Plows
The University Health Center director announces his resignation. Page 3
Students can enjoy a Stravinsky Showcase by the Eugene Symphony. Page 8
Sports
Duck men and women split Civil War games.
Page 9
VW.
httpyAvww.dailyemerald.com
Tuesday, January 22,2002
Since 1 900
University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 103 .Issue 79
PFC holds up
‘Commentator’
budget request
■ The Programs Finance Committee objected
to words in the publication’s mission statement
By Danielle Gillespie
Oregon Daily Emerald
The ASUO Programs Finance Committee postponed a de
cision on the Oregon Commentator’s 2002-03 budget because
the campus publication’s mission statement contained words
and phrases that demonstrated a political bias.
PFC member Joe Streckert said, according to the ASUO
rules in the Green Tape Notebook, no student group can be
affiliated with a political party if it receives student funding.
The mission statement states that the journal provides
“students with an alternative to the left-wing orthodoxy pro
moted by the other student publications, professors and stu
dent groups.”
The PFC board, in a unanimous decision, made a motion
to strike the words “left-wing,” “political” and “conser
vatism” from the Commentator’s mission statement.
"I feel that their mission and goal statement is simply
provocative for its own sake and not appropriate for PFC to
approve," Streckert said.
The Commentator has until Wednesday to re-submit a
budget to PFC, which is barred by ASUO rules from passing a
budget before it approves a mission statement.
Representatives from the Commentator said they were dis
pleased with PFC’s decision.
“Every group on this campus has a political view. We are
not aligning ourselves with any political structure. This mis
sion statement has been approved since we started,” Com
mentator business manager Justin Sibley said.
OSPIRG received $120,819 Thursday for 2002-03. In 2001
02, OSPIRG was funded at $144,426 via ballot measure.
Streckert said he believed the PFC didn’t have enough in
formation to make an accurate budget account for this aca
demic year because OSPIRG failed to turn in its audit report
for 2001-02 and did not supply any other evidence about its
spending habits.
“Staff and salaries are not explicit. We do not know who
makes what? How much? When did they receive their mon
ey? I would like to see more information. This is a difficult
decision to make,” Streckert said.
The PFC moved to estimate OSPIRG’s funding needs at the
state level for staffing and operating expenses, and then di
vide this estimate by the University’s expected contribution
to the budget. PFC Chairwoman Mary Elizabeth Madden
said she felt this method would be the best way to calculate a
fair budget.
Turn to Review, page 7
lOTE PURSSEL
■PFC members are hard
at work allocating student fees
to more student groups than ever
By Kara Cogswell
Oregon Daily Emerald
With more than $4 million in student
incidental fees to distribute to student
groups in 2002-03, Programs Finance
Committee members have more money
at their fingertips than ever before, and
they’re setting budgets for an unprece
dented number of new groups.
The five people who constitute the
PFC this year say they have good reason
to care that the committee allocates
money wisely — as students, they also
pay fees and benefit from the programs
and services the fee funds.
This year, the PFC members have the
added responsibility of deciding budg
ets that students previously voted on,
such as OSPIRG.
To accommodate these extra groups,
the ASUO Student Senate set PFC’s
benchmark for 2002-03 at $4,036,698 —
more than $1 million higher than PFC’s
allocation to groups last year.
Over the course of PFC’s 2002 budget
hearings —which began Jan. 7 and end
Feb. 4, PFC members will decide how
much each student group will receive.
The amount of money they allocate
now will help determine how much
students will pay in incidental fees
next year.
PFC members vary in their interests
and financial experience. But all mem
bers say they can put their'personal feel
ings about groups aside and decide
budgets objectively during hearings.
And despite a job description that in
cludes attending meetings that can last
seven hours or longer, three to four
times a week, for a stipend of just $150 a
month, PFC members each have their
own reason why they say the job is
worth it.
PFC Chairwoman Mary Elizabeth
Madden, the only returning committee
member, brings nearly three years of
ASUO experience to the group. Last
year she was a PFC senator; the previ
ous year she was an intern for the
ASUO Executive.
A 21-year-old junior, Madden said
she ran for a PFC senate seat last year
because she thought the position would
complement her majors in business and
political science.
Madden, who helped prepare rookie
committee members before budget
hearings began, said she advised the
Turn to Profile, page 7
Olympic torch to stop in Eugene
■ Torch bearers, selected because of their
inspirational lives, will carry the flame
through town before it heads to Portland
By Marty Toohey
Oregon Daily Emerald
The spirit and symbol of the Winter Olympics
will arrive in Eugene a little after 10 a.m. today.
The Olympic Torch will make a brief stop at
the Eugene Amtrak Station during its transna
tional journey, where Eugene Mayor Jim Torrey
will light it and give a brief address at 10:15 a.m.
The torch’s first Eugene carrier, Amy Feinberg,
will take the torch after its lighting and carry it on
the first leg of its route. The complete route runs
through downtown, past Franklin Boulevard to
Glen wood Boulevard, where carriers will load the
torch into a motorcade and transport it to Portland.
“The torch is a symbol that we can keep the
light of friendship alive,” Torrey said. “It symbol
izes what people can accomplish.”
No University students will carry the torch,
but former Duck quarterback Joey Harrington
will carry the torch in Portland at 6:15 p.m.
Olympic Torch Relay spokesman Mark Walker
said Chevrolet, Coca-Cola and the Salt Lake City
Olympics Committee selected torchbearers
whose experiences inspire others and fit with the
theme of the games: “Light the fire within.”
Eugene resident Shannon Scott, a 1979 graduate
of Sheldon High School, will carry the torch from
7th Avenue and Oak Street to Broadway and Pearl
Street. He said the theme of the games is fitting.
“Unless you have that inner fire, you can’t
achieve you goals,” said Scott, who was training for
the 1980 Olympic swim team before the United
Turn to Torch, page 7
Enrollment in Arabic jumps
■ i ne university s serr-stuay program
has more than tripled this term
By Katie Ellis
for the Emerald
The events of Sept. 11 have sparked a
national interest in the Middle East, and
University students are moving that
trend into academia.
Enrollment has more than tripled in
the Yamada Language Center's Arabic
Self-Study Program. Seventeen stu
dents are currently enrolled in the three
classes, compared to the five who par
ticipated in the program fall term.
“I believe the rise in the number of
students is because of Sept. 11,” said
Wed Abdul-Jawad, an assistant instruc
tor for two introductory Arabic lan
guage classes. ‘People are realizing they
do not know much about that part of the
world, and so they became interested in
the language.”
The Self-Study Language Program be
gan in 1997 with the goal of teaching
students less-common languages, Ya
mada graduate teaching fellow Chris
O’Connor said. With small classes and
an emphasis on developing communi
cation skills, the program is an opportu
nity for students to learn both die lan
guage and culture of a particular
country, he said.
“Self-motivation is key to succeed in
the program,” O’Connor said.
The program offers eight other
language classes, including Shona,
Turn to Arabic, page 7