rOCKLEKS
Ice Cream and Coffee Parlour
19th & Agate St.
Open Daily
12-11P.M.
We make our own
1 IceCream!
ODE Classifieds
346-4343
Premier Travel
• Airfare Specials •
Hartford, CT - SI70.00*'
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$278.00'
*lax not included, restrictions may- apply.
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"The Land East"
Traditional
S^-Y1 Greek & Indian Food
Lunch
Monday through Saturday
Dinner
7 Nights a Week
992 Willamette
Eugene, Or 97401
343-9661
* Experienced male and female piercers
* 24-hour emergency services
* State licensed and regulated
* Modern hospital sterilization methods
* Safe and professional procedures
* Largest selection of top-quality body jewelry
including: Surgical Steel, Titanium, Acrylic,
Gold, Glass, Wood, Stone, and more
675 Lincoln euflene 1425 monroe corval&s
541*348*6585 541*138*1711
Premium Pour Bartending
WWW.premiUm-pOUrj:OI1l More than just a school!
1010 Oak Street • Eugene, OR 97401 • (541) 485-4695 fax (541) 485-4844
Call TODAY
to reserve your spot
in any class
February
2nd- Weekend
18th- Weekday
March
5th- Evening
18th- Weekday
April
15th- Weekday
'Classes limited to 9 students.
Call for availability.
Flair Bartending
Put some flipping into
your mixing!
Take your bartending skills
to a new level with
competition style moves.
Next workshops:
March 14th, 6-8:30 p.m.
April 10th, 6-8:30 p.m.
A one-day workshop
to introduce various cordials,
bar tricks & puzzles that will
mix it up at your next social.
Next workshops:
Feb. 22nd 6 p.m.-lO p.m.
May 10th 6 p.m.-10 p.m.
OLCC Class
Jan. 27th @ 10:30 a.m.
Conference to emphasize
elimination of patriarchy
■Speakers will address
a variety of issues, including
sexism, racism, self-defense,
rape and ‘gender liberation’
By Diane Huber
Oregon Daily Emerald
People from up and down the
West Coast will be gathering in
McKenzie Hall this weekend for
the second Against Patriarchy con
ference.
The Student Insurgent as well as
campus and community members
organized the three-day event,
which begins tonight, featuring as
keynote speakers activist Leslie
Feinberg and slam poet Alix Olson.
The conference continues Saturday
and Sunday, with more than 50
workshops scheduled.
The conference is part of “a
movement towards the elimination
of male privilege, domination and
sexism” and the goal is “to create
dialogue, educate ourselves and
each other, and inspire action,” ac
cording to the Against Patriarchy
mission statement.
Insurgent staff member Oona
Beall said the conference is aimed
at addressing issues such as racism,
sexism and the other “-isms” in
“new and different ways.”
Organizers expect more than 500
people, and organizer Lucas
Spiegel said he has already re
ceived more than 150 housing re
quests from people who will be at
tending from out of town.
Feinberg, a transgender activist
and union organizer, will speak at 7
p.m. tonight in room 129/229
McKenzie. Tracy Scham, a member
of the Against Patriarchy collective,
said the group invited Feinberg to
address “gender liberation” in rela
tion to the current global situation
and militarism.
“One of the concerns (the Against
Patriarchy collective) has during a
wartime climate is that marginalized
groups become more marginalized
in a time when unity and conformi
ty are emphasized,” Scham said.
Feinberg is a well-known speaker
and author of several books includ
ing Stone Butch Blues. Scharn said
Feinberg advocates ways to become
involved in improving the world in
a practical way.
Feinberg will be followed by Ol
son, who has been featured in sever
al New York City venues including
Harlem's Apollo Theatre, Sympho
ny Space with Pete Seeger and
Michael Moore, and the HERE Per
forming Arts Festival and has per
formed at colleges and universities
around the country.
Workshops will begin Saturday
morning at 9 a.m. in McKenzie
Hall. They will cover a variety of
topics, including self-defense,
community response to domestic
violence and holistic healing for
trauma. Another workshop will in
clude a panel of advocates for
women in prison.
Raven Koch of Sexual Assault
Support Services will be facilitat
ing two of the workshops. Partici
pants in her self-defense workshop
on Saturday morning will share
stories and learn from each other,
as well as learn a few self-defense
techniques, she said.
