NEWSROOM: (541)346-5511 E-MAIL: ode@oregon. uoregon.edu ON-LINE EDITION: www.uoregon.edu/~ode EDITOR IN CHIEF Ryan Frank EDITORIAL EDITORS Kameron Cole StefanieKnowlton Giovanni Salimena/Emerald No impleinenlalion without representalion The proposed police commission needs to include a student in order to truly represent the community There has been a lot of talk about student be havior lately. It has been the subject of sev eral meetings between stu dents, police, city officials and the University. All are concerned about the increase in violence, underage drinking and out of control par ties that surround the Universi ty area. The majority has claimed that community mem bers are becoming increasingly intolerant of students’ irrespon sible behavior. Tension is high between the community, police and students and appears only to get worse as events such as the Halloween riots make a third annual appearance near campus. In order to ease tension and raise community involvement, the city has proposed the es tablishment of a police com mission. With this in mind, one would think the city would want to include representatives not only from the community but also from the University. Yet no provision has been made to specifically include students in the commission. So far the proposed 12-per son commission would include two city council members, a representative from the city’s human rights commission, eight residents and an addition al member to be recommended by the police chief. In light of the recurring prob lems between students and po lice and the fact that nearly 17,000 Eugene residents hap pen to be University students, it is ridiculous that a place has not been set aside specifically for a University student. Students are a huge part of the community and probably deal with police more often than any other demographic in Eugene. The city council claims that the ordinance in cludes a strong recommenda tion for recruitment of young people, but this is not enough. Recent problems have given the University a bad name in the community, but most stu dents are fairly responsible adults. By securing a place on the police commission, stu dents will be able to give com munity members a more realis tic impression and take part in discussing causes and solu tions to problems that are close to campus. In addition, students will give a unique perspective that may be overlooked by other community members. In evitably topics such as minors in possession, out-of-control parties and riots will come up in police commission meet ings. And students can give in formation that is invaluable to these discussions. In addition, without student involvement the commission’s discussions of these topics will be limited to the hypothetical and have little chance of producing change. Considering that the result of these discussion will directly apply to students, it is neces sary that students have a voice in the proposed commission. Representation in the council would breech the widening gap between students, police and the community, which is the whole point. This editorial represents the opin ion of the Emerald editorial board. Responses may be sent to ode@oregon uoregon.edu —Hi, Al Gore here., mow are VOL? 6REAT' ElfTEM I COULO A 6REAT.' llfTEM I fouio R?Auv ujf a Contribution.. —-- n vuninimiiuN ANYTHIN6 WDuio pf APRRK/ATED ”->u will 7. oh. that's very Generous , J^ANKYOU Ml. RENO / 1990s MANIC DEPRESSION THE MAPKfT H lOuSV/ -W MARKfr IS 6RfAT/ ?* MAWttr 15IOU5Y/ £*VW«t 6R€AT' Ufyf 6PW/ <0ufV.' 6o