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? . .