Wanted: good home for DDS
■ tMU house committee
continues search for a more
permanent home for DDS,
though options are limited
By Beata Mostafavi
Oregon Daily Emerald
Nearly four months after an attack
on a Designated Driver Shuttle dis
patcher, the EMU House Committee
still has yet to find a new space for
the program that continues to oper
ate from the ASUO Executive office.
In May, when an intoxicated man
punched through the DDS door
window and startled a dispatcher,
the safety of the DDS dispatchers
working alone late in the evening
became of greater concern. The
room, which may be in the process
of becoming a storage space, has but
one door and provides no other exit
in the case of an emergency.
The unidentified man just stared
into the office before leaving. He
was never apprehended, but the
dispatcher was not physically hurt.
DDS moved out of its old office by
the EMU parking lot because of the
attack, followed by the decision to
move dispatch into the executive of
fice. ASUO President Jay Breslow is
allowing DDS to send its vans from
the office this year, though the plan
was for them to be in a new, perma
nent location after summer.
Former ASUO Vice President Mi
tra Anoushiravani offered DDS tem
porary space in the ASUO Execu
tive office in the EMU after the
attack. But it looks like their stay
may be a semi-permanent one, at
least for this year.
“At the end of last year we had an
agreement with DDS that they could
stay here through summer but then
move out by fall,” Breslow said.
“But classes are starting Monday
and DDS needs to know where
they're going to be. It’s one of the
most used programs by people on
campus, and it needs a home. It is
kind of crammed in here but until a
place opens up, they’re welcome to
stay here in the ASUO office.”
Debra Martin, advisor to the EMU
House Committee, explained that
many factors must be considered
before the board can find a proper
place for DDS, which is why locat
ing office space hasn’t been an easy
task.
“It’s not just the matter of not hav
ing enough space in the EMU,” she
said. “One of the big problems is
Dan Brunell Emerald
DDS co-director Jeff Salchenberg strives to continue providing the University community
with safe and sober rides home seven nights a week, despite cramped office quarters.
that [DDS’s] space has to be in a
place where their radios can func
tion. Some of the places in the base
ment of the EMU are behind con
crete and this makes it difficult.”
The board has made different
suggestions as to where DDS could
move. A few suites have been con
sidered but the student groups that
occupy those offices would need to
agree to share their space. Another
option is for DDS to operate in an
available suite in the basement and
use a portable cart to transport their
dispatch radios, but DDS staff said
this idea would be inefficient.
Jeff Salchenberg, DDS co-director,
said that the space DDS used last
year should never have been used
as an office in the first place.
“We had actually called the fire
marshall before the incident, and
they agreed that it wasn’t a good
place,” he said. “It was unsafe and
also, after the EMU closed we had
no access to bathrooms, which was
a huge problem ... It just makes me
mad that it took two years for the
board to vote on this. It took the inci
dent of the DDS window being
punched through for them to decide
that maybe they don’t want any stu
dent groups to be in there. ”
Daniel Valle, programs represen
tative on the EMU board, agreed
that the previous DDS office isn’t
suitable for any group.
“After DDS members came to us
last year I brought it up to the board
that the area wasn’t safe and that it
should only be used for other pur
poses such as storage,” he said.
“One of the board’s main concerns
is safety for the student groups, and
we’re not going to put anyone in
there if it could cause them harm. ”
Salchenberg said that the long
and lengthy process to obtain space
for DDS has been frustrating and he
isn’t going to try again this year. For
now, the DDS staff is just happy to
be in a different place, though their
space may be minimal.
“It is crowded and there are many
people here during the day that
kind of have to climb around us,”
Salchenberg said. “But our old of
fice was so cramped and couldn't fit
more than two people, yet we had
to shove five people in there and I’m
just glad to be out of there ... Right
now we call this place ‘temporarily
permanent,’ and we’ll be here until
they kick us out.”
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