Taking another look
The city manager will review the smoking
ban reprieves granted to 31 bars. Page 3
A fair to remember
The 32nd annual Country Fair begins Friday
with mimes and no dress code. Page 5
http ://www. daiiyemerald.com
Thursday, July 12,2001
Since 1900
University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon
Volume 103, Issue 6
Steve Morozumi takes the reins as head of MCC
■The new MCC Programs
Adviser plans to work with
students to focus on the issues
they think are most important
By Kara Cogswell
Oregon Daily Emerald
Steve Morozumi, the man cho
sen to fill the director of the Multi
cultural Center position, which
opened when Erica Fuller re
signed last year, said he will act
only as an advocate for students,
not as a director.
On Monday, Morozumi began
his term in the position now known
as the MCC Programs Adviser.
Before hiring him last spring, stu
dents on the MCC hiring committee
revamped the position and changed
the job title, said Dominique Beau
monte, the MCC’s public relations
coordinator last year.
Beaumonte said committee
members looked for someone
who would advocate student
views without voicing personal
opinions. They wanted someone
who could provide a “support
system” for students, he said.
While Fuller was the director,
Beaumonte said, she acted mostly
as an administrator — someone
who gave orders rather than tak
ing direction from students.
One of the reasons committee
members chose Morozumi was
his experience working as a stu
dent advocate at the University of
California at Santa Cruz, Beau
monte said.
The position “is going to an
even higher level this year having
Steve here,” he said.
In addition to the 10 years he
spent as a college programs adviser
at UC Santa Cruz, Morozumi said
he has been involved with many
social movements over the years.
Before moving to Eugene last year,
he volunteered with the Rainbow
Coalition, a political activist group.
His interest in civil rights issues
formed early in his life, Morozu
mi said. Growing up in the San
Francisco Bay Area, he was influ
Jessie Swimeley Emerald
Taking a moment to rest from organizing his office, Steve Morozumi, the new programs adviser of the Multicultural Center, enjoys
his Mountain Dew, “the breakfast of champions.”
enced by the emerging women’s
and gay and lesbian rights move
ments of the time, he said.
And, on a more personal level,
he said, he learned about racism
and discrimination early on in his
life. During World War II, his fa
ther and grandfather were forced
into American relocation camps
because they were Japanese
Americans.
As a child, they told him stories
of what it was like living under
gun towers and behind barbed
wire fences in the camps, he said.
Ironically, his grandfather, a
lawyer, taught others in the camps
about the Bill of Rights.
Now, Morozumi plans to use
his own experience dealing with
issues of discrimination and di
versity to provide support for Uni
versity students.
In the short time he has lived in
Eugene, Morozumi has taken an
active interest in the University.
Over the past year, he said, he has
attended student union culture
nights, athletic events, lectures
and other campus events.
As the programs adviser, Mo
rozumi said he sees his role as be
ing “a collaborative relationship
rather than a director-staff relation
ship.” The issues that students de
cide are the most important to fo
cus on are the ones he will
concentrate on as well, he said.
“I don’t have a blueprint for this
year’s programs,” he said.
He said he is encouraged by the
University administration’s re
cent efforts to improve diversity
on campus, including an outside
review of various departments be
ing conducted this week.
Now is a critical time for the
University to mandate that de
partments adopt pro-advocacy
agendas to attract students and
faculty members of color, he
added.
“We’re kind of at a dramatic
turning point on campus,” he
said.
Despite efforts to improve diver
sity on campus, he said, there is still
work to be done. While students
and faculty may want a more toler
ant and accepting University, is
sues of race, class, gender and sexu
al orientation are often ignored
because people are not comfortable
discussing them, he said.
The MCC can improve diversi
ty on campus by creating a “safe
space” for students to discuss
these issues, Morozumi said. An
other way the MCC can spark dia
logue on these issues is by spon
soring guest speakers and
collaborating with other academ
ic units to improve diversity in
Turn to MCC, page 3
EWEB will forge ahead with fiber-optic MetroNet
■The system will provide
high-speed Internet access to
downtown businesses and
schools
By Kara Winters
for the Emerald
The board of commissioners for
the Eugene Water and Electric
Board unanimously approved a
high-speed Internet access service
Tuesday night at City Hall after a
public hearing on the plan.The
$10 million project, named
MetroNet, will connect business
es and schools in downtown Eu
gene and some surrounding areas
with a fiber-optic telecommunica
tions infrastructure.
