SEPTEMBER 21.1998
-Back to the Books_
Campus Life
Emerald
Week of Welcome
The University offers a variety of
programs to incoming students,
orienting them with campus/18B
Child care
University Family Housing
runs a co-op child care to
help student-parents/7B
Rapid Adrenaline
COURTESY/Outdoor Program
From local mountain climbs to exotic kayak trips, students can plan it all at the Outdoor Program.
Tripping with the Outdoor Program
The program facilitates more
than 300 outings each year,
from hiking to rafting to
mountain climbing
By Stefanie Knowlton
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Metolius River in Eastern Oregon
is so cold that even in the middle of sum
mer it’s only 38 degrees. This is where 12
Outdoor Program adventurers were look
ing for excitement, and they found it.
Coming around a bend, rafters spotted a
huge tree that lay across the length of the
river and directly in their path. Despite
the rafters’ efforts to divert the boats, the
river was too fast and the banks were too
high to pull the boats out of danger.
Pinned to the fallen tree, one boat al
most didn’t make it.
“I had some very scary moments trying
to count heads,” said Dan Geiger, associ
ate coordinator of the Outdoor Program.
However, everyone made it through to
plan future adventures with the Outdoor
Program.
Geiger said he believes that in outdoor
sports you have to take the good with the bad.
“Certainly outdoor sports have certain
risks associated with them. I think that
you’ll find that when you get together
with a group of people and many of them
are strangers and you go through an expe
rience like that, it’s amazing how it draws
people together,” Geiger said.
Established in 1967, the University’s Out
door Program is one of the oldest of its kind.
And according to Sports Afield maga
zine, it is the best university outdoor pro
gram nationwide.
Geiger believes this is due to the free
dom students are given at the University’s
Outdoor Program. "What is great about
our program is that it has such an open
philosophy. Anyone can come in and
plan a trip,” Geiger said.
Students should not be intimidated by
the program because most of the trips
cater to a beginner’s level.
“At OP, it is not make the summit or
die. It’s more like make the summit or sit
down and have lunch,” Geiger explained.
The OP is designed on a cooperative mod
el, and any student is allowed to initiate a
trip or participate. For every trip, however,
Turn to OUTDOOR, Page 4B
Groups try
to fill void
in activism
Environ mental organ izations
are feeling the loss of OSPIRG
as a statewide voice for change
By Peter Breaden
Oregon Daily Emerald
Eugene’s activist reputation welcomes
many newcomers.
In this town, people don't just hug trees,
they climb all over them. Still, many stu
dents confess ignorance when it comes to the
specifics of environmental organizations. Is
it because the activist spirit is willing and the
ambition is weak? Or is the college town’s
touted environmental awareness just that —
an unsubstantiated reputation?
When OSPIRG was denied funding last
spring, campus was left with a lack of visible
options for environmental cam paigns.
“Getting information out on a statewide
level, that’s a void that we’re really feeling,”
said Merriah Fairchild, OSPIRG state board
chair.
"We need to have a statewide program,”
she said, adding that the Oregon University
System is also missing “a student voice state
wide.”
Fairchild is currently working with Ore
gon Student Association on the Northwest
Leadership Conference, a gathering of
around 400 students. Throughout OSA,
Fairchild said, voter registration is a priority
project.
“That was something that OSPIRG was re
ally keen on doing. It’s difficult to continue
that without the same capacity,” she said.
“We have other environmental groups on
campus but the truth is that, right in our
backyard, the Willamette River is one of the
dirtiest in the country. Tests showed chloro
form, arsenic, lead, and benzene [polluting
the river].”
The absence of OSPIRG may lead students
to notice environmentally based political
campaigns, including third parties such as
the Campus Greens, which is an offshoot of
the statewide Pacific Party.
The Campus Greens do not expect to place
candidates in office, said Michael Olson, a
Turn to ACTIVISM, Page 19B
EMU renovation culminates 10-year planning effort
A few ‘dream
designs’ were
sacrificed in
order to keep
the project on
budget
By Amy Goldhammer
Oregon Daily Emerald
The new EMU renovation, which is finally
finished blocking off chunks of the building
and producing a large amount of noise, now
welcomes the campus community after its
many years of planning and preparation.
The EMU renovation has been planned
since 1988, said Susan Racette, EMU busi
ness manager and associate director.
In 1995, the user group, consisting of EMU
staff, students from the EMU Board of Direc
tors and faculty members, was granted $4.2
million from student union funding by the
Oregon University System, which was
called the Oregon State System of Higher Ed
ucation at the time.
“We had a professional market survey team
come out and tell us what should be added and
what should betaken away,” Racette said.
The survey was a statistically correct ran
dom sampling of all users on campus.
The results of the survey revealed the
Fishbowl should become a more modem
food court with a wide variety of food choic
es, Racette said. The survey found a high de
sire among the campus community for a cof
fee house.
“In terms of the recreation areas, we found
that students were not too enthusiastic about
bowling anymore,” Racette said.
The user group began to dream and de
sign, EMU director Dusty Miller said.
“We came up with grand dreams,” Miller
said. “We started matching dreams to reality.”
The group used the results to expand the
arcade and billiards area as well as excavat
ing and putting in The Buzz, Racette said.
The Fishbowl now includes Subway, Holy
Cow, The Greatful Bread and the Market
place, which will feature a different local
vendor each day of the week. The Market
place luncheonettes include Bento Brothers,
Samurai Duck, Noodles etc., India House
and Ritta’s Burritos.
“Many of these vendors are from the Sat
urday market, which should draw people
in,” Racette said.
EMU officials say the changes will leave a
lasting mark on the building.
“We took the results and turned them into
concepts,” Racette said.
The group hired the architectural firm of
McBride/Seder Associated Architects and
the interior design team of Czopek & Erden
berger to help conceive what the facility
should look like, Miller said.
Research was done in regards to what the
students wanted the environment to look
Turn to EMU, Page 14B
(( We came
up with grand
dreams. We
started
matching
dreams to
reality.
Dusty Miller
EMU director