Over the past decade, the prevalence of the sexually transmitted infections (STIs) gonorrhea, chlamydia and early syphilis has increased sharply in Oregon and Lane County, and all three infections can lead to serious health consequences if left untreated.

The Emerald reached out to Lane County Health and Human Services (LCHHS) to learn more about this sharp increase in STIs and received a written response from public information officer Jason Davis and communicable disease supervisor Cindy Morgan.

They attribute the increase in Lane county STI cases to a number of different factors.

“We don’t have a definitive, single cause. Rather, we believe rates have a general rate and periodic fluctuation,” they wrote. “Population increase, coupled with lack of awareness, coupled with access issues all play a part.”

Gonorrhea in particular has become far more widespread in Oregon, with the number of cases increasing from 1,239 in 2007 to 4,367 in 2016. Over that same period of time, gonorrhea cases in Lane County increased more than fivefold from 53 to 282.

Despite this significant increase, Oregon and Lane County are still below the national average for incidence rates of gonorrhea, and although there has been an emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of gonorrhea, LCHHS reported that it has “not yet seen any resistant gonorrhea cases in Lane County.”

Rebecca Hagerwaite, a family nurse practitioner at the University of Oregon health clinic, said that there has been an increase in cases of UO students with gonorrhea over the past three years, increasing each year from 12, to 26 and now 34 in the 2017 – 2018 school year.

However, Hagerwaite said that syphilis rates amongst UO students have not been increasing over the past three years, with only one or two students being treated each year. She also said that chlamydia is by far the most common STI at UO, totaling between 200 to 245 cases per year.

For students wanting to know how to avoid contracting and spreading STIs, Hagerwaite recommends frequent testing, open dialogues with sexual partners and using proper barrier methods such as condoms and dental dams. She acknowledged that asking new partners about their sexual health is often times the most difficult aspect of STI prevention.

“If you do bring it up, sometimes people act very defensively — like why would you think I have something? And then it turns into this uncomfortable conversation,” Hagerwaite said.

She instead advises that people reframe the question to be about STI testing in order to avoid vague answers.

“If you ask a partner if they’re having any symptoms, that’s really not telling you any information,” Hagerwaite said. “It probably would be a better question if you are about to have sex with someone to ask, ‘When was the last time you got tested?’”

She believes that framing the question this way has the effect of normalizing testing because it “already starts a conversation and creates a space that testing is good — testing is a good thing and I expect that of you.”

Because conversations about barrier protection methods can also be difficult, the UO health clinic provides pamphlets to help students navigate confrontations they might face. They also provide barrier protections free of charge to students.

Regarding STI testing, Hagerwaite recommends following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines of one test per year for sexually active people from ages 15 to 24. Those guidelines stand even if you aren’t experiencing symptoms, as STIs are frequently present in people who experience no symptoms at all.

UO students can schedule STI screenings and diagnostic tests at the university health clinic through the myUOHealth portal. Information on which STIs they test for, as well as comprehensive information about these STIs and what you can expect during a test, can be found here.

Lane County residents who aren’t UO students also have many STI treatment and testing resources available to them, but according to LCHHS, many people aren’t aware of these options or are too reluctant to seek out help.

“The first step is always the hardest, and the broad awareness that affordable and cost free resources are readily available, free of judgement is one of the biggest access issues we battle against,” they wrote.

In addition to encouraging community members to establish a relationship with a primary care provider, LCHHS recommended the following resources available to Lane County residents who are interested in being tested or treated for STIs:

The Lane County Public Health office at 151 W. 7th Ave., Room 310 in Eugene is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and can treat people with or without health insurance.

Occupy Medical Clinic at W. 5th Ave. and Washington Street in Eugene is open from noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays. LCHHS wrote that Occupy Medical Clinic is a “great first step for connecting people to additional resources for help with STIs.”

The HIV Alliance at 1195A City View St. in Eugene is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. LCHHS described HIV Alliance as a “great resource for everything from information to testing.”

