An independent newspaper Wednesday,February 13, 2002 Since 1 900 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon Volume 103, Issue 95 Workshop participants to perform life stories ■ Students of artist Alex Luu each tell ‘My Own Story’ tonight By Diane Huber Oregon Daily Emerald Performance artist Alex Luu be gan the last “My Own Story” work shop by asking participants to say, “The big black bear bit the big black bug. The big black bug bled blood. ” At first, members of the student groups involved stumbled over the words, but after several rounds, the tongue-twister rolled smoothly off of their tongues. The 11 participants from the Asian Pacific American Student Union, the Black Student Union, the Vietnamese Student Association and MEChA have been attending Luu’s workshop for two hours, twice a week since the begin ning of January. The workshops consist of more than just games — each stu dent has been perfecting a personal monologue, called “My Own Story,” which will be performed tonight at 6 p.m. in the EMU Ben Linder Room. APASU first invited Luu to the University last year to lead a three week set of workshops after watch ing his one-man show, “Three Lives,” that he performed in Eugene in April 2000. Luu, who arrived at the University from Los Angeles six weeks ago, will travel to Boston af ter he leaves Eugene to begin anoth er “My Own Story” workshop with at-risk Asian high school students. If all goes as planned, Luu will be back at the University next year, and his workshop will be offered as a class for credit. After warm-ups, the workshop in volves writing on different prompts. He might ask participants to “write about five things you love and five things you hate about your race,” he said. But students sometimes come into the workshop worried that they don’t have any stories to write about. Luu said one of the most reward ing parts of the workshop is when students “understand and realize, Turn to Story, page 4 Rallying against violence Thomas Patterson Emerald Holly Magner makes her position on the subject of rapists known during a rally supporting campus safety. Breaking curfew Students rally against sexual violence for the safety of women on campus By Kara Cogswell Oregon Daily Emerald Wearing stickers that read, “No more curfews,” and carrying signs bearing messages such as, “I’m not afraid,” students filled the EMU Amphithe ater on Tuesday afternoon to speak out about a woman’s right to be safe. Student organizers of the “No More Curfews on Campus” rally wore an eclectic assortment of brightly colored clothing and called themselves “radical cheerleaders,” leading the 100-plus crowd in cheers between speakers from campus groups. “It’s nobody else’s right to steal my body,” they chanted. “It’s nobody else’s right to steal my night. ” Junior Lezlie Frye said she began planning the rally with three other women, also University stu dents, in response to an attempted rape of a woman behind the Knight Library two weeks ago. Once they started organizing the rally, other stu dents wanted to get involved as well, she said. Nikki Fancher, co-director of Project Saferide, and Michelle Manoguerra, community education program coordinator for Sexual Assault Support Services, were among speakers at the rally. Fancher said University administrators should stop denying that women are at risk on campus and do more to protect women against assault and sexual violence. “The administration needs to know that women need to be safe,” she said. “We need to make our demands heard. ” Following the rally, organizers led the crowd on a march down 13th Avenue, stopping at John son Hall. Marchers then walked through the building, and continued toward the Knight Li brary, ending the march behind the library, where the last attack on campus took place. During the rally, organizers polled students in the amphitheater about campus safety issues, and what they would like to see changed, Frye said. She said they would decide what step to take next based on responses from students. Senior Frankie Cohen, who attended the rally, said the event let women’s voices be heard, and could pave the way for change. “It lets people know that we’re not just going to sit here and be quiet... and that there are people who are willing to take a stand, ” she said. E-mail student activities editor Kara Cogswell at karacogswell@dailyemerald.com. PFC cuts hit more budgets ■ Many student groups received reductions in their previously approved 2002-03 budgets By Diane Huber Oregon Daily Emerald On Tuesday, the ASUO Programs Fi nance Committee decreased more stu dent groups’ 2002-03 budgets, including the Oregon Daily Emerald’s by $16,629. The Emerald’s General Manager Judy Riedel said PFC had reduced the 2001 02 budget a year ago to about $120,000 as a trial to see if the newspaper could generate more money from advertising. Because of the state of the economy, this year the Emerald has lost many adver tisers, she said. As a result, the Emerald has had to cut printing costs by print ing smaller papers and using less color, she said. Decreasing next year’s budget from the $132,870 had PFC reinstated before the accounting error to $116,241 now “is like kicking us when we’re down,” she said. PFC member Erin Pursell said the projected budget the Emerald had pre sented wasn’t based on concrete num bers, but rather it was based on “previous amounts. ” The Multicultural Center’s budget dropped from $79,751 to $78,75. MCC Program Adviser Steve Morozumi urged PFC not to decrease MCC’s budget because “the MCC provides an indis pensable and vital role on campus. ” He said the budget cut could keep MCC from bringing in well-known speakers like Amarai Baraka, who came to the University last month. PFC member Nadia Hasan voted against the decrease. She said MCC is an umbrella organization for many other student groups, and a drop in allocation would affect a wide range of students. PFC members discussed leaving Stu dents of the Indian Subcontinent’s budg et at the $5,435 originally voted on, but voted to decrease its budget to $5,206. Pursell said she thought PFC should vote to reduce SIS’s budget. Because SIS is a new student group, there are no records of their spending habits, she said. “I feel a certain section of groups are feeling targeted by the recalls,” she said. Turn to PFC, page 3 ASUO candidates hope to add to ASUO Executive, not re-create it ■ Executive ticket Rachel Pilliod and Ben Buzbee hope to also challenge issues like health care, leadership and voter turnout By Kara Cogswell Oregon Daily Emerald Rachel Pilliod, a sophomore po litical science and general science major, is running for ASUO presi dent. Ben Buzbee, a junior business major, is running for vice president. Q: There are, at last count, 10 tickets running for ASUO Execu tive, which is more than past years. What sets yourselves apart from the other candidates? A: Our experience—I’m (Buzbee) currently on student senate and I’ve been on the EMU Board for the past two years. Rachel was an (ASUO) in tern last year, she was on the (ASUO ■ Constitution) Court and she is currently work ing on health is sues in the ASUO office. Q: What is your platform? A: There’s four different parts to it. The first is going to be focusing on leadership. (The EMU Board) defunded the Student Activities Resource Office, so we’d ASUO Elections This is the sixth in a 10-part series of question and-answer sessions with ASUO Executive candidates. like to build a leadership of fice. Second would be health care issues. Health care in surance is a very confusing process. We want to create awareness about the opportuni ties the Oregon Health Plan has for students. The next thing is legislative issues. What we’d like to do is get (students) to register to vote, to get excited about the election, and then to clearly un derstand the issues so that they are en BUZBEE couraged to vote. Also, we will work on getting students up in Salem to lobby toward keeping tuition low, pro tecting the Ore gon Opportunity Grant, the Child care Block Grant, and just making sure that those standards are still in place. The last part is continuation of things that are going on in the Exec, right now. Having worked with Nil da and Joy, we want to keep work ing on those issues that have been implemented already. Q: What will you advocate for on the state level for students and how will you carry out your plans? A: The first part of it is going to be a huge push on “get out the vote,” be cause we will have new local legisla tors. Health care will be one thing we are going to be lobbying on, also keep ing tuition low, as well as protecting the Oregon Opportunity Grant and the Childcare Block Grant, and also working with the Oregon Students of Color Coalition concerning minority access to higher education. Q: What specific campus-orient ed issues will you champion? A: We arfe going to work on Turn to ASUO page 3