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
Vote yes on OSPIRG,
no on MCC
Editor’s note: As of 9 p.m. Sun
day night, the ASUO Constitution
Court ruled that the ASUO Gener
al Election must be postponed un
til a decision is reached on Bret Ja
cobson’s appeal. Whenever the
election occurs, we urge you to
consider the following.
Support OSPIRG, but demand
further accountability
If you haven’t heard about the
Oregon Student Public Interest Re
search Group and its ballot measure
by now, you’re probably dead.
Posters are everywhere, and the or
ganization’s support and opposition
is out in force. The short explana
tion is, OSPIRG wants $144,426 of
student money to continue its envi
ronmental and consumer advocacy
work. “Honesty” is a campus group
opposed to giving money to OS
PIRG. The Emerald editorial board
spoke with both sides last week.
The OSPIRG representatives re
peatedly mentioned that having stu
dents vote on OSPIRG was impor
tant because it was a referendum on
issues. Students rarely get to cast a
vote saying, “Yes, l believe in these
things,” OSPIRG spokeswoman
Melissa Unger told us, and voting
for OSPIRG is just that opportunity.
On the other hand, representa
tives of Honesty told us repeatedly
that it wasn’t at all about issues.
Honesty spokesman Bill Beutler
told us that he, too, cared about the
environment, although later com
ments led us to believe he didn’t
share the liberal values OSPIRG
stands for. Anyone can say he or she
cares about the environment, even
President Bush. But OSPIRG has lib
eral solutions to liberal issues. Hon
esty doesn’t seem to agree with that.
Accountability was Honesty’s big
concern, and it’s a concern we
share. But we also generally agree
with the work OSPIRG does, and
the group has made strides toward
greater accountability in recent
years. As long as this continues, we
support OSPIRG’s request for stu
dent incidental fees.
Perhaps the biggest point we
would like to make is that OSPIRG
needs to present its financial state
ments to students every year. In our
meeting with OSPIRG, we were
handed a budget to illustrate where
the money goes. But anyone can
write up a budget for anything; being
shown one is insulting. A budget is
not proof of expenditures. An end
of-year financial statement would be.
OSPIRG’s board of directors needs
to address the accountability issue
at its meetings and arrange to have
financial statements sent here so stu
dents can look at them. Apparently,
students can go to the Oregon State
PIRG office in Portland and request
the student PIRG’s records to track
the money. But if OSPIRG is using
our funds honestly, they should
send them here. Every student who
votes for OSPIRG should call and
make that request. It’s $144,426 of
your money, after all.
Honesty said that OSPIRG is a fun
damentally dishonest group because
it doesn’t have any real benefit for
students. We couldn’t disagree more.
OSPIRG offers real benefits to stu
dents, in the form of attention to and
work on local and national issues, as
well as professional training in organ
izing and grassroots lobbying. There
are no other student groups that do
this sort of work on this scale. And the
group’s benefits are available to any
student who gets involved. That’s
true of every student group. One must
be active to reap the benefits.
Honesty’s claim could be dis
armed, however, if OSPIRG’s paid
staff would appear on campus more
often. More could be done to show
students the benefits they receive.
We challenge OSPIRG to prove their
effort to the non-believers. What
does $144,426 buy us?
The issue of how OSPIRG uses its
money has some merit; students
who are deeply concerned about it
might want to consider voting
against the group, in order to send a
message.
However, we think OSPIRG is
fundamentally honest, and if it is, it
should prove it. In the last few
years, OSPIRG has become more
open about how its money is used,
and it has let students look at its
records. The group needs to do
more.
In order to stop the continual
threats from opposition groups and
to keep doing good work, OSPIRG
needs to make its financial state
ments easily accessible on every
campus. Students should vote for
OSPIRG and demand that it become
more transparent. That way, we can
all see its honesty and everyone can
benefit.
MCC needs a better plan
for spending student money
The Multicultural Center is ask
ing for $18,555.87 to establish a
fund to help small student groups
pay for events on campus. These
events, the MCC says, would pres
ent “culturally diverse program
ming.”
Ordinarily, we would be in favor
of giving small groups money to fur
ther enrich the cultural fabric of Uni
versity events. Students benefit from
exposure to many cultures, and
such events provide recreation on
campus. In this case, however, we
do not support the MCC’s request.
