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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 2005)
Speaker addresses Israeli-Palestinian clash | 3 Oregon Daily Emerald An independent newspaper at the University of Oregon www. dailyemerald. com Since 1900 \ Volume 107, Issue 40 \ Wednesday, October 19, 2005 Hurricane Katrina cleanup Saved in New Orleans Catholic Life Center supplies housing, aid and rent money to residents displaced by hurricane Katrina BY KELLY BROWN NEWS REPORTER NEW ORLEANS — She showed up at 7 a.m., two hours before the door opened. Though she didn’t meet with a caseworker until 9:45 a.m., Sheila Smith wasn’t upset by the wait. “They’re taking care of individ uals in a timely manner, and the people are just a blessing. Their personalities — they’re really concerned with our issues,” she said, smiling. “And I just thank them. This is some fast service.” On TXiesday morning, Smith and hundreds of other displaced New Orleans residents lined up at the Catholic Life Center in Baton Rouge, La., to seek assistance with bills, job training and adjust ment to their new lives. The CLC’s relief efforts are a collaboration between Catholic Charities, Catholic Com munity Services and Catholic Relief Services. Staff members say they are in terested in providing aid, not in spreading their religion. "We are not out to convert any one — we don’t even ask if they’re Catholic,” said Carol Spruell, communications coordi nator at the CLC. Catholic Charities has a long standing tradition of helping the poor and is a top private provider of social services in the United States, Spruell said. Since Hurricane Katrina devas tated the Gulf region in late Au gust, the CLC has become one of many private organizations as sisting those who were forced from their homes with the myri ad issues and difficulties they are facing. Currently, the CLC is helping with utility bills for host families, rent for displaced families and placement in other states for those willing to leave the area. As of Oct. 8, the CLC had re ceived 2,460 applications for aid — an average of 150 per day — and has helped 1,200 displaced persons with travel expenses, putting families back together. By 9 a.m. Tliesday, the doors of CLC had opened and the lobby was full, with a line snaking out side. Some waited up to five hours to apply for aid, but many of them said it was the best serv ice they’d received so far. Many had horror stories of the storm and its aftermath. Smith stayed in her Gretna, NEW ORLEANS, page 4 Kelly Brown | News reporter Abcwe: This sign is displayed on City Park Avenue in New Orleans. Left: Applicants line up for services at the Catholic Life Center. ★ OREGON VOTES 2006 ★ Torrey campaign hinges on education Tim Bobosky | Photo editor Jim Torrey, executive director of Kidsports and former Eugene mayor discusses his campaign for governor at a Eugene coffee shop on Monday. As part of his campaign, Torrey explains “If Oregon is a great place for kids, then it will be a great place for everyone." The state senator candidate's platform pitches a revival of Oregon's workforce by increasing time children spend in elementary school BY EMILY SMITH NEWS REPORTER Education is the base holding up Jim Torrey’s campaign platform for Oregon state senator in District 7 in the 2006 election. He said he wants public education to start at a younger age, higher education to be more af fordable to those who qualify and ultimately, that education to be used as means to strength en Oregon’s economy. Torrey, mayor of Eugene from 1997 to 2005, is a Republican. He said people from outside the city have a difficult time believing that. Al though District 7 has been predominantly De mocratic in the past, he’s confident he has enough support in the area to have a good chance at winning the seat. State Sen. Vicki Walker (D-Eugene) may be running for the same seat if she decides not to run for governor. Torrey, 65, attended the University as a busi ness major, but he was forced to drop out after a year and one term because he didn’t have enough money to continue. “I want to make sure that all Oregonians that qualify have an opportunity to participate; I don’t want to see our young people lose the chance to be successful in their lives because they do not have the financial where-with-all to accomplish that,” he said. “We are going to have to find ways to recognize the importance of higher education, and it frankly returns a lot of dollars to our state. ” Torrey is anti-abortion and said he believes in equal rights for same-sex couples, but he does not support gay marriage. He has worked with the University on a number of different projects in the past. He urges students to talk to ASUO members who worked with him when he was mayor and hear what they have to say about him. “I think they will find out that I was available, while not always agreeing with every one of their (ASUO’s) positions, they knew they could always come talk to me, and I gave them a fair opportunity to get their concerns heard,” he said. He also said that in many instances he worked with students to bring about what they had asked for. Public Policy, Planning and Management Department Head Ed Weeks said Torrey worked with his department on a number of projects in TORREY, page 3 Con Court approves recognition committee The Court validated the RRC despite unclear purpose and lack of an official appeals process BY NICHOLAS WILBUR NEWS REPORTER Student government’s Constitution Court approved the authority of the new ASUO com mittee designed to formally recognize student groups on Tuesday, but the court reprimanded the committee for what it said was an egregious lack of documentation. The court asked the Recognition Review Committee to clarify its purpose and its ap peals process, and said the unclear purpose of the RRC makes it “subject to suspicion by out side parties who may claim conflict of inter ests in the future. ” The appeals process shouldn’t involve sending complaints straight to the court, the decision stated. “There is nothing explicitly stating the pro cedural processes established by the RRC or those that the RRC will follow,” the decision stated. “Even more disturbing is the lack of any formal appeal process for grievances filed against the RRC.” The RRC will review student groups’ mis sions, goals and bylaws to ensure that servic es are not duplicated by other programs and that those programs are advantageous to stu dents. Groups that are not recognized by the RRC are effectively defunded because they won’t be granted access to the Programs Fi nance Committee budget hearings, where they are allocated incidental fees. ASUO Programs Administrator and RRC Chairman David Goward said the RRC is pleased the court recognized the ASUO Exec utive’s power to create the committee. “We knew this from the beginning, but this just reaffirmed our belief,” Goward said. “I’m working with (ASUO) President (Adam) Walsh right now to get some sort of bylaws up and running that we can implement.” Goward said the committee is going for ward with the reviews, despite having no by laws or an official appeals process. The by laws will only be an attempt at transparency, a comfort to student program leaders, he said. Currently, the RRC’s bylaws come from a memo drafted by former ASUO President Adam Petkun. At Monday’s first RRC meeting, Goward said his goal is to have the bylaws out in “ini tial format” in two weeks. In two weeks, RRC will have already reviewed 30 of the 36 total groups intended for assessment this year. Because RRC is a subcommittee of the ASUO Executive, its bylaws must be accepted by committee members before going to Gregg Lobisser, director of Student Activities in the EMU, Goward said. Lobisser said he will act as liaison between the University and the ASUO by reviewing pa perwork to ensure state and University rules are followed. He said he supports having a re view process for student groups because they have gone unchecked for nearly 10 years. Goward said the by-laws will then be passed on to the ASUO Constitution Court.Constitu tion Court Justice Charlotte Nisser said any new policy warrants a discussion and that RRC, page 3