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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 5, 2005)
o Dr ori c.b.N ■ SHAPE k 1FUTURE ■ ■ APPLY NOW FOR FA AND RA POSITIONS APPLICATIONS DUE 5:00 PM. JANUARY 26 Applications available online at http://housin3.uoregon.edu/studentstaff/ By hire date: FA candidates must have a minimum GPA of 3 2 RA candidates must have a minimum GPA of 2.5 TAR.ARJN THAI CUUSINe • Vegetarian Selections • Dine In or Carry Out • • £unch Specials • 100 Menu Items • * Mother s homemade recipes • * More than 20 selections of beer and urine * * fi short toalk from campus * * Large Iree Parking Area • * 1200 OAK ST. EUGENE, OR • (541)343-1230 MON.-FRl. 11-3PM LUNCH, 5-10PM DINNER • SAT.-SUN. 12-10PM higher r test scores ~;t guaranteed » or your money back Attend all required classes or make-up sessions, complete all scheduled tests, and do your homework. If your score doesn’t improve on test day from your Kaplan diagnostic or a prior official test score, you can choose to repeat our program for free or get a full refund of your tuition?* It's that simple. Classes in Eugene: LSAT begins 1/11, DAT 1/20, World Leader in Test Prep OAT 1/20 and GMAT 1/23 and Admissions •Test names are registered trademarks of their respective owners. **To be eligible for this offer, you must be enrolled in Kaplan's full classroom, tutoring, or online courses. In addition, you must present a copy of your official score report and your course materials within 90 days. KAPLAN 1 -800-KAP-TEST kaptest.com Parker Howell | Senior news reporter About 80 graduate students study architecture in the Portland Urban Architecture Program’s fourth-floor studio in downtown Portland. Students there have formed a group to advocate for access to public transportation, recreational facilities and other amenities provided by incidental fees to students at the Eugene campus. PSAC: Access to free transportation a priority Continued from page 1 Students currently pay about $180 per term in incidental fees, according to the ASUO Web site. ASUO Vice President Mena Ravas sipour said ASUO officials were not aware that 80 students were not receiv ing the same amenities as students in Eugene until earlier this year when PSAC began to form, but they are now working to address students’ concerns. “It’s kind of early to say what’s go ing to happen, but right now we’re do ing a lot of research to see if there’s a way to partner with (Portland State University) to work with partner serv ices they could use up there,” she said. PSAC is the second group located at a satellite campus to ask for funding, joining the already-established Oregon Marine Students Association at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology in Charleston. The OMSA was created, like PSAC, to provide services for fee paying students at the institute. Students at the other satellite cam pus, located in Bend, do not pay inci dental fees, ASUO Accounting Coordi nator Jennifer Creighton-Neiwert said. PSAC’s formation began in late Oc tober when Nelson, Interim President Gary Blackwell and student Andrea Brown held informal meetings as a student council, an idea Blackwell said students in Portland had been discussing for several years. Nelson said the group drafted a formal petition asking for equitable bus service and recreation facilities addressed to administrators in the Ar chitecture Department and copied it to the ASUO as an afterthought. Nelson said response was “near ly unanimous” in favor of signing the petition. She said opinions about the fees vary among the students, saying some are upset and want their mon ey back, although the group is simply asking for equal access to services. Nelson, who has attended school at the Eugene campus, said Portland stu dents didn’t form a group or request support from the ASUO sooner be cause many have not attended the Eu gene campus and don’t have experi ence with student government. Blackwell said the council will al low Portland students, who typically are there for two years or less, to pass on information so it doesn’t have to be relearned. But Nelson added that the ASUO was similarly unaware. “We were interested to find out that the ASUO had no idea there were close to 80 students up here ... paying fees and not really receiving anything for it,” Nelson said. Nelson said affordable access to public transportation is an ongoing hassle for Portland students that she took for granted in Eugene. Although the architecture program is located Parker Howell | Senior news reporter Architecture graduate students Gary Blackwell, left, and Britt Nelson discuss another student's designs at the * Portland Urban Architecture Pro gram's studio in downtown Port land. Blackwell and Nelson helped form a new effort to en hance the Port land architecture program. downtown near bus stations and next to the MAX Light Rail, a com muter train that travels throughout the Portland area, she said students have to pay for expensive passes to use those systems. “Down in Eugene, we know that part of our student fee goes toward ... free bus rides, so we were trying to find some sort of subsidy or a way to help us pay for our TYiMet passes,” she said. Blackwell said over half of the Portland students use TYiMet, and he said paying about $450 a year for the service is unfair to students. Accord ing to www.trimet.org, an annual TriMet pass costs $408. “You’re basically paying the fee, but then you have to turn around and pay a monthly bus pass fee,” he said. “It’s one of those things where you are sort of getting double taxed in a way. ” Blackwell said he has met with TYiMet representatives about getting student passes, but the company only offers subsidized tickets to larg er institutions. “The problem is, they can’t go with each student individually, so we have to have a department make contact with them and say, This is something we want to do,”’ he said. He said one solution would be to partner with PSU, which already provides its students with an option to get passes. Blackwell added that a lack of ac cess to transportation can be a safe ty issue, saying a student was re cently forced to ride her bike because she couldn’t afford a TYiMet pass and was subsequently in volved in a bicycle accident. “It’s almost irresponsible that these things haven’t been taken care of, so students aren’t looking at sit uations like this,” he said. “That could have possibly been avoided if she had a bus pass.” Blackwell said Portland students might also be able to gain easier ac cess to the PSU recreation center. He said he and a few other students have been able to use it, but it was “a real ordeal.” Nelson added that Portland stu dents would also like the ability to reserve athletic tickets from Port land because it is too costly and time consuming to drive to Eugene and back to get tickets. Neither Blackwell nor Nelson had attended a game at Autzen Stadium or McArthur Court. Blackwell said PSAC members hope to accomplish more than just equitable allocation of fee money. “Really, the overarching idea is providing a forum where students can gather and address the issues that are pertinent to their success in the program,” he said. Nelson agreed. “We’re hoping to get past the stu dent fees, get past these basic things that have been plaguing the stu dents and make this program better, not only for the students but also for the University,” Nelson said. Nelson said advocating for serv ices has spurred the group into ac tion on other projects. Blackwell said PSAC will aid stu dents in networking with alumni, aiding the transition from academia to a professional setting. “Having alumni that we can sort of lean back on and provide some guidance is a great opportunity for the program to take advantage of its alumni and strengthen that tie, and there’s more meaning to it than just, ‘Oh, that’s the place where I got my degree,”’ Blackwell said. Blackwell added that the group did not use “architecture” in its name so it could expand to include students from other academic disci plines who might study in Portland in the future. With or without funding, Blackwell said PSAC will continue. “In our eyes, we don’t need money. We don’t need formal recognition to do the things we want to do,” he said. “It’s a benefit that makes the process a little easier. “In our view, the council exists. We’re here to make it stronger. ” parkerkowell@ daily emerald, com
