Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Suite 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online: www.dailyemerald.com
Oregon Daily Emerald
Editor in Chief:
Brad Schmidt
Managing Editor:
Jan Tobias Montry
Editorial Editor:
Travis Willse
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
EDITORIAL
Condom plan
a good idea;
needs more
work, thought
The Students for Choice group's new plan to implement a
campaign bringing free condoms to the residence halls may,
on its face, seem like a reasonable or even necessary under
taking. After all, easy access to birth control can be a problem
for young adults entering a collegiate atmosphere — proba
bly one much less inhibited than the one they've grown up
in — and as a result, unwanted pregnancy can occur. For this
reason, we fully endorse the idea that birth control should be
widely available and distributed for free on college campuses.
But several issues involved in providing free condoms in
the residence halls must be clearly reasoned and rationally
planned before any conceived policy is implemented.
First, members of Students for Choice said they want to
provide the free condoms "discreetly" in the residence
halls so that students too embarrassed to get them at the
University Health Center don't forgo them altogether and
practice unsafe sex. We question this hand-holding stance
on sex, however. If students aren't mature enough — or are
too lazy — to ask for condoms in person, then perhaps
they should rethink whether they're mature enough to
have sex. The health center is located in a central location
on campus and is only a short distance from residence
halls. Likewise, Planned Parenthood, which also distrib
utes free condoms, is located off campus at 1670 High St.
Second, a funding problem has already manifested itself,
and we can safely assume that it will become a deeper issue in
the future, especially if freshmen abuse the service. While Stu
dents for Choice hasn't yet figured out how it will pay for free
condoms in the residence halls, one thing is for sure: Student
fees should not be part of the equation. Any hint of student
funding should outrage a great majority of the student body;
the proposal would only benefit those in the residence halls
but could potentially cost all fee-paying students money.
Third, we would hope Students for Choice can think of a
good way to keep freshmen from abusing the privilege of
having access to free condoms. One good way to ensure
that condoms are not stolen in large quantities and used as
water balloons is to install pay dispensers in the bath
rooms. This both eliminates the chance of abuse and solves
the funding problem, liven a small price — a quarter, or
even a dime — could curb the possibility for mistreatment.
With such a high rate of unwanted pregnancy in the United
States — four in ten pregnancies, according to Planned Par
enthood — we certainly recognize the importance of starting
early prevention. But some programs aimed at curbing the
problem should be analyzed for cost effectiveness and sensi
bility before implementation, and the newest proposal by
Students for Choice, while commendable, is no exception.
EDITORIAL POLJCV
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.
Authors are limited to one submission per calendar
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address for verification. The Emerald reserves the right
to edit for space, grammar and style.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Brad Schmidt
Editor in Chief
Jan Tobias Montry
Managing Editor
Aimee Rudin
Freelance Editor
Ayisha Yahya
News Editor
Travis Willse
Editorial Editor
Bitter
pills
A recent issue of the glorious Emerald
insert, Sports Illustrated On Campus,
listed the best jobs in college sports.
More interesting was a story the next
week on the worst jobs in college sports,
like "hockey team manager" and "assis
tant video coordinator."
But that second list ignored
"Washington Athletics Director."
As the Ducks ready to play the Huskies
this weekend, turmoil is raging like the
Great Seattle Fire on the banks of Like
Union. After the Rick Neuheisel betting
scandal last spring, Washington Athletics
Director Barbara Hedges is in trouble
again because of Dr. William Scheyer, a
75-year-old consulting physician with the
Huskies who has been distributing
banned prescription drugs to Washington
athletes for almost 20 years.
This goes far deeper than a ha-ha,
lluck-you-Fuskies, Northwest rivalry
story. This is a cautionary tale for all ath
letics departments that get too fat for
their football uniforms. It's a scary, real
example of what can happen when you
take out one block from the Jenga tower
that is a big-time athletics department.
Once one block falls, the rest of the struc
ture comes down with it.
In early October, Washington fired
Scheyer, and on Oct. 17, the
Washington state medical board
revoked Scheyer's medical license for
issuing thousands of pills to Huskies
athletes during a 17-year period.
Scheyer circumvented Washington pro
cedures by opening his own accounts at
local pharmacies and paying for the
drugs himself.
Scheyer distributed the pills on team
planes or after athletic events. Why? We
may never know. Maybe because he
wanted to be liked, maybe because he
really thought he was helping athletes.
The drugs included stimulants like
Ritalin, topical steroids and
painkillers like Vicodin and Fndocet.
All are illegal in the eyes of the NCAA,
which has demanded that the
Washington athletics department take
action in this case. The Huskies are
currently conducting an internal
investigation.
