Monday
Editor in chief: Laura Cadiz
Editorial Editors: Bret Jacobson, Laura Lucas
Newsroom: (541)346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
March 13,2000
Volume 101, Issue 116
EiWrakl
JPEJMMWHS———
Giovanni Salimena Emerald
All University students are keenly aware i
of the greatest misnomer in educational (_
history: dead week. The classical idea of a
quiet, uneventful week of study is absent at
this institution, and the title shouldn’t even be
used.
Pressure and stress are two constant compan
ions during this week of finals, and the impres
sion one might draw from the fact that the Uni
versity employs a “dead week” is that students
have a chance to adequately prepare for their tests
with all that free time. The idea of limiting the
importance of exams and the assigning of major
projects seems like a good policy, but it doesn’t
work very well in practice.
While the theory of dead week is nice, there are
plenty of ways that students feel the squeeze and
lose valuable preparation time. Because the policy
says nothing of major projects due during dead
week if assigned on the original syllabus, it is an
ordinary occurrence to witness scrambling young
sters trying to complete important tasks while be
ing forced to ignore the upcoming final test for the
class. And even while a test during dead week
7A!
/ i / can 11
exceed 20 percent, that is still a con
f siderable portion of a grade instructors can
require during a very busy time.
Seeing as how the policy of dead week is good
in nature but flawed in practice, there are plenty
of debatable remedies.
One of the more radical proposals would re
quire a week of no lectures, discussions, tests or
projects at all. This sort of practice is common at
other schools, often referred to as a reading week.
The possibility of a completely empty week
seems attractive until one examines the likeli
hood that most students would use the time con
scientiously. Besides the odds that the time
would be wasted by a majority of students on
more social activities, the extra week each term
would have to be added onto the term to avoid
degrading the value of a University education,
cutting down drastically on vacation time, a
prospect no student should be for.
Another possible idea would be to cut the idea
of dead week altogether and allow professors to
assign study material and tests as they choose.
While most instructors would have the compas
sion borne of slaving through school as their
pupils subsequently do, it’s just a good idea to
keep a restrictive policy in place to reign in the
occasional demonic professor bent on student
destruction.
The policy currently in place seems to be ac
ceptable, but calling it dead week is offensive and
offers an incorrect connotation. It’s definitely
good to have the amount of restrictions on testing
that we have already. And since the alternative of
lengthening the school year isn’t very appealing,
the policy should remain the same. But there’s no
reason to call it dead week and give the false im
pression of a calm before the storm.
The only decent way to go is to unname, not re
name, dead week but keep the policies still in
place. There’s no need to give a catchy nickname
to such a terrible week, but there’s no good alter
native to actually change the week.
So, to recap: Long live unnamed, second-to-last
week of the term.
This editorial represents the.view of the Emerald editorial
board. Responses may be sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu.
JoiningWRC important step for University
In the recent student elections the
students voted by a 3/4 majority
for the University to join the
Worker Rights Consortium
(WRC). The WRC is a monitoring
group that would act as the interme
diary between universities and the
workers who produce university ap
parel. Developed by United Students
Against Sweatshops (USAS) in con
sultation with workers and human
rights groups, it consists of a system
to verify and inspect conditions in
factories producing apparel for col
leges and universities.
The aspects that separate the WRC
from other monitoring groups are
standards such as womens’ rights
and full public disclosure. The WRC
works to ensure that workers are al
lowed to unionize. The WRC puts la
bor groups, non-governmental or
ganizations and universities in front
of business to determine the best
way to run the organization or moni
tor conditions. The WRC seeks to
open up conditions in the apparel
industry to public scrutiny and to re
spond to the needs of the workers
sewing licensed products for institu
tions of higher education.
