Today Friday Saturday
High: 45 High: 43 High: 43
Low: 30 Low: 32 Low: 34
Precip: 30% Precip: 10% Precip: 60%
IN BRIEF
Air ambulance crashes in
Wyoming, killing three
RAWLINS, Wyo. — An air ambu
lance crashed, killing three people, and
the sole survivor was rescued after
calling authorities on his cell phone
and guiding them to the wreckage by
describing the sirens and other sounds
he could hear.
Timothy Baldwin, 35, a medic,
spent about 90 minutes on his cell
phone directing rescuers to the site.
The plane went down in snow and
fog Tbesday while on its way to pick
up the victim of a car accident. The pi
lot and two medics were killed.
Rescuers had difficulty tracing the
plane’s emergency transmitter and had
to rely on Baldwin’s description of the
sirens and train whistle to figure out
whether they were getting closer.
“It’s like looking for a needle in a
haystack,” airport manager Dwight
France said. “A lot of country, a lot of
tough country to cover.”
Baldwin had to be pried out of the
plane, and reached the hospital early
Wednesday in critical condition.
The cause of the crash was under
investigation.
The Associated Press
£
Programs Finance
Committee
Job stipend debate
delays more budget
hearings Tuesday
BY JORDAN THIERRY
DAILY EMERALD FREELANCE REPORTER
Questions and concerns regarding
stipend job positions continued at
Tuesday's Programs Finance Commit
tee meeting, pushing some budget
hearings back nearly an hour.
The first half of the meeting ap
peared to be a continuation of Mon
day’s meeting when PFC members
could not come to a consensus on how
to approve stipend job positions. The
Black Law Students Association’s pro
posal ignited the quandary.
PFC Chair Persis Pohowalla, who
said she was BLSA’s controller last
year, recommended the group
receive no stipend position because
she “saw no leadership and poor
spending” at that time.
Vice Chair Mason Quiroz said he
didn’t see any reason not to approve
the stipend position because the
group met ASUO requirements.
Quiroz added that funding shouldn’t
be based on a group’s previously
poor spending record.
PFC member Jael Anker-Lagos
questioned PFC’s consistency in
approving stipend positions, while
Quiroz advocated approving the
positions because they fall within
ASUO guidelines.
“I still don’t approve of these job de
scriptions, and I wouldn’t pay some
one to do these duties. All they’ve
done is gone to conferences,” ASUO
Controller Rosie Sweetman said.
After BLSA representatives empha
sized the growth and youth of their
group, Anker-Lagos made an amend
ment to approve the budget with no
increase from last year.
ASUO Senator Kevin Day disagreed
with the amendment.
“You have gone back on your word
with this amendment. If I recall cor
rectly, in the past two meetings you’ve
said you wouldn’t consider new lead
ership of groups when approving
budgets,” he said.
Anker-Lagos recalled the amend
ment and a budget was finally passed
for BLSA of $1,062, a 9.6 percent de
crease from last year.
The Asian Pacific Law Student As
sociation budget generated similar dis
cussion and controversy. Pohowalla
recommended not approving a stipend
position, while Quiroz advocated ap
proving the position.
The APLS defended the stipend po
sition by stressing the limited time law
students have for extra-curricular ac
tivities and the expenses incurred or
ganizing their events.
However, Sweetman supported Po
howalla's recommendation.
“I do not approve of the job descrip
tions. I do not think they should be do
ing the work to get paid, but to con
tribute to the cultural enrichment on
campus,” she said.
Day strongly recommended the PFC
“sit down and figure out how to evalu
ate the stipend position so this conver
sation doesn’t continue to arise in front
of every group. ”
Minutes later the room was silent
and the meeting seemed to halt.
“I feel like the PFC is in a position to
force something simply because we
just can’t get it together right now,”
Quiroz said.
In the end, APLS agreed to have its
stipend funds transferred to program
ming funds and a budget was passed
of $1,941, a 21.48 percent decrease
from last year.
The Hong Kong Student Associa
tion’s budget hearing brought a new
mood to the room, largely because of
its organized proposal.
