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E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online: www.dailyemerald.com
Wednesday, March 3, 2004
Oregon Daily Emerald
COMMENTARY
Editor in Chief:
Brad Schmidt
Managing Editor:
Ian Tobias Montry
Editorial Editor:
Travis Willse
EDITORIAL
ASUO officials
must attend
to conflicts
of interest
The spirit of an open, respectable and honest student gov
ernment should always be free of deceit, hypocrisy and con
flicts of interest in order to ensure trust and accountability.
Unfortunately, the ASUO Executive may not be living up
to the spirit of that contract, which it makes with thousands
of constituents each year.
On Feb. 6, the Emerald published an article investigating
whether ASUO Vice President Eddy Morales participated in
the Executive budget recommendation for ASUO Legal Ser
vices. At issue was whether his potential participation in the
budget would introduce a conflict of interest for Morales,
who is currently being represented by the group while he
faces assault and criminal mischief charges. The question:
Was Morales consciously worried about the perceived con
flirt of interest accompanying him setting fiscal policy for a
group that, at this time, is technically working for him?
ASUO spokeswoman Taraneh Foster told the Emerald that
Morales had no role whatsoever in the recommendation.
"Eddy hasn't even looked at the Legal Services' budget be
cause he wanted to make sure that there wasn't a conflict of
interest," Foster told the Emerald. "There's nothing shady
going on."
At the time, the Editorial Board recognized Morales' ef
forts as legitimate, honorable and in accordance with the
imperative ethical constraints that public officials necessari
ly assume.
The issue recently got a bit murkier, however, pushing the
Editorial Board to question whether conflicts of interest are
even considered in EMU Suite 4.
At last week's ASUO Student Senate meeting, where sena
tors approved the ASUO Programs Finance Committee's
budget recommendations, Emerald Editor in Chief Brad
Schmidt questioned why Morales would have no problem
working on the Emerald's budget recommendation — given
the extensive reporting the paper has done on his pending
charges — while at the same time recusing himself from the
ASUO Legal Services' budget. The Executive had already ve
toed the Emerald's budget once (the only veto among more
than 120 student groups) and recommended that the Sen
ate reject the PFC budget based in part because of the Emer
ald's budget allocation. In the end, the Executive's argu
ments were overwhelmingly rejected by the Senate.
Morales responded, saying that he had not recused himself
or even considered the possibility of a conflict of interest. In
stead, Morales said, the Legal Services' budget was left to ASUO
Controllers because he had other budgets to consider.
His statement clearly contradicts what Foster, who speaks
for Morales, told the Emerald just weeks before about his
decision regarding the conflict of interest. And it begs the
question: Was a conflict of interest even considered as a pos
sibility at all?
The issue may seem trite at first, but at heart is a deeper
problem: the integrity of elected officials. Conflicts of inter
est should be zealously avoided at any level of government,
and it is troubling that Morales, by his own admittance, did
n't step down from any involvement in the Legal Services'
budget to avoid such a conflict. If controllers needed
Morales' help, what would he have done?
If Morales did, in fart, recuse himself from the budget in
the face of a conflict of interest, his actions were honorable
and commendable. If Morales simply ignored the issue,
however, then the Editorial Board suggests that ASUO adopt
a process to determine potential conflicts of interests and
address them in a public forum.
Either way, somebody down there needs to get their story
straight.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Brad Schmidt
Editor in Chief
Jan Tobias Montry
Managing Editor
Ayisha Yahya
Y.WVVW News Editor
Travis Willse
Editorial Editor
Jennifer Sudick
Freelance Editor
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Steve Baggs Illustrator
‘Letters
from home
Dear soldier,
Thank you for your service. Thank you
for leaving your friends and family behind
in an effort to protect my nation, your na
tion, our nation.
Thank you for hanging in there as mem
bers of your platoon, people you knew in
basic training and your countrymen die
nect to you.
The news services tell me only 20 GIs
died in Iraq in February, the lowest num
ber since combat began. Twenty still seems
like way too many to me, but hey, that's
the cost of freedom, right?
