Wednesday October 28, 1998
Weather forecast
Today Thursday
Showers Mostly cloudy
High56,Low43 High 52, Low40
Pac~10 at a glance
Former walk-on Freshman Jonathan
Smith takes oner as quarterback for
the Beavers/PAGE 5
Homegrown talent
T.J. Johnson, a native of Eugene,
adds depth to the women's soccer
team /PAGE 5
An independent newspaper
Volume 100, Issue 42
University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Riding the Wind
Student’s business sails to success
A business school program to
help student entrepreneurs
helped Robert Maris’s company
catch some wind and take off
By James Scripps
Oregon Daily Emerald
Growing up on windsurfing and skat
ing, business student Robert Maris
could not have imagined that he would
one day own a business that would
combine these two sports into one.
Three years ago, Maris, 22, made his
first skateboard in his parents’ garage in
Eugene. Thus was bom Orca Designs, a
company that would gain national
recognition both as a longboard (long
skateboard) manufacturer and later for
the Landsailor, a hybrid of a sailboard
and a longboard. The Landsailor is basi
cally a longboard with a sail.
After tinkering with design ideas and
adapting his experience with windsurf
ing and skateboarding, Maris was en
couraged to attend the American Wind
surfing Industry Association trade
show. The Landsailor was a huge suc
cess, winning best of show, and gaining
the attention of two of windsurfing’s top
professionals, Andy Brandt and Dana
Miller.
"Brandt and Miller came up to me
and offered to be spokespeople for the
product,” Maris said. “This is like hav
ing the Michael Jordans of windsurfing
promoting your product.”
Maris has also gained the attention of
the University’s business school. Last
spring, Orca Designs was a principal
part of the curriculum for an upper-di
vision and graduate course. The class
used Maris’s experiences in the real
world to give students an idea about
what it takes to get a company started.
At the end of the term, in a coopera
tive project with the business school,
several University MBA students start
ed working with Maris.
"For the last four months they have
Turn to LANDSAILOR, Page 3
Courtesy photo
Orca Designs, business major Robert Maris's company, has developed a hybrid skateboard/sailboard.
Measure 64
starts battle
over forests
Proponents want to eliminate
clearcutting in state forests while
opponents say the measure
would hurt the economy
By G.Jaros
tor the Emerald
The latest battle over the management of
Oregon’s forests has come out of the woods
and into the voter’s booth in the form of
state Ballot Measure 64.
Measure 64 would amend Oregon law by
imposing new restrictions on the manage
ment of private, state and federal forest
lands. The measure is on ballot for the Nov.
3 election.
It redefines clearcuts in western Oregon
as any harvest unit that leaves fewer than
70 well-distributed trees per acre. The trees
must measure at least 11 inches in diame
ter. The measure would also require that
all trees 30 inches or larger in diameter be
left standing.
Current law requires any acre on a har
vest unit to have at least two snags or two
green trees 11 inches in diameter.
Measure 64 would also ban the use of
chemical herbicides and pesticides in state
forests. And it would allow citizens to sue
in court to enforce the law.
Students are divided over the measure,
which could affect private landowners and
the economy.
“If Measure 64 passes, I could end up ap
plying for more financial aid,” said Brent
Moszer, a junior in journalism. “My dad
works in a lumber mill, and I don’t know if
64 would shut off his company’s land or
not.”
But Amy howler, a senior in internation
al studies, believes Measure 64 should cov
er private land because big corporations
own the majority of that land.
“Big timber corporations will choose
whether to leave the area by their profit
margin, not whether or not Measure 64 is
Turn to MEASURE 64, Page 4
Pacific Party candidate Bobier hopes to bolster minor parties
Campaign finance reform and
reallocating funds from prisons
to education are also among the
reasons behind Bobier’s bid
By David Ryan
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Pacific Party, a minor political party
in Oregon, will not be a minor party much
longer, according to its candidate for gover
nor.
Pacific Party gubernatorial candidate
Blair Bobier said a new political demo
graphic is opening in Oregon — voters who
are not registered with the Democratic or
Republican parties.
Many of them are students, he says.
Bobier, who was on campus Tuesday
promoting the Pacific Party, said the new
political demographic is a part of the rea
son the Pacific Party
went from having 200
members in the 1996
presidential election to
having 2,000 members
today.
“I suspect that number
will double with the
next election,” Bobier
said. “The trend is minor
parties.”
Wte
STATE
ELECTIONS
Bobier said his prima
ry reason for running is to build the Pacific
Party to give a chance to “vote their con
science” to voters who are not officially De
mocrats or Republicans.
Bobier said his second reason for run
ning is “putting issues on the table that we
believe in so that we can expand the de
bate.”
One of the issues Bobier is concerned
about is education.
“I think that education of all kinds is key
and that we have misinformed priorities,”
he said. “I think we need to divert the re
sources we’re using to build prisons and
use that to educate people.”
Bobier said he is concerned about cam
paign finance reform and wants to rid elec
tions of private campaign donations.
“Our [electoral] system is corrupted by
money,” he said. “Peoples’ voices are
drowned out with cash. Money has access,
not the people.”
Bobier said he believed a publicly fund
ed election process like the one in Ger
many would end the corruption he saw. He
also felt voters would be willing to pay for
it.
"We foot [the cost] one way or another,”
he said.
Along with campaign finance reform,
Bobier wants to enlarge the political arena
to include more access by minor parties.
“This is really my Clark Kent role,” he
said. “My real job is that I’m the executive
director of the Northwest Democracy Insti
tute.”
The institute works to open up political
debates to minor party candidates and
make it easier for minor parties to get on
the voting ballot.
“I’m not as concerned with getting the
Pacific Party out there as much as I am fair
ness [in elections],” he said.