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The University of Oregon announced on Thursday that they will be making a number of policy changes to improve experiences for fans at Autzen Stadium during the 2018 football season, including expanding the sale of alcohol to more venues.

The changes include in-stadium beer and wine sales expanding to general concession areas, the stadium parking lot being open two hours earlier on game days, a clear bag policy to speed up and improve security checks, and the elimination of stadium re-entry for fans who leave Autzen at any time during a game.

In past football seasons, stadium alcohol sales have been limited to the Moshofsky Center and the Club at Autzen. In 2018, alcohol sales will expand to include the general concession areas, but will still be unavailable in student sections.

To combat underage drinking and overconsumption of alcohol, alcohol sales by “trained and licensed servers will provide more control over alcohol consumption and serve as deterrents to overconsumption.”

Additionally, more game day alcohol monitors will be hired to help with these issues. In a written response, Jimmy Stanton of the UO athletic department stated that they will be “more than tripling the amount of monitors in the stadium on game days, from around 30 to more than 100.”

The decision to eliminate re-entry to football games is also aimed at reducing overconsumption of alcohol. According to UOPD Chief Matt Carmichael, fans who exit Autzen at half-time in order to binge drink tend to cause problems when they return.

“They often return to the stadium and have the intoxication effects really hit them in the second half,” Carmichael said. “This leads to unruly behavior and medical issues that can easily be avoided.”

Stadium parking lots will now be open to the public six hours prior to kickoff, an increase of two hours from previous seasons. UO hopes that this will improve fans’ experiences by easing traffic congestion during game days.

Both the expanded parking lot hours and alcohol sales are part of a one-year pilot program for the 2018 football season.

Note: This article was updated on Thursday at 4:09 p.m. to include the statement from Jimmy Stanton.

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U.S. House of Representatives member and University of Oregon alumna Suzanne Bonamici, D-OR 1st District, met with eight professors and researchers in the College of Education last Friday afternoon for a roundtable discussion.

The discussion focused on research being done by UO faculty to improve safety in high schools. The research, which is in part funded by a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education, encompasses a variety of different proposals for improving the safety and wellbeing of high school students.

As a vice ranking member of the House’s Committee on Education and the Workforce, Rep. Bonamici says that school safety is something she feels passionately about. She is interested in learning about the research being conducted at UO, and disagrees with some of the school safety proposals meant to prevent school shootings that have been discussed nationally in recent months.

“I’m hoping to hear from some of the experts here about what we can do in terms of policy that does not involve arming teachers, because I’m very much opposed to that,” Bonamici said.

Rob Horner, professor emeritus of special education at UO, began the discussion by thanking Bonamici for her attendance. After faculty members introduced themselves, Bonamici then discussed her personal and professional background regarding education, including legislation she has worked on and her experiences with current school safety issues.

Rep. Bonamici serves on the House’s Committee on Education and the Workforce and came to hear policy suggestions from UO faculty and researchers on July 20, 2018 (Brad Moore/Emerald).

“What I’m hearing today concerns me — not only about gun violence in schools — but students being worried and stressed, discrimination, and students not feeling safe,” Bonamici said. “I’ve had students tell me they walk into a classroom and the first thing they do is figure out where they can hide and how they can escape.”

UO faculty then took turns discussing research they had conducted or proposed.

Senior research associate and associate professor K. Brigid Flannery talked about a proposal for adapting the Check-in/Check-out behavioral intervention protocol for high school students. Check-in/Check-out involves teachers meeting with individual students at various times during the school day to discuss behavioral improvements they’re working on.

Flannery noted that many new high school students struggle with changes in context and expectations, and that this intervention method could help prevent the behavioral problems that often occur when they’re transitioning from middle school.

Julia Heffernan, whose research primarily focuses on gender and sexuality issues in education, discussed how research has shown that inclusive curriculums and affinity groups, such as gay-straight alliance clubs, can mitigate the levels of bias and violence that marginalized high school students face.

