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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 22, 2004)
raow!o ARE YOUR WEEKENDS MISSING SOMETHING? + _+ + + Join us on Sundays for worship services featuring Holy Communion. We have traditional services on Sunday mornings and Marty Haugen services on Sunday evenings. Sundays 8:15 am, 10:45 am and 6:30 pm Student/Young Adult Bible Study, Sundays, 7:30 pm Central Lutheran Church Corner of 18rh &. Porter • M5.0395 www.welcometocentral.org All arc welcome. TARARIN THAI CWSINE • Vegetarian Selections • Dine Jn or Carry Out • • Lunch Speciab • 100 menu diems • • mother 's homemade recipes • * more than 20 selections of beer and Mine * • fl short walk from campus • • Large Iree Parking firea • 1 1200 OAK ST. EUGENE, OR • (541)343-1230 MON.-FRI. 1l-3PM LUNCH, 5 10PM DINNER • SAT.-SUN. 12-10PM 4 Cultural Forum Presents: Friday Night Flicks PLC 180 7:30/10PM S150 \ v coin c* o „ /ft o n n October 22 Your friendly neighborhood Spiderman meets the mad scientist named Dr. Octopus. Coming Up: u » 3 <:;> i ; i i y\>r t-f aha !>nt October 29 Danielle Hickey | Photo editor Maracas and cow bells along with other insturments were used to entertain the crowd at the Weaving New Beginings event in the EMU Ballroom on Thursday night. Event weaves together students, faculty of color Tenth annual Weaving New Beginnings also showcases University's advances in diversity BYCANELAWOOD NEWS REPORTER University students, staff and fac ulty congregated outside the EMU Ballroom eagerly awaiting the 6:15 p.m. opening of the event. The room radiated with a ma roon hue accented with color-coor dinated tablecloths, chairs and curtains. Prior to the opening speech by University President Dave Frohnmayer, guests were treated to a wide variety of appe tizers, including chicken wings, fruit, veggies, mini-quiches and meatballs. People ate and circulat ed through the crowd of mingling faculty, staff and students. Chatter and violinists created background noise, followed by a slow-tempo Hawaiian theme dance that excit ed a cheering crowd. Thursday night’s 10th annual Weaving New Beginnings celebra tion was an effort to welcome facul ty, staff and students of color and their allies to the University. This year’s theme was “Cultivating Strong Roots to Grow Strong Com munities.” The event featured speeches, "ice-breaker" activities where people met each other, a live salsa band and appetizers. Frohnmayer began the event with a short opening speech. “It’s always a real joy to greet this group; I’m glad this can be a friendly place to get to know people better,” Frohnmayer said. He went on to de fine diversity as “identity within com munity” and said that diversity is never really done. “We need to remind ourselves that until 50 years ago it was legal to say that people of different colors had to go to different schools,” he said. Frohnmayer’s speech was followed by keynote speaker Johnny Lake, a graduate teaching fellow in the De partment of Educational Leadership. “How seriously do we take the opportunity to make a strong com munity?” Lake asked. “We have the opportunity to build a very strong and diverse community, but it will only happen if we do it.” In an attempt to better diversify the University campus, the Univer sity hired Dr. Gregory Vincent as the vice provost of Institutional Equity and Diversity. “This is an absolutely wonderful and encouraging event,” Vincent said. Since beginning work in Decem ber, Vincent said he’s seen an in crease in diversity on campus. “Student groups are stronger, and out of 180 students, 40 of the first year law students are of color and three faculty of color have been hired in the Honors College,” Vin cent said. “That means that progress is being made. “I did this work in a similar role at Louisiana State University, and as a result of our effort we became the biggest producer of African Ameri can Ph.D.s in chemistry and Eng lish,” Vincent added. ASUO Multicultural Advocate Maria Cortez said preparing for the event has been very time consuming. “We’ve been planning for three months, and a lot of different people from different organizations have giv en to the event,” Cortez said. “We tried to get as many people as possi ble involved with the planning process. ” A number of organizations, in cluding the ASUO Multicultural Center, ASUO Women’s Center and the Center on Diversity and Com munity were involved with putting on the event, along with a few dozen other sponsors. “The goal is for incoming students, especially of color, to learn about the resources available on campus,” Cortez said. “It gives people a chance to get to know each other. ” canelawood@dailyemerald. com Ramadan: Followers draw closer to God Continued from page 1A controlling you. “It becomes a gathering, like Christmas to us,” Al-Rafeea added. “It’s a month to get closer to God; if you fast the whole month all of your sins are erased.” Ozgur Pala, a University graduate student in applied linguistics from TUrkey and co-director of the Mus lim Student Association, said Ra madan means sharing and solidari ty, remembering the old and the poor. It is a war on the negative as pects of a person’s life, he said. There was a wide range of people in attendance at Sunday’s event. Gi anotti pointed out that Muslims from all regions and traditions were in attendance, illustrated by some who wore scarfs on their heads while others did not. “What we see here is a microcosm of the great Muslim world that is around us, and that’s exciting/” Gian otti said. Pala said that he has had a great experience while in the United States, but that many Americans have a dis torted view of Muslims and the Is lamic religion. “They want to characterize all Muslims as Osama bin Laden — that we’re uncivilized and motivated to destroy,” Pala said. Pala went on to explain that TUrkey was once the center of Christianity and the Ottoman rule for six cen turies. “If Islam was really intolerant against other beliefs from during those six hundred years, then they would have destroyed churches and killed Christians,” Pala said. He added that to this day everything is preserved in Istanbul. Gianotti said the Muslim Student Association is just beginning to get organized, and this was the first event for the group. He encouraged people to contact the organization at 346-3798 for more information on the group and up coming events. canelawood@dailyemerald.com
