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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 12, 2001)
Senate gives MCC $10,000 ■ PERM I AS also received $600 for its Indonesian culture night after parley By Emily Gust Oregon Daily Emerald Very little discussion ensued Wednesday night as the ASUO Student Senate granted the Multi cultural Center $10,000 from the general surplus — nearly one-sixth of what remains in the surplus for the rest of the year. The funds are to help pay for speakers during the MCC’s Dr. Ed win Coleman Speakers Confer ence, set to take place April 18-22. “A lot of our ... conferences have needed a little bit of help from us,” Senate President Peter Watts said. “I really think it’s im portant for us to give groups the money they need for a first-class conference.” The only questions came from Sen. Jennifer Greenough, who asked whether the extra funds the MCC had been expecting last week for the conference ever materialized. MCC representatives answered “no,” saying that they had tried every place they could and had probably received all the response they were going to. Even so, Greenough voted against the request so that it could be recalled if the MCC suddenly got more money. Another special request — this one from PERMIAS — caused a bit more of a stir. The group requested $600 from the senate for its upcoming Indone sian culture night. But Greenough pointed out the incidental fee money cannot be used to fund events where a profit will be made. The PERMIAS culture night, she said, was marked as such an event. “I just don’t think we can ap prove this by our own rules,” Gree nough said. No one was sure, however, so a five-minute recess was called to in vestigate the matter. A PERMIAS representative said the food was free, and that the only thing the group planned to charge for was entrance to the event. She added that the group intended only to break even and would not be put ting much — if any — money into its fundraising account. After hearing the explanation, Greenough said she could see how the situation was different. The re quest passed with 12 senators in fa vor and four senators opposed. In other business, Sen. Kate Kranzush will take over as senate treasurer following the resignation of Sen. Greg Zimel, who withdrew from school earlier this week. As a result, one seat on the senate has opened up again. The senate was also supposed to discuss signing a resolution that opposes a federal financial aid act barring convicted drug felons from receiving aid. It did not, however, because no one ever submitted the question to the senate rules committee for le gal approval. ▼ Why do people in education and research choose TIAA-CREF? Because they’re educated ca,,fUShr and they do their research. 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Read them carefully before you invest. • TIAA-CREF Individual and Institutional Services, Inc. and Teachers Personal Investors Services, Inc. distribute securities products. • Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA), New York, NY and TIAA-CREF Life Insurance Co., New York, NY issue insurance and annuities. • TIAA-CREF Trust Company, FSB provides trust services. • Investment products are not FDIC insured, may lose value and are not bank guaranteed. © 2001 Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund, New York, NY 01/02 Local schools focus on students’ safety ■ uniciais say tney re taking steps to prevent violence in schools, but cannot eliminate the possibility it will occur By Hank Hager Oregon Daily Emerald Recent shootings on high school campuses in the past months have again raised the specter of school vio lence, but many experts and admin istrators in the Eugene area say a high amount of concern is unwarranted. Hill Walker, co-director of the Uni versity Institute on Violence and De structive Behavior, said concern for safety is necessary, but eliminating the possibility of shootings is not feasible. Walker recently gave a speech to the Eugene School District regarding five steps he said are important for schools to take in order to make schools safer. He said these five steps are secur ing the schools, addressing the peer culture, involving parents, creating a positive school experience, and writ ing a school safety and crisis-re sponse program. it every school could do these things,” he said, “the likelihood would lessen.” Larry Soberman, assistant princi pal at South Eugene High School, said making students feel safe at school is crucial. “The most important thing is to create a sense of community in the school,” he said. Soberman said the school has tak en steps to curb violence by educat ing counselors and teachers about the signs students might show if they are planning violence. But he said the school should not put too much ef fort into stopping the violence. “If you put too much energy into it, people will realize school is an unsafe place,” he said. “The reality of it is that school is the safest place for children to be.” Bob O’Brien, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, echoed Soberman’s feelings and said society pays too much attention to the incidents. “I think it is really important not to overblow the situations,” he said. He agreed that school is one of the safest places for students to be and said the proportion of students killed in school is small compared to the number of teenagers killed in a year. Because of this, he said, more atten tion should be paid to the areas that are more encompassed by violence. John Lynsley, assistant principal of Sheldon High School in Eugene, said society will not allow a com pletely safe campus. Ideally, if you want a safe campus, you build a prison,” he said. “Of course, society will not allow that. ” He said Sheldon has committed to a safe campus and has done so by educating its students on the symp toms a potentially violent student might have. He said a police officer patrols the campus to help elimi nate the possibility of violence, and an on-call psychologist counsels students who feel they need help. Walker said the possibility of stu dents mimicking other incidents is real and shows that the occurrences or violence may be planned. In his report to the school district, Walker wrote: “Each school tragedy now produces an immediate x number of copy cat inridfints WALKER suggesting that these events have been planned and contemplat ed for some time rather than sponta neously arising in connection with a tragedy.” He said media images that rein force violence against others are frightening and help desensitize students to the violence. Lynsley said the students at his school still pay attention to the events that have occurred, but they are beginning to be less startled at what is happening. “They’re still worried, but the shock is wearing off,” he said. O’Brien said he believes the media play a small role in the shootings, and the possibility of students mimicking each other may be purely coincidental. “I think we all mimic to some ex tent,” he said. Walker said the school shootings should never be justified, no matter what the circumstances may be. “I don’t think there is any justifica tion for anyone to come to school to kill or maim anyone at the school,” he said. 011531 Pre-Law Society: Informational Meeting Anyone interested may attend Thursday, April 12 5:00 p.m. Century Room B, EMU RefrBshments will be served aircuts $10.00 «« ular$ 15 with shampoo & conditioner 'erms $32.95 oop Rods & Spiral $42.95 regular $50-65 with conditioners, cut & style, jgsgj longer, color treated hair slightly more, tood through May 13, 2001
