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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 6, 1999)
NEWSROOM: (541)346-5511 E-MAIL ode@oregon. uoregon.edu ON-LINE EDITION: www.dailyemerald.com EDITOR IN CHIEF Ryan Frank EDITORIAL EDITORS KamenonCole StefanieKnowlton Student senator should step down f,.» &£TRAVAt,.,, Qy pieading guilty to stealing Vi\\o 4AV5 0 of O SjfVpetJf S PK&JY I University property, Michael , If Dixon loses credibility he needs idyep/yi) UbfaOjrfi irJnd Politic^ j [0 serve students s human beings, our biggest burden and our biggest boon is that none of us are perfect. But whatever our status in .life, we can find some degree of com fort in the fact that none of us are inherently better than anyone else. One of the things that does distinguish us is our conduct. This does not mean that we are not allowed to make mistakes, but rather that an unwritten code of honor demands that we own up to those mis takes and accept the conse quences that come with them. This is what makes the case of Student Senator Michael Dixon such a difficult one to con sider. On Monday, Dixon pleaded guilty to two counts of felony burglary related to the theft of more than $5,000 worth of items from the Bean Complex. In a separate case, he also pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor theft for making $50 or more worth of unauthorized long-distance calls while employed as a University Housing conference assistant. If Dixon were just any stu dent, his actions would probably rate little interest among the general student population. Unfortunately, Dixon is not just any student. He made a choice to serve the University as an elected member of student govern ment. The nature of his posi tion calls for him to be a rep resentative of the students, and effective representation involves some measure of trust. These offenses were not committed in the distant past. The Bean burglaries occurred between June 1998 and October 1998. The unauthorized phone calls were made between Au gust 1998 and February. Dixon was appointed to the senate in late January. Senate President Michael Olson told the Emerald earlier this week that “any of these actions are not be coming of a senator....” Dixon should be commended for his efforts to serve the University. He is active within the student unions and his fraternity. But his participation in the theft of University property casts serious doubt on the appropriateness of his continued occupancy of the senate’s business seat. Olson was also quoted as saying that it is up to the students to decide the future of Dixon’s position on the senate. Olson’s wrong. In truth, it is up to Dixon to decide. As strong as his to desire to change his life and make amends for his actions may be, he still betrayed the very students he now seeks to serve. If the students were to formally call for Dixon’s re moval, students would be put in the difficult position of judging someone who seems to have an earnest de sire to serve his university and constituents, but someone who also exhibited gross disrespect for those same entities just a few months ago. Elected officials on any level, be they a student sen ator or president of the United States, are by nature of their position subject to a different standard than the average person. They must give up some measure of privacy and, as a result, must be able to justify actions the rest of us are allowed to shelve away. When those actions can not be justified, the only things that remain are re sponsibility and consequence. Dixon is a human being. He’s actually probably quite a good one. His mistakes can be forgiven, but not at the cost of student government’s integrity. If he truly wants to act in the best interests of the student body, Dixon should resign from the Student Senate. This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald edito rial board. Responses may be sent to ode@oregon.uore gon.edu. LETTERS POLICY The Oregon Daily Emerald will attempt to print all letters containing comments on topics of interest to the University community. Letters must be limited to 250 words. The Emerald reserves the right to edit any letter for length, clarity, grammar, style and libel. Letters m$y be dropped off at EMU Suite 300. CORRECTION In the May 5 article “Activities celebrate Mexico," the times for Fiesta Latina should have read, “Friday, 6 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., and Saturday noon to 11:30 pm." In the May 4 article “Dixon pleads guilty on all charges,” the headline should have read, “Dixon pleads guilty to felony charges." The Emerald regrets the errors. CLARIFICATION The April 23 article "Studying abroad can help careers" should have read, “Tiffany Allison said the eastern half of the island of New Guinea is one of the last places to study the religious exchange between western Christianity and indigenous people." Thumbs THUMBS UP To increasing accountability: Invoking an ob scure parliamen tary procedure, state representa tives forced con sideration of a bill the would require background checks on all firearm sales at gun shows. Spe cial kudos to Rep. Lynn Lundquist for crossing party lines to revive the bill. To fewer teen mothers: Citing a decline in sexual activity and increased aware ness of contracep tion, the National Center for Health Statistics recently reported that the teen-age birth rate has declined for the sixth straight year. THUMBS DOWN TotheRoboduck promotion: Half man. Half mallard. Aliiame, To EBay: The pop ular on-line auc tion house had to shut down Mon day due to server problems. The outage left bidders and sellers of the coveted new “Star Wars" merchan dise in the lurch.