In an interview following the meeting, Heffernan described one successful example of an inclusive curriculum in elementary schools that sought to end the use of the word “retarded,” a derogatory term for individuals with physical, developmental or mental disabilities.

“There were campaigns about banning the word ‘retarded,’ which was the most frequently used slur in elementary schools for any kind of deficiency,” Heffernan said. “And as teachers taught that inclusive curriculum about — who is this community? Who are these folks? You see a reduction in the violence that happens.”

John Seeley, a member of UO’s Prevention Science Institute, discussed youth suicide intervention methods. Seeley’s research team is helping with the rollout and implementation of Oregon’s Youth Suicide Intervention and Prevention Plan. Their efforts focus not only on the prevention of youth suicide, but also on “post-vention” strategies that help communities cope with emotional trauma following a suicide.

Bonamici remarked on the importance of these post-vention strategies, relating that she had spoken with students who were reluctant to speak with school counselors about emotional trauma.

“They said there’s so much stigma that they don’t go to counselors at school,” Bonamici said. “They just don’t go talk to anybody because they’re afraid of being seen.”

Horner then talked about the proven effectiveness of building positive social environments in schools, wherein all students know what behavior is expected of them. He said that research over the past 20 years has shown that improving schools’ social environments greatly reduces behavioral problems and increases attendance and academic performance.

“When you actually teach those expectations, it shifts from something where the adults are controlling the agenda to where the students are simply expecting good behavior from each other,” Horner said.

He also noted that due to budget limitations that schools often face, the UO research staff is taking into account the sustainability and costs of school safety interventions.

“In education one of the things you’ve got to be worried about with funding, is how do we fund things not only that work, but that become easier the second year, easier the third year, and are likely to continue on?” said Horner.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Bonamici thanked the UO faculty for their research efforts and promised to share their findings with her legislative staff for use in future conversations about school safety measures.

“We have to come up with ways to make sure that all students have safety,” she said. “As we go forward, this will be helpful.”

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On July 3, the U.S. Department of Education announced it would rescind legal guidelines for universities that use race as a factor in their student admissions process, and instead will begin promoting race-neutral admission policies.

The guidelines, which were first published by the Obama administration in 2011, provided recommendations for how universities could use race as an admissions factor in a way that was consistent with federal law. The introduction to the guidelines also contains justification for race-based admissions, citing the benefits that diverse learning environments have on society.

The decision to rescind the affirmative action guidelines comes amidst a lawsuit filed against Harvard by Students for Fair Admissions, a non-profit group that claims Harvard discriminates against Asian-American students by giving them lower “personality” scores even if their test scores outrank those of other applicants. The Department of Justice is also currently reviewing Harvard’s admissions policies on suspicions that it is illegally discriminating against Asian-American students.

How exactly will the changes affect admissions at the UO? According to UO’s holistic review process for student admissions, the racial or ethnic identity of student applicants is taken into consideration.

When asked if the university would be changing their admissions process following the Trump administration’s actions, UO spokesperson Tobin Klinger issued this written response:

“No single factor determines admissions decisions and our process is carried out in accordance with best practices for university admissions, and with current federal rulings. The new guidance will not change our process at this time.”

According to a recent Around the O article, since the year 2000 the percentage of UO students who are ethnic minorities has increased from 12.8 percent to 26.8 percent, with the class of 2017 being the most ethnically diverse in university history. Roger Thompson, vice president of Student Services and Enrollment Management, notes in the article that UO is more diverse than the state of Oregon itself.

Equal opportunity or racial bias?

Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos made the decision to rescind the guidelines, arguing that they strongly encouraged racial bias in admissions processes and downplayed the potential legal difficulties of implementing affirmative action.

Affirmative action is a result of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement effort to create equal opportunities for minority groups that are historically underrepresented. The constitutionality of affirmative action has proven to be controversial in college admissions.  

The Supreme Court has ruled that schools are not allowed to implement quotas for acceptance of minority students, but narrowly taking race into consideration, among other factors, is constitutional. Critics of affirmative action claim that the program gives preferential treatment to minority students and lowers standards for those students, making it easier for them to get into colleges.

