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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 24, 2000)
www.dailyemerald.com An independent newspaper World-music artists * Guitarist Bob Brozman will pair up with Takashi Hirayasu at the WOW Hall tonight. PAGE 6 Tuesday Mountaineering legend Peter Gil I man spoke about mountaineer George Mallory and the mystery of his death. PAGE 4 October 24,2000 Volume 102, Issue 40 Weather TODAY MOSTLY CLOUDY high 60, low 45 Since 1 900 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon Asian/Pacific Islander African-American Hispanic Native American Multi-ethnic Total Minorities White, non-Hispanic Unknown Asian/Pacific Islander 1,022 African-American 288 Hispanic 473 Native American 198 Multi-ethnic 44 Total Minorities 1,965 White, non-Hispantc 11,538 Unknown 715 Asian/Pacific Islander African-American Hispanic Native American Multi-ethnic Total Minorities White, non-Hispanic Unknown Asian/Pacific Islander African-American Hispanic Native American Total Minorities White, non-Hispanic Unknown Struggling for change www”sr:iiMr \ The University has taken steps to increase diversity, but it still has a ways to go By Beata Mostafavi Oregon Daily Emerald Despite an increase in the number of minority faculty and students at the University, some of the new voices on campus want to see the administration answer the question of how much progress has actually been made to at tain long-term diversity objectives.Mul ticultural Center Director Erica Fuller, who took the newly created position this fall, said that while some improve ments have been made, the University is still at least 25 years behind in preparing students for the reality of the world. Fuller, whose came from the Univer sity of Florida, said curriculum is one of the biggest reasons the University is be Turn to Diversity, page 5 BCS rankings released Take a whiff, Oregon football fans, and get your noses out of the roses. Instead, try smelling those oranges. The seventh-ranked Ducks officially entered the race for the Orange Bowl—the national cham pionship game. The Bowl Championship Series came out with its first rankings of the year Mon day night and listed Oregon at the No. 8 spot. There are only 15 teams listed, and Washing ton, at No. 9, is the only other Pacific-10 Con ference team. The computer-generated listing will continue to publish a new set of rankings each week un til the end of the season. When all is said a nd done, the two teams ranked No. 1 and No. 2 will meet in Miami for the national title. Granted, Oregon is a long shot to climb that high up the BCS ladder. But you never know. For fuH coverage, tumto SPORTS, page 7. Raising awareness about disabilities ■ During a symposium on disability studies, Adrienne Asch challenged society to change the way it views disabilities By Brooke Ross Oregon Daily Emerald A Wellesley College professor who spoke at a symposium Monday charged that society needs to change how it views people with disabilities, who make up 15 percent of the popu lation. “A disability should simply be viewed as a characteristic that influ ences life just as other characteristics do,” said Adrienne Asch during the symposium “Disability Studies: Where Has It Been? Where is it Going?” Disability studies is a field of study that shifts the emphasis away from gen eral beliefs about disabled people and instead emphasizes changing the way the public views people with impair ments. In her presentation, Asch stressed the fact that the disabled community should not be viewed differently and separated from the rest of society be cause so many people have or will suf fer from impairments in their life times. Asch estimated that half of the Tu rn to Disabilities, page 4 Catharine Kendall Emerald Following her disability studies lecture, Adrienne Asch speaks with Uni rersity alumna Catherine Southward, , , ,,,,,, Budget increase to help engineers ■ Oregon’s engineering and computer science programs could be headed for the nation’s top tier due to a recent board decision by the OUS By Andrew Adams Oregon Daily Emerald The State Board of Higher Education decided to request an $85 million investment plan from the state government to improve Oregon’s engineering and computer science programs during its meeting on Oct. 20 at Southern Oregon University in Ashland. Board members voted 10-1 to approve the plan that will use state and private funds to gradually move engineering pro grams into the nation’s top tier of higher education institu tions. The plan will be incorporated into the Oregon Universi ty System’s total budget request, which is due at Gov. Kitzhaber’s office by Nov. 1. “I personally voted for it because I’m convinced [Oregon] needs top engineering and computer science programs,” said Board Member Tom Imeson. He said the board still has a lot of work to finish before it sends the final version of the total higher education budget, but he said the first steps towards improving engineering edu cation have been made. “We’re going to put [Oregon] on a path for the top tier,” he said. According to information released by the OUS, the invest ment plan requests $10.63 million each biennium. That amount will be matched by private funding for a total of $21.2 million, which will supplement $30 million in state and pri vate funds that have already been earmarked for engineering. Oregon State University will be the chief recipient of the engineering funds because the school already confers more than half of the state’s engineering degrees. The University of Oregon stands to receive about $8.5 million each biennium for its computer and information science department. University chemistry professor and board member Geri Richmond, however, took issue with the plan. Richmond cast the lone dissenting vote because she said the plan did not ef fectively promote what she considered “excellence.” “I didn’t think it focused on excellence,” she said. “It didn’t have quality ideas. I just didn’t see in the proposal the quality of state engineering that I’m used to seeing.” In addition to not reaching Richmond’s expectations, the plan also attempts to complete too much with too little, she said. "There’s not enough focus on excellence, and it really is try ing to do too much,” she said. Despite her misgivings, Richmond said she will still respect the board’s decision. Tom Anderes, OUS vice chancellor for finance and admin istration, said that even though the first funding request for the plan is minuscule in comparison to the total higher educa tion budget of $1.45 billion, it will eventually help make sig nificant strides in engineering education. The first step in the plan, Anderes said, will involve schools hir ing new faculty and graduate assistants to develop the infrastruc Turn to OUS Budget. Dage 5
