Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
PO. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
Online Edition:
www.dailyemerald.com
Editor in Chief:
Andrew Adams
Associate Editors:
Peter Hockaday
Jeremy Lang
Thursday, August 16, £001
Editorial
ASUO must interest
students in its work
For those in student gov
ernment, the job is often
more trouble than it is
worth. Most students
usually do not know who their
student leaders are, and when
asked are quite adamant they
do not care.
That is somewhat troubling.
It shows that students feel dis
enfranchised from their gov
ernment and view it as some
thing distinctly outside their
university experience. The rea
sons behind this are as varied
as the diverse campus popula
tion. Many are only here for
classes squeezed between jobs
they need to pay for all those
credits. Some are older return
ing students who already feel
alienated from their peers, oth
ers are here but would rather
be partying, and still more are
concerned only with academ
ics. And underlying all of these
is the sometime narrow-mind
edness of those who actually
work in the EMU.
Granted, those who are in
the ASUO benefit from their
past experience with student
groups based in the EMU. But
oftentimes when they work
there and only relate to other
people who are active there,
they tend to forget to try to
look at the campus from the
perspective of folks who do
not belong to that same cul
ture. They forget that most stu
dents do not know where ex
actly the Ben Linder Room is
in the EMU, what the “Green
Tape Notebook” is, how much
power the Programs Finance
Committee holds and all the
other little ins and outs of
campus politics.
Therefore, the plans of cur
rent ASUO leaders Nilda
Brooklyn and Joy Nair to im
prove the communication be
tween students and their gov
ernment are commendable.
They and the staff need to
work hard in coming weeks to
lay down the foundation for a
student government that does
not alienate the rest of the
campus because it is too
wrapped up in a battle of stu
dent egos in the EMU.
Brooklyn and Nair say they
will host a fall movie series
and provide more resources on
the ASUO Web site. Those are
good first steps, but one is
forced to ask how many stu
dents want to spend their free
time watching movies in the
EMU or even know what the
address for the ASUO Web site
is? Probably not that many.
The two and their staff need
to come up with more engaging
methods to make students in
terested in their government so
that everyone on campus can
understand the value of what
the ASUO is trying to accom
plish. For instance, how the
ASUO is currently trying to
I keep student fees under the
control of students and not the
administration.
If more students know
about the ASUO, they will
feel more engaged by campus
government and will also be
more willing to come to the
ASUO with their own con
cerns. And when that hap
pens, our student government
will be more effective in rep
resenting the concerns of
everyone on campus and not
just those inside the EMU.
Millrace project
an impressive use
of student talent
What exactly is the Millrace?
It is a question asked by many
freshmen and even upperclass
men as they ponder the murky
and at times unpleasantly pun
gent creek that wanders
through campus.
Some say it was once a wa
terway that carried cut logs
from the Willamette River to
mills, and others say it is just a
rather foul, oversized storm
drain. But despite its general
appearance, it does have a
place in the hearts of many on
campus. Especially for those
who live in the University Inn
residence hall and have the
pleasure of seeing what can be
found floating in the waterway.
This can be as varied as shop
ping carts, oversized nutria
(river rats) or even the occa
sional fraternity brother.
To others on campus, how
ever, the Millrace is the focus
of a project to improve the wa
terway and also the water in it.
More than a dozen landscape
architecture students have late
ly been hard at work develop
ing a manmade waterway that
will help clean the murky Mill
race by using natural grasses
and a system of dams. This is
just another example of how
student talent can be used to
improve the community, and
this time it incidentally helps
out a campus fixture.
Emerald going
on short break
We at the Emerald would all
enjoy a month-long “working
vacation” at ranches in Texas,
but our breaks are full of work
and little vacationing. This is
sue is the last regular twice
weekly edition, but we will re
turn Aug. 22 with a special
edition focused on the law
school. Then the Emerald will
not publish again until we
come out with the Back to the
Books edition on Sept. 17. It is
the largest paper of the year and
full of news for returning stu
dents, new students and any
one interested in the campus
and the greater Eugene area.
This editorial represents the views of the
Emerald’s editor in chief and does not
necessarily represent the views of the
Oregon Daily Emerald.
Betas are the perfect college pets
I guess I could write about
some important issue like
stem-cell research or global
warming, but I won’t fool you.
I know very little about either of
those things. I could also bore you
with my view of how the media
portray women and why that an
noys me, but I don’t think I will
do that either. Instead, I am going
to tell you about my pets.
I have eight (one of them is just
visiting) betas or Siamese fight
ing fish, whatever you want to
call them. Four of them moved to
Oregon from
Wyoming
with me.
You’d be
surprised how
well these
fish can trav
el. You put
them in a
small, clear
container
with a lid,
and you are
good to go.