Oregon lawmakers criticize Trump’s decision

The Emerald reached out to Oregon’s congressional representatives to get their response to the Trump administration’s actions.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR, issued a statement criticizing President Donald Trump’s policies, and cited the repeal of affirmative action guidelines as an attack on “proven and needed policies.”

“Unfortunately, it comes as no surprise that he is now taking his battle to colleges by plotting with Jeff Sessions and Betsy DeVos to attack proven and needed policies that promote diversity and improve the educational experience and campus life in Oregon and nationwide,” Wyden wrote. “Just as I have fought back against Trump’s moves to defend white supremacists and to implement cruel immigration policies, I will fight back against this deeply flawed and backward-looking scheme.”

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-OR, responded in an interview last Friday at UO’s HEDCO building where she held a roundtable discussion on high school safety. Like Sen. Wyden, she offered a rebuke of the Trump administration.

“I see it as just another step by the Trump administration to attack opportunities for other people,” Bonamici said. “We all benefit when we have perspectives from different people, particularly in higher education.”

Bonamici’s full statement on the issue can be read here.

What’s next for UO admissions?

Although the new guidance from the Trump administration doesn’t change any existing laws, it does indicate an opposition to affirmative action and reveals the challenges that universities might face from the Department of Justice if they continue to use race as a factor in admissions.

Various news outlets, including CNN, Politico and the New York Times, have speculated that the pending litigation against Harvard may go to the Supreme Court, which could then issue a ruling that reverses past Court rulings on affirmative action, thereby making race-based college admissions illegal.

Klinger acknowledged this legal situation in his response, writing that, ”The withdraw [sic] of Obama-OCR guidance that encouraged the use of programs designed to increase diversity does not materially change either the law or how UO should go about its admissions decisions, so we can’t really say when or how something might change.”

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Editor’s note: This article was updated on Tuesday at 6 p.m. to clarify Lananna’s comments on the track community. 

Vin Lananna announced on Tuesday that he is resigning from his position as President of TrackTown USA, the local organizing committee that hosts events such as the U.S. Olympic Trials and the World Indoor Championships.

Lananna helped secure the 2021 IAAF World Championships, which required a new facility, leading to the demolition of Hayward Field several weeks ago.

The Emerald spoke with Lananna, who confirmed that he will be stepping down as president and cited concerns about being “spread too thin” in his duties and wanting to focus on the impact that the 2021 Championships will have on the track community.

He plans to remain in his position as the associate athletic director at the University of Oregon.

Lananna told the Emerald that TrackTown USA CEO Michael Reilly will take over his duties.

Lananna has been on temporary administrative leave since February due to “perceived conflicts of interest in his roles as president of both TrackTown USA and USA Track and Field,” The Oregonian reports.

The 2021 World Championships remain controversial as the event required a new facility and the New York Times reported in January that the bid itself is currently under investigation by the Department of Justice.

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For dining halls at the University of Oregon, the end of spring term signals the disappearance of waves of thousands of hungry students and their stockpiles of meal points. Most of these students will move on to different places for the summer — places without the Cheesy Grillers and Whammies they so often consumed on campus.

So what goes on in those dining halls during the summer? And what happens to the full-time employees there who no longer have so many students to feed?

Tom Driscoll probably knows the answers to these questions better than anyone else. As both the associate director of housing and the director of Dining Services at UO, some of his job responsibilities include overseeing and helping plan much of the campus dining operations during the summer months.

“Our goal is to try to fill [the dining halls] as much as we can so that we can keep our staff working as much as possible throughout the summer,” said Driscoll.

In order to use what would otherwise be dormant dining facilities, the university recruits numerous conference groups to stay and eat on campus when they visit Eugene in the summer. These conference groups include events like sports camps, Oregon Bach Festival musicians, and Cycle Oregon — an annual, week-long bicycle ride through various parts of Oregon.

