Editor in chief: Laura Cadiz
Editorial Editors: Bret Jacobson, Laura Lucas
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E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
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recent changes such as Saferide
have attempted to improve the sit
uation.
One of the first and, I think,
most strongly symbolic things I
noticed is the contrast between
the way the statues of the Pioneer
Father and Mother are treated.
The father is located midway be
tween the front doors of Fenton
and Friendly Halls and directly on
axis with the front door of Johnson
Hall, giving him what is arguably
the position of greatest architec
tural impact of any sculpture on
the University. He is highly visi
ble from 13th Avenue, which is
probably the busiest street on
campus and is certainly the Uni
versity’s main street. He stands on
a rock among well-tended land
scaping, and the weapons he car
ries, along with his confident de
meanor, illustrate that he is in
control.
In contrast, the Pioneer Mother
is relegated to sitting on a pedestal
tucked in a backwater of the cam
pus, on axis with Johnson Hall’s
back door and Gerlinger Hall’s
locker room door. She sits in the
mud not far from an alley, a few
bushes carelessly planted near
by. Even the plaques on the side of
her pedestal depict her standing
passively by as men and circum
stances control the events of her
life. Her head is bowed in defeat.
The plaque on the back of the
pedestal, describing the sculptor’s
intent, implies that her presence
needs explanation.
The relationship of these stat
ues is mirrored in the entire infra
structure, layout and construction
of the University. The same green
ery that makes the Oregon campus
so beautiful provides a myriad of
places for an attacker to lurk. The
most effective method of provid
ing safety in an urban or universi
ty setting is to have lots of people
on the street; yet, most of the class
room buildings lack any support
for after-hours activities other
than night classes, and are well
separated from the resident halls.
Consequently the campus is
very lonely after dark when night
classes end. In many places there
is a lack of street level lighting,
which is another big safety factor.
The emergency call boxes do
nothing to reduce the perception
of danger. Women are
not safe crossing the cam
pus on foot after dark.
For an example, let's say a sin
gle woman who lives in Carson
Hall wants to take a night class at
Villard Hall or enjoy a play at the
Robinson Theatre. When she
leaves she has about three choic
es. She can dodge past the bushes
around Deady on the way to 13th
Avenue. Or she can go down to
Franklin Boulevard and walk the
long way around and down Agate
Street, but even there she faces
some quiet dark places. Or she
can call Saferide.
I’ve walked the campus at any
time of night with literally no fear,
but I’ve sensed the fear in single
women I’ve encountered in lonely
stairways at midnight in
Lawrence Hall. While a few guys
might fear a personal attack, men
do not have to deal with the uni
versal female fear of male sexual
assault. A guy may not feel com
fortable walking home from a
night class, but he generally will
not change his life or refuse to take
a required class to avoid the situa
tion. Many women do.
All of this ultimately results in
reducing choices for women. Ac
cording to the Office of Public
Safety, nine out of 10 forcible sex
ual assaults are not reported, the
campus logged two in 1998, indi
cating that about 20 rapes were ac
tually committed.
Many women will not take
night classes even if they are part
of their degree requirements for
fear of assault after leaving class,
and I’d have to say they’re justi
fied. In effect this means that, in
tentional or not, the entire Univer
sity-built infrastructure
discriminates against women. I
don’t know what the value of that
infrastructure is, but it must be at
least in the hundreds of millions
of dollars. Obviously, that can’t be
changed all at once, but maybe we
can start soon.
Yes, sexism is still a problem at
the University. But $40,000 for
Saferide to mitigate the problem
seems like a very small token in
deed.
Fred M. Collier is a columnist for the Oregon Daily
Emerald His views do not necessarily represent
those of the Emerald. He can be reached viale
mailat fmcollier@aol.com
According to the 1999-00
ASUO Budget Book,
Saferide gets $40,713 in
student fees for its op
erations. That sounds like a lot of
money for a group that excludes
the participation of one half of the
student body, delineated specifi
cally by sex. Can this support by
the students for such an exclusive
group be justified?
I suppose there are a number of
ways to approach the question.
But as a student of architecture, I
chose to simply look around the
University campus to see if I could
decode the meanings and impli
cations inherent in the way the
buildings and grounds are de
signed, constructed and arranged.
My observations led me to be
lieve that the campus was de
signed without consideration for
the safety of women, even though