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
Thursday
May 11,2000
Volume 101, Issue 150
Emerakl
Whit
Sheppard
to give the “how to live a
W better life” spiel the week off and
consider matters closer to home.
Specifically, I think it’s high time
someone gave University President Dave
Frohnmayer some well-earned kudos. Let’s face
it: the guy’s had a really tough school year by
any reasonable standards.
From the sudden heart arrhythmia he suf
fered in late October while in Maryland for a
National Institutes of Health conference to ne
gotiating with a committed group of student la
bor rights protesters to handling the fallout from
supporting the University’s decision to join the
Worker Rights Consortium, Frohnmayer has
faced Job-like challenges and come through
them all. If it’s true that the finest steel only
emerges from the hottest fire, Frohnmayer must
be like one of those shiny sabers on those Ma
rine Corps commercials you see at halftime of
Saturday afternoon football games. '
Can you imagine being close enough to look
death in the eye, enjoying a brief convalescence,
and returning within a couple of weeks to reas
sume primary responsibility for a 17,000-stu
dent university with an annual operating budg
Bryan Dixon Emerald
et of mqre than $300 million?
A little bit of history here: Frohn
mayer attended Harvard at the same
time my mom attended nearby Welles
ley, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s alma mater.
Last April, home for the weekend, I pulled out a
dusty old Harvard annual, circa 1962, and just
for fun flipped through the pages and descrip
tions of the senior class. Eventually I came to a
picture of an earnest-looking guy with slicked
back hair as per the fashion of the times. Next to
the portrait was a caption. It read “Dweeb” in
faded blue ink. I couldn’t believe that the presi
dent of the school I’d chosen over an old, estab
lished East Coast university had been consid
ered a dweeb by my mom and her coterie of
giggly college friends. I chuckled at the irony
and told no one of my discovery, didn’t even ask
my mom about it.
Funny that a year later, I can tell you that even
though I have not met Frohnmayer, I respect
and admire him. I like what he stands for. When
he formally assumed the University presidency
in October 1996, he had this to say: “We do not
need a different university. But we must con
stantly dedicate ourselves to the development
of a better one:
• A university that accepts no substitute for
quality, and no excuse for mediocrity.
• A university that challenges itself every day
to become better.
• A university that recognizes and realizes its
essential and overriding goal of transforming
lives through knowledge.’’
Personally, I’m with him on all three counts. I
relocated to the sunny Pacific Northwest be
cause I felt that I had a better chance here of
transforming my life and others’ than at Johns
Hopkins. While the experience has been your
typical academic up-and-down, I’m glad to
know that I’m studying at a university where
the chief executive, the person whose attitudes
and actions filter down to 22,000 other commu
nity members, sets the kind of tone that Frohn
mayer does.
By supporting the wishes of students and the
University Senate to join the WRC, he support
ed a politically-correct decision with significant
short-term political and personal costs. But he
did the right thing, and while I wish that were
not such a novel approach, it is in the corporate
age, where money talks and values are some
thing you talk about over coffee with your beat
nik pals at Espresso Roma. By refusing to pan
der to Nike CEO Phil Knight and Nike,
Frohnmayer may have cost the university short
term financial largesse—which always comes
at a price — and a spruced-up stadium for our
Saturday gladiators, but much more important
ly, he followed his conscience and held firm
when the backlash ensued.
The University will benefit in the long run
from his brave and correct short-term act to an
extent that increased attendance and revenues
from the expansion of Autzen Stadium never
would have provided. If that’s what dweebs
grow up to do, then I say we all wear a beanie
once in a while and let the inner geek in all of us
step out and strut a little bit. Here’s wishing you
a restful summer and a less turbulent 2000-2001
school year, Frohnmayer. You certainly have
earned the right.
Whit Sheppard is a columnist for the Oregon Daily Emer
ald. His views do not necessarily represent those of the
Emerald. He can be reached via e-mail at whitneys@dark
wing.uoregon.edu.
Letters to the editor
Olsen best choice
Tracy Olsen is clearly the best
choice to represent the downtown
district of Eugene. Olsen has al
ready made a great impression on
many of the voters in Ward 3. Not
only has he gone door-to-door to
introduce himself to the people in
his ward, but he has taken the time
to speak and listen to numerous
neighborhood groups, community
organizations and city associa
tions. Olsen’s great attitude, wis
dom and vision for our city always
shine through.
Olsen is a Eugene native who
lives and works in downtown Eu
gene. He’s a responsible small
business owner who knows what
it’s like to balance a budget and
employ numerous people. His ed
ucation in real estate finance from
the University will be very useful
in city planning decisions. And
his care for the livability of the
core of our city, as well as youth
programs, will insure that we
move in the right direction and at
the right pace.
Olsen’s style is exactly what the
City Council needs, as evidenced
by The Register-Guard’s endorse
ment of Olsen in this race.
I urge all voters in Ward 3 to
elect Olsen to the Eugene City
Council. He’s the best choice!
Dave Cary
Eugene resident
Vote progressive
The makeup of the City Council
in Eugene could shift significant
ly, depending on who is elected,
which has not escaped communi
ty progressives, conservatives or
newspaper editors. The cam
paigns for Wards 2 and 3 pit two
experienced progressives and en
vironmental groups, such as the
Sierra Club and the Oregon
League of Conservation Voters,
against the businessmen, who are
endorsed by the developers lobby.
Here are some facts about Mike
Sherlock and Tracy Olsen. Neither
one has a fraction of the experi
ence with city of Eugene govern
ment that the progressives have.
Neither one of them has a record
on which voters can asses their
positions on issues of critical im
portance to the city. Sherlock has
been a lobbyist at the state legisla
ture on behalf of a gasoline dealers
association. County voting records
show that Olsen has not voted in
the last two elections.
I want elected representatives
who have a record of serving the
city, rather than of taking services
from the city. I want councilors
who will not be presumed by the
business community and the tim
ber interests, which funded their
campaigns, to grant tax breaks to
businesses which force more cuts
in city recreation and social serv
ices. All the candidates running
for these two wards may be nice,
but only some are deserving of
election.
Howard Bonnett
biology