NEWS BRIEFS
Take Back the Night march
will be sectioned
The steering committee for the Take
Back the Night march met Thursday
to discuss concerns about separating
the march into three sections.
Erin Dury, the sexual violence pre
vention and education coordinator for
the ASUO Women's Center, said peo
ple have told her separating the march
into sections is not the best way to go.
Due to the recent controversy, Dury
anticipated a large turnout for the
meeting. However, only about 17
people attended, and they all con
curred that the march should be split
into three sections.
"1 was a little surprised because 1
thought there would be more people,"
Dury said. "I was completely prepared
for it to be a much greater issue."
Overall, Dury felt the meeting went
well.
"I feel more prepared to speak to
people about their concerns," she said.
The attendees agreed the three sec
tions should be women-only, gender
queer and gender-neutral, in that order.
The biggest issue raised at the meet
ing was how to prevent allies and the
gender-neutral section from feeling
excluded. Many felt that would be
largely affected by the attitudes and
actions of the march's safety team.
Since the participants of the meet
ing agreed on the need for separate
sections, they began a discussion on
the logistics of the march, such as the
method of section separation, en
forcement of section separation and
spacing of the sections.
Students who were unable to attend
the meeting can still contribute to the
decision on how to organize the
march by voting. Dury and the rest of
the steering committee will keep the
voting open until 5 p.m. today. Votes
can be made by calling, e-mailing or
stopping by the ASUO Women's Cen
ter in Suite 3 of the EMU.
The march's steering committee will
take all of the votes and concerns into
consideration before making a final
decision about the layout of the march.
— Lisa Catto
'Struggling for God' project
to hold first symposium
A multi-year project on the lan
guage and imagery of war in Judaic,
Christian and Islamic sacred texts be
gins this weekend at the University.
The "Struggling for God" project will
have its first symposium, titled "War
and Martial Metaphor in Scripture;" on
Sunday, Feb. 29 and Monday, March 1.
Susan Niditch, a professor of reli
gion at Amherst College in Amherst,
Mass., and author of the book "War in
the Hebrew Bible," will give the first
keynote speech. The speech, called
"War in the Hebrew Bible: Historical,
Literary and Ideological Considera
tions," will take place on Sunday at 8
p.m. in 182 Lillis.
Mahmoud Ayoub, professor of Is
lamic studies and comparative reli
gion at Temple University in
Philadelphia, Pa., will give the second
keynote address, titled "Jihad and
Fighting: Peace and War in the
Qur'an," on Monday at 8 p.m. in the
same room.
The symposium also features a
panel discussion on themes of the
militancy and martialism in Judaism,
Christianity and Islam on Monday,
March 1 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a m.
in the Knight Library Browsing Room.
All events are free and open to the
public.
University religious studies Assis
tant Professor Timothy Gianotti initi
ated the project, which is expected to
continue for four years.
In a press release, Gianotti said that
the project's purpose is to explore var
ious perspectives on militancy and
martial imagery in the three religious
traditions within a larger context of re
ligious visions of peace and justice.
"In this sharing and dialogue we
hope to create an atmosphere of
thoughtful conversation and in
creased appreciation of these interre
lated communities and traditions,"
Gianotti said.
—Ayisha Yahya
Leap years keep calendar
aligned with seasons
This Sunday is leap day, an event
that happens once every four years
during a leap year.
According to Eric Weisstein's World
of Astronomy at http://science
world.wolfiram.com, a leap year is "a
year in which an extra day (is) added
to the calendar in order to synchro
nize it with the seasons."
This extra day falls at the end of
February, thereby giving the month
29 days instead of the usual 28.
According to http://www.timeand
date.com, there are three rules that de
termine which years are leap years in
the Gregorian calendar — used by
most countries: Every year divisible by
four is a leap year, but every year divis
ible by 100 is not a leap year, unless
the year is also divisible by 400, then
it is still a leap year.
This means that although the years
1600 and 2000 were leap years, 1700,
1800 and 1900 were not.
According to the National Mar
itime Museum, a change was made
from the Julian calendar to the Grego
rian calendar hundreds of years ago to
align the months with the seasons
due to a discrepancy in the Julian
i
calendar. The difference between the
real length and the adopted length of
the year was 0.00781 days. According
to the NMM's Web site, "the discrep
ancy ... may not seem important but
over hundreds of years the difference
becomes obvious."
Therefore the Gregorian calendar
was implemented. This change result
ed in a more complex leap year in
which "century years should only be
leap years if they were divisible by 400."
Thus, we have leap day and leap year.
"In the dictionary, New Year and New
Year's Day is capitalized," Raenell Dawn,
editor of http://www.leapzine.com, said
on the Web site. "Leap Year and Leap
Day are equally deserving. I’ve been told
that Leap Day is not capitalized because
Leap Day is not a holiday. It doesn't
have to be a holiday. It's Leap Day. Sim
ple as that."
Reese Lee
CAMPUS
BUZZ
Friday
Minority Law Day featuring a talk by Greg Vincent, University vice
provost for institutional equity and diversity, 110 Knight Law
Center, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Architecture lecture by nationally recognized architects Laura
Hartman and Richard Fernau, 177 Lawrence Hall, 5 p.m.
International Resource Center Winter Film Festival featuring the
film "Happy Times," International Lounge, EMU, 7 p.m.-9 p.m.
Honors College lecture featuring a talk by historian Daniel
Rosenberg entitled "Rethinking the Future of Information,"
Robert D. Clark Library, 301 Chapman Hall, 7 p.m.-9 p.m.
Oregon ballroom dance, 220 Gerlinger Hall, 7:30 p.m.-ll:30 p.m.
World Music Series concert entitled "Classical Music of South
India," Beall Concert Hall, 8 p.m.
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A Robinson Theatre Production
Feb 27, 28
March 4, 5, 6, 12, 13
at 8:00 pm
Sunday Matinee:
March 7, 2:00 pm
Proceeds benefit
White Bird Clinic
Today's crossword solution