Displacing grad students could cause much grief
Graduate students are an integral part of the University of Oregon community. Despite the low pay and difficult teaching loads, on top of the day-to-day stress of being a graduate student in a competitive school, most of us enjoy being a part of this University community. Unfortunately, University Housing has found a way to make this enjoyment more of a burden than an educational experience. The proposed sale of Westmoreland Apartments means that the 360 leaseholders currently living there will have to stretch budgets that are already taut. It is generous of University Housing to offer those with children an opportunity to live in other University Housing, except that this housing is so much more per month than we are already paying. If we need more than one bedroom, the increase may be from $135 to $309 more per month.
Those of us without children? We will have to figure out a way to find apartments within our budgets, as accessible to campus as Westmoreland, in a time when there will be more than 500 people displaced all at once. Some of us will be taking out (yet more) loans to pay for the inevitable increase in our rent. What will international students, who are ineligible for government assistance, do? Further complicating this debacle is that as of July 1, 2005, Westmoreland rents increased 6 percent in order to “provide safe, quality housing for its students and student families.”
If University Housing is selling Westmoreland, what capital improvements and maintenance are we paying for? Why are we paying into a housing pool from which we will not benefit? Further, Allen Gidley (Associate Director of Housing) pointed out to me in a personal e-mail on Oct. 25 that the rental rates for Westmoreland are still below the average market rent for comparable units. This would be a valid argument in University Housing’s favor, except that many GTFs earn an income less than what the “average market” pays. With Westmoreland Housing, most of us could live within our incomes, even though our rent is one-third of our earnings. I am glad that the University is looking toward the future, but it is an unrealized future that is profiting from the already heavily burdened shoulders of the students it has working for it today.
Teresa Coronado
Graduate Student
 
Animal testing is not worth appreciating
This letter is written with regards to ODE’s Oct. 18 commentary article “A step forward for stem cells.”
Although a discovery regarding stem cell research with the use of mice might have incredible potential, Gabe Bradley is quite mistaken when he says, “The human spirit has done a nice little run around an ethical dilemma, reaching a solution that we can all appreciate.”
Animal testing, aside from being generally misleading, costly and inconclusive, is barbaric, to say the least. These animals are capable of feeling pain and suffering just as humans are. Which life are we talking about, indeed! Where do we draw the line for ethics? Mice? Puppies? Monkeys? This “solution” involving mice is not a solution anyone should appreciate. It is an outdated method that certain overpaid scientists have deemed tolerable. A real step forward would be to use computer simulation and scanning technology, both of which are efficient, effective and reliable. See www.stopanimaltests.com for more information.
Jenna Facciuto
Pre-business student
 
Fur is not always truthfully labeled
Army Feth shouldn’t be so sure that her fur coat came from a bunny’s back (“Free to wear fur,” ODE Oct. 26).
There is a thriving, hideously cruel dog and cat fur industry in Asia, much of which is often falsely labeled before export. Without expensive DNA tests, it is virtually impossible to know exactly what kind of animal you are actually wearing if you choose to buy fur.
But whether the fur is from Rover or rabbits, there is nothing “gorgeous” or “beautiful” about how its original owners met their deaths. Much of the fur purchased in Western markets is imported from China, where animals are bludgeoned, hanged, bled to death, strangled with wire and often skinned alive.
If you have the heart to consider how your choices can mean the difference between life and an agonizing death for others, check out hip designers like Fabulous Furs, Charly Calder, Faux, Purrfect Fur, Sweet Herb and Coquette Faux Furriers, which sell stunning furs – that no one had to die for. To learn more, visit furisdead.com.
Brandi Valladolid
PETA Clothing Campaigns Manager