Full steam ahead m
Micah Harris and the rest of the men's track and
field team messed with Texas. PAGE 11
Hate strikes Penn State
Death threats against black students caused sit-ins
and new initiatives in Pennsylvania. PAGE 3
Since 1 900 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon
Monday
May 7,2001
Volume 102, Issue 143
Weather
today
PARTLY CLOObt
high 65, low 45
R. Ashley Smith Emerald
Law Professor Lisa Kloppenberg currently directs the University’s Appropriate Dispute
Resolution Program, and she hopes to start a similar program in Dayton, Ohio.
One woman’s
(law)niovement
■ University law professor Lisa
Kloppenberg is named dean of
the law school in Dayton, Ohio
By Brooke Ross
Oregon Daily Emerald
Today, her office door in the
Knight Law Center is lined with col
orful pictures and paintings made by
her three children, but next month
the office of associate law professor
Lisa Kloppenberg will be vacant, and
she’ll be settling into her new home
and new job in Dayton, Ohio.
Starting July, Kloppenberg will be
the dean of the University of Dayton
School of Law, becoming one of the
few female law deans in the country.
“It isn’t easy to leave this place,”
she said.
Early in her law career, Kloppen
berg worked for one of the first fe
male deans of a major law school,
and she said it was an experience
that further motivated her to pursue a
career in the field.
She said few females have served
as deans of major law schools in the
Turn to Kloppenberg, page 9
University environment
fosters student activism
■The public nature of the University and its many groups
set the stage for protests and demonstrations of all types
By Andrew Adams
Oregon Daily Emerald
As students continue the Uni
versity’s tradition of activism,
faculty members are working to
understand the roots of protest
and how groups mobilize toward
collective action.
Through their work, professors
have come to see patterns in the
frequent student demonstrations
and have also gained a better un
derstanding of the driving forces
for campus activism. Those who
study social movements all agree
that campus activism is still a vi
brant force at the University and is
grounded in a genuine hope for
positive change.
Assistant sociology professor
Michael Dreiling has spent much
of his career researching social
movements and collective ac
tion, or as he puts it, “humans at
tempting to create power
through collective organization.”
He said a university campus is
a prime location to sow the seeds
of activism because of its public
nature and numerous political
groups.
“The university as a public in
stitution has increasingly be
come a site of contentious poli
tics,” he said.
Dreiling said this contention
has stimulated constructive dia
logue and provided an appropri
ate venue for discussion.
It also presented him with
Change in action
Today: University professors talk
about their teaching and
experiences in regards to protests
and activism.
Tuesday: The Eugene anarchist
community still maintains a
presence, but for those involved,
it’s not all about riots and
mayhem
what he said was an excellent ed
ucational opportunity. During
the sit-ins at Johnson Hall last
spring, Dreiling took students
from his graduate student semi
nar to observe the protest. He
said the trip was completely vol
untary and was intended to sup
plement class content, not to
Turn to Activism, page 10
Head of Con Court resigns
with suggestion-filled letter
■ Robert Raschio complains of poor interaction and a lack
of communication between the three branches of ASUO
By Emily Gust
Oregon Daily Emerald
After serving for more than a
year on the ASUO Constitution
Court, Robert Raschio resigned
from his post as chief justice
Thursday—but not without get
ting in his final words.
Before graduating and moving
on from the student version of
the judicial system, Raschio fired
off a letter of resignation that of
fered his suggestions to student
government leaders and detailed
his complaints about the role the
court has taken on this year. The
full text of the letter can be found
on today’s Perspectives page.
“It just
doesn’t feel
like, you
know, that
anybody
ever comes to [the court] for any
thing other than elections viola
tions,” Raschio said. The court
seems to have become “the
supreme [Elections] Board of the
University of Oregon.”
During the ASUO elections late
winter term and early spring term,
grievances on campaign viola
tions flooded the court, starting
and stopping the general election
two times. It all culminated in a 5
hour-long night of grievance hear
ings just before spring break.
This is not what the court is
supposed to be doing, Raschio
said. It’s supposed to be a re
source for students, which is
why he spent time this year try
ing to get the court’s new EMU of
fice up and running. Instead, jus
Turn to Raschio, page 4
Series of arson crimes baffle Eugene Police Department
■ From Dumpsters to car
lots, unexplained arson
is on the rise in Eugene
By Lindsay Buchele
Oregon Daily Emerald
Arson isn’t new to Eugene,
but officials from the Eugene
Fire Department and the Eu
gene Police Department don’t
know what’s causing the re
cent string of suspicious fires
being lit in the area.
Officials have yet to appre
hend suspects in several of the
fires, from the multiple
Dumpster fires to the more
high-profile incidents of ar
son, including two at Roma
nia Chevrolet and one that
damaged the house of Univer
sity men’s basketball head
coach Ernie Kent.
“Arson is a fairly common
crime,” EPD Detective Bob
Holland said. “We see [arson]
several times a week.”
Holland said large fires,
such as the fire that destroyed
34 vehicles at Eugene’s Joe Ro
mania Chevrolet on March 30,
draw more attention to arson
because of the high-profile na
ture of the crime. *
High-profile fires are usual
ly set by a specific group trying
to send a message to the victims
of the fire, said EPD Sgt. Rex
Rarrong, supervisor of the EPD
Arson Investigation Team.
Barrong is also a member of
the Joint Arson Task Force, a
task force that combines the
EPD, the r. I fhe Oregon State
Department of justice and the
Bureau of Ait. hoi, Tobacco
and Firearms.
Barrong said the task force
began its work last month af
ter a pattern of fires developed
in Eugene, including a fire set
at the EPD’s West University
Public Safety Station on 13th
Avenue.
“Eugene has become a ‘cen
terpoint’ for a lot of fires,” Bar
rong said.
Last summer, the fire depart
ment responded to more than
100 fires lit in Dumpsters and
cars in the Blair and Whiteaker
neighborhoods, Deputy Fire
Marshall Greg Musil said.
Questions about why these
Turn to Arson, page 5
R. Ashley Smith Emerald
Unsolved arson, such as the March 30 fire at Romania Chevrolet, has led to the formation of a task force.