10 SRs. Click Here to follow along.

With the ever-popular HATE Issue coming up, I felt it would be appropriate to address some of the haters that have spoken out against the magazine, its staff, byline and mission statement.  The most recent form of hate being vandalism: dumping issues of the magazine outside the EMU as well as stealing one of the distribution boxes at 14th and Kincaid.  This has not happened to any other student ran publication on this campus, but according to the Student Press Law Center in 2009 Oregon State University’s Liberty had some of its distribution boxes removed in a similar fashion, claiming censorship as the cause:

The staff of an independent publication at Oregon State University says they are being censored by not being permitted to distribute across campus.

Will Rogers, executive editor of the Liberty, said campus officials removed the paper’s distribution bins during the winter 2009 term without warning, damaging some of them. Officials later told Rogers his staff does not have the same distribution rights as the Daily Barometer, OSU’s official campus paper.

“Basically, the school is setting up a state-sponsored form of communication that if you don’t play by their rules then you’re not allowed to distribute the message, which is censorship,” Rogers said. “They’re stifling our ability to communicate.”

The Liberty was also regarded as the campus conservative publication and Rogers commented on the fact that the other publication, the Daily Barometer had none of its distribution boxes removed.

According to e-mails in late April and early May between Rogers and Joe Majeski, a Facilities Services employee, university officials removed the bins — which involved cutting locks and chains for some — and stored them near a dumpster.

When Rogers retrieved them, he said some had been damaged. He noted the university gave Liberty editors in 2006 permission to place eight bins on campus. After one was stolen, the paper’s staff chained the rest in place.

A collection of e-mails between Rogers and university employees show the dispute is centered on Liberty not being the campus’ official paper. Several officials noted the Daily Barometer has been publishing for over 100 years. Officials also claimed they were controlling distribution to keep campus attractive for visiting parents.

An OSU spokesperson said that the boxes were removed in an effort to help with foot traffic and maintenance and yet again, none of the Barometer‘s bins or boxes were removed.  It is approximated that 150 copies of the publication were damaged along with the damages to boxes themselves.  Since then, the Liberty has had its distribution rights restored to the same rights as the Barometer.

In our case, reports have been filed with Eugene Police Department as well as the Department of Public Safety. All I can say is that if we’ve been striking nerves with people, good. Haters, keep up the hate. [Ed. note: But stop being a dick about it.] The OC does not sacrifice ideas or content for anyone. It is and always has been an alternative journal of opinion that does not curtail its content to vandalism or insults. The campus is indeed a battleground for the war of ideas; the war is raging and we are not stopping.

I love you so much I made you a news poem and don’t even complain about my rhyming, you know you like it:

Yay,

beginning in May

you get to Pay

3.3% more for power AND

6.9% more for water.

With an average increase of $2.85

You’ll just have to give up all hopes of ordering yourself a Wive

(oh, shut up, I was making a rhyme, no one likes the letter “F” anyways).

Student loan debt has outpaced credit card debt and will reach $1 trillion this year. From the New York Times:

Two-thirds of bachelor’s degree recipients graduated with debt in 2008, compared with less than half in 1993. Last year, graduates who took out loans left college with an average of $24,000 in debt.

State support dwindles (both for the university’s budget and in terms of financial aid), tuition goes up, students have more debt. This is the status quo.

We need something bold. We need something new. Maybe next year’s legislative session will have some answers.

Picture from the Second Amendment Week facebook event page

What’cha doin’ next week? Well, if you want to head over to OSU you may have a chance to win a gun!

Yep, you read that right. This coming Monday, April 11th through Friday April 15th the Oregon State University College Republicans will be holding their annual Second Amendment Week.

As part of the festivities they will be raffling off an AR-15 rifle. Unfortunately, while you need not be present to win the drawing, you must purchase the tickets in person. Tickets can be picked up from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday in the MU quad. The drawing is set to be around 6 p.m. on Friday.

Other Second Amendment Week Events include a free gun safety course and Lars Larson broadcasting from the quad (in the words of their facebook group):

Free gun safety course for students on Wednesday at 7PM in Gilfillan Auditorium. Along with being very useful information, this course also meets state requirements to obtain a Concealed Handgun License (CHL).

Lars Larson will be broadcasting from the MU Quad on Friday between noon and 6PM.

CHEERS!

