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Making their mark
The Oregon wrestling team is No. 10 after taking
on top competition over the break. PAGE 7
Money matters
The Programs Finance Committee doles out an 11
percent increase from last year’s budget. PAGE 3
January 10,2001
Volume 102, Issue 70
Weather
TODAY
high 50, low 37
Since 1900 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon
r"**;
Tom Patterson Emerald
Some residents at the University Commons have been less than impressed by available amenities, swimming pool
or no.
Tenants face complex issues
Students
who had
dreamt
of living the
high life
were
disappointe
d with a
dose
of reality
By Beata Mostafavi
Oregon Daily Emerald
With its freshly painted exterior,
swimming pool, hot tub and gymnasi
um, the University Commons was ad
vertised as a four-star student housing
option when it first opened in fall 1999.
But according to some of last year’s
tenants, the apartment complex didn’t
live up to its image — and despite new
management, tenants said some of the
problems are not completely gone.
Previous residents have complained
about problems ranging from “unfin
ished” apartments to curious fees and
claim the complex’s management rarely
responded to these matters efficiently.
But the current manager, Pam Bryant,
said she and her staff are completely
new and most of last year’s problems
are no longer present. The previous
management team that tenants com
plained about left for “personal rea
sons,” according to Bryant.
Off to a bad start
Because of its brand-new status and
promise to offer appealing features not
many other complexes did such as
Turn to Commons, page 3
Chavez rescinds bid
amid legal questions
By Laura Meckler
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Linda Chavez withdrew her bid to be
secretary of labor Tuesday, saying that controversy over an il
legal immigrant who once lived with her had become a dis
traction for President-elect Bush. She called herself a victim
of “search-and-destroy” politics.
Chavez told a news conference the decision to bow out just
a week after being named was entirely her own. But three Re
publican officials involved said she reluctantly stepped aside
under pressure from Bush’s political team, who made it clear
their willingness to fight for her nomination had waned amid
questions about her credibility.
Chavez allowed that she should have been more candid
about the circumstances surrounding Marta Mercado, the
Guatemalan woman who lived with her for about two years
in the early 1990s. But she said it was “the politics of person
al destruction” that brought down her nomination.
“So long as the game in Washington is a game of search
and-destroy, I think we will have very few people who are
willing to do what I did, which was to put myself through this
in order to serve,” she said. “What has happened over the last
few days is quite typical of what happens in Washington,
D.C.”
Over the weekend, questions arose about whether Chavez
had paid Mercado for the jobs she did around the house and
whether she knew Mercado was in the country illegally.
“I think I always knew that she was here illegally,” Chavez
said Tuesday. “I don’t check green cards when I see a woman
who is battered and who has no place to live and nothing to
eat and no way to get on her feet.”
But as recently as Sunday, Bush aides said, she had told
them she did not know Mercado’s legal status until after she
moved out, and they repeated that to reporters. Mercado,
meanwhile, was saying publicly that Chavez did in fact
know.
Asked whether she told Bush aides the full story, Chavez
said she did eventually: “I did not volunteer it in our very first
conversation.”
Chavez began her news conference with testimonials from
people who said that she had helped them at various times
in their lives. She said she had had difficult times during her
childhood and there were always people there to help.
“And I vowed to myself that, no matter what happened to
me in my life, that I would be there for other people,” she
said.
She described Mercado as a woman “who came from a very
Turn to Chavez, page 6
CC So long
as the game
in Washing
ton is a
game of
search-and
destroy, I
think we
will have
very few
people who
are willing
to do what
I did, which
was to put
myself
through this
in order to
serve.
Linda Chavez
Nominee for
Secretary of
Labor
Cost increase shocks businesses into conserving electricity
In the
face of a
possible
energy cost
increase, big
businesses
look to keep
costs low
Inside pages
EWEB asked the
University to run
on generated
power over the
winter break
By Lindsay Buchele
Oregon Daily Emerald
Though homeowners can do basic
things in the wake of EWEB’s immi
nent rate hike to conserve energy, large
production companies and smaller
businesses will have to adjust their
business practices significantly to cov
er increasing energy costs.
The Eugene Chamber of Commerce
will soon address the issues surround
ing the energy shortage that has
gripped the northwest, said Terry Con
nolly, director of government affairs.
“This crisis is becoming a huge issue
for high consumers of energy,” Con
nolly said.
Energy consumers, such as paper
production company Weyerhauser, are
dependent on large amounts of energy
for production processes, and EWEB is
scheduled to vote on hiking energy
rates in March.
“EWEB has kept prices very low for
us [in the past],” Weyerhauser spokes
woman Lisa VanWinkle said.
With the unavoidable increase in
prices, however, companies like Wey
erhauser will need to assess what their
company can do to handle the price
increase.
Weyerhauser produces some of its
own power using steam generation in
its paper production process. The
company also uses other forms of pow
er, such as natural gas and oil.
“We can keep our costs low as long
as we keep using wood chips and pro
duce our own energy,” VanWinkle
said.
Another big energy consumer, Sa
cred Heart Medical Center, spends $2
million a year on utilities, including
• • • * Turn-to Increase, page 6
Laura Smit Emerald
Sacred Heart Medical Center is one of the many public institutions that will be heavily affected by
the increase of electric rates. Its electric system, like this air conditioning pump, consumes a ma
jor amount of power.