Oregon daily emerald., January 24, 2005, Image 1

Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art pops open | 6A
Oregon Daily Emerald
An independent newspaper
www. dailyemerald. com
Since 1900 | Volume 106, Issue 85 j Monday, January 24, 2005
Senate left inexperienced due to resignations
Only two experienced senators remain after three resign from the
Student Senate in two weeks, totaling five resignations this year
BY PARKER HOWELL
SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
Three student senators have stepped down
from their elected positions this month, leaving
the Student Senate with vacant positions and
only two senators with prior Senate experience.
In the most recent of five resignations this
year, Senators Colin Andries, Rodrigo
Moreno-Villamar and Sol Hart left the student
government within the last two weeks. Their
departure leaves the 18-member body with
just two members who served last year.
Political science major Moreno-Villamar,
who held Academic Social Science Seat 14, left
at the beginning of the term, while graduate
student Hart resigned effective Jan. 15. Both
senators cited time constraints as their primary
reason for departing, although they also ex
pressed concerns with aspects of the Senate.
Law student Andries, who held Programs
Finance Committee Seat 3, resigned as of the
third week of the term. He did not immediate
ly return the Emerald’s calls.
The three senators are only the most recent
to resign. Graduate Student Seat 18, held by
J.L. Stiggins, has been vacant since early No
vember. Senator Kevin Curtin left Academic
Social Science Seat 15 early fall term and was
later replaced Dy current senator Nick Hudson.
The ASUO Executive is currently interview
ing applicants for Seat 18, Senate President
James George said.
ASUO Public Relations Director Nathan
Strauss said Senate vacancies are expected.
“This isn’t unusual,” he said. “Every year
there are a number of resignations.”
Strauss said the Executive is working to fill
the vacant positions as quickly as possible. The
deadline for applications is Jan. 26, he said.
George said there was minimal turnover
last year compared with this year. He said the
time demands for senators are high, causing
them to make difficult choices about how
they allocate their time.
George said vacant seats have not severely
impeded the Senate.
It hasn t hindered us to the point we re not
able to hold actual meetings, but we have
come close,” he said.
Former Senator Hart, who served in the stu
dent government at the University of Califor
nia, Davis, said although concerns with the
Senate would never have caused him to quit, he
had objections to the way the Senate operated.
Hart said one example occurred when the
Spencer View Tenants’ Council submitted a
request for surplus funds. Even though the
group submitted its request in advance,
senators did not adequately prepare to ad
dress the issue.
“When they did come before the Senate, es
sentially nobody had reviewed their budget,”
he said.
Hart said senators then tried to do “ad hoc”
SENATE, page 4A
Taking
action
A community group will travel
to Asia in March to spend one
month helping tsunami victims
BY AMANDA BOLSINGER
& MEGHANN M. CUNIFF
NEWS REPORTERS
A growing group of University students and
community members is preparing to leave be
hind school, work, sports teams and every
thing else to travel to the areas in southern
Asia most devastated by the tsunami.
They don’t know exactly where they’re go
ing or exactly what they’re going to do — they
just know they’re going to help.
Junior Matt Short, a basketball player on
scholarship, freshman wrestler Jeremy
McLaughlin, undergraduate Ethan Holub and
University volunteer wrestling coach Tony
Overstake will be in Asia from March 20 until
April 20 along with at least eight members of
their church to offer assistance and support to
the victims of one of the largest natural disas
ters in history.
“We’re just pumped to bring some tents
and just hang out with the kids if nothing
else,” Holub said.
The men said they had been talking about
the tsunami survivors and praying for them,
and they felt led by God to put their words
into action by going to the area and helping in
whatever ways needed.
“It just weighed on our hearts,” McLaugh
lin said. “Everyone wants to change the world,
but we don’t see a lot of attempts to do it.”
Short and McLaughlin said the month-long
trip will not affect their status as student ath
letes at the University because they will still
be enrolled as students while in Asia and will
complete the credits required to stay eligible.
“The scholarship will still keep on going,”
Short said. “There’s a way for me to do it
without leaving the team and that’s the best
thing for me. ”
Overstake, who graduated from the Univer
sity in 2002, said he recommends that the stu
dents going on the trip talk with their profes
sors about making arrangements for the
missed weeks of classes and prepare to work
hard when they return to make up for the
missed time.
