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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 24, 1999)
NEWSROOM: (541)346-5511 E-MAIL ode@oregon. uoregcxi.edu ON-LINE EDITION: www.dailyenierald.com EDITOR IN CHIEF Ryan Frank EDITORIAL EDITORS KameronCoIe Stefanie Knowlton voice counts For campus diversity to become a reality, all students need to speak up The unavoidable human re sponse to something bad is to try and extract something pos itive from it. As the trite but true saying goes, every cloud has a sil ver lining. A recent series of e-mails threatening racial and sexual violence toward at least three female planning, public pol icy and management majors created a large, dark cloud of frustration, fear and anger over the campus. The proverbial silver lining, though, has come in the form of an unprece dented level of campus discussion on diversity and the University’s role in .fostering it. For those of you who need a refresh er, here’s rundown on last week’s events. A student’s comment during a class presentation on May 13 created a strong reaction from other class mem bers and led to a flurry of messages on the class e-mail listserv. One student reportedly used the e mail discussion to threaten other mem bers of the class. Unsatisfied by a pro fessor’s response, students rallied in the EMU Amphitheater on Tuesday. This lead to an impromptu sit-in at Johnson Hall during which students drafted a list of demands for University administrators. By the end of the day, 31 people were arrested for tres passing. The list of demands included some things that make so much sense, one has to wonder why no one thought of them sooner. It also contains some items that are eminently debatable. But whether we agree with all the de mands, the campus community owes credit to the group of students that took the initiative to march to Johnson Hall and demand their voices be heard. Now that these students have cleared the path, it’s up to the rest of us to step up and play our own part in shaping the changes that are obviously needed and will inevitably come. But just as it’s up to all of us to speak, it’s also up to the administration to lis ten. Increased campus awareness of di versity issues can only happen when students, faculty and administrators all recognize their value in creating a more tolerant, accepting campus. For lasting change to occur, we need to solicit as many viewpoints and opinions as pos sible from all groups. One way to do this is to hold an open town hall forum for the entire Universi ty community . Such a forum would not only allow students and faculty to be heard, it would also allow the ad ministration and the students who have been working at the forefront of the issue a chance to convey their ac complishments and plans to the larger student body. Another option is to open up the committees that were formed in the wake of the sit-in to even more interest ed students. Because the sit-in was such a high-profile event, the students who were there are the ones most like ly to sit on these committees. This makes a certain amount of sense, but it’s important for the admin istration to acknowledge that there are many students who care deeply about this issue, students who also have ideas and opinions. These students de serve to be heard as well. The Johnson Hall protesters and the University administration have made a good start, but it is unreasonable and unadvisable to leave the process entire ly in their hands. This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald editorial board. Responses may be sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu. Letters to the Editor Corporate control Corporate donations provide obvi ous and highly celebrated benefits for students, but the economic mo tives behind these donations are of ten obscured. Some of these motives include tax deduction, free public relations and subsidized research and development. Corporate dona tions aim at specific goals, such as the development of a sports-market ing department that trains potential employees. Investments such as these not only provide excellent PR for the corporation but also a large tax deduction. Sports marketing is a University program, so taxpayers and students, not the corporation, pay to train these employees. Bottom line: University investment equals big return. University-corporate relations in volve more than just economics. Academic freedom and policy-mak ing are strongly influenced by these investments and curriculum is shaped by corporate interest. At least one graduate student at this Univer sity has been denied the opportuni ty to study a major corporate in vestor (ODE, Dec. 3,1998). This is a threat to academic freedom. Univer sity policy is created by a small group of administrators. Of the 17,000 students at this University, none are involved in this process. Furthermore, one of these adminis trators has received a large “gift” from a major corporate investor (ODE, April 1, 1997). Corporations influence policy more than students! Measures 5 and 47 have forced universities to rely more on private investments. As corporate invest ments increase, students have an obligation to question the implica tions this has on our education be cause no one else will. More critical examination will bring to light who benefits more from these “dona tions.” Elliot Shuford Geology Athlete mislabeled This letter is in response to “Ama teur boxers fight for local charity,” (ODE, May 7) in which our rugby teammate, Christina Skogan, was misrepresented. Skogan is an interna tional student from Norway, but this does not identify her, and her last name certainly should not have been referred to as Norway in a newspaper article. Not finding Skogan’s real name was only one example of poor journalistic skills. Skogan’s opponent was quoted as referring to her as a “man.” We find the use of this quote to be inappropriate and stereotypical. Just because a women is aggressive, athletic and plays rugby she gets the image of being masculine. Instead of emphasizing the fact that Skogan played with great spirit and was the better competitor of the match, the re porter chose to side with the loser of the match, highlighting she lost the match because she was “fighting a man.” Christina is anything but a man, rather she is a highly skilled and aggressive female athlete. Monica Neukomm UO Rugby Team FLA incomplete UNITE, AFL-CIO, and ICCR, three labor groups originally members of the AIP, dropped out of the Fair La bor Association. I support them and hope the University will not sign with the FLA. The FLA code has no standards on rights of women, who make up the majority of the sweat shop work force. The FLA doesn’t re quire full public disclosure of factory location. The FLA code’s enforce ment plan is lacking severely. It al lows companies to choose their own monitors and which factories they monitor. In addition, the companies are required to have only 10 percent of their factories inspected annually. The FLA allows companies to achieve “good faith” standing so the dismal 10 percent of inspected facto ries can be reduced to 5 percent. So basically, if a company has 20 facto ries and they are on a “good faith” standing, they only have to keep one factory up to par to meet FLA stan dards. While the other 19 factories can go on forcing women to use birth control, subjecting women to glues that endanger reproductive health and allowing workers, including children, to work 60 hours a week with no overtime compensation. As an out-of-state student, I’m ashamed that the University I attend produces its insignia apparel in workplaces that endanger people’s lives. Stu dents need to support the creation of a strong code of conduct that will make a serious attempt at ending sweatshop labor. These issues will be discussed at a public town hall forum on May 24 at 7 p.m. in Willamette 100. Jevon Cutler Undeclared Thumbs TotheUO Softball Team: Though they were defeated ^ Michi gan State on Satur day, the Ducks de serve a hand for being one of only 48 teams in the country to make it College World Se ries Regionals, To taking a stand: A crowd of several hundred women and men participat ed in the annual Take Back the Night rally last Thursday , To back sliding: Oregon dropped from 23rd to 29th this year in a nation al study on child welfare. The study includes poverty, crime, quality of health care and oth er factors as criteria forthe rankings. iililiiiiisliMsiillll mmm I n the May 21 article “Filling the Void," ac tress JudiDendh's name was mis spelled. In the May 7 article "Amatuer boxers fight for locsJ chari ty,"Christina Sko gan's name was mis spelled. The Emerald regrets the errors. LETTERS POLICY the Oregon Daily Emerald will attempt to print all letters con taining comments on topics of interest to the University com muni ty. Letters must be limited to 250words. The Emerald reserves the rightto edltany let ter for tength, darity, grammar, styteand li bel. Letters may be dropped off at EMU Suite 300.
