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Oregon Daily Emerald Monday, November 7, 2005 NEWS STAFF (541)346-5511 PARKER HOWELL EDITOR IN CHIEF SHADRA BEESLEY MANAGING EDITOR MEGHANN M. CUNIFF JARED PABEN NEWS EDITORS EVA SYIWESTER SENIOR NEWS REPORTER KELLY BROWN KATY GAGNON CHRISTOPHER HAGAN BRITTNI MCCLENAHAN NICHOLAS WILBUR NEWS REPORTERS JOE BAILEY EMILY SMrTH PART-TIME NEWS REPORTERS SHAWN MILLER SPORTS EDITOR SCOITJ, ADAMS LUKE ANDREWS JEFFREY DRANSFELDT SPORTS REPORTERS AMY EIGHTY PULSE EDITOR TREVOR DAVIS KRISTEN GERHARD ANDREW MCCOLLUM PULSE REPORTERS A1LEE SLATER COMMENTARY EDITOR GABE BRADLEY JESSICA DERLETH ARMYFETH COLUMNISTS TIM BOBOSKY PHOTO EDITOR NICOLE BARKER SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER KATE HORTON ZANER1TT PHOTOGRAPHERS KATIE GLEASON PARTTIME PHOTOGRAPHER JONAH SCHROGIN DESIGN EDITOR JOHN AYRES JONNYBAGGS MOLLY BEDFORD KERI SPANGLER DESIGNERS CHRISTODD GRAPHIC ARTIST AARON DUCHATEAU ILLUSTRATOR DAWN HELZER REBECCA TAYLOR COPY CHIEFS JENNY DORNER BRYN JANSSON JOSH NORRIS JENNA ROH REACH ER MATT TIFFANY COPYEDITORS STEVEN NEUMAN ONLINE/SUPPLEMENTS EDITOR TIMOTHY ROBINSON WEBMASTER BUSINESS (541)346-5511 JUDY RIEDL GENERAL MANAGER KATHY CARBONE BUSINESS MANAGER LAUNA DEGIUSTI RECEPTIONIST LUKE BELLOITI RYAN JOHNSON RANDY RYMER CORRJEN MUNDY DISTRIBUTION ADVERTISING (541)346-3712 MELISSA GUST ADVERTISING DIRECTOR MIA LEIDELMEYER SALES MANAGER KELLEE KAUFTHEIL JOHN KELLY LINDSEY FERGUSON WINTER GIBBS KATE HIRONAKA DESI MCCORMICK STEPHEN MILLER KATHRYN O'SHEA-EVANS CODY WILSON SALES REPRESENTATIVES BONA LEE AD ASSISTANT CLASSIFIED (541) 3464343 TRINA SHANAMAN CLASSIFIED MANAGER LISA CLARK ANDO AMANDA KANTOR KER1 SPANGLER KATIE STRINGER CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ASSOCIATES PRODUCTION (541) 346-4381 MICHELE ROSS PRODUCTION MANAGER KIRA PARK PRODUCTION COORDINATOR JAMIE ACKERMAN CAITIJN MCCURDY ERIN MCKENZIE JONAH SCHROGIN TERRY STRONG DESIGNERS The Oregon Daily Emerald is pub lished daily Monday through Fri day during the school year by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the University of Ore gon, Eugene, Ore. The Emerald operates independently of the University with offices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is private property. Unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law. About 50 years ago, or somethin’ like that... on this very Halloween night, about 60,000 college stu dents went absolutely nuts... Now...no one really got hurt that badly...but from what I hear there was lots of shouting and a mattress got burned... It's our job now to moke sure that college students NEVER party on Halloween AGAIN_ CODE RED! Suspect spotted! I need BACK UP! Twix, Huh? Is that what you kids are calling ’it* these days?...I outta put a bullet in your drug dealin’ head right now Scum-Bag.. .You're lucky" you have RIGHTS! /\AKUIN L^UV^MAitAU | ILUUdlTVMUn In my opinion More work on Fridays? GIVE ME A BREAK This Sunday, The New York Times ran a story detailing the trend of three day weekends on college campuses. Some campuses want to “reclaim” Fridays, i.e. regulate the academic cal endar more strictly so that depart ments are required to schedule more Friday classes. An increase in Friday instruction time would reduce the abundance of classes that occur midweek and battle one another for room space and stu dent enrollment. Administrators claim that more Friday classes will benefit students because a larger variety of classes and class times can be offered. Alongside mandating more Friday class offerings, these schools may also demand that earlier class times strive to be the norm. Both Chico State and Duke University have increased their Friday, as well as early morning, classes. However, as mentioned in the article, students make great efforts to work their schedule around factors such as the early mornings and Fridays. If stu dents are already choosing to give up classes in favor of sleeping in, why offer them more early morning classes? The theory goes that university life should mirror “real life,” the life that students will lead once they graduate from college. The problem with the log ic of “get used to it now so you’re ready for it later” is the fact that such reason ing paints a static picture of the world at large. In truth, it is the rest of the world that needs a change: College stu dents are wise in their reasoning that schedules should be internally, rather than externally, determined. Administrators believe that they know best what schedule college stu dents need. Chancellor Charles B. Reed of the California State Universi ty system says that partying instead of studying on Thursday nights “is not a healthy atmosphere. ” How Chancellor Reed defines a healthy atmosphere is unclear. Is it AILEE SLATER FURTHER FROM PERFECTION healthy to manipulate campus schedul ing in order to slyly induce students into attending school five days a week? A main concern of many college ad ministrators is that without the crunch of Friday classes, students engage in raucous partying Thursday night. How ever, this concern is related to a more general issue — alcohol consumption by college students. The problem of stu dent drinking will not disappear with an upsurge in Friday class require ments; students will simply hold off on their alcohol consumption for a night or two. What difference does it make to administrators if students are wasted on Thursday night or on Friday night? Or both? It is not the responsibility of a uni versity to regulate the social life or so cial schedule of students. It is no surprise that college officials have once more promoted the image of students as party animals in desperate need of structure. However, increasing early morning and Friday classes begs the question; Why should education be a masochistic experience for students? It shouldn’t. Students should be al lowed to enjoy and excel in school at a pace to their own liking. If a student can maintain a reasonable GPA and meet their graduation date, administra tors shouldn’t bother trying to tweak scheduling preferences. If departments don’t wish to schedule Friday classes and students don’t wish to attend them, then a Friday class demand will only result in the poor emotional state of everyone on campus. Furthermore, students, and