The Daily Barometer, Oct. 5, 2012

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Barometer The Daily

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2012 • OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY CORVALLIS, OREGON 97331

DAILYBAROMETER.COM

VOLUME CXVI, NUMBER 19

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SPORTS, PAGE 4:

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OSU football back at reser to take on Washington State Saturday

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Back in black n

Ed Ray issues statement reinstating “wear black” campaign for football games By Don Iler

The Daily Barometer

Mitchell lea

| THE DAILY BAROMETER

The OSU Horse Center, located on Walnut Boulevard, is one of the Living Laboratory facilities facing financial difficulties. Changes due to the current situation will likely include finding new managers for these facilities.

College of Agricultural Science confronts budgeting snafus Programs restructure in light of a budget challenge faced by the College of Agricultural Science for over four years

times. Many departments within the college are funds provided by these individuals do not seeing significant cuts to finances or available make their way into the general fund for the resources – occasionally both. The department College of Agriculture. “These were very tarof animal and rangeland sciences in particular geted funds,” Killefer said. has taken a hit, with significant reductions to Once two separate departments, the departthe numbers of various livestock that programs ment of animal science and the department of By Drew Wilson-McGrath will have available to them, as well as fund- rangeland ecology and management merged The Daily Barometer The most recent bout of budget cuts to ing for several projects associated with those together to form the aforementioned section Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural animals. over the summer. The newly “We were having reductions Sciences has left a few department heads and formed department members employees stuck between a rock and a hard in funding predominantly from are in the process of working Some of our units the Agricultural Experiment place. out the kinks of new programs, “The cuts are being made basically because Station part of the budget,” have gotten a bit too new investments and renothey have made reductions in a major part said John Killefer, who heads large. We had more vations to currently existing of the budget for the College [of Agricultural the department of animal and facilities. Sciences],” said Dan Arp, dean of the College of rangeland sciences. “We also animals there than “We are looking at reorgaAgricultural Science. “It is a very serious budget have had alterations to the weren’t really needed nizing our Living Laboratory challenge that the college has been facing for portion that comes from the facilities,” Killefer said. “Our for teaching and over four years.” Education General Fund.” farm units are a part of our By ‘major part of the budget’, Arp is referYet amidst all the talk of budreserach purposes in Living Laboratories. Because ring to resources (both financial get cuts, the of these budget cuts we have some of those and otherwise) provided to the department had to take a very close look College of Agricultural Sciences instances we have One of the questions of animal and at how we operate [the barns] by the Oregon Agricultural rangeland scihad a redution of the that arises when we to make sure they are matchExperiment Station (OAES), a ences is still vital agricultural research agennumbers of animals ing our core missions as a land growing and are having these cy supported by state funding. grant institution.” building bigger, to better match discussions about Once an integral part of the more technoThe farm and barn elebudget for the college, funding our resources. budget reductions is, logically curments support a selection from OAES has undergone a rent facilities. of riding horses, sheep and ‘How can we be reduction of close to 30 percent The James E. dairy cows, among other aniJohn Killefer, over the last four years. building new facilities?’ Oldfield teachmals. The housing units are Head of animal and rangeland sciences These budget cuts are not ing facilities­ spaced throughout the greater The funds for these new recent news. Arp noted that — a newly furnished structure Corvallis area. since OAES is funded by the constructions are the on 35th and Campus Way — Part of the reorganization for the Living State of Oregon, it was anticiwill be dedicated to laboratory result of generous Laboratories will be happening at the staff pated that budget pitfalls would research and lecture courses occur during the recession. donations from some designed around specific types level – Killefer explains that one of the major changes occurring within the department of With 30 percent seeming hefty of animals. philanthropic ­­­­­­­— and enough to significantly animal and rangeland sciences will come in the “One of the questions that way of seeking a new corps of managers for that affect a department’s capabili- individuals and groups. arises when we are having ties — Arp indicates that the We also basically have these discussions about bud- particular section of the College of Agriculture, College of Agricultural Sciences likely to take place at the end of the calendar get reductions is, ‘How can we a match from has managed to find other year. be building new facilities?’” means of financial support. state bonds “We have looked at each of the individual Killefer said. “The funds for “We have worked very hard units and are trying to make sure their activithese new constructions are to essentially broaden the base the result of generous dona- ties are matching with those core missions,” of our resources — to bring in John Killefer, tions from some philanthropic Killefer said. “Some of our units have gotten a additional funds.” Arp said. Head of animal and rangeland sciences individuals and groups. We also bit too large. We had more animals there than “And that has actually created basically have a match from weren’t really needed for teaching and research some points of pride for us. We have seen purposes – in some of those instances we have increasing grant dollars (mostly federal grants) state bonds.” But these newly discovered funds are spe- had a reduction in the numbers [of animals] to and increasing gifts from donors. Those are two mechanisms that are helping us to cope with cifically geared toward the construction of new better match our resources.” Drew Wilson-McGrath, news reporter the [decrease] in the state budget.” facilities for the department of animal and news@dailybarometer.com Nonetheless, the college has fallen on hard rangeland sciences. According to Killefer, the

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Ed Ray, president of Oregon State University, announced in an email yesterday that the university will resume promoting the wearing of black attire to the Oct. 20 and Nov. 17 football games. This announcement came after university officials had announced Monday their intention to abandon a campaign to wear black to two football games. Since then, several news outlets have covered the story originally by The Daily Barometer and the issue has garnered both regional and national attention. “This simple act [of wearing black attire] sends a profound message: that we are united as a community and that those who engage in behavior that is hurtful to others will not deter us from taking this next step in appropriately living our values,” Ray said in his email. Ray apologized for not engaging in the discussion about abandoning the campaign sooner. He also highlighted the history of the 2007 blackout incident and said the university knows that real progress had been made toward creating a more inclusive university. However, it is not entirely clear why the university is suddenly reversing its decision. “Ed Ray felt it was time to change the conversation and focus on what OSU is all about,” said Steve Clark, vice president for university marketing and relations. “We changed the focus on what it means to be a safe university that respects diversity and inclusion.” Student reaction Student leaders for the most part appear to be pleased with the university’s current stance. “We think the university is moving in the right direction to address the issue,” said Amelia Harris, president of the Associated Students of OSU. “It is important that we come together as a community. We are happy the university is now engaged and they want to talk about it.” Anderson DuBoise, external coordinator of the Black Cultural Center, said students from the Black Cultural Center and the other cultural centers were currently working on an event for the Friday before the first blackout game. He said the event would include a presentation and discussion on the history of blackface and minstrel shows in the United States, and would also include presentations on what to wear to the game and what proper attire is. “The issue before was there was no real talk about keeping what happened [in 2007] from happening again,” DuBoise said. “People in the community are excited about the blackout but they are also afraid that what happened in the past could happen again.” Ray McGuinness, who started a Facebook group to continue to encourage students to wear black to the Oct. 20 game, was also happy about President Ray’s statement. “We believe we’re mature enough; we can come together to make this a positive event for everyone,” McGuinness said. “It’s up to us as students and fans to make sure we don’t ruin it again for another five years.” About 1,000 users already say they’re attending the Facebook event, “Stand United – Wear black to Reser vs. Utah.” Clark said the university will have a meeting tomorrow afternoon with student leaders and others throughout the university to discuss further plans to educate the campus and plan on further steps to take before the blackout on Oct. 20. The university initially abandoned its campaign on Monday after several See BLACKOUT | page 2


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