The Red Room brings dance to the EMU
MERALD
An independent newspaper
www.dailyemerald. com
Since 1900 | Volume 106, Issue 91 | Tuesday, February 1, 2005
UO to start
journalism
program
in Portland
The journalism school will use
funds from a $15 million gift
to create the program in the fall
BY ADAM CHERRY
NEWS REPORTER
The School of Journalism and Commu
nication announced plans Sunday for the
creation of a program at the University’s
Portland Center. The program, slated to be
gin as early as fall 2005, will initially in
clude an undergraduate internship and
graduate studies in public relations.
“We’ve been talking about a journalism
school presence in Portland since the late
1980s,” said Tim Gleason, the dean of the
School of Journalism and Communication.
“From the beginning of (Campaign Ore
gon), it’s been one of our goals.”
The University received an anonymous
$15 million gift, the third-largest in Univer
sity history, at a fundraising gala Saturday.
The Portland journalism program will re
ceive $4.5 million of the $6.5 million dedi
cated to the School of Journalism and
Communication.
Portland offers access to a number of
major media organizations, Gleason said.
While the initial master’s program in
Portland will have a public relations focus,
the hope and vision for the program will
stretch across the journalism school’s fo
cus areas, Gleason added. Apart from pub
lic relations, students at the journalism
school can focus on advertising, magazine,
news-editorial, communication studies
and electronic media.
“We’re still in the initial stages of deter
mining what the first programs will look
like,” he said.
JOURNALISM, page 3
IN BRIEF
ASUO to hold town-hall
meeting today in EMU
Students can express their concerns and
give suggestions to members of the student
government today during the first ASUO
town-hall meeting of the year.
ASUO representatives from different
branches of student government will be on
hand during the open forum from 3 p.m. to
6 p.m. in the Ben Linder Room on the
ground floor of the EMU.
ASUO President Adam Petkun said stu
dents are welcome to discuss anything they
want during the forum.
“We want them to tell us what’s on their
mind, what they want us to be working
on,” he said. “We want to talk to them
about some of the things we’ve worked
on, show them how amazing students
have been this year. ”
Petkun said he hopes discussing students’
successes so far this year will be empower
ing and help student leaders “carry that mo
mentum into other ventures.”
He added that students interested in run
ning for government positions next year can
learn more about the process during the fo
rum, although a formal event about elec
tions will be held later this year.
— Parker Howell
Examining ASUO
ASUO sets punishment timetable
Student leaders who violated conduct code on an October retreat will
perform community service by May instead of repaying student fees
BY PARKER HOWELL
SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
Student government leaders who violated the
Student Conduct Code during an October Sunriv
er retreat will complete their punishments, in
cluding community service and extended office
hours, by the end of May, ASUO officials an
nounced Friday.
Multiple retreat attendees smoked marijuana
and drank alcohol on the Oct. 8-10 nip, but the
ASUO has refused to disclose their names or how
many of the 39 students who went on the trip
committed the violations.
Students who participated in the retreat will
perform 100 total hours of community service as
a group by the fifth week of spring term, hold 10
exUa office hours each by May 25 and will create
a “dos and don’ts” video and other reneat guide
line material by March 10.
In a letter regarding potential punishments de
livered to Student Judicial Affairs Coordinator
Chris Loschiavo on Nov. 19, retreat attendees ini
tially proposed paying back all of the incidental
fee funds used on the trip in addition to other
punishments.
While Loschiavo approved of the committee,
video and community service, repayment was
not finalized as a punishment because ASUO offi
cials said it would not be feasible to raise the
money or determine how much money would be
necessary since most of the activities on the re
treat were productive.
ASUO Public Relations Director Nathan
Strauss said the group of retreat participants for
mulated the schedule.
“Like everything else, like the punishments, (it
was done) as a group and it was sent to everyone
in the group to be discussed,” he said.
Strauss said officials sent a letter with the
schedule to retreat participants for approval by
Friday morning. No suggested changes had been
received as of Friday afternoon.
He said the timeline was designed to allow par
ticipants reasonable time to complete
their punishments.
“We basically just consider everyone in
volved is really busy with their positions and fo
cusing on getting all their other duties accom
plished,” he said.
ASUO President Adam Petkun said there is
no formal plan for who will record the hours,
although he will probably oversee the commu
nity service.
