Argonaut

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Argonaut

the Wednesday, January 19, 2011

U N I V E R S I T Y O F I DA H O

Sports

Opinion

Two more wins in California have the Idaho men’s basketball team at No. 2 in the WAC, page 5

Read ‘Our View’ on Gov. Otter’s budget changes for public education, page 9

Decision of a lifetime When faced with unplanned pregnancy, three women made a choice that impacted the rest of their lives Editor’s note: This is part one of a three-part series about pregnancy.

Sarah Yama Argonaut

Regardless of politics or opinion, women always have a choice to make when they become pregnant. Three Idaho women shared the stories of their decisions. One chose to abort, one chose adoption and one chose parenthood. “It’s a choice, your choice, and there shouldn’t be any judgment,” said Jane Lear, Voices for Choice coordinator and University of Idaho library assistant for the College of Law. “I have never had any regrets. I don’t have cancer, no depression and I’ve never been sorry.” It was 40 years ago. Lear was a 21-year-old student at the University of Iowa and visited the student health clinic after she missed her period. Lear was pregnant. “They asked me if I was keeping the baby, I said I didn’t know,” Lear said. “The young man and I were not interested in getting married and weren’t sure what to do.” Lear and the man decided to seek counseling from a minister group. Lear said the group had helped numerous young women in her situation, and they stressed the option of abortion. “I knew if I had the baby, I would end up keeping it,” Lear said. “I was graduating from college that semester and it would be awkward to

be a single, pregnant woman looking for a job.” Lear said at the time in her economic state, having a baby was not an option. Being a parent is expensive, and something the man told her she would have had to do on her own. “My parents weren’t wealthy and I had student loans and I would have been on my own. And he was in the same situation,” Lear said. It took two days for the two young adults to decide abortion was their best choice. But it wasn’t that simple. Forty years ago abor-

tion was illegal in Iowa. The minister group Lear visited referred them to a clinic in New York City. Lear then drove three hours with her sister to their parents’ house. “I felt like I had to tell my parents,” Lear said. “I was flying to New York and I had never done anything like that before. I felt like I should tell them in case something happened to me.” She said when she told her parents, they treated her as an adult. “They never judged me, they knew I was an adult and it really was my decision,”

Benefits are given to donators Kayla Herrmann Argonaut

Benefits such as tickets to athletic events and parking are some of the rewards University of Idaho donators will receive, based on a donor priority points system called Vandal Points. UI’s Athletic Department has worked on a points system for the last 18 months and launched Vandal Points December 2010, said Jeremy Wang, director of development for athletics and executive director of the Vandal Scholarship Fund.

The system was put into place to reward donators who have given money to UI throughout the years. “We are mainly trying to reward our donators, but if the system encourages more donations and drives more revenue to the university, then that is good as well,” Wang said. Vandal Points is based on three main categories, including athletic giving, ticket purchasing and affiliation to UI. The athletic giving category benefits donators who gave dur-

ing the current fiscal year, gave to a specific sport or have given cumulative donations in the past several years. “The benefits that people will see are tickets and parking, however the point system can be rewarding in certain situations that call for supply and demand,” Wang said. “If we have 500 tickets for an event and 2,000 people want them, the points system is a fair, unbiased mechanism to award tickets to people who have the most points.”

see DONATORS, page 4

Nellis outlines strategic plan Staff report

ing,” Nellis said. Co-chairs Dan Eveleth and Holly Wichman led a committee made of faculty, staff University of Idaho President M. Duane and students for seven months to develop Nellis announced his new strategic plan for the plan, which will play a major role in redevelopment of the university during the accreditation through the Northwest Comnext five years Tuesday. mission on Colleges and Universities. The His plan, “Leading Idaho 2011-2015,” process for re-accreditation began Tuesday has four areas of emphasis, including teachafternoon. The deadline for the first formal ing and learning, scholarly and creative acreport is September. tivity, outreach and engagement, and com- M. Duane Nellis “This plan helps ensure we have a community and culture. mon path for continued improvement and “This document reflects thousands of targets that we can work toward as a comhours of work in fact finding, consultation and writ- munity,” Nellis said. Argonaut

News, 1

The Vandal Voice for 112 Years

Sports, 5

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Opinion, 9

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Lear said. Lear caught a flight to New York, with intentions of making it back the same day because of her class schedule. The man had helped pay for the plane ticket and procedure. Lear arrived at the clinic on time. “I met three women while I was there,” Lear said, “One young woman was from the New York area, she was on her third abortion. She was basically using it as birth control.” Lear said the second woman she met already had four children.

“This would have been her fifth pregnancy and not only did she have monetary problems, but she also had health problems,” she said. Lear was counseled again at the clinic to make sure it was truly the choice she wanted to make. They then took a blood test to verify she was pregnant. “I remember the young woman who had the four kids got her blood drawn, walked out and said ‘Oh, that wasn’t so bad,’” Lear said. “We all laughed and

see PREGNANCY, page 4

Jesse Jackson to visit UI Professors hope to relate speech back to classes Kayla Herrmann

is a multi-issue, multiracial and international membership organizaFebruary is full of tion working for social several important days, change. however the month overDebbie Storrs, associall is a celebration of the ate dean of the college of achievements of African letters, arts and social sciAmericans, and ences, is coorthis year Rev. dinating a onecredit workshop Jesse Jackson for students who will visit the want to learn University of more about civil Idaho to deliver rights activism. a keynote lecClasses will ture. be held before He will give Jackson’s lechis “Keep Hope ture and adAlive” speech at ditional classes 7:15 p.m. Feb. Jesse Jackson will occur af7 in the Kibbie ter, and will Dome. Jackson has worked be taught by a teaching for social change during team of several faculty, the past 40 years and is Storrs said. Other professors have the founder and president of the Rainbow required their students to PUSH Coalition, which attend Jackson’s lecture, Argonaut

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in hope that students can relate the discussion back to the classroom. Jason Gould, a senior studying justice studies, is going to Jackson’s lecture for his Race and Ethnic Relations class. “I think that it is pretty awesome that UI was able to go out and get such a large name to come and talk to us, giving us the opportunity to see a leading activist in person,” Gould said. “I hope that I can get a better grasp on where Jesse Jackson’s messages are coming from and to hear it in person, rather than reading it from a book or magazine article.” Following the lecture, Jackson plans to meet in a private discussion with 25 UI student leaders from various groups.

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