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