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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 19, 2004)
An independent newspaper http://www.dailyemerald.com Monday, April 19, 2004 Since 1900 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon Volume 105, Issue 136 UO supporters give $12 million for scholarships The donations will benefit University students through Presidential and Dean’s scholarships, as well as scholarships for individual colleges By Chelsea Duncan Senior News Reporter A group of Oregon philanthropists is bringing new hope to students during a dark period of budget cuts to higher education in the form of a $ 12 million donation for scholarships. University President Dave Frohnmayer announced the gifts, which will fund about 100 scholarships per year, at a press con ference in Portland on Wednesday He said the funds, donated by 15 alumni and University supporters, exemplify the generosity of the University's "family and friends." "The generosity of our donors ensures that the University of Oregon can continue to attract the state's best and brightest stu dents and that all qualified students, regardless of family income, can enjoy the opportunities that result from a University of Ore gon education," he said in a University press release. The funds include a pledge from Ann and Bill Swindells Chari table Trust of Portland that will fund 32 Presidential Scholarships per year. William Swindells is a 1979 University graduate and is Turn to GIFTS, page 8 NEWS BRIEF ASUO general election voting ends today Today is the final day to vote in the ASUO 2004-2005 general election, and a total of 11 student government seats, including the ASUO Executive, are still up for grabs. Voting ends at 5 p.m. To vote, click on DuckWeb on the main University Web site, http://www.uoregon.edu/. Log onto DuckWeb, click on Student Menu and a link for the 2004 elections will appear. — Jennifer Marie Bear International Night to remember The sold-out event Saturday evening celebrated a kaleidoscope of culture Senior Ayaka Yonezawa performs an adaptation of the Okinawan Eisah, which is traditionally performed at the midsummer festival of Bon (Festival of the Dead), at International Night. By Jonah Schrogin Freelance Reporter Exotic flavors of food, colorful decora tions and stylish costumes were some of the elements at the sold-out International Night 2004 Sunday evening. The International Student Association sponsored the 41st annual International Night, the largest cultural event on cam pus. More than 170 volunteers, 28 com mittee heads and ISA members and 16 in terns and officers helped put on the event. The evening started with about 50 vol unteers serving one of 22 cultural dishes in the EMU Skylight Lounge. 1'he food was from 16 different countries. "This is like an international tapas bar," sophomore Laura Johnson said. She added that "the peas are damn tasty," re ferring to the pea curry from Tanzania. Sophomore Jose Delapaz had high compliments for the food. "The Chinese food tasted like it came from a restaurant," he said. Other items included Mediterranean feta spread from Egypt, bubble tea from China and fried fish in peanut sauce from Congo. Sophomore Jessica Bryan, a food com mittee head, said she has been preparing for this event for 10 weeks. "I didn't know what I was getting myself into," she said. Volunteers had been cooking all week end in preparation for the event. "The dedication of the cooks that came in was amazing," Bryan said. She added that she enjoyed working with people from different ethnic backgrounds and ap preciated everyone's perspectives. A book of the recipes can be found in Turn to CULTURE, page 4 Use of Internet campaigning as political tool grows Use of the Internet by candidates to reach voters and by citizens to gain political news has increased since the 2000 presidential election By Steven Neuman News Reporter Four years ago, the media dubbed the 2000 presidential elec tion as the first test of the Internet's potential political prowess, and today even more politicians and Americans are using the Internet for political purposes. The Internet has crept slowly into the very nature of politi cal campaigns. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 33 percent of Americans said they regularly or sometimes leam something about election campaigns from the Internet, a 9 percent increase since January 2000. Although use of the Internet as a news source is growing, most people still rank television as the medium they use most. When voters do turn to the Internet they feel most comfortable using the Web sites of news organizations that have a strong basis in older mediums. Twenty-eight percent say they regular ly or sometimes leam from major news organization Web sites, compared to 8 percent who leam from online-only news mag azines and opinion sites. The Pew survey also found more people are going online for the sole purpose of getting news or information about the 2004 elections. Overall, 22 percent of all Americans who go online turn to the Internet with the goal of informing themselves about the election, and 21 percent of young people reported that they regularly get campaign news from the Internet. The same amount said they regularly watched from comedy shows such as "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "Satur day Night Live" for political coverage, according to the report. Relying on the Internet as a source of campaign information is strongly correlated with knowledge about the candidates and the campaign, according to the survey. As Americans become more Internet-savvy, campaign Web sites have become the focal point for politicans in the national, state and local races to mo bilize supporters, raise funds and tout their platforms. In the past year Democratic presidential hopeful and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean used his Web site to mobilize a le gion of supporters and raise approximately $40 million, large ly in small donations, according to the survey. Even candidates for more small-scale positions recognize the power of the Internet. ASUO Executive candidates Adam Petkun and Mena Ravas sipour, who won a slot in the general election after a victory in die primaries Wednesday night, made an early choice to have a Web site, http://www.AdamandMena.com, to provide detailed information about their platform and experience. "The idea was that when we would make contact with people on the street or wherever we could give them more detail and have more impact," Petkun said. "We talked with a lot of peo ple about campaign strategy who had done this kind of thing before and we heard that it was something that a lot of people had mentioned." Petkun said the campaign still included posters and fliers, but that each flyer had the web address in addition to other messages. Ravissipour said as a student she knew how powerful the In ternet could be as a research tool. "I know that I'm online a lot and when I'm researching dif ferent things I use the Internet," she said "We wanted to make sure that students and the voting population were properly ed ucated about our information." However, Petkun and Ravassipour were the only ASUO ex ecutive candidates to put up a site and promote it. Candidate Ben Strawn, who is also running for the executive position in the general election, said his campaign made a con scious choice not to use a Web site. "We felt it was a passive move, to just put information out there Turn to CAMPAIGN, page 6 WEATHER LOW 45 HIGH 58 M ♦ M INSIDE Campus buzz.8 Classifieds.14 Commentary..2 ' ♦ / • * * ♦ Crossword.15 Nation & World.5,14 Sports.9 NEXT ISSUE Peter Hockaday examines the mascot debate
