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Living foods/Page 5
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Tuesday, May 6,2003
Since 1900
University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 104, Issue 147
Education meets legislation
i\uum uncidiu
Students gathered on the steps of the state Capitol to lobby for access to higher education and to protest OUS funding cuts on Monday.
Working hard for the money
Students and administrators
converged on the state Capitol
on Monday to protest higher
education funding cuts
Aimee Rudin
City/State Politics Reporter
If the world were perfect, Karen
Ryan would have spent Monday study
ing for her classes at Southern Oregon
University. Instead, she traveled to
Salem to take part in a student lobby
day on the steps of the state Capitol.
Ryan’s father had been telling her
that she should be a lobbyist for as long
as she can remember, but until the de
clining state economy spurred a series
of budget cuts in education, she never
felt the desire. Enraged by increasing
tuition and decreasing access to high
er education, Ryan, a junior at SOU,
joined about 100 students and admin
istrators in Salem to rally in support of
higher education.
“An ignorant nation is not a good
one,” Ryan said as the rally began.
The Oregon Student Association or
ganized the student lobby day to give
Oregon University System students the
opportunity to meet with their state
legislators and tell them how budget
cuts to higher education affect them
personally. As the 2003-05 budget is
formalized, OSA organizers said it was
important for legislators to hear from
the constituents who will bear the
brunt of changes to higher education.
“Students are facing a lot of critical
issues this year,” OSA Board Chair and
ASUO President Rachel Pilliod said at
Turn to Lobby day, page 13
ASUO begins
hiring staff
for 2003-04
President-elect Maddy Melton is looking for staff
to manage the day-to-day workings of ASUO
Jennifer Bear
Campus/Federal Politics Reporter
Students curious about the inner-workings of ASUO now
have the opportunity to learn the ropes first-hand.
ASUO is reaching out to the campus community, asking
that all students with a passion for student government ap
ply for a 2003-04 ASUO staff position. With the 5 p.m.
Wednesday deadline creeping closer, there is no time left to
be timid.
According to ASUO Accounting Coordinator Jennifer
Creighton-Neiwert, prospective staff members can expect to
be paid as little as $ 150 a month on a stipend staff position,
or as much as $9.65 an hour to perform the duties of a hard
working ASUO Controller. Time commitments vary from 10
to 20 hours a week, Creighton-Neiwert said.
ASUO President-elect Maddy Melton has set her sights on
reshaping campus politics, and she is starting by making
changes in staff member positions. Melton is eliminating
the state affairs coordinator and community outreach co
ordinator, creating a shared governance/Universitv affairs
position and shifting half of the responsibilities of the non
traditional student advocate to the new childcare subsidy
advocate.
Melton said she and ASUO Vice President-elect Eddy
Morales are eager to work with a dedicated staff next year,
and have been combing the campus community for possi
ble applicants. Drop-in visits to various greek houses, ad
vertisements in the Emerald and mass e-mails have all been
used to try to bring in a large pool of applicants, Melton said,
but the most successful method is simply talking to people.
“Hit the streets and hit the campus like you do when
you’re campaigning,” she said.
Melton added she doesn’t think acquiring a diverse staff
with different backgrounds and perspectives will prove dif
ficult because she and Morales already have ties to minority
students and organizations on campus.
“People are going to trust that our staff is going to be a
place where they’re going to feel comfortable and where
they’re going to want to work,” Melton said.
For junior journalism major Taraneh Foster, interest in
student government first began when she met current
ASUO President Rachel Pilliod, who encouraged Foster to
pursue work as a student leader in the ASUO. Foster is ap
plying for public relations director and said she has been in
creasingly interested in politics because of her Middle
Turn to ASUO, page 14
Scientists to explore world of the ‘nano-sized’
With nanotechnology gaining
momentum, researchers plan
to combine the University’s
and OSU’s efforts at a new facility
Ali Shaughnessy
Environment/Science/Technology Reporter
University professors and researchers are
becoming involved with the local construction
of a new building—the first of its kind — that
will focus on bridging the gap betweeij nan
otechnology and microtechnology research.
Nanotechnology, the development and use
of technology at a tiny scale, would allow re
searchers to work at the molecular level to cre
ate large structures—such as computers, dis
ease-fighting antibiotics or high-tech
weaponry—with new functions.
Experts say nanotechnology will become a
trillion-dollar global industry within the next
10 years. Already, more than #1.7 billion has
been spent on developing nanotechnology in
government agencies. The Department of De
fense has spent 8303 million in the past two
years alone, and has requested an additional
$201 million for 2003.
Chemistry Associate Professor Jim Hutchi
son is actively involved with nanotechnology
research, along with many other professors at
the University. Hutchison is currently working
on creating the new building, called the Multi
scale Material and Devices Center, that would
combine nanotechnology research at the Uni
versity and the microtechnology research at
Oregon State University.
“The challenge is, how do you interface
(nanotechnology) to the outside world?” he
said. “For example, how do you hook a key
board up to a transistor that’s nano-sized?”
That dilemma is the reason the MMDC is be
ing built. Hutchison said that within the center,
researchers will work to find a way to link
Turn to Nanotech, page 20
Scientists who
specialize in the
infinitesimally
small might be
developing
nanotechnology
in the near
future at this
proposed site
for a research
building near
Southbank
Field.
Jeremy Forrest
Emerald
Weather: Today: H 62, L 38, partly cloudy / Wednesday: H 57, L 42, chance of showers I On Wednesday: A federal court declares file-sharing program Morpheus legal
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