There are two reasons we oppose
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this ballot measure. First is repre
sentation. Any student group
should have the opportunity to
present its programs. We’re not con
vinced that all groups will be en
couraged to visit the MCC when
seeking money for events. The Stu
dent Senate, on the other hand, has
members directly elected by stu
dents, and student groups can go in
front of that governing body and ask
for money. It seems a safer bet that
equal consideration will occur at
the Student Senate.
Our other concern is organiza
tion. MCC spokesman Mario Si
fuentez told us that the MCC will be
rewriting its bylaws and establish
ing a board to dole out the money.
But that hasn’t happened yet. The
MCC is asking for $18,555.87, but it
doesn’t have a structure in place for
distributing the money, and we had
to ask about accountability. Si
fuentez said that although nothing
was set up yet, he thought our sug
gestion of requiring purchase orders
and providing financial statements
was a good one.
We agree, and when the MCC has
a written plan for executing this cul
tural programming fund, we may
support it. In the meantime, we ask
you to vote no.
This editorial represents the opinion of
the Emerald editorial board. Responses
can be sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
Poll Results
Every week, the Emerald prints the results of our online poll and
the poll question for next week. The poll can be accessed from the
main page of our Web site, www.dailyemerald.com. We encour
age you to send us feedback regarding the poll questions and re
sults.
last week’s poll question:
I think University professors get paid:
Results: 107 total votes
Too much —11 votes, or 10.3 percent
Not enough—71 votes, or 66.4 percent
Just right —14 votes, or 13.1 percent
Don’t care —11 votes, or 10.3 percent
Wow, we have a slam dunk. Maybe the question was too much of
a “gimme." Or maybe professors are the only people taking our
poll.
This week’s poll question:
Do you think the ASUO election process has been
fair and equitable?
The choices:
Yes
No
Don’t know
Don’t care
Save diversity: Save Whiteaker school
Guest Commentary
Sam
Douglass
I write out of concern for the
greater Eugene community. As in
other communities nationwide,
the Eugene public education sys
tem is caught up in economic strife. In
order to best use its funds available,
George Russell, Eugene School Dis
trict 4J superintendent, proposes to
close two elementary schools, includ
ing Whiteaker Elementary School. It is
this school that I am most concerned
about.
The Whiteaker school lies in the
heart of the old Whiteaker neighbor
hood, just west of Skinner Butte.
Many of Eugene’s Latino residents live
in this neighborhood. Here, one can
find stores with bilingual cashiers that
sell authentic ethnic food and hear
Spanish spoken in the streets.
However, many say the heart of this
neighborhood is the elementary
school. As the school lies within close
proximity to their homes, Latino fami
lies living in the area can walk their
children to school. At the school, the
staff, many of whom are bilingual, in
struct what may be the most diverse
classrooms in Eugene. Here, children
from all parts of the Americas —
North, South and Central — can learn
as much from each other as they do
from staff.
Closure of Whiteaker threatens this
unique community. No longer will im
migrant families have the option of
having their children cared for and ed
ucated within blocks of their homes.
The children will lose their sense of
community and culture as they are
transferred into more mainstream ele
mentary schools.
What’s more, the area will become
less attractive to new Latino families.
One man I talked to recently had been
saving money for several years to buy
a house in the area. Having finally
saved enough to make the down pay
ment, he is waiting to see if Whiteaker
Elementary will be closed. If it is
closed, he plans to settle in Spring
field, which he feels is more welcom
ing to Latino families. So it appears as
though 4J may undermine the diversi
ty of which it is so proud.
The school board needs to consider
what kind of message it will be send
ing to the Latino community if it clos
es Whiteaker. The mostly bilingual
school currently serves the needs of
the monolingual (Spanish only) fami
lies in the area. However, 4J transmits
a gravely negative message to this
Latino community if it makes these
services less accessible. Doesn’t this
contribute to perceptions that say,
“You’re not welcome here, nor are you
important enough to have your needs
met”?
This seems to be the ever more pop
ular (and racist) message that the Unit
ed States wants to send to Latino im
migrants. If we wish to maintain
Eugene as a community that is wel
coming to all races, we need to keep
Whiteaker open and help increase
community support for this unique
school and its families.
To help our greater community take
a stand for diversity in our schools,
please call Superintendent Russell at
687-3123. Tell him you want to see
Whiteaker Elementary School stay
open. Also, join me at the community
meeting at the school March 8 at 6:30
p.m.
Sam Douglass is a senior Spanish/general sci
ence major, a Whiteaker resident and a
Whiteaker Education Committee volunteer.