Oregon daily emerald., July 19, 2005, Page 8, Image 8

Bronet: Dean hopes to bring
together faculty and students
Continued from page 1
has done a lot of work with perform
ance spaces and dance facilities.
“1 have great interest in the arts,”
Bronet said.
Bronet said the University has op
portunities “unique and specific to
this place.”
The A&AA school is already work
ing on interdisciplinary approaches
to sustainability, landscape architec
ture and learning how to work with
the overlap of various portions of the
built world. Also, A&AA has a bud
ding product design program.
Bronet said she never would have
believed that one institution existed
that would be able to cater to her
many and varied interests.
While there will be many aspects of
her new position with which Bronet
will already be familiar, she antici
pates several new aspects as well.
Specifically, Bronet anticipates sig
nificant differences in the cultures of a
technical school such as RTI and a lib
eral arts school such as the University.
“It’s a very interesting shift,”
Bronet said. “A sort of culture shift. ”
Still, Bronet plans to bring her cut
ting-edge philosophy to the Universi
ty. Her work is primarily concerned
with the dynamic nature of space
that can change and adapt as it’s
r
used for different functions.
Bronet uses a door as an example
of dynamic space — a closed door
means one thing, an opened door
means another, a partially-open door
means yet another, and so on.
Bronet said she sees her role as
dean to attract resources to sup
port and expand existing programs
and opportunities.
“If these programs have enough
resources then I think they will ac
tually have more benefits for the
students,” Bronet said. “These
things take time; they take money;
they take space. ”
Bronet said she also hopes to build
links between faculty and students
by offering undergraduates more op
portunities for research in conjunc
tion with faculty.
Bronet said her family is currently
in the process of buying a house in
Eugene. She says the progressive val
ues and the quality schools in the
area are also appealing to her.
Bronet said her two children —
ages 7 and 11 — are also excited
about the move.
“We don't have any preconcep
tions, really, because we are so new,”
Bronet said.
gabebradley@ dailyemerald, com
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Senate: Summer meetings deemed 'ridiculous'
Continued from page 1
Crum told him they would be unable
to attend.
Individual senators are required to at
tend two-thirds of the summer meet
ings, according to the Green Tape Note
book, the rules and regulations guide
for the ASUO. Not making quorum
counts as an absence for all senators.
The notebook states, “All questions
relating to non-fulfillment of duties, ex
cept as provided in Section 10.12,”
which states that the president has the
power to remove Constitution Court
members, “shall be decided by the
Constitution Court. ”
The notebook also states, “the sum
mer Committee shall abide by the Sen
ate Rules unless otherwise specified.”
It also states under “Discipline” that
“any member of the ASUO may bring
a complaint before the Constitution
Court against any Senator for non-ful
fillment of duties.”
Non-fulfillment of duties includes not
attending two-thirds of the senate meet
ings and not holding office hours, stated
in Section 5(a.) of the Senate Rules.
Currently, none of the Summer Com
mittee senators have held office hours.
Hamilton currently has two ab
sences and Crum has three. With only
two meetings remaining, one in Au
gust and one in September, Crum will
not be able to make it to the required
two-thirds of the meetings, even if he
attends the next two.
Walsh expressed concern with the
Summer Committee’s lack of organiza
tion, but questioned why Hamilton
called on him to address the issue.
“This problem is something that
should have been taken up a while
ago. I don’t know why she’s calling on
me. I have nothing to do with where or
when summer senate meets,” Walsh
said. “This needs to be dealt with by
the senators.”
Walsh noted the biggest problem
with what Hamilton called a “lack of co
herent organization” is that the senators
agreed to be on Summer Committee
and now are not fulfilling their duties.
“It could be nothing if no one files a
grievance, but as far as the Green Tape
Notebook is concerned, (Hamilton)
and (Crum) could lose their senate
spots. All of this is precedent setting,”
Walsh said. “The senators may not
know that they’re not following their
job descriptions.”
"I won’t say yet if we’ll file a griev
ance,” Walsh said, “but I don’t know
if I’m opposed to it, either. To be kicked
off the whole year’s senate because
you missed Summer Senate seems like
an extreme punishment, but at the
same time it is precedent setting. I’m
hoping to talk to (Heyden), but until
he calls me back I don’t know what is
going on.”
Hamilton was unavailable for com
ment, but Crum said in an e-mail that
he is in Portland, and had he known it
would be this difficult to attend the
meetings he “definitely wouldn’t be do
ing this. ” He said later on that he wants
to serve but that finding someone to
work for him in Portland and getting
down to Eugene with only a two days
notice, “makes it almost impossible.”
Heyden said he sent an e-mail about the
meeting five days in advance.
Monica Irvin, chairwoman of Sum
mer Committee and seat 13 of the Aca
demic Senators, said that she did not
think Hamilton’s e-mail was neces
sary. However, she added that Hamil
ton’s point that senators should about
use telephone was valid, because “we
were doing everything through e
mail,” Irvin said.
“Everything is a learning experience
for us,” Irvin said. “We’re just trying to
work with everybody’s schedules. It
just doesn’t work quite enough be
cause people seem to be more avail
able in the evenings and the EMU clos
es at 7 p.m., plus a lot of other factors.”
A senator not on Summer Commit
tee, law school student Robert Craig,
replied to Hamilton’s e-mail with the
following comments:
“Since my e-mail account has been
deluged with ridiculous and frantic
messages all summer I feel it is now
my duty to impart a dose of realism
to those involved in the Student Sen
ate. First, its (sic) student senate. In
college, period.”
