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