The Electoral College: an unfair

antiquity
Despite the uncertainty and confusion surrounding the outcome of the presidential election, our democracy is strong and stable.
The League of Women Voters believes wholeheartedly that the current legal steps being taken to decide the outcome of the 2000 presidential election should be pursued to their final conclusion.
The League has advocated abolition of the Electoral College since 1970. What more evidence do we need that it is time to bring our elections into the 21st century?
The course of American history has been an inexorable trend toward greater fairness, uniformity and inclusiveness in our democracy. Yet, some systems for electing the most important representative of the American people are stuck in a time warp. We need a technology upgrade.
The Electoral College, a curious vestige of the 18th century, violates the principle of “one person, one vote.” The time has come to evaluate it. It’s time to ensure that the president of the United States is directly elected by the people he or she will represent. It’s time to guarantee that, across the country, every person’s vote counts — and counts the same.

Karen Rikhoff

president of the League of Women Voters

of Lane County

Leadership positions open to anyone
The issue at hand in Emily Gust’s article (“Student workers demand pay-offs,” ODE, Nov. 8) is that these students are victims of an attempt to make student leadership positions open to only those who can afford to be in them. The current system allows leadership positions to be accessible to anyone, regardless of financial need.
Traditionally, most leaders in ASUO-recognized programs are paid small stipends for the many hours of hard work that they do. Because these leaders put so much time into their organizations, they may not have time to work other jobs. Those that qualify for work study, a federal financial aid program, can use these jobs to earn their work study — at almost no extra cost to the organizations.
These federal matching dollars create a win/win situation for students and groups. All of this work-study money is earmarked for tuition and educational expenses. We are committed to ensuring that student organizations and leadership positions are accessible to everyone, regardless of financial status. We urge you to send a strong message to the Student Senate that you are too.

C.J. Gabbe

ASUO student senator

Katie Howard

ASUO student senator

Preserving the wild
As one of millions of Americans who are concerned about protecting what’s left of our country’s wild heritage, I would like to direct attention to the Forest Service’s final plan for roadless area management in our national forests.
Monday, Nov. 13, it was released. It is the most expansive preservation act since 1907, when the Forest Service was created. The Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) would end commodity logging in roadless areas, but would delay protections for the Tongass Rainforest in Alaska — the largest national forest — for four years. In addition, the FEIS would include “stewardship” activities, or in other words, getting rid of fire threats by cutting certain areas. In recent years, however, about two-thirds of the timber volume cut from national forest lands has been derived from stewardship, and the Forest Service has been very lenient with this definition.
Many are pleased to see progress in the Forest Service plan, though it still falls short of the full protection the American people have asked for. The Clinton administration now has 30 days, as of Monday, and a unique opportunity to permanently protect all 60 million acres of unprotected wilderness in our national forests.

Brad Schallert

freshman

journalism