Dievendorf
continued from page 1
Dievendorf was a “gross injustice”
that only shows the administra
tion’s desire to exert more power
over students’ money.
“Leaving students out of the
process is a sign of the continuing
policy of the administration to
usurp student control of our own
fee,” she said. “Students will not
tolerate the administration over
stepping its authority and silencing
student voices.”
Lobisser, director of student ac
tivities and one of Dievendorf s su
pervisors, said he could not com
ment because the issue involves
personnel matters. Miller could not
be reached for comment.
Although Dievendorf said the ad
ministration did not give her a rea
son for her termination, she said she
believes the decision was made be
cause she had clashed with her su
pervisors throughout the year about
her management of the forum. She
said she suspects her supervisors
want to change the direction of the
program.
“They said they wanted me to
change my leadership style and tell
students what to do,” she said.
“That’s not the way we work. ...
Students help drive the direction,
and I think this is problematic for
my supervisors.”
Cultural Forum Regional Music
Coordinator Steven Sawada said
Dievendorf has played an integral
role in the program, which organ
ized several events this year, includ-,
ing the Willamette Valley Folk Fes
tival and Spike Lee’s visit to
McArthur Court. Sawada said such
events “may soon be gone” if
Dievendorf leaves.
“She is the glue that holds us to
gether,” he said. “This puts every
thing we do in jeopardy.”
He added that the administra
tion, which does not always attend
forum meetings or events, does not
understand how much the pro
gram depends on Dievendorf s job.
He said because of her experience,
Dievendorf has been able to pro
vide students with the guidance
and knowledge they need to plan
events and foresee problems.
“When you have a bureaucratic
system, you have people sitting on
the top who have no idea what
goes on in the program,” he said.
“I wish the administration would
observe more of what we do and
the way we do things ... To lose a
director is a real tragedy. If this
happened at the beginning of the
year, I would have quit.”
Cultural Forum members also
spoke about how Dievendorf gives
students the chance to discuss
events and vote on them as a group.
Sawada said he feels “cheated” and
“betrayed” by the administration’s
decision to fire her against the con
sent of all program members.
“Linda has always responded to
students’ interests,” he said. “I don’t
think there could be a better person
for the position. ... I respect her
more than I do anyone else on this
campus.”
Debby Martin is the program coor
dinator for the Student Activities Re
source Office and was co-director of
the Cultural Forum with Dievendorf
for 15 years. She said she hasn’t spo
ken with Miller or Lobisser about
their decision, but she is concerned
about it. She said that like Dieven
dorf, she also follows the philosophy
of “working with students,” and
added that she’s worried about the fu
ture of the Cultural Forum.
“We’re a team,” she said. “One of
my concerns is that perhaps she was
terminated because she’s an advo
cate for students ... I’m concerned
about the Cultural Forum and stu
dent control of student programs.”
Dievendorf said the Cultural Fo
rum works hard to provide educa
tional programs for both the campus
and the community, and she wants
to make sure the administration
does not take that value away from
the organization.
“It’s been a real honor for me to
work with students,” she said. “I’d
miss that a great deal. ” But, she said,
“the most important thing for me is
to maintain the integrity of the Cul
tural Forum—with or without me. ”
Former ASUO President Jay
Breslow encouraged campus and
community members to share
their concerns about Dievendorf’s
termination with administration
members by writing e-mail mes
sages, sending letters and making
phone calls.
“This is not something the ad
ministration can do without us pay
ing attention.” he said. “Let’s make
sure they know we are not going to
sit by and let this go. ”
Recycling
continued from page 1
val may not be become a completely
“zero-waste” event, the new idea is
a feasible way of making it a “re
duced-waste event.”
“This is a one-time investment that
will last for years to come,” he said.
Borgida, a junior planning, pub
lic policy and management major,
said that next year the primary chal
lenge volunteers and student recy
cling staff will face will be washing
plates and getting them back in the
food booths.
At a May 23 ASUO Student Sen
ate meeting, senators granted Cam
pus Recycling $8,075 from the over
realized fund, which contains extra
student incidental fee funds gener
ated from higher-than-expected stu
dent enrollment in previous years.
The funds are to help the group pur
chase 5,000 plates and 3,000 sets of
silverware.
“People just enjoy eating off real
forks and plates,” Borgida said. “It‘s
like eating in the comfort of your
home at a festival.”
But the transaction will not be fi
nal until the University president
and ASUO president approve the
idea.
“Some people are worried that
the plates will get stolen, but I don’t
think people will want to take off
with them,” Borgida said.
Members of Campus Recycling
are also considering the option of re
quiring people who want to eat at
the festival to pay a $2 deposit to re
ceive a plate, utensils and cup. The
deposit would be returned after
they took their dishes back to a re
covery station.
Chism said Campus Recycling es
timated that about 20,000 meals are
served at the Folk Festival each
year, depending on the weather.
Borgida added that as this idea
evolves, it will ideally create more
opportunities to use the plates at
other campus events.
Kaplan said it will take time for
people to get accustomed to the
new system. But similar pilot proj
ects implemented at football
games, food booths and the No
vember 1999 Sustainable Business
Symposium have shown members
of Campus Recycling that waste re
ducing opportunities are possible.
And, Kaplan said, the main goal
of Campus Recycling is to cut down
on waste.
“If everybody at the U of O reused
a cup everyday, we would save
20,000 cups a day, 140,000 cups a
week and 7.2 million cups in a year,
just from that one little tiny action
of reuse,” Kaplan said.
Borgida said he hopes this con
cept will be implemented at other
events in the community, and that
citizens will start to bring their own
dishware to events such as the Sat
urday Market.
Alex Cuyler, a recycling analyst
with the city of Eugene’s Solid
Waste and Recycling Program, said
the University will be leading the
way in environmental conservation
by bringing this program to campus.
He said that for the last several
years, there’s been a large amount of
waste coming from street faires and
festivals, and this program will al
low for more of an emphasis to be
placed on collecting organic waste.
please re cycle this paper!
The City of Eugene is working to
clarify permit requirements for
compost facilities, which are regu
lated by the Department of Environ
mental Quality. The city is also
working to find more waste collec
tors for festivals and faires, because
there are not many people available
to do the job now.
“There just is not a whole lot of
demand for it,” Cuyler said.
Cuyler said the liquid coming out
of the landfill in Lane County comes
primarily from food discards and
items from festivals create a
methane gas that is hazardous to the
environment.
“Food in landfills contributes a
lot to management costs of land
fills,” Cuyler said.
By eliminating the net discard, he
said the program at the University
will extend the life and reduce the
cost of landfills.
“It will be really interesting to
gauge how the festival goers re
spond to it,” he said.
Courtesy Photo
At this year’s Willamette Valley Folk Festival, volunteers set up waste stations like this
one to encourage recycling. Next year, the group will take their efforts a step further as
patrons’ food will be served on reusable plastic plates instead of disposable paper.
2001
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