The ASUO Senate meeting was crowded enough Wednesday to necessitate a location change. Members of UO Fraternity and Sorority Life packed the EMU Gumwood room to address the senate resolution to stop the expansion of greek life, which the senate voted to table and address again next week.

After three special requests Senate got to the main event: should the ASUO urge the president’s office to halt the expansion of new fraternity chapters? The answer, after about three hours, was to bring it up again next week.

Before the discussion started Rebecca Rhodes, senate president, reminded senate and the audience that all resolutions are non-binding. Resolutions are just statements from the ASUO.

The resolution originally was to, “call on University of Oregon President Scott Coltrane to immediately suspend the expansion of Fraternity and Sorority Life until an official campus climate survey indicates that FSL no longer contributes disproportionately to the number of sexual assaults occurring at the University of Oregon.”

Before discussion began Andrew Lubash, the author of the resolution, amended the resolution to apply not to all FSL but specifically to new fraternities.

Dozens of students, both members and non-members of FSL spoke about the resolution. Some members of FSL supported the resolution while others felt that it would not effectively address sexual assault.

“It’s not about not supporting FSL, it’s about supporting survivors and supporting survivors first,” said Morgan Snook, the ASUO academic affairs director.

But if the university followed the recommendations, fraternities and sororities could be chartered without the approval of the university, according to Rebecca Brennan, president of the Panhellenic Council.

“Consider the implications and the outcomes associated with approving this resolution, because they really are dire,” Brennan said.

After heated discussion, the majority of senators voted to address the resolution again at next week’s senate meeting and kick it to the working group for edits in the meantime. Anyone interested in working on the resolution can contact Lubash at lubash@uoregon.edu and for a blow by blow check out the live blog here.

ASUO Senate meets tonight at 7 in the EMU Gumwood room.

Here’s the agenda.

University of Oregon’s Board of Trustees is trying to open the paths of communication with students by inviting several to meet over lunch next month.

At the March 5 meeting the UO Board of Trustees will invite a group of students to a luncheon, this comes on the heels of complaints from the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation that the GTFF was not able to directly contact the BOT during their contract negotiations. Members of the GTFF went on strike for several days before reaching an agreement.

“We wanted to inform the trustees and this new governing body at the University of Oregon about what we’re bargaining for and why it’s important for our members,” GTFF President Joe Henry said. “It got much more important as we approached the strike. I felt that during the strike we weren’t able to communicate directly with all the board members.”

Helena Schlegel, the student member of the BOT, said the trustees hope the upcoming luncheon meetings will give students a chance to get to know the board members.

“We really wanted it to be less of a formal environment for trustees to get to know students on campus and for students to get to know the trustees, their governing board,” Helena Schlegel, student member of the BOT said. “We see it as an opportunity for students to get engaged with the board meetings other than just me updating people and them telling me what their opinions are on certain issues.”

The luncheon is one of the first opportunities for board members and students to speak outside of official meetings.

At the BOT meeting before the beginning of fall term, Henry tried to distribute materials to the board about GTFF bargaining, but was told to email them instead.

Angela Wilhelms, board secretary, is the main point of contact between students and the board. Wilhelms recommends that students email the board at trustees@uoregon.edu and encourages students to attend public forums.

“The email is checked and directed either to the specific board member or the entire group as they are received,” Wilhelms said in an email. “This ensures that board members actually receive the communication as it is coming from an address that they recognize as from the UO.”

Henry and members of the GTFF sent emails to the board, which he said were sent to the board but weeks after the fact.

“It’s a really long, drawn out process and we really don’t feel it has to be that way,” Henry said. “Especially when decisions are being made that affect the campus community directly, the board should be intervening.”

Schlegel agrees that there is room for improvement, but stresses that the board is still new and figuring out lines of communication. Schlegel hopes that the luncheon with trustees will get help to students more involved with their governing board.

Interested students can fill out the online application here; applications will be confirmed by February 24.

“Hopefully that helps to get a diverse and opinionated group that can sit with the trustees,” Schlegel said.

Schlegel wants to keep the small to make sure that student voices are heard, tentatively five to seven students to three trustees. Students will be selected based on their year and involvement at the university.