“I might probably do it since I’m kind of an
outside party, so I’ll be going along for the ride
and doing the community service because I think
it’s a good thing for the community anyway even
though I wasn’t in the retreat,” he said. “So that
way I can also kind of, from afar, keep track of
who has (done service). ”
ASUO Vice President Mena Ravassipour said
retreat participants will do service both on and
off campus.
Strauss said the group will be notified when
service opportunities arise. Opportunities for par
ticipants to serve as a group will be beneficial,
ASUO, page 8
Tolerance
I and the
|orah
A rabbi's visit to the Hillel this
weekend helps shed light on
sexuality, religion and family
BY MORIAH RALINGIT
NEWS REPORTER
Rabbi Michael Latz is tired. Bags under
his eyes attest to late nights spent car
ing for his 10-month-old daughter,
Noah, a blonde-headed girl with glowing blue
eyes and an endless supply of energy. The 18
or so University students who have gathered
over Chinese food to hear him speak are
warned that Latz is running on Noah’s time,
and that he’ll probably have to cut out early
to put her to bed.
Latz balances his many roles as gracefully
as possible. He manages to keep one eye on
the rambunctious infant while answering stu
dents’ questions. In addition to managing a
household of three children, two dogs, one cat
and a fish “that just died, thank God,” Latz is
the rabbi and founder of Kol HaNeshamah, a
progressive synagogue community in west
Seattle. He’s also gay.
Latz traveled from Seattle to lead Shabbat,
or Sabbath, services at the Hillel on Friday
night. On Saturday night, he sat down to dis
cuss his experiences as a rabbi and as a father
in his community after Havdalah, a ritual
marking the end of Shabbat, was performed.
He spoke about the community he leads in
west Seattle and its philosophy of inclusiveness.
“My philosophy is that when you walk in
the synagogue you shouldn’t have to check
your identity at the door,” he said.
Senior JulieAnn Steinberger, who self-iden
tifies as queer, helped coordinate Latz’s visit.
She said “historically, religion has been such a
core of conflict in terms of sexuality” and
added that Latz’s visit was part of Hillel’s ef
fort to reach out to the lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender and queer community.
Tim Bobosky | Photographer
Rabbi Michael Latz traveled from Seattle to talk about sexual orientation and religion at the Oregon Hillel
on Saturday night. “I wanted to be a rabbi that had an inclusive agenda," he said.
“It’s important in this modem time to con
nect people’s religion and their sexuality,”
she said.
Latz said the Jewish community has been
notably progressive in its acceptance
of homosexuals.
“Reform Judaism has long been at the fore
front of accepting homosexuals,” he said.
In the 1990s, rabbinical seminaries began
accepting gays and lesbians, and in 2002, a
seminary accepted its first transgender stu
dent. Rabbis have also sanctioned gay and
lesbian marriages.
But Kol HaNeshamah’s inclusiveness ex
tends far beyond sexual identity.
“We are gay inclusive and gay friendly, but
I had no desire to be ‘the gay rabbi,’” he said. -
Kol HaNeshamah is a new, small congrega
tion of about 70 families, and most members
know one another in the tight-knit communi
ty. Latz said it has a notable number of single
parents, mixed couples (couples with one
non-Jewish partner), transgender couples and
survivors of domestic violence.
Another distinctive aspect of Kol
HaNeshamah, Latz said, is it requires a high
level of participation.
“I don’t pussyfoot around and assume that
every person that walks in is broken,” he said.
Congregants are typically asked to participate
in different synagogue activities, whether it be
serving on a committee or helping with music.
Graduate student Jordan Holtz is a former
member of Latz’s congregation and also
helped coordinate his visit. Holtz said Latz re
quires a lot from his members.
“It’s not just drop-by Judaism,” he said.
“You’re going to be asked to be an active part
of the community. ”
Latz said he encountered resistance as a
gay rabbi in the first synagogue he worked at.
One board member raised a complaint about
him kissing his partner during services.
“I told him I’d stop kissing my partner when
he’d stop kissing his wife,” he said. “That end
ed that conversation pretty quickly.”
Latz also spoke of references to homosexual
ity in the Torah, saying while homosexuality is
implicitly prohibited, the authors of the Torah
RABBI, page 8