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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 10, 2000)
Diversity is focus of retreat ■ Students from Oregon universities participate in an Oregon State University-sponsored trip with plans to strengthen ties By Beata Mostafavi Oregon Daily Emerald The University isn’t the only insti tution that has made diversity objec tives a top priority in recent years. Oregon State University has start ed sponsoring diversity develop ment retreats, which offer students the opportunity to explore different cultures as well as their own. This weekend, for the first time, Univer sity of Oregon students will also participate in this journey. About 50 students from both uni versities will depart at 3 p.m. today from Corvallis and Eugene to stay at Camp Lutherwood in Cheshire, Ore., until Sunday. Facilitators and group leaders will conduct small discussions, large dis cussions and activities that focus on issues involving class differences, racism, sexism, power and privilege. Cessa Heard-Johnson, coordina tor of the Oregon State University student involvement office, said the main idea of the retreat is for people to explore their own cultural identi ties and develop ways to appreciate other cultures. “The retreat will help all students to build bridges across their differ ences and figure out ways to build allies between groups,” she said. At the campground, students will partake in experiential exercises that aim to broaden their perspec tives on diversity topics. Heard-Johnson mentioned one activity that will demonstrate class differences. Facilitators will host a dinner and give 10 percent of the group a full-course meal, 30 percent of the group a “middle-class” meal on paper plates and the rest of the students rice and water. She said these exercises are meant to give students better insight on other groups’ viewpoints and teach them how people’s differences influence relationships. Linda Liu, advising coordinator at the Office of Multicultural Affairs and a retreat facilitator, said she and some of the retreat leaders have practiced a few of these activities in the last week. “They have made me see how people perceive me and how differ ently I perceive myself,” she said. “You have privileges you don’t know you have.” Oregon State’s first retreat was in January. Heard-Johnson said Ore gon State plans to have at least two diversity retreats a year, with plans to organize another in April. She emphasized that the retreat is open to all students regardless of ethnici ty, class or sexual orientation. Heard-Johnson added that the first retreat was successful and many students came back and con tinued to be involved in diversity efforts. She said almost 75 percent of the participants from the first re treat are returning as facilitators for the second one. Mark Tracy, assistant dean for di versity programs, said students who go on the retreat have a high poten tial to return home and apply what they learned to the world they live in. “The retreat will attempt to em power students to come back and make changes around issues around diversity on their respective campuses,” he said. History continued from page 1A With votes dribbling in from across the country, Gore’s lead in the popular vote was shrinking to about 200,000 votes out of 100 mil lion. With a few precincts still un reported (as of 8 p.m. EST): — Gore had 49,113,600 votes. — Bush had 48,906,647 votes. Though it has no bearing on who is the next president, the total-vote lead gives Gore added psychologi cal standing in his fight to overturn Florida’s results. ! Eight lawsuits have been filed in state and federal courts to challenge the Florida results, including six in Palm Beach County and two in Tal lahassee. One federal case was withdrawn by the voter who filed. Democratic Party-backed lawsuits won’t be filed until next week, party officials said. The Tallahassee cases alleged race discrimination, and Palm Beach County voters sought a new election because they said the bal lot was too confusing. Daley said the Bush campaign was willing to “blithely dismiss the disenfranchisement of thousands of Floridians as being the usual mistakes” that afflict elections. Both candidates were working si multaneously to prepare their transi tions to power and fight the ballot dis pute. Democrats were trying to raise $3 million to finance Gore’s chal lenge, while Republicans geared up their own fundraising drive. Bush officials were scrutinizing close-vote states besides Florida and pondering whether to press for re counts. High on the list were Iowa and Wisconsin, with a combined 18 electoral votes. A re-count was un derway in New Mexico’s most popu lous county, and Oregon law requires a re-count in close races as well. Nader continued from page 1A Green Party have received is a suc cess in itself. Robinowitz argued that the close national race proves neither candi date had a message strong enough to energize the electorate. “What I think is that the real sad thing is millions of people voted for someone they did not believe in,” he said. Linda Lee Charles, a Springfield Nader Green Party spokeswoman, said local Nader supporters are as dumbfounded by the national elec tion as the rest of the country. “All of us are all sitting around discussing this,” she said. “It’s the strangest election we’ve ever expe rienced.” She said Nader supporters are not disappointed by the election, but are instead optimistic about what they can do in the future. She said