Commissioners said MetroNet
will provide cost-effective
telecommunication services in
targeted areas of Eugene, where
commissioners expect heavy use
will generate enough revenue.
EWEB plans to expand the system
to less concentrated areas six
years after installment.
Dennis Gabriel, a telecom con
sultant and trainer for TeleData
Management Inc., said MetroNet
would benefit local Internet
businesses.
“MetroNet will spawn a new in
dustry,” Gabriel said. “It is a vital
infrastructure.’’For the city of Eu
gene, the approval of MetroNet
will allow the metropolitan area to
recruit effective businesses and de
velop a next-generation network,
commissioners said.Tuesday’s ap
proval is the latest step in the utili
ty’s 10 years of telecommunica
tions planning, said EWEB Risk
Manager Debra Wright.
“For any new venture to be
successful takes careful
thought,” she said.
David Klindt, an administrator
with local network access
provider Willamette.Net said he
opposes the plan because there
are some inconsistencies with
it.In December 1999, EWEB test
ed an infrastructure, which con
sisted of a 70-mile fiber-optic sys
tem that transmitted cable televi
sion, video teleconferencing and
e-mail by means of light waves. In
May 2000, Eugene adopted an
amendment to the Eugene Char
ter, which approved EWEB’s
telecommunication activities. Af
ter EWEB installed the first infra
structure, however, the utility dis
covered it could not afford a larger
system at that time. Engineers de
veloped MetroNet as an alterna
tive approach, using the existing
test infrastructure already in
place.Initial funding will come
from the remaining $3 million in
bonds EWEB was given for the
initial infrastructure. The rest will
be paid with short-term loans.
Students
unearth
Oregon’s
origins
■Two University graduate students
may have discovered the roots of
Oregon’s name in their studies of
Native American history
By Jeremy Lang
Oregon Daily Emerald
With watery inhabitants such as
ducks, beavers and salmon already ap
pearing as mascots or titles in the state,
two University graduate students have
proposed the name Oregon itself comes
from a Native American term for a fish
species — and they’re gaining massive
attention and credibility in the process.
Graduate anthropology students
Scott Byram, 37, and David Lewis, 36,
are working to debunk current theories
that Oregon received its name from a
mapmaker’s error or European roots in
an article appearing this week in the
Oregon Historical Quarterly.
Using written documents and oral
history, the pair have found “ooligan,”
a Cree Tribe reference to smelt, a small
fish native to the Northwest that pro
duces a nutritious grease. The Cree
moved west to trade for ooligan and de
scribed it to English and French settlers
when they made their way into the
American and Canadian interior.
Lewis said many dialects switch or
replace “1” and “r” sounds, and the
Cree probably pronounced the word as
“oorigan.”
Although previous explanations of
Oregon’s birth have never been proven
enough to satisfy historians, Lewis said
the number of instances of ooligan
found and the other Native American
names in the area — like Willamette
Valley — have convinced him of the
name’s native origins.
“You can never, ever say ‘this is it,’
but the preponderance of evidence says
this is the case,” he said.
Lewis and Byram teamed up last
April after their individual work on Na
tive American history began to con
verge, even though they previously
knew each other from the anthropology
department.
Byram said when the two started
comparing notes, they both had in
stances of native words starting with
“oor” or “ool.”
“We noticed the patterns as we
worked on other projects,” Byram said.
“It actually seemed pretty obvious once
we looked at the evidence available.”
Marianne Keddington-Lang, editor of
the Quarterly, said after the two submit
ted their findings, she sent their work to
experts in the field for analysis, and
they gave the piece glowing remarks.
Since their article premiered. Lewis
said they have become minor celebrities,
Turn to Oregon, page 4