Women’s Center to host women of color conference I 7
Oregon Daily Emerald
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Since 1900 \ Volume 106, Issue 125 \ Friday, April 1, 2005
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Program
for ex-cons
may move
to UO area
Some West University residents are
concerned a purchased house could
potentially hold sex offenders
BY MEGHAN N M. CUNIFF
SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
A nonprofit organization that works with
parolees and ex-convicts is looking to purchase a
house in the West University neighborhood to
provide a place where clients can live together in
a supervised environment.
Flyers have been circulating in the neighbor
hood denouncing Sponsors, Inc. for the plan,
claiming the organization works primarily with
sex offenders and did not disclose that informa
tion when the West University Neighbors associa
tion passed a resolution in support of the organi
zation at its March 3 meeting.
City officials and representatives from Spon
sors, Inc. said such claims are unfounded and
show a lack of knowledge about the program.
Ron Chase, executive director of Sponsors,
Inc., said no decision has been made about
whether sex offenders will live in the neighbor
hood house and said more information is expect
ed to be finalized in late spring and early summer.
Sponsors, Inc. is open about its program and
encourages open dialogue in the neighborhood
and throughout the community, Chase said.
“There has been absolutely no attempt to con
ceal what we’re doing,” he said.
Though it was not discussed at the March 3
meeting that some of the organization’s clientele
are registered sex offenders, Chase said the grow
ing percentage of sex offenders in the prison pop
ulation is such that it should be expected that
post-prison supervision programs would be deal
ing with some of them.
Chase estimated there are between 75-100
parolees and ex-convicts living in the West Uni
versity neighborhood. He said Sponsors, Inc. is
looking to have better supervision for those peo
ple by providing them with a place to live and in
teract with employees from the organization.
The anonymous flyer circulating around the
West University neighborhood states that the
neighborhood association’s vote in favor of the
organization’s plans “was held without adequate
disclosure, and without the knowledge and con
sent of the vast majority of the neighborhood. ”
West University Neighbors Chairman Drix
Rixmann said the resolution the association
passed merely agreed to open discussion with
Sponsors, Inc.
“We didn’t open the pearly gate and do all this
other stuff,” Rixmann said.
No formal agreement about whether to sup
port the program’s presence in the neighborhood
was reached, and more discussion about the de
tails of the program will take place in the months
to come, Rixmann said.
Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy was listed on the
flyer as a person to contact with concerns. Piercy
wrote in an e-mail that she was not involved in
the production of the flyer and is very supportive
of Sponsors, Inc. and the program’s work in the
community.
SPONSORS, page 5
$25,000 in musical instruments stolen
Two men were arrested for allegedly breaking into two students'
lockers in the music school and stealing a cello and euphonium
BY EMILY SMITH
NEWS REPORTER
The Eugene Police Department arrested two
men Wednesday night after they allegedly stole
musical instruments valued at more than
$25,000 from student lockers inside the Univer
sity School of Music.
EPD spokeswoman Kerry Delf said the two
suspects, Ronnie Brett Kerr, 35, and Nicholas
Tlirre Jason, 26, were already wanted for sepa
rate criminal incidents. Kerr is being held at the
Lane County Jail and is being charged with bur
glary 2 and aggravated theft 1. Jason was taken
into custody and cited on the same charges but
was released for medical reasons.
Music major Derek Newell, 28, almost lost his
handmade cello, valued at more than $20,000,
when Kerr and Jason first entered the school
around 5:30 p.m. and broke into Newell’s locker,
Delf said.
Delf said the two men then returned and took
University music student Skyler Johnson’s
$5,500 euphonium, but it wasn’t until their third
time entering the building at around 8:30 p.m.
that they were spotted by Johnson, who alerted
EPU ana Department ot Public Safe
ty officers already investigating the
burglary and in the process of re
viewing video evidence.
Delf said the officers ran up the
stairs to find Kerr standing next to a
locker, holding Johnson’s CD player.
