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E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online: www.dailyemerald.com
Oregon Daily Emerald--—
Editor in Chief:
Brad Schmidt
Managing Editor
Jan Tobias Montry
Editorial Editor
Travis Willse
Tuesday, March 9,2004
EOITORIAL.
Dates for ASUO
elections must
address needs
of all students
Even though the annual ASUO elections are several weeks
off, the oft-embattled contests are already at the center of some
controversy that pits the convenience for the student body and
the plans of the ASUO Elections Board against the scheduling
constraints of law students running for ASUO office
The kernel of the issue is this: The ASUO Constitution
Court took issue with this year's elections packet because
the designated dates overlap with the law school's upcom
ing Dead Week — the week of April 19, Primaries were
originally scheduled for April 12-14, and the general elec
tion for April 19-21.
Colin Andries, a law student and ASUO student senator,
cited the undue difficulty that he and other law students
faced in 2003 when campaigning for office.
"It's really difficult," Andries explained. "Law school finals
are your entire grade You got a lot of pressure from studying
for that. I mean, I know people who are in the library from 7
a.m. to 8:30 or 9 at night — that's just the way it is."
And placing qualified students under the onus of a sched
uling conflict that evidently discriminates against a segment
of the student body based on academic affiliation — law stu
dents, in this case — isn't just unfair to a few potential candi
dates, it's undemocratic.
The ASUO Constitution's loosely worded Section 12, Arti
cle 1, demands that "The ASUO Elections shall be conducted
in a manner consistent with the best interests of the student
body. The elections shall be conducted in a fair, orderly and
impartial manner, and the educational atmosphere of the
University shall not be compromised, by any member of the
ASUO involved in the electoral process."
The planned schedule violates the article's demand that
the process be fair; certainly forcing law students running for
office into what Constitution Court Chief Justice Michael
Harris called "the untenable position of having to choose be
tween preparation for a final examination and their cam
paign" is unfair and unconstitutional.
It a law student chooses to prioritize campaigning at the
cost of studying, the elections seem to unduly compromise
the "educational atmosphere of the University." If he instead
prioritizes studying for finals, he might not be able to provide
enough information to allow voting students to make an in
formed decision, which is certainly incompatible with "the
best interests of the student body." No matter how he chooses,
the planned dates indirectly violate the Constitution article
The court sagely agreed, ordering the board to suggest new
dates for the student body's general election that conform to
the ASUO Constitution's demands.
The March 2 ruling, however, points to several underlying
problems within several ASUO bodies.
Notably, last April, the Constitution Court unanimously
ruled in response to a similar grievance that the ASUO Con
stitution contains no provision compelling the Election
Board to avoid conflicts like the one in question; this year's
ruling then, represents a nearly total reversal. At the least the
court should have dted last year's decision in this year's ruling
and addressed the apparent discrepancy.
ASUO Elections Coordinator Stephanie Day expressed her
frustration at the seemingly contradictory rulings.
"It's really difficult to work with student leaders when their
rulings aren't consistent" she said.
Still, the court asked the board last year to avoid the sched
ule conflict between the law school's schedule and elections.
Even without the court's instruction, fairness to all students
should have been reason enough to adjust this year's sched
ule to accommodate campaigning law students. At worst,
then, the Election Board is guilty only of negligent planning.
This year's options for election scheduling are regrettably
bleak: Because of constraints limiting the Election Board's
use of DuckWeb, the only options appear to be (1) the origi
nal dates proposed by the board, which would force law stu
dents to choose between studying and campaigning and (2)
moving the election to weekends, threatening to curb already
historically low voter turnout.
Next year, the ASUO primary election should be moved
to week eight of winter term, and the general election to
week nine, so that the schedule doesn't conflict with the
winter term Dead Week, the law school Dead Week or re
served DuckWeb time, leaving the election well within the
Feb. 1-April 30 range specified by ASUO Constitution Sec
tion 12, Article 2.
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Steve Baggs illustrator
Nerd culture
William Hung is dorkier than Screech at
a "Star Wars" convention. But he's more
popular than the prom queen. So if A
equals B and B equals C, that means A
equals C, right?
