With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, many are wondering what changes in health care will mean for students. In answer to this and many other questions, the Associated Students of the University of Oregon has launched the Duck N’ Cover Campaign to help students navigate the healthcare system. The campaign will host its biggest event, the Duck N’ Cover Health Care Enrollment Fair, on Feb. 12 from noon to 7 p.m. in the Erb Memorial Union Concourse.

Students in attendance can expect to see informational and enrollment booths from Planned Parenthood, Cover Oregon and representatives from private insurance agencies. Candace Joyner was hired as the ASUO student health commissioner this fall and is responsible for the launch of the Duck N’ Cover campaign. In an ASUO press release, Joyner stated that she aims “to cultivate awareness about the Affordable Care Act, to educate students on how these changes will affect their lives, to display the benefits that health insurance provides and to help students with the health insurance enrollment process.”

The planning process has been long but great, according to Joyner. The process started in December with the launch of the Duck N’ Cover website. Since the launch Joyner and her colleagues have been enrolling partners and collaborating with groups on and off campus.

“I think it’s essential that students know about the Affordable Care Act because it has such a profound effect on all of us,” Joyner said. “It’s important for students to know how the individual mandate will affect them.”

ASUO External Vice President Greg Mills is also working on Duck N’ Cover. Mills and Joyner have been preparing for the event and visited Springfield’s new Planned Parenthood facility, which Mills described as a lot of fun.

Mills feels that it is the responsibility of the ASUO to keep students informed. He emphasizes that the ASUO isn’t picking sides on the healthcare debate, only making sure that students have access to information.

In addition to the upcoming enrollment fair and smaller past events, Duck N’ Cover has a web presence. Duck N’ Cover has a Facebook page with 153 likes and counting, in addition to an official website. The website serves as a student guide to health coverage featuring enrollment guides for Oregon residents, non-Oregon residents, veterans and international students.

Many know Azia Calderhead as the ASUO internal vice president. What fewer know is that behind her title, she is also a Harry Potter enthusiast with a black belt in Taekwondo. Though these may seem like varied interests, diversity is Calderhead’s M.O. — a sorority member, ASUO representative and candidate for a journalism program in Africa this summer, she strives to embrace it all.

“She always wanted to be more and more involved,” Chrissy Hardesty, a long time friend of Caldherhead’s, said. “She always pushed herself to do the most that she possibly could for the school.”

Hardesty, ASUO external affairs director, met Calderhead during sorority recruitment and became her sorority sister in the UO chapter of Alpha Chi Omega. Hardesty first recruited Calderhead to work on a campaign for the ASUO during Calderhead’s freshman year and has seen her transition into a leadership role ever since.

Calderhead has served as an ASUO intern, the first year recruitment director and the internal vice president. This year is Calderhead’s third and last year working for the ASUO.

Calderhead’s friends and colleagues emphasize the current VP’s capacity for friendliness. Whether she’s talking about her goals or the finale to American Horror Story, she is engaged and enthusiastic.

“You have to get to know Azia, because if you get to know Azia you’re going to meet someone who right from the start will care about you a lot,” Hardesty said.

Calderhead is passionate about her future in journalism and looks up to women like Oprah Winfrey and Lisa Ling. She changed her major from political science to journalism in order to better make an impact on young people.

“I’ve grown so much from it and I want other leaders to have a chance to develop within the organization,” she said.

She cites her former intern, Emma Silvers-Harnly, as the perfect example of what she wants to see more of from the ASUO.

The admiration is definitely mutual.

“She’s pretty incredible.” Silvers-Harnly said.

Calderhead helped Silvers-Harnly to navigate the ASUO and eventually take over her position as the first year recruitment director.

This is Calderhead’s last year with the ASUO. While her heart will always be in the ASUO, she is leaving to pursue other opportunities.

“The fact that I’ll be done with the ASUO still hasn’t hit me because I’m so immersed in it right now,” she said.

When Calderhead leaves the ASUO this June she will study and intern abroad in Accra, Ghana with about twenty other journalism students from UO.  Calderhead is looking forward to seeing the way that media works in a different culture and of course, the food.

Up until this year, Calderhead thought she’d settle in Santa Monica, Calif., the generational home of her parents and grandparents, after graduation. But the more people she meets – primarily through the ASUO – the more she considers branching out.

She will no doubt be missed in the ASUO office.

“If you took a poll in the office, she’d be in the top three favorite people in the office because she’s so friendly,” Hardesty said.

A fallen tree limb has blocked the western entrance to the Knight Library. Three University of Oregon Campus Operations staff members have been placing caution tape around tree areas and cautioning passers by to avoid walking under the trees, which can be difficult on the UO campus.

Library employee Kate Smith estimates that the limb fell around 1 p.m. and was reported by a library patron. The library has since locked the west entrance and marked the area with caution tape.

“As far as we know it’s safe,” Smith said.

The extent of the damage due to falling branches is currently unknown. Thus far the light outside the western library entrance is broken and a lamp post between Johnson Hall and the Jordan Schnizter Museum of Art has been damaged by falling tree limbs.

Joseph Harshman answers the question, do I have to be an international student to go to Coffee Hour? The answer, no. Joseph talks about his experience with the UO international community as an Oregonian, the International Business and Economics Club and trying a ‘hot pot’ for the first time.