Student volunteers can work to improve water quality
and earn internship credit at the same time. Page 3
A frustrating year
Head coach Carl Ferreira and Duck vollleyball
could snag thier first Pac-10 win tonight. Page 5
http://www.dailyemerald.com
Ttiesday, November 20,2001
Since 1 900
University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 103, Issue 61
Harmony in motion
Breema movements, from the Middle East,
helped one student ‘escape and connect’ with herself
By Diane Huber
Oregon Daily Emerald
Avishai Pearlson says it’s im
possible to understand
Breema bodywork without
experiencing it.
“Pull on your earlobes with your
hands, relax your shoulders and feel
the weight of your shoulders force
your hands to slip off your earlobes
and into your lap,” he instructed.
This particular Breema exercise is
called “Sinking into the Lake.”
The licensed massage therapist and
Breema practitioner is co-owner of
Breema Northwest, a center in down
town Eugene devoted to Breema —
exercises that incorporate massage
and meditation. At the center, the
curly-haired, soft-spoken instructor
teaches Breema exercises, gives
Breema bodywork sessions — similar
to massage therapy — and teaches as
piring instructors.
Next term, he will bring Breema to
the University in a class offered Tues
days and Thursdays from noon to 12:50
p.m. The focus of his class is “short,
playful and meditative” individual ex
ercises to relieve stress, relax and con
centrate on the body, he said. The move
ments range from lying down, sitting,
standing and hopping, he said.
“They work on flexibility, release
tension and revitalize us,” he said.
Breema is based on nine “principles
of harmony,” including no judgment,
no extra, body comfortable, firmness
and gentleness, full participation, no
hurry/no pause, mutual support, sin
gle moment/single activity and no
force. The principles provide guide
lines for Breema, but they also provide
a life philosophy, Pearlson said.
He said all of the principles of
Breema work together to help people
find their presence, which he ex
plains as having a direct connection
with the body.
“Being present is having a direct ex
perience about being alive, rather than
interpreting life in the mind — rather
than always thinking about the past
and the future,” he said.
Junior Jessica Lurie took the Breema
class offered spring term and plans to
take it winter term as well. She liked
the class because it gave her time to
“escape and connect” with herself, she
said.
Although she said she doesn’t use
the exercises at home, she does incor
porate the principles into her daily life.
For example, she said she tries to
concentrate on just one activity at a
time, which stems from the principles
“no extra” and “single moment/single
activity.”
“When my mind starts to wander,
(the principles) help me focus and con
centrate,” she said.
She said in class Pearlson described
how people always walk through cam
pus “head first,” and he encouraged
his students to walk “from the center. ”
“When I’m walking around campus,
I try and remember I’m not just trans
porting my head to another class,” she
said.
Yoga instructor Elayne Quirin also
took Pearlson’s class spring term. The
difference between Breema and yoga,
she said, is that Breema focuses more
on pressure points, massage and work
ing with your hands. Yoga, on the other
hand, involves different postures.
But she added that certain character
istics of Breema are very similar to yoga.
“They have a very similar philoso
phy in that they bring the presence into
the body, into the moment,” she said.
Pearlson has been teaching Breema
since 1991. He discovered the body
work at an open house at The Breema
Center in Oakland, Calif.
Turn to Breema, page 4
Thomas Patterson Emerald
Avishai Pearlman demonstrates the seif-Breema exercise called Maple
Tree, which releases tension from the neck and shoulders. The hands
are clasped behind the neck during a deep inhale and swift exhale.
Court strikes down Washington school’s energy fee
■ Officials say they cannot
yet speculate on the impact
of the ruling in Oregon
By Kara Cogswell
Oregon Daily Emerald
Charging students an energy
surcharge fee is not legal in Wash
ington anymore, but students are
still working to end the energy fee
in Oregon.
A King County Superior Court
judge ruled Nov. 9 that the Univer
sity of Washington energy fee,
which would have cost each stu
dent about $135 this year,
amounted to a tuition increase.
And under Washington law, tu
ition increases can only be author
ized by the state legislature.
The university added the fee this
year to compensate for rising ener
gy costs. In August, Jasmin Weaver,
a former Washington student pres
ident, filed a lawsuit against the
school to remove the fee.
The university does not plan to
appeal the ruling and will refund
about $1.4 million, with interest,
to its 22,204 students.
But it remains to be seen whether
the Washington ruling will have
any implications for students here.
“It’s such a great win, but we’re
still not sure how it’s going to af
feet Oregon,” ASUO Vice Presi
dent Joy Nair said.
Nair and ASUO President Nil
da Brooklyn have been outspoken
opponents of the fee because it
was added without being ap
proved by students.
Students involved in ASUO
have been working with OSPIRG,
the Ecological Design Center and
other student groups to organize
an energy conservation campaign,
Nair said.
The group has met with Univer
sity Provost John Moseley several
times, and he has been very sup
portive of their efforts to lower the
fee through energy conservation,
she said.
“The coalition is growing expo
nentially in numbers,” Nair said.
“And I think we have really
proven to the administration that
involving students initially in any
process will greatly benefit the
University and save money.”
John Wykoff, legislative direc
tor for the Oregon Student Asso
ciation, said state differences in
how tuition and fees are approved
could affect whether the ruling
will set a precedent for a similar
ruling in Oregon.
In Washington, the legislature
sets tuition, and the board of re
Tum to Energy fee, page 4
Eugene
assesses
terrorism
readiness
■After the campus mail threat,
local officials determine the city
is ‘reasonably well prepared’
for a bioterrorist attack
By Leon Tovey
Oregon Daily Emerald
Are Eugene and the University pre
pared for a bioterrorist attack?
Yes. No. Maybe?
In the wake of Thursday’s mail threat
in Willamette Hall, local officials are
working to assess how prepared the
community is for a threat of this nature.
Although Lane County Public Health
officials announced Monday that final
tests on the letter received by Universi
ty physics professor Bemd Crasemann
were negative for anthrax, the incident
has raised concerns about the level of
readiness in Eugene.
“We are as prepared to deal with this
as anyone,” said Eugene Mayor Jim Tor
rey. “Are we prepared to anticipate an
attack? No, but I don’t think anyone in
this country is.”
Torrey was at a conferem discussing
Lane County’s level of pn aredness
when he heard the news about the inci
Tum to Bioterrorism, page 4
State board
divides over
OSU branch
■The meeting resulted in two new
proposals for budget cuts, one of
which excludes the Bend campus
By John Liebhardt
Oregon Daily Emerald
The State Board of Higher Education
rejected a budget-cutting proposal Mon
day because of objections to funding the
Oregon State University-Cascade Cam
pus in Bend.
In a 6 to 4 vote, the board struck down
Oregon University System Chancellor
Joseph Cox’s plan for budget cuts man
dated by Gov. John Kitzhaber at the seven
Oregon campuses. The vote forces Cox to
create two different budget-cutting pro
posals: One proposal will outline budget
cuts that include funding for the Cascade
Bend campus, and the second plan will
be drawn as though the $7.2 million cam
pus has been eliminated.
The board will vote via e-mail Tues
day afternoon, and Cox will report the
Turn to Budget cuts, page 4