Pentagon officials say the drop in death
tolls is the result of a shift made by Iraqi
rebels from targeting U.S. troops to target
ing their fellow Iraqis who may be cooper
ating with U.S. troops. That must be really
frustrating — going over there to help the
Iraqi people only to find your presence
puts them in harm's way. It must be a hor
rible feeling.
The officials, including Defense Secre
tary Donald Rumsfeld, also said they don't
believe the U.S. military death toll will
continue to decline. They believe you and
your fellow troops will soon face some of
the greatest danger you will see during
your service. This danger comes with the
rotation, which will occur in the next few
weeks, of more than 100,000 troops into
and out of Iraq.
The war in Iraq has been officially over
for almost 10 months now, yet you're still
there, and it sounds like more of your fel
low soldiers are on their way to join you.
Did you hear our president just made the
Aimee Rudin
Five feet of fury
decision to send troops to Haiti? Yeah, the
idea is to send between 1,500 and 2,000
troops there to head an international stabil
ity force. Two hundred marines from the
Marine Corps Air Station at Cherry Point,
N.C. were shipped out Monday to join the
approximately 200 U.S. soldiers already on
the ground there. Did you know anyone at
Cheny Point? I didn't, but I'm worried for
their safety, just as I am for yours.
This is the second time in the last
decade the United States has sent soldiers
to Haiti, located 600 miles off the coast of
Florida. The last time was in 1994. Former
President Bill Clinton sent more than
20,000 soldiers to the nation in order to
restore President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to
power after he was removed by a coup.
But I guess I shouldn't worry about the
situation in Haiti turning into something
similar to what you are going through in
Iraq. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell
says this operation in Haiti will be "noth
ing like the 20,000 troops that went in 10
years ago." And I have no reason not to be
lieve him. I'm sure that weapons of mass
destruction thing was just a mix-up.
Anyway, I heard Iraq is on its way to a
democratic government. White House
spokesman Scott McClellan just an
nounced that the interim constitution for
Iraq is modeled much after the United
States and was accepted by the Iraqi Gov
erning Council. That seems like really
good news. Maybe you'll get to come
home soon.
I want you to know I can't wait for you
to get home. I miss you and I'm proud of
you. Please be safe out there.
Love, Aimee
Contact the columnist
at aimeerudin@dailyemerald.com.
Her opinions do not necessarily represent
those of the Emerald.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
OSPIRG isn't just 'green'
I am responding to a letter printed Feb
ruary 10th ("OSPIRG funding situation is
worse than book prices," ODE). I have
been involved in OSPIRG since the fall
term 2003 and I am writing to argue that
the letter printed was completely incorrect.
To be exact, OSPIRG does have other
"green" interests besides working to lower
the cost of textbooks.
I am involved in the Willamette Lega
cy Campaign. This OSPIRG campaign
succeeded in getting Governor Ted Ku
longoski to pledge to clean up the river
during his run for governor in 2002. OS
PIRG students involved in this campaign
in 2003 and 2004 are working with local
businesses to urge Governor Kulongoski
to keep his promise and clean up the
Willamette River.
In addressing the concerns from Tues
day's letter to the editor about OSPIRG's
Affordable Textbooks Campaign, I can
personally vouch that this issue is a legiti
mate one. My Spanish packet alone cost
me $ 150 and it came with materials I al
ready had. This method of bundling text
books with unnecessary and optional ma
terials is getting out of hand. I am sure
there are other students as frustrated with
these schemes as I am.
OSPIRG stands for Oregon Student
Public Interest Research Group. The peo
ple working directly on the campaigns are
student volunteers and interns. The inter
ests they are working to protect include
those of renters in Eugene, the awareness
of consumers, environmental concerns
and the hungry and homeless. I believe
that OSPIRG does great things and I be
come deeply offended when false accusa
tions are carelessly thrown into a newspa
per making me look like I am involved in
"coercive" group.
Laura Church
sophomore
sociology
OSPIRG