Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Suite 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online: www.dailyemerald.com
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Oregon Daily Emerald
COMMENTARY
Editor in Chief:
Brad Schmidt
Managing Editor:
Jan Tobias Montry
Editorial Editor:
Travis Willse
EDITORIAL
ASUO dates
should keep
law students
represented
A minority of students on this campus have been mar
ginalized, inconvenienced and even downright not con
sidered in important organizational decisions at the Uni
versity. This year, they numbered some 497, some 2.6
percent of the 19,450 students enrolled in the University
as of winter term.
These students — those enrolled in the University's
School of Law — pay some of the highest tuition at the
school ($15,202 for residents annually, $19,122 for non
residents). But in many important ways, they're treated
more poorly than their undergraduate colleagues.
Witness, most recendy, Senate President Ben Strawn's
motion to censure Sen. Colin Andries, a law student, for
non-fulfillment of duties, including missing a Senate meet
ing during the law school's Finals Week to study.
No decision was made on the censure; however, that
missing a meeting to study was among the factors motivat
ing the censure motion points to another conflict unfairly
imposed on law students: Should a law student, who also
serves the campus as a legislative representative, risk dam
age to their grades, or instead risk condemnation for negli
gence of job duties?
Another example was this year's embattled ASUO elec
tions: lire ASUO Constitution Court rejected the original
elections packet because the scheduled election dates over
lapped with the law school's Dead Week.
The unfair and poorly planned timetable forced law stu
dents "to choose between preparation for a final examina
tion and their campaign," Constitution Court Chief Justice
Michael Harris said, calling the dilemma "untenable."
Indeed, the Constitution's Section 12, Article 1, vaguely
maintains that, "The ASUO Elections shall be conducted
in a manner consistent with the best interests of the stu
dent body. The elections shall be conducted in a fair, or
derly and impartial manner, and the educational atmos
phere of the University shall not be compromised, by any
member of the ASUO involved in the electoral process."
Were this a result of ignorance alone on the part of the
Elections Board, this marginalization might be more tol
erable. But the same issue arose during last year's elec
tions when the Court ruled that the Elections Board
should avoid overlapping elections with the law school
schedule again. Evidently, the Board paid little heed, and
the Emerald Editorial Board urges the incoming ASUO
government to avoid this frustrating conflict.
Many of the problems associated with equal access to
opportunities for law students seem to stem from the dis
crepancy between the academic law student schedule and
the schedule most other students use.
Recently retired ASUO President Maddy Melton admit
ted the law schedule poses a special challenge: "When you
get down to working with law students, they have different
schedules, and that kind of throws things off."
But as it's unlikely that either schedule will change, the
University and ASUO should both strive this upcoming
year to accommodate the needs of this special segment of
our campus community in accordance with "the best in
terests of the student body."
-x^yttoN
liiiii
§iill
Ili I
MSiimi
4*" .:
li'l'l'l'i'iViVM'iViYiVijVtViyiMtViiVi'ii'iVi'tiiVi'Ill'll
r MN ^
PoCKTTBooK
Couldn't TMCE
MUCH Mo&E! >
H
>iS t"' ^jrt
o.
X'K\ Sul RE &tAt>
TMKt XM
G,RAW/mN&
THIS
You can take it with you
Sitting over a pint at Rennie's last week,
a buddy asked me a question.
"What are you going to take," he said,
"from this whole college thing?"
"What am I going to take?" I asked. I
thought about my impending graduation.
"I'll take that freshman feeling," I said.
"That 'Yeah, I'm going to college' feeling
when you first get that packet of informa
tion in the mail. Yes, put me in the normal
hall. Yes, sign me up for the dorm meal
plan. The food can't be that bad, after all.
"I'll take all the crazy experiences I had
with my roommate, who slept two feet
across from where I slept. Everybody's
roommate was bad, but mine was worse.
When I first stepped into that room, his
stuff was sprawled across my bed. His stuff
included cigarette packs and a sword. It was
a fun freshman year.
"I'll take that shot by Darius Wright,
the one that beat Arizona State in the cra
ziest basketball game I've ever personally
witnessed.
