Since his election, ASUO President Sam Dotter-Katz has hardly been running away from his campaign promises of reform. If anything, one might even wonder where he’s going to find the time to enact the many reforms he has recently committed himself to in a lengthy letter to President Frohnmayer. But Dotter-Katz doesn’t seem to be worried, as his administration is kicking off the usually-sleepy summer term with a reform that didn’t even make his already-epic to-do list: eliminating the OSA Campus Coordinator position. (more…)

It was a big day for Eugene at the Olympic Trials yesterday. In the men’s 800 final, Nick Symmonds of the Oregon Track Club, Andrew Wheating of Oregon and Christian Smith, also of the Oregon Track Club, took first, second and third, respectively. The crowd at Hayward Field went absolutely nuts, even those watching the jumbotron in the Eugene ‘08 festival area.

The race, probably the most memorable of the Trials, has received write-ups in both the Chicago-Tribune and The New York Times. Sports Illustrated columnist Tim Layden profiles Wheating and his meteoric rise, making some not-so-subtle allusions to a certain mustachioed Oregon runner of yore. For the most comprehensive coverage of the race head over to letsrun.com.

Symmonds and Wheating both stayed in the back of the pack until the homestretch, as is their wont, before burning the rest of the field with their trademark kicks. Both were somewhat of underdogs going into the finals, which led to some live-blogging foot-in-mouth over at the Eugene Weekly blog. “It’d be a miracle if both of them go to Beijing,” EW writer Chuck Adams wrote at 8:21 p.m. This was followed at 8:28 by “Holy Fuck. Wheating and Symmonds are going to Beijing.”

Smith’s third-place finish was perhaps the most dramatic. He literally dove face-first over the finish line and into the track, beating Khadevis Robinson by six-hundredths of a second. Robinson filed a protest, claiming Smith had grabbed him as he fell. The protest was denied. For his part, Smith can’t even really remember if he grabbed Robinson or not, which led to a rather odd quote. From letsrun.com:

“We both fell and I was hoping anyone was there, if Jesus would’ve been there I would’ve grabbed him.”

However, the Tribune story has a slightly different quote from Smith:

“I was so lactated I couldn’t see. I was hoping Jesus was out there so I could have grabbed him, too.”

In any case, watch your back, Big J. There’s a lactating Olympic athlete after you.

The Emerald today is carrying a guest commentary by Dr. Jerry Rosiek, who expresses concern over the recent controversies over the University’s affirmative action and diveristy hiring programs. Far from being concerned about whether or not the accusations are true, Dr. Rosiek is instead worried that the lawsuit filed by Joseph Wade might “distract” people from more important things — namely heaping accolades upon the diversity program:

The danger is that the University’s new leaders will be distracted by things like Wade’s suit, and will not appreciate the important work that has recently been done by the OIED under Dr. Martinez’s leadership.

Never you mind the man behind the curtain!

(more…)

So apparently there’s this, uh, Olympic Trials thing happening in Eugene soon. I guess it’s kind of a big deal or something. Anyways, while everyone else is creaming their collective pantaloons (including Eugene writer Kenny Moore), I thought I would list some of the athletes to watch for.

• Former Rennie’s Landing doorman Colin Veldman qualified for the hammerthrow. We’ll drink to that!
• UO running phenom Galen Rupp will be tearing up the men’s 10k. Rupp has 120 percent of the lung capacity of an average person.
• Alicia Shay will be running the women’s 10k. Shay’s husband and fellow elite runner Ryan died of a sudden cardiac arrest during the 2007 US Olympic Marathon Trials. Runner’s World just ran a good story on her.
• UO whiz kid Andrew Wheating has qualified for the 800 and 1500. Wheating came out of nowhere this year and had an absolutely explosive season, including a sub-four mile and the third fastest 800 in school history.
• Other qualified Ducks in the Trials are Rachel Yurkovich in the javelin, Nicole Blood in the 1500 and 5k, A.J. Acosta in the 1500 and Ashton Eaton in the decathalon. Former Duck Tommy Skipper qualified for the polevault.

