Take Back the Campus was what it was. I’m a little embarrassed at my own ignorance of the situation; I thought it would be more of an open forum. Silly me. It was obvious that a lot of work went into this. But just because one works hard doesn’t mean the results will be good. There were numerous petitions made, cameras, Zane Kesey was there, many (so many!) student presenters and the rest of the works. Yet, not much was accomplished with all these resources.

There were about 100 students who attended. I figure at least half were ASUO insiders and about half of the rest left half-way through. Some of the speakers were good, some were not. Depending upon the audience, some ideas were good and some were not. All together the forum informed maybe 25 students about issues that have been in the newspapers for weeks and months.

When it was all said and done, there was one dissenting voice. When the presentations were over and it opened up to “an open forum,” Ryan McCarrel asked to use the podium. In the past few weeks, he has been creating discussion via e-mails with political science students about apathy. He had a prepared statement, which he was not allowed to finish, about the need for change. Now imagine the irony of it all. On the chalk board “MAKE CHANGE” was written huge and “APATHY” with a slash through it was there too. McCarrel spoke about the problem of widespread apathy within the student body, and the desperate need for a change to better the student body as a whole. Sen. Nate Gulley yelled out “bullshit”. Sen. Patrick Boye interrupted to call out the Oregon Commentator (not sure why; we hadn’t said anything). It was obvious that those in charge did not want to have a discussion about change or apathy. They wanted to finish their job and go home.

Here is the speech that McCarrel didn’t get to finish. (more…)

Take Back Campus was clearly just a thinly-veiled front for next year’s potential Executive candidates, shamelessly backed by the current ASUO Executive. Did anyone else think it was ridiculous for Take Back Campus to be substitutable for a Programs Council Meeting (that all programs MUST attend)?

It’s obvious that the conspirators organizers of Take Back Campus are not going to be able to accomplish most of the issues they railed against (which were as far and between as the Wrestling team cut, a police force on campus, and the Holy Cow). The only possible reason, then, for them to address ALL those hot topic issues is that they were trying to get as wide of a range of potential VOTERS in the same place, and for those VOTERS to see the faces of the potential Executives as candidates that will ‘take action’ somehow.

(more…)

There are many problems some of my friends and I have with the Pit Crew. I think it’s a shotty sports fan group for the most part. There will be a commentary about this in the OC’s next issue, next week, but for now, read this article from SI.com and decide if the Pit Crew is a good use of student funds (granted they only get a few hundred dollars, but still). I really hope the athletic department discontinues the Pit Crew section in the new arena.

Barack Obama was the leading presidential candidate in a survey by American University. When asked who they would vote for if the presidential election was held today, 54 percent of respondents chose Obama, with McCain coming in second at 19 percent.

However, a similar poll by the Oregon Commentator found Ron Paul leading by 100 percent. Although Paul has been popular with the college crowd, this is a surprising surge and could cause trouble for current Republican front-runner McCain. The results also indicate that 100 percent of university students are registered Independents, functional alcoholics and named Ossie Bladine.

There are two opinion pieces in the Ol’ Dirty today about Duck wrestling getting the ax. From the editorial:

The clearest explanation of why wrestling won’t be back next year is that there is no clear reason.

From a sports column by Doug Bonham:

Out of the research I’ve done, interviews I’ve conducted, and everything I’ve seen surrounding the end of the program, not one of the athletic department’s arguments holds much water.

My initial reaction was “isn’t Title IX a clear reason for having to cut wrestling?” But then I read this ODE feature from last week that reported:

Contrary to common belief, the decision to remove wrestling is not a Title IX issue; Oregon qualifies for Title IX under history of expansion of opportunities for women, which doesn’t require removing men’s sports.

I contacted Joe Giansante, associate athletic direct — external communications, asking if Title IX actually isn’t connected to cutting the sport. He said that Title IX was a factor in the decision, but only because it is a factor in every decision the department has to make. He said that Title IX and money have incorrectly been pointed to as the sole reasons for the sport being eliminated. From an e-mail: (more…)

Boy, oh, boy, do I love election season.

You know why? Because people start bitching. And if they have been bitching, they start bitching LOUDER. Diego Hernandez starts writing more in the Emerald with empty accusations of racism. People actually respond. Other people start forming ‘Take Back the Campus’ coalitions that address issues that aren’t even affected by student opinion. Grievances go up by 100% (because no one files grievances during the rest of the year). And the rest of the student population actually pays attention to the ASUO.

Stay tuned, shitstorm to follow in the next couple weeks. 🙂