Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 22, 2001)
Thursday 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 Who want$ to be a college graduate? D o you think you’re going to be a mil lionaire? Well, then join the ranks of millions of college students who are disillusioned enough to believe they’ll be living the high life after undergrad uate study. According to a rather official looking sur vey from JobTrak.com, 71 percent of college students actually believe they’ll be million aires (and most think that it will happen be fore they’re 40). I’m assuming the 29 percent of college students that were realistic about their future earnings are ceramics, history and music theory majors, in touch enough with the after-college job market that they aren’t de luded and believing their bank accounts will include seven-digit figures. Really, it’s no surprise that money is the driving force behind students’ reasons for go ing to college (or that college warps our view of how much we’re actually worth). With sto ries of dot-com successes and sensational TV shows that hand away money in exchange for self respect, youth are disillusioned into the belief that acquiring wealth comes easily. Somehow, after scraping our pennies together and begging parents for care packages for a minimum of four years, college students still believe they’ll be rolling in the dough after graduation. Maybe you really believe you’ll be hobnob bing with Trump 10 years from now. Just in case, let’s break it down—something my par ents taught me to do at a young age to curb those “high expectations” and cure the inabil ity to give myself reality checks. Let’s take our friend Howard (a fictional character, of course; real college students are rarely this on top of it). Howard graduated from our fine cam pus with a degree in business (because I know all of you business majors think you’ll be making the big bucks). Howard was a good student and actually spent more time studying than guzzling beers at Rennie’s, so be graduated with a 3.5 GPA, helping him land a great job at an estab lished company in Austin, Texas. Our dear Howard was for tunate to start out with a re spectable sum of $38,000 per year, a fortune compared to the minimum wage he earned ME, MYSLEF <Sc IRA YOUR TRUST FUND rniit, uni i mu iiiitii Bryan Dixon Emerald delivering pizzas to other broke college students. Of course, the first thing Howard planned on doing was treating himself to a new car, since he left his patched up Volkswagen back in Eugene (where all Volkswagens go to die). And Howard planned on buying the newest entertainment system to spruce up his new bachelor pad. Then reality sets in. His $3,166 monthly paycheck is actually only $1,995 after Uncle Sam takes out his 37 percent. Howard is lucky enough to have insurance benefits provided by his company, so he doesn’t have to worry that a crazy night at the bar, resulting in hav ing his stomach pumped, will set him back a month’s pay. But he does have to deduct $145 for his company’s plan. Now Howard is left with $1,850 — a meager amount compared to the original $3,500, but still not bad for a fresh-faced 25-year-old eager to make his mark on the world. Howard still has to pay the rent on his one-bedroom apart ment, which though not plush, is in an area of town where he can actually park his car without fear of theft. The pad bites off a chunk at $700 per month, and an additional $450 goes to electricity (the air conditioner runs 10 months out of the year), cable, Internet access, laundry, phone (long distance to call parents and friends back in Oregon), as well as groceries and household items (hey, even mac-and cheese costs money). So Howard is left with $700 per month after paying the basic cost of living. And now, the dream of that brand new Toyota Celica is fad ing fast — he’s looking at $450 per month for the Celica and full coverage insurance (yeah, because Howard’s not on mommy and daddy’s plan anymore). Instead, Howard pulls out the latest used auto ads and buys the 1997 Dodge Neon from the car lot down die street. With this “sleek” gas-saving machine, Howard only racks up $375 per month, in cluding car payments, insurance, fuel and maintenance (of course, he’s on the $1 down, $199 per month plan). So now, lovely Howard is left with just $325 a month. That gives him a whopping $81.25 per week, which has to pay parking meters, parking tickets, lunch, nights at the bar, video rentals, dates, new clothing, trips back home, shampoo, toilet paper, etc. The point is, that $81 is gone one way or the other. Bottom line: Howard’s $38,000 is higher than the average graduate will be earning, but even with this amount, the lap of luxury is as distant as it was while he was scraping burnt pizza dough off the pans at Track Town. Oops ... we forgot about paying back stu dent loans. Never mind, Howard’s screwed. Better ask mommy