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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 2004)
University takes step toward increasing diversity I 11 Oregon Patty Emerald An independent newspaper wurw. dailyemerald. com Since 1900 \ Volume 106, Issue 67 \ Wednesday, December 1, 2004 Duck Stop coffee bar to donate year's tips The HIV Alliance is the recipient of the $10,000 donation, which is nearly one-third of its budget BY KARA HANSEN NEWS REPORTER The University Bookstore’s Duck Stop coffee bar will donate nearly $10,000 in tips collected over the past year to the HIV Alliance for World AIDS Day today. The money will help the HIV Alliance contin ue its mission of preventing HIV and providing services to those living with HIV/AIDS in Lane County, said Michele Erickson, the nonprofit or ganization’s development director. Tips provide about one-third of the alliance’s $256,000 budg et — a heavy reliance on the community for support, she said. “We really want to let everybody know how grateful we are to the Duck Stop,” Erickson said. “We’re just amazed at the contributions from the community that brought that collec tion to what it is.” Duck Stop supervisor Stacy Miller said the coffee shop’s employees have never felt right accepting tips when other bookstore workers couldn’t. Each year they donate their tips to a different charity, she said, with housing sup port service Shelter Care as the 2004-05 col lection recipient. Duck Stop employees will hand over the ap proximately $9,980 check on Wednesday at 10 a.m. at the bookstore. Looking to set a date for the official donation, the HIV Alliance and Duck Stop chose Wednesday partly because it’s World AIDS Day, Miller said. About three million people died from AIDS in 2003, according to HIV Alliance statistics. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS now. AIDS, page 16 GIVES THE SEASON Lauren Wimer | Senior photographer Each year, University employees are given the opportu nity to donate to charities through the Charitable Fund Drive, a state employee fundraising effort. Last year, the University raised $230,000, about a quarter of what was raised statewide, even though University employees only constitute a tenth of all state employees. This year, eight agencies are benefiting from the Charitable Fund Drive. They include Earth Share, Unit ed Way, the Equity Foundation, Black United Fund, McKenzie River Gathering, Oregon Youth Soccer Asso ciation, Habitat for Humanity and Children’s Trust Fund of Oregon. Employees are given the option to donate to one charity, or an agency within that charity. All eight charities have had a profound impact on communities and individuals locally and statewide. The Emerald has profiled six of these agencies and some of the individuals they have affected. See page 8 for the full story. RENAISSANCE REVIVAL Senior economics major Jason Washburn, in the gray sweat shirt, jousts with freshman History major Dan Meeuwsen near the Jordan Schnitzer museum of Art on campus Tuesday afternoon. The sticks were made from pipes and duct tape. Phone numbers, addresses removed from UO directory The University might later allow students to select what contact information is available online BY KARA HANSEN NEWS REPORTER The University removed tele phone numbers and addresses from every student listing in the online directory Monday, ad dressing concerns from students about having their contact infor mation available to anyone. With less than two weeks left in the term, University Vice Pres ident for Student Affairs Anne Leavitt acknowledged the change could pose problems for students who have misplaced numbers of friends they need to call. The printed version of the directory was discontinued for the 2004-05 academic year. Leavitt said the change is a temporary solution to student concerns over what informa tion is available about them on the Internet. “Students wanted more op tions for restricting or not re stricting their information,” Leavitt said. “They didn’t like having their home addresses list ed. It made them feel unsafe, and they got unwanted mail.” University Registrar Herb Chereck said that during the past few years his office has received a steady flow of complaints — three to six each month — about student infor mation being available to virtu ally “anybody in the world.” “We didn’t have an alterna tive,” Chereck said. Students have to choose “all or nothing” if they want certain information restricted, either displaying everything or not having their name listed at all. Chereck hopes to implement a computer program by spring 2005 that would allow students to choose which information to display. Students would be able to check a box opting out of a direc tory listing, or they could choose whether to display information in three categories: name and e-mail address, current address and tele phone number, and academic major and undergraduate/gradu ate student status. Now, if a student chooses to restrict their information, Uni versity registrar employees do not release any information re quested about the student, in cluding whether that student is even enrolled, Chereck said. The new system will allow students to have a record that DIRECTORY, page 16 Producers will try to fit person to part in Vagina Monologues' Protests about unrepresented women in last year's play led to a reworking of the casting process BYGABE BRADLEY FREELANCE EDITOR The ASUO Women’s Center is reworking the casting process for this year’s production of “The Vagina Monologues” in response to protests that last year’s produc tion underrepresented various communities of women. Instead of holding auditions, the producers will solicit nomi nations from several student groups, as well as the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, to assemble a potential cast. The final casting decision will be made by a volunteer selection committee. “The queer community, the women of color community and the plus-size community did not feel represented last year,” pro ducer Nicole Pete said. In addition to securing a more diverse cast, the selection com mittee will also be looking to in clude activists and community members who are involved with women’s issues. Pete said the committee will se lect people who are “not neces sarily drama-oriented” in favor of “people who work (toward) ‘The Vagina Monologues’ mission of ending violence against women.” Women’s Center spokeswoman Stefanie Loh said the de-emphasis on acting ability will provide a “down to earth” feel to the pro duction as well as allow the pro ducers to be more inclusive in their casting. “The fact that they had audi tions means that some people are automatically excluded,” she said. The primary concern of the se lection committee will be “fitting the person to the part,” Pete said, adding that all parts in the script calling for women of color will be played by women of color. “That was one of the big con cerns last year was that a white woman portrayed a woman of color,” Pete said. It will be more difficult to en sure that women who identify with the queer community partic ipate in the production. “That’s where it gets kind of tricky,” Pete said. “I don’t think we can legally ask anyone what their sexual orientation is.” Instead, the producers will in form a potential actor that a par ticular part is a “queer role” and ask, “Do you feel that this repre sents you?” About 10 people showed up at VAGINA, page 16
