Viva Las Cheap-o!
Emerald Online Editor Carol Rink ventures
to Vegas with pennies in tow. Page 5
Less venue, same rock ’n’ roll
Fans eagerly await Tool’s performance in
the Hult Center’s small venue. Page 5
Thursday, August 2,2001
Since 1 900 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon
Volume 103, Issue 12
UO asked to
delay release
of broadcast
limitations
■ Broadcasters want time to place
their arguments against the
proposed policy in the public record
By Jeremy Lang
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Oregon Association of Broadcast
ers and the lawyer for KVAL want the
University to wait at least three weeks be
fore releasing a final policy regulating
how TV stations can film Duck games so
the mountain of criticism against the poli
cy can be recorded in the public record.
Joel DeVore, the attorney for Fisher
Broadcasting, said he found he could
make the request while searching for a
way to add the numerous letters and edi
torials against the proposal into the public
record of the decision-making process.
The proposal aims to restrict broad
casters to 20 seconds of game highlights
and 20 seconds of interviews during the
48 hours after any Duck game. Special
shows outside a daily sports report dur
ing news broadcasts would receive 30
seconds of each.General Counsel Melin
da Grier said the University is still in con
tact with broadcasters across the state,
but she wouldn’t say whether or not the
University would grant the request. She
added that no date has been firmly set for
the release of the final policy.
The idea to limit coverage stems from
a long-standing dispute between the |
University and local television stations. 1
ESPN Regional Sports, in the middle of a'
five-year exclusive contract with Duck
Turn to Broadcasters, page 4
■The University has earned a
squirrel’ rating from Jonathan
Gottshall, who evaluates the sgi
friendliness of college campuses
By Kara Cogswell
Oregon Daily Emerald
U.S. News and World Report lists the
University on the “third tier” of national
universities. The Fiske Guide to Colleges
calls the school one of the nation’s “Best
Buys” in education. But Jonathan
Gottshall, who has a different system for
rating college campuses, rates the Uni
versity a “two squirrel” school
College rankings have been done be
fore, but never quite as Gottshall does on
his “World o’ Squirrels” Web site* which
ranks 58 national colleges and universi
ties not by academics, but instead by how
“squirrel-friendly” their campuses am*
Gottshall, who is now a librarian for
the Los Angeles Times, began the list six ,
years ago while he was studying for a
master’s degree in history at California s
State University at Fullerton. Often dur
ing that time, he said, he would visit
nearby college campuses to use their li
brary archives for research.
An avid rodent fan — he said he has
“loved small, furry animals" since
the 1982 release of the
movie “The Secret of
Nimh”—Gottshall ..
would often feed
the local squirrel
population da'
his visits to these
campuses.
From this experience,
he said, he noticed not all cam-"
Turn to Squirrels, page 3
Transformed fraternity house may hit ‘The Spot’
■The house, left vacant by low membership in the Phi
Delta Theta fraternity, is now open to all students as a
boarding house called The Spot
By Darren Freeman
Oregon Daily Emerald
The former Phi Delta Theta house at 15th Avenue and Kin
caid Street has been reincarnated this summer into a dormito
ry-style boarding house named The Spot.
Now seeking applicants, The Spot will offer 31 single rooms
for $630 a month. Rent at the newly remodeled co-ed house will
include a daily food program, utilities and cleaning services.
Steve Frichette, who is leasing the property from the Universi
ty’s greek system, said the opening of The Spot is a sign of a shift in
the area’s housing market, which is seeing many students snub
bing fraternities and sororities for other dormitory-style houses.
A University Law School graduate who’s been involved in the
greek system since 1984, Frichette said he would rather house a
fraternity in the 1960s-style building. But low membership has
kept it vacant. In 1999, the University’s Phi Delta Theta chapter
closed because of low enrollment, and last year, Delta Sigma Phi
moved to a smaller house for the same reason, he said.
“There were 32 pledges in my class in 1984,” Frichette said.
“Now you’re lucky to get 16. All the numbers are cut in half. ”
He cited two reasons for low enrollment at the fraternities he
housed and advised: the University’s prohibition of alcohol in
Turn to The Spot, page 4
K_JMsmPZ "_
j
Jessie Swimeley Emerald
Sitting on the porch of The Spot, formerly the Phi Delta Theta house, Matt Swanson, a member
of Delta Sigma Phi, talks with Stephanie Barendrick, who came to Eugene for IntroDUCKtion.
Bradbury
gets input
on district
changes
■The Oregon Secretary of State
visited Eugene to hear residents’
views on his plan for altering
congressional boundaries
By Darren Freeman
Oregon Daily Emerald
While Secretary of State Bill Bradbury
fine-tunes his plan for redrawing leg
islative borders in coming weeks, he’ll
consider two hours of public testimony
delivered by Eugene-area residents
Tuesday night at City Hall.
Bradbury has until Aug. 15 to finish
his redistricting proposal, which under
the state constitution he had to draft
when the Legislature failed to redraw
congressional lines before its session
ended. Every ten years, the state must
adjust House and Senate borders to
match census figures.
Most speakers discussed Bradbury’s
so-called “wheel and spoke” approach
to drawing boundaries, which entails
lumping both urban and rural areas into
single legislative districts.
For the University area, Bradbury rec
ommends a House district that would
span from east campus neighborhoods
west to Veneta, and from Franklin Boule
vard south to rural neighborhoods. The
current House district for this area stretch
es west only to City View Street.
The most prominent change in the
area’s Senate boundaries — seats 20, 21
and 22 — is an eastward expansion for
seat 21.
Tuesday’s meeting was one of 21
stops Bradbury is making across the
state to hear feedback on his proposal.
“The hearing in Eugene was like others
we had in the state — just really valuable
input and really helpful information,”
Bradbury said Wednesday morning on his
way to a public hearing in McMinnville.
“All the comments will be considered. ”
Support for Bradbury’s wheel and
spoke redrawing were mixed, but back
ers slightly outnumbered opponents.
Some speakers, such as Jim Edmunson,
who lives in the River Road area, said rural
interests are different enough from urban
interests to warrant separate representation.
Other speakers, such as Edward Win
ter, who owns a farm in an unincorpo
rated area near Crow and works in Eu
gene, said that with the timber industry
stagnating, more rural dwellers are
working in the city. Therefore, he said,
it’s reasonable to combine rural and ur
ban legislative districts.
Few speakers discussed the political
ramifications of the plan, saying the
draft either fairly or unfairly separates
Democratic and Republican voter
blocks. In other news reports, state Re
publicans accused Bradbury, a Democ
rat, of redrawing boundaries to make
Turn to Redistricting, page 3