (541)346-5511 DISPLAY ADVERTISING* (541) 346-3712 (541) 346-5512 (541)346-4343 The ASUO fishbowl is a sight to be seen Student government is a fascinating circus complete with bizarre sideshows If it is possible, ASUO government mediocrity has reached a new low. Like episodes of Melrose Place, the system manages to go beyond the bottom of the barrel — weekly. While trying to determine what to write about for this column, I found mvself with a new topic daily. Stu OPINION 1 & * I Amanda Erickson dent programs have run amok; the primary elections are riddled with controversy; corporations want status among the incendiary fee-receiving groups and an mrormat nearing with tne ASUO Constitution Court turns into five hours of wry laughter. What’s going on here? I think it is some sort of art-imi tates-life thing. As in: “See your government at work! Operates like the real thing only in the mi crocosm world of the University! Just add water and your sea mon keys will come to life!" ao, 1 couldn t just pick one stone ot cor ruption to examine when there is a whole stream full of them. I’ll talk about them all. ■ Footnotes — poor Footnotes. I like Footnotes. It is like one of those older sib lings who gives you their quiz answers from the same classes they took. No, not like “Big Brother.” They hide in a surrepti tious little corner of the EMU. They lurk in your classes, unseen, all-knowing, taking notes on small pieces of paper that they hide in their clothing to disseminate to the masses later, the ignorant masses. Okay, so they are not quite spies, but they do offer a really neat service for slack ers everywhere. But — oh, it pains me to say this — but I don't think they should be funded by the students. There just cannot be another “incidental” fee burden on the students. However, the EMU Board has made a grave error in attempting to make things more difficult for Footnotes to oper ate. ■ Lane Transit District provides a valu able service but it should not be perma nently funded by the students. It’s the city’s bus system, for chrissakes. It already receives fees from every student, so that all students can ride “free.” A lot of students don’t CHRIS HUTCHINSON/Emerald need any more kiiuw uiai ai me Deginning of every term they can get that money back; other students just don’t bother with get ting the refund. For that reason alone, LTD makes bucks on people that never use its system. Of course, we already know that corpo rate influence is lurking in the ASUO; after all, OSPIRG wins the incidental fee lottery every year just for showing up. I was check ing out the virtual meeting ground of ASUO watchdogs at uo.asuo.org and one individual felt that all students should be required to pay the bus fee whether they ride or not because it helped out all stu dents. Communism is alive. ■ SETA — that is, Students for the Ethi cal Treatment of Animals. They do not money. I have a problem with any political action group being supported by the ASUO. My understanding of this group is that it would like nothing better than for the University to halt its animal re search program. By stopping this program, it would hurt other students who have chosen animal re search as their field of study. I won’t ram ble on ad nauseum about all the animal re search that has benefited the human race — you know this — but I feel strongly that SETA has no right to try to undermine oth er students who are here for an education. All I have seen from this group is a fake, caged gorilla in front of Johnson Hall hand ing out irrelevant literature. “Why, oh why,” Dorothy asks Oz, “must I pay for this?” The answer: a resounding silence. ■ The ASUO Primaries and Constitu tion Court — a stunning example of our student government at work. If you’ve been on campus at all this week, you will have smelled something rotten in the wind. It hasn’t cleared up because no one can dis cern exactly which vegetable down in Suite 4 has gone bad. The Con Court’s informal hearing on allegations of serious negligence and misconduct surrounding the pri maries and the campaigns that pre - v ceded it can be summed up as five \ \ hours of wry laughter and lionnVitir 1 rvrvl' r> They have still not made up their minds but, if you’ve no ticed, the General Elections are proceeding. After waiting this long, I feel the Con Court has no choice but to let things slide. If you procrastinate long enough, things tend to take care of themselves, unfortu nately, to the disservice of the students. , ■ The Commentator — how I sometimes miss my old haunt. Throughout this elec tion’s brew-ha-ha (resulting par tially from a petition filed by Far rah Bostic and Chris Kantrowitz, both associated with the rag we love to hate, the Oregon Commentator), the ASUO and the Con Court have sought to dismiss the allegations by insisting that some sort of personal vendetta was in volved. I love it! Just because the Commentator is the only group on campus that actively re ports on and scrutinizes the University and all its entities, anything that comes from that direction is viewed with fear and de fensiveness. As it should; the watchdog bites. I’m afraid, though, that their claims are sound and valid. Just as valid as Judah Eckenberg, who emphatically denies any «• association with anybody except himself. So, darlin’ academics, why should you care? Because the ASUO is you. It stands t for Associated Students of the University of Oregon, and every tuition and fee-paying student belongs to it. Everything they do, they do on behalf of you. Apathy is a hu man right, but money isn’t free, and you are giving bundles away every term to ludi crous causes and overripe bureaucracy. That is all. Amanda Erickson, a senior majoring in journalism, is a columnist for the Emerald. Her views do not necessarily reflect those of the newspaper. E-mail: aericks@glad stone.uoregon.edu LETTERS Responsible democracy In the April 25 issue of the Emerald, Ben Unger was quoted as saying “This [the law suit against the elections] makes the whole system look bad, and my real fear is that we’re going to lose [House Bill 3644 which calls for the removal of the incidental fee] in Salem because of these people’s attacks.” This is the most irresponsible and antag onistic statement a public official (elect) could make in this regard. To connect the process of enforcing the law with a potential loss of student rights is misleading and false. In response to Mr. Unger’s antagonism, I say this: by taking action against this elec tion, we (students) have shown that we have a very effective system of checks and balances. We are able to police ourselves and since students have called attention to recent improprieties, we have made a strong case to those in Salem that we are in fact very capable of managing the inciden tal fee. We are asking for student government to be made accountable for their actions and they have been made so. If those who are named in the lawsuit feel that this display of democracy makes us look bad as a stu dent body. I shudder to think what example they expect us to follow. Chris Kantrowitz Political Science Who cares? “The ASUO plans to target students who historically do not vote” was the headline in the April 17 Emerald. We’re told that “if the ASUO Elections Board has its way, more than 20 percent of the student body will cast its vote [for campus leaders].” How will the ASUO achieve this impres sive goal? Dave Whipple (Elections Board Publicity Coordinator) suggests getting peo ple who normally don’t vote to do so. With this powerful strategy firmly in hand, the ASUO brings us to election day. Eight percent of the student body casts a vote. The April 18 Emerald brings us choice, controversial, quotes from the two leading tickets: “We support programs.” Miner says, “We’ll fight harder than anybody else if we are elected,” counters Oberriter force fully. What programs? Fight who? I wonder. And now the scandal: (this where it gets exciting) Miner and Unger might have put up some illegal posters. “Kick 'em out” the losers cry. Oh yeah, and someone is going to get fired. In the Emerald’s April 21 editorial, the editor sums it up for us: “It will be interest ing to see the fallout from all the infighting and miscoxnmunication.” Let me make a prediction: next year, the students will be subjected once again to lu dicrous campaign promises, a voter turnout goal that won’t be met, the losers will cry foul, there will be some scandal, it will all be covered in painful detail in the drama queen that is the Emerald and the winners will dis appear, never to be heard form again. And next year, once again, 92 percent of the student body won’t give a shit. Kevin Prentiss Russian
