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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 16, 2001)
Monday 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 SCHOOL S OUT for one-time drug offenders Here’s a warning to students, espe cially those in the low-income bracket: Don’t make a single mis take with drugs — don’t get busted — or your federal financial aid can be with held. Never mind that college is a place of ex perimentation; university life is, for many stu dents, the first step outside the family home and many teenagers’ first experience with freedom. Never mind that a single mistake with drugs doesn't, in reality, ruin one’s entire future. This is the lesson Congress sent to the youth of America on Oct. 7,1998: Despite the prevalence of drugs (both legal and illegal) in society, you may not make one mistake. Do it and we’ll deny you the chance to better your life. So in the past year, college students have responded. At first the policy wasn’t enforced with any amount of regularity. For the 2000 2001 school year, however, more than 8,000 students out of nearly 8.5 million applying had their eligibility for financial aid reduced or eliminated. In the face of this enforcement, college campuses have been abuzz with the issue. More than 90 campuses are now affiliated with Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a na tional group started in 1998 at Rochester Insti tute of Technology, which is “committed to providing education on harms caused by the War on Drugs, working to involve youth in the political process, and promoting an open, honest, and rational discussion of alternative solutions to our nation’s drug problems,” ac cording to the group’s Web site. ASUO Presi dent Jay Breslow is currently working to have the Student Senate adopt a resolution sup porting the SSDP’s efforts to have Congress re peal the drug-conviction section of the Higher Education Act. The Emerald editorial board applauds SSDP’s mission and the ASUO’s move to sup port that mission. Withholding education and denying a second chance to drug users will do nothing to fix the problem. Those attracted to drugs need to be shown that there are other things in life that also provide pleasure and that ultimately provide a much deeper sense of satisfaction. One of the purported purposes of higher ed ucation is to expose youth to a wide world of experience and opportunity. Seeing that there are important issues to think about and fulfill ing work to be done in the world can go a long way to combating the allure of drugs such as cocaine and heroin. The government’s current policies of complete denial don’t wash with youth, because one experience with cocaine provides a huge rush of pleasure and the urge for more. Maybe a college education isn’t enough to reduce demand for drugs, but denying federal funds to a 19-year-old for a slip-up (possibly due to peer pressure or a seemingly harmless sample at a party) will only make the situa tion worse. Such a student, forced to leave college, may see further drug use as the best option. What are his or her choices? Is flip ping burgers really a more satisfying solution? To make the situation worse, the effect of this policy is to penalize low-income and mi nority students, and those who tell the truth, for drug use. Not all students will be denied a college education. Only those applying for federal funds lose out. Rich kids can rack up the drug convictions and still go to college. And minority youth make up a disproportion ate number of drug arrests. That may be due to racial profiling and discriminatory sentenc ing, or it may not, but the effect is still the same. Truthful students get penalized as well, be cause the infamous “Question 35” is an swered by the student. The federal financial aid authorities can’t possibly check the records of 9 million students. If drug convic tions are discovered later, the money is for feited, but it’s pretty much the honor system. One final nail shuts the coffin of this unfair policy: Drug convictions are the only crime considered. The government is saying that a rapist or a murderer deserves federal money and a second chance, but a student who smokes a joint doesn’t. And according to Rolling Stone magazine, the federal govern ment requires no such disclosures about drug convictions from business owners when awarding grants or subsidies. The insanity of those discrepancies is clear all by itself.. SSDP’s ultimate goal may be to end the country’s war on drugs, and that may be a smart move. But we are excited by the group’s efforts to end the government’s war on low-in come youth who are seeking to make their lives better. The ASUO gets kudos for bring ing the issue up. Now if someone could just submit the resolution to the Senate rules com mittee for approval, the effort can begin here. This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald editorial board. Responses can be sent to ode@ore- • gqn.uoregon.edu. Letters to the editor What rights will you have in the workplace? Chances are your plans are ready: Each quarter brings you closer to a degree, with the likelihood of a good job. You expect em ployers will find you an attractive hire, and you are assured that discrimination be cause of gender, age, race, religion or dis ability won’t occur. These individual rights have been fought for and won. But what rights will