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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1998)
TRAFFIC COURT Board hears appeals Students can appeal their traffic and parking tickets infront ofthe OPS Appeals Board and have their fines imived or reduced PAGE 5A SPORTS New rules for wrestlers After the recent deaths of three urestlers trying to make weight, the NCAA announced new restrictions on the ways wrestlers can drop pounds before competition PAGE 7A WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1998 -1 TODAY A discussion on so lar access laws unit be held at 177 Laurence Hall from 7:30 to 9p.m. WEATHER Today Some rain High 48. Low 38. Thursday Partly sunny High 50. Low 40. Child Care i_ m_—I im LAURA GOSS/Emerald Sophomore Suzi Sathan-Art, reads to Jackson, 2, and Molly, 2, at the EMU Child Care Center. Parents support UO day care Students and parents say campus child care eases the stress of going to school and raising kids By Kristina Rudinskas Student Activities Reporter Imagine all the stresses of college life: late night studying, classes, homework, term papers, finals and research. Then imagine having to do all that and take care of a child. Imagine packing lunches, kissing skinned knees, soothing scary nightmares, buying new clothes and helping with homework. It’s almost impos sible to determine all the responsibilities that student-parents have to maintain on a day-to-day basis without worrying about where to find day care. In 1969 University students held a sit-in at the president’s office and demanded that the administration devise a system of child care for students and employees. Since then the student body and ASUO have ac tively supported University child care and development centers and eased the respon sibilities for student-parents through af fordable and flexible programs. “It’s the main reason I came to the Uni versity,” said Jenna Wasson, whose son has been in the program for three years. Her family looked at the University of Denver, which didn’t have on-site child care, and then decided on Oregon. “When I first came here 1 didn’t know who to trust or what was a good day care center,” she explained. “My child had nev er been in a day-care center before. ’’ Student interest in maintaining day care has been a concern on campus for a long time. Approximately 10 percent of overall funding goes to support University day care through the ASUO subsidy program, EMU budgets for Child Care Development Centers, funding for cooperative care and student incidental fees. "I don’t think the general student body is aware of how much is happening in terms of child care on this campus, and how much has happened for a long time,” Turn to CARE, Page3A Campus hate crimes often underreported Linty j.j bate crimes a year are reported to OPS, but some say the actual figure is higher By Chris Kenning Student Activities Repo/tei When Neyna Thompson ar rived at college, she hoped she had left behind the gay-bashing that had forced her to leave her high school. But what she hoped would n’t follow her to the University did. When she saw the words “Dyke Bitch” scrawled on her Hamilton Complex door, Thompson knew she hadn't es caped the harassment and bias that has followed her through out her life. “My first instinct was to erase it or cover it with paper. 1 didn’t want to report it because I felt embarrassed,” she said. Thompson, who is one of Hamilton’s program assistants, said she eventually did call the Office of Public Safety. “Things like this happen a lot. This campus is not hostile, but it’s not exactly welcoming,” she said. “Unless they’re re ported, incidents like this will continue." Between 1994 and 1996, OPS reported an average of only 3.3 harassment bias crimes a year, with two assaults associated with bias or hate. “1 can’t believe those num bers,” said Glen Banfield, direc tor of the University’s Race Task Force. "Easily 90 percent of hate crimes don’t ever get re ported." Banfield said he knew of many bias crimes that were never reported because of a lack of trust in police and the trauma involved with reporting such crimes. Hate or bias crimes, defined by state law as those motivated by prejudice based on such per ceived characteristics as race, color, national origin and sexu al orientation, are underreport ed both on campus and off, said Greg Rikhoff, director of Eu gene’s Human Rights Commis sion. “Bias crimes are akin to do mestic violence in number and the fact that they’re incredibly underreported," said Rikhoff, who analyzes bias crime activi Turn to HATE, Page5A New program targets undeclared freshmen The Discover Oregon Program will give first year students time to get academic advice By Nicole Kristal Higher Education Reporter Residence halls. Cafeteria food. Introductory courses. These ideas usually come to mind when one thinks of fresh men at the University. But next fall term, a new pro gram targeting freshmen hopes to join this list: The Discover Oregon Program. “It’s an excellent idea,” said Tom Dyke, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sci ences. "The purpose behind it is to improve the experience of first-year students.” The program aims to en hance the academic and advis ing experiences of undeclared freshmen, improving both their performance and lowering col lege dropout rates. The idea for the program originated in the College of Arts and Sciences, headed by Dean Joe Stone and Associate Dean Jo Anna Gray. “It’s one of several initiatives in terms of attracting high-qual ity students and supporting them so they would stay here,” Gray said. Gray said, statistically, unde clared freshmen are more at risk for dropping out because of their unsuccessful college ex periences. Sherri Argyres. assistant di rector of Student Academic Progress, said another benefit of the program will be the small class sizes. "The class size will be 20 to 25 students,” Argyres said, “so they can get to know each oth er through quality interac tion.” She also said this will help students “create a sense of be longing on campus.” Argyres said proponents of the program hope to recruit anywhere from 500 to 700 stu dents. The one-credit, year-long program allocates time each term for students to visit Acad emic Learning Services and the Career Center, as well as the Advising Office to schedule classes for the next term. “It will help those students find an academic home at the University,” Argyres said.