the Lane County headquarters will be moving to a new location downtown and will host its first meeting Nov. 18. “We are hoping to create, from the bottom up, awareness about what is happening in this country,” she said. Charles said that, before the elec tion, the local Nader campaign head quarters received several threats from people fearing a Gore defeat as a re sult of Democrats and Greens voting for Nader. While Charles wasn’t cer tain, she said this may have con vinced other Nader supporters to hold onto their ballots until they could see how Gore fared on the East Coast. If Gore did poorly, they would vote for him, not Nader. She said this could explain why Nader did better in polling than in actual results. “I’m assuming that the percentage points lost was because people held their ballots and waited,” she said. Hope Marston, a member of the steering committee for Lane County Nader supporters, said the election may have helped the Nader organi zation discover who its true believ ers are. Now that the group knows who stuck with Nader, it has a new corps of supporters it can depend on in the future. She said the election has only given more energy to a Green Party that is looking to maintain the level of national recognition it earned in this campaign. “We are going to be a force to be reckoned with for years and years to come,” she said. While the election results mean a complete loss for Nader, Marston said this doesn’t convey what has actually happened for the party. “Ralph has already won, because he has gotten us to work so hard.” she said, adding that the Green Party will continue to promote its interests at both the state and federal level. “We’re all really glad about what we did,” she said. “Even if there is n’t a win it gets people excited and interested.” Responses continued from page 1A in the Constitution that support it, but added that some past presi dents won elections without actu ally gaining more than 50 percent of the popular vote. Mohr also said the full impact of the 2000 election won’t be known until the outcome is declared. “It’s much too early to tell,” he said. “It depends a lot on how they resolve it.” Southwell said the last time the people and the electorate differed was 1888, when Benjamin Harri son won the electoral vote and the presidency against Grover Cleve land, who won the popular vote. Mohr said the 1876 presidential election also caused controversy, and it has parallels to this year’s election. In 1876 ballots were disputed in Florida, Louisiana and South Caroli na. The presidential race was be tween Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, then governor of New York. “For months the country didn’t know who would be president,” Mohr said. “Congress set up a [15 member] electoral commission to determine who would be declared the winner.” University history professor Daniel Pope said the commission consisted of five members each from the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Supreme Court. The commission eventually sided with Hayes, who became the nine teenth president of the United States. Southwell said the winner in 2000 will have a difficult time gov erning the United States because his victory will be by such a narrow margin, and because both houses of Congress are narrowly divided be tween the two parties. “I wish this was over. It’s a disas ter,” Southwell said. “If this kind of situation had happened in Russia, Yugoslavia or Chile, I do believe the U.S. would be rolling its eyes and saying this isn’t any way to run an election. I think the whole experi ence is quite embarrassing all around." Southwell said people 100 years from now will also remember this election for its premature media re ports and voting irregularities. laiLane Community College THE Agatha Christie’s MOUSETRAP I I IF. CLASSIC MllRDI'.R MYSTF.KY directed by Lileen Kearnev Fridays 6c Saturdays Nov. 3, 4, 11, IQ, 17,18,8 pm Sun., Nov. 12, 2 om matinee Main Campus Performance I I all Lane Ticket Office: 726-2202 One Dozen Roses *15” Delivered Call us! 344-9998 One dozen roses with greens, wrapped Delivered with your personal message Orders received by 1 :OOpm HHn Sgt delivered the same day aaSirt 19 Rhytnm U of O's Outdoor Flower Market - 13th & Kincaid r The Department of Landscape Architecture is proud to present 4dr-. rJ/iz/ 'o ^yi qAa/is: Renowned Japanese Garden Designer “The Traditional Japanese Garden as a Device of Contemporary Garden Design” November 1.1 F 4:.10pm F II5 Lawrence Hall Sponsored by: Dept 01 Landscape Architecture. Vice Provost for International Pioyrams, Oregon Humanities Center, Dept, of Art History, Oregon Chapter ASLA, School ol Architecture and Allied Arts “The Elements of Classic Japanese Gardens in Contemporary Practical Applications” November 15th F 4:30 pm F ! 15 Lawrence Hall “Restoration of Classic Japanese Gardens as a Source for Garden Design” November 17th P 4:30 pm f 177 Lawrence Hall J All Smoothies , .f SouFs (oMim'tted To Providing Organic, Nirtrrtiour 8. Wholefonte Food Featuring: Fresh Squeezed Juice ( Smoothies, Shakes f lie Cream Organic Coffee Bar ( Daily Soups -^ers-tal Activist _ n kokoloco juice bar /£>,. ^ Tel5A-l.mff700Fa*5A-l>W5.W0 0A"l East litii Avenue Eugene Oregon T7A"OI K-tif://weldoiwe -fco/kokolodo Want to Make an Impact on the World? (or at least in Eugene?) ^e3ns jusu<^ Interest Meeting November 13th, 8:00pm Hillel House, 1059 Hilyard Questions? Ring: Jocelyn or Stacey 343-8920 ODE tfcoriet ore archived on-line at www.dQilyemerQld.com
