Alpha Kappa Alpha hosts black heritage fashion show
The Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority is hosting a free black heritage fashion show in the EMU Ballroom on Sunday showcasing black culture’s contribution to fashion in states across the nation.
The 11th Annual Alpha Kappa Alpha Black Heritage Fashion Show’s theme will be “City, Sounds & Style” and will explore the impacts of black culture in cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Detroit, St. Louis and Washington D.C., said Alpha Kappa Alpha member Natasha Holstine.
“It’s a way to bring more knowledge to the school and city,” Holstine said. “It’s about sharing knowledge and doing it in a fun way.”
Holstine said sports, wedding, hip-hop, traditional African, business, pajama and club scene attire will be showcased. There will also be dancing and musical presentations as part of the entertainment.
The event is co-sponsored by the Black Student Union.
“This is an event that we do every year and they assist with it financially,” Holstine said.
The event starts at 6:08 p.m. because the sorority’s national organization was founded in 1908. Every year, the show starts eight minutes after the hour, Holstine said.

— Jared Paben
 

ASUO Student Senate

realigns academic seats
The ASUO Constitution Court approved a plan last week — which had long been in the works — to realign the academic seats of the ASUO Student Senate. Senators said the plan was an improvement over the current alignment.
“I think it gives a better representation,” Sen. Kevin Day said.
The nine academic seats, which comprise half of the senate, are required to represent academic constituencies of roughly equal size. Each academic senator represents students in a specific major.
The ASUO Constitution requires that the court review the alignment every two years and “rearrange (the constituencies) if necessary to ensure reasonably equal representation.”
Senate Seat 10 will shift from representing undeclared students to representing journalism and education majors, and Seat 12 will add music and theater arts students to the architecture and allied arts majors it already represents. Seat 13 will represent business students instead of journalism students, Seat 17 will represent graduate and law students instead of business students, and Seat 18 will also represent law students in addition to other graduate students. The remaining seats will not change.
“It was a constitutionally mandated duty that we fulfilled,” Chief Justice Michael Harris said.
Senate President Ben Strawn said the senate did most of the work.
“Con Court hasn’t really had a history of being proactive on things like this, so we decided that we were going to take it on,” he said. “It was something that really needed to be done.”
The Constitution states that senate seats should represent a roughly equal number of students, with a disparity of 15 percent or less to be deemed “reasonably equal.”
Several of the seats will continue to have a disparity of more than 15 percent, but senators said that this is the best they can do.
“We can’t get it perfectly, so the Rules Committee tried to do it as best as possible,” Day said.
The court affirmed that the alignment “does ensure reasonably equal representation.”

— Chuck Slothower
 

Fraternity, sorority to host dance at senior community
Toes will be tapping and skirts will be swishing at the Alpine Springs Assisted Living Community tonight.
University students from the Delta Gamma sorority and the Beta Theta Pi fraternity will be hosting a Valentine’s Dance for the seniors at the assisted living home, located at 3760 N. Clarey St.
Members of the fraternity and sorority will set up and decorate the assisted living home from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., and the dance will go from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The dance will feature music from the 1920s, ’30s, ’40s and ’50s. Members of Beta Theta Pi and Delta Gamma will socialize and dance with the residents while exchanging Valentine’s Day memories. In addition, members of the fraternity and sorority have prepared Valentine’s Day cards to give to residents of the assisted living home.
“Beta Theta Pi and Delta Gamma are extremely excited to host this event,” said Dan Scheinman, social chairman for Beta Theta Pi. “This is a great way to bring joy to the residents of Alpine Springs Assisted Living Home. We hope to build a lasting relationship with the residents and make this an annual event.”

— Jennifer Marie Bear
 

Kip Kinkel enters final step of appeal process
Kip Kinkel — who was convicted in 1998 of killing his parents as well as two classmates at Thurston High School — has exhausted the first level of appeals and has entered his final step in the process.
Kinkel’s attorney, Lawrence Matasar, filed a petition in December for post-conviction relief at the Marion County Circuit Court. The petition claims that Kinkel’s trial and appellate lawyers did not provide effective counsel and that Kinkel is being unconstitutionally imprisoned by Gary Lawhead, superintendent of the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn.
Kinkel is slated to stay at the youth correction facility until he is 25 years old, after which he will be transferred to an Oregon prison.
Kinkel, 21, was convicted of the murders in May 1998 at the age of 15. He also pleaded guilty to 25 counts of aggravated attempted murder and was convicted on 26 counts — 25 for wounding students and one for assaulting a police detective.
By pleading guilty, Kinkel abandoned the opportunity for an insanity defense.
In November 1999, Kinkel received a sentence of 111 years and eight months in prison without the possibility of parole.
The petition claims that at the time he entered the guilty plea, Kinkel was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, auditory hallucinations, impaired neurological functioning and was mentally incompetent to stand trial and assist in his own defense.
It also claimed that the trial counsel failed to request that the trial court order a mental examination and that the appellate counsel failed to bring this issue up on appeal.
A pre-trial conference is scheduled for April 19, 2004.

— Lisa Catto
 

Ursula K. Le Guin to speak

at a writer’s forum Sunday
University students and faculty members with a flair for fiction have an opportunity to discuss the craft of writing Sunday with science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin and a panel of local authors.
The writer’s forum is sponsored by “Readin’ in the Rain” and will take place Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the McNail-Riley House, located at the intersection of 13th Avenue and Jefferson Street in Eugene. Refreshments during the forum will be provided by the Network Charter School Culinary Arts Program.
The cost is $50, and participation is limited to 35 people, with 10 positions reserved for local high school and college students. Applications will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis and are available at www.read-rain.org.
Alan Siporin, RIR’s 2003 featured author and Oregon Book Award finalist, will serve as panel moderator. Other panelists include University creative writing Professor and 2003 Oregon Book Award winner Cai Emmons, Nebula award winner Leslie What and recently published writer Leon West.
Le Guin’s novel, “The Lathe of Heaven,” is RIR’s featured book for 2004, and according to the group’s Web site, Le Guin has been in the vanguard of science fiction writers since the publication of her first novel in 1966. Since that time she has created an impressive and wide-ranging body of work. Her writings include 19 novels, nine story collections, 12 books of poetry a
nd translated works and 12 children’s books.
In addition to the writer’s forum on Sunday, Le Guin will be available to sign copies of her books on Saturday at New Zone Art Collective, located at the intersection of Broadway and Willamette Street, from noon to 4 p.m.
In conjunction with the 2004 Readin’ in the Rain events, Special Collections at the Knight Library has set up a display of Le Guin’s published books. The exhibit includes first and special editions, translations and other forms of publication of the Portland author’s works.
The display continues through Feb. 29 and is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. For more information, call University Special Collections and University Archives at 346-3068.

— Jennifer Marie Bear