Senate wage issue dominates first term meeting
The student senators voted
down a resolution to censure
those involved in last year’s
election packet process
Moriah Balingit
Freelance Reporter
A typo in last year's election pack
ets that resulted in $5,400 in lost
wages for ASUO student senators
continues to haunt the senate. The
issue dominated its first meeting of
winter term Wednesday.
The election packet provided for
last year's senate candidates stated
senators would receive $175 per
month, when the actual figure was
$125 per month.
The most recent debate centered
around a resolution created last De
cember that would formally censure,
among others, ASUO
Accounting Coordinator Jennifer
Creighton-Neiwert. Creighton-Neiw
ert was hired in July 1999 as the
ASIJO accounting coordinator and
the ASUO coordinator.
Creighton-Neiwert was personal
ly unclear on why her name was in
cluded in the resolution, as she
had no official role in the produc
tion of the election packets. Her
culpability for the error in the elec
tion packets was the issue of con
tention during much of Wednes
day's meeting, however.
Some senators said they felt includ
ing Creighton-Neiwert in the resolu
tion was too harsh.
"It was just a simple typo," said
Sen. Bethany Larson. "Maybe we
should just drop it."
Sen. Colin Andries disagreed.
"Part of moving forward is ac
knowledging that something was
wrong ... (Creighton-Neiwert)
should be held liable for what she
takes on," he said.
Andries explained why he felt
Creighton-Neiwert should be cen
sured: "She overlooks a lot of things,
whether the/re in her job description
or not. She was definitely asked about
the elections process."
Andries went on to say Creighton
Neiwert serves as a "point of conti
nuity" between ASUO Senate Ad
ministrations because of the
permanence of her position. Thus,
he said, many go to her for advising
because of her extensive experience
with the ASUO.
The senate was mostly divided on
the issue, creating an impasse, and
some likened the dead-end conversa
tion to "beating a dead horse."
"We're just throwing blame
around," Senate Ombudsman Mike
Sherman said.
After nearly an hour of debate, An
dries successfully moved to remove
Creighton-Neiwert's name from the
resolution in an attempt to get the res
olution passed. Without Creighton
Neiwert, the resolution would still
have censured the 2002-2003 ASUO
Executive, the 2002-2003 Elections
Board and the 2002-2003 ASUO
Constitution Court.
"There was a pervading feeling in
the room that it wasn't going to get
passed with her name in there," he
said.
In spite of Andries' last-minute
amendment, the resolution did not
pass, with 11 of the 17 present sena
tors voting against it. Many sena
tors still said they felt the amended
resolution was too harsh and un
necessary.
"I think it's clear how the senate
feels, and I don't feel that we needed
to express it any more formally,"
Senate President Ben Strawn said.
Senators were generally in favor of
a procedural amendment that would
make sure such an error would not
occur again.
Whether or not the issue was put
to rest is largely unclear, as some
senators still want to pursue it with
solutions ranging from censuring
ASUO Election Board members to
simply amending the process.
However, some progress seems to
have been made toward resolving
the issue.
The Senate also approved the trans
fer of $288 for the Jewish Student
Union to buy food for the Jewish Cul- *
tural Night. The vote was nearly unan
imous, with Sen. Rodrigo Moreno
saying "I'm all for diversity."
Moriah Balingit is a freelance reporter
for the Emerald.
TUITION
continued from page A1
week, they'll get a 50 percent refund.
In the fourth week they'll get a 25
percent refund, and after the fourth
week there is no refund.
Although these tuition increases
might seem difficult to bear, Senior
Vice President and Provost John
Moseley said they are insignificant
compared with the increases the Uni
versity might have to implement in
the near future.
Continuing threats of lowered
state-funding are forcing the Univer
sity to rely more heavily on the fund
ing it receives from tuition, Moseley
said. He added that the administra
tion is sympathetic with students'
complaints about increasing tuition,
but it is the only way the University
can continue to avoid cutting classes
in the face of shrinking state support
of higher education.