Short said he is in the process of arranging
to take 12 independent study credits while he
is gone to continue his political science degree
work and maintain his athletic eligibility.
Danielle Hickey | Photo editor
Left to right: University undergraduate Ethan Holub, volunteer wrestling coach Tony Overstake, junior basketball
player Matt Short and freshman wrestler Jeremy McLaughlin are leaving for Thailand to help with tsunami relief efforts.
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Eugene. They said members are spreading the
word about the trip and helping bring in do
nations and additional support, although the
church isn’t organizing the event.
The group is encouraging anyone else inter
ested to contact them directly or through
Calvary Fellowship.
“We’re people with hearts to go love other
people, serve and show faith through action,”
Holub said.
The men said they have contacted various
organizations about assisting in the relief
efforts but have not been able to make any
permanent commitments because
most groups are only looking for trained
medical professionals.
“We’re looking for organizations who need
people to serve,” Short said. “We just want to
work hard.”
“I know how to put on a Band-Aid,” Over
stake added. “We just want to do grunt work,
feed the kids and play with them.”
They don’t have specific plans or an itiner
ary, but the men say they will travel from
Bangkok, Thailand, down to the coastal areas
most affected by the tsunami and hope to end
up in Indonesia.
“Everyone else is afraid to go there and
worried about themselves and not many have
gone,” Holub said.
Indonesia is very difficult to get into, Over
stake said, but group members are hoping to
take a boat over and spend time wherever
they can, helping anyone who will accept it.
“We want to go over there and help people
who want help,” McLaughlin said.
In order to blend in, the men say they will
spend the next month researching the
cunuies ana siuuying me languages oi me re
gions they will visit.
“We don’t want to be looked at as
tourists,” Holub said. “We want to get in with
the locals.”
Holub said he has traveled to more than 35
countries and has found the best way to expe
rience the different lifestyles is to embrace the
regional culture.
The men said they will try to be as close as
possible to the tsunami victims by staying
with the survivors in refugee camps and not
escaping at night to one of the newly rebuilt
hotels that they worry have taken priority in
the rebuilding efforts.
Members of the church have expressed in
terest in starting a long-term program, such as
an orphanage somewhere in the region, and
are hoping to raise $50,000 for the cause,
Holub said.
“We want to start an orphanage,” Holub
said. “It’s something we can send college kids
over to serve. ”
All four of the men agreed there is much to
do before their departure, such as obtaining
passports and getting the required medical
shots — Short alone needs eight — but said
their trip is well worth whatever cost
they pay.
The men said they have received a huge
amount of support from their families and
members of the community and are looking
forward to using that support to help them re
ally make a difference.
“We’re not there iust to say it and walk
away,” Holub said.
aboLsinger@dailyemerald.com
meghanncuniff@dailyemerald.com
$2 million
given to UO
music school
for remodel
The school needs $7.6 million
in total donations to get state
; bonds to renovate its facilities
—
BY KARA HANSEN
NEWS REPORTER
The University received a $2 million
boost in funding to rebuild and expand the
music school, propelling the project clos
er to the $7.6 million in private donations
needed to launch the $15.2 million proj
ect, University President Dave Frohnmayer
announced Thursday.
The music school was built in 1921 with
space for 300 students, which is not
enough space for the school’s current
enrollment, School of Music Dean Brad
Foley said.
“The bottom line is that this school fa
cility was designed to house about half as
many students as have classes there,”
Foley said.
The renovation will increase the build
ing’s space by 50 percent to accommodate
the 500 music majors and 4,000 non-mu
sic majors attending classes there, accord
ing to a University press release.
“With the new building, we’ll have a fa
cility that will be commensurate with the
talent of our students and our faculty,”
said music school Director of Develop
ment DeNel Stoltz, noting the school has
n’t been able to compete as well because
of a “lack of facilities.”
Stoltz said the project is also important
because of the impact the music school
has on the state.
“About one-fourth of music teachers in
this state are our alumni,” she said.
The project will also add a new entrance
on East 18th Avenue, nearly double the
number of student practice rooms, provide
new acoustically isolated teaching studios
and add space for offices, rehearsals and
instrument storage.
The recent $2 million donation came
from Business Wire CEO Lorry Lokey, who
grew up in Portland. Lokey donates money
to support higher education because “it’s
the best investment one can make to im
prove the lives of individuals and society,”
I according to the University press release.
MUSIC, page 8A