The real issue is how Scheyer pulled a
Eric Layton Illustrator
ski cap over the eyes of the athletics
department for so long. What he did
was one step short of ramming steroid
packed needles into players, but he sur
vived for almost two decades. He wasn't
on the Washington sports medicine
staff and ran his own, legitimate prac
Peter Hockaday
Today is Hockaday
lice. He consulted mostly with the non
revenue sports and was head physician
for the softball team.
Those are excuses, and they're as weak
as light beer. The Huskies have no con
crete drug-testing procedure, which
would have found traces of the drugs in
athletes. The athletics department never
knew about "UW" accounts at local phar
macies. Hedges, who suspected Scheyer
enough to demote him from softball
"head physician" to "volunteer physi
cian" in 2001, never really delved into
complaints made about Scheyer by other
sports-medicine staffers.
The system of checks and balances at
Washington checked nothing and bal
anced only Scheyer's checkbook. He
slipped through the cracks like water on a
Seattle pier.
For years, Washington has been a
model for other athletics departments.
The Huskies always had a strong blue
print for how to build a football team, a
strong women's soccer team or a light
ning-fast crew team.
Now, the Washington athletics
department gives others, like Oregon,
an anti-blueprint of how not to run this
Pacific-10 Conference show. The
Oregon athletics department needs to
study the Scheyer case like a chemistry
student studies a textbook.
This is the most important memo:
Don't let this happen here. Seal the
cracks, if they exist. The Washington
athletics department is going down
like the RMS Lusitania, and 1 don't
want the Oregon athletics department
to be the Titanic.
It's a double-edged sword sharper than
anything in "Kill Bill: Volume 1." We've
asked to be linked with the image of the
athletics department because it's a sleek,
Nike-designed image. But if anything
happens to that image, our school is tar
nished along with our athletics program.
Because for Hedges, the Washington
athletics department and the University
of Washington itself, no amount of
Vicodin can ease the pain of the last year.
Contact the columnist
at peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
His opinions do not necessarily represent
those of the Emerald
Event meant to 'balance the scales"
Sponsors of the "Peace, Justice & Me
dia Conference” on campus a week ago
are not victims of a cheap shot in the
Emerald's Oct.
13 editorial
("Conference
mocks goals,
loses purpose
in hypocrisy").
Rather, what was at work was a misun
derstanding by editors of what constitut
ed the event's stated goal — "Empower
ing the Movement for Fair, Accurate and
Diverse Media."
GUEST
COMMENTARY
The editorial did not complain about
presentations failing to be "fair and ac
curate." Instead, its concern was absence
of diverse points of view to counter what
it saw, correctly, as the liberal orientation
of the conference. That is what it was
supposed to be — a chance to expose lib
eral perspectives too seldom heard in a
media environment held hostage.
I moderated two Saturday morning
broadcasting panels whose participants
freely identified themselves as progres
sive with liberal views. They did not pur
sue any vendetta against the reality of a
national right-wing monopoly of talk ra
dio, even though two major Eugene sta
tions, KPNW and KUGN, have a prepon
derance of right-wing attack shows on
their AM bands daily.
The focus in these panels, as through
out the conference, was on the need for
balance in commercial broadcasting and
how to achieve it. This is a perspective
rarely heard in the mass media, especial
ly in commercial broadcasting whose
owners and managers are part of a cor
porate structure that obstructs balance in
electronic news coverage. To have heard
that power structure describe the confer
ence as "leftist — if not counterculture"
would be consistent with its unbalanced
reality. For the Emerald to use those in
accurate terms is a surprise.
I take responsibility for and regret any
inconvenience caused to commentator
Lars Larson, which appears to be what
energized the editorial.
1 tried to make first contact with par
ticipants by e-mail, then tried to follow
up by telephone. My phone contact with
Larson was late. He could not attend and
resented a published notice that he was
among invitees.
I've had personal experience with Lar
son as an invited guest on his radio
show. Angered by something I asked, he
hung up on me. Bad manners, but no big
deal. Then he told his audience: I'm go
ing to give you Beres' phone number,
and you can tie up his phone the rest of
the day to teach him a lesson. Ugly man
ners. Also bad business.
Contrary to the editorial's assumption,
having KUGN's Don Carlin on the panel
was no attempt at "political diversity."
He is a balanced broadcast personality.
Were the conference a political rally, or
a debate, two sides addressing every
question would have been essential. It
was neither, but still invaluable for
democracy. Considering how rarely the
liberal view is heard in broadcast media
held captive to conservatism, the event
was just one small, evenhanded effort to
start to balance the scales.
George Beres, a former University sports
information director and a planner
of the Peace, Justice & Media
Conference, lives in Eugene.