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OPINION
East Oregonian
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
MARISSA WILLIAMS
Regional Advertising Director
MARCY ROSENBERG
Circulation Manager
JANNA HEIMGARTNER
Business Office Manager
MIKE JENSEN
Production Manager
OUR VIEW
Forensics lab
put on chopping
block again
We know we give up a few
commercial break.
In reality, they are bureaucratic
things when we choose to live in
entities that collect, sort and
Eastern Oregon.
We trade in some convenience,
examine evidence on a need-to-
have basis, which often takes weeks
some comforts of urban life in
and sometimes months. Forensic
exchange for a little elbow room.
scientists are also needed to testify
If you wonder why there isn’t a
Costco, amusement park or hospital if the case goes to court.
The case of Nika Larsen — a
with a neurosurgeon at the ready
lab tech in Pendleton and Bend
in Umatilla County, it’s simply a
who pleaded guilty to stealing
numbers game. We don’t have the
drugs from the labs — should help
population to support them.
prove the point. The labs where
The same thinking goes into
she worked stopped
state services. It
only makes sense
When it comes to testing drugs as a
precaution while
that state funding,
matters of public prosecutors gathered
taken in from
taxpayers, is spent
safety, the state has evidence against her
and the backlog of
as proportionally as
an obligation to
needed tests now
possible among the
population.
protect its citizens goes back to the
But when it comes
as equally as pos- spring.
A lab in Eastern
to matters of public
safety, the state has
sible, regardless of Oregon should
be considered an
an obligation to
geography.
essential service.
protect its citizens as
Local agencies
equally as possible,
should not be expected to bear the
regardless of geography.
cost of transporting evidence all the
Yet again, the state forensics lab
in Pendleton has been placed on the way to Clackamas (212 miles away)
to be processed, or wait those extra
chopping block in an effort to save
hours for lab techs to arrive from
some money in the state budget.
the metro area to collect evidence at
And that threat, yet again, doesn’t
a crime scene.
take into account the impact that
We’d like to think the question
would ripple through our justice
of whether the Pendleton lab is
system.
necessary could be answered once
In the modern age of
and for all, rather than it being
investigating and prosecuting
pulled in as a bargaining chip each
crimes, science labs play a critical
time the state budget is looking a
part in the process. “CSI” and its
little tight. But instead our district
various television show spinoffs
attorney, police chiefs, sheriff and
would lead us to believe those labs
county commissioners will again
are some kind of magic factory,
have to spend time explaining
turning a strand of hair, drop of
the value of having a lab on the
blood or patch of cloth into a
eastern half of the state, and wait
surefire conviction within a matter
for legislators to decide if it’s an
of minutes — or at least in time
amenity or a necessity.
to advance the plot before the
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of publisher
Kathryn Brown, managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, and opinion page editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
OTHER VIEWS
The plague of ‘early decision’
A
s the moment of judgment
from privileged backgrounds with
neared, they barely slept,
parents and counselors who know
convinced that their very
how to game the system and can
futures were on the line. Dread
assemble the necessary test scores and
consumed them. Panic overwhelmed
references by the November deadline.
These students also aren’t
them.
concerned about weighing disparate
I don’t mean Americans awaiting
financial-aid offers from different
the Electoral College’s validation of
schools and can commit themselves
Donald Trump.
Frank
to one through early decision. Less
I mean students (and their parents)
Bruni
privileged students need to shop
awaiting actual colleges’ verdicts
Comment
around, so early decision doesn’t
on early-decision and early-action
really work for them.
applications.
“That’s just unfair in a profound way,”
One friend of mine canceled our dinner
said Harold Levy, the executive director of
plan because he hadn’t realized that it fell
the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, which
around the time when his daughter expected
has pushed to make elite colleges more
word from her top Ivy League choice. He
socioeconomically diverse.
and his wife couldn’t leave her home alone
Early decision moves the admissions
in such a tremulous state, at such a terrifying
process forward on the calendar, so that
juncture.
high school students start
Another friend’s
obsessing sooner. They
daughter, also vying to
Applying early
press themselves to single
get into a highly selective
improves odds of
out a college at the start of
school, repeatedly burst
year, when they may
into tears as she berated
admission and that senior
not understand themselves
herself for a 3.9 grade-point
average instead of a 4.0.
the students who do as well as they will toward
end of it.
