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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 6, 2005)
University’s Kayaking Club hits Oregon waters 9 MERALD An independent newspaper unvw. dailyemerald. com Since 1900 \ Volume 106, Issue 128 \ Wednesday: April 6, 2005 University officials would like to extend the campus smoking ban to match Eugene's new ordinance BY MEGHANN M. CUNIFF SENIOR NEWS REPORTER Stepping out for a quick smoke on campus may become more difficult if a city or dinance banning smoking within 25 feet of a publicly owned building is applied at the University. The Eugene City Council passed an ordinance Feb. 28 that extended the city smoking ban to 25 feet from the door for all publicly owned buildings, but Ward 3 City Councilor David Kelly said it is not enforce able for state-owned buildings such as those at the University. The ban is still 10 feet for all other buildings. Legal counsel is examining whether the University is legally obligated to enforce the ordinance, and in the meantime, University officials are working on crafting a similar policy that could be used on campus. “It needs to be what best works for the Uni versity,” Director of Environmental Health and Safety Kay Coots said. “There’s a lot of people with various interests that need to weigh in on whichever direction the Universi ty ends up headed.” Coots said she has discussed with Director of Health Education Paula Staight about how to inform people about the possible change in smoking rules and is optimistic a 25-feet-from-the-door rule could get campus wide support. Kelly said the City Council received “very, very minor opposition” to the change. He said the ordinance “is a footnote kind of thing for the most part,” stressing that it doesn’t affect bars and restaurants, only publicly-owned buildings. Staight said a campus advisory board sur veyed people from various departments a couple years ago about whether they would support such a change and the response was strongly in favor of it. “It was pretty almost unanimous that they would support that because of the issues of tobacco smoke drifting up into the open win dows,” Staight said. Problems with cigarette smoke going into campus buildings’ ventilation systems have Photo illustration by Tim Bobosky, Amanda Lee and Jeannie Evers invoked 50-feet-from-the-door smoking policies at certain buildings such as the Lillis Business Complex and Allen Hall, and Coots said those problems are seen as incentives to enact a new policy. Coots and Staight both said there is no set time frame for when a University policy could be enacted because of the array of different considerations and because legal counsel has yet to make a decision about the applicability of the city ordinance. Coots said banning smoking within 25 or 50 feet of an entrance is a first step, but other issues such as smoking around campus walk ways and the aesthetic aspect that could come with only certain areas of campus being open to smokers could inhibit the speed in which a policy is formulated. “It seems like such a simple issue, but it SMOKING, page 6 OflSUO I " I elections ASUO primary elections begin today Students can vote for the ballot measures and the candidates on DuckWeb until Friday at 5 p.m. BY PARKER HOWELL SENIOR NEWS REPORTER Students have their first chance to influence the makeup of next year’s student govern ment today as online voting begins for candi dates and ballot measures in the ASUO pri mary election. Electronic voting through DuckWeb runs through Friday at 5 p.m. Positions up for grabs in the primary in clude the ASUO president, ASUO student sen ators and members of the major finance com mittees. Students elected to those offices will help control up to $10 million in student funds next year. Twenty seats total are listed on the ballot, with 46 candidates vying for election. Eight of those races are uncontested with only one candidate running, but students may write in candidates for all positions. If no candidate wins more than 50 percent ASUO, page 7 CANDIDATE COURT RECORDS A statewide search of court records for each candidate running in today's ASUO primary election revealed that sev eral candidates have been charged with or convicted of violations and misdemeanors. The Emerald has compiled a list of the offenses, leaving out most traffic violations, parking tickets and civil suits. Court records are available to the public at the Lane County Public Service Building, Candidate: Anthony A. Caruso, ASUO President Age: 20 Offense: Class-B violation for minor in possession of alcohol Date: Aug. 30,2002 County: Multnomah Offense: Class-B violation for speeding; driving with a suspended license Date: Sept. 3,2002 County: Multnomah Offense: Misdemeanor for use of an invalid driver's license dismissed Date: Oct. 18,2002 County: Lane Candidate: Tyrel D. Love, Student Senate Seat 11 Age: 19 Offense: Misdemeanor treated as a violation for misrepresentation of age by a minor Date: Nov. 16,2004 County: Lane Candidate: Dallas W. Brown, Stu dent Senate Seat 14 Age: 20 Offense: Violation for minor in pos session of alcohol; charges of fail ure to carry a current license and careless driving dismissed Date: April 9,2003 County: Deschutes Offense: Misdemeanor possession of less than 1 ounce of marijuana near a school; charge of failure to carry a current license dismissed Date: May 7,2003 County: Deschutes Parker Howell Health a concern in discussion of citations Tiuo groups' campus policies on alcohol poisoning in underage students differ, causing discord BY EMILY SMITH NEWS REPORTER The debate between the Department of Public Safety and Office of Student Life about how to handle students who get al cohol poisoning on campus continued Tuesday at the Public Safety Advisory Group meeting addressing the topic. Currently, DPS cites underage students treated for alcohol poisoning while OSL tells students they will not get in trouble for call ing in an alcohol-related emergency. The goal of Tliesday’s meeting was for the advisory group to come to a consensus on what to suggest to DPS concerning the problem of students “being told one thing and then being disciplined in a way totally contrary to that,” said Corey Harmon, group chair and University senior. “They would be here every day, and we just don’t have the staffing. They’re cleaning up a mountain of vomit every weekend. ” David Rodgers Facilities Manager for Housing No motions were passed. Harmon said the discussion will continue at the next PSAG meeting. “I don’t think it should go unpunished by any means, but at the same time, I feel that any slight thing that would hinder a student from getting medical assistance re ally does scare me as a student and as someone on this committee and as a com munity member,” Harmon said. OSL Di rector Laura Jones said 1,400 of the na tion’s college students die every year of alcohol poisoning. Harmon said that freshmen are often inexperienced drinkers and don’t know their limits. “Once you get to that certain point of drinking, what’s another beer?” Harmon said. “I don’t think they are consciously getting to that point; who would want to get to that point, honestly?” Later at the meeting, DPS officer Mike Eppli disagreed. “When we respond to a party with a beer bong and a person next to it on the couch and they’re passed out, I think they are making a conscious decision at that point to consume large amounts of alco hol,” Eppli said. Harmon suggested students go through a diversion program, such as “bringing to gether a community circle of people in volved in the situation.” The person who had alcohol poisoning, the person who called it in, the resident assistants, the complex director and the janitor who cleaned up the “barf” could all be in volved, she said, adding that she believes a roundtable discussion about how the person’s binge drinking impacted the PSAG, page 7
