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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 28, 2005)
Cultural forum shows “Family Guy” I 5 MERALD An independent newspaper www. dailyemerald. com Since 1900 | Volume 106, Issue 144 \ Thursday, April 28,2005 Police search for assault suspect The 23-year-old man allegedly entered the Willcox residence hall Sunday morning, attacked students and returned later with a gun BY MEGHANN M. CUNIFF SENIOR NEWS REPORTER A man suspected of assaulting two students in a University residence hall room Sunday morning and returning hours later armed with a gun has not been located by police. Officers have increased patrol in the campus area in hopes of finding him. Carlos Alberto Valencia-Torres, 23, allegedly entered a Willcox Hall residence in the Bean Complex at approximately 6 a.m.., found a group of students playing card games and “wanted to more or less hang out with them,” Eugene police officer Larry Crompton said. Valencia-Torres did not know the students but had lived in the room during fall term while he was earning his high school diploma through a University program, Crompton said. “That’s what brought him to the room is just being familiar with the hall,” Crompton said. Crompton said when the stu dents asked Valencia-Torres to leave he became “very uncharac teristically angry for the situation” and punched one of the students in the face. Crompton said other students tried to intervene but were also assaulted and the hall’s residence CARLOS ALBERTO VALENCIA-TORRES SUSPECT assistant had to break up the fight. Physical altercations are com mon in the residence hall, Cromp ton said, particularly on the week-’ ends, and “I’m assuming that’s what (the RA) was expecting, and the unexpected happens where this guy returns with a gun.” Crompton said Valencia-Torres returned to the hall around 9 a.m. armed with a gun and in search of ASSAULT, page 16 Films from far away The Muslim Women Film Festival will feature three films that portray females in Islam and address stereotypes Muslims face BY MORIAH BALINGIT NEWS REPORTER As graduate student Nargas Oskui-Tabrizi peers beyond her hijab, a face with flawless com plexion and gentle eyes is revealed. But some Iranian-Americans choose to see something different, she said, just because she chooses to cover her head. “I am from Iran ... (some Iranian-Americans) think I’m a fanatic,” Oskui-Tabrizi said. “It’s sad that they think that. ” It’s one of the many stereotypes Oskui-Tabrizi said she faces, even though she was raised in the United States. “They don’t know that I’m actually more open-minded than they are,” she added. The Muslim Women Film Festival, beginning today, will address these and other stereotypes that Muslim women face here and elsewhere. The event features three films that portray vari ous women in Islam, and each movie will be fol lowed by a short informal discussion led by Mus lim women from the University and community. Graduate student Hasnah Toran, who helped coordinate the event, said she decided to make women the focus of the festival because of the gross misperceptions she’s observed about the status of Islamic women. “There’s been a huge misunderstanding (be cause) of what the media portrays,” she said. Part of the problem, she said, is many people fail to recognize the vast diversity of Islam, a reli gion whose followers make up a fifth of the world’s population and span the globe. “There’s such a diversity in Islam that how do you define what it means to be a Muslim woman?” she said. “We come from all over the world and we are learning about each other’s cultures.” Oskui-Tabrizi said the typical perception of the status of women in Islamic society is pervaded by negative stereotypes. “Oppression, uneducated, not allowed to leave the house,” she said, summing up a few of the misconceptions she’s encountered. Senior Jabor Al-Mohammadi of Qatar said many of the stereotypes emerge when people confuse culture with religion. “For example, female circumcision is not re quired,” he said. “But some cultures have private beliefs of their own and they require it... Female circumcision is cultural.” Oskui-Tabrizi said even within the small group of Muslim women on campus, there is Danielle Hickey | Photo editor Hasnah Toran, left, a graduate student in Early Intervention, and Nargas Oskui-Tabrizi, a graduate student in Education Leadership, discuss the film festival hosted by the Muslim Student Association. no consensus about what it means to be a Muslim woman. “We have our disagreements,” she said. “Some of the ladies wear hijab and some don’t.” “There’s a number of students that don’t want to associate with the Muslim Student Associa tion,” Toran said. They fear it will be like the “moral police,” she said. But Toran added that the point of the group is to support each other, so no one FILMS, page 3 University, community loses outspoken figure Bruce Miller, who died Tuesday, was an active speaker in both student and city government BY JARED PABEN & AYISHA YAHYA NEWS EDITORS Bruce Miller was everywhere. At student gov ernment meetings. At city council hearings. On various campus comers, giving suggestions, ad vocating, telling the world how things should be done differently. He wasn’t always tactful. He wasn’t always welcome. But his death on Tuesday leaves a hole in the Eugene community. Miller, 62, who died Tliesday morning of a heart attack in his South Eugene home, will be remembered for the role he played as a campus and community activist. Miller, who often wore multiple shirts, a baseball cap, a pair of large glasses and a yellow rain jack et and carried a large mug full of soda, was a fig ure on campus for decades. ASUO President Adam Petkun said Miller was always there to offer his ideas. He constantly challenged student government leaders, as well as complimented them when he thought they had done well, Petkun said. “I think it’s a function of how much he cared about what was going on on campus,” Tim Bobosky | Photographef Bruce Miller, left, sits in on the Lane County commissioners meeting last year as Mike Bonner, a case manager for the Oregon Department of Justice, applies to fill the District No. 8 seat. Petkun said. Never a University student, Miller regularly at tended ASUO Student Senate meetings, Programs Finance Committee hearings and other budget hearings on campus. He gathered information on campus developments, condensed it into frequent, type-written newsletters that praised or criticized University and student leaders. He often carried picket signs to protest or support issues. He even took photographs of people near the EMU whom “he felt were subversive,” Eugene Police Department officer Randy Ellis said. Miller was never reluctant to share his perspectives, whether people wanted to hear them or not. “He wasn’t always very tactful, but he was well intended,” said Courtney Hight, Oregon Stu dent Association campus organizer, who knew Miller for about six years. "He felt student groups, the Executive, the Senate could do more.” While Miller had a lot to say, he didn’t always come across well with students and some say a few of his ideas were “totally out of left field. ” “There were moments when he was border line harassment,” Hight said. Miller had mental problems that made it diffi cult for him to interact with others properly, his younger brother Bob Miller said. “Bruce lacked all social graces,” Bob Miller said. “Bruce was a couple cards short of a full deck.” Bruce Miller lived alone and never married or had children. However, Bob Miller stressed that his brother’s actions were always well intentioned. He re searched topics thoroughly and had spent his life contacting people at all levels of government to tell them how things should be done. “It was a usually a well thought out opinion, whether it was welcome or not,” Bob Miller said, MILLER, page 4
