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@iournalist.com
Congrats to the University of Ore
gon Alliance for Sexual Assault Pre
vention (and the multitude of addi
tional University, ASUO and
community group sponsors) for organizing
Sexual Assault Awareness Week, which be
gins today and culminates in Take Back the
Night on Thursday (read the full story in to
day’s paper). A recent campus speaker irked
a few people — including the editorial board
— by presenting the issue of date rape and
sexual assault as though women are respon
sible for preventing assaults. This week’s
events, including a facilitated discussion of
the nature of masculinity in America, healing
art projects and a men’s discussion of Take
Back the Night after the event on Friday, pres
ent a balanced picture of the ways our socie
ty, as a whole, can work to end these crimes.
This is great work by all the organizers, and
students should try to attend all of these
events in order to fully critique the way our
culture understands rape.
Shame on the University Senate for ap
proving a completely toothless resolution
about the Pacific-10 Conference schools’
“arms race” that is rapidly increasing athletic
department budgets, which some people ar
gue come at the expense of academics (read
“Senate laments sports budgets,” May 10).
The Emerald editorial board has made it clear
in the past that we also believe there’s a seri
ous problem here. But in our editorial, we
made a call for change. The senate resolution
was terribly watered down, with language
similar to “recommending that someone pro
pose a committee to investigate the possibili
ty of deciding to do something about the
problem.” The senate has other options. They
could have censured the administration or
the Athletic Department. They could have es
tablished a committee themselves to propose
hard-nosed solutions. But no; they passed a
resolution everyone could agree with — even
the Athletic Department — because it was so
soft. To this we say, “Good idea, bad follow
through.”
Congrats to the University and WISTEC
for finally working together to solve WIS
TEC’s funding problems, which were partial
ly created by the University’s expansion of
Autzen Stadium (for the full story, read
“WISTEC will remain open,” May 7). During
the lengthy process of getting the city of Eu
gene to change zoning laws for the Autzen
project, it seemed as though the University
was being heartless. Then after the project
was approved, it seemed as though WISTEC
was crying wolf about its fiscal situation,
claiming the scenario was instant death for
the museum. Eleven days ago, however, the
two entities settled the matter
in a way that works for the
University and keeps WIS
TEC open.
Shame on the Oregon House
of Representatives for its recent
vote to overturn city laws that
ban smoking at bars, restaurants
and bingo halls (read “Smoking
ban’s fate rests with Legislature,”
May 1). Americans seem to want
more local control over their
lives, as well they should. Part of
the point of the U.S. Constitution
is that issues not specifically men
tioned in it are open to interpreta
tion at the local level. States — espe
cially those like Oregon, where the
initiative process has produced citi
zens who feel some control over their
government — should follow this ex
ample and legislate only where neces
sary. In the past, we expressed our dis
pleasure with the smoking ban in Eugene,
which would go into effect on July 1 if
House Bill 3953 fails to become law. Howev
er, we feel greater displeasure when the Legis
lature oversteps its bounds.
Congrats to the Eugene Police Commis
sion and its Use of Force Committee, which
spent the last six months examining how po
lice use pepper spray, physical force and tech
niques of crowd control (read the full story in
today’s paper). The committee recommended,
and the Police Commission endorsed three re
workings of police policy, including that
they no longer use pepper spray on passive
resisters at political demonstrations. Now
maybe they could have defined nonvio
lent protesters more broadly, and maybe
not. But the recommendations, to be
considered by the City Council on May
29, are an important step in helping to
diffuse relations between the majority
of Eugene’s political activists and the
authorities. It may take a little more
time to end demonstrations when pro
testers are, for example, simply sitting in
trees as they were on June 1,1997, but the
goal of a robust and humane community is
too important to let that stand in the way. The
City Council should wholeheartedly approve
these recommendations.
It might seem easy to say, “Shame on stu
dent government for not doing its job efficient
ly or correctly,” in light of ASUO Constitution
Court Chief Justice Rob Raschio’s very critical
letter of resignation (read “Resigning chief of
fers final words of wisdom,” May 7). We’re
sure there’s some blame to be had by the
ASUO. But if Raschio felt so strongly about the
three branches of ASUO government and what
he calls the “fundamental harm [done] to the
court and the ASUO,” then why wasn’t he
making very public statements like this earlier
in the year and working to fix these problems?
Other ASUO officials have said that Raschio
overstated the ASUO’s troubles. We’re not con
(3r vinced of that, but no matter the
scope of the problem, it seems like a
^ cheap shot for Raschio to publicly criticize
the process only after resigning. So we’ll
amend our opinion to say: Shame on student
government for performing its duties poorly,
but shame on Raschio for publicly slamming
the door only on his way out.
This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald
editorial board. Responses can be sent to ode@ore
gon.uoregon.edu.
Letter to the editor
Is every unwise choice a drugging
and raping?
I would like to comment on your ar
ticle regarding the date rape drugs
(“Drugs can facilitate date rape,” April
25, ODE). You see, I feel that I have been
slipped these drugs many times.
Often I go out with friends and drink,
dance and meet new people. And often,
the next day, I can’t remember what
happened to me the night before. Some
times I even wake up in strange (very
strange) places and can’t recall how I
got there. I feel confusion and pain, and
I retch until I feel I’ll die. After reading
your article, I realized that I must be get
ting drugged almost every time I go out!
Seriously, I know it’s dangerous (and
pretty damn insensitive) to tell some
one who claims to have been victimized
that, no, they haven’t. But it’s also dan
gerous to assume that, every time some
one gets drunk and blacks out and does
something they regret, they have been
drugged and raped.
I feel really bad for Tara, who obvi
ously went through a traumatic and
painful event. However, I would feel
equally bad for her so-called assailant if
he were innocent of the charges against
him.
Charles G. Haller II
senior
international studies/journalism
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.dailyemerald.com. We encourage you to send us feedback
about the poll questionsand results.
Last week s poll question:
Should the Oregon Legislature forbid cities and
counties from passing laws that ban smoking in bars,
restaurants and bingo parlors?
Results: 157 total votes
Yes — 35 votes, or 22.3 percent
No —120 votes, or 76a percent
Don’t know — 2 votes, or 1.3 percent
Congratulations... a legislative question got a larger
response than a pop culture question. And this is also
the largest winning margin we’ve seen. The people
have spoken—the Legislature should backoff.
This week s poll question:
Why was the evidence about Timothy McVeigh
withheld?
The choices:
International conspiracy
Government incompetence
Bureaucratic red tape
FBI overconfidence