The weekend before finals week isn’t exactly brimming with tantalizing news from the U of O, but here’s a few links to keep you busy:

• Activists will be protesting David Irving’s speech tomorrow. Check out the bottom of the story for a couple good quotes from our friend Dawn Coslow (DC).
• Mesaret Defar failed to set a world record in the 5K today at the Prefontaine Classic; Eugene girl Kara Goucher came in third.
• The Portland Mercury has a hilarious profile on the Pink Pistols - an LGBTQ gun club. These must be the bitter gun nuts Obama was talking about. Noted for possibly the best lede ever:

“Most gun clubs are for men who like John Wayne or Charlton Heston. They’re for the pussy, football, and beer crowd,” says Pink Pistols member Steve Gilbert, as we’re taking a break from shooting on a sunny Saturday afternoon. “The difference is, we’re more for the dick, shopping, and champagne crowd.”

P.S. I disabled comments for this post because it mentions David Irving, and we don’t want those people to come back.

So this is Gordon Smith’s new logo:

Notice anything familiar? How about that “O”? No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you; that’s the same font the U of O athletic department uses. Is Smith trying to get in on the Phil Knight gravy train, or does he just bleed yellow and green?

A shake of the fist to those d-bags at Blue Oregon.

UPDATE: The font is not only copyrighted by the U of O, but it’s top secret. Smith must have pulled a Mission Impossible to get his hands on it. The Duck Sports News Blog has more details.

In case you missed it, ODE Opinion Editor Elon Glucklich took on the 2nd Amendment yesterday in a piece titled “Gun argument lost in divide between sides.” He was spurred in large part by our latest issue, which contained a couple of articles about guns. In fact ol’ Elon mentions us in the lede! But here’s Glucklich mending bridges on the contentious topic:

Like I said before, my narrow-mindedness has prevented me from rationally approaching the issue of gun-ownership. Even now, liberal guilt pangs within me for having written a hundred words without demonizing gun owners as backasswards white trash that threaten our children’s safety.

A more reasonable and considered statement I have never read. Of course, the rest of the article can’t maintain these lofty heights of rhetoric, but it’s still pretty good. See how many factual errors about guns you can find.

UPDATE: Turns out Elon was on Lars Larson yesterday talking about his opinion piece. I’ve been trying to find some sort of audio or transcription of it, but Larson has the worst website ever.

The Daily Emerald is reporting that Ethnic Studies has, after a long campaign, been approved for departmentalization:

In a phone conversation with former ASUO President and Ethnic Studies Coalition member Emily McLain, Senior Vice President and Provost Linda Brady revealed that she had approved the departmentalization of the ethnic studies program beginning in fall 2008.

Though I’ve long been a critic of the departmentalization drive, founded as it was on feel-good spirit and assurances that departmentalization was sure to be a “good thing” for campus, I’d like to congratulate Ethnic Studies and everyone involved in the departmentalization campaign.

On Monday, June 9 at seven p.m. in the EMU Walnut Room the Pacifica Forum will host David Irving. Yes, that David Irving. Way to stay classy, guys. Irving’s topic du jour will be “Political Imprisonment in Modern Europe.” Irving has some first-hand experience on the issue; he was convicted of Holocaust denial in Austria in 2006. I’m excited about this opportunity to see a world class, professional asshat in person.

Update: Not so shockingly, this post got linked to over at Stormfront. I’ve locked the comment thread. Now resuming our regular, ZOG-approved content (sarcasm, by the way).

You: good-natured University president getting your picture taken with 20 sorority girls on the patio of Taylor’s.

Me: Called you a “lucky dog.” Too bad my camera is broken. Party sometime?