“We’re just trying to get people from all pockets of campus,” Schlegel said. “So that the trustees can see how many different things people are involved with on campus.”

Emerald reporters Dahlia Bazzaz and Alexandra Wallachy discuss news events from week 5 at the University of Oregon and beyond.

Subjects include: meningitis, Oregon Student Association’s next tuition rally and an interview with the Emerald’s ‘pot correspondent’ Jennifer Fleck on marijuana legalization in Oregon. Have questions about the future of pot in Oregon? Give the ‘pot pod’ a listen.

We also talk about the important things: Super Bowl commercials and left sharks.

It’s officially half-way through the term. Congrats, you’ve made it. Here’s the news you may have missed while you were buried in the library. Or whatever, we don’t judge.

The Library of Congress opened a collection of Rosa Parks’ writings and photographs for the first time this week. VOX and other news sites published some highlights from the collection, which opened on Parks’ birthday. In the newly released documents Parks reflects on her famous refusal to give up her seat on the bus, “I had been pushed around for all my life and felt at this moment that I couldn’t take it any more.”

Read Rosa Parks’ incredible handwritten notes on Jim Crow — and pancakes http://t.co/ghrqfyB78r pic.twitter.com/NbaRpA0JvM

— Vox (@voxdotcom) February 4, 2015

A measles outbreak at the happiest place on earth brought the vaccination debate back into the news. Tuesday, LA County confirmed 21 cases of measles, 17 of which are linked to the Disneyland outbreak. If you like vaccination op-eds and articles here’s a few from the New York Times,  NPR and the Chicago Tribune.

More babies get the measles as Disneyland outbreak spreads across U.S. http://t.co/DmDSx2spcm — Mashable (@mashable) February 6, 2015

Strippers head to Oregon’s capital to lobby for better working conditions. The AP reports that some Oregon strippers are lobbying the state legislature for health and safety standards in addition to mandating clubs to publish and display dancer’s rights.

Strippers in Oregon lobby lawmakers for better working conditions, protection of their rights as contractors: http://t.co/KAiuJmPi7f

— The Associated Press (@AP) February 2, 2015

Being associated with the Kardashians, Bruce Jenner is no stranger to tabloid headlines. For some time gossip magazines and tabloids speculated that Jenner is transitioning from male to female, which would normally just be gossip but recently news outlets like the New York Times have reported on the story and reports that Jenner agreed to an interview with ABC News’s Diane Sawyer.

The Bruce Jenner Story Goes From Gossip to News http://t.co/J0TtRZfjz3 — The New York Times (@nytimes) February 5, 2015

On a lighter note: Taylor Swift announced her next world tour with HAIM and Vance Joy.

Check here for dates http://t.co/Wl4LPRvwh9 Meanwhile I’ll be doing a celebratory friendship dance to ‘Forever’. pic.twitter.com/hlfy0lsMOB — Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) February 1, 2015

 

Follow Alex Wallachy on Twitter @wall2wallachy

Hey legislature, can you spare $1.315 billion? That’s the question that the Oregon Student Association will ask in Salem at its Feb. 12 rally to restore higher education.

OSA asks the state of Oregon to invest $755 million in universities and $560 million in community colleges, essentially freezing tuition so that it doesn’t rise significantly in the next two years. The universities and community colleges that make up OSA decided on the figure through a coalition.

“The students decided to have the rally on Feb. 12 to bring a lot of students to the capital and show our state officials that students care about the affordability of education,” Daniel McCall, OSA Communications director, said. The rally was picked for February to coincide with the beginning of the legislative session and ensure student participation.

Oregon has had a tuition freeze for in-state students the past two years that is coming to an end at the end of this academic year. Students like Tran Dinh will take their case for state investment in higher education to the capital steps.

Dinh, who currently serves as ASUO Vice President, plans to join in the chants and the sign holding with OSA on the 12th.

“For me personally as an international student, tuition has been increasing at an alarming rate,” Dinh said. “Having that access to really effecting change directly through direct action, the rally is really powerful for me to join in that sense, but to also feel that community with other people that feel that economic hardship. There’s a real opportunity for us to demonstrate our power and our passion.”