"I'll take drinking FIFA, the game that
incorporated our two main activities
from the first three quarters of our first
year: drinking and video games. In drink
ing soccer, we took a shot from the bottle
every time the other person scored. By the
end of the game, we weren't sober.
"I'll take my end-of-freshman-year
GPA. It was never quite that high again.
"I'll take the Autzen apartments. Like a
dorm with room to move around and a
porch, the Autzen apartments had every
thing. Your own bathroom. Friends nearby.
A parking spot. What more do you need?
"I'll take fraternity parties. I remember
scaling a fence to leave one of those par
ties, feeling like MacGyver after someone
Peter Hockaday
Today is Hockaday
told us the cops were coming. I remem
ber going out to the front, discovering
there was not a policeman within eight
blocks, and coming back inside to drink
more fraternity-sponsored beer.
"I'll take Info Hell. Anybody who took
the journalism school's weed-out dass is
with me on this one. It's seared into your
brain for life.
"I'll take our house, which finally
made us feel like adults. We had to sepa
rate our recyding for ourselves, which we
never did, and pay our own bills, which
didn't happen. We had to mow our own
lawn, yeah right, and not spill stuff on the
carpets. Sure. We were the best house
owners on the planet.
"I'll take intramural football and hock
ey. We kept the same core group for three
years and finally won a title in hockey. I
say this without exaggeration: It was the
finest achievement of my athletic career.
"I'll take disc golf. I never felt more like
an Oregonian than the times I threw a lit
tle plastic disc into a fan of chains out at
Dexter Reservoir.
"I'll take the creative writing program.
For my dollar, there's not a more passion
ate bunch of people on campus. The fart
that there's no undergraduate major for
them — that the University can't
recognize that passion — is sick.
"I'll take the brutal build-up and even
tual execution of my 21st birthday. I think
everybody goes through this, especially
those of us who turn later than our
friends. The months before the big day
are filled with more anticipation than
ever. Then it happens, and you don't lose
that glow for another year.
"I'll take shrinking class sizes. Would
you rather have class with 500 people or
15? That's what I thought.
"I'll take poker. There's nothing like sit
ting around a table and busting your
friends for a dollar, then acting like it was
half a million.
"I'll take friends and foes, good times
and bad. I'll take the crazy road trips and
the long nights of drinking. I'll take the
jobs that paid no money and the football
games where we stood hip-to-hip.
"I'll take the house filled with ants and
the apartments with walls thinner than
this sheet of newspaper. I'll take memo
ries and lessons. I'll take it all.
"That was horribly self-involved, but
does that answer your question?"
"Actually, no," my buddy answered. "I
just meant are you going to take your
stuff with you. Like your couch. I love
that couch. Can I have it?"
No, I won't give up my couch. Memo
ries may be important, but a couch that
lived through those memories? Well,
that's priceless.
Contact the columnist
at peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
His opinions do not necessarily
represent those of the Emerald.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
'Vagina Monologues' goal
of diversity is attainable
We are responding to the Emerald
editorial "Protesters undermined the
diversity they sought" (Feb. 17) and car
toon (Feb. 18) concerning "The Vagina
Monologues" protest. We do not see
the protesters' arguments as divisive We
did not appreciate the image in the car
toon of women fighting as we do not
have two different sides completely op
posed as inferred. The discussions are
emotional, passionate and difficult but
not violent as portrayed in the cartoon.
In addition, we do not see the pro
testers' actions as reverse discrimina
tion, as implied in your editorial.
Given the history and systems in place
that discriminate, often invisibly so,
marginalized groups and the white ma
jority population may have vastly dif
ferent experiences and responses in
their lives. The Women's Center staff
agrees that the issues brought up need
to be addressed. Greater attention to di
versity, both in initial outreach and
planning of'The Vagina Monologues,"
and for all Women's Center events, is
crucial to ensure we are presenting a
more diverse view of women.
As the advisers to the Women's
Center, we learned through this
process that in the future we will want
to give the student directors of the
production more guidance and advice
to create a more inclusive and diverse
event in line with the goals and
mission of the Women's Center. Di
versity and inclusiveness are attain
able, and future Women's Center pro
ductions will strive to reflect this.
Lisa Foisy
Director
Debby Martin
Assistant Director
ASUO Women’s Center