Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
PO. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online Edition:
www.dailyemerald.com
Wednesday, January 16,2002
Editor in Chief:
Jessica Blanchard
Managing Editor:
Jeremy Lang
Editorial Editor:
Julie Lauderbaugh
Assistant Editorial Editor:
Jacquelyn Lewis
Editorial
University must
notice needs
of all students
For new students entering the University, the
college experience may be overwhelming
from the start. The University does an excel
lent job helping freshmen make the transition
from high school to college life, but it does little to
accommodate transfer and nontraditional stu
dents. Helping freshmen familiarize themselves
with the campus is important, but the University
annually neglects nontraditional students in its
orientation efforts.
The fall Week of Welcome and other orientation
activities are great for entering freshmen, but the
University’s efforts at integrating transfer and re
turning students fall short. This is detrimental to
the University, especially now that more nontradi
tional students are returning to school. Budget
shortfalls and a national recession mean the Uni
versity needs all the revenue it can generate.
The University would go a long way toward im
proving its relationship with transfer and returning
students by realizing that many of these students
are adults who havp already attended college, and
not treat them like 18-year-old freshmen.
For example, the University could make an ef
fort to be sensitive to the needs of nontraditional
students during orientation sessions such as the
Week of Welcome, instead of aiming most of the
events at freshmen. Parents who work during the
day and are planning to attend classes at night are
often hard-pressed to take time away from their
day jobs to attend Week of Welcome events, but
that doesn’t mean they aren’t interested in partici
pating in them.
The college could'also make more of an effort
to improve communication with Oregon commu
nity colleges, so the curriculum is equitable. Hav
ing to repeat courses at the University that have
already been taken at the community college lev
el is frustrating for everyone, and makes both
schools appear as if they’re not operating in the
best interests of the students.
The University needs to be clear when defining
what credits can be transferred, as well as objective
in waiving prerequisites for equivalent work done
at community colleges. Advising that covers both
University and community college requirements
would be especially helpful for those frustrated by
the transfer process.
Besides the hassles of transferring credits, these
students often have difficulty finding University
scholarships. The University’s Western Undergrad
uate Exchange (WUE), which pays 150 percent of
resident tuition and fees for nonresidents from eli
gible western states, is only offered to entering
freshmen. The opportunities for nontraditional stu
dents to gain University scholarships are slim, and
more monetary options should be made available
by the University.
Personal advising for nontraditional students
during the first week is important for these stu
dents to make the transition to the University.
Freshmen and international students receive their
own University orientation, and the same courtesy
should be afforded to transfer and returning stu
dents. With so many people expected to return to
school in the near future, it is essential the Univer
sity make the experience a pleasant one.
Letters to the Editor and
Guest Commentaries Policy
T editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald
editorial board. Letters to the editor and guest
commentaries are encouraged. Letters are limited to 250
words and guest commentaries to 550 words. Please
include -tact information. The Emerald reserves the right
to edit for space, grammar and style.
Leave Prince Harry alone
ast weekend's biggest news sto
ry in the United Kingdom was
J_* also one of the country’s most
frivolous in recent memory: the reve
lation that teenage Prince Harry has
experimented with alcohol and mari
juana in recent months, and appar
ently was a rather boisterous regular
at a Wiltshire pub.
News of this experimentation
brought the British press to a virtual
frenzy. It garnered personal condemna
tory statements from several members
of Parliament and left the royal house
hold in a state of total panic, with Prince
Charles' office offering only a brief plea
to “put this incident behind us.”
Everyone from local radio com
mentators to the Queen had some
thing to say about the issue, with the
international media behaving only
slightly less embarrassingly; they
waited a few days to break the story
worldwide, but responded with the
same sort of hysteria.
Prince Harry smokes the chronic!
Prince Harry likes an occasional pint!
Prince Harry had a house party over
Christmas break where teenagers acted
like teenagers! And Prince Harry, obvi
ously, is on the road to quick and vi
cious ruin.
But is he really? Or is this more in
dicative of international perceptions
of marijuana and alcohol use than it
is of any real danger to the young
prince himself?
For what, after all, is the big deal?
He is 17 years old. He is young and
wealthy and under a lot of unwelcome
scrutiny. Frankly, I'd be worried if he
hadn't experimented a little. At least
Guest Commentary
Riley
McDermid
this way we know he's trying to have a
little fun.
And apparently, he's not alone.
A 2001 study by the Edinburgh
based Alcohol and Research center
found that British youth are statisti
cally more likely to have tried drugs
and engaged in binge drinking than
their other European counterparts,
with more than a third of the 15- and
16-year-olds surveyed saying they'd
smoked cannabis regularly in the
last year.
Worldwide, marijuana is the second
most popular drug used by adoles
cents. Alcohol is roundly the first.
Forty-one percent of American
teenagers of the same age surveyed by
the World Health Organization said
they smoke marijuana regularly, and
teenagers from the Czech Republic to
Israel to India indicated that they
smoke it almost as much.
So when we make such a huge ex
ample of someone like Prince Harry,
are we to believe that all these young
people are bound for lives of crime
and disreputable habits? Are we to
honestly consider this increasing
worldwide trend a genuine threat and
danger to the lifelong productivity of
these adolescents?
Or are we merely feeding into the in
ternational idea that if we pretend
cannabis smoking doesn't exist it will
eventually fade from our popular cul
ture and lose the allure it seems to gam
more of every generation?
I believe it is the latter. And I
pity poor Prince Harry for having
to become a poster child for reac
tionary drug policies and a target
for malicious scrutiny that has
nothing to do with the reality of to
day's youth and everything to do
with the personal agendas of out
dated social engineers.
As for Harry, he will be subjected to
drug testing back at his high school,
Eton, and has had his weekend visita
tion curtailed. Prince Charles respond
ed by sending Harry to a suburban re
habilitation clinic to "observe and
learn," a move that probably only exac
erbated the perception of Prince Har
ry's escapades as dangerous forays into
delinquency. And I am sure that Prince
Harry is smart enough to draw the dis
tinction between smoking the occa
sional joint and shooting up heroin on
a daily basis.
All in all, there really isn't much left
for the prince to learn from this
episode except what the majority of the
world's teenagers already know: If you
try smoking pot or drinking, it's proba
bly not a good idea to get caught.
Especially if you are a crown prince
of England.
And you know that fair or unfair, the
media will make you news hour fodder
for days and days to come.
Editor’s note: This staff column
is courtesy of the University of Mis
sissippi campus newspaper, the
Daily Mississippian.
(U-WIRE)
Letters to the editor
Open for business
Springfield mayor Sid Leiken
proudly proclaims it, while Jim Tor
rey, his counterpart in Eugene, be
moans that town’s famous reputation
for the opposing attitude (“Mayor
criticizes city’s approach to busi
ness,” ODE, 1/10).
However, when one considers
what the leaders of both communities
want to do to attract new (and prefer
ably big) business — just a couple ex
amples being huge tax deferments
and massive infrastructure adjust
ments (the latter underwritten by
those of us who do pay taxes) — per
haps a more accurate rendition of this
unofficial motto would be: “We are
spread for business.”
Bill Smee
classified staff
Steve Sack KRT
its Your old economic
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