The PFC commended HKSA for
spending 98 percent of last year’s
budget and fundraising over half of it.
“They definitely deserve more of
an increase for their spending,”
Quiroz said.
The PFC passed a budget of
$3,649, increasing it 22.2 percent
from last year.
The Korean Student Association’s
budget proposal seemed to top the
charts Tliesday night. KSA raised more
than $3,000 last year, almost tripling
last year’s budget.
The PFC passed a budget of $2,836,
an increase of 101 percent.
“This is a huge increase, and we
would give you more if we could,”
Quiroz said.
The Chinese Student Scholars Asso
ciation requested a budget increase for
its Chinese New Year event to be held
at a better location. The PFC passed a
budget of $3,270, a 2.39 percent in
crease from last year.
The Alternative Dispute Resolution
Advocates requested a $1,000 increase
from its previous budget of $300 in an
effort to send members to a regional
mediation competition in March.
The PFC suggested motor pool as a
means of traveling to the competition
instead of by air and passed a budget
of $530, an increase of 76.6 percent
from last year.
The Association of Anthropology
Graduate Students received a budget
approval of $354, an 18 percent in
crease frpm last year.
Fate of student tickets uncertain
Student Senators discussed a proposal that will save
money, hut will leave fewer student tickets next year
BY PARKER HOWELL
SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
Students may lose seats at football
and basketball games next year if
cost-saving measures under negotia
tion by the Athletic Department Fi
nance Committee and the Athletics
Department are ratified, Senator
Kevin Day said on Wednesday during
the Student Senate meeting.
The proposed changes call for stu
dents to trade their current seats in
Section Nine, located near the march
ing band at the west side of Autzen
Stadium, for seats in Section Four.
The swap would result in a loss of
400 seats, Day said.
Students would also lose half of
their current seats in the third bal
cony of McArthur Court under the
new terms.
Day said the reductions would
help address the no-show factor — a
recurring problem caused by stu
dents who get free tickets to games
and don’t use them.
“It didn’t seem economically right
to keep those seats for the cost long
term,” Day said.
Groups whose budgets are under
review by the EMU Board of Directors
will have to wait until the end of the
budget process to learn if they will
gain money for growth because of an
accounting error in the spreadsheets
used to determine the board’s bench
marks, Senator Toby Hill-Meyer said
during the meeting.
Hill-Meyer said the projected
benchmark has dropped from about
9.2 percent to about 3.8 percent since
EMU Director Dusty Miller notified
an EMU Board member of the error
over winter break. The benchmark
could fluctuate further, although the
board will try to stay within the cur
rent guideline, Hill-Meyer said.
Senate Ombudsman Stephanie Er
ickson announced that two students
filed grievances against the Oregon
Commentator this week because of
content published in its recent issues.
One unidentified student filed a griev
ance last week against the conserva
tive journal of opinion.
Erickson said she turned the
grievances over to the ASUO Execu
tive because the Senate will need to
approve the Programs Finance
Committee’s budget recommenda
tions for The Commentator, which
could be a conflict of interest.
parkerhoweIl@dailyemerald.com
jM# Tech Thursday
Freeware, open source offer
free alternatives for software
BY ANTHONY LUCERO
NEWS REPORTER
Computer users may spend hun
dreds of dollars to equip their ma
chines with software. But thanks to
freeware and open source software
that can rival high-priced software,
those on a student budget may not
have to choose between buying a
software program and eating.
Freeware and open source soft
ware are both free programs but the
primary difference is that open
source allows anyone to see and
modify the program’s code whereas
freeware products may be owned
only by a specific company.
Sam Crow, an EMU Computer Lab
student tech assistant, said the appli
cation OpenOffice could help stu
dents do their schoolwork, such as
viewing and writing Microsoft Word
compatible files, PowerPoint presen
tations or Excel spreadsheets.
OpenOffice comes from the StarOf
fice productivity suite created by Sun
Microsystems for the Linux
open source operating system but
has since expanded to an open
source option for Windows and Mac
operating systems.