Driscoll estimates that only 110 to 150 students live on campus at any given time during the summer, and unlike students living on campus during the school year, they aren’t required to purchase meal plans. Accordingly, the conference attendees comprise the vast majority of summer dining hall customers.

One of the most challenging aspects of serving the conferences is preparing for the drastic day-to-day fluctuations in volumes of customers.

“During the summer you may have a day where you’re doing a couple hundred meals and the very next day you may do 8,000 meals,” Driscoll said.

While 8,000 meals is still far less than what is prepared on a typical day during the school year, the sudden changes present problems for Driscoll and the dining hall staffs.

“As a dining operation, the biggest challenge is the lack of consistency in what you’re doing,” he said. “We’re really prepared and staffed to do 12,000 to 15,000 meals a day, every day, for 33 weeks. And that’s what we do well.”

Because the school year dining staff is far larger than what is needed for the summer, many of the employees are faced with making new work arrangements.

One of these employees is 28-year-old Stephen Levy, who began working for UO Dining Services in 2008. Levy hopes to eventually be promoted to a coordinator at one of the UO dining halls, but this past school year he worked mostly at Big Mouth Burrito in Hamilton Dining Hall as a food service worker 2 — meaning that he supervises student food service workers, but is not at the level of a manager.

Levy said he enjoys the flexibility of his job and getting to know the students who frequent Big Mouth Burrito.

“During the year you get to build a relationship with the students who live here and eat here every day,” he said. “I’ll recognize people and I’ll know what they want. There’s a guy who comes and gets a quesadilla every day. I know his name, what he gets on his quesadilla, and what he gets on the side.”

Although Levy still gets 40 hours of work per-week during the summer, his responsibilities are quite different from the rest of the year.

“I’m what we call a ‘nine-month employee,’ so I work here in food service nine months out of the year,” he said. “People who are 12-month employees usually go to Carson or Dux [dining halls]. But with me what they do is after the summer camps are over they send me to custodial, where I’ll clean dorms for the rest of the summer.”

Nine-month employees have the option of taking the summer off but are also offered temporary positions at UO, such as helping with food service for large conferences or doing custodial and maintenance work.

Levy said the custodial work is more physically intensive than his food service work, but that he doesn’t mind it too much. However, he finds that the change from an evening work schedule to an early morning work schedule can be challenging.

“It’s a big adjustment for me because naturally I’ll stay up until 3 or 4 in the morning. So having to go to bed at 10 in the night, that’s an adjustment,” he said.

Stanley Hicks, 27, works as a line cook at Gastro Kitchen in Hamilton Dining. After accumulating about seven years of experience in food service, Hicks was hired by UO in 2016 as a cook 1, which is also a position with only nine months of guaranteed work in the dining halls.

“I started out at a resort in Cottage Grove washing dishes. That’s where they taught me how to cook the line,” he said. “And I basically moved to a long-term care facility after that, and worked quite a few years there before coming here.”

Hicks said he was ready for a more challenging cooking position and that he enjoys the faster paced work environment of the Gastro Kitchen.

“Honestly, I really like the intensity and challenging aspects of the Gastro line,” he said. “It’s one of the more high-paced environments that I’ve seen here on campus, and for me, [someone] who likes the high-energy, high-stress environments, it’s one of my favorite places to work.”

Last summer Hicks opted not to work, which allowed him time for a memorable wedding vacation to Italy. This summer he requested to do custodial work at UO, but as of early July he had only been scheduled for one week at Dux Dining Hall and hadn’t received confirmation from the university about the rest of his summer employment.

“I assume I’m going to be going to custodial, but I have not been informed of such, and it’s not really something that they tell you outright,” he said. “They schedule you week by week, so depending on what you are trying to do around that, it becomes a difficult thing to plan around.”

Hicks is interested in being promoted to the position of cook 2, which would come with a pay raise, a 12-month contract and the assurance of food service work at UO during the summer, but he has other aspirations as well.

