OCR Text |
Show Friday, February 13, 1987 Ptge Seven Hard roll Those who take seriously the process of democratic student government which obviously includes student elections will want to take a close look at the front page of Thursday's Chronicle. There, for all to see, is a chart listing the attendance records of ASUU Assembly members. What gives this chart relevance now arc next week's ASUU primary election. The reason: eight current members of the Assembly are running for office for next year. Three arc standing for and five are trying for cither ASUU president or vice president. We urge all who plan on voting in next week's election to carefully consider these attendance records. Decide for yourself what constitutes an acceptable level of attendance. Then decide what that record is worth, and take it into account when re-electi- on, you vote. Erik Christiansen Whatever you do, though, don't make an attendance record no matter what you think is acceptable the only criterion by which you base your voting decision. That would be a mistake. e For one thing, the candidates, those who haven't served in the Assembly, don't have attendance records. So a judgment based exclusively on attendance would simply be unfair. But more importantly, as Chronicle articles have noted this week and last, there is a genuine multiplicity of views represented by the parties and their candidates. Regarding attendance, though, most would No guts in Shantyville first-tim- agree that a 100-perce- record is indeed nt acceptable if not commendable. Three of next week's candidates earned such records: Rosalie from the Bergeson, running for Graduate School of Education; Kristen Allred, the Students Inc. Party's vice presidential re-elect- ion candidate; and Dave Dellenbach, the presidential candidate on the AAA Party ticket. Four of the other Assembly members running in the primary election share an assorted lot of attendance records (data was not available on the fifth). The best earned perfect attendance two attendance during the quarters and third. The candidate with the worst record attended no Assembly meetings one quarter, 40 percent the next, and this quarter made it 50 percent of the time. Some are going to argue it's unfair to these candidates to publish their Assembly attendance e records. After all, as we've said, the candidates don't have attendance records with which to compare. That's flawed thinking. While it's wrong to base a decision in the primary election solely on these candidates' attendance records, it's equally wrong to group them with those who haven't served in These the Assembly. They are not 75-perc- ent first-tim- first-time- rs. eight are running for student government office'again. That, therefore, is every reason to consider attendance at the job to which they were elected. Any other elected official must stand on their record of performance a price they pay for the privelege of serving the public. There's nothing that makes a student candidate any different. THE DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE The Daily Utah Chronicle is an independent student newspaper published during fall, winter and spring quarters, excluding test weeks and quarter breaks, by the University Publications Council. Editorials reflect the opinion of the editorial board, and not necessarily the opinions of the student body or the administration. Subscriptions are $25 a year, $10 an academic quarter. All subscriptions must be prepaid. Forward all subscription corresBuspondence, including change of address, to the iness Manager, Daily Utah Chronicle, 240 Union, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112. . Sometimes, there are subtle connections linking seemingly unrelated events. As the Nevada protests have been few these weeks, two interesting heating up past things happened in Utah. First, Rep. Blaze Wharton, Lake Gty, introduced a bill that would require notification of state, federal and local officials whenever radiation is leaked from the Nevada Test Site. Secondly, the University of Utah Students Against Apartheid (SAA) and the Coalition to Stop Apartheid (CSA) constructed a new shanty on campus Tuesday afternoon. In the first case, as pointed out by Andrew Hunt in one of his recent columns, the Department of Energy? (DOE) has often covered up situations in which radiation has leaked from the Nevada Test Site. Similarly, time and time again, the DOE has refused to conduct a test when the winds have been blowing towards Las Vegas, but when they blow towards Utah, they usually give it a go. Is history repeating itself? Are we going to find out in another 20 or 30 years that we are experiencing the same sort of deadly nuclear fate as the "downwinders" of above-grouI a 1950s? in realistic It the is, believe, testing possibility. Shouldn't we at least know if we are being exposed to potentially hazardous radiation? Rep. Wharton's House Bill 187 would require the governor to notify 20 different agencies and, more importantly, the news media when the governor's office is informed of any accidents that result in radiation leaking beyond the boundaries of the test site. The bill sounds like a good idea, yet it has one major flaw. It depends on the DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to voluntarily notify Larry Anderson, the director of the Utah Bureau of Radiation Control, whenever they have detected a leak. As pointed out in Andrew's column, however, the DOE has often attempted to cover up accidental test leaks. In fact, it's this kind of underhanded secrecy surrounding nuclear tests that bothers me so much. Originally, the first atomic test of 1987 was scheduled for Feb. 5. In an contrived attempt to avoid negative publicity, however, the DOE secretly went ahead with the test two days early. Now, again, the DOE has secretly gone ahead with another test. Wednesday, the DOE triggered a bomb code named "Tornero" and reported that "no radiation leaked into the atmosphere and the test was a success." How reliable, I ask, is their statement? There have been 456 reported nuclear tests in Nevada since a 1963 treaty with Russia banned anti-nucle- ar D-S- alt nd 20-kilot- on Editorial Board: Shauna Bona, Lisa Carricaburu, Erik A. Christiansen, Donn Walker, John Youngren Editor in Chief Managing Editor Associate Editor News Editor Editorial Editor Sports Editor Gty Editor Entertainment Editor Photography Editor Assistant News Editor Assistant Editorial Editor Assistant Sports Editor John Youngren Lisa Carricaburu : . . Shauna Bona Drew Staffanson Donn Walker Mike Prater . Dee L. Naquin Fara Warner Boone Xayyo Amy Page Erik Christiansen Laury Livsey Assistant Photo Editor atmospheric testing, and 22 of those have been detonated since Russia declared its unilateral ban on underground nuclear tests on Aug. 6, 1985. How many of those 456 have released radiation directly into the desert wind blowing into Utah? We need to know. The difficult question, then, is how do we find out? Unfortunately for Rep. Wharton's bill, there are no easy answers. This brings me now to the new shanty constructed on campus Tuesday afternoon. I have to say that I am disappointed. With all of the creative potential at the University of Utah, this is the only protest that the Students Against Apartheid could come up with. In thinking about the protestors in Nevada, it occurred to me that the tactics they used were much more effective than those of SAACSA. Imagine, if you will, how much media coverage the nuclear test protestors would receive if they merely erected a symbolic structure, say a nuclear bomb with a flower in it, and let it just sit in one place for people to stare at. Instead, they are arrested for trespassing, they attempt to block tests by flying close to ground zero in balloons and they are constantly trying to get in the way of the effective operations of the Nevada test site. I think this difference between the Nevada protestors and the shanty protestors is the key to understanding the intense student dislike and student indifference toward the university's stance. You call a shanty a protest? Hah, a shanty just sits there. If the students involved with SAA and CSA were really serious about making the univeristy divest, then they'd resort to civil disobedience. They would try and disrupt the normal operations of this campus, they would risk personal punishment and they would make divestment, and not the shanty, the issue. In my opinion, SAA and CSA are jokes. They are impotent, and yet they lack the intelligence to try new tactics. You have been beaten SAA and CSA and that is the reason no one is with you on university divestment. Popular opinion likes to back winners and you are losers. The sad part is that you don't even realize that you've been beaten. You have made the divestment issue not into a act of moral battle, but into a masturbation. Your shanty is a monument to your own moral gratification and not a testament to seeing the issue resolved. Protestors? Hah, you're not protestors. You're only ineffectual shanty builders. Erik Christiansen, a graduate student in English, is the assistant editorial editor for the Chronicle. self-gratifyi- Steve Wilson Assistant Entertainment Editor Rosemary Reeve Kent Anderson Copy Editors Susan Burke ng Classifieds Accounting Clerk Collections Account Executives John Pecorelli Reporters Photographer Business Manager Accountant Lori Bona Christine E. Dangerfield Loreen Erickson Jess Gomez Mark Hollstein Tina Moulton Dennis Romboy Jack Wilbur Erin Calmes Robert McOmber Kay Andersen Production Manager Typesetters Production Stall Distribution Dawn Bacher Kim Bartel Renee Jimenez Jill Aggeler Rick Chase John Hausknecht Randy Sheya Rodney Dallin Greta Doutre Janet Taylor Mike Cleary Tammie Bostick Kenny Watanabe Holly Rondas David Orchard Christopher Stratford |