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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 4, 2003)
-—— Oregon Daily Emerald 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 Editor in Chief: Brad Schmidt Managing Editor Jan Tobias Montry Editorial Editor: Travis Willse Tuesday, November 4, 2003 E DITORIAI,. Residence hall site selection bad for future In three short years, a handful of University students will have the opportunity to live?jn a new, state-of-the-art com plex aimed at providing space for both living and learning. The building — or buildings, depending on final architec ture plans — will be a boon to campus because, quite sim ply, it will be the first residence hall constructed for student living since 1963. This addition is the greatest necessity for recruiting new students to the University. Ihe seven existing residence halls have such a bad reputation that The Princeton Review ranked the facilities as No. 2 in the "Dorms like Dungeons" category. lT»e new hall, currently called a "living and learning center," will consist of rooms sized at about 225 square feet. Most University residence hall rooms, with the exception of those in H.P. Barnhart Hall, are about 150 square feet. The University also will be able to distribute the on-cam pus population and begin renovating some of its aging buildings. So, it can be assumed, all incoming students will benefit from the decision to build a new residence hall. What's unfortunate about the situation, though, is the lo cation for the structure: It's going to be built between Earl and Walton complexes, where tennis courts currently sit. It's certainly not a conspiracy, but it should be noted that on-campus tennis courts are quickly disappearing. The new basketball arena will displace existing tennis courts, and now the new residence hall will do the same. Itie courts will find new homes, we're sure, but still, is there no value in tennis? Weil, there is value in tennis, as there are in many other things. But what it comes down to is which is more valuable. Does building a new arena in the heart of campus have more value than existing tennis courts? To administrators (and the Editorial Board), it does. Does building a new residence hall in the heart of campus have more value than existing tennis courts? To administrators, it does. To the Editorial Board, it does not. In actuality, the tennis courts aren't the issue of con tention. Instead, it's the usefulness of the space. The argu ment made by administrators is that a central location is nec essary to help create the "living and learning" tie — faculty won't visit a structure too far from the heart of campus. Uni versity President Dave I rohnmayer ultimately agreed and se lected the Walton/Earl location. But the question that begs to be asked is this: What's more important, making the "living and learning center" work or saving land to make the University work in the future? Individuals on the Campus Planning Committee ex pressed concern that the space should be kept for future growth, specifically academic. University Planning Direc tor Chris Ramey was vocal in noting that the proposed structure was far too big of a building for the land desig nated. If the administration was willing to revise the land use policy to build a residence hall, shouldn't the land also be evaluated for other buildings that it could possibly host under the new guidelines? lhat question never really got answered, and now we are left with only second guessing. But what doesn't involve hy pothesizing is the factor of growth. The University will expand and so will its student body. More space will be needed for academic buildings and more space will be needed for housing. Housing already exists in the East-campus area, and the University owns a plethora of East-campus land, so that vicinity should be the location chosen for additional housing. leaching facilities are in the center of campus but also run East of the EMU on East 13th Avenue and at Straub Hall. Academics should be in the heart of campus, but they should have the ability to move Eastward as needed. Yet under the newly established paradigm, housing has gone inward, meaning that when the time comes, academics will be forced to move outward. A new residence hall clearly needs to be built, but Frohn mayer and administrators greatly erred in its placement. In half a century, it will be apparent that the land should have been saved for academics and that the residence hall should have been built in the East-campus area, across from Bean Complex on the outdoor basketball courts. Steve Baggs Illustrator Continued torture I'm a lover, not a hater. So I hate only three things in this world: 1) the New York Yankees, 2) infomercials and 3)TBCs. 1 know, 1 know. You don't know what a TBC is. That's because I made it up. TBC stands for "to be continued..." A TBC is a movie that doesn't end in the normal two hour time window. Which means it needs to be split into two movies, or three or eight. And, most conveniently for Hollywood, you have to pay full price every time Forget SARS. Never mind anthrax. The TBC is the newest plague ravaging our na tion. And it's a plague of the mind. Let me give you an example, and it may be painfully familiar. 1 read the Lord of the Rings trilogy, sort of, in a time before time. 1 mean middle school, of course. I didn't like it that much back then, but for some reason 1 was excited when 1 heard about the sup posedly epic, supposedly intricate trio of Lord of the Rings movies coming out. I plunked down $9 to see the first movie in a land far, far away. 1 mean Seattle, of course. 1 hated it. 1 would have rather sat through three hours of "America's Funniest Home Videos" reruns. At least Bob Saget doesn't have pointy ears and talk all funny. And yet, 1 felt oddly pulled to the sec ond movie last winter. Like the Force was calling me. Catch the Star Wars ref erence? Yeah, Star Wars is the king TBC, the granddaddy of all TBCs. Anyway, the short version of the story is that 1 spent another three hours and another $9 on part two of the Lord of the Rings trilo gy. Soon, I'll do it again for the last part. I'm no math major, but I count nine hours and $27 that I'll eventually spend on movies I don't particularly like 'Ihat's very uncool. TBCs are everywhere You know 'em. The Matrix. X-Men. Harry Potter. Kill Bill. More than a sequel, a TBC makes you Peter Hockaday Today is Hockaday think you absolutely must, without think ing about it, without hesitating, see more of the same movie Sequels and TBCs are in the same family, but they've married in. Sequels are easy enough to filter. I didn't really like Deuce Bi galow: Male Gigolo, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to avoid the sequel, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo. Yes, that is an actual movie that is actually in development. On the other hand, I will patronize se quels for good movies, like Mission: Impos sible. I like to think of movies as a store, and if 1 like the service, I'll come back. If not, you'll never see me again. But TBCs are like the Wal-Marts of the movie world. You'll keep coming back, no matter how good the service is, no matter how much you hate it when you're in the bike section, which is two aisles from the bedding section, which is two aisles from the jewelry section. I get the same feeling of dread whenever 1 see "to be continued" on a television pro gram. Shows like "24" use this tactic practi cally every week. Every episode finishes on the edge of an emotional, or sometimes even physical, cliff. But a television show doesn't cost $7.50. You don't spend $3 on gas and $25 on pop corn and a medium soda (no, 1 don't want the large for a quarter more, thank you). Go ing to the movie theater is an experience, one that 1 enjoy and cherish. 1 love walking out of the movie theater feeling good about the movie I've just seen. I never get that feeling after a TBC. Every time I see a TBC, I have the same thought I had walking out of "Kill Bill: Volume I." "Dammit, now I have to see Volume II!" So, that's that. Aren't you amazed I was able to write a whole column about such an inane subject? Well, I have even more mate rial that I'm not using here. I'm saving it for part two, which is coming out next summer, probably Memorial Day. To be continued... Just kidding. Contact the columnist at peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com. His opinions do not necessarily represent those of the Emerald. 1933 ODE article shows foresiqht This is not the first time the Emerald has been in hot water for its portrayal of lews. 1 was do GUEST COMMENTARY ing some re search in old is sues of the Emerald and happened upon a series of articles from Oct. 12, 1933 ti tled "The New Germany." A disclaimer was run above one article say ing how much "dissention" it had caused on campus. The series was written by Richard Neuberger, who had been the editor of the Emerald the previous year. He spent his sum mer vacation in Germany. Hitler's Nazis had risen to power and were actually admired by many people outside of Germany. Neuberger's reports in the Emerald tell of the madness that was gripping Germany. In town after town he witnessed the atrocities against Jewish people of all ages. While visit ing the university in Heidelberg, an old pro fessor pleads, "America must help us. This is not alone a fight of the Jews. It is the battle of everyone who believes in democracy and freedom." It would be seven years before America listened. Six million Jews died. Sometimes it may seem to those of us who have never experienced racial hatred that Jews are hyper-sensitive However, these Emerald articles written in 1933 show how long the world stood by, knowing what was happening and doing nothing. This young former staffer had courage, foresight and a bright future. Neuberger graduated in 1935 and was later to be elected to Congress from Oregon. Perhaps his articles about the rise of anti-Semitism in Germany could be reprinted in some university publication or put on a Web site. They are too good to be forgotten. Steve Williamson is a research assistant at the Center for Electronic Studying in the University's College of Education.