Later on in the e-mail Craig wrote,
“why bother having Student Senate
in the summer anyway? It may be the
most ridiculous thing I have ever
heard of. There is nothing in school
so important that it needs to intrude
upon your personal enjoyment of
summer. Period.”
He continued on, telling senators
to relax. “A recent e-mail threatened
censure or some ridiculous nonsense
for students who did not attend sum
mer senate meetings. When I got
over my initial shock after realizing
that it may have been intended to be
a serious threat I nearly died laugh
ing. Can’t you folks just relax and en
joy your summer?”
In response to Craig’s e-mail, Walsh
said, “there’s money to be allocated
and there’s an absolute need to have a
summer senate, that is why they’re
given $5,000 to distribute. If there is
absolutely no reason for senators to be
here then that is okay, but there is busi
ness to be taken care of. ”
nwilbu.r@ daily emerald, com
Potter: Sir ReadAlot performs to bring books to life
Continued from page 1
The turnout was mostly children
and parents, but there were some Uni
versity students there as well. For the
younger visitors, there was a variety of
Potter-themed activities, including
wand making, Wizard Chess and
guessing the number of Bertie Botts
Every Flavor Beans in a jar.
“The activities just sort of came
from the book,” Caroll said.
While the turnout was higher
than anticipated, the store had more
than enough copies of the book to
meet demand.
“This year we wanted to make it so
we didn’t sell out. So we’re going to a
have a lot of books, which is going to
be great,” Caroll said. “A lot of it has to
do with what the publishers wants to
give us.”
In previous years, publishers
have not printed enough books to
meet demand.
“I think they’ve sort of learned
from those negative experiences,”
Caroll said.
The bookstore pre-sold copies to get
a basic idea of how' many copies the
store would need.
“People are so devoted to getting
their book,” Caroll said. “They just
want to make sure they’re on the list. ”
In addition to the pre-sold copies,
the bookstore ordered roughly 500 ad
ditional copies of the book.
The bookstore was bound by strict
confidentiality agreements not to re
lease the book prior to midnight.
“We didn’t get them until (the day
before), which made me very nerv
ous,” Caroll said.
Once they arrived, the books were
kept in the warehouse until the party.
“I’m sure that a lot of bookstores
open the book and look at it,” Caroll
said. However, bookstore employees
did not even open the boxes until mid
night, according to Caroll.
In order to make the unveiling even
more special, the bookstore staff had
the first child who arrived in costume
be the first person in line to receive a
book at midnight.
Even the staff was dressed up in Pot
ter-themed garb.
“Pretty much all the departments
had staff members — people that were
so excited about the books they volun
teered to work tonight,” Caroll said.
“The staff is very excited about the
book coming out.”
Caroll said the party was an oppor
tunity for children to get interested in
other books besides Harry Potter. In or
der to help spur literary interest, Caroll
said, all general books in the bookstore
were on sale for 20 percent off.
“I’m just excited about people get
ting excited about a book,” Caroll said.
Caroll said that although the book
store had never done a Harry Potter
party before, it would most likely have
another party to celebrate the release
of the seventh and final book.
“This is the sixth book, and there’s
only going to be one more,” Caroll
said. “A lot of people are thinking,
‘What’s next after that?”’
Physics graduate student Shannon
O’Leary said she was at the party for
the food and festive atmosphere.
“I wanted to see the kids’ cos
tumes,” O’Leary said.
O’Leary said she has only read the
first, third and fifth books in the Harry
Potter series.
“It’s the opposite of Star Trek,
where the even ones were good,”
O’Leary said.
O’Leary said she did not plan to buy
the sixth book.
“We’re going to wait until it’s in the
used bookstore,” she said. “We’re
graduate students. We don’t have $25
to spend on a book.”
Halfway through the evening, local
performance artist Rickie Birran per
formed as Sir ReadAlot. The show,
ReadAlot Theater, consisted of a variety
of literary excerpts recited from memory.
“When I first met him it was at a
Harry Potter event,” Caroll said.
“I’ve been using theater arts in one
form or another for the last 30 years,”
Birran said. “I was a missionary in the
Watts district of Los Angeles, and I
used drama a lot.”
When he returned from Los Ange
les, Birran spent a lot of time reading
classic literature.
“I wanted to do something with dra
ma full time, so I went to the U of O the
ater arts program for a couple years.”
In 1996, he combined his love of lit
erature and theater in to the persona of
Sir ReadAlot. He began a series of
marathon readings to try to break the
Guinness World Record for continuos
reading aloud by an individual.
“I started with eight hours, and each
month I added eight hours,” Birran
said. “There was kind of a limited au
dience for marathon readings.”
In December 2002, Birran reached
the 96 hour mark — four straight days
of reading aloud. The current record is
110:46 hours.
“It is an endurance contest. It’s real
ly pushing the boundaries of what a
person can do,” Birran said. “The rea
son I sidelined going after the Guiness
World Record is the documentation re
quirements are about as difficult as the
event itself.”
Guinness requires that four people,
including one medical personnel, be on
hand during the event. Birran said he
will not pursue the record until he can
find a sponsor to provide a facility and
the personnel to document the attempt.
More recently, Birran’s theatrical
exploits have been focused on a
show consisting of literary excerpts
that he performs at school assemblies
for the Lane Arts Council’s Youth
Arts Program.
The excerpts include Huckleberry
Finn, Hamlet, Alice in Wonderland,
the Hobbit, Jabberwocky and others,
as well as some original poems.
“I usually do material that’s in the
public domain so I don’t have to get
permission,” Birran said.
In the show, ReadAlot says he is on
a “quest to free the printed word from
the page.”
gabebradley@dailyemerald. com