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