‘A good day to dance’
■ Members of the local
Native American community
shared their culture at the
annual spring pow wow
By Kara Cogswell
Oregon Daily Emerald
Even from outside McArthur
Court the sound of drums could be
heard as dancers in the Native
American Student Union’s 33rd an
nual spring pow wow prepared for
their entrance on Saturday night.
Inside, pow wow emcee David
West began the introductions for the
7 p.m. grand entry, one of three
times during the weekend-long
event when dancing took place.
“It’s a good day to live, a good day
to dance,” he said. “Let’s pow wow.”
Pow wow, a term that is thought
to have originated with the Algo
nquin tribe, once indicated a gather
ing of people who came together to
celebrate a victory or another impor
tant event. Today, NASU member
Misty Moceikis said pow wows are
still “a kind of gathering,” but rather
than serving to celebrate a particu
lar event, they are a time to socialize
and re-kindle old friendships.
“It’s an opportunity to see people
you haven’t seen in a while,” she
said.
NASU puts on a pow wow in the
fall and in the spring every year. The
group is also active in fundraising,
and this year, the students held a
protest in the EMU Amphitheater as
part of “Anti-Columbus Day” event.
A steady stream of people came
and went during the pow wow, with
as many as 200 people in the audi
ence during grand entry times, held
twice on Saturday, and once on Sun
day.
Many in the audience, which in
cluded students and community
members, came from all over the
Northwest to attend, Moceikis said.
Pow wows are put on throughout
the year by various Native Ameri
can groups, and often the same peo
ple attend these pow wows, espe
cially those held in their local area,
NASU member Jana Schmieding
said. Because of this, those who at
tend regularly have formed a close
Tom Patterson Emerald
Ho-Uma Pi-Ma of the Cayuse Tribe attends the 33rd annual NASU powwow.
knit community, she said.
“You end up building these huge,
extended families,” she said.
Dancers of all ages competed in a
variety of categories based on age,
gender and style of dance. Fancy,
traditional, jingle and grass dances
were performed, each representing a
different style and time period,
Schmieding said. Winners received
NASU T-shirts, jackets or cash
awards depending on the category
they competed in.
The traditional dance is the old
est style, and the men’s traditional
dance is the most respected in the
dance circle, she said. Grass danc
ing originated in the plains,
Schmieding said, when dancers
would stomp down the grass so that
ceremonies could be held.
Fancy and jingle dancing are
more fast-paced, contemporary
styles of dance, she said. In jingle
dancing, women wear dresses with
365 rolled up, silver tobacco can lids
attached. Each one of those lids is
meant to symbolize a day of sobri
ety, Schmieding said, either for the
dancer or for someone else.
Pow wows are typically a family
oriented event, she added, and chil
dren who grow up attending them
learn to dance early.
Amber Letuli, of Eugene, said her
whole family enjoys attending pow
wows.
“We’ve been doing this since she
was eight,” she said, referring to her
13-year-old daughter Brittany Stur
devant-Evarts, who was preparing
nearby for Sunday’s dance finals.
Sturdevant-Evarts, who wore a
lavender dress covered with hun
dreds of silver tin can lids for the jin
gle dance, said although she was a
little nervous, she always has fun at
the pow wows.
“I go to as many as I can,” she said.
Junior Kevin Stolle said he at
tended this year’s pow wow to hear
the music, and to experience an as
pect of Native American culture. He
added that this was the first pow
wow he had attended.
“I don’t know much about it,” he
said. “I wanted to see what it was
like.”
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Evaluations
continued from page 1
University Assembly approved leg
islation May 1,1985 that would re
quire the results to be placed in
three separate locations. The evalu
ations, called course reaction inven
tories, were to be made available in
the reserve reading room of the
Knight Library, in the Office of Aca
demic Affairs, and in each individ
ual academic department.
But in the 1993 handbook, the
writing was changed to require only
the academic departments to han
dle the figures of the evaluation and
make the results available to inter
ested students.
Lorraine Davis, vice provost for
academic affairs at the University,
said the results were taken out of
Knight Library because of a change
in budgeting and technology at the
University.
“We’re anticipating trying to re
turn to the mechanism of making
them available,” she said.
Davis said University academic
departments should make the fig
ures readily available to students.
But an Emerald survey of several
departments around campus shows
that this is not necessarily the case
presently.
Of the nine departments visited,
seven released figures, though the
formats for the figures were varied.
Two departments — sociology and
political science — did not release
figures.
Staff members in the sociology
department declined to release fig
ures, saying they were grouped in a
confusing manner.
Staff in the political science de
partment office said they did not
keep results for the four questions,
and could not release the results
from the rest of the evaluations, cit
ing confidentiality concerns.
Department workers said they be
lieved the figures were available in
Knight Library, but library person
nel said they have not stored the
evaluation results there for several
years.
Diane Bricker, an associate dean
for the College of Education, said
she is aware that the evaluation re
sults for the department are not
available at Knight Library, and
would probably allow students to
come and look at the results.
“If a student came and asked, I’m
pretty sure we’d give [the results] to
them,” she said.
Bricker said she believes there is
not enough interest from students to
look at the evaluations, and to place
them in one central area may be too
time-consuming. She said she be
lieves the current system of keeping
the figures in the individual depart
ments is adequate.
Keith Richard, a University
archivist and the University Senate
secretary in 1993, said the figures
were part of a system which includ
ed a more in-depth questioning sys
tem.
But, he said, “[the figures] were
supposed to be much more system
atically effective.”
Evaluations affect faculty
promotions
Despite the lack of availability to
students, the evaluations are impor
tant for faculty promotions.
“The strongest component [in
promotion] is what the students
have to say about the instructors,”
said Van Kolpin, professor of eco
nomics and head of that depart
ment.
He said instructors that receive
low marks on their evaluations can
go through a process to help im
prove their teaching abilities. This
can include a “face-to-face” discus
sion to talk about the problems an
instructor may be having. But some
times, he said, he doesn’t need the
evaluations results to let him know
of problems in a class.
Usually, “you catch wind of
things before the class has been
completed,” he said.
Davis said she believes the cur
rent process of evaluating instruc
tors is enough.
“The mechanisms and proce
dures in place can provide us with
sufficient information,” she said.
Raymond King, associate dean of
the Charles H. Lundquist College of
Business, said professors employed
on a year-to-year contract may not
have their contracts renewed if they
receive low marks by students.
Tenured professors are protected by
due process, but King said tenure is
not possible without high results on
the evaluations.
“The student evaluations are not
the only piece of evidence, but an
important one,” he said.
According to the current faculty
handbook, statistical data com
prised from the student evaluations
are placed in the permanent person
nel file of the instructor being evalu
ated. They are then reviewed as
supplementary materials in the pro
motion and tenure file.
Bricker said figures obtained in
the evaluations may not be accurate
because students may not always
take the evaluations seriously. Also,
she said, students have a tendency
to give higher marks to professors
who teach classes with less work.
Therefore, a professor who assigns a
heavier work load for their course
may receive more negative evalua
tions.
“Instructors sometimes suffer be
cause of the content of their course, ”
she said.
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