The Track Town Thriller
America’s best runners squared off in the
1,500, and a no-name won. Page 9
Refund request?
The state may ask the University to return
Jeffrey Grayson’s donation. Page3
Tuesday, June 26,2001
Since 1 900 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon
Volume 103, Issue 1
Putting the
USA
inliack
Town
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
Four days was all it took for America’s
greatest track and field meet to unfold.
Four days was what it took for Maurice
Green to shake up the track world, for Mar
ion Jones to beat the pants off her competi
tion, for Marla Runyan to notch one more
amazing feather in an already-full cap.
Four days.
Eugene fans were treated to some of
the finest competition American track
has to offer over the four-day US A Cham
pionships last week.
Athletes in each event competed for
the coveted top-three position that
would ensure a spot on the American
team for the World Championships.
While the rain marred Sunday’s com
petition slightly, the runners, jumpers
and throwers managed to enjoy Track
Town’s offerings.
“It’s such an honor to compete here,”
Runyan said. “It always means so much. ”
Each day had its own stories. Thursday
was the day Green ran the fastest American
100 this year at 9.9 seconds. Friday was the
day Bob Kennedy found redemption for
last year’s Olympic failure. Saturday was
the day Regina Jacobs started a feat ac
complished only once before in history,
when she won the 800 and 1,500 titles at
the same national championship meet.
Sunday was Marion Jones’ day to
shine, as she handily won the 200. It was
also Runyan’s day, as she held off Jacobs
and won her first-ever 5,000.
Four days. A hundred stories. Only in
track and field.
baiiaga»i8mi^8&&&_ _I
Marion Jones, ‘The World’s Fastest Woman,’
R. Ashley Smith Emerald
took the national 200-meter crown at last weekend’s U.S.A. Championships.
Student’s petition reignites sign language debate
■ Citing an Oregon law, Jim Evangelista
will petition the University to allow him to
fulfill the foreign language requirement
with American Sign Language
By Kara Cogswell
Oregon Daily Emerald
Returning student Jim Evangelista knows
the University expects him to complete two
years of a foreign language to graduate with a
bachelor of arts degree.
But he doesn't want to learn Spanish, or
French, or even Japanese. In fact, Evangelista
said he doesn't think he should be required
to learn how to speak another language at all.
That's because the only language Evange
lista wants to learn requires no words — only
hands.
This week, Evangelista will submit a writ
ten petition to the University Academic Re
quirements Committee to allow him to use
American Sign Language (ASL) to fulfill the
University’s foreign language requirement.
Evangelista, who plans on working with
deaf children after he graduates, said he be
lieves the present foreign language require
ments indicate a lack of appreciation for deaf
children’s needs.
“We are so conscious in this community
for the needs of those who are handicapped
or otherwise disabled,” he said. “So why is it
that this institution is not acknowledging
American Sign Language as a language?”
Evangelista is not the first to ask that ques
tion, academic requirements committee
member Hilary Gerdes said.
Nationally, she said, requirements com
mittees have discussed the issue for years.
And many prestigious schools — including
Brown, Yale and Purdue — now allow stu
dents to use ASL credit to fulfill the foreign
language requirement.
But at the University, few students have
petitioned the committee to use ASL credit
to meet the graduation requirements, she
said, adding that those who have are usual
ly deaf students.
Evangelista is unique in another way,
Gerdes said. As a basis for his petition, Evan
gelista is relying on an Oregon state law
passed in 1995 that states ASL classes offered
at state universities “shall satisfy any second
language elective requirement.”
Although the debate is not new, this law
has never been considered in those discus
sions, Gerdes said.
ASL program coordinators at Western
Oregon University, for example, used that
law to establish ASL as a recognized lan
guage there, she said.
Gerdes said she believes the law is open
to interpretation, but she does support ac
cepting ASL for the language requirement.
And she is hopeful that Evangelista’s peti
tion will spark further discussion of the is
sue by the University Senate.
The academic requirements committee can
rule on individual cases, but this is an issue
Gerdes said that needs to be decided for the
entire student body by the University under
graduate council.
The council has discussed this issue be
fore. In 1994 the council passed a motion to
continue barring ASL from meeting foreign
language requirements, Gerdes said the
council also quickly dismissed a motion for
ASL to meet the foreign language require
ments in 1997.
But next year, the council may discuss the
issue again, according to undergraduate
council chairman John Nicols. At the end of
Turn to ASL, page 4
Legislators
boost OUS
binding
■The Education Subcommittee
approved a budget $65 million
biggerthan proposed, including a
smaller-than-expected tuition hike
By Jeremy Lang
Oregon Daily Emerald
SALEM — Legislators pushed the
higher education budget over a major
hurdle last week, adding more money for
universities and slightly reducing the
proposed tuition increase along the way.
The Oregon Legislature’s Education
Subcommittee rubber-stamped a $792
million two-year budget — $65 million
more than originally proposed by Gov.
John Kitzhaber — which should go to
the Joint Ways and Means Committee
for a vote sometime this week.
The budget establishes a 4 percent tu
ition increase starting this fall and a 3
percent increase the next year. Al
though University students and educa
tion lobbyists were pushing for a 5 per
cent total during the two years, they
agree the number is a pleasant surprise
from the 4-and-4 split they had begun to
think would become a reality.
“In terms of the budget climate, we
came out as best as we could,” said Julie
Suchanek-Ritchie, the spokeswoman
for the Oregon Student Association.
The OS A, among other activities, has
been lobbying legislators to increase
funding and decrease the tuition hike.
If school administrators want to raise
tuition above the 4 percent or 3 percent
level, respectively, they would need ap
proval from the Legislature’s Emer
gency Board, which functions when the
full House and Senate are not in ses
sion. But Suchanek-Ritchie said she
doubts many schools will come back
asking to go over the cap.
“It doesn’t look that good politically
to go back,” she said.
The subcommittee also included a
stipulation that money raised from in
creased tuition must stay in the higher
education budget. Without that stipula
tion, the extra funds students paid could
have funded any other part of the state
budget from road repair to social servic
es.
“This wouldn’t have happened if stu
dents didn’t make a fuss,” Suchanek
Ritchie said.
One of those students, former ASUO
State Affairs Coordinator Brian Tanner,
agreed, but said some minor problems
still linger with the budget that will
have lasting effects at the University.
The budget is still about $31 million
less than what the Oregon University
System originally requested. With that
cut still existing, Tanner said, too much
money has been earmarked for specific
programs such as computer science and
Oregon State University’s Bend branch
campus.
He said specific programs deserve
funding, but with some cuts unavoidable,
more of that money should have gone to
Turn to Budget, page 5