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Oregon Daily Emerald
Editor in Chief:
Jessica Blanchard
Managing Editor:
Jeremy Lang
Editorial Editor:
Julie Lauderbaugh
Assistant Editorial Editor:
Jacquelyn Lewis
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Editorial
Parking issue
needs solutions
for both long
and short-term
With enrollment projected to hit 20,000 next
year, the University’s parking situation is
in dire need of attention. More drivers will
be wanting to park on campus, which will
result in more parking headaches. With only 3,250 park
ing spaces available and more than 6,000 permits sold,
the University has to take action now before the situa
tion worsens.
In 1996, the Campus Planning Committee reviewed the
campus parking system and outlined suggestions the
school should take to alleviate future parking woes. After
six years, little headway has been made on the suggestions
because there hasn’t been any leadership — or real initia
tive — to implement the suggestions.
Under the current structure, there is only one person
in the Department of Public Safety who deals directly
with the day-to-day realities of the University’s parking
situation — including ticketing and responding to park
ing complaints.
But if we are serious about implementing the suggested
parking initiatives, there needs to be more than one per
son involved in the project.
To start, the University must hire a person to directly plan
short- and long-term solutions to the parking problem. The
position could be funded without much difficulty — ac
cording to University planner Fred Tepfer, the University
has about $1 million in reserve for parking projects.
The next step for the University would be to decide
on a concrete timeline to follow through on the commit
tee’s suggestions. The initial ideas from the 1996 plan
included a zone parking system, designated carpool
parking and encouraging use of Lane Transit District’s
park-and-ride system.
The plan to create a parking garage should be a last resort
for the University, and the committee’s suggestions reflect
this. Plans to build a parking facility have been floated since
the 1980s, and the idea has always been sunk by various op
ponents , incl uding the Eugene City Council and neighbor
hood associations. A parking structure may be necessary
someday, but for now, planners need to look to improving
and maintaining the spaces already established.
Once the new parking planning liaison position is
filled, the committee’s short-term solutions need to be
promoted to current and incoming students alike. The li
aison should also make sure students are educated about
new alternative transportation methods and promote
their use. This way, new students won’t have to guess
what the University is doing about their parking needs,
and the channels of communication can open up.
Advertising of the new parking solutions also needs to
involve the ASUO. We hope ASUO President-elect
Rachel Pilliod will make improving the parking situation
on campus one of her term’s hallmark accomplishments.
Getting students enthused about parking alternatives is a
daunting task, but we believe Pilliod has the energy and
rallying power to do so.
The University needs to make this project a priority and
act with the same tenacity as they did to secure funding for
the Autzen Stadium expansion or the Lillis Business Com
plex construction. The parking woes will only continue to
worsen when more students flood the campus in the fall.
Creating more parking spots will only encourage more cars
to park in them, and the University needs to work to get
more longevity out of the spaces already available.
Editorial Policy
This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald
editorial board. Responses can be sent to
letters@dailyemerald,com. Letters to the editor and guest
commentaries are encouraged. Letters are limited to 250 words
and guest commentaries to 550 words. Please include contact
information. The Emerald reserves the right to edit for space,
grammar and style.
50 years of Dick Clark’s
‘American Boredom’
Steve Baggs Emerald
Which is more pathetic?
The entire combined
legacy of the show
“American Bandstand,”
or its “50th Anniversary Celebration,”
staged this past Friday night to the em
barrassment of the culturally sentient
all across “this great country”?
And I do mean staged.
During its long, painful crawl from
silly teen obsession to downright asi
nine national pop culture phenome
non, “American Bandstand” has come
to symbolize all that is fake, sick and
wrong with the music industry.
If the producers of the show were to
select a mascot to symbolize its rich
history, they would be forced to resur
rect the dead half of Milli Vanilli.
Of course, even dead, Milli (or is it
Vanilli? I never could keep them
straight) would have a pulse like a
thundering hydraulic pump com
pared to “American Bandstand” cre
ator and emcee Dick Clark.
But it’s not like I’m saying anything
particularly revolutionary here. Better
men and women than I have been jok
ing about the vampire-like quality of
“America’s Eternal Teenager” ever
since he resurfaced in the ’80s as Ed
McMahon’s straight man on “Bloopers
and Practical Jokes.”
Incidentally, has McMahon ever
considered that the poisonous mold
that chased he and his wife from their
mansion, after strangling their pooch
like Michael Myers, might actually be
a hilarious gag soon to be televised to
the unrestrained joy of millions?
Maybe not.
A far more likely scenario is that the
mold was a form of righteous plague
visited upon Big
Ed’s estate by the
angry God of the
Old Testament for
TenPas
Columnist
entering into a
business contract
with the devil.
Think I’m in
dulging in hyper
bole?
Well, think
again. Think hard.
In fact, I defy you
to think of a
celebrity more
likely to have in
gested the blood of
babies in an insidious plot to defy the
laws of time and age.
Yet, even if Dick is innocent of that
last charge, he’s still guilty of getting
off scot-free during the “Payola Scan
dal,” while men of honor like Alan
Freed were bankrupted and reduced
to the stuff of gibbering ex-greaser leg
end. As if that isn’t bad enough, how
about helping to shape a mainstream
musical environment less creative
than Fabio with writer’s block.
Where do you think the first “boy
bands” came from? Long before
“Back Sync” and “Color My New
Edition on the Block,” Dick was tak
ing young boys with no appreciable
singing talent and a great head of
hair, and shaping them into the teen
idols of yesteryear.
You remember people like Fabian
and Paul Anka, don’t you? No? What
a surprise.
Dick Clark has been creating and
promoting talentless one-hit-wonders
more than twice as long as MTV, and if
that’s something to celebrate, it could
only be in America.
Speaking of celebrating, I posed a
question earlier. By now you see the fol
ly of “American Bandstand,” but what
about its 50th anniversary special?
Here’s a brief synopsis, and I swear
I’m not making any of this up.
After leading into a live perform
ance —by such groups as K.C. and the
Sunshine Band, Wild Honey and The
Village People — with the comment
that disco was one of his favorite peri
ods in the history of music, Clark
dropped the bombshell.
Capping off this incredibly special
night of music would be an all-star big
band, consisting of music and televi
sion legends like Sheila E, Leif Garret,
The Pointer Sisters and Jerry Springer,
backing Little Richard on a medley of
oldie rock favorites.
Jesus wept.
And Jerry played a mean guitar.
Dick Clark may be the devil, but you
have to admit, he’s got great taste.
E-mail columnist Jacob TenPas
at jacobtenpas@dailyemerald.com. His opinions
do not necessarily reflect those of the Emerald.
Letter to the editor
Students can excel without
supporting inequality
In response to Robert Kelso’s letter
(“Graduation pledge shows bigotry,”
ODE, May 2):
• “Survival of the fittest” does not
mean that only the strongest, most
ruthless and least caring of others
survive. The true Darwinian defini
tion is “species with the most suc
cessful reproductive strategies flour
ish.” Humans, like other primates
and most mammals, use complicated
methods of nurturing, kinship ties
and concern for the well-being of
those close to us to achieve success.
The “legitimate philosophy” Kelso
refers to is nothing more than the
modern incarnation of Social Dar
winism — a 19th-century ideological
distortion of evolution used by the
powerful to justify the gross inequali
ty and injustice of the economic sys
tem they control.
• Is it “bigotry,” “big brother”-ish,
or “prejudicial” to assert that your
right to swing your fist ends where
my nose begins? What’s so terrible
about asking students to think about
the far-reaching social and environ
mental consequences of the careers
they pursue, to at least look at those
companies that swing their fists with
out regard to the noses they’re hitting
and ask, “Do I really want to be a part
of that?”
• Nobody forces students to sign.
Jeremy Jacobs
Eugene