Oregon daily emerald., May 28, 2002, Image 1

Sports
Hayward Field turns into ‘Shot Put Town’
at the 28th Prefontaine Classic on Sunday.
Page 9
httpyAvww.dailyemerald.com
Tuesday, May 28,2002
Since 1 900 University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 103, Issue 159
‘Diamonds in the rough’
■Geology Professor Gregory
Retallack finds fossils millions
of years old at the business
school construction site
By Lisa Toth
X JL school, fossils of 35 mil
lion-year-old sea creatures are
being discovered.
The approximately 40 speci
mens being found are only fossils
of crustaceans and mollusks, but
to Gregory Retallack, a professor
in the University’s Department of
Geological Sciences, they are
bona fide diamonds in the rough.
Retallack said fossil digging
has been a life-long passion and
it was “hard to resist” the chance
to sift through the massive hole
that was once the Charles H.
Lundquist College of Business.
“Not all geology students are
into fossils these days,” he said.
“This is kind of dirty work, but I
like it. It’s a treasure hunt is
what it is.”
About two weeks ago, 10 to 12
feet below the surface of the
ground, construction workers
began finding the fossils, which
will be eventually used as learn
ing tools in the classroom. And
that’s when Retallack knew it
was time to show up on site
ready to dig.
“It’s just bang and grab.
There’s no super-sophisticated
technique,” he said.
He said the fossils being found
are from the Eugene Formation,
a nearly 2,000-meter thick layer
of basaltic sandstone that formed
in a shallow marine environ
ment just off shore of the
foothills of the Western Cascades
between Eugene and Salem. The
Oregon Daily Emerald
mid the rubble that was
once the business
Calling this part ot paleontology ‘treasure hunting,’ Professor Gregory Retallack searches among the rubble from the excavation
of the Lillis construction site for fossils to possibly add to the University’s collection.
formation is composed partly of
volcanic ash that erupted from
the early Cascades.
Retallack is a campus archeo
logical veteran who has dug
through previous University
construction sites during his 20
years as a professor here. But he
added that not everyone is as in
terested in digging as he is. He
said geology is a vast field that
includes the study of rocks, lay
ers of the earth, plate tectonics
and soils — it’s not limited to
just fossils.
Retallack arrived at the busi
ness school site Tuesday dressed
in a pair of muddy hiking boots,
a plaid shirt and weathered pair
of Levi’s, so preoccupied with
this hunt for “treasure” that he
darted from spot to spot, barely
stopping to say a full sentence.
Turn to Fossils, page 3
Greek leaders question implementation of new ‘dry’ standards
■ Students are concerned about
the necessity for and application
of new greek chapter standards
that will take effect in December
By Kara Cogswell
Oregon Daily Emerald
As administrators tout their vi
sion of a new and improved Uni
versity greek system, fraternity and
sorority leaders are feeling like
they’ve been left with the dirty
work of carrying out an agenda they
didn’t set.
“The administration handed us
this decision that has a drastic effect
on chapter members in a letter,” said
Jackie Ray, president of the Panhel
lenic Council, a body of sorority rep
resentatives. “They failed to give us
the steps to get there. ”
On May 17, University Presi
♦\ dent Dave Frohnmayer approved
new standards, effective this fall,
for all fraternities and sororities
that receive school services. The
standards require chapters to have
alcohol- and drug-free housing
and to maintain a chapter grade
point average at least as high as the
University men’s and women’s
averages. Chapters will also be re
quired to show a commitment to
community service and member
leadership development.
Frohnmayer said he believed the
new standards are necessary to fix
a failing greek social policy and to
curb reckless underage drinking in
fraternity houses.
“Voluntary standards were not
only not working, they were actual
ly being flaunted,” he said.
Ray said she “understands the
validity” of his decision. However,
administrators’ failure to involve
students more closely in the deci
sion-making process has cost them
the support of many chapter mem
bers, she said, making it difficult for
greek student
leaders to im
plement the
new standards.
“Now we’re
supposed to en
force this, and
yet, when you
have a number
of people who
don’t agree
with the stan
dards, it’s going
to be hard to get those same people
to enforce the rules,” she said.
The call for change in the greek
system began last summer when
EMU Director of Student Activities
Gregg Lobisser, Associate Vice Pres
ident for Student Affairs Anne
Leavitt and Greek Life advisees be
gan discussing how to improve the
organization’s social policies.
At the same time, he said, they
began to hear from greek alumni
who were worried because greek
recruitment was declining while
University enrollment was rising.
They began meeting with local
alumni groups, and found that
many greek alumni supported the
idea of a dry greek system. Some
people said it would “level the
playing field” in recruitment, Lo
bisser said. Other alumni, who
graduated in the 1970s and 80s, said
they drank too much in their chap
ters and they wanted a better atmos
phere for greek students today.
In the fall, Lobisser said, admin
istrators began meeting with house
corporation owners, the landlords
of individual chapter houses who
are usually greek alumni. Adminis
trators also began meeting with
some greek students, including out
going Interfraternity and Panhel
lenic presidents Kevin Gelbrich
and Amy Stanton and incoming
presidents Ray and Kyle Knepper.
Administrators expanded the
scope of their discussion with stu
dents in January, meeting with
chapter presidents and Interfrater
nity and Panhellenic council mem
bers to discuss the “health of the
greek system,” Lobisser said.
From students, they heard first
hand that voluntary social policies
were no longer working. Some stu
dents thought the solution was to
have all houses go dry, he said, but
a larger number of students said all
chapters should be wet.
Lobisser said he and Leavitt took
student perspectives into account
in making their recommendation to
the president, but they didn’t
Turn to Greek, page 4
Theft, loss
of plates
costly for
Folk Fest
■A loss of nearly 500 plates
at the Folk Festival causes financial
problems and raises questions
about the reusable plate system
By Alix Kerl
Oregon Daily Emerald
Campus Recycling’s first attempt to
utilize reusable plates at the Willamette
Valley Folk Festival was hampered by
the loss and theft of nearly 500 of the
4,000 plates.
“Over 500 plates are missing,” said
Student Recycling Coordinator Jeff
Ziglinski. “It just breaks my heart.” The
total bill for the missing plates is near
ly $800. About 400 of the plates were
the 9-inch size, 50 were oval-shaped
plates and 30 were a 10-inch size.
Jonathan Borgida, events recycling
coordinator, said that there are still
plates showing up as campus grounds
workers find them in the bushes, but he
believes the total missing will stay
about 500.
Student and non-student employees
at Campus Recycling have been work
ing for years to reduce the amount of
waste generated at campus festivals and
events. After several years of compost
ing waste at these events, Campus Re
cycling decided to ask the ASUO for
money to purchase reusable plates and
forks. In the winter, ASUO gave the
group nearly $8,000 to spend on plates
and forks. The money came from over
realized funds, the amount of money
left over when projected enrollment is
lower than the actual enrollment.
Ziglinski said that the recycling staff
used several methods during the
Turn to Plates, page 5