In response to Jesse Hough’s letter to the editor, “Student groups soliciting on campus shouldn’t be passed by,” in the Sept. 26 Emerald:
This is an FYI to every student at the University. We need you to walk by those tables faster! We represent every student at the University of Oregon who pays incidental fees to support off-campus interest groups like OSPIRG (in other words, all of you). We agree that extra-curricular activities add to students’ well being, but we encourage students not to participate in the unethical management that is perpetrated year in and year out by groups like those listed by Hough. There is a reason why OSPIRG was defunded by popular vote a few years ago, because it sends our money, your money, to a state-wide organization (PIRG) that uses it for its own political agenda. The Multicultural Center, on the other hand, is a tyrannical program that attempts to monopolize the voice of minorities on campus by labeling everyone and their grandmother racist. And as far as joining the College Democrats, that’s as worthless as joining the College Republicans.
There are plenty of things to do in Eugene that don’t involve parasitic, dogmatic interest groups. For example, you could play a club sport, go on a hike with the Outdoor Program or make yourself a sweet cereal bowl in the Craft Center. Whatever you do, remember you are an individual with the capacity for free and independent thought. The University has a long history of herding sheeple into irrationally acting factions. Just make sure you participate in on-campus organizations because you want to be part of a solution and not part of an agenda. In the words of the knight at the end of Last Crusade, “choose wisely.”
Ossie Bladine
Jake Speicher
CJ Ciaramella
The Oregon Commentator