She will also be leading a “rape
culture” workshop, which will fo
cus on mass media, religion and
other institutions that “mimic
power dynamics,” she said.
“These are institutions that sup
port the act of rape and mimic it
within its power structure by sup
porting a hierarchy,” she said.
Spiegel said conference organiz
ers encourage men to attend and
have made an effort to increase ac
cessibility by providing transla
tors, free childcare and free lodg
ing in the homes of volunteers.
Beall emphasized that the event
is “a conference for everyone — all
genders, races and political back
grounds.”
A complete schedule of
events is available at
www.fruitiondesign.com/against
patriarchy.
E-mail reporter Diane Huber
at dianehuber@dailyemerald.com.
Congress investigates 401 (k) clans
By Michael Tackett
Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON — On Dec. 21,
1999, in Enron’s chest-puffing days,
the company churned out a press
release to tout its status as one of
Fortune magazine’s “ 100 best com
panies to work for in America.”
“Our corporate culture and our
world-class employees make En
ron a great place to work,” said
Kenneth Lay, the company’s chair
man and chief executive officer.
“We are proud to receive recogni
tion as a top workplace; it’s a re
flection of our commitment to our
employees and their key role in
our company’s success.”
Now Lay is gone, and Enron
Corp.’s commitment to employees,
especially its retirement savings
plans, is under high-profile con
gressional scrutiny. And the story
of how many Enron workers
watched their 401 (k) plans, the
savings program designed to en
sure a comfortable retirement, be
come pearly worthless is sparking
a broader debate on the potent po
litical issue of retirement security.
“I’ve watched this go from a
backwater technical issue no one
paid attention to, to now being one
of the core issues people think of,”
said Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., a
leading pension authority in Con
gress. “As a result, the politics be
hind it have grown hotly charged
as well. This is a mixed blessing.
“The good news is
Congress is now interested.
The bad news is Congress
is now interested Thisisan
area where ill-advised, well
intentioned legislation can
do some serious damage. ”
Rep. Earl Pomeroy
D-N.D.
“The good news is Congress is
now interested,” Pomeroy said.
“The bad news is Congress is
now interested. This is an area
where ill-advised, well-inten
tioned legislation can do some
serious damage.”
Even before the hearings start
ed, several legislative proposals
have been introduced. One, by
Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.,
and Jon Corzine, D-N.J., would
limit employee contributions in
company stock to 20 percent of
the total and employees could
convert any matching company
stock to another financial instru
ment within 90 days. To reduce
the appeal of granting a match in
stock, the legislation also would
cut tax breaks for matching com
pany stock in half.
Another proposal, offered by
Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.,
calls for a federal tax penalty on
sales of stock by company insid
ers if other lower-ranking
employees are restricted.
The federal government can
only loosely regulate most em
ployee benefits because compa
nies provide them on a voluntary
basis. And, as workers often come
to find, companies almost univer
sally reserve the right to change,
amend or terminate any or all of
those benefits.
Businesses are far more likely,
however, to emphasize benefits as
an inducement to sign on and stay
with a company. Enron’s employ
ee handbook, for instance, lays out
a rich buffet of benefits in addition
to the 401(k) plan: a stock options
plan that awarded up to 25 percent
of salary in Enron stock options,
subsidized membership at The
Body Shop fitness center, complete
with tai chi and Pilates classes, and
an on-site doctor’s office.
Like many companies, Enron
also offered a 401(k) savings plan,
listing its stock as the first option of
many investment funds available.
The company matched each $1 an
employee contributed with 50
cents worth of Enron stock.
Those who chose the Enron
option were rewarded famously as
the stock value soared. But as
Enron’s stock plummeted, they
learned the crushing reality of the
risk inherent in 401(k) plans. The
plaintive stories of families whose
retirement savings were wiped out
will no doubt be told during the
course of the hearings.
Congress is likely to respond in
some fashion, and Pomeroy and
others are concerned that
lawmakers could actually set back
the cause of retirement security. For
instance, if Congress were to
regulate 401 (k) plans too heavily,
companies might choose to not
offer them, putting workers’
retirement in even greater peril.
©2002, Chicago Tribune.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune