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Commentary Oregon Daily Emerald Friday, April 22, 2005 NEWS STAFF (541)346-5511 JEN SUDICK EDITOR IN CHIEF STEVEN R. NEUMAN MANAGING EDITOR JARED PABEN AY1SHA YAHYA NEWS EDITORS MEGHANN CUNIFF PARKER HOWELL SENIOR NEWS REPORTERS MORLAH BALING1T AMANDA BOLSINGER ADAM CHERRY EMILY SMITH EVA SYLWESTER SHELDON TRAVER NEWS REPORTERS CLAYTON JONES SPORTS EDITOR JON ROETMAN SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER STEPHEN MILLER BRIAN SMITH SPORTS REPORTERS RYAN NYBURG PULSE EDITOR AMY LICHTY SENIOR PULSE REPORTER JOSHUA LINTEREUR PULSE REPORTER CAT BALDWIN PULSE CARTOONIST AILEE SLATER COMMENTARY EDITOR GABE BRADLEY ANNEMAR1E KNEPPER CHUCK SLOTHOWER JENNIFER MCBRIDE COLUMNISTS ASHLEY GRIFFIN SUPPLEMENT FREELANCE EDITOR DANIELLE HICKEY PHOTO EDITOR LAUREN WIMER SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER NICOLE BARKER TIM BOBOSKY PHOTOGRAPHER KATE HORTON ZANE RHT PART-TIME PHOTOGRAPHERS BRET FURTWANGLER GRAPHIC ARTIST DUSTIN REESE SENIOR DESIGNER ELLIOTT ASBURY WENDY KIEFFER AMANDA LEE JONAH SCHROG1N DESIGNERS SHADRA BEESLEY JEANN1E EVERS COPY CHIEFS KIMBERLY BLACKFIELD PAUL THOMPSON SPORTS COPY EDITORS GREG BI1S1AND AMBER LINDROS NEWS COPY EDITORS JENNY GERWICK PULSE COPY EDITOR ADRIENNE NELSON ONLINE EDITOR WEBMASTER (541)346-5511 JUDY RIEDL GENERAL MANAGER KATHY CARBONE BUSINESS MANAGER 1AUNA DE GIUSTI RECEPTIONIST JERED NAGEL PATRICK SCHMERBER HOLLY STEIN JANA SWANSON ROB WEGNER CAROLYN ZIMMERMAN DISTRIBUTION ADVERTISING (541)346-3712 MELISSA GUST ADVERTISING DIRECTOR TYLER MACK SALES MANAGER MATT BETZ HF.RON CALISCH-DOLEN MEGAN HAMLIN KATE HIRONAKA MAEGAN KASER-LEE KELLEE KAUFTHEIL MIA LEIDELMEYER SHANNON ROGERS SALES REPRESENTATIVES CLASSIFIED (541)3464343 THIN A SHANAMAN CLASSIFIED MANAGER KORALYNN BASHAM ANDO KATY GAGNON KERI SPANGLER KATIE STRINGER CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ASSOCIATES PRODUCTION (541)3464381 MICHELE ROSS PRODUCTION MANAGER TARASLOAN PRODUCTION COORDINATOR IEN CRAMLET KRISTEN DICHARRY CAMERON GAUT SABRINA GOVVETTE IONAH SCHROGIN DESIGNERS The Oregon Daily Emerald is pu6 lished daily Monday through Fri day dunng the school year by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc , at the University of Ore gon, Eugene, Ore. The Emerald operates independently of the University with offices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is private property. Unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law In my opinion No tact in the Citi As I was daydreaming my way down East 13th Avenue earlier this week, my thinking was interrupted by a well-dressed young man handing out fliers. I accepted one of the yellow handbills. It featured a Subway logo and the following beseechment: “STUDENTS FREE 6-INCH SUB! 13TH AND HILYARD Participate in a 2 minute student promotion Student ID required” A few hours later, when my stom ach began to grumble, I walked to the Subway to get my free sandwich. In side the door to the right sat a profes sionally dressed man. The table at which he sat bore a banner with a prominent logo: Citi. Recognizing the logo of the credit card company, I turned and walked out the door, deciding a six-inch sub wasn’t worth the credit card leeches sucking me dry of personal informa tion and sending piles of junk mail for months to come. Credit card companies make a spe cial point of targeting college stu dents, who have loose spending habits and a lifetime of earnings ahead of them — possessors of a bachelor’s degree can expect to earn an average of $2.1 million over the course their working lives, according to the Census Bureau. The companies’ efforts have been highly successful. Three-quarters of 18- to 24-year-olds carry credit card debt from month to month, Knight Ridder reported. Incredibly, people in that age group spent nearly 30 percent of their 2001 earnings paying off debt. Credit card debt tremendously im pacts students, who often have col lege loan debt as well. This debt CHUCK SLOTHOWER TAKING ISSUE pushes back the achievement of the American dream for many young people by delaying when they can buy houses and cars. On top of that, credit cards push up prices for consumers. Credit card companies charge retailers every time a customer uses a card to make a pur chase, and retailers pass on the in creased cost to their customers. Debit cards provide nearly all the benefits of credit cards without the usurious debt that piles on month after month. The only thing credit cards are good for, really, is spend ing money you don’t have. And that’s a bad thing. The University has policies that regulate what credit card companies can do on campus. To reserve space on campus, they must go through the Scheduling and Event Services office. That department makes them pay for space — $400 a day for a 10-by-10-foot spot at the intersection of East 13th Avenue and University Street or $200 to $300 for space in the EMU (the department charges nonprofit and information-only groups less money). The University also forbids credit card companies from copying or pho tographing student IDs in an effort to protect students’ privacy, EMU Direc tor Dusty Miller said. He added that credit card solicitation on campus is “a huge issue. ” “Honestly, it’s a concern, and I think that’s why we have established some safeguards that a vendor must sign to come on campus,” he said. However, what Citi has done is re ally quite clever. By standing on campus and handing out fliers that direct students to an off-campus lo cation, the company doesn’t have to pay the EMU. Then, when students go off-campus to Subway as the fli er directs, all the little niceties and protections the University provides fall by the wayside. It occurred to me that I might want to speak about this with our friendly local Citi representative. So I wan dered back to Subway. The friendly local Citi representa tive — his actual relationship to Citi group, the world’s largest financial services company according to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, isn’t clear — was inside the sub shop talk ing on his cell phone. He hung up. “You want a free sub?” he said, pointing to the table with a stack of credit card applications. I identified myself as a journalist, and he clammed up faster than a bowl of Mo’s chowder. “I’m not really allowed to discuss what I do,” he said. “I could lose my job.” When my eyes wandered down to his photo ID tag, he stuffed it into his shirt faster than I would have pre sumed possible. But if you want to talk to him about why he’s participat ing in a scam to get students hooked on credit cards — or if you want to sign up for a Citi card and a free sub — he, or someone just like him, will be at the Subway on 13th and Hilyard today from noon to 7 p.m. chuckslothower@dailyemerald. com ■ Guest commentary Liberalism in classroom produces a constructive look at 'objectivity' Nicholas Wilbur’s guest commen tary, “Producing constructive liber alism” (ODE, April 8), effectively lo calized the phenomenon of liberalism in academia by discussing his personal experience at the Uni versity of Oregon. While I admire Wilbur’s courage and thought in un dertaking this loaded topic, I felt the commentary failed to address key is sues surrounding this not-so-new trend of university liberalism. First, I would like to make clear that when it comes to popular images of Bush-bashing, tree-hugging or plainly “liberal" professors, perception does not always equal reality. Still, the idea of the “academic left” reflects some de gree of truth; an important question to ask, however, is “so what?” It is not, as Wilbur so strongly put forth, an “injustice” that public uni versities are frequently politically charged environments. Political ac tivism on college campuses, regard less of ideological affiliation, can be seen in part as a testament to profes sors’ success in challenging students to think critically about the world around them. While I admit that in structors (usually poor ones) may heuristically promote a “liberal” at mosphere toward these ends, cham pioning a false sense of classroom “objectivity” is a far greater disservice to the student than taking a few jabs at George W. Bush. An obvious para dox of attempting to take the politics out of education is that it inevitably and unjustly thrusts the government into academia, constituting a major threat to free inquiry and expression. Education should not necessarily, as Wilbur implies, function to “balance what is commonly known" with “criti cal liberalism” as much as it should work to prepare students for citizen ship in a world that is complicated and ever-changing. Stimulating and pro moting students’ critical thinking skills is paramount to achieving this goal. Perhaps most central to understand ing the “dilemma” of university liber alism is a rejection of the assumption that students are passive, impression able receptors of their professors’ “liberal” opinions. In fact, “liberal bias” in academia has a