Crow said many students can get
along fine with an entirely open
source and freeware computer set
up by using a Linux operating sys
tem and OpenOffice, which can ac
complish most students’ tasks. For
PC users Crow also recommends
OpenOffice, but he thinks the
out-of-the-box AppleWorks suite
functions better than OpenOffice for
Mac users.
However, Crow said many student
users may be discouraged from com
plex installations and lack of famil
iarity with the user interface, particu
larly with Linux, which has many
variations or environments that can
affect the user interface or may have
completely different ways of navigat
ing from Windows or Mac systems.
But there are Linux environments
that are similar to the Windows XP
interface — SUSE and Mandrake
from Red Hat in particular are avail
able commercially, for a price.
University students can also ben
efit from picking up the Duck Ware
CD from the Microcomputer Ser
vices helpdesk at 151 McKenzie.
The DuckWare CD contains many
freeware programs including
OpenOffice and the CD-burning
software BurnAtOnce, which makes
copying data onto a CD as easy as
dragging and dropping the desired
data onto the CD icon. Other sites
like www.download.com and
www.tucows.com list programs in
every category and gives users the
option to look only at free programs.
Business major Craig Cooper
said when he bought his PC laptop,
the only software he purchased for
it was Microsoft Office.
“My PC came with a Microsoft
word processor but when I got the
computer, i upgraded and bought
the Office Professional Edition so
that 1 could get Excel and Power
point too,” Cooper said. “Those are
important for me because I’m a
business major.”
Cooper said he was discouraged
from getting more software because
of the high price of many programs
and also because he had no need for
extra programs. But that hasn’t
stopped Cooper from downloading
full programs from peer-to-peer Web
sites that let users download entire
programs with registration codes so
they can use the product as if they
had bought it in the stores.
“I usually try and find the
software instead of buying it, but
usually you run into problems and
it’s not as easy to find a good
source,” Cooper said.
Holly Jones, a journalism major
who recently bought an Apple
iBook, said she also only bought Mi
crosoft Office for Mac and said the
only other product she’d buy is Pho
toshop. Her iBook is mainly used for
basic work on campus and listening
to music at home. Jones said if she
wanted software and couldn’t pay
for it, she would not try to download
it because she would not know
TECH, page 4
Barriers: Students share adjustment stories
Continued from page 1
different idea of punctuality.
“It is very rude in my culture if you
show up on time. You always show
up a half hour to an hour late,” he
said in class. “We respect people
more than time.”
As the discussion continued, the
class explored more subtle and sensi
tive cultural differences, such as the
concept of individualism versus col
lectivism.
Mariko Yamaguchi said she
felt collectivism was more preva
lent in Japan and compared her
experiences with self expression in
both cultures.
“I can be more myself here
because American people are
willing to listen to what I am
thinking,” she said.
The class also gives students the
opportunity to share the difficulties of
living in a new environment.
Freshman Katherine Compton
spent a year of high school in Japan
and was the only white student.
“Even though it was hard being
the ‘white girl,’ the people were very
generous,” she said.
Freshman Aleah-Marie Beephan
came to the United States four and a
half years ago from Ttinidad.
“I would say it’s getting better,”
she said in class. “From the first day 1
came to Oregon I hated it.”
Freshman Philip Bristol, who
spent a year in Germany as an ex
change student, said people often un
derestimate the challenges that inter
national students face.
“This class has reinforced my
awareness about how difficult it
can be to be a student in another
country,” he said.
Exchange student Maki Fujuha
ja of Japan said the class has made
the transition to the University a
little smoother.
“This class makes me more active
because there are a lot of internation
al students," she said. “In other class
es, we don’t have the opportunity to
discuss very seriously. ”
Shirzadegan said the course is
important because it equips
students with the skills necessary
to survive in an increasingly
multicultural job market.
“We’re living in a more and more
global community,” he said. “You
can’t function today in the job mar
ket if you can’t communicate across
your differences and cultures.”
moriahbalingit@dailyemerald.com