Spike and Mike get twisted in Pulse I 11
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Since 1900 | Volume 106, Issue 129 \ Thursday, April 7, 2005
Executive hopefuls spar in debate
Kate Horton | Photographer
Elizabeth LaDu and David Petzold attend the ASUO debates in the Gerlinger Lounge, wearing T-shirts showing
support for the Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates.
Government transparency and the budget take center stage during
an official debate between candidates for the ASUO's top posts
BY PARKER HOWELL
SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
Candidates from the seven campaigns run
ning for ASUO Executive in this week’s primary
election emphasized student government ac
countability and the budget during a debate
Wednesday night.
About 70 students attended the debate, many
of them wearing colored T-shirts promoting one
of the platforms. The candidates responded to
four predetermined questions before answering
questions from the audience.
Several questions focused on how candidates
will improve accountability of student govern
ment in light of the Oct. 8-10 finance retreat to
Sunriver, at which student leaders drank alco
hol and smoked marijuana.
Vice presidential candidate Jael Anker-Lagos,
the only candidate who attended the retreat,
said alcohol on retreats is a “huge problem,”
adding that the retreat was “a great learning ex
perience. ”
“I want to make clear right now that the al
cohol was not purchased with incidental fees,”
she said. “I must say that 1 do support finance
retreats.... I learned the ins and outs of the inci
dental fee and the financial structure of the
ASUO because 1 attended this retreat.”
Presidential candidate Jacob Daniels said he
will hold a retreat at which “there’s not going
to be any alcohol whatsoever. ”
“They need to get to know each other; they
need to form lasting relationships, loyalty to
one another, and the thing is, alcohol might cre
ate a false impression of friendship, and it’s not
going to do anything as a learning experience,”
he said.
Presidential candidate Nick Hudson said he
ASUO, page 3
EMU may
switch to
wind power
for energy
If approved, Ballot Measure 21
would fund conservation efforts
on campus by increasing fees
BY PARKER HOWELL
SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
Students may pay a little more in future Uni
versity energy fees to power the EMU with
wind energy and to fund other sustainability
projects if a ballot measure in this week’s ASUO
primary election demonstrates to administra
tors that students favor those changes.
The maximum increase of $2 would raise
about $40,000 to be used by a committee to
fund energy conservation efforts, University
Sustainability Coordinator Steve Mital said.
He said about $10,000 of the increases would
be needed to power the EMU with wind
energy provided by the Eugene Water and
Electric Board.
Although a majority of votes for Ballot Mea
sure 21 won’t directly authorize any increases,
the ballot is intended to show administrators
that “students support energy conservation and
renewable energy on campus,” according to the
ASUO’s 2005 Voter’s Guide. ASUO Student Sen
ator Stephanie Erickson said the University
would receive a “pretty good deal” from EWEB
because it wouldn’t pay the regular wind ener
gy premium.
EMU Board of Directors member Yoko Silk
said the low cost for providing wind energy is a
good tradeoff for cleaner energy.
“Two dollars, we figure, is a pretty fair price
to pay,” she said. “It’s less than a latte.”
Silk added that wind energy will become
cheaper as it becomes more prevalent.
Mital said powering campus buildings with
wind energy would provide multiple benefits.
“You have a global climate change debate; you
ENERGY, page 4
The Center for the Advancement
of Sustainable Living has asked
the UO for a house to remodel
BY SHELDON TRAVER
NEWS REPORTER
The Center for the Advancement of Sus
tainable Living met with University offi
cials Wednesday to discuss the possibility
of receiving a house that it could use to
showcase advancements in sustainable
building techniques.
CASL is a student group that promotes re
search and education in sustainable building
practices. The group, wnich works under the
School of Architecture & Allied Arts, wants a
house that it plans to gradually remodel using
sustainable building practices.
CASL Co-Director Sebastian Colletsaid co
directors would live in the house and keep it
open to the public. He said the group intends
to have a library with books about sustainable
building and energy-efficient resources and
materials. It will also host workshops to pro
vide groups with hands-on experience.
In a process that has taken more than two
Lauren Wimer | Senior photographer
Left to right: Center for the Advancement of Sustainable Living adviser Brook Muller, CASL Co-Directors James
Hiebert and Sebastian Collet, and Director of University Planning Chris Ramey met to discuss the group's re
quest for permanent headquarters.
years, University officials put CASL in a waiting
pattern, agreeing to give the group a place that it
can meet in, but it can’t remodel that place. This
leaves the group unable to begin many projects it
hoped to start after receiving a house. Collet said
the group was promised a house during the last
school year.
Rich Linton, the vice president for Research
and Graduate Studies, said he advised the group
to submit a “surge request” to Institutional Affairs
for a temporary meeting place until the details for
a permanent location could be worked out.
Wednesday’s meeting of the University Space
Committee brought approximately 20 people,
mostly supporters of CASL’s mission, to the
EMU’s Century Room D.
Rob Thallon, A&AA associate dean for ad
ministration, said he thought support and a
LIVING, page 4
MBAs compete for New Venture title
University team Perpetua is battling for the Lundquist Center
for Entrepreneurship's award and $25,000 today in Portland
BY EVA SYLWESTER
NEWS REPORTER
* Today through Saturday, the University’s
Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship will host
the New Venture Championship, a competition
for business plans developed by teams of stu
dents, in Portland.
“This is a competition open to basically any
college or university on the planet,” LCE Direc
tor Randy Swangard said. The 20 competitors in
this year’s competition include teams from Thai
land and Colombia, as well as regional rivals
University of Washington and University of Cali
fornia, Berkeley.
The first competition was at the University in
1992, according to the NVC Web site. Swangard
said the event is held in Portland because many
of the competition’s judges live in the Portland
area and other teams have an easier time travel
ing to Portland than Eugene.
“It’s a real high-profile event for not only our
center and the business school but also the Uni
versity in the Portland area,” Swangard said.
The University’s representative for the compe
tition was determined at the Quest for Adventure
competition in December. Eight teams made up
of University master students of business admin
istration competed against each other.
Perpetua, the winning team from December’s
competition, marketed the “energy harvester,” a
product of the research and development depart
ment at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
“It’s, in essence, a battery that lasts forever,”
Swangard said.
The energy harvester creates electricity from
very small variations in temperature — two or
VEimiRIi, page 6