people in general, deserve their free time, and school administrators are dead wrong in their assumption that Fridays-off equals a three-day weekend. In fact, a majority of college students devote at least a portion, if not all, of their Satur days and Sundays to completing essays, reading and other long-term class proj ects. Taking away the opportunity of free Fridays would, for many students, completely eradicate the dream of a work-free, pressure-free weekend. And any university official who thinks that students need a higher number (of productive days on campus should take a serious look at the mental health statistics of college students. Sur veys in the late 1990s from the National Mental Health Association report sui cide as the second highest cause of death among college students and say that anxiety and depression are much too common among students. Making it harder for students to take a three-day breath of fresh air from the university will force already overworked students into a high-stress atmosphere. School officials looking to increase Friday classes should also remember that for students juggling classes and employment, the ability to schedule ac ademia-free days is key to finding a job. Students are able to tell potential em ployers that they are available all day three days a week, rather than being able to work for only a few hours after the school day has ended. Students are not single-minded par ty animals looking to avoid school work and have a drunken hullabaloo three days a week. Rather, college stu dents, like adults in general, enjoy the ability to schedule their work and their play. School administrators shouldn’t encourage a five-day week if students can, and want to, do their required aca demic work in four days. aslater@dailyemerald. com OREGON DAILY EMERALD LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor and guest commentaries are encouraged, and should be sent to letters@dailyemerald.com or submitted at the Oregon Daily Emerald office, EMU Suite 300. Electronic submissions are preferred. Letters are limited to 250 words, and guest commentaries to 550 words. Authors are limited to one submission per calendar month. Submissions should include phone number and address for verification. The Emerald reserves the rigit to edit for space, ^ammar and style. Guest submissions are published at the discretion of the Emerald. ■ Editorial Benefits of apartment sale require clear outline This University exists, both as a physical cam pus and as an institution, by result of foresight and planning by past administrators. Formulat ing long-term strategies about how to expand this “land-locked” University must account for a mul titude of interwoven factors, and we understand such planning is difficult. Yet the administration’s current plan to sell Westmoreland Apartments does not appear to fit into a clear, practical long-range vision. State ments made by President Dave Frohnmayer dur ing a hearing before the Oregon State Board of Higher Education on Friday failed to clearly dis close the University’s plans, if any, for the use of sale money. He emphasized the need to quickly put the property on the market to keep potential buyers interested but did not disclose how long the University has been plotting a sale or why ad ministrators announced the sale so suddenly. Frohnmayer told the board that money gener ated by the sale would allow the University to be more nimble in buying land when “once a cen tury” opportunities arise. After the hearing, he said his dream is to build a land bank east of cam pus along Franklin Boulevard that be his legacy. It is unclear when land will become available and how much it will cost. We must question what the land, purchased with housing money, will be used for, given the University’s history of using housing money to acquire land for other purposes. Even if it is used to renovate aging resi dence halls, we don’t seem to have an overarch ing plan for balancing residence hall needs with non-traditional student needs. Meanwhile, residents at Westmoreland, in cluding graduate teaching fellows, international students, students with children and others, op pose the sale. Without Westmoreland, they right fully say there will be a lack of affordable hous ing and child care options for low-income students, especially those with families. We are pleased the board asked administrators to study and implement ways to ease the effects of a Westmoreland sale on tenants. Part of the sale proceeds should certainly be used for this purpose. But dealing with the aftermath of a sale is not sufficient. The administration’s top priority should be to clearly state its plans for the money. Effective long-term planning sometimes re quires short-term sacrifice. But before people will sacrifice their homes, they need to see the long term vision; they need to know what they give up will not be in vain. As leaders of this University, administrators surely understand that students' and faculty members will not willingly sacrifice if this vision isn’t shared openly with the Univer sity community. So far, the vision is not clear. If administrators wish to build a legacy, they should lay out their plans for spending sale mon ey as clearly as possible. We understand that fluc tuating property markets and many other factors will contribute to this decision, and many aspects of the sale are interrelated. These complications are exactly the types of details we need to know. Only when the facts are clearly laid out will we be able to judge the merits of this move. After re viewing all the facts, students may continue to oppose the sale. Then, even if a controversial sale progresses, the administration will at least leave a legacy of openness. CORRECTION Because of an editing error, a quote in Friday's “Senate votes to adopt new model for stipends" should have stated that ASUO President Adam Walsh said the following, referring to the stipend model the Programs Finance Committee wanted to implement: "I know for sure that the President’s office won’t approve of it Even this model is a little higher than what they'd like to see." A paragraph was deleted, making it appear that the quotation came from ASUO Student Senate Ombudsman Jared Axelrod. The Emerald regrets the error.