The Oregon Student Association represents a community of universities and community colleges around the state such as Oregon State University, Portland State University and more. Dinh expects to see 500 to 700 Oregon students at the rally.

Mickey Swartz is a freshman at UO. He spent part of his Wednesday afternoon handing out postcards for students to sign urging the Oregon Legislature to restore funding for higher education. Swartz, like Dinh, thinks that the rally will effect next year’s tuition.

“I think the fact that there’s 60,000 students that voted statewide this year, they’re definitely willing to listen to us,” Swartz said. “We just have to get enough students to fill these out and actually want to be involved in their campus.”

For such students, OSA is offering transportation and lunch to those attending the rally.

OSA is a lobbying organization founded in 1975 that advocates for student issues like tuition. Its mission statement is to represent, serve and protect the interests of postsecondary students in Oregon. In addition to its tuition and affordability campaign, OSA is also running campaigns for cultural competency, sexual assault prevention and more.

The campaign for a tuition freeze won’t be over after the rally. OSA will continue to lobby elected officials in the months to come.

“It’s a continuous effort,” Dinh said. “It’s not going to end after the rally.”

The ASUO will hold lobbying training sessions throughout the term. Students interested in working on tuition issues can contact OSA, the ASUO or join them in Salem.

If you spent Wednesday at Dollar Beers, here are the highlights from February 4, 2015′s ASUO Senate meeting. As always you can check out the blog here and stay up to date on the ASUO on its website

Senate spent $20,295, here’s what they funded.

-$2,000 for Ecological Design Center’s HOPES conference, April 9-11.

-$7,295 to the Sports and Entertainment Law Forum’s next conference. This special request took by far the longest. Senators discussed standing rules for funding of campus conferences, but ultimately gave SELF the entire amount that they requested for its February 20th conference at the Moda Center, home of the Portland Trail Blazers.

-$11,000 to the Women’s Center to help fund an event in the Ms. Lyllye B. Parker Speaker Series March 7 in the EMU Ballroom. The money will help for the speaker and event costs. Mia McKenzie will be speaking at the event, she is an author and activist whose blog is called Black Girl Dangerous.

The senate also confirmed Hao Tan, former freshman representative, to senate seat 16. Tan is a bio-chemistry major and said he would also be interested in being on senate again next year. Tan said that he would not be helping to hire a new freshman representative because he has friends applying for the position.

The ASUO Senate created two working groups, both suggested by Senator Andrew Lubash. One working group addresses a University Senate working group dealing with Sexual Assault and FSL. Yes there are two senates. Yes it’s confusing.

The second working group will look at transparency at UO. Transparency has become a huge topic at UO during #LibraryGate earlier this year when administrators and professor Bill Harbaugh fought over presidential archives.

Tune in again next week for more ASUO Senate.

Follow the live coverage of tonight’s ASUO Senate meeting, which takes place every Wednesday @ 7p.m. in the EMU Walnut Room.

Keep track of tonight’s agenda here.

The University of Oregon’s records release garnered national attention this week. UO economics professor Bill Harbaugh was identified as the recipient of 22,000 pages of records that the university got back in #LibraryGate.

“The archives contain legal opinions and Interim President Scott Coltrane refuses to make those public,” Harbaugh said. “I can only imagine why.”

In an email to staff on Jan. 20, Coltrane said that the records had been illegally released, however, it is unclear what laws, if any, were violated.

UO placed two librarians on administrative leave pending an investigation. The Oregonian identified the librarians as Kira Homo and James Fox, UO Senior Director of Public Affairs Communications Tobin Klinger could not confirm or deny the names of the librarians.

Klinger said that the UO has reason to believe that the record released are confidential under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, ORS 351.065 and ORS 192.501-502. Klinger gave no information as to what the records are or why they could violate privacy laws.

FERPA was signed into law in 1974 to protect the privacy of student records. According to the US Department of Education, FERPA gives students and their parents the right to review and correct education records. Under FERPA, personally identifiable information that is not “directory information” is confidential.

The UO’s Student Records Privacy Policy defines directory information as facts such as a student’s full name, addresses, phone number, email, enrollment status, degrees and credit hours. Directory information does not include grades and other personal information.