“I have hopes of taking classes towards a degree at some point, so that will definitely be my main focus,” he said. “But of course I’ll still be working hard towards what I’m doing here. If that means that I’ll be a cook 2 in the future, then that’s what I’ll set myself up to be.”

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One of the world’s most popular sporting events is reaching its climax, as the 2018 World Cup soccer tournament now enters its final week.

The tournament began on June 14, with the host nation, Russia, defeating Saudi Arabia 5-0 in a match at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. Since then, the pool of 32 teams that entered the tournament has shrunken to four, with only France, Belgium, England, and Croatia remaining.

Throughout the tournament, matches have been shown on the video wall on the ground level of the University of Oregon’s EMU. Diverse crowds of fans have gathered there to watch exciting contests like Colombia vs. England and Belgium vs. Brazil.

Zach Patrick-Riley, a graduate student in the Language Teaching Studies Masters of Arts Program, was seated on a couch in the front row and sporting a Brazil jersey for their match against Belgium on Friday. He worked as an English teacher in Brazil for two and a half years and was supporting their soccer team on its quest for a record sixth World Cup title.

Patrick-Riley guessed that he had already watched three or four matches on the EMU video wall and said that he appreciated the communal aspect of the venue.

“It’s really nice — the atmosphere here is just great,” he said.

Sagarika Sharma, a 16-year-old student at South Eugene High School, was also there to watch the Belgium vs. Brazil match. She’s working in a lab at UO this summer and has been following the World Cup closely, often times at the EMU.

“If I’m free for lunch I always come here to watch the game,” she said.

Shuichi Midorikawa, a 20-year-old international student from Kawasaki, Japan, was taking a break from studying at UO’s American English Institute to enjoy the game. He was upset about Japan being eliminated from the World Cup by Belgium, so he decided to root for Brazil.

In the upcoming semi-finals, France will play Belgium on Tuesday, July 10 at 11 a.m. PDT and England will play Croatia on Wednesday, July 11 at 11 a.m. PDT. The losers of the semi-finals will play each other in a third place play-off match on Saturday, July 14 at 7 a.m. PDT.

The winners of the semi-finals will then face off in the final, which begins at 8 a.m. PDT on Sunday, July 15. The final match will take place where the tournament began – at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

Since the EMU doesn’t open until 10 a.m. on Sundays, local fans will have to find a different venue to watch the final match. Fortunately, the following establishments in Eugene and Springfield will be open and showing both the final and the semi-finals of the World Cup.

Venues (more to come)

The Cooler Restaurant and Bar

20 Centennial Loop

(541) 484-4355

Hours: 8 a.m. to 2 a.m., every day.

Trev’s Sports Bar and Grill

1675 Franklin Blvd

(541) 653-8151

Hours: Sunday through Thursday: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.  Friday and Saturday: 8 a.m. to 12 a.m.

Taylor’s Bar and Grill

894 E 13th Ave

(541) 344-6174

Hours: Monday through Friday: 11 a.m. to 2:30 a.m.  Saturday: 10 a.m. to 2:30 a.m.

Sunday, July 15: 8 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. (special hours for World Cup)

Prime Time Sports Bar and Grill

1360 Mohawk Blvd (Springfield)

(541) 746-0549

Hours: Monday: 11 a.m. to 2:30 a.m.  Tuesday through Sunday: 7 a.m. to 2:30 a.m.

Rennie’s Landing

1214 Kincaid St

(541) 687-0600

Hours: Monday through Friday: 7:30 a.m. to 2 a.m.  Saturday: 9 a.m. to 2 a.m.

Sunday, July 15th: 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. (special hours for World Cup)

Wild Duck Cafe

1419 Villard St

(541) 485-3825

Hours: Sunday through Thursday: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.  Friday and Saturday: 8 a.m. to 12 a.m.

Side Bar

1680 Coburg Rd

(541) 343-1200

Hours: Monday through Wednesday: 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.  Thursday and Friday: 11 a.m. to 2:30 a.m.