you have, once hired, to effect change in the workplace? Will you have the right to organize in a union and to bargain in good faith? Chances are you will enjoy fewer collec tive rights than did your parents. American workers have seen an erosion of communi ty standards supporting labor’s role in the workplace. One local example is the plight of labor at The Register-Guard, where for almost two years the Newspaper Guild has made little progress obtaining a contract. The family-owned paper, whose liberal face makes it seem an attractive spot for a new journalism or business graduate, has hired a tough, anti-union negotiator. These problems are not uncommon. We see anti-union sentiment at retailers and public agencies. In their efforts to organize and negotiate, warehouse workers at BI Mart and teachers and drivers at Head Start of Lane County have met with strong resist ance from management. Your future employment is assured by a tradition of individual rights. But what about your rights to organize in the work place? What will your employer think of your labor activism? These are questions better left out of the interview! Erik Muller Eugene Bret and Matt want to work for you I have served on the ASUO Student Senate for nearly two years. During that time, I have never been as optimistic about an Executive candidates’ potential to serve the student 'body as I am after meeting with Bret Jacobson and Matt Cook. Jacobson and Cook have unique ideas to serve students and assist student programs. If elected, they plan to develop a [public rela tions] hub to help groups promote events and inform students about events that their incidental fee helps to fund. They also have ideas to work with the Alumni Association to help fund events. With the increasing chal lenge of maintaining a reasonable incidental fee while simultaneously helping programs grow, this is a critical issue. Bret and Matt have the most potential to connect with students who haven’t spent a lot of time in the ASUO office. They aren’t afraid to question the status quo in the ASUO and have worked hard to educate themselves about present problems and so lutions in student government. With the Oregon Legislature posing questions about the incidental fee as it debates the higher education budget, we need an ASUO Exec utive that will work to ensure that all funds are spent responsibly. Vote on DuckWeb! The ASUO general election starts today on DuckWeb and runs through Wednesday at 5 p.m. Please take a minute to look over the candidates for president and senate, to read the ballot measures and to vote. You can read the full text of the Emerald editorial board’s endorsements (Nilda and joy for ASUO Executive, Yes on OSPIRG, No on MCC) by visiting our Web site (www.dailyemer ald.com) and clicking on the “Perspectives” section. Bret and Matt are not running to serve their own interests or to further an agenda. They are funning because students have expressed their desire for Bret and Matt to be elected. Vote for Bret and Matt: Capable, qualified and dedicated students who want to work for you. Jennifer Greenough senior political science Nilda and joy are best for ASUO Executive Until recently, I was unaware of how many ways the ASUO affected me. I was un aware that the people in the Executive office make decisions that will have an effect on student programs, the voice and image of stu dents in the eyes of the general public, the committees that students have a seat on and a voice in, and on student-faculty relations. Knowing this, I realize more fully the impact of the general elections that are going on this week. With such important issues at hand, it is vital that the best candidates are elected into the office of the Executive. Nilda Brooklyn and Joy Nair are these candidates. They have worked tirelessly to voice the concerns of students on campus and in the community. v They will make the decisions and hire the staff that will make a positive impact on the school and surrounding area. Most impor tantly, they will recognize the concerns of students. The coalitions that they have built in their combined four years of experience will dramatically increase their ability to make concrete positive changes. It is because of this hard work, combined with the reality of the impressive tasks and decisions to be handled by the executive that I will vote for Nilda Brooklyn and Joy Nair. They are truly the best candidates for the job. Nadia Hasan freshman undeclared 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.dailyemer ald.com. We encourage you to send us feed back about the poll questions and results. Last week's poll question: What should the ASUO spend the $100,000 overrealized account money on? Results: 102 total votes Kick-ass music festival — 46 votes, or 40 percent Covered moving sidewalk— 15 votes, or 13 percent Full-time bike taxi — 6 votes, or 5.2 percent Improved student lounge— 19 votes, or 16.5 percent Free massage clinic— 29 votes, or 25.2 percent listen up, ASUO: Massage was a close second, but most students (well, most poll respondents, and no one knows who these people are) want a kick-ass music festival. Now the question is, what bands will most of the student body feel are kick-ass? Don’t even suggest JLo. This week's poll question: It’s tax season. What do you do? The choices: Pay on time Pay late Cheat Don’t pay What are taxes? . .
