■ More than just faces in the crowd, students at the University
area surprisingly diverse group pursuing sundry goals
By Kristina Johnson
Oregon Daily Emerald
College. In “Animal House,”
John Belushi proudly wore the
word emblazoned on his chest.
He was a student at college — it
didn't matter what college, it did
n't matter where. He was having a
good time.
But in the age of mass produc
tion, college is one experience that
still defies uniformity. While stu
dents are drawn to the University
for many of the same reasons —
the beautiful campus or a strong
academic department — they also
bring different histories and inter
r ■ ‘
ests when they come.
And when they step off the curb
on 13th Avenue for the last time,
no two students will remember
the University the same way.
Here, a sampling of students
talk to the Emerald about why
they’re here and how they pass
the time.
Brian Weeks, a 22-year-old
from Goldendale, Wash., just start
ed his first year of law school. As
an undergraduate at Central
Washington University, Weeks
spent every summer fighting wild
fires. He decided to study labor
law after he helped his firefight
> I
Kristina Johnson Emerald
Steve Mital is a third-year master’s student in environmental studies and planning, pub
lic policy and management. He moved to Eugene from New Mexico.
I
er’s union negotiate for better
overtime pay during his first sum
mer out of high school.
Weeks said his backup plan if
he didn’t get into law school was
to become a paramedic. He wasn’t
interested in the University until
he saw the campus.
“Before I visited, it was my
third or fourth choice, but the law
school building was beautiful,” he
said. “It was the best I’ve seen.”
So far, Weeks said he’s happy to
he here.
“People here seem to care about
you as a person and seeing you
succeed,” he said. “Everyone’s
been very supportive and nurtur
ing.”
Stephanie Benz, a 21-year-old
senior from Portland, said her de
cision to come to the University
was rough on her family, who are
all Oregon State alumni.
“My dad kind of didn’t get it,”
she said. “He always took us to
OSU football games when we
were little, so I think he expected
I’d go there. He still jokes about it,
■. 'mA'-ummm.
but they know I love it here.”
Benz, a sociology and journal
ism major, will be reviewing local
punk and indie bands on a KWVA
radio show this fall. She said she’s
studying journalism because her
dream is to write music reviews'
for a music magazine similar to
Rolling Stone. Benz likes to watch
hands play at the WOW Hall and
John Henry’s in her free time.
She just moved into a house
near campus with four other
women. Before that, she lived in
the Alpha Phi sorority and said
she was glad she experienced
Greek life.
“I did a lot of things I won’t get
to do again,” Benz said. “You al
ways hear older people talk about
it ... it’s the classic college experi
ence. 1 wanted to check it out.”
Valerie Meldrum, a 36-year-old
journalism major and mother of 4
boys, worked at a fish cannery in
Astoria before coming to the Uni
versity two years ago. Meldrum
said she came here because a
counselor at Klatsop Community
College in Astoria encouraged her
to go after a bachelor’s degree.
“She had a vision for me,” Mel
drum said. “Every time I went
into her office, she would pull the
University catalog down off the
shelf and say, ‘Let’s just see what
classes you could take at the Uni
versity of Oregon.’”
Meldrum applied for financial
aid for school through Aid to
Families with Dependent Chil
dren, but she said she never heard
back from them.
“I already had all the paper
work done, so I just kept going,”
she said. “I did as much as I could
do with my education in Astoria.
At the community college, they
want you to get a vocational de
gree, but that was no way to raise
kids.”
Meldrum said she wants to start
her own publication when she
graduates in a year.
“Graduating from the Universi
ty of Oregon means I gain my in
dependence and control over my
life,” she said.
Michelle Nelson, a 22-year-old
senior and business major, came
to the University frbm Ontario,
Ore., along with some of her
friends from high school.
As a child, Nelson lived in the
Philippines and at her school in
Manila, she spoke Tagalog but
studied English. When she was 9,
she moved to t1 ,e United States to
live on her stepfather’s cattle
ranch in Idaho, where she learned
to ride horses and perfected her
conversational English.
She said she came to the Uni
versity because of the reputation
of its business school and because
she wanted to stay in Oregon.
She’s a member of the Alpha Kap
pa Psi business fraternity, and
works as a marketing intern with
a new company called Universal
Shapes, which creates a device
used for shaping baseball caps.
