Wednesday, March 6,2002
Since 1 900 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon
Volume 103, Issue 110
Silence is not so golden
■- -inii iiiini«ii«rimM^Din— f 1
Thomas Patterson Emerald
Junior Lezlie Frye leads a group of ‘radical cheerleaders’ in a chant of ‘No more silence’ during a rally in the EMU Amphitheater on Tuesday afternoon. Rallies have been
staged to raise awareness and urge administrators to improve safety in response to recent sexual assaults against women on campus.
Nader to make whirlwind visit to Eugene this week
■ Nader s short tour includes
a book signing, afundraiser,
a benefit dinner and speeches
ByJohnLiebhardt
Oregon Daily Emerald
Ralph Nader’s train has left
the station.
In a whirlwind 18-hour tour,
2000 Green Party presidential
candidate Ralph Nader will make
five public stops in Eugene be
tween Thursday evening and Fri
day afternoon.
Nader will begin his day Thurs
day at a fundraiser for the Lane
County Pacific Green Party at 6
p.m. and will not stop until he
gives the keynote address at the
Public Interest and Environmental
Law Conference at noon Friday.
In between stops, Nader will
speak at the McDonald Theatre at
7:30 p.m. Thursday, and will sign
books at the EMU Friday from
10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Greens also
hope to persuade Nader to attend
the after-party benefit at 10:00 p.m.
at CafeParadiso.
Members of the UO Cultural Fo
rum hope that Nader’s speech at the
McDonald will answer a lot of ques
tions that still surround the 2000
election. It will be Nader’s first trip
to Eugene since the election, and the
Cultural Forum has asked him to
speak about his new book, “Crash
ing the Party: How to Tell the Truth
and Still Run for President.” The
book allows Nader to retell the 2000
election from his viewpoint, laud
what he did right and point out
what he would have changed.
“People are still curious on why
he didn’t drop out,” said Geoff Hof
fa, contemporary issues coordina
tor for the Cultural Forum.
“Obviously, Bush is in
office, and a lot of people
blame Nader."
Geoff Hoffa
U0 Cultural Forum
Nader began his 2000 campaign
as a challenge to the two party sys
tem, and he decried corporate in
fluence in all levels of politics.
With Democrat Al Gore and Re
publican George W. Bush running
neck-and-neck during the last
weeks of the campaign, many De
mocrats called on Nader to drop
out and not to split the liberal vote.
Nader refused to bow out, a move
many Democrats felt tipped the
election to Bush’s favor.
“Obviously, Bush is in office,
and a lot of people blame Nader,”
Hoffa said. “And they want to
know why he did it. ”
Local Democrats said they
don’t harbor any animosity to
ward Nader, although they still
wish he would have dropped out
of the election.
“I’ve always respected Nader,
but I think he did a disservice to his
ideals by staying in the election,”
said Mike Linman, co-chairman of
the College Democrats.
Nader has a distinguished public
career that began in 1965 with a
book called ‘ ‘ Unsafe at Any Speed, ’ ’
an expose of safety concerns within
the automotive industry. He then
moved to the legal sphere, working
with lawmakers to create the Occu
pational Safety and Health Admin
istration and the Environmental
Protection Agency. Nader also
formed numerous citizen groups,
including the Center for Auto Safe
ty, Public Citizen and the Public In
terest Research Group.
Local members of the Lane
County Pacific Green Party hope
that Nader’s visit will ignite the
spark he lit during his 2000 cam
paign for president. Since the elec
tion, local Greens have moved to
other issues such as campaign fi
nance reform and instant runoff
elections, but local Green member
Natalie White said it will be help
ful to get a pep talk.
“It’s always nice when some
one from the national level comes
to town and says, ‘You can do it,”’
she said.
E-mail Pulse/features editor John Liebhardt
atjohnliebhardt@dailyemerald.com.
Ralph Nader's
schedule in Eugene
Thursday, March 7
6 p.m.
Dinner with Ralph Nader
Fundraiser for lane County Pacific
Green Party, Cafe Paradise, $50 -
$100 admission on sliding scale
Ralph Nader lecture and discussion
McDonald Theatre, seated $10
general public, $6 students, standing
room $7 general public, $3 students
10:30-11:30 a.m.
Ralph Nader booksigning
EMU, free
Norn
Keynote address
Public Interest and Environmental
law Conference, EMU Ballroom,
$76 conference registrat'on
PFC under
increased
scrutiny
■ Student representatives call
PFC’s process into question
after this year’s budget allocation
By Diane Huber & Eric Martin
Oregon Daily Emerald
Members of student government and
student programs are scrutinizing the
process by which the ASUO Programs
Finance Committee allocated more than
$4 million to student groups this year
because some say PFC abused its power.
Student representatives made allega
tions that the committee didn’t ade
quately prepare groups to present their
funding requests and used inappropri
ate criteria to evaluate those requests as
large blocks of student money hung in
limbo. The Oregon Daily Emerald also
reviewed poor or incomplete accounts
of the meetings and had difficulty ob
taining public records.
The money PFC divides up is drawn
directly from student pockets as an “inci
dental fee” when they pay tuition. The
fee pays for everything from student foot
ball and basketball tickets to the expenses
of programs like Project Saferide, which
offers women safe transportation at night.
ASUO senators passed the approxi
mately $4.3 million PFC budget on Feb.
27. Two senators who voted against the
proposal, Peter Watts and Andrew El
liott, said they thought PFC number
crunching was top-notch but ques
tioned the conduct of PFC members at
several meetings.
They, along with other student groups
like the Oregon Commentator, said PFC
ventured into inappropriate territory
when members let personal judgments
interfere with their decisions to award
funds to certain groups.
“Everybody who deals with budgets
must look at a group based on merit, not
based on their point of view,” Elliott
said. “They must divorce their opinion
from the decision. ”
i lit; uurauiig mmuitjs irom uie bora
mentator’s Jan. 17 budget hearing have
PFC member Joe Streckert making per
sonal assessments about the conserva
tive news magazine’s political leanings
and its mission statement.
“I find a fair amount of your mission
statement is inappropriate for a student
group,” Streckert said at the meeting.
“The place for a mission statement is not
to ... make derogatory statements about
other groups or organizations. You are in
sulting faculty and other organizations.
“I won’t approve anything that way.
It’s an insult.”
Streckert said Tuesday that in retro
spect he “would have liked” to push his
personal opinions aside but still believes
the Commentator’s budget was decided
on merits, such as spending history.
Commentator business manager Justin
Sibley said he understands that meetings
can become heated and tempers can
flare. “There’s no way any person can put
away personal biases,” Sibley said.
“That’s why it’s completely unreasonable
for only four people to make a decision
on that amount of money.”
The PFC is composed of seven mem
bers elected to one- and two-year terms.
Two seats were vacated and not
restaffed this year. The lack of members
Turn to PFC, page 4