Letters to the editor
Emerald should apologize
On March 1, Robin Weber wrote
about women empowering them
selves through a self-defense work
shop at the University (“Empower
ment through awareness”). It was
in extremely poor taste that the first
words of the article were the sexist
slurs that women often encounter
when going against the patriarchy.
Yes, those slurs exist, I hear them
myself, but to open an article with
words of oppression? That com
pletely undermines what the
women were doing. It would be the
same if you opened an article about
MEChA, BSU or APASU by listing
the racial slang or slurs used by big
ots. That is not acceptable, nor is
it OK to do that to the women
who are doing something to pro
tect themselves from the current
and persistent crimes against
them on campus.
I think Weber and the Emerald
staff need to apologize to the
women specifically at the program
and to the women on campus for
allowing that kind of prejudice to
taint an otherwise good article.
Women are working hard to break
the silence around campus vio
lence against women. Don’t let
your paper be a tool for silencing
them. Women are more than half of
the student body on campus. Our
issues are important, and we de
mand respect.
Melissa Baldwin
senior
women’s studies
The award for absurdity
goes to...
So let me get this straight. In
“The world according to Jeff Oliv
er,” we public school students are
less capable, less motivated, and in
short, unnecessary financial bur
dens to the system. Congratula
tions to him for having written the
most painfully absurd column I
have read in perhaps months. I am
a student at the University of Wash
ington, Washington’s flagship pub
lic university. The UW has an en
rollment of more than 25,000, (and
is #45 in the U.S. News Top 50 that
Oliver cites). I can assure Mr. Oliver
that some of us are indeed working
hard in public schools for “more
than just receiving a piece of pa
per” at the end, regardless of what
his experience is.
Oliver says that reduced enroll
ment due to increased tuition is
“fine,” because “as the cost... goes
up, so should admission stan
dards.” His assumption that less
wealthy means less qualified is
classist and offensive. I suppose he
also thinks that the state of Oregon
should donate to the new “Univer
sity, Inc.,” the hundreds of millions
of dollars’, worth-of real estate,
buildings and resources it has ac
crued developing its flagship uni
versity. The primary role of a public
university is to provide quality ed
ucation to its own state, not to de
liver the best product to those who
can afford it.
I would also add that established
Eastern Oregon University graduates
probably do not appreciate having
their alma mater referred to as a “glo
rified community college.” Keep
public schools public and let elitist
snobs provide their own educations.
Matthew Echert
student
University of Washington
Cartoon found
not so humorous
As a Jewish student on this cam
pus, I was extremely offended by
the cartoon that ran March 6. It was
distasteful and depicted ignorance
by the artist. I am surprised that
you allowed something so disgust
ing and untrue in your well-re
spected paper. There is violence in
Israel, a lot of it, but it is nothing
like what the cartoon shows. Israel
does not shoot artillery into a popu
lated refuge camp. If Mr. Baggs
would read a newspaper instead of
watching a few images flashed on
CNN, he would understand the
context of what is happening there.
As journalists, you should know of
the many different ways to depict
incidents, and watching one source
is not a basis for making an as
sumption about “Logic in Israel.”
Israel is retaliating to Palestinian
suicide bombers, who run up to bus
es and attack clubs that college stu
dents like you and I would go to. I
firmly believe that “violence is the
last resort of the incompetent,” but
when you have a population in your
midst that is trying to literally kill
you, action must be taken. I have lost
a lot of respect in the journalistic
credibility of the Emerald today.
Jason Stein
junior
psychology
Election
continued from page 3
the law they accused the e-board
of breaking, nor did they have
these laws in their possession. The
editorial mentioned being in
formed of all laws that apply to the
e-board, but what about being in
formed before printing an editori
al? If the editorial board had inves
tigated this issue before printing
they would have found the re
sponse to the grievance that states
that there was no violation of Pub
lic Meeting Laws.
Additionally, the editorial’s
comparison to the Florida voting
situation was a bit extreme. The
Florida “vote-counting fiasco” was
a serious situation where people
were denied access to vote. No
body was denied the right to vote
by the elections board. Instead of
printing inaccurate information,
why doesn’t the editorial board
write about how well this year’s
election went? For the first time in
three years the election was not
stopped or postponed. We also had
the highest voter turnout in more
than four years, and we only had
one grievance. But apparently due
to the lack of controversy during
this year’s elections, the editorial
board felt they must create some of
their own.
The ASUO elections board is composed of
Courtney Hight, Meryl Kusyk, Andie Hall,
Katie Hale and Sonja Erickson.
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