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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 10, 2001)
Newsroom: (541) 346-5511 Room 300, Erb Memorial Union RO. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com Online Edition: www.dailyemerald.com Wednesday, October 10,2001 Editor in Chief: Jessica Blanchard Managing Editor: Michael J. Kleckner Editorial Editor: Julie Lauderbaugh Assistant Editorial Editor: Jacquelyn Lewis Editorial Solution to parking is not more spaces Parking has been an ever-present issue for stu dent drivers. Crowded parki ng lots and inade quate spaces on campus cause stress for many students, although the anger is often self-im posed. The general campus population primarily lives near the University and therefore is not in need of on-cam pus parking. Those who live within a 2-mile radius and insist on driving to school are simply giving themselves problems by not utilizing other forms of transportation. Eugene is a community that offers many alterna tives to driving to school, including bicycle lanes en route to campus, bus service straight to the Universi ty, and park-and-ride lots for further destinations. More students should embrace these options instead of contributing to traffic congestion, road rage and air pollution. Those students who live very far from campus, where biking may be a less convenient op tion, are few and far between compared with the mass populace. However, these people have options if the University is willing to consider a change in their permit issuance. How about a permit system based on address, in which the students who live farthest away get permits first, and then the remaining permits are bestowed by lotteiy? The Department of Public Safety has been overselling permits for years, much to the chagrin of commuters. Because the permits have been oversold, drivers have been forced to find alternative parking spaces within surrounding neigh borhoods, eliciting complaints from those residents and owners of apartments and houses. The City of Eugene also turns a hefty profit at the ex pense of those who drive to the University. Metered parking spots along the outskirts of campus are perenni ally overflowing, and drivers are forced to park in illegal spaces, risking towing expenses and tickets. Some may aigue that the University needs to build a parkinggarage to accommodate the bevy ofvehicles. However, if more students utilize alternate forms of trans portation, there would be sufficient room for commuters in surrounding lots on campus. A parking garage is not worth the cost, and there isn’t land allocated for such an endeavor. There are plenty of park-and-rides available from Lane Transit District around the city. Students can ride the bus for free, which is much cheaper than purchas ing a parking permit from DPS. With the forthcoming rapid transit system in Eugene, many students who live near the length of Franklin Boulevard will have no excuse for driving to school. The parking “problem” at the University may be an illusion created by those blinded by the convenience of driving to school. However, that luxury quickly turns into a hassle when the parking lots are filled with cars commuting from places as incredibly far away as Hilyard House. Students need to use the plentiful alternative trans portation modes in order to alleviate the problem for those who do live far away, and the University needs to re-evaluate the way it issues parking permits. Pi These editorials represent the opinion of the Emerald Ji editorial board* the editorial board members are editor in chief Jessica Blanchard, managing editor Michael J. Kieckner, editorial editor Julie Lauderbangh, assistant editorial editor Jacquelyn lewis, community representative Gabe Shaughnessy, Responses can be sentto editor@daiiyemerald.com. letters to the editor and guest commentaries are encouraged. Utters are limited to 250 words and guest commentaries to 550 words. Please include contactinformation. The Emerald reserves the right to edit for space, grammar and style. Correction University of Oregon graduate and former Duck tennis . player Joaquin Hamdan was misidentified in a photo on Tuesday’s sports cover f A new year, a new attitude for U0 tennis teams,” OOE, 10/9}. The Emerald regrets the error. Money makes the sportsAvorld go ‘round Tom Autzen and Rich Brooks, it’s time to step aside. Your money and coaching helped the University of Ore gon reach respective levels in colle giate athletics, but the Ducks are look ing to fly much further now. Our rinky-dink excuse for a college football stadium will soon be transformed, and with that change should come another. Just imagine long-time Duck announc er Don Essig saying, "It never rains at Michael Jordan Stadium!" as the Ducks come running out of the tunnel onto the playing surface of Tiger Woods Field. Now, before you start flinging your arms over your head screaming, "Tradition, what about tradition?" stick with me. Phil Knight has finally returned. His contribution tr help renovate the Autzen Stadium and Hayward Field is unknown, but it is figured to be in the ballpark figure of $30 mil lion to $50 mil lion. For the self made $4.3 billion man, this is about one percent of his total worth! Ironi Oliver cally, Knight's an Columinst nouncement to fi - nancially return to the University came a day after Michael Jordan an nounced his physical return to NBA. It doesn't take a stockbroker on Wall Street to tell you that the return of Jor dan means more money for Nike, and thus Phil Knight. In fact, in the days surrounding Jordan's return, Nike's stock jumped four points. What this means for Phil Knight is that he now has a little more spending money in hi: pocket, and what better way to spend i then to build a football stadium? Now while Knight's donation barely puts a dent in his pocketbook, it is huge for the University athletically anc academically. It isn't a secret that peo ple in this world are willing to donate to athletics; it is just our nature. Ameri cans rally around athletics, and the re turn of sports after the Sept. 11 tragedy proves this. For those who can write a check to help support their team, feel like part of the team. You cannot criti cize people for donating money. It is their money, and they can do what they want with it. Without donors, there is no way our beloved Ducks could be considered a contender for the national football championship this season, much less be able to step on the field. And with out football, the concept of intercolle Peter Utsey Emerald giate athletics would be non-existent. The only way college soccer, track, vol leyball, cross country, swimming and tennis teams exist is because of money created by their football sugar daddy. The part of the University south of the Willamette River benefits from Athletic ; Department donations as well. In case you haven’t noticed, the library and law school are named after the Knight Fami ly. Mr. Knight and his wife also support 15 endowed professorships on this l campus. Randy Pape and his wife each gave $1 million toward the building of the Ed Moshofsky Sports Center, also fi nancially started the Business and In dustrial Sales Program within the Uni versity's College of Business. Athletic and academic donations go hand in hand. From 1992 to 1998, the University completed the most successful fundraising campaign in state history. The Oregon Campaign raised $255.3 million for the Univer sity. During the same period, the foot ball team was making the resurgence from Pacific-10 Conference bottom feeder to a perennial bowl game con tender, and as already noted, college football teams don't win without money. People are much more willing to open their wallets for sports, but while they are open, it is the perfect time for academics to swoop down and get their piece of the pie. So OK, maybe renaming Autzen Sta dium to Michael Jordan Stadium is a little extreme, but the point remains that America is a sports-dominated so ciety and its presence travels all the way to the pocketbook. For those among us who feel college Athletic De partment spending is out of control, just image where we would be without it. Our law school would still be stuck in mediocrity, the library would still be dark and dingy and many quality pro fessors would be teaching elsewhere. If the money is clean and given with good intentions, our school should take it, and in cases in which it isn’t, the University shouldn’t. Which re minds me, there soon may be a vacant place for Michael Jordan's name on this campus after all. Jeff Oliver is a columnist for the Oregon Daily Emerald. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Emerald. He can be reached at jeffoliver@dailyemerald.com. Letter to the editor Ticket sales could be easier It’s Monday at 10:30 a.m., and I just witnessed an amazing and very unnec essary sight. About 500 students were in a very long line in the EMU, waiting to buy tickets to the football game. Most of the students have things that are much more important to do. Some of them will be in line for more than two hours. Why not do the following? If there are 400 tickets available, print up to 400 numbered slips that could be rap idly handed out to students as they en ter the line. There would be signs post ed telling students what time during the next two days they should show up to buy their tickets. For example, the sign might say “For slips 250-280, you may buy tickets after 10 a.m. Tuesday.” In this way, students would waste less time standing in line. Also, life would be less hectic for those selling the tickets. Daniel Weiner Eugene
