Speaker pushes for education on Sudan conflict I 4
Oregon Daily Emerald
An independent newspaper at the University of Oregon
www. dailyemerald. com
Since 1900 | Volume 107, Issue 70 | Friday, December2, 2005
DeFazio opposes federal aid cuts
The congressman asks how a $14.3 billion
national budget reduction affects student finances
BY JOE BAILEY
NEWS REPORTER
Several weeks after the U.S.
House of Representatives passed
a spending reduction package
that included $14.3 billion in cuts
to federal financial aid, Rep. Peter
DeFazio, D-Ore, visited campus
Thursday to voice his opposition
to the spending cuts.
At a forum hosted by the ASUO
in the Lillis Business Complex, De
Fazio listened to students talk about
how further financial aid cuts would
impact their lives and said that Re
publicans in Congress have their
priorities wrong.
The House passed a bill on Nov.
18 that cut about $50 billion from
the budget; the largest cuts were
directed at Medicaid benefits, food
stamps and student loan subsidies.
The cuts to student loan subsidies
would raise the interest for students
borrowing money to pay for college,
DeFazio said.
University student Tony McCown
told DeFazio that debt from student
loans could have a crippling impact
on his career.
McCown, who is married and
has a four-month old son, said
that after he and his wife trans
ferred to the University from Lane
Community College, they had ac
cumulated about $40,000 of debt
between them.
After they graduate from the
University, the McCowns expect
to have more than $100,000 of
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield, talks with Tony McCown, chief justice of
the ASUO Constitution Court, about cuts to student financial aid.
combined debt.
McCown said that he would
like to attend law school and work
in public interest law, but he’s
afraid he will have to find higher
paying work to pay off his debts.
DEFAZIO, page 6
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Kate Horton | Photographer
Thursday was the 50th anniversary of Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus. The anniversary gained even more significance this October,
when Parks died at age 92. The Lane Transit District remembered her life and contributions by taking part in “A National Transit Tribute to Rosa Parks.” LTD, in conjunc
tion with the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Eugene Human Rights Commission, reserved a seat on each bus
for Parks. The seats were marked by a laminated sheet with a picture of Parks and the words “On December 1,1955, she changed the course of history and inspired us
all.” LTD also gave free day passes to anyone who donated a canned food item to FOOD for Lane County. Before the event, LTD gave presentations at local elementary
and middle schools and encouraged the children to draw pictures about what Parks meant to them. The pictures were compiled into a quilt, which LTD hung at its
Eugene Station Customer Service Center at 11th Avenue and Willamette Street.
Student architects redraft downtown Eugene
Graduate student
Jesse Schwartzberg
presents his plans
for the Riverfront
District to a review
panel of University
professors and
Eugene officials.
The presentation
was the final
product of the class
Going Downtown:
Eugene Remapped.
Zane Rrrr | Photographer
A studio class combining ideas of Landscape and
city planning redeveloped the Riverfront District
BY CHRIS HAGAN
NEWS REPORTER
Imagine 25 years from now,
coming off what is now the Fer
ry Street Bridge into downtown
Eugene on a tree-lined, median
divided road. Travelers looking
to their left will see the complet
ed Wayne L. Morse Federal
Courthouse. Straight ahead
would be the University’s new
basketball arena.
That would be the plan if it
were up to the students in Ar
chitecture 4/585 and Landscape
Architecture 4/589, Going
Downtown: Eugene Remapped.
ARCHITECTS, page 7
UO Senate
passes three
motions
Wednesday
University government decisions
addressed Westmoreland and
Department of Defense funding
BY MEGHANN M. CUNIFF
NEWS EDITOR
The new draft of the diversity plan and a
public hearing regarding U.S. Department
of Defense funding on campus will be part of
the University Senate’s agenda sometime
next term.
At its meeting Wednesday, the senate
watched a presentation about the diversity
plan, heard an update on the state of the Uni
versity by President Dave Frohnmayer and
passed three motions. One motion calls for pub
lic hearings about DoD funding — at least one
to be held in front of the senate — and the oth
ers call for the University to close the school for
University Assembly meetings and waive the
fees for a records request by the Westmoreland
Tenants Council.
The diversity plan
The Diversity Executive Working Group sub
mitted a draft of the Five-Year Diversity Plan to
Frohnmayer on Nov. 22, Interim Vice Provost
for Institutional Equity and Diversity Charles
Martinez said, and copies of the draft should be
available next term after all revisions are made.
Martinez discussed the reasons for the diver
sity plan and presented statistics detailing in
equalities between minority groups and white
people at the University level.
The original draft of the plan was released
last spring and caused a great deal of contro
versy. A group of professors sent a letter to
Frohnmayer denouncing the plan as
“Orwellian” and “frightening.” Frohnmayer
SENATE, page 3
Students
host winter
Kwanzaa
celebration
The Black Student Union will
provide dinner and perform skits
to share in the cultural holiday
BY EMILY SMITH
NEWS REPORTER
The Black Student Union will be serving up
free fried chicken, sweet potato pie, collard
greens, macaroni and cheese, mashed pota
toes and cornbread for all who attend its an
nual Kwanzaa Celebration on Saturday night
in the EMU Ballroom.
BSU Programs Coordinator Assistant Abri
na Wheatfall expects about 150 people to
show up, and she said she’s hoping a wide
range of students will be interested.
The traditional soul-food dinner and live
KWANZAA page 5