Rutgers University recently shelled out $32,000 to have MTV reality star Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi speak at their commencement ceremony. This is $2,000 more than the school paid Nobel and Pulitzer-Prize winner Toni Morrison to speak at the same ceremony. Experts speculate that the increased free was due to the amount of alcohol necessary for Snooki to get performance-ready, but no one from the University has come forth to confirm this.

According to the Newark Star-Ledger, Snooks imparted the wisdom of her 24 years, advising students to “study hard, but party harder.”

We would like to shame Rutgers for wasting student fee money on complete bullshit, but since Amelie’s decision to chuck $82,280 into the OSPIRG sinkhole, we’d kind of be hypocrites.

Get it, girl.

News:

Elections for a new Ombudsperson were postponed to next week.

The Men’s Center’s special request was denied. $8,500 originally appropriated for the Survival Center’s Naomi Klein event was returned to surplus. A series of line item transfers to fund the Saudi Student Association’s upcoming International Week was approved.

Sen. janet Brooks announced that a new retail outlet will be moving into the post office and providing post-office services. Details to follow. PFC will be reevaluating the stipend model this term.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this article, Naomi Klein’s name was misspelled. The Commentator regrets this error, which has since been corrected.

Stats and Opinion after the jump.
(more…)

Follow along.

Several weeks ago, UCLA poli sci student Alexandra Wallace created a youtube video voicing her opinions on Asians in the library. The video, which very obviously crossed the line into racism went viral and in days, Wallace had created a mistake that she couldn’t undo.

After the incident, Wallace took responsibility for her actions and released the following statement to the UCLA student newspaper, The Daily Bruin

Clearly the original video posted by me was inappropriate. I cannot explain what possessed me to approach the subject as I did, and if I could undo it, I would. I’d like to offer my apology to the entire UCLA campus. For those who cannot find it within them to accept my apology, I understand.

In the days following, the UCLA administration conducted an investigation concluding that imposing academic consequences was outside of their scope

As a public university, UCLA protects free expression. While I and most on campus were appalled by the sentiments expressed in a recent YouTube video, we have uncovered no facts that lead us to believe that the Student Code of Conduct was violated. We have no intention of pursuing a disciplinary matter. Statement by Janina Montero, vice chancellor for student affairs

However, this investigation was not the only fallout from the video. Reactions reached the point of death threats (because fighting racism with violence is always the best answer [yes, that was sarcasm]) and Wallace’s interactions with the University quickly turned from investigation to protection. In fact, Wallace has decided to no longer attend UCLA as noted in a letter she wrote to The Daily Bruin (more…)

The University is beginning the process of finding a replacement for current Vice President of Institutional Equity and Diversity, Dr. Charles Martinez, Jr. The University is offering students a chance to give their input on the decision during “visioning” session held at the Many Nations Longhouse. The session for undergraduates will be held tomorrow, Wednesday, March 6th, from 2p.m. to 3p.m. Because your voice as a student… counts…

What exactly does the VP for Diversity do around here? According to the University website, the job appears to be that of an offensiveness consultant to the President.

May I suggest we start with the hats, sir?

In the restaurant industry, to “86” something is to strike something from the menu, almost always because the house has run out it (or the supplies to make it). I am not referring to this figure of speech in my headline.

Instead I am referring to approximate size, in thousands of dollars, of OSPIRG’s contract under the ACFC Budget sent by the ASUO Executive to the University President.

In a memo summarizing their funding choices, the Exec said that “the executive recommends that the ACFC require all contracts to be transparent, and provide detailed information on how their respective services will be provided.” The memo went on to say that, “Vaguely worded services provided by contracts shall not be accepted.”

The OSPIRG contract will be for $86,280. The rest of the budget looks just like the first ACFC budget past last term, except that the renegotiation of the Lane Transit District contract is reflected. That renegotiation reduced the amount of the LTD contract by $86,280. The Total ACFC budget is $4,007,629, an increase of seven percent.

The ASUO Constitution Court issued its opinion in In Review of Request for Consent by ASUO President Concerning ACFC Budget (32 C.C. 2010/2011) earlier today. In this opinion, the court granted ASUO President Amelie Rousseau the authority to craft her own ACFC budget and submit it to the University Administration.

Eventually you will be able to link to the Court’s opinion here (as soon as they post it.)

Details as to exactly what Rousseau’s budget will look like will be forthcoming.

It’s over.