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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1999)
riuirsdavJuly 1. W-) Weather forecast Today Friday Partly cloudy Cloudy High 72, Low 50 High 70, Low 46 Bearing down on illegal hunting A Brownsville man is the first Oregon ian to violate state wildlife laws and be convicted of racketeering/PAGE 3 Freedom Festival fun The Freedom Festival offers holiday fun Saturday and Sunday at the Lane County Fairgrounds/?AGE 5 An independent newspaper Volume 101, Issue 4 University of Oregon www.dailyemerald.com Working for diversity The University develope summer intern jobs to tackle the heated issue oj camput diversity “ We believe the administration has put a sincere effort into this. » Wylie Chen ASUO President i By Sara Lieberth Oregon Daily Emerald In the wake of spring-term events that ignited a debate re garding diversity at the Universi ty, administrators and students are working together this summer to determine some solutions. The impetus for action comes after the May 18 sit-in at Johnson Hall during which more than 75 students protested the treatment of minority students on campus. It was the “racism and inappro priate exchanges,” as Dave Hu bin, executive assistant to the president referenced it, which came out of a planning, public^ policy and management class that fueled the protest. After a series of meetings be tween administrators, faculty and students, a new internship program was created and is cur rently in full swing for the sum mer session. Ten interns work ing in a variety of disciplines and offices were hired to ad dress diversity issues through researching the particular needs and concerns of the respective University departments. With each intern position earning $500 per month for the three-month duration, the ad ministration earmarked $15,000 for the summer jobs is seen by many as a positive show of sup port toward tackling diversity. “They’ve done an amazing job in budgeting for these positions,” ASUO President Wylie Chen said. “We believe the administra tion has put a sincere effort into this. But this is just a beginning.” Hubin agreed. He said the in terns are not specifically work ing from the demands made at the sit-in, but they are instead looking at the grander issues of tolerance behind them. “It’s a time of inquiry,” he said. “Our expectation is that as they work in conjunction with faculty and staff, the students will help us define what actions should be taken.” Among the projected goals of this summer’s information gath ering are finding ways to intro duce new students to a “thresh old of respect” acceptable on campus, as well as implementing some forum on improving teach effectiveness through cultural understand ing and sen sitivity. But while students suggested diversity training be implement ed for facul ty at a June 2 University Assembly meeting, many professors believe manda tory training is not a solution in and of itself. Hubin said if any policies were to be developed, they would most likely be addressed within each department. Another concern with regard to faculty is the matter of boost ing minority recruitment efforts. The University lost three minor ity faculty at the end of the 1998-99 school year, making re cruitment even more pressing. According to a campus profile from fall, 1998, of the 771 full time UO faculty, 89 were of color. The breakdown of students re flected approximately 12 percent minority population out of the 16,800 total enrollment. As the Northwest demagogue gradually diversifies, minority enrollment has increased one percent during the last five years and is continuing to climb. These changes are ndicative of the need for heightened awareness of diversity issues. “Society as a whole is becoming an increasingly complex mix of racial and ethnic identities,” Hubin said. “We ought to address that.” Courtesy Scott Huckabay, a traveling musician in the truest sense of the term, makes a stop in Eugene for Ail and the Vineyard at Alton Baker Paik. See page 5 for details on Fourth of July entertainment. Planning committee faces technical difficulties One plan for amending the long term campus growth plan would modify density guidelines By Mirjam Swanson j Oregon Daily Emerald After discovering technical flaws in the long-term campus growth plan two years ago, the campus-planning committee deter mined Tuesday that it is ready to present two options for amending those errors at a public hearing Aug. 10. The original, inaccurate density guide lines make it impossible to build abiding new structures. So the planning committee will propose either making only the neces sary technical corrections without adjusting anything else or correcting those technical discrepancies while also modifying the area’s density guidelines. The second option would make room for additional structural growth. “What’s happened is all of a sudden we can’t build as much, even though we haven’t done anything,” planning associate Christine Thompson said. “The way they did the calculations was just a rougher method, and now that we’ve gotten more ac curate, all of a sudden we don’t have the ability to add on.” And so the committee debated whether to alter the original density guidelines in Area 15 —the Memorial Quadrangle that encompass es Condon, Chapman, the Museum of Art, Prince Lucien Campbell and the Knight Li brary — in order to allow for future building. “It’s extremely difficult because people feel uncomfortable accepting the possible development without seeing a design,” Thompson said. “It becomes a catch-22.” If the committee proposes a revision of the area’s density guidelines, about another 8,000 square feet could be added. v But it’s an addition that could also allow room for other future buildings that com mittee members don’t want. The extra 8,000 square feet would make Area 15 the densest region on campus, although the Knight Library occupies a disproportionate amount of space compared to other buildings on campus. Several committee mem bers expressed concern about the idea of creating more buildings in the area between the mu seum and Chapman, which is now occu pied by grass and walkways. “People are using that grass,” said Susan Hilton, assistant director of the computing center. “That area is just as important to stu dents using it as a classroom is.” The committee plans to meet once more before the public hearing, and a vote on the two options is scheduled following the pub lic forum. After that, the committee will, present President Frohnmayer with a reconimenda tion. The Long Range Campus Development Plan was developed in 1991, and was based on principals adopted by the University in 1974. Among the plan’s goals is honoring and strengthening the University’s tradition and meaningful consultation with students, faculty and staff, in addition to providing continuous adjustment of campus facilities in response to changing educational poli cies and programs. The planning committee has helped over see the development of the new William W. Knight Law Center and the renovation of Esslinger Recreation Center.
