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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 2001)
Executive candidate takes on campaign strain ■ Eric Bailey faces an ASUO grievance in addition to accusations of removing a competitor’s campaign fliers By Jeremy Lang Oregon Daily Emerald An ongoing Student Senate griev ance and allegations of improper campaigning have made for a tough week for ASUO Executive candi date Eric Bai $ ff» «il ley. But Bailey called the grievance a poorly timed political attack in which he has been un fairly targeted. BAILEY He also denies the claim by fellow candidate Bret Jacobson that the Bailey campaign has been removing Jacobson’s posters from campus and replacing them with their own. Matt Swanson, Elections Board office manager, filed the grievance at Wednesday night’s Student Sen ate meeting. Before he took the job on the elections board, Swanson had been temporarily hired as an administrative assistant at the be ginning of winter term, writing minutes for senate and Programs Finance Committee meetings. He applied for the job full-time and said he was not asked the same questions as other candidates when he was interviewed by Bailey, who is also senate vice president, and fellow Sens. Mary Elizabeth Mad den and Jennifer Greenough. The trio comprise the senate hiring com mittee. Swanson said the hiring commit tee inappropriately assumed they knew his qualifications and didn’t ask any questions about them like they did to other candidates. “I didn’t necessarily expect to get the job, but I did expect a fair process,” Swanson said. “Obvious ly, I didn’t apply for it for fun. I do need the work.” But Senate President Peter Watts said the grievance may move out of the senate or disappear altogether. He said Swanson apparently filed it based on Executive hiring rules, and no specific senate hiring rules exist. Watts sent the grievance to the ASUO Constitution Court for guid ance on whether to use Executive rules and, if not, what rules the group should follow. Watts said he wouldn’t comment on the particulars of the grievance until the court gave him an answer. Chief Justice Rob Raschio said the court should make a decision this week. But Bailey said he thinks that the timing of the election and that a member of the impartial elections board filed the grievance add up to a situation fueled by personal politics. He said that he didn’t know the griev ance was going to be discussed at the senate meeting or who wrote it. “I was totally blindsided at the meeting, [and] it’s a conflict of inter est for [Swanson],” Bailey said. “I’m also the only one on the committee targeted.” Bailey said the hiring committee didn’t need to ask Swanson about his qualifications because they knew them already from working with him. Swanson said that with his current job on the elections board, he doesn’t want to get the administrative assis tant job now. He just wants the process to be the same for everyone. “It’s not a political situation, just an examination of the process,” Swanson said. "It’s not a judgment of the people involved. ” Swanson said he might re-file with the Executive because the de cision is based specifically on Exec utive hiring practices. While the future of the grievance is decided, the Bailey campaign is also facing allegations that they have been removing other candi dates’ posters and replacing them with their own. Candidate Bret Jacobson said he believed posters for him and his running mate, Matt Cook, were be ing torn down on campus and re placed with other posters. On Wednesday evening, they put up a new batch and kept a detailed list of which posters were placed where. Jacobson said many of them had disappeared and been replaced Thursday morning by posters for Bailey and his running mate, Jeff Oliver. Although he hasn’t caught anyone or filed a grievance with the elections board, Jacobson said he was hoping this year would be a “clean election.” “We’re just going to keep putting our message out,” he said. “We’ll leave the dirty politics to other cam paigns.” Swanson, who ran for the Execu tive two years ago, said allegations of poster problems happen every election. The elections board sent an e-mail to all candidates address ing the issue, but Swanson said there is little more the board can do without a formal complaint filed. But Bailey said that although he can’t speak for everyone, he knows neither he nor Oliver has pulled signs down. He added that he thinks some of his posters have dis appeared in the past weeks also. Bailey is dealing with these prob lems as he continues to fill his role as senate vice president, but there are a couple of duties he has yet to fulfill, including maintaining the senate’s Web page with meeting minutes, sub mitting press releases concerning senate events and keeping a working relationship with the Emerald. None of the three has happened. Bailey said he hasn’t worked on the senate Web page because PFC member Aaron Week volunteered to maintain the page. But when the position for administrative assistant opened, it was Watts, not Bailey, who arranged for an Emerald adver tisement. Bailey said he wasn’t aware of the senate rule requiring him to maintain a relationship with the newspaper but he