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
Monday, February 18,2002
Editor in Chief:
Jessica Blanchard
Managing Editor:
Jeremy Lang
Editorial Editor:
Julie Lauderbaugh
Assistant Editorial Editor:
Jacquelyn Lewis
Editorial
Eugene police
are listening
but students
aren’t talking
University students are known for
voicing their opinions on a vari
ety of campus and community
based issues, including drug and
alcohol policies and whether police offi
cers should be allowed to carry weapons
on campus. However, students have
shown surprisingly little interest in cam
pus programs about Eugene policing poli
cies. Despite the Eugene Police Depart
ment’s efforts to gain student feedback
regarding its policies, turnout for its cam
pus forums has been extremely low. In
fact, no students at all attended the first
workshop, which reviewed “use of force”
policies. Lack of interest in this area is
cause for concern, since EPD’s policies af
fect college students in many ways.
Kudos to EPD for attempting to educate
students and get them involved. The de
partment’s outreach program has held a se
ries of workshops on campus this year,
aimed at collecting student suggestions
about community-based programs and po
lice policies. EPD said students could re
duce the number of beat patrols on campus
by supporting the community programs.
The Eugene Police Commission, EPD’s
public outreach service, is also preparing
its programming recommendations for the
department’s upcoming budget and could
use student input in deciding on programs
and policies.
Many students have cited concerns
about law enforcement issues on campus,
such as drug and alcohol policies and the
possible return of Party Patrol, a program
that boosted weekend night patrols in the
University neighborhood. However, those
who really want their voices heard should
actually attend the workshops designed to
let them do just that.
It’s imperative to speak out, but the only
way to institute change is to use the servic
es available and channel suggestions to
the right people. EPD has made an effort to
listen to students, and it’s time students
take advantage of that opportunity.
Editorial Policy
sent to letters@dallyetoerald.com. Lettersto
the editor and pest commentaries are
encouraged. Letters are limited
to 250 words and guest commentaries to 550
words. Please include contact information.
The Emerald reserves die right to edit for
space, grammar and style.
Editorial Board Members
Jessica Blanchard
editor in chief
Jeremy Lang
managingeditor .
Patricia Haehten
community representative
Julie Lauderbaugh
editorial editor
Jacguelyn Lewis
assistant editorial editor
Goida Porfitfo
community representative
Leon Tovey
newsroom representative
HOLIDAY
gone wrong
Open the window, and take a good
whiff of the air this morning.
Don’t smell anything other than
the cool, crisp air of a February
morning? Try again. Smell it now? Yes,
there it is, the smell of yet another national
holiday gone wrong.
Today is Presidents Day — a nationally
recognized holiday set aside each year to of
ficially honor the birth of George Washing
ton, but also the other 42 men who have led
our country. Across the nation, the youth of
America will spend the remainder of the
week learning about
our famous, and also
infamous, presidents.
Our parents are enjoy
ing a rare three-day
weekend, but for those
of us here at the Uni
versity, the holiday
doesn’t even warrant a
day off from school.
This is a shame. We
are missing out on all
that Presidents Day
has become. While we
are sitting in class
today, many of our
fellow Americans
are spending their day working the plas
tic of their credit cards. I don’t know
about you, but there is nothing that says,
“Thank you, Mr. President,” better than a
new pair of shoes.
There really isn’t anything wrong with
corporate America taking advantage of
Presidents Day, because it happens for
every other holiday as well. What sets Pres
idents Day apart is that other than the big
sales at the shopping mall, there isn’t much
more behind it.
Oliver
Columnist
On Veterans Day and Memorial Day, we
hold public events to faithfully honor those
who have served to protect our country. In
dependence Day is a full day of celebra
tions concluding with picturesque fire
works. Christmas holds many different
meanings to different people, but com
bined with Thanksgiving, it is generally
used to spend with family.
Each January we rightfully devote a sin
4 9 1
V/£ WANT
V 'TO £ Hop 'Till Voo
—v—
■i
King Jr. The day is filled with events
not only to commemorate what he did for
civil rights in the country, but also to learn
about what he stood for. This is what Presi
dents Day should be. Instead, it is just a day
to buy one and get one free.
There are no ceremonies in front of City
Hall, or parades down Main Street or festi
vals in the town square. Love them or hate
them, all of our American presidents
should be respected or honored in a man
ner much more meaningful than advertise
ments that carry a red, white and blue
theme. Instead of receiving a day off from
school, children up through high school
should spend the day in their classrooms
learning about the office of the President—
what it means and the men who have
1/
Peter Utsey Emerald
served as America’s
official leader.
Since many adults would
balk at the idea of going back to school,
much less open a book and read from it, for
them Presidents Day should be an opportu
nity to give back to the society they live in.
Imagine a day where instead of going to a
mega store, Americans take the time to give
the community center a much-needed coat
of paint, spruce up the city park or repair
the playground at the local school.
Our presidents have unselfishly given
up years of their lives to protect the Amer
ican way of life. Giving one day back only
seems fair.
E-mail columnist Jeff Oliver at
jeffoliver@dailyemerald.com. His opinions
do not necessarily reflect those of the Emerald.
Fell Rests its:
Every week, me Emerald prints the results of our online poll and the
poll question for next week. The poll can be accessed from the
main page of our Web site, www.dailyemeraid.com. We encourage
you to send us feedback about the poll questions and results,
last week's pel! question:
lev \ b eig iting\ dentines & '
Results: 88 tola! votes
BEativ . tie—10.2 pf
* ^ 8' 8-:
• Hanging out with friends—4.5 percent, or 4 votes
»
• Wondering where it all went wrong—27,3 percent, m 24 votes
■ Nothing—31.8 percent, or 2$ voles
This week's poll question:
What is your favorite Winter Olympics scandal?
The choices:
■ French pairs figure skating judge/double gold-medal
controversy in 2002
■ Apolo Anton Ohno's gold-medal loss to Australia's Steven
Bradbury because of afall in 2002
•Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati being stripped
of gold medal in 1998
•The Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerngan debacle In 1994
•Don't know
Letter to the editor
Improving accessibility can increase voter turnout
If ASUO stopped wasting time promising to be more accessible and
actually did something about it, voter turnout would increase.
Start by making elections more accessible.
ASUO can simply post a list of the positions and candidates in one of
their big, scary office windows. Along those same lines, the ASUO Elec
tions Board should actually update their Web site (http://gladstone.uore
gon.edu/~asuoelec). They should include Web page addresses for can
didates who have them, preferred contact information for each candidate
(like an e-mail address), the schedule of debates and candidate fairs, and
when the Emerald’s elections special is being published. They could also
include information about dates of the primary and general elections and
directions for voting on DuckWeb.
Voter turnout is also about voter education. Voter education doesn’t
happen by candidates using up paper resources covering every inch of
the campus with signs and leaflets. It doesn’t happen by friends wearing
shirts or signs telling people who to vote for, or by planting OSPIRG peo
ple every 30 feet, telling us whether to vote for their measure. It happens
by getting the issues out there and then giving the candidates an oppor
tunity to take a stand on them.
Students on this campus don’t vote because they don’t know or they
don’t care. The only ways you can get them to vote are by getting out
the information and by making them care. It may be difficult, but it
can be done.
Mindi Rice
sophomore
journalism