University inherits scholarship from late custodian I 8
Oregon Daily Emerald
An independent newspaper
www. dailyemerald. com
Since 1900 \ Volume 106, Issue 53 | TUesday, November 9, 2004
Hearing
addresses
housing
standards
Community members attend
City Council public hearing
to debate housing code reform
BY MEGHANN M. CUNIFF
NEWS REPORTER
Eugene took a big step Monday night to
ward ending a battle that has raged for near
ly a decade — the fight for a housing code.
An estimated 100 people piled into the
Council Chambers for a City Council public
hearing on the proposed code, which calls for
local enforcement of the state Landlord-Ten
ant Act, a law that details the rights and obli
gations of landlords and tenants in Oregon.
About 45 people from the Eugene Citizens
for Housing Standards, a coalition of neigh
borhood associations, community organiza
tions and student groups, formed a welcom
ing aisle for the City Councilors as they
entered the Council Chambers, holding ban
ners with pictures of Eugene citizens with
signs supporting local housing standards.
More than 30 people spoke at the meet
ing, the majority landlords who opposed
the proposal. They said the proposal was an
unnecessary duplication of the Landlord
Tenant act that is in place in Oregon.
"1 don’t see the need for the duplicated
HOUSING, page 6
University
Commons'
new system
cuts crime
Security measures at the local
apartment complex have led
to fewer crimes, manager says
BY KARA HANSEN
NEWS REPORTER
Less than a year after a string of serious
crimes at the University Commons, police
are receiving fewer reports of minor and
significant crimes, according to the com
plex manager.
University Commons general manager
Gary Gilfoy said the weekly reports
received from the Eugene Police Depart
ment have shrunk from last spring’s aver
age of 12 pages per week to one or two
pages per week. Each page represents a
single complaint.
During spring break 2004, police re
sponded to a stabbing and gunshots fired at
the complex, and also received reports of
three burglaries and one suicidal person
during the same week.
Gilfoy attributed the rash of crime to two
or three former residents, whom he called,
SECURITY, page 6
★ AMERICA VOTES 2004 ★
Danielle Hickey | Photo editor
President Bush and wife Laura Bush wave to a crowd of supporters during a campaign stop at Jackson County Fair Grounds Oct. 14.
Embracing dot ary:
Bush announces ambitous agenda
Professors give their opinions on President Bush's second-term
agenda, bipartisan support, judiciary appointments, Bush legacy
BY PARKER HOWELL
SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
Free from the pressure of campaigning for re
election and backed by a Republican majori
ty in Congress, an optimistic President Bush
outlined an extensive agenda for the next four
years on Thursday. Yet experts remain uncertain
about whether the president will be able to both
satisfy his constituency and bridge the partisan di
vide as he tackles his domestic program.
Outlining his second-term plan, Bush
vowed to bring democracy to Iraq, simplify
the tax code, reform Social Security, trim the
deficit, pass his energy plan and create jobs
by helping small businesses.
“I earned capital in the campaign, political
capital, and now I intend to spend it," Bush
said. “It is my style.”
Associate Political Science Professor
Julie Novkov said Bush’s far-reaching agenda
isn’t unusual.
“Presidents usually start their terms by an
nouncing ambitious agendas, and it’s very diffi
cult for them to get very far with the controver
sial pieces,” Novkov said.
Novkov said Bush’s ability to pass domestic
legislation will depend on the specific issues be
ing addressed.
“For the first several months, the Republicans
may have some momentum and feel a need to
pay back some of their more conservative vot
ers who really worked to get out the vote, but
as they get closer to midterm elections... the Re
publican Party may be forced to tack more to
ward the middle,” she said.
Novkov said bipartisan support for Bush’s
agenda will depend on how Republicans deal
with the current situation.
“The rhetoric coming from the current ad
ministration doesn’t seem like there will be a lot
of room for reaching across the isle,” she said.
Novkov cited Republican pressure to deny
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairmanship of the
Senate Judiciary Committee, which considers
Bush’s judicial nominees, after pro-choice
Specter said Supreme Court nominees who
BUSH, page 8
Danielle Hickey | Photo editor
President Bush overlooks a crowd of supporters at Jack
son County Fairgrounds Oct. 14 during his campaign.
Evolution tree used in unique study
Professor-student research team publishes work
on evolution simulation in national magazine
BY ANTHONY LUCERO
NEWS REPORTER
Assistant Professor Joe Thorn
ton’s and computer information
and science graduate student
Bryan Kolaczkowski’s work on a
simulation of evolution was pub
lished in Nature, a national maga
zine, last month.
The researchers’ simulation
relies on a different model than pop
ularly recognized to guide the evo
lutionary process in the simulator,
Thornton and Kolaczkowski said.
While a model called maximum
likelihood is most often used to
study evolution, Thornton and Ko
laczkowski chose a model called
maximum parsimony to simulate
the evolution of gene sequences on
a hypothetical evolutionary tree,
according to a University press re
lease. The model was chosen be
cause it maps the complicated trail
of evolution by using simpler hy
potheses to track the progress and
development of a simulated gene.
“We theorized that (maximum
parsimony) would be a good
method because it makes fewer as
sumptions,” Kolaczkowski said.
Kolaczkowski and Thornton are
using the evolution tree to study ge
netic evolution present in humans
that first developed from earlier or
ganisms — called model organisms
— which over time have influenced
the genetics of our own species.
By using an environment for the
simulation with fewer rules and
definitions for the parameter, the
model more precisely maps the
trail of evolution of different genes.
Thornton and Kolaczkowski can
simulate different genetic evolu
tion rates without all genes in the
simulation progressing at the same
rate, an assumption that is improb
able in the nature of evolution.
Thornton said the maximum
EVOLUTION, page 8