hopes to during the election. Florida blacks believe their votes were unfairlv rejected ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A majority of Florida’s black voters be lieve their ballots were unfairly re jected in November at a higher rate than those cast by voters of other races, and an even larger number think the election’s loser is now president, according to a poll. Ninety-one percent of the respon dents said they believe Al Gore won the election over George W. Bush, according to the poll conducted for The St. Petersburg Times. Regardless of education or gen der, “if you are an African-Ameri can you believe Al Gore is the legiti mate victor in Florida and the legitimate president of the United States,” said pollster Rob Schroth. The telephone survey of 600 black registered voters, conducted by Washington-based Schroth & As sociates on Feb. 3-5, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Eighty-four percent of those polled Jung continued from page 1 now pays people like Jung to keep the art alive. There are currently 200,000 peo ple in Korea who are being trained in Taek Gyeon by Jung and his pred ecessors. Unlike most martial arts, Taek Gyeon uses more than two dis tances for combat. “There are three or more distances used in Taek Gyeon: punching dis tance, kicking distance, grabbing dis tance and throwing distance,” Hyong said. “Most martial arts just use punching and kicking.” Jung added that Taek Gyeon can be practiced by everyone because of the emphasis on the art form as well as mental development. “There is less gender, age and so cial status requirements,” Jung said. “Anyone can practice for health or other reasons.” Jung said he has found fulfillment in practicing Taek Gyeon. “I am rewarded by the pride and respect I get from people,” Jung said. “By mastering the art, I have been able to develop a respect for others and consider their lives and how I can help them. My cultivation can be extended to others.” Greathouse, who trained in Tae Kwon Do under Hyong’s instruc tion, said Hyong made contact with Jung because of his Korean heritage and that of his own teachers. They formed the American Taek Gyeon Association, which guarantees that Jung will come to America each year to train martial artists. Greathouse took 16 of his stu dents to Korea last summer to train with Jung. Greathouse’s students expressed excitement over Jung’s visit and his abilities. Martial arts clinics Grand Master Kyung-Hwa Jung will conduct martial arts clinics at the Eugene HMD Academy, located at the corner of West Second Avenue and Lawrence Street. The clinics will be held Monday through Thursday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The clinics will be open to the pub lic, and costs are: • $25 for any one day • $40 for any two days • $50 for any three days • $60 forall four days For more information, call the Eu gene HMD Academy at 345-4132. “It’s funny because so many peo ple have come to see him perform, and we actually trained with him,” said Shanti Rios, one of Greathouse’s students. “It was such a huge honor.” Another student, Scott McNulty, said the dedication of Koreans to Taek Gyeon is amazing. “Korean kids start training when they’re 4 years old,” McNulty said. “By the time they’re high school age, they’re black belts. ” Jung said it takes time for one to get to the level to teach but the learn ing process itself is continual. “It takes three years to get the ba sics, 10,000 days to become a master or teacher, but beyond that, the learning is endless,” Jung said. Jung will at least be able to teach some basics to Eugene residents during his stay, which will extend through Sunday. His last days will be spent as a tourist in a city he de scribes as “comfortable.” “I feel people in Eugene have a close relationship with one anoth er,” Jung said. “It’s very family-like.” said they believe a greater proportion of ballots cast by blacks were reject ed or not counted than those cast by voters of other races, the Times re ported in Sunday’s editions. And 40 percent said they believe that’s because of a “coordinated ef fort by state government to make it more difficult for African-Ameri cans to vote.” Gov. Jeb Bush, the new presi dent’s brother, denied that claim. “The reality is that state govern ment doesn’t run elections,” Bush told the Times. “The perception is one thing and the reality is some thing else.” George W. Bush won Florida, and thus the election, when the U.S. Supreme Court stopped the state’s recounts five weeks after the elec tion. He carried Florida by 537 votes out of 6 million cast. Thirty-six percent of those polled said they believed the governor was the most important factor in his brother’s victory. Also, nearly three-fourths of the state’s black voters describe the cur rent state of race relations in Florida as “not so good” or “not good at all,” and a quarter think race relations are worse now than they were be fore Jeb Bush was elected governor. Thirteen percent of the black vot ers polled gave a favorable personal approval rating of the Florida gov ernor, compared to 60 percent of the overall population. r A A Higher Education Teachers set high standards for us all . . . 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