As a fourth-year student, set to graduate in the spring, I’ve been counting my credits, ensuring I have everything I need for graduation. Seeing the new first-years begin their move-ins, brought me back to the confusion and newness of my first year. 

The Week of Welcome has numerous activities for our incoming first-years and there is no doubt that the university wants to make a good impression on students and their families. 

My Week of Welcome was behind masks and overshadowed by the most chaotic move-in process of my life, but I couldn’t deny my excitement for starting a new chapter. 

Yet, when it came to the specifics of how to register for classes, what to take and who to talk to, I was pretty clueless. I remember vaguely being told to schedule a meeting with an advisor, but after doing so, they just helped me pick out a few classes and sent me on my way. 

Unsurprisingly, like many students, I made mistakes when applying for classes. I eventually learned that classes with numbers one through three next to them are good for collecting credits. By the end of the year, most of what I learned about Duckweb, what classes to take and how to navigate Canvas, was self-taught. 

When classes start, the dorms fill and the campus is in full swing. The new first-years will feel the overwhelming newness of college life, and finding the resources they need past week one can be intimidating and difficult. 

It’s not that the resources do not exist, as Jasmine Saboorian highlights in her article, “Student resources to know before the school year begins,” UO has resources ready for students. However, the excitement of the Week of Welcome is short-lived. For the first-years, taking the step to reach out to an advisor or an assistance program is incredibly daunting. 

Alyvia Embree, a fourth-year UO student had a similar experience with student support services. 

“As someone who is a first-generation college student, I found myself struggling to navigate through all the logistics of picking out classes, working out my financial aid and setting up the needed schooling accounts such as Canvas,” Embree said. “I was always confused and scared that I was doing something wrong and because neither of my parents went to college I had no one to guide me through the process. I also had no idea about many of the student resources that were available to me and, unfortunately it took me a while to discover them.” 

Experiences like Embree’s are all too common, and students are paying the price, literally. 

Most tuition money goes directly toward classes. And when students mistakenly register for classes that don’t count towards their major, graduation credits or turn out to be classes they didn’t need, they’re essentially losing money. 

These programs can and should be improved so that students don’t make simple mistakes—that can cost hundreds in tuition money—just from a lack of information.

The University of Oregon Athletics’ scope is much wider this year. Student-athletes, coaches, staff and fans are all expected to feel the impacts of Oregon Athletic’s jump to the Big Ten. Even though the move is largely talked about regarding our beloved football team, headed by “Dan the Man” Lanning, there are many people involved in UO athletics. They all must be considered as this shift affects them and the entire UO community. 

Following the move to the Big Ten, Rob Mullens, director of athletics, posted “A Message to Our Fans” in August. He explained that the Big Ten Conference is a new chapter for Oregon Athletics, stating, “Our student-athletes will now have the chance to compete against the best of the best, and they will be exposed to a broader audience that can create new opportunities for them.” 

Mullens points out that there is a lot to be excited about with this move. Mullens also mentioned the benefits of more exposure for the “power of the Oregon brand,” drawing attention to the others impacted. The sheer amount of travel will undoubtedly impact athletes’ academic participation, physical health — including managing jet lag — and mental well-being. 

UO has 18 D1 varsity teams making this move to the Big Ten.

Becca Weinberg, a track and field operations assistant traveling with the team, expressed excitement and concern about the move.

“I’m looking forward to more coverage of the team and of the hard work the athletes are putting in due to the expanded TV and media networks,” Weinberg said. “But I’m concerned for the mental health and wellbeing of the athletes who will now have to travel very far distances in short amounts of time.” 

Weinberg also said she believes there are many positives of the deal. But she thinks “it’s going to be a struggle for teams to figure out logistically at the beginning and maintain down the road.” 

Weinberg speaks to several full-time and part-time student workers in Oregon Athletics who must balance the excitement and consequences of change.

Another group affected by the change is the cheer teams. According to the GoDucks Website, Oregon Cheer travels to all away football games and entertains crowds at Autzen Stadium and Matthew Knight Arena for various sports such as basketball and volleyball. However, unlike student-athletes, cheer members do not receive scholarships, are “partially funded by the Oregon Athletic Department and fundraise to supplement their budget.” 

Amanda Hellenkamp, a member of the UO cheer squad, is looking forward to the opportunities the change will provide her. Even with the major distances Hellenkamp will be traveling, she remains positive and enthusiastic about the move to the Big Ten. 

“I am super excited to be given the opportunity to travel to new places and schools. I think it is going to be a great experience to see how different the game environments are in the Big Ten,” Hellenkamp said.

She brought up that the cheer squad had the opportunity to be in a Big Ten commercial, which played on several channels, even during the Olympics and NFL games. 

While she emphasized the positive impact that increased exposure will have on athletes, she also acknowledged that depending on what sport you’re involved with, the pros and cons of moving to the Big Ten vary. She noted that teams with several games each week may feel the effects most.

It may be easy to get caught up in competition and add our own opinions to the performance of our student-athletes or critique coaches for their abilities, but we should remember they’re undergoing a massive adjustment to the Big Ten move. It was not their choice; it was the UO Athletics Departments’. 

With the headlines and momentum surrounding UO football rankings, predictions and overall performance in the Big Ten, we must also observe how the change will affect every team and each student-athlete, coach and staff behind the scenes.

I am a fan of the Olympics, but I would not consider myself a super fan. I’ll watch the occasional event — especially with our American superstars and countless rising stars — but I do not have an interpersonal connection to the Olympics outside of being a viewer.

I cried four times, however, watching various Olympic events this year and quickly discovered I adore watching these exceptional athletes accomplish something entirely of their own grit, dedication, physical strength and, most impressively, their mental toughness. 

The Olympics are an incredible opportunity for athletes worldwide to display their hard work and make major strides in athleticism on behalf of the entire world. 

Controversies surround what the host city, Paris, got wrong at the Olympics. Some of these included $1.4 billion spent on cleaning the Seine — for it to still barely meet International Olympic Committee safety standards — playing the wrong national anthem for South Sudan and many more mistakes. 

The IOC consistently receives backlash. Some believe that the IOC is  “elitist, domineering and crassly commercial at its core” or that the costs of hosting the Olympics have skyrocketed, while the economic benefits are far from clear. 

The Olympics are complicated, to say the least. Many countries do not want to host the Olympics due to domestic, political, social and economic issues. Then, when you’re tasked with organizing more than 200 National Olympic Committees that represent countries at the games, there are bound to be imperfections. 

These challenges, however, arise with the task of organizing. If you find yourself frustrated with the Olympic hiccups and the flawed Olympic committee, just take a step back. Every country’s government is flawed in some way. Yet, the Olympics attempts to organize these imperfect countries for an event of peace amongst strife. From my understanding, that is a very noble feat. 

I’ve observed it’s the most patriotic many Americans ever feel in their lives, when we get to cheer our fellow Americans on. It shows both national pride and fosters respect towards other countries. 

We get to watch strangers — and, in rare cases, some friends and family — compete with the best athletes in the world out of respect for what human beings are capable of. Not just human beings in our country, but the entire world. 

Don’t just take it from me. An invaluable perspective about the Olympics is from athletes and aspiring Olympians themselves. I asked a few of the University of Oregon’s own student-athletes how they feel about the Olympics. 

Aaliyah McCormick, a women’s track and field athlete, shared that her mother qualified for the 2004 Olympics in Athens while she was pregnant with her and decided not to compete because of that. 

McCormick, an aspiring Olympian herself, stated, “