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Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Since 1900 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon
Volume 106, Issue 11
REPRESENTING OREGON
Erik R. Bishoff Online & Photo Editor
Members of the ASUO met with Oregon Representative Phil Barnhart at the McMenamins East 19th Street Cafe Thursday afternoon to
address tuition and other higher education issues.
On behali or students
Oregon Representative Phil Barnhart and student leaders discuss higher education concerns
OMIE DRAW HORN
NEWS REPORTER
It was a lazy Thursday afternoon at The
McMenamins East 19th Street Cafe.
Customers enjoyed burgers, brews
and sodas, while laughing and joking,
but ASUO President Adam Petkun and
other representatives from ASUO and
Lane Community College were there to
talk politics with a man who knows the
ropes in the state legislature — Oregon
Representative Phil Barnhart.
The setting was casual, and the tone
lighthearted, but both sides were there
with an agenda: Petkun said the meeting
was part of a statewide effort in which
college representatives meet with legisla
tors to talk about higher education.
The representatives from the Oregon
Student Association, ASUO and LCC
concentrated on issues such as improving
voter registration, the Childcare Block
Grant, and the Oregon Opportunity
Grant, allowing undocumented immi
grants to pay in-state tuition to attend col
lege, and the funding of the Oregon Uni
versity System. OSA representative
Courtney Hight said that OSA's goal is to
register 30,000 students statewide, in
cluding 7,500 at the University.
"Not only do you have to make sure
they get registered, but once you've got
them registered, you have to get them to
vote," Barnhart said.
ASUO acknowledges this is an issue it
will have to work on.
Another issue important to students is the
Childcare Block Grant, LCC Student Body
President Tony McCown said. rlhe legisla
ture allotted $ 1 million for this grant which
gave childcare to 230 families that wouldn't
have been able to afford it otherwise.
"We are asking for another half-million
dollars to allow another 100 families to
receive that childcare," McCown said.
A family of four must have an annual
income of less than $31,000 to qualify for
Please see BARNHART, page 3
East Campus
expansion plan
moves forward
The University will review land-use plans with
the Fairmount Neighbors association and the
city will fund a study of traffic in the area
BEN BROWN
NEWS REPORTER
After more than a year of negotiations, the University Planning
Office and the Fairmount Neighbors association have reached an
agreement that will allow the University to expand into the resi
dential land east of campus.
During a June 23 meeting, the Eugene City Council performed
a final review of the University plan for the East Campus project
area, which includes most of the land bounded by East 15th and
East 19th avenues and by Agate and Villard streets. The University
hopes to use this land for housing, additional parking and expan
sion of the Knight Law School, according to University Planning
Director and Architect Chris Ramey.
Preferring not to fight a long, drawn-out battle with the people
living in the surrounding Fairmount neighborhood, University
Planning Associate Christine Thompson told members of the
City Club of Eugene Friday that the University arranged meetings
with the people living in that area to review and amend the
planned expansion in order to create a plan both sides would be
happy with.
At the meeting, Eugene City Planner Alan Lowe praised the
Please see CAMPUS, page 3
NEWS BRIEF
High School Equivalency
Program funding extended
The University has recently secured a $455,000 grant to con
tinue its High School Equivalency Program. The program —
which must reapply for funding every five years — helps youth
and young adults obtain their high school diplomas.
"This is a win-win program," University HEP Director Emilio
Hernandez said in a press release. "Students that participate in
the program have a rare opportunity to be exposed to a Univer
sity setting, and many often go on to attend college."
Hernandez thanked U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) — who
called HEP an "invaluable" program — for his work in extending
the program's funding, whose future was in doubt until recently.
The University has offered its HEP program, among the
longest-running in the nation, since 1967.
— Travis Wilke
Heat-triggered sprinkler
causes Agate Hall flood
Thousands of dollars of damage
was caused by flooding Friday in
the Oregon Bach Festival office
OMIE DRAWHORN
NEWS REPORTER
A heat-sensitive sprinkler head located near a sky
light in Agate Hall set off the building's sprinkler sys
tem Friday, causing thousands of dollars of water
damage in the Oregon Bach Festival office.
Computers, printers, files, electronics and carpets
were destroyed or damaged when the sprinkler head,
which sits behind a skylight blind that presumably
trapped in heat, reached 130 degrees and set off the
system, Building Manager Jima Britain said.
The sprinkler head has a fusible link, which melts
when the temperature gets high enough, said Ron
Bloom, operations manager for Facilities Services.
"When the link melts, water flows," Bloom ex
plained, adding that the sprinkler system released
hundreds of gallons of water, leaving over an inch of
water on the floor.
Nobody was in the office — a central office area
with five work stations — during the incident, but sev
eral people were working in adjacent offices. About 11
people were affected by the damage.
"I heard a loud crash," said festival accountant
Sandy Cummings, who was working in a nearby of
fice when the incident occurred.
Cummings then said she heard a sound which she
later found was running water, and rushed to call Uni
versity Facilities Services.
"The whole floor flooded for like 10 minutes (be
fore Facilities Services arrived)," she said.
Please see FLOOD, page 4
Erik R. Bishoff Online & Photo Editor
University Facilities Services laborer Kyle Spangler assists in the cleanup of the Oregon Bach Festival
office after a sprinkler, triggered by the extreme temperatures of a recent heat wave, flooded the
Agate Hall offices Friday afternoon.