An EPD officer arrested Kerr im
mediately, while Jason led a DPS of
ficer on a foot pursuit for about two
blocks until he was apprehended on
the corner of Patterson Street and
East 18th Avenue.
Upon locating the suspects’ yellow Toyota
pickup, police discovered the cello, horn, bur
glary tools and a bike known to have been
stolen from campus, all hidden under a tarp in
the truck’s bed.
Kerr was arraigned Thursday, and Jason is
scheduled to appear in court April 13. No trials
have yet been set.
Janet Stewart, the assistant to the dean of the
School of Music, said Wednesday’s burglars
were either “very stupid or very bold. ” She said
the area of the music building in question is
“highly traveled,” and with the burglars’ bolt
cutters, "they were ready to seize the moment,
and they did.”
Stewart also said the room housing the lock
ers was locked.
Delf said there were 42 burglaries
and 405 theft cases reported during
2004 on the University campus.
DPS Interim Director Tom Hicks
said so far this year, there have been
only four burglaries.
Delf said Eugene’s property crime
rate is “higher than what’s typical
for a city of our size,” and “it’s most
ly related to meth use.” She also said
the University is often targeted by
property criminals because students
are inexperienced in locking up their property.
Delf recommends using two bike locks — a
Kryptonite and a cable lock are best — because
a thief most likely won’t want to take the extra
time to break both locks. She also suggests
renters’ insurance to students living in the area.
“It’s cheap, but kids don’t think to get it until
it’s too late,” Delf said.
emilysmith® daily emerald, com
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RONNIE BRETI KERR
SUSPECT
Erik R. Bishoff | Photographer
Kenyan novelist and human rights activist Ngugi wa
Thiong’o spoke at the Knight Law School Wednesday.
Speaking his MIND
Acclaimed Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiongo spoke about his life
experiences and their connection to language and memory
BY AMANDA BOLSINGER
NEWS REPORTER
Former political prisoner and exile Ngugi wa
Thiong’o captivated an audience of more than
250 people Wednesday evening as he discussed
his life, his academic work and his activism.
The University hosted the acclaimed Kenyan
novelist for a lecture in the Knight Law Center
on “Planting African Memory: The Role of a
Scholar in a Postcolonial World.”
During the hour-and-a-half event, Thiong’o
focused on the connection between language
and memory and the role that connection has
played in his work.
Thiong’o was invited to the University by
members of the African Studies committee, who
were searching for a lecturer who would appeal
to several departments.
“We were brainstorming, and his name came
up as most important in many departments,” an
thropology and international studies professor
KENYA page 4
Professor patents usage of
gold particles in transistors
Jim Hutchison 'bottom-up' method improves upon miniaturization
technology and may eventually be developed for consumer products
BY EVA SYLWESTER
NEWS REPORTER
University chemistry professor Jim Hutchi
son received a patent on Tuesday for his work
toward the continuing miniaturization of tech
nology. He developed a way to make transis
tors, used in electronic devices to amplify sig
nals, out of extremely tiny particles of gold.
“In the future we’ll be able to put millions
and millions and billions of these things in the
size of a wristwatch and have the power of a
desktop computer,” Hutchison said.
Hutchison said every 18 months the size of
transistors in consumer electronic devices
shrinks by a factor of two, meaning that the
number of transistors on each microchip dou
bles and the performance of the devices that
use the transistors also doubles.
“This is why every two years, people want to
buy a new computer,” he said.
However, Hutchison said the current method
of building smaller transistors is becoming in
adequate. A transistor consists of an input end,
an output end and a switch in between. As the
distance between the input and output ends
HUTCHISON, page 5
BUILDING
A TINY
TRANSISTOR
1. A gold nanoparticle (100
atoms together) is surrounded
by surface molecules that
bind to the outside, much like
a Koosh ball.
2. The surface molecules of
the gold nanoparticles bind to
a strand of DNA from a virus.
The DNA is used as a
structural support, not for
genetic material.
3. The strings of nanoparticles
are set up between electrode
contacts so electrons flow
from one contact to another.
Source: Jim Hutchison,
University chemistry professor
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