Saturday: 8 a.m. to 2:30 a.m.  Sunday: 8 a.m. to 2 a.m.

The Barn Light

924 Willamette St

(458) 205-8914

Hours: Monday through Wednesday: 7 a.m. to 12 a.m.  Thursday and Friday: 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.

Saturday: 8 a.m. to 2 a.m.  Sunday: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Sixth Street Grill

55 W 6th Ave

(541) 485-2961

Hours: Monday: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.  Tuesday through Friday: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Saturday: 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.  Sunday, July 15: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. (special hours for World Cup)

Good Times Cafe and Bar

375 E 7th Ave

(541) 484-7181

Hours: Monday through Friday: 11 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. Saturday: 9 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. Sunday, July 15: 8 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. (special hours for World Cup)

Highlands Brew Pub

390 E 40th Ave

(541) 485-4304

Hours: Monday through Friday: 11 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. Saturday: 9 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. Sunday, July 15: 8 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. (special hours for World Cup)

The Emerald will continue to update this list if more venues show the matches.

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Eugene’ Chief of Police Chris Skinner met with members of the public at Killer Burger in downtown Eugene on Friday afternoon.

The event, which was referred to as a “Meat and Greet,” provided an opportunity for the public to converse with Skinner as well as numerous other members of the Eugene Police Department. Skinner was sworn in on May 2, replacing former Chief of Police Pete Kerns who retired last December.

The Meat and Greet was the first of what Skinner said he hopes to be many community outreach events hosted by the police department. “I really like having these types of events because it brings people together,” he said. “It puts names and faces together and gives us a chance to show our personalities at the police department a little bit.”

Skinner also sees community outreach as an effective way to better understand the various concerns of Eugene residents.

“Depending on what part of the community you’re from, and where you live, everybody has a different focus on what they think is important,” he said. “The key for me is to understand and honor that, and to do the best that I can to meet as many of those needs as I can.”

Police Chief Chris Skinner poses for a photo with two Eugene children at the community “Meat and Greet” on June 29, 2018. (Brad Moore/Emerald)

Other members of the Eugene Police Department, such as Captain Sam Kamkar, also attended the Meat and Greet. Kamkar noted that it was very unusual for a police chief to invite his staff to participate in an event like this.

“What’s different with this one is that our chief didn’t want to be here without his command staff and his officers and employees,” he said. “So he opened up an invitation to anybody who wanted to come and join this get together because he sees us all as part of a team. Which is really nice. It’s refreshing.”

Captain Kamkar said the event provided an opportunity to speak with people in a positive and relaxed environment, as opposed to the tense situations police officers normally find themselves in.

“When you think about our job and our profession, people don’t invite us to a party when they’re having a good time, right?” he said.

Tracy Wise, a professional mental health counselor, came to the event to discuss the police department’s hiring practices. He was able to meet with the department’s hiring manager to express concerns about whether or not they’re doing sufficient psychological and background checks for new recruits.

Wise was particularly interested in the department’s screening process for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which he thinks may have played a role in many of the controversial police shootings in America in recent years.

“It seems to me that what I’ve seen in videos of people being killed by police – sometimes what I see, it sure looks like to me – is that the police person is being triggered,” he said. “So I’m wondering, are they checking for this? And I was told that yes they are. I was really happy with the description of the process they have to go through to become police force here in Eugene.”

Peggy Thomas, who brought Skinner some of her homemade raspberry and quince jelly, is disabled and uses a wheelchair. She also was once homeless for four years, and wanted to talk with Chief Skinner about how the police interact with homeless people in Eugene.

“Homeless people get cited a lot and we have a housing crisis in the community, and rents are going up. So seniors and disabled people are more and more ending up being pushed out into the street,” Thomas said.

Chief Skinner hasn’t planned the next outreach event for the police department yet, but he wants to hold these events throughout Eugene in order to reach more members of the community.

“I don’t know where the next one is going to be, but you can bet that we’re going to do this quarterly and make sure that the entire community gets a chance to sit down and have a good conversation,” he said.

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