ORS 192.501-502 lists public records that are exempt from disclosure, “unless the public interest requires disclosure in the particular instance.”

Harbaugh has not commented on the records specifics. At this time it is unclear if the publication of records serve the public interest.

Doug Blandy, Senior Vice Provost of Academic Affairs, wrote a letter to Harbaugh saying that the records contain student, faculty and other employee information and asking him to return the records and remove any documents from the internet by Jan. 22. Vice Provost Frances Bronet announced on the university website Wednesday that the documents had been returned. Bronet said that the university hired an independent law firm to investigate the records disclosure.

According to Coltrane’s email, the records did not contain any social security numbers, medical information or financial information, but did contain confidential information.

On Jan. 4 Harbaugh titled a blog post, “The UO administration’s secret plan to abolish the UO Senate.” The post linked to one of the documents in question, a memo between former UO general council Randy Geller and former interim president Bob Berdahl. The front page of the memo says, “attorney-client communication confidential and privileged” in capital letters. The memo discussed eliminating the UO Senate and other advisory groups.

Harbaugh’s long and contentious relationship with university administrators is well documented on UO Matters. Harbaugh’s posts have taken aim at athletics, administrators and presidents.

The lingering question is, will Harbaugh face legal consequences if more of the records are released?

Scott Greenstone contributed to this post.

University of Oregon’s wireless network could get an upgrade in the years to come.

On October 17, 2014 the University of Oregon announced a $2 billion capital campaign, the largest in the state’s history. Some priorities of the campaign are funding an upgrade of IT infrastructure and increase capacity to process ‘big data.’

How does UO’s network work?

Think about a house with wireless. An individual home may have one wireless router and fewer than ten residents using that network. But at UO’s campus, where there are 25,000-30,000 users, tech issues are a little more complex than just unplugging the router and using your cellphone data to play Candy Crush.

Technology at UO has changed drastically in the last decade. While some students still sharpen their pencils, take notes or play hangman in class, other students are using Wi-Fi-enabled devices including laptops, tablets and smart phones. Many students even bring more than one device on campus with them and each device affects the UO’s wireless network.

Patrick Chinn has worked in IT at UO for the last two decades. Now the head of Strategic Communications for Information Technology, Chinn compares UO’s network to one of the older buildings on campus.

“The network in a lot of ways is like a house or a building,” Chinn said. “While our foundation needs some attention, it’s not crumbling. It’s very much analogous to some of our older buildings on campus where they work, but it’s a little creaky in spots and needs some attention. It’s the same thing on campus where we have a lot of network gear that needs to be upgraded. We’ve done some of that work, but we’re hoping that the capital campaign will provide more funding for those types of upgrades.”

Upgrades to IT from the capital campaign would depend on two things, what the donor wants and strategic planning goals. It’s not uncommon for donations to have specific conditions. For example, Connie and Steve Ballmer gave a $50 million gift for Pathway Oregon scholarships, prevention science research and a branding initiative.

“IT is not normally one of the things that gets put on the list,” Chinn said. “But we’re very happy to be included in the campaign.”

UO continues to have some tech issues like wireless Internet outages, but according to Chinn it has gotten better. The fall of 2012 held frequent wireless issues. In 2013, UO updated some of the oldest pieces of wireless gear, which Chinn said helped.

“Generally the outages are much, much shorter.” Chinn said. “Instead of it being 30 minutes or longer in most situations where we have backed wireless issues, the issue is 5 minutes or less. In some cases, folks didn’t see any interruptions.”

Many students noted wireless issues during heavy traffic times like trying to get football tickets. Grace Honeywell, a sophomore and international studies major said that the Wi-Fi was worse last year when she lived in the dorms.

Students experiencing computer issues can visit the Technology Service Desk in the basement of McKenzie Hall.

Jeremy Klein, a senior computer science major, has worked at the Tech Desk for over a year. According to Klein, the most frequent issues he sees at the desk has more to do with getting locked out of Duckweb and Webmail than network issues.

If students have issues, Klein recommends that students check the IT website, but you can always visit the tech desk.