Minorities
continued from page 1
still struggling with this issue.”
Tracy said some minority stu
dents come from urban areas and
have mostly interacted with other
minorities, while others have
grown up in rural areas with mostly
whites and only a handful of other
minorities.
“The social pressures from these
two backgrounds go both ways,”
Tracy said. “Minority students
come in with different dynamics
and how they perceive themeelves
or how they adapt to the Universi
ty depends upon their diverse
backgrouxids.”
Junior Andrea Rodriguez, 21,
grew up in a predominately white
Portland community and said she
also has struggled with finding her
identity. In middle school, she said
she wrote her last name as Rod be
cause she wanted to disassociate
herself from her Mexican heritage.
“I have felt torn. You want to fit
in with the norm,” she said.
Rodriguez said she began to ap
preciate her Mexican culture by
learning more about it through
MEChA and her Latin American
classes. She said as she has come to
understand both cultures she has
found the best elements from both
backgrounds.
“It would be like choosing be
tween my two parents, and you just
can’t do that. I get to pick and
choose what I want from each cul
ture,” she said. “I am very fortunate.
I have created my own culture.”
Tracy said that for some students
who come to the University, it is
the whitest place they have ever
lived, and for others, the Universi
ty is the most diverse place they
have ever lived.
Before senior Jamar Hayles, 23,
came to the University, he had not
interacted with many white peo
ple. Hayles grew up in a predomi
nantly black neighborhood in
Long Beach, Calif.
Hayles said attending the Uni
versity has broadened his cultural
views, but he has never struggled
to define himself between any two
cultures.
“Coming to the University has
been a good experience for me. Be
fore coming here, I didn’t really
think Caucasians liked black peo
pie,” he said. “But when I came
here and interacted with them, they
were nice to me, greeting me on
campus and helping me with
school work. This broke some of
my earlier stereotypes.”
Freshman Allison Prasad, 18,
said she has learned to assimilate
herself with many different cul
tures. Prasad is Indian American,
and has lived in both a predomi
nately Asian community in Van
couver, British Columbia, and a
black community in Portland.
“I am a puzzle piece of all these
different cultures,” she said. “Every
little nook and cranny of me is
Asian, black and Indian,” she said.
“I think to assimilate yourself you
must be open-minded. If you are ig
norant to other cultures you will
feel like an outsider.”
As for Hur, she said she still
struggles with incorporating the
two cultures into her life, but her
trip to Korea has helped.
“I am an Oregonian, an Ameri
can and a Korean,” she said. “I am
just me — I am Christina and with
in Christina, I am all these things.”
E-mail reporter Danielle Gillespie
atdaniellegillespie@dailyemerald.com.
Profiling
continued from page 1
believe face plays a role in traffic
stops and crimes. The telephone
survey of 800 Oregonians was
conducted in December 2001 for
the Oregon Criminal Justice Com
mission and also was intended to
test whether people’s perceptions
about police and race had
changed since the Sept. 11 at
tacks.
“The general findings were that
the majority of respondents have
generally positive feelings about
our police officers,” said Phillip
Lemman, executive director of CJC.
However, Lemman said that 17
percent of those surveyed believed
race always or often played a role in
police stops, and 39 percent be
lieved it sometimes did. Thirty-four
percent of those surveyed said it
rarely or never did.
But Lemman added that many
people surveyed had no personal
experience with racial profiling —
attitudes are often based on what
people hear.
“We’ve found that a fair amount
of perception (about racial profil
ing) is driven by media coverage,”
Lemman said.
Student Lara Wilhelm seemed to
lend credence to that finding.
While the University sophomore
said she thinks racial profiling is a
serious problem in Oregon and
across the country — particularly
since the Sept. 11 attacks — she
also said her experience with racial
profiling is limited to only what she
has seen on television or read about
in newspapers.
“I’ve heard a lot about it,” she
said. “But being a white girl —
we’re probably the least targeted
out of everyone.”
Regardless of what inspires
such perceptions, Frohnmayer
said the fact that they exist creates
a problem for law enforcement.
Whether people are being ha
rassed is almost impossible to
quantify, but the perception of ha
rassment is enough to warrant in
\
New child care center
The University Planning Committee has decided to move its proposed childcare facility from the corner of East 17th
Avenue and Columbia Street to East 17th Avenue and Moss Street. The $2.7 million facility will replace the EMU Childcare
Center and two off-campus facilities.
Source: Campus Planning Department
Russell Weller Emerald
Childcare
continued from page 1
Eugene created a contract agree
ment in the early 1980s to manage
University growth east of campus.
The plan establishes guidelines for
where and how the University can
expand.
University and neighborhood as
sociation members said tension
about center’s original site started
after the University overlooked
some of the management policies
in the agreement. University Plan
ning Director Chris Ramey said he
and his staff accept responsibility
for the misinterpretation.
“We should have been more ful
ly aware of University policies,”
he said.
Ramey said the need for a site
change “clearly shows those poli
cies need to be updated.”
The site proposal is only a rec
ommendation to Frohnmayer’s of
fice, which will disregard it only, if
some major flaw in the planning
commission’s proposal is discov
ered. As the commission is the
University entity responsible for
reviewing building proposals, its
proposals are rarely rejected.
The University has used off
campus houses for childcare since
June 1970, and childcare directors
requested a new facility as far back
as 1985.
E-mail reporter Marty Toohey
at martytoohey@dailyemerald.com.
Adam Jones Emerald
Some students of color say although they experience various social pressures while
combining two or more cultures in their lives, remaining open to diversity is key.
vestigation and reform.
In response to complaints that
the Eugene Police Department en
gaged in racial profiling, on Jan. 1,
the department began requiring of
ficers to fill out cards containing in
formation about traffic stops — in
cluding the perceived race of the
person being stopped. According to
Patrol Capt. Becky Hanson, EPD
originally required officers to ask
about the ethnicity of people they
stopped, but discontinued die prac
tice after officers “found that asking
was contentious.”
EPD conducted a survey last fall
to determine whether complaints
that EPD officers made traffic
stops based on race were valid,
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but because the survey was not
conducted in a scientific manner,
the results of the survey are not
being used to evaluate policy,
Hanson said.
Frohnmayer lauded efforts like
EPD’s and called the openness and
willingness to address the issue
among police in Oregon “surpris
ing and gratifying.” But he added
that more needs to be done.
“There has to be an effort on the
part of police agencies to identify
the reasons why police act the way
they do,” he said. “The fact re
mains, we need better data.”
E-mail higher education editor Leon Tovey
at leontovey@dailyemerald.com.
UDack
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UO Dept, of Architecture
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to the school of architecture
to present the work of his
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Friday Feb. 22nd
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177 Lawrence Hall,
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Lecture is FREE
and open to the public.
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