What if the difference
so come dispropor- the “How
spelled her doom?
many 17-year-olds
As I’ve written before,
tionately from privi- know what they really want
the college admissions
to do in life?” said Micheal
leged backgrounds. McKinnon, an independent
process has become a
dignity-ravaging frenzy,
educational consultant in
illustrated by the plot of
the Chicago area. The more
a recent episode of the TV drama “Law
time they have to figure it out, the better.
& Order: Special Victims Unit.” It asked
He added that students who win early
whether a man assuming a fake identity to
admission often feel that “they can slack off
seduce women could be prosecuted for rape.
for the rest of senior year,” rendering the last
What identity do you suppose he chose
semester pointless.
as the most potent and irresistible? Not a
But what worries me more is how the
Hollywood director who could make the
early-application process intensifies much
women stars. Not a Wall Street titan who
of what’s perverse about college admissions
could drape them in jewels. He impersonated
today: the anxiety-fueling, disappointment-
a dean of admissions who could give their
seeding sense that one school above all
kids slots at an elite university. And one after
others glimmers in the distance as the perfect
another, these helicopter moms whirled into
prize; the assessment of the most exclusive
the boudoir.
environments as, ipso facto, the superior ones.
Early decision and early action, which are
That’s hooey, but it’s stubborn hooey, as
offered by some 450 colleges, are a special
the early-application vogue demonstrates.
and especially disturbing part of the frenzy.
Marla Schay, the head of guidance at Weston
They refer to a process by which, broadly
High School, in an affluent suburb outside
speaking, a student applies in November to
Boston, told me that while 60 percent of the
just one, most-desired school, which answers
seniors there submitted early applications
in December. If the school practices early
seven years ago, it’s above 86 percent now.
decision and says yes, the student is obliged
And Williams College just admitted nearly
to go. Early action isn’t binding.
47 percent of next fall’s freshmen through
At least since 2001, when The Atlantic
early decision. That benefits the college,
published a definitive article by James
which has locked in much of the Class of
Fallows titled “The Early-Decision Racket,”
2021. Maybe it also benefits the students
there’s been fervent discussion of the
who were admitted and can now calm down,
downsides of the process. But it’s more
although I wonder how many felt rushed to
prevalent than ever, with some selective
identify Williams (or Duke or Vanderbilt or
schools using it to fill upward of 40 percent of Colgate) as their truest love.
their incoming freshman class.
I wonder, too, how many came to regard
The biggest problem by far: It significantly higher education as one big board game that’s
disadvantages students from low-income
about attaining prestige rather than acquiring
and middle-income families, who are
knowledge.
already underrepresented at such schools.
■
There’s plenty of evidence that applying
Frank Bruni, an Op-Ed columnist for The
early improves odds of admission and that
New York Times since June 2011, joined the
the students who do so — largely to gain a
newspaper in 1995 and has ranged broadly
competitive edge — come disproportionately
across its pages.
YOUR VIEWS
Let it snow (it’s good for
the economy)
Have you ever noticed when it’s
time for parades during Round-Up,
parades that only disrupt traffic for a few
hours each time? The city goes to great
lengths to clear all cars from the parade
route. With the advance notice from the
weather bureau of a major snowstorm,
you’d think the same could be done for
our major city streets.
The public works director explained
on the KUMA Coffee Hour that the city
has no snow removal program due to the
shortage of off-street parking, a problem
perpetuated at city hall by approving
projects like Pendleton Heights. Approved
construction variances by our Planning
Commission have created a problem there
that has yet to be addressed.
The real reason that we don’t have
a snow removal program is that the
city has sold all the snow removal
equipment, dumping gravel all over
town that will eventually have to be
cleaned up in lieu of a removal program.
But there is a silver lining within this
dark cloud: Accidents and injuries
provide insurance companies, our
hospitals and doctors, auto body repair
shops and tire alignment shops (ever hit
one of the ice-covered manhole covers?)
with a surge of much-needed revenue,
not to mention those city employees
trying to unplug those drains the street
sweeper failed to keep clear of leaves and
other debris. My ward representative, I’ll
let you guess which one, explained to me
that the city had much more important
matters to worry about than keeping the
gutters clean.
There is a glimmer of hope with a
change in city leadership. Perhaps we
will have a very Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year.
Rick Rohde
Pendleton
LETTERS POLICY
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues
and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper
reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and
products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters must
be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number.
The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send
letters to managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801
or email editor@eastoregonian.com.