The ODE issued an editorial today criticizing plans to make campus smoke-free. However, it didn’t take an absolutist stance on the issue. Instead, the editorial suggests placing designated smoking areas on campus. From the article:

Further regulating the areas where people can smoke on campus would be a more reasonable, effective and generally welcomed change. People who smoke cigarettes right outside of campus buildings are a nuisance to non-smokers who must pass through the toxic cloud on their way to class, but they shouldn’t be forced from campus. Smoking is a vice and an addiction. This is common knowledge, and as a society we have chosen, as illustrated by our laws, to maintain cigarettes as a legal right to citizens who choose to consume them. If cigarettes are indeed banned on campus, smokers will simply go elsewhere when their nicotine cravings strike, or more likely will just flout the law and light up anyway. Nevertheless, they won’t stop smoking. University officials need to realize when their attempts to regulate student behavior will have palpable effects, and when they will fall on deaf ears.

Many of the other Commentators and I believe that a much better solution than both of these proposals would be to simply enforce the existing rules that ban smoking within a certain number of feet from a building entrance. The majority of complaints about smoking on campus are due to people smoking in front of doors. If the rules were actually enforced, I don’t think the smoking ban would have half the support it does.

Everyone’s favorite ex-professor Deb Frisch is currently spamming up the Daily Emerald’s comment section. She’s using the following sock puppets: “heckler,” “amos,” “borscht belt,” “sara hodges,” “bill not so hardbaugh,” “myron rothbart,” “ben Bernanke,” and  ”david crowell.” Frisch’s beautiful prose can also be found clogging up the comments at Predictably Irrational.

I don’t have the energy to tell the full, convoluted tale of Deb Frisch’s Internet Jihad, but let’s just say if you could convert crazy to electricity, Frisch could power Las Vegas for a week. You can read the whole backstory in the archives or over at the Deborah Frisch Timeline. Thanks to Will for the tip.

UPDATE: I just remembered it was my turn to do Metal Monday. There’s a video dedicated to Auntie Moonbat after the jump (more…)

So says Forrest Nabors, a doctoral candidate in political science, in a fantastic editorial response to the self-congratulatory braying of UO Professor David Frank’s recent commentary “Dangerous Silence.” Nabors points out that Frank’s assertion that “The greatest danger lurking on the University of Oregon campus is conformity” is true, but not in the way Frank thinks. Frank cites the Universities great victories for patriotic dissent: Frohnmayer’s defense of the Insurgent, the 1962 invitation to the General Secretary of the American Communist Party, Robert Clark’s defense of Marxist teachings under scrutiny from Salem, etc. But, Nabors correctly points out

“The problem for Frank’s case is that all of his examples do not demonstrate bucking conformity, but are typical of what we who live and work here already know — that the UO campus community is left-progressive to the core…

…In taking the positions they did, our university leaders did not buck the norms of this community, they conformed to our community norms. And since Frank believes that conformity is public enemy No. 1, will he next propose shipping conservative professors in by the truckload? How would university departments meet such a nonconformist proposal? Let us sing out the answer together: Dead On Arrival. The day this university’s search committees deem conservative professors a necessary component in the diversity quotient is the day I recommend you look up from your window at a sky darkened by winged pigs.”

Nabors brings his argument home with the most damning example of intellectual conformity on campus: the fact that his summer PS399: American Conservativism class will be the first course on conservative thought to be offered at the UO in 30 years. With the Republican party in disarray and the split between social conservatives and libertarians widening, Nabors has picked a fascinating time to examine American conservativism. And take on the empty posturing of the defenders of the campus status quo.

The content for the OC’s newest issue is obviously a step toward our Hate Hack Attack Double Feature, due out in two weeks.  Don’t miss Drew Thunderlove Cattermole’s response to someone who accused him of perpetuating a climate of rape. I checked the “Yes” box.

 And yes, I know the page numbers are wrong on the cover, but the EMU is closed for the weekend so deal with it until Tuesday.

The Athletics Department Finance Committee will be presenting its Electronic Ticketing proposal to ASUO Senate this Wednesday.

All year, (former) ADFC Chair Kyle McKenzie and the rest of the committee has been developing this plan to make the football and basketball Duck games more accessible, and fairer for students with greater time constraints such as graduate students. The plan also seeks to cut down on no-shows by tracking whether students actually attended the games they received tickets for, as well. (more…)