Nelson said she’s glad she came
to the University, but she’s noticed
that, “there’s not a whole lot of di
versity.”
She said she’s never met anoth
er Filipino student at the Univer
sity, but added, “I’ve never really
felt any racism toward me.”
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As far as her future is concerned,
Nelson said, “I’m really open. I’ll
go wherever a job takes me.”
She said she’d like to get some
experience working in marketing
after she graduates, then possibly
return for an MBA.
d My dad kind of didn’t
get [why I chose Oregon].
He always took us to OSU
football games when we
were little, so I think he ex
pected Id go there. He still
jokes about it, but they
know I love it here.
Stephanie Benz ^ *
senior, sociology //
and journalism
Courtney Runyon, a junior biol
ogy major from Junction City,
chose the University because she
wanted to stay in the state and she
thought the biology department
here had more to offer than OSU’s.
“I felt better on this campus
when I visited,” she said.
Runyan just returned to Eugene
from Queretaro, Mexico, where
she studied Spanish and lived
with a Mexican family for 6 weeks.
“I didn’t want to go through col
lege without having that experi
ence,” she said. “It wasn’t a re
quirement, it was just a personal
goal, something I wanted to do.”
Runyan said she’s been living off
campus, but is returning to the
dorms this year as a resident assis
tant. She works in the University’s
neuroscience lab, where she helps
research the nervous systems of ze
bra-fish.
She said she’d like to continue
to do research and will probably
go on to grad school somewhere
else.
“1 Can’t say what I'll be interest
ed in in two years, or five years,
but I probably won’t be in Eu
gene,” she said.
Warren Kennedy, a 45-year-old
counseling master’s student,
moved to Eugene after serving in
the Air Force in Richmond, Va. His
22-year-old son also attends the
University as a law student.
Kennedy said that his experi
ence at the University has been
“OK,” but that he’s very aware of
the lack of diversity on campus.
He said professors have often act
ed surprised to find out that his
African-American son is not an
athlete.
“We should be coming here for
academics, not sports,” said
Kennedy. “There’s no support here
for people of color. They only care
about you if you play football.”
He said that he’s working with
other students to try to recruit mi
nority faculty to the University,
and that he’d like to see more
cross-cultural classes offered.
“A large amount of professors of
color don’t want to be here be
cause they can’t do research on
communities of color,” Kennedy
said. “I go to places here, and I feel
out of place. It takes a long time to
adjust. I want to try to work at de
veloping that — a sense of unity
and community for blacks here.”
Steve Mital, came to Oregon
from New Mexico because he
wanted to experience the North
west region.
“I wanted to check out a differ
ent part of the country,” the 30
year-old said.
Mital is a third-year master’s stu
dent in environmental studies and
planning, public policy and man
agement. He studied literature and
outdoor leadership at Prescott Col
lege as an undergraduate, then
worked as an Outward Bound in
structor for five years. He decided
to go back to school, he said, “be
cause I was getting sick of the sea
sonal life. It was time to think
about what to do next.”
As part of his master’s program,
Mital co-produced a documentary
film about the Dalles Dam’s inun
dation of Celilo Falls, an ancient
Native American gathering and
fishing site. The film, “Echo of Wa
ter Against the Rocks: Remember
ing Celilo Falls,” premieres at the
International Student Film Festi
val in Philadelphia in October.
Mital said he’d like to produce
more documentaries after he fin
ishes his master’s program this
year.
Aimee Gerot, a 17-year-old
freshman, grew up in Eugene.
Gerot plans to major in elementary
education and said she’s excited
for school to start. She’ll be living
in a residence hall with one of her
friends from Sheldon High School,
but she said she doesn’t feel like
Kristina Johnson Emerald
Stephanie Benz is a 21-year-old senior from Portland studying sociology and journal
ism. The rest of her family went to school at Oregon State University.
the University is an extension of
her high school experience.
“It’s not like my hometown,” she
said. “I lived on the other side of
town. This is completely different,
so it’s all new to me just as much.”
Gerot spent the summer working
at the Greatful Bread bakery in the
EMU, which has given her a
chance to observe the habits of fel
low University students.
“Everyone’s kind of laid back,”
she said. “It’s a casual campus — it
seems fun. People are always do
ing something. They seem to study
a lot.”
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