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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 5, 2001)
Thursday The investigation of basketball coach Jody Runge by law firm could end soon. PAGE 13 Shaken, not stirred Our new entertainment editor gives her picks for sip pin a littlesumpin,sumpin\ PULSE SECTION April 5,2001 Volume 102, Issue 121 Weather today PARTLY CLOUDY high 55, low 40 Since 1 900 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon Sean Graf Emerald When drinking becomes dangerous r*? Male Female (out of 188 mates surveyed) (out of 213 females surveyed) Tom Patterson Emerald Binge drinking a painful lesson ■ Doctors say that weekend drinking parties often involve a visit to the emergency room By Brooke Ross Oregon Daily Emerald When Robyn I-Jilles, a sophomore German major, celebrated Halloween her freshman year, she did what many college students do at parties: social ized, drank too much and stayed out late. But she also lost part of her front tooth. “I was raging sloppy when some nearby guy was in the midst of telling a story,” she said. “While tipping my bot tle back to take a drink, he flailed his arms wildly, hitting my bottle.” The next day Hilles had to go to the dentist and have her tooth evened. “I didn’t realize how much of a chunk was gone until the next morn ing,” she said. “I told my parents it was a bike accident, and now they make fun of me because they think I’m so acci dent prone.” Hilles is just one University student who has suffered an injury while un der the influence of alcohol. Accord ing to the 2000 University Health Cen ter Survey compiled by the Oregon Survey Research Laboratory, more than 7 percent of surveyed University males and more than 3 percent of fe males had physically injured them selves while drinking too much. Near ly 3 percent of surveyed males also admitted to injuring someone else while under the influence of alcohol. Dr. Gary Young, medical director of the emergency department at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene, said intoxicated University students are no strangers to the emergency room. He said although the medical staff does not categorize its patients, about one in every 10 is a student. “Every weekend night we get more than one University student who’s had too much to drink,” he said. “Friday night we might have a patient, Satur day night — it’s routine.” Young said the most common types of drunken injuries include cuts, head injuries, sprained limbs and fight wounds. Turn to Injuries, page 5 Bill aims to reduce alcohol liability ■A new Senate bill would fur ther regulate injury protection for liquor-serving establishments Aaron K. Breniman Oregon Daily Emerald Oregon legislators are attempting to send the public a message: If you get drunk and hurt yourself, you’re on your own. Senate Bill 925 would limit the lia bility that restaurants, bars and other li censed social hosts incur resulting from injuries self-inflicted by an indi vidual after being served alcohol while visibly intoxicated. The bill is currently making its way through the Legislature. Sponsored by Sen. John Minnis (R Fairview), it would reverse precedents recently set by two Oregon Supreme Court cases. The Oregon Restaurant As sociation requested the bill be intro duced to the Legislature after recogniz ing the potential financial implications the court rulings could have. “Basically, what this bill does is put the law back to before these rulings,” Minnis said. “It would exclude third parties from being named in lawsuits where people hurt themselves.” Under what are commonly known as Dram Shop laws, establish ments that serve alcohol may be named as third parties for acci dents that happen on or off their prem ises. Establishments can only be named in lawsuits if they are negligent by serv ing alcohol to visibly intoxicated cus tomers. The Oregon Supreme Court recently reversed two lower court decisions that exonerated establishments from being held responsible for the injuries in curred by such individuals. Communication director for the Ore gon Liquor Control Commission, Jon Stubenvoll, said the OLCC has not tak en a position on the bill and that it has drawn virtually no opposition in the Senate. He used an example to describe how the bill might apply. An intoxicated indi vidual who fell down a set of stairs while exiting a bar would have no grounds to sue under SB 925. However, if that per son fell while walking down stairs that were broken, that person could still claim negligence in a lawsuit. But then if an individual was served alcohol while visibly intoxicated and caused damage to a third party, the es Turn to Liability, page 5 Students must make return trip to Salem ■ Business leaders and high school students speak to legislators about the budget process, but college students are told to come back By Lisa Toth Oregon Daily Emerald SALEM — A group of approximately 25 University stu dents expecting to influence state legislators on the Oregon University System budget Wednesday will have to make an other trip to Salem to accomplish their goal. The University students, along with students from Port land State University, Southern Oregon University and West ern Oregon University, traveled to the Capitol to show their support for higher education funding. The OUS budget is facing cuts that will likely lead to an 8 percent tuition increase over the next two years. Five students, including ASUO Presi dent Jay Breslow, were scheduled to speak before Oregon legislators on the Ways and Means Education Subcom mittee. But the legislators only had time dur ing the two-hour hearing to listen to tes timony from one college student — the vice president of the student body at Southern Oregon University, Erin Watari. During a March 29 legislative work session geared toward discussing the budget, legislators directed questions about the student incidental fee to Breslow. It was those concerns Breslow said he wanted to address Wednesday, but wasn’t given the time to speak. Breslow said he has three “guiding fundamental princi ples” about incidental fee distribution that he plans to speak about when given the opportunity, which could come Monday. He said the fee provides for a marketplace of ideas, is an integral part of the mission statement of the Uni versity, and supports campus democracy. “The incidental fee is a small, localized democracy,” Bres low said. “We just want to maintain local control.” But Breslow said students will still have the opportunity Monday to voice their concerns about the budget. “There are a lot of people who care about the issues, and everyone will probably get their chance to talk,” he said. Sen. Cliff Trow, (D-Corvallis), said although members of the college panel did not get a chance to speak this time, he was glad to hear they would be coming back today and Monday to participate in and listen to the proceedings. Thursday and Monday are work sessions for the commit tee, and the first hour of Monday’s session has been set aside for all those who wished to speak Wednesday but were unable. “I think [Wednesday’s hearing] would have been enriched to hear from the students,” Trow said. “They are important customers to what we do. ” Some of the students and University representatives who attended Wednesday’s hearings expressed frustration that the panel did not have the chance to speak. “It certainly should have been [Wednesday], but they would have rather heard from businessmen instead of the people who are actually benefiting from funds that they are al locating,” Multicultural Center Director Erica Fuller said. But University student Matt Swanson said even though the panel of college students did not have a chance to speak, the number of students at the hearing did make an impres sion. The hearing room was so full that many students were forced to wait outside, and Swanson said such a showing val idated the issues the students wanted to address. While the majority of higher education students did not speak to the committee, the legislators did hear from a stu dent panel consisting mostly of middle school and high school students. MEChA Director Eddy Morales said he was Turn to Salem, page 5
