Oregon daily emerald., May 19, 2005, Image 1

Men’s golf heads for Regionals I 13
MERALD
An independent newspaper
www.dailyemerald. com
Since 1900 | Volume 106, Issue 159 | Thursday, May 19, 2005
Drafters dispute new conduct code
Disagreement has arisen among members of the committee charged
with revising the student code for the first time since 1964
BY ADAM CHERRY
NEWS REPORTER
The University’s Student Conduct Code is be
ing completely revised for the first time since
1964, but members of the committee charged
with drafting the new rules of student conduct
said they don’t all agree that proposed changes
are in students’ best interests.
The University Senate’s Student Conduct Code
Committee presented a draft of the nearly com
plete, 23-page revision to the University Senate last
week. Committee faculty co-chair Bill Daley de
scribed the changes, which are based on a popular
model conduct code in use at a number of universi
ties, as consistent with the best national practices.
“We have changed the tenor of the document,”
Daley said. “We’ve changed the flavor, the thrust.
So we’ve gone from a legalistic, punitive kind of
system to an educational kind of system.”
Although the existing code has been criticized
as being dry and outdated, committee student co
chair Michael Sherman said the students on the
conduct code committee generally disagreed with
proposed changes.
“The model code is much more flexible in al
lowing the University to determine if a student
had violated the student conduct code,” Sherman
said. “You end up with having a trade-off be
tween flexibility and the rights that students have
in the student conduct code.”
“Our (current) code is much more legalistic,” he
added. “Not only in the language that it uses, but
also in the types of procedures. It’s much more
protective of the rights of an accused student. ”
Corey Harmon, a student member of the
group, said the four students and four faculty
members in the committee have often been di
vided when discussing elements of the code.
“The students went with the faculty, and not
necessarily willingly.” Harmon said. “I would say
that the students made more of a compromise
than the faculty did.
“There are some student rights that, we would
say, are hindered by (the code),” Harmon said,
adding that the proposed code is worse than the
one the University has now.
Sherman said he feels like the updated code
widens the definitions of violations, meaning
more actions are considered offenses.
“You’re making it easier for students to violate
the student conduct code and you’re making it
easier for the University to find students guilty of
those violations, and the sanctions are the same,”
Sherman said.
Harmon and Sherman both said that they took
issue with students’ legal representation.
“An attorney can still participate, (but) their
role is much more limited,” Sherman said. “In se
rious situations, you have a chance of being ex
pelled from the University, such a large loss for a
CONDUCT, page 4
WORLDWIDE
Student Recreation Center
employees report that many
students light up a cigarette
the moment after stepping
out of the gym, Peer Health
Education Coordinator
Ramah Leith said.
So in alliance with World
No Tobacco Day, the recre
ation center was one of two
locations the Fred Hutchin
son Cancer Research Center
set up its smoking aware
ness booth Wednesday.
World No Tobacco Day is on
May 31.
The institute displayed dif
ferent food products made by
Nabisco, Kraft, Post and oth
er companies that sell tobac
co. It also displayed a dia
gram of the human body and
the effects smoking has on
different areas of it.
Institute staff members
demonstrated the difference
between a healthy lung and
a smoker’s lung by showing
two pairs of pigs’ lungs. They
also gave away pamphlets
and stress balls.
Resources to help students
who want to quit smoking
are available in the Health
Center, Health Education Di
rector Paula Staight said.
Students can purchase
low-cost patches, and gum is
available by request.
— Emily Smith
Jennifer
Hymer of the
Fred
Hutchinson
Cancer
Research
Center
demonstrates
the
difference in
capacity
between
healthy and
unhealthy
lungs
Wednesday
in the EMU.
Nicole Barker | Photographer
Community
groups fear
impacts of
ODOT plan
The Oregon Department
of Transportation is planning
a Franklin-I-5 interchange
BY EMILY SMITH
NEWS REPORTER
Eugene citizen groups are concerned that
the proposed Interstate-5 and Franklin Boule
vard interchange will have negative effects on
Alton Balter Park and increase traffic in the Fair
mount neighborhood, east of the University.
The Oregon Department of Transportation
wrapped up Phase I of the project Wednesday
morning at a Board of County Commissioners
meeting. The presentation addressed a plan
that would make it easier for Eugene-bound
motorists to exit Interstate-5 onto Franklin
Boulevard when heading south.
Thus far, city and county officials have sup
ported the project and the Eugene City Coun
cil “seemed generally supportive of the open
public process” ODOT is utilizing to work
with stakeholders and community groups,
ODOT Senior Transportation Planner Tom
Boyatt said.
Fairmount Neighborhood Association
member David Sonnichsen said he is con
cerned the interchange will “bring traffic and
noise” to quiet parts of Alton Baker Park, and
he would like to see ODOT look at some alter
natives to ramps onto and off of Franklin
Boulevard. He said he is also concerned about
the navigability and scenery along the
Willamette River if there are more giant ce
ment pillars protruding from the water.
“I have many concerns about any further in
trusion into the park,” Alton Baker Park plan
ning committee chair Bonnie UUrnann said.
She said she doesn’t want to see any more
motorized vehicles in the area.
In a letter to the Mayor and Eugene City
Councilors, former FNA Traffic Committee
Chair Kristen Taylor said the association is wor
ried about “possible impacts to the Willamette
River Greenway and to the development of the
Walnut Mixed-Use Area as well the increased
traffic on Franklin Boulevard and neighbor
hood streets due to the proposed expansion of
an 1-5 interchange at Franklin Boulevard.”
Boyatt said one-on-one interviews with
stakeholders have been conducted and their
concerns have been documented. There are
several different sites still being considered
as ODOT embarks on Phase II of the four
phase process.
Boyatt told commissioners that ODOT will
hold open houses for stakeholders as part of
the second phase. At the end of this phase, city
and county elected officials will need to
ODOT, page 4
Physics professor discusses mysteries of the universe
Jim Brau will speak as part of the University's celebration in honor
of the World Year of Physics, a remembrance of Einstein's 'Miracle Year'
BY EVA SYLWESTER
NEWS REPORTER
A University physics professor will lecture on
unseen forces and forms of matter that are part
of the universe today at 7 p.m. in 100 Willamette.
Jim Brau’s talk is titled “Realizing Einstein’s
Dream: Exploring Our Mysterious Universe.”
“The talk is about the mysteries of our universe
and our understanding of the universe and our
prospects for improving that understanding,”
Brau said.
Brau said one mystery is dark matter. While
it is not visible to telescopes, radio emissions or
the naked eye, it outweighs normal matter by a
:ive to one ratio. Physicists are convinced that
lark matter exists because if no matter existed
aeyond what is observable, the universe would
>pin itself apart.
Brau said this fact suggests a type of particle,
:alled a supersymmetric particle, that mirrors the
actions of particles that compose visible matter.
As an example, Brau described the physicist
Paul Dirac, who, while composing a theory of
electrons, postulated the concept of anti-particles
;n 1930. The anti-particle for an electron is a
positron, which is similar to an electron in mass
and other properties but has a positive charge.
This is different from protons, which are also pos
itively charged, because protons are much bigger
than electrons and do not annihilate electrons on
contact. Four years after Dirac’s paper, anti-parti
cles were discovered in cosmic rays.
“He had to invent a whole new set of particles
and they turned out to be real,” Brau said, specu
lating that the current idea of supersymmetric par
ticles may someday be proved in a similar fashion.
“Physics suggests that this should be true,
BRAU, page 3