Students seem excluded from the
decision-making process at the Uni
versity. The only influence students
have is to sit on advisory committees
to the University president. Even
then students only have influence in
Commentary
Laura
Close
&
stead of decision-making power. Stu
dent voice is marginalized to the ex
tent that a democratic decision by stu
dents to join the WRC is readily
discounted by the administration. In
order to legitimize the results of the
election, a coalition of student leaders
has demanded of University President
Dave Frohnmayer that he be account
able to the vote and have the Universi
ty join the Workers Rights Consortium
by March 31. Without the accountabil
ity of the administration to the stu
dents there is no true democratic sys
tem on our campus. Our vision is not
an intangible one; the suggestion pre
sented here is that the decision making
process be shared between faculty, stu
dents and staff.
Furthermore, by joining the WRC,
the University would be taking an im
portant step in using the power of the
University to influence workplace
conditions around the world. The
student election has proven that this
is a critical issue on campus, and the
voices of the students who voted in
support of the WRC cannot be ig
nored. Students at the University be
gan working on anti-sweatshop is
sues over a year ago when we realized
that by working with students at col
leges and universities across the
country, we had access to a conven
ient handle for addressing sweatshop
conditions in the apparel industry.
The connection between universities
and the apparel industry is through
collegiate sweatshirts and T-shirts, by
which the University licenses its
trademark to companies and receives
a royalty from the sale of these prod
ucts. The University licenses its
trademark to over 300 companies, in
cluding Nike, Gear for Sports and
Jansport. The University receives
more than $450,000 annually from
these contracts.
The University administration’s re
sponse to student concerns in the
past has been to deter our efforts by
forcing the anti-sweatshop issue into
a lengthy bureaucratic process. This
fall, Frohnmayer established a com
mittee composed of students, faculty,
administrators and alumni charged
with working on a code of conduct. •
This structure is not democratic for
the following reasons: It is an adviso
ry rather than a decision-making
body; all members except students
were selected by a single administra
tor, Vice President for Public Affairs
and Development Duncan McDon
ald, who also chairs the committee;
and student voice on the committee is
consistently marginalized.
As students and citizens of an insti
tute that models itself on the ideals of
a democratic society, the time has
come to challenge how democratic
our system really is. Is the system set
up to be responsive to the decisions of
the voting student body? Or should
all decisions be under the jurisdiction
of the president? We as students must
stand up for ourselves and challenge
the system so that our voice be legit
imized. Students, faculty and staff,
let’s work together to make the Uni
versity work for us.
Laura Close and Randall Newnham are mem
bers of the Human Rights Alliance. Their
views do not necessarily represent those of
the Emerald.
CORRECTION
The story “Bijou’s Oscar party” (ODE
Pulse, March 9) gave incorrect informa
tion on the theater’s plans for the March
26 Academy Awards. Due to possible
construction delays, the Bijou will not fi
nalize plans for the benefit event until
March 17.Ticketswil!goonsalethat
day.
The Emerald regrets the error.
Thumbs
To playing in front
of a friendly crowd
The women’s bas
ketball team, seed
ed sixth in the West
region of the NCAA
Tournament, will
play in front of its
own fans in Eu
gene. The selec
tion wasan
nounced Sunday
afternoon.
To expanding food
stamp access to
Oregon's needy
Expanding state of
fice hours, funding
an outreach pro
gram and assign
ing enrollment
staff to charity
food banks are all
pa it of Gov. John
Kitzhaber’s prom
ise Friday to im
prove access to
food stamps in the
state.
To the proudest
monkeys ...or at
least the most
violent
A farmer watering
his cattle in
drought-stricken
Kenya was stoned
to death by a
group of thirsty
monkeys. The man
died of severe
head injuries, and
while there was no
definitive evi
dence as to the
species of monkey,
baboons are noto
rious for throwing
objects when
angry.
To the lowest a
thief can get
The tip jar from
the New Day Bak
ery was stolen last
Monday evening.
The contents of
the jar amounted
to less than $5.
Joseph Airon
Masters was arrest
ed and charged
with first-degree
robbery.