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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 4, 2000)
Setting up for a win # The volleyball team looks to end its 5-game con ference losing streak. PAGE 5 Gore vs. Bush, round one Al Gore and George W. Bush met Tuesday night for the first of three presidential debates. PAGE 4 Since 1 900 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon Wednesday September 4,2000 t Volume 102, Issue 26 Weather TODAY high 75, low 45 Fledgling WRC group endures growing pains The labor watchdog consortium is rocked by the unexpected resignation of its chairman By Simone Ripke Oregon Daily Emerald University representa tives returned from the Worker Rights Consor tium’s second governing board meeting Tuesday with new impressions of where the labor watchdog group stands. Vice President of Public Affairs and Development Duncan McDonald and marketing professor Lynn Kahle are not on the WRC’s 15-member gov erning board, but attended the meeting, which took place in Washington, D.C., as observers. Both said they came back with the feeling that much remains to be done before the group can begin function ing as a labor monitoring group, especially after the group’s chairman unex pectedly resigned. “I think the viability of the group continues to be in question just because of the slowness of the progress,” McDonald said. “But it may not be for a lack of trying.” He said the WRC still has not received impor tant incorporation papers that would make it an offi cial non-profit group and would allow member uni versities to begin paying fees. “There is not a group to pay,” McDonald said. “The group needs to grow, but in order to grow, they need to show they’re vi able.” Thus, the WRC is in a peculiar position, trying to gain momentum and support while still in the process of getting off the ground and having few concrete accomplish ments to show. The WRC is also still looking to re place the group’s interim executive director, Maria Roeper, with a permanent director. Roeper could not be reached for comment by press time. Kahle, who said he and McDonald were able to have some input about the meeting through interac tion writh the governing board’s university repre sentatives, said the group has already scaled back its goals on how to conduct monitoring. While the group passed its bylaws as expected, Kahle and McDonald said they were surprised to see the board’s chairman, George Miller, D-Rep. Calif., resign from his po sition and the WRC over all. “The fact that he was pulling away from this group certainly takes away some of the luster,” McDonald said. “That cer tainly hurts the WRC.” Daniel Weiss, Miller’s chief of staff, said the con gressman continues to support the WRC, but did not feel that his obliga tions as a U.S. representa tive allowed him to meet all expectations of a WRC chairman. Turn to WRC, page 3 (( There is not a group to pay. Duncan Mc Donald Vice President of Public Af fairs and Development yy University will join other universities in refusing to ban access to Napster Officials will not change the current policy regarding copyrighted material By Kristy Hessman Oregon Daily Emerald To some students, the word Napster is synonymous with “free music,” but to many uni versities it may mean “lawsuit.” The University has been added to the handful of uni versities across the country that have received letters from Metallica and Dr. Dre’s attor ney, Howard E. King, urging them to ban access to Napster on their campuses. Napster, the computer pro gram that allows users to download and upload a num ber of MP3 music files, many of which are protected by copyright law, has been the center of a growing controver sy, especially on college cam puses where students have ac cess to faster computer net works. In his letter, King stated that, “an estimated 20 million users regularly commit copyright in fringements through Napster,” and he also referred to the activ ity as “piracy on a massive scale.” In April, King filed a lawsuit on the behalf of the two music artists against Napster, also naming Indiana University, the University of Southern California and Yale University as co-defendants. The lawsuit against those schools was dropped when they agreed to block Napster access on their campuses. In the letter that was sent to the University on Sept. 8, King stated that the University had a “moral, ethical and legal ob ligation to take appropriate steps to assure that it is not a willing participant in the theft of intellectual property.’’ The University will respond to the letter in much of the same wav as other universi ties. “We are drafting a response right now,” said Melinda Grier, general legal counsel for the University. “It will be consis tent with the policies we have had in the past.” The University has never blocked Napster use in the past but does have a code which deals with illegal downloading of copyrighted material. There currently are no plans to block access to the Turn to Napster, page 3 Campus brightens up to safety issues ■ Facilities Services, ASUOand DPS install lights on campus By Brooke Ross Oregon Daily Emerald It is an issue that affects all University students: the need to feel safe walking around campus at night. In an effort to make stu dents feel safer, Facilities Services started working on an extensive lighting project to improve certain areas around campus. “My main concern as a woman on this campus is sexual assault,” said Jennifer Eliot, a former ASUO safety advocate. “Many students have evening classes, and the campus is spread out.” Concerns like Eliot’s have prompted the completion of the fifth phase of the campus lighting project, which is concentrated on the east side of the campus and includes the residence halls. Facilities Services began the project at the beginning of the summer and works with the ASUO and the Uni versity Department of Public Safety to repair the lighting around campus. According to Bob Springer, Facilities Services electrical supervisor, phase five should be completed by next week. Facilities Services in stalled lights along Agate Street and near the EMU. Two new lights were also in stalled north of the Walton Complex, two new lights near the outdoor tennis courts, one new light near the Agate Street crosswalk and two replacement lights on What: Phase five of the Cam pus Lighting Project Locations of new lights: Two lights north of Walton Com plex, two at the outdoor ten nis courts, two lights east of Earl Complex Funded by: Facilities Ser vices, ASUO Senate and Uni versity Housing Future improvements: Park ing lots 19 and 20 the east side of Earl.“The more lighting, the better,” said Sean Strahon, a Univer sity patrol sergeant. “I think it will definitely help student safety.” In addition to these im provements, Facilities Ser vices replaced and moved several lights in the area be tween Agate Street and the EMU. To determine areas of the campus that still need better lighting, the ASUO and DPS meet frequently with repre sentatives of Facilities Ser vices. Together, the three groups decide where lighting improvements need to be made. Future lighting additions include the area between the Bean Complex and Agate Street and the parking lot south of the EMU. Springer also hopes to tackle parts of parking lots 19 and 20 this fall - areas he said need im provement. As for funding the campus lighting improvements, the ASUO Senate has alreadv contributed $7,500 and Uni versity Housing has con tributed $12,000. Facilities Services will begin the next phase of the project this fall.
