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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 9, 2001)
Friday Editor in chief: Jack Clifford Managing Editor: Jessica Blanchard Newsroom: (541) 346-5511 Room 300, Erb Memorial Union P.O. box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu EDITORIAL EDITOR: MICHAEL J. KLECKNER opededitor@journalist.com is for It’s traditionally held that the point of a college education, in addition to earning a de gree, is to broaden one’s hori zons. And part of the college ex perience is being exposed to different viewpoints and opin ions and people who don’t look, act or think the same. Critics of the incidental fee have long argued that students should only have to pay fees to groups they personally support, if they have to pay incidental fees at all. But Alexis de Tocqueville warned us more than 150 years ago to beware the tyranny of the majority. Just because a group’s opinions or views aren’t shared by a majority of people on campus doesn’t mean its perspective isn’t as valid. The Supreme Court agreed last year, ruling in University of Wis consin System v. Southworth that student incidental fees help with “promoting extracurricular activ ities, stimulating advocacy and debate on diverse points of view and providing opportunities to develop social skills, all consis tent with the university's broad educational mission.” Diversity has become some thing of a buzzword, but true di versity can only be achieved if everyone is allowed to speak. And yes, that includes groups that have caused controversy, such as The Insurgent and Justice For All. A liberal group to one person can be staunchly conservative to an other. If we don’t fund all groups, regardless of their viewpoints, we can’t guarantee all perspectives will be heard. There are plenty of groups on campus that I do not personally support — but that doesn’t mean I would want to deny them fund ing. To exclude a group from re ceiving student incidental fees just because people don’t like the views or actions of the group amounts to censorship. Most people who were on cam pus last fall remember the contro versy the Genocide Awareness Project caused when it was set up in the EMU Amphitheater. The graphic anti-abortion display sparked a heated debate and prompted protests and counter protests. It was my first term at a four year university, and I remember being shocked at the graphic na ture of the display and that it was allowed to be exhibited in such a high-traffic area. Everyone who witnessed the display had a strong reaction — and I was no different. But despite my personal feel ings about GAP, it definitely chal lenged my beliefs and truly made me think—not about abortion, but about free speech. I had al ways been a staunch defender of freedom of speech, but this made me re-examine my stance—did I really practice what I was preach ing? Or was I only willing to listen to people who expressed views that aligned with my own? Ultimately, the experience helped me realize that while there are many groups at the University that I do not agree with, they have the same right to express them selves as I do. We should be em bracing and encouraging the di versity of opinions on campus, not stifling it. GAP may have pushed some people’s buttons, but at least it got the campus talk ing about a sensitive issue. Many students, if given the choice between paying a fee and not, would opt not to pay at all. Apathy and self-interest are ram pant on our campus, and a lot of students don’t realize that the in cidental fee goes toward things many of us take for granted: the bus pass from Lane Transit Dis trict that allows students to ride free; tickets to Oregon sports events; and even EMU services, which help pay for the exis tence of services such as the Computing Center and the pool hall, The Break. Everyone, whether they realize it or not, receives some benefit from the stu dent incidental fee — so everyone should help pay . •.* it. If you don’t like a group that receives fee funds, don’t participate in events it sponsors. Don’t help it raise funds. Don’t sign its petitions or even talk to its members. Protest at its group meetings. Write let ters to the editor or guest columns. The bottom line is that groups are free to express v their beliefs, just as you are free to agree or dis agree with them. But don’t take them out of the equation and not fund them because you don’t like their beliefs — that scenario would leave us attending a bland vanilla university where open debate was discouraged, instead of one where people are exposed to the many different fla vors of opinion. Jessica Blanchard is the man aging editor for the Emerald and a member of the editori al board. Her views do not necessarily represent those of the Emerald. She can be reached at jessicablanch- „ ard@hotmail.com. 1 Leftfield Frank Silva rate ftsmm / /C^JtiSr everyone Giovanni Salii ■merald £T.'.'..".nil irnnliV . ^ . . isiifr Letters to the editor Join the fight against anorexia I was dismayed at seeing an overly thin woman under the cap tion “The Future of Fashion” on the Steamtunnels advertising in sert found within the Feb. 7 issue of the Oregon Daily Emerald. It’s possible the model might natural ly be that thin, but I doubt it. As a college newspaper, I hope you will get behind the promotion of a fu ture absence of anorexia nervosa. Brad Hachten graduate student community education program