The dorks are popular. Welcome, every
body, to the era of the nerd.
Hung rose to fame by raising his arms
and circling them around his head like a
wounded chicken. His now-famous rendi
tion of Ricky Martin's "She Bangs" on
"American Idol" in late January is the stuff of
urban folklore. He couldn't sing and he
couldn't dance, but it didn't stop him from
trying out for the glorified talent contest. Of
course, the judges stung him like a bee (like
every girl in his-tory).
"I already tried my best and I have no re
grets at all," he told them.
With that one line, Hung sparked the
dork revolution. He endeared himself to
thousands of viewers who were sick of ego
maniac performers and spotlight-grabbing
idiots. Sure, he's got teeth that splay off at
sick angles and the singing talent of a mon
key, but that didn't stop America from dub
bing him a temporary idol.
Now, Hung is more than everywhere.
There are T-shirts on eBay (one has his pic
ture, the words "like a" and a picture of a
horse) and an comprehensive official Web
site. The site gleefully celebrates all things
Hung, including several hilarious hip-hop
remixes of his "Idol" audition.
Hung isn't the only one leading this pack
of nerds. In a wonderful display of sociology
at work, NBC tapped into the dork vein with
"Average Joe." The show forces a beautiful
woman to choose between average guys and
wmm.-hi
Peter Hockaday
Today is Hockaday
hunks. Essentially the choice is personality
over beauty. In two tries, the girl chose the
hunk twice
But as contrived and fake as the show is,
it sets up a wonderful "us vs. them" dichoto
my. It paints nerds as the good guys. You
want Brian Worth, the man with a Boston
accent thicker than dam chow-dah, to top
ple Gil, the man who freaked out like a high
schooler when he found out Larissa once
dated Fabio.
We root for the nerd because, admit it,
there's a little nerd in all of us. We all sing in
the shower or dance when nobody's
around. Before, admitting to dorkiness was
like admitting you drink coffee at a tea party.
Now, because of Hung and his nerd coun
terparts, it's good to be a dork.
Last week Hung was back on "Idol" for a
best-of-the-worst show. He performed "She
Bangs" again, this time with hot female
dancers mimicking Hung's classic moves.
Hung sat down with host Ryan Seacrest. An
audience member asked Hung if he was a
good engineering student (Hung is an engi
neering major at Berkeley).
"I'm struggling with engineering,"
Hung admitted. "I'm struggling with
pretty much everything in my life right
now. But everybody has to go through
struggles to succeed."
This is the nerd revolution. The dorks
went through their struggles, and now it's
time to succeed.
It's a movie coming to life. The movie, of
course, is "Revenge of the Nerds." And I
couldn't say it better than the men of the
Lambda Lambda Lambda fraternity.
"Nerds, nerds, nerds, nerds, nerds!"
Go nerds.
Contact the columnist
at peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
His opinions do not necessarily
represent those of the Emerald.
Fliers distributed irresponsibly
A small portion of the student body
may have picked up copies of the Emerald
on Monday containing fliers alleging rape
at a local fraternity. The inserts — which
were not written, sponsored or approved
by the Emerald — were promptly removed
by Emerald staff in the 100-or-so papers
containing the fliers.
The allegations — whatever their merit
— should be reported to Eugene Police
Department, the Department of Public
Safety or the Office of Student Life; they
should not be distributed on pieces of
Brad Schmidt
Of chief concern
paper and spread throughout campus.
As it stands, the individual or individuals
responsible for the fliers have potentially
libeled the fraternity while using the
Emerald to disseminate the message.
Furthermore, the individual or individu
als stole advertising space from the
Emerald. While the Emerald would have
never approved such material in the first
place, the fact that fliers were placed in
the Emerald, where advertising could be
placed, constitutes theft.
Stop stealing from the Emerald, and
please, for everyone's sake, take these allega
tions to the proper authorities.
Contact the editor in chief
at editor@dailyemeraid.com.