Former Eugene Weekly intern and Catalyst Journalism Project reporter Kenny Jacoby, who works at USA Today, was one of the reporters on a story that exposed a systemic failure of mishandling sexual misconduct complaints against elite athletes and students at Louisiana State University. Because of F. King Alexander’s role in sexual assault cover ups at Louisiana State University while president, Alexander resigned as Oregon State University president at a March 23 Board of Trustees meeting. Alexander  will be on administrative leave until April 1, when he’s out of a job. Alexander will take home $630,000 as severance and $40,000 for relocation and health care coverage through 2022. Before voting to accept Alexander’s resignation board members addressed the college community’s sentiment that they weren’t listening to sexual violence survivors. The conversation brought OSU basketball alum and at-large trustee Lamar Hurd to tears before he spoke. “Somebody can dunk a basketball, score a touchdown or hit a homerun, or they have power in a certain situation or paid the most money, a lot of times things are swept under the rug. I just want you to know that we don’t do that here,” Hurd said. “I want the campus community to heal and start the healing process.” 

• Are you exhausted after a year of pandemic stress? We at EW are. But we are not as exhausted as Asian Americans are after experiencing a year of misplaced hate — and after past years of racism. And we are not as exhausted as the Black people in Lane County and across the country who still struggle with day-to-day racism. And we are not as exhausted as the loved ones of those who died in the recent mass shootings in Atlanta and Boulder. It really shouldn’t be that hard to stop being racist assholes, stop shooting innocent people and implement gun control. So, exhausted or not, we are not done yet. 

• What’s this regression in equal rights all about? Sedona Prince, tough Duck basketball player, makes national news when she blasts the NCAA on TikTok for putting the women in inferior training facilities for the Big Dance. Kelly Graves, her coach, praises her for taking a stand, but we wonder why the male coaches didn’t take that stand first. It is truly a long, slow, unfinished process.

• Former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber will be one of the speakers March 26 on the City Club of Eugene program on “How Can We Achieve Universal Access to Health Care?” Other speakers are Susan Bailey, M.D., president of the American Medical Association, and Tom Cooney, M.D., chair-elect of the board of regents of the American College of Physicians. This program will air on the City Club Facebook and YouTube pages starting at noon Friday, and it airs the following Monday night on KLCC.

• What we’re reading: Jane Mayer’s terrific article in the March 22 New Yorker about “Can Cyrus Vance, Jr., Nail Trump?” When we finished this piece we were not so sure that Vance, the Manhattan district attorney, had the toughness to take on Donald Trump. Maybe that’s why he is retiring and turning it all over to someone else.

• It was with sadness recently that Eugene Weekly received the news that Bijou Art Cinemas, an independent movie house since 1980 near the UO, has permanently closed its doors, a victim of COVID-related financial stress in the past year. The building on E. 13th Avenue was built in 1925 and was home to the First Congregational Church, then a memorial chapel. It was listed in 1980 on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and renamed the Wilcox Building, after the structure’s architect, Walter R.B. Wilcox. Several offices take up a wing of the building, and we hope the owners of the building are able to find an artistic-oriented replacement for Bijou. Media reports say they are hoping to find someone to open that awesome little movie theater back up. Until then, RIP, Bijou. You were good to the community.

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