Set them in
your cup
holders, and
you’ll have someone to talk to for
the whole ride. I do think that
Ziggy Stardust, the oldest of my
fish (over a year), gets carsick.
He turns white, which is weird
because he’s black. Ziggy is the
toughest of all of my boys. He
has moved long distances with
me twice. Both times he had to
ride in the car for hours.
I do believe that betas are some
of the greatest pets ever. They
come in a variety of colors. You
Swimeley
Fish Lover
can find one to match anything
you want: your paint, your hair
color or your bedspread. They can
live in small spaces because they
have lungs and breathe from the
surface of the water, making them
a very convenient pet for desks or
residence hall rooms.
Right now the visitor to my col
lection, Pixel, lives in a beer mug.
He is on loan from a friend who
found he didn’t have time to
properly take care of him, but this
friend assures me that he will take
Pixel home before school starts. I
hope so, because I have to move
again, and it gets a little difficult
hauling eight fish around.
Another great thing about betas:
You have to try very, very hard to
kill them (unless you drop them
down the sink drain or they com
mit suicide). It’s okay if your life
gets a little hectic and you forget
to feed them for a while. They
will be fine, unlike any other pet,
which keels over if you don’t feed
it for a few days. They do have to
have their water changed every
now and then. I would like to do
it about every two weeks, but if I
don’t get to it, they’ll still live. Re
member, they breathe from the
surface of the water, so unlike
goldfish, they will be fine in the
same water for weeks.
Not that I am recommending
that you don’t feed your fish or
change its water, I’m just saying
that if it so happens you get a lit
tle busy and forget about them,
they will be okay. This simple
fact makes them the perfect col
lege pet.
Betas are also quite entertain
ing. When you own more than
one and you place their bowls
next to each other, they get angry.
They puff up their bodies, spread
their fins and flare their gills to
intimidate the other fish. This
will also work with a mirror. Bil
ly Idol (yet another one of my
fish), however, doesn’t do that.
He just swims around really fast
and looks angry. Because of the
fact they are so aggressive and
territorial, all Betas must be kept
in separate bowls because they
will kill each other. No one start
an underground beta fight circuit
please — that’s sick.
They are also very affectionate
fish. They can recognize different
people. All my boys will swim
happily toward me, showing off
all their wonderful colors and fan
cy fins, when I go near their
bowls. When my mom was here
and she fed them, they didn’t give
her the time of day.
I do have to warn you, though,
that betas can be addicting. I
have had my habit for many
years now, and I keep influenc
ing others to the habit of collect
ing betas. It is very hard to own
just one. It seems every time I go
out I end up buying another fish.
They are cheap and nice to look
at. I am running out of room for
all of them though, so for right
now I think that eight fishbowls
is quite enough.
Someday, though, I will have
my own beta farm.
Jessie Swimeley is the photo editor for the
Oregon Daily Emerald.
Letters to the editor
Oregon Voice won’t be the
only liberal campus
publication
I found your recent article about
some Commentator defectors tak
ing over the Oregon Voice incredi
bly amusing.
First, the decision not to talk to
the Commentator about the depart
ed staff members is a small matter
that casts a dubious shadow over
the accuracy and depth of the
Emerald's report.
More importantly, those taking
over the Voice may have slightly
misread the journalistic lay of the
land at this institution. One mem
ber was quoted as saying she was
surprised there was no left-lean
ing journalism on campus. That's
a laugher. We all know that the
Emerald fills the role of leftist
town crier better than any small,
self-promoting pop-culture-syco
phant magazine ever could. And
what about the poor Insurgent? Is
n't it bad enough they have to live
in their own skin, but do they re
ally need to be ignored so rudely
by the new OV staff?
In the end, we at the Commenta
tor won't really care too much
about the Voice, except to occasion
ally point out the absurdity of its
very existence and continue to
shake our heads at the absurdity of
the Emerald's skewed news print.
Bret Jacobson
publisher
Oregon Commentator
Harrington billboard offensive
Perhaps I'm a bit late in sounding
off about this, but I find the 100-foot
billboard of Joey Harrington at
Madison Square Garden obnox
ious. I live in New York, and I
cringe every time I pass it.
The expenditure seems like yet
another way in which the Univer
sity of Oregon Athletic Depart
ment places its football program
over every other sport on campus
(basketball runs a close second).
When was the last time that we
spent $250,000 in private dona
tions on the men's crew, women's
volleyball, or another "non-rev
enue generating" sport? The fact
is, we don't.
Not only is the ad tacky, it
smacks of inappropriateness. Hey, I
know, why don't we send a Univer
sity of Oregon gift basket to all the
Heisman Trophy voters?
Kalpana Krishnamurthy
New York, NY
Class of 1997
Steve Baggsforthe Emerald
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CITV COUNCIL