PROBLEMS
continued from page 1
classes with her, Heider said.
With school ending, the two began
eating ice cream and popcorn and
drinking Big Gulps together while
watching television shows that were
funny and had complex plots to unrav
el. "Law & Order" and "The Practice"
were, and still are, two of their favorites.
A wandering spirit
Heider knew she was getting older
and was in poor health, and she
wanted to see the world before it
was too late.
Heider, who learned to speak
French at Central Oregon Communi
ty College, wanted to put her lan
guage skills to use by traveling to
France with one of the University's
study-abroad programs.
She drove to Eugene, applied and
was accepted. She was going to live in
the city of Angers, outside of Paris,
and was scheduled to leave only
weeks after Sept. 11.
Gass was terrified for Heider. The
idea of flying to France on Sept. 29
seemed "loony" to her, Heider said.
Heider, on the other hand, was de
termined to leave the country.
"She couldn't believe that I had the
gall to go after this terrorist attack that
was committed," Heider said.
Heider went to France and lived
with her host family and another Eng
lish-speaking student for fall term.
Coming back to Oregon was a shock,
but not a culture shock.
Couch jumping
Although Heider returned from
France three days before Christmas, it
wasn't a joyous holiday that awaited
her. It was homelessness.
Her older sister, Bev Clark, sold the
house Heider was living in after
taking control of their father's proper
ties following his death, Heider said.
The house, which her father built with
"I don't agree with the
timing of what they did
because they only gave
her 50 days. They basically
put her out on the street.''
Jan Steele
Jodene Heider’s sister
his own two hands, brought Clark a
$30,000 profit that she is still using to
take vacations, Heider said.
Heider's younger sister, Jan Steele,
said she thought Clark and their
mother should have given Heider
more time to move out before leaving
her homeless.
"I don't agree with the timing of
what they did because they only gave
her 30 days," Steele said." They basi
cally put her out on the street."
Heider was forced to stay with
friends for the next six months while
she finished up the few remaining
classes heeded for her first Universi
ty degree.
In June 2002, she and Gass walked
in the University's commencement
ceremony. Heider had only seven
credits left to finish in the fall before
a degree was hers.
She moved to Seattle to stay with
her cousins for the first part of the
summer. From there, she planned to
move to Idaho to stay with her other
cousins until fall, but when she called
for a plane ticket the airline represen
tative told her about a cheap ticket to
Berlin. She couldn't resist. She bought
it and was off again.
Once again, Gass objected to Hei
der leaving the country, but rather
than fight with Gass in person, Heider
decided to confront her friend's ob
jections through e-mail while she was
in Berlin.
She broke the news to Gass in a
special way.
"I wrote, 'Close your eyes, click your
heels, spin around three times and
open your eyes and look, I'm in
Berlin,'" Heider said. "Angie said I had
completely gone off of the deep end.
She just couldn't believe it."
This time, Heider's luck ran out,
and two weeks into her trip her sick
ness flared up. Her shunt, which au
tomatically drains excess cerebral
spinal fluid from her head, quit work
ing and sent her spiraling though
three German hospitals for emer
gency operations. On her flight back
to the United States, the shunt again
failed and she had to have a spinal tap
in the Netherlands.
She faced more operations in the
United States with her doctor, Mark
Belza, and it was too late to attend
fall term by the time the surgeries
were completed. From her hospital
bed, she called her professors and
begged them to let her enroll in their
classes, she said. All of them refused.
They told her that by the time she
got out of the hospital, it would be
the fourth week of school and too
late to register.
Winter term began, and her health
started to look better. For three weeks
she attended classes, taking 12 credits.
But her good fortune didn't last. In
January 2003, a disk between the ver
tebrae in her back slipped out of place
and she was forced to quit school.
That left her with 12 incomplete cred
its. Even after she regained her health,
those incomplete credits would come
back to haunt her.
Contact the people/
culture/faith reporter
at jaredpaben@dailyemerald.com.
CON COURT
continued from page 1
however, that the ASUO president
counteract student apathy."
Chief Justice Michael Harris, in a
strongly worded dissent, condemned
Melton's failure to fill the vacancies.
"This court has been hamstrung by
the vacancy perpetuated by the inatten
tion and active contempt of President
Melton," Harris wrote. "The president
has not fulfilled her duties and there
fore is unfit to hold the present office."
The court grilled Melton on Mon
day night about why she has not yet
filled the vacancies.
In his dissent, Harris criticized what
he saw as Melton's insufficient efforts
to fill the vacancies, which he said
demonstrate "nothing more than pro
found disrespect for the office of the
judiciary, and the vacancies therein."
Harris also criticized Melton's de
meanor, saying that her "disrespect
was evident throughout the course of
the hearing as (Melton) mischaracter
ized the composition of the selection
committee, appeared before the court
in ripped and ragged attire, continual
ly referred to court orders as 'adver
tisement' and generally presented a
cavalier attitude regarding the impor
tance of the proceeding."
Melton said she has not filled the
positions — one which has been va
cant since she took office on May 25,
2003, and another that became
vacant this month — because of a lack
of interest in the positions.
"I don't see how I can fulfill these
duties if there is no known interest,"
Melton said, adding that she asked
people she knew to spread the word
about the court's vacancies.
Melton vowed to fill the vacancies
by next Tuesday, saying a recent article
in the Emerald had prompted four
new job applications. Melton said she
and ASUO Student Senate President
Ben Strawn will interview all four ap
plicants by Monday.
Melton will soon have another
court vacancy to fill. Justice Adam
Petkun, former ASUO state affairs co
ordinator, told the Emerald on Mon
day night that he intends to resign to
day to consider a possible bid for the
ASUO presidency.
Melton also admitted at the hear
ing to violating an ASUO Executive
rule that requires her to publicize
open positions with a host of campus
groups, including several ethnic and
women's groups, in order to comply
with affirmative action.
"I wasn't aware that appointments
followed the same guidelines as hir
ing," Melton said.
But Chief Justice Michael Harris
wasn't satisfied with her explanation.
"Well, it seems pretty clear to me,"
he said.
Harris later wrote in his dissent that
her failure to publicize the positions
with the campus groups "should trou
ble a court concerned with equal
r
protection and upholding the Univer
sity's goal of promoting equal represen
tation for minority student groups."
The Executive Rules in the Green
Tape Notebook state that the affir
mative action procedures apply to
all appointed positions in ASUO
recognized programs, unless an ex
ception is granted by the ASUO pro
grams administrator.
Melton said two past applicants to
the ASUO had expressed interest in the
Constitution Court, but only as a sec
ond choice. Melton said she appointed
one of the applicants to the EMU Board
and another to the ASUO Athletic De
partment Finance Committee.
"One of the (applicants) seemed a
lot more interested in the Athletics
Department, so I felt they could bet
ter serve on the ADFC than Constitu
tion Court," Melton said.
Melton refused, when pressed, to
recommend a course of action for
the court regarding her failure to fill
the vacancies.
"The remedy I'm suggesting is that
you'll have a full court by next Tues
day," Melton said. "I feel like I have
proven that I've tried to fill the posi
tion since it has been open."
The majority opinion directs
Melton to "appoint a qualified candi
date" to the longest vacant court posi
tion by Tuesday, Feb. 24.
Contact the campus/
federal politics reporter
atchuckslothower@dailyemerald.com.
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