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