and daddy for calling cards and grocery-store gift certificates for Christmas. And by the way, does Austin have its own version of LTD? Though chances of making that cool mil lion are slightly better than winning Power ball, believing that the majority of us will be millionaires is about as realistic as thinking that Nader has a shot at the next presidency. Sorry folks, but it’s not going to happen. Better reconsider burying your rattletrap Volkswa gen after graduation ... unless your dream car’s a Neon. Rebecca Newell is a columnist for the Oregon Daily Emerald. Her views do not necessarily represent those of the Emerald. She can be reached at rnewell@glad stone.uoregon.edu. Declining grievances misleading Guest Commentary Carla Did you read the News and Views article written by Sid Moore in the Office of Affir mative Action? In the arti cle, titled “Grievances decline for third year,” Moore is quoted as saying, “.. .this reduction in grievance num bers again seems to suggest that the ef forts of the entire University commu nity to correct inappropriate behavior are having positive effects.” I don’t agree! I have had the oppor tunity to talk with various people on campus who are literally afraid to come forth and discuss their hostile environments at the University. This includes officers of administration, classified staff and graduate and un dergraduate students. Folks have told me they are verbally abused by being yelled at, in some cas es profanity is used, they are held back from moving into other positions be cause they have spoken out against discrimination, and they are treated with disrespect on campus. I personally have gone to Affirma tive Action twice and been turned away. I was told that there was nothing that their office could do about the situ ations. After I took a union steward with me to Affirmative Action, some thing was done about one of the situa tions. I suspect that others have been turned away, and if this is the case, that would account for why the number of formal grievances is declining. According to OPEU Local 085 Chief Steward Ellen Klaastad, “If you are a staff person covered by a collective bargaining agreement (such as GTFF, SEIU/OPEU, GCIU) then the union should be your first call; not the Office of Affirmative Action, not Ken Lehrman, not Sid Moore. OAA cannot, due to collective bargaining agreement, move anything forward if the person complaining or inquiring is represented by a union. In general, if you are a "classified" staff, the union only has 20 days in which to file a grievance on discrimi nation or harassment. Such shorter timelines (timelines that are shorter than Oregon or Federal Labor Laws) are similar in all union contracts on this campus. This wonderful univer sity of ours has consistently denied discrimination and harassment griev ances due to timelines being missed. While it may be true that the num ber of‘formal grievances’ which OAA files is down, the number of missed timeline potential grievances and de nied grievances due to timeline are in creased for the SEIU/OPEU. Why? Be cause it is not clear that OAA tells all union represented employees on this campus that they should immediately call their union. It is not clear that OAA tells these employees that a timeline is ticking and that timeline does not match the cushy period that state labor laws affords.” Are you a victim of discrimination on campus? Have you been turned away from Affirmative Action? Do you believe what Sid Moore says? Would you like your voice to be heard? Please contact Sid Moore and tell him how you disagree with his arti cle. Let him know you are afraid to come forth for fear of retaliation. Let him know you have come forth, only to be “blacklisted” or have your prob lem not get resolved. Let him know you are aware of hostile environ ments on campus. While you’re at it, why not let President Frohnmayer know how you feel. They can be reached at sidmoore@oregon.uore gon.edu, 346-2985 and pres@ore gon.uoregon.edu, 346-3036. Carla McNelly is the membership organizer for SEIU/OPEU Local 085 at the University of Oregon. Letters to the editor Have fun with ASUO election Hurray for Eric Qualheim and Brian Boone! I was very excited to read about these candidates in Monday’s paper. It was refreshing to read about candidates who not only had some pretty good ideas about running campus, but are hav ing fun with the election too. It’s important to remember that even though we are adults, we are still students, and the ASUO is student government. I think it is very important to elect people who are in touch with the student body. I hope everyone will join me in voting for Eric and Brian. Jessica Lyski freshman psychology CORRECTION The photos for Wednesday’s Q&A with ASUO Executive candidates Bret Jacobson and Matt Cook were inadvertently left off the front page. The Emerald regrets the error. COOK JACOBSON