"Our priority has been don't cut
back on classes and programs because
our students need to graduate on
time," Moseley said. "(Raising tuition
is) a bad choice, but it's the best of the
bad choices we have."
And it's a choice the administration
might have to make again.
The Oregon Legislature passed a
bill requiring the Oregon University
System to return $14 million in stu
dent tuition to the general fund by
January 2005, and the University
will loose approximately $4.7 mil
lion as a result.
In addition, Moseley said that if
Measure 30 fails next month and the
income tax surcharge is rejected, an
other $2.5 million hole will get
punched into the University's budget
— a hole that must be filled by in
creasing tuition for the 2004-05
school year.
"We have cut everywhere else we
can really cut," he said. "At that
point we're going to have to start
cutting classes."
Moseley said that if Measure 30
fails, the University would have to cut
approximately 250 courses to offset
the funding loss. But since that is the
last thing the administration wants to
do, Moseley said they would pick the
lesser of the two evils and opt to raise
tuition once again.
Contact the news editor
at jenniferbear@dailyemerald.com.
Annual tuition & fee rates for full-time students
1998- 99
1999- 00
2000- 01
2001-02
2002- 03
2003- 04
$1,000 $2,000 $3,000 $4,000 $5,000
Tanyia Johnson Senior Graphic Designer
MAD COW
continued from page A1
brought worldwide attention to the
several precautions taken after the
shipment.
After a brief beef recall and an ex
tended investigation into the age and
origin of the cow, the scare has died
down to a point where some wonder
what all the fuss was about. Neverthe
less, beef exports are being rejected in
countries like Japan.
Oregon Beef Council Executive Di
rector Dianne Byrne Johnston attrib
utes the scare-factor to sensational
ized media, which influenced other
countries to cancel their orders. How
ever, considering exports only account
for 10 percent of beef business nation
wide, Johnston said carnivorous
Americans should help to cover the
industry's losses.
"I think the people's confidence in
beef has been restored," she said.
During the past two years, John
ston said the stability of the multi
billion dollar beef industry has
been reinforced by several factors,
including popular protein-based
diets and new convenience prod
ucts like precooked or pretrimmed
beef cuts.
Although she remains confident in
the industry, Johnston said it may be
too soon to tell if mad cow will signif
icantly affect the industry.
"It's going to be a few weeks before
we know the true impact of the scare,"
Johnston said.
Johnston said her confidence also
stems from recent results from a na
tionwide food safety issues study
checking consumer awareness and
loyalty to beef. In September, the
study showed that 61 percent of
Americans knew of mad cow. In a
follow-up study performed last
week, 96 percent of Americans
knew of the disease, a dramatic in
crease that resulted from a huge,
predominantly negative amount of
press attention.
However, 88 percent of Americans
said they were confident in the safety
of beef in September and 89 percent
said the same last week.
"Confidence has stayed very high,"
Johnston said.
Vic Hastings, owner of Custom
Meat Co., a local beef retailer and
custom meat producer, said he
thinks beef is making a comeback
after unfounded connections to cho
lesterol caused some to switch to
white meat.
"People are starting to swing more
towards the meat that they shied from
before," he said.
After receiving some concerned
calls from supermarket customers
about mad cow, Hastings said he
predicts more people will start to
buy beef from small markets and
farms owned by friends and
neighbors.
"The custom business will proba
bly pick up a bit," he said.
Although the beef industry has
been slow to create new national
advertisements since the "Beef. It's
what's for dinner" and "Where's
the beef?" commercials, Johnston
said new pro-beef ads are coming
soon.
"There will be a new campaign,
and we will roll it out a bit earlier than
planned, by a couple weeks," John
ston said.
Considering both American and
Canadian beef producers haven't fed
their cattle with cow brains or spinal
cord remains — the main causes of
mad cow— for about five years,
Johnston said mad cow disease will
be history soon.
"In time, we just won't see any
more cases," she said.
Contact the business/science/
technology reporter
at caronalarab@dailyenierald.com.
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