way of rein forcing and proliferating the views of conservative students just as it has a way of “disseminating” liberal ideolo gy. To substantiate this assertion, one need not look further than the eye rolling and frustrated devil’s-advocat ing that represent daily acts of resist ance to liberal idealism, anti-Bush diatribe or “political correctness” in the college classroom. My own experi ence, no less subjective than Wilbur’s, leaves me questioning popular media images of the university freshman be coming politically “enlightened" or “corrupted” by leftist professors. Finally, one cannot help but find hu mor in recent conservative attacks on liberal academia ostensibly trying to protect students while in reality belit tling their own intellects. In order to reasonably discuss university liberal ism, perhaps we must first abandon the romantic quest for true “objectivi ty” in the classroom. Joe Feldman lives in Eugene ■ Out loud “That is a fucking landslide.” — Future ASUO President Adam Walsh on April 15, af ter learning that his ticket won by 317 votes. “I’m saying to the University, the larger campus, I can no longer have students pay for your land bank.” — University Housing Director Mike Eyster, on using University Housing funds to purchase property for a non housing purpose. “Housing is trying to get the institution’s at tention about a real imperative — the need to improve our housing stock.” — Vice President for Student Affairs Anne Leavitt, who oversees the housing department, on the issue of mod ernizing the residence halls. “I’m so dirty now, but it’s worth it, helping out a good cause.” — Sophomore Lauren Skansgaard, after volunteering during Ben & Jerry’s “Free Cone Day” on Wednesday, which helped raise money for charity. “When a company wants students to go to Cancun and get drunk on film I certainly don’t help them.” — University EA company repre sentative Nick Stoolman. “I feel awkward from my interaction, but I value what he has brought to the community.” — Graduate Toby Hill-Meyer on Wednesday, discussing a Eugene man discovered to have been impersonating a professor on campus. “I promise they will eat something (they have) never tasted before.... People will be sur prised when they peel off the chocolate cover.” — Ryan Vise, spokesman for the International Student Association, about his International Week event, “Food Factor,” scheduled for today. “The University of Oregon is an environmen tal leader nationwide and so it’s fantastic that on Earth Day we were able to make a bold new initiative.” — University Sustainability Coordi nator Steve Mital, commenting Wednesday on the future of a wind-powered EMU on. “Disadvantaged students really need all kinds of encouragement to get them involved in their own education and get them into higher ed when they’re not likely to be able to pay for it.” — Hillsboro Sen. Charles Starr, reacting fa vorably to Senate Bill 300 on April 13. The bill allows high school students to take post-sec ondary courses for college credit. “The current medical leave policy is outdated and does not represent best practices for re sponding to students’ need for medical leave to deal with serious health conditions.” — A no tice concerning changes to the University med ical leave policy, which will be discussed April 25 in the EMU. “How long will we have to go this alone?” — Human rights and environmental lawyer Jerome Verdier, speaking April 14 to the need for worldwide focus on Liberia’s road toward democracy. “It’s a chance to be outside and get fresh air before I lock myself in my office all day.” — Graduate student Sarah Mazze on Wednesday, discussing Earth Day and the benefits of alter native transportation. — From Daily Emerald news reports EDITORIAL BOARD Jennifer Sudick Editor in Chief Ailee Slater Commentary Editor Steven R. Neuman Managing Editor Shadra Beesley Copy Chief Adrienne Nelson Online Editor OREGON DAILY EMERALD LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor and guest commentaries are encouraged, and should be sent to letters@dailyemerald.com or submitted at the Oregon Daily Emerald office, EMU Suite 300. Electronic submissions are preferred, let ters are limited to 250 words, and guest commentaries to 550 words. Au thors are limited to one submission per calendar month. Submissions should include phone number and address for verification. The Emerald reserves the rijjit to edit for space, grammar and style. Guest submissions are published at the discretion of tee Emerald.
