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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1997)
Rally: Protesters call for increased student activism ■i uommuea Trom rage 1 for both the students and the ad ministration to stand up and ad dress these issues. “Students have to stand up for justice. There is no neutrality on the issue of GardenBurger... And this administration needs to stand up for justice,” Tobin said. Alex Berwick, an ASUO multi cultural issues advocate, said the rally was in response to Frohn rnayer’s lack of support for stu dents. “We’re not going to allow him to ignore us anymore," Berwick said. “We’re used to Frohnmayer ignoring our needs and the voice of the students. But we’re here to address that.” Speakers at the rally encour aged passing students to stop and listen to what was being said. Berwick said beyond the de mands being made to Frohnmay er, the rally was an effort to get students tuned in to major cam pus concerns. “That was the hope of the rally — to get students to hear what is going on,” she said. “Students walk around in a daze and aren’t aware that the University is being bought by corporations. We’re hoping the rally will get the word out in terms of educating the stu dents.” Angelica Romero, a coordinator of the event, said, “This is not an issue for students of color. These are all basic issues that we have dealt with all year, and we’ve been shut out. “We need to address issues like corporations such as Nike that ex ploit their workers [in Third World countries], and the whole issue of corporate sponsorship, and NOR PAC and Wholesome and Hearty [the Gardenburger distributor] that are major institutions that exploit their workers, whether it be here or in another country.” Romero also said the rally brought these issues to light for some students. “For one, we were in the faces of everyone. And second of all, I think we were able to get across to a lot of people because a lot of what we had to say — although it may not be new to us — it was new for them,” she said. “If we don’t critically address issues of the labor struggle then how are people supposed to know?” CHAD PATTESON/Emeraid An administrative staff member wades through protesters waiting for President Frohnmayer to hear their demands. Frohnmayer: GardenBurgers focus of debate in president’s office ■ Continued from Page 1 one [on the list],” Frohnmayer said about the demand for the University to stop purchas ing products from NORPAC and Flav-R-Pac in support of the GardenBurger boycott. MEChA is calling for the boycott due to “deplorable” conditions for farm workers in fields owned by NORPAC. Members of MEChA accused Frohnmay er of lying to them and leading them to be lieve that the University would pull the GardenBurger from its menu if consump tion levels dropped. The President rejected the idea that he lied or that he strung MEChA members along. Dave Hubin, executive assistant to the president said the administration never gave MEChA a consumption goal to work for. “What we were proposing was a group ... to meet and look at the question of what is a market responsive decision point... not a political point,” Hubin said. Protestors cited the actions of former University President Myles Brand, who pulled grapes from the cafeterias for similar FROHNMAYER human rights concerns. Frohnmayer said he does not want to follow the precedent set by Brand. Myles’ decision was out of line with the history of University actions, Frohnmayer said. The protesters said the GardenBurger boy cott is about civil rights — not marketing. Students proposed con ducting a survey throughout the residence halls to determine if the majority of stu dents want GardenBurger off of the cam pus. Frohnmayer said this issue is not only about what the majority wants. “If a majority of the students on this cam pus said, ‘We don’t want the voices of a mi nority to be heard,’ should I follow that mandate? ... No, of course not,” Frohnmay er said. But protesters said the conditions for farm workers must be changed whether or not the majority of the students support the boycott. “We are talking about human rights; we are talking about our families,” Eloina Gon zalez explained. After the meeting the administration re fused to pull the GardenBurger from the campus. Frohnmayer said he plans to meet with the protesters again on Wednesday to discuss the boycott. “I feel like they’ve been meeting with us all year, and it’s just another tactic to string us along until the end of the year without making a commitment,” MEChA co-direc tor Emily Lerma said. Protesters also expressed concerns about corporate funding of the University. Pro testers said that the administration should hold a public forum to get input from the University community about the decision to accept large amounts of money from pri vate or corporate donations. Frohnmayer agreed to look into creating a process for University input with large corporate donations. Many criticized Frohnmayer for accept ing the $20,000 raise of his salary from a do nation by Nike owner Phil Knight, which was made earlier this year. The protestors oppose the donation be cause they said Nike employs Third World labor that includes children. Protesters say they don’t want sponsorships from corpo rations who employ people for very low wages in “deplorable” working conditions. Overall, the protesters expressed frustra tion from their talk with Frohnmayer. “We are striving for action and the ad ministration refuses to even commit to the process of taking action on any of these de mands,” Lerma said. — Laura Baker contributed to this story Be part of the University of Oregon’s award-winning newspaper The Oregon Daily Emerald is now taking applications for next year’s staff Applications are due 5:00 p.m., Monday, May 5. Positions are paid. Applications can be picked up in Suite 300 EMU. Relevant work samples should be submitted with each application. Questions? Call 346-5511. Also hiring for summer term Inquire at ODE front desk. The Oregon Daily Emerald is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to a culturally diverse workplace. Resale Clothing NEED EXTRA CASH? We buy used clothes Call for Appointment 344-7039 Mon.-Fri. 10-6, Sat. 10-5 • 360 E. 11th • /Retutce 'd CIGAR POKEr' NIGHT Cigar Selection Available Every Sunday 9pm-close Upstairs at ^eHHCC 4 \ 687-0600 J \S^ ) uo Summer Session Duck Call Starts May 5 Are you ready? Starting Tuesday you can register for University of Oregon Summer classes. Pick up a free l summer bulletin with schedule of classes in 333 Oregon Hall.
