Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
RO. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
Online Edition:
www.dailyemerald.com
Editor in Chief:
Andrew Adams
Associate Editors:
Jeremy Lang
Peter Hockaday
Editorial
Solar panel project
sets good example
It is a modest start but one
that is definitely com
mendable.
Last week, a group of
University administrators, fac
ulty and students came togeth
er to discuss their plans for so
lar panels, which are planned
to help power the EMU. This is
a worthy example of the poten
tial in putting student zeal to
good use.
Students Jocelyn Eisenberg
and Ben Gates came up with
the original concept of solar
panels for the EMU in a pitch
to earn $100,000 of surplus
funds from the ASUO. Those
funds will now go toward the
panels, and the Eugene Water
and Electric Board has already
offered to donate funds for de
signing the panels and to pur
chase the power they produce.
They are confident that in
the next few years the panels
will be able to save the Univer
sity a tremendous amount in
reduced energy costs.
However, just as the 30
kilowatts that the panels are
expected to produce are only
a small percentage of the total
power the EMU uses, the cre
ativity of these students is just
a small percentage of the total
amount of brain power here
on campus.
Despite the fact that many
students have a few years to go
before they receive a diploma,
most are capable enough to of
fer some beneficial contribu
tions to campus life. There
must be hundreds of students
here in Eugene who can be put
to good use by the University
or the city to improve the qual
ity of life for all.
To truly reap the benefits of
the enthusiasm and energy of
students, the University and
the city need to both respect
what students want, but also
maintain what they believe
are important goals. Students
need to deal with city and
University officials respect
fully, but also retain their de
sires. A good example of this
relationship appears to be in
progress with the planning of
the solar panels.
More students, administra
tors and city planners need to
take inspiration from this ex
ample and work to create an
intertwined city, campus and
student body working toward
similar goals.
National pressure should
put issue in perspective
Maybe if the University ad
ministration does not particu
larly want to listen to local
broadcasters and community
members, it may lend an ear to
three national organizations.
The Radio Television News Di
rectors Association, the Soci
ety of Professional Journalists
and the Reporters Committee
for Freedom of the Press re
cently sent a joint letter to the
University’s top administrators
asking them to end considera
tion of a new policy that would
severely limit the amount of
footage from Duck football
games that could be aired.
While it is the right of the
University to protect its legiti
mate property, it is also its re
sponsibility as a publicly
funded institution of higher
learning to respect the free
dom of the press. Not only is
the University attempting to
regulate how Duck games are
covered, it is also threatening
news organizations with the
loss of access to athletic
events if broadcasters do not
play by its rules. These are
not issues that should be a
concern just to those within
the news business, but also to
anyone who has an interest in
the University.
This new criticism should
show the University that what
it is trying to accomplish is a
mistake. Its heavy-handed
dealing with the press only
gives the University an arro
gant and overbearing image
that will hurt both its fan base
and the long sought-after na
tional reputation.
IntroDUCKtion a pleasant
reminder of university’s
promise
After being on campus for
more than a couple of years,
students begin to lose some of
the naivete of youth. From be
ing on campus through several
terms of both stress and frivoli
ty, most students begin to think
of what will come next when
they take that plunge into the
professional world.
During the past few days,
many incoming freshmen
have been visiting campus as
part of the annual IntroDUCK
tion program, and it has been
a pleasant reminder for stu
dent veterans of how they
were when they arrived on
campus for the first time. The
uncertainty and trepidation
mixed with an intoxicating
dose of liberation and the ripe
promise of new experiences.
It is refreshing to not see
students numbly lurching
through the routine motions
of campus life, but rather full
of eagerness at the thought of
which classes to take and
what activities to join. Every
time one sees a new student
having his or her picture tak
en with a parent in front of
the University of Oregon sign
near Oregon Hal it is a wel
come return to when the
promise of university life was
nearly too large to fully com
prehend.
This editorial represents the views of the
Emerald’s editor in chief and does not
necessarily represent the views of the
Oregon Daily Emerald.
Drinking age doesn’t make sense
daughter Jenna Bush
was caught last May
trying to use a fake ID
ien presidential
to get into a Texas bar, my heart
went out to her.
Of course, like everyone else who
heard this story, I did have to wonder
just what was going through Jenna’s
head not to realize that the several Se
cret Service
agents accom
~ panyingher
would be a dead
giveaway to her
true identity.
But still, it
seemed unfair
to me that she
I should have to
take so much
Kara
heat from the
media—and
probably worse
from her dad,
Dubya—for do
ingsomething
Cogswell
Legal
that just about every college student
has tried at one point or another.
At least, I know I did—and proba
bly more than most. My own experi
ence with fake IDs began when I was
about the same as age as Jenna Bush
when her troubles started.
It was the summer after my fresh
man year of college, and along with
four friends, I was working as a
nanny in New Canaan, Conn.
We may have spent our days there
chasing toddlers and stain-treating
Kool-Aid spills, but at night we
would put on our party clothes and
head out to the bar strip in the work
ing-class town a few miles away.
Our tickets into those less-than
reputable establishments were the
fake Alabama state driver's licenses
we had proudly purchased in a
New York City shop our second
week there.
With our photographs laminated
onto cards complete with driver's
regulations printed on the back and
a hologram on the front, they
looked as good as the real thing—
at least as long as you didn’t look at
the uneven edges too closely.
But despite a few minor imper
fections — and the fact that we
were five girls from Oregon with
about as much of a Southern accent
as Hugh Grant — my first fake ID
still managed to pass inspection for
several months before it was taken
away from me in a bar in Eugene.
Not one to give up easily, for the
next year and a half I used just
about any kind of ID I could get my
hands on — IDs of friends, friends
of friends, even an expired license
someone found on a bathroom
floor. I’d use them until they got
lost or confiscated, but another one
always came along.
They never looked like me, but it
didn’t seem to matter. Most of the
time bouncers were kind, and if
they weren’t, well, the humiliation
of having an ID snatched out of my
hands never bothered me for long.
Name, address, birth date ... un
til I turned 21 a few months ago, it
was my nightly mantra.
Looking back on my fake ID days
now, I realize that the lengths I went
to just to get into a bar were probably
more than a little ridiculous.
But what seemed even more
ridiculous to me then — and still
does now — is that it was against
the law just to go out and have a few
drinks with friends.
Why is it that a person in this
country can legally assume the huge
responsibilities of marriage or own
ing a firearm at the age of 18, but is
not considered responsible enough
to have a beer until the age of 21 ?
If the law doesn’t seem to make
sense, then it should come as no sur
prise that it doesn’t work, either—
especially on college campuses
where younger students can easily
obtain alcohol from older classmates.
There is no way to eliminate un
derage drinking, and maybe it isn’t
even the real problem. After all,
what’s worse, freshman dorm par
ties and fake IDs? Or drunk-driving
accidents and deaths from alcohol
poisoning?
Alcohol abuse is a problem, but
the way to prevent it is through ed
ucation, not by punishing young
people for drinking.
And until the law is changed to
reflect that, few college students
are going to take it seriously. Not
even the president’s daughter.
Kara Cogswell is a reporter for the Oregon
Daily Emerald. She can be reached at
kcogswell@dailyemerald.com.
Editorial roundup
Here’s a look at the editorials of
campus papers across the nation.
Murder in Genoa
Daily Texan
(University of Texas-Austin)
AUSTIN, Texas — Carlo Giuliani
is hardly the first victim of globaliza
tion, far from the first casualty of the
centralization of the world's power
in the hands of a few. Graveyards
across the planet are full of people
who have died in the name of
democracy and culture — two con
cepts that are increasingly incompat
ible with the expansion of Western
led industrialism and finance.
Still, throwing the fire extin
guisher at a vehicle that could have
easily sped away should not be
grounds for an instant execution.
Although Giuliani chose not to join
the other nonviolent protesters, he
should be alive today, dealing with
a police citation. Instead, Giuliani
was murdered in the streets by Ital
ian police so disgusted with his
kind, and what they represent, that
they chose to back their van over his
already lifeless, crumpled corpse.
Crossing new frontiers
Daily lllini
(University of Illinois)
CHAMPAIGN, 111.—Rhode Island
quietly added itself to the list of states
protecting sexual identity as a civil
right. There are now three states that
extend civil rights protections to
transsexuals and cross-dressers.
It's a shame more states haven't
followed their lead. It's even more
of a shame we have to be making
laws banning discrimination. By
now it should be a given. Nobody
should be discriminated against.
Not women, not minorities, not
gays, not white males. It's no differ
ent with transsexuals and cross
dressers. They should not be kept
from being hired because of their
sexual identity, and they shouldn't
be fired because of it.
Eudora Welty: a true
Mississippi treasure
Daily Mississippi
(University of Mississippi)
OXFORD, Miss. — Unfortunate
ly, when it rains, it pours. In the last
year, some of Mississippi's national
treasures passed into history. From
Willie Morris in 2000 to last month's
passing of John Lee Hooker, we as
natives have undergone great loss
es and face yet another.
The incomparable Eudora Wel
ty's passing Monday marks anoth
er great Mississippian lost to the
world. While Welty lived out a full
92 years, it doesn't make it any eas
ier for literary critics, writers, pro
fessors and book lovers alike to
take her passing.
Full of character and life and nev
er without an intelligent and dis
tinctly Welty comment, Eudora will
not be missed as a Mississippian,
but as a great author and personality
nationwide. Much like Morris, Bar
ry Hannah and William Faulkner,
Welty's work painted a landscape
distinctly Mississippian but acces
sible to readers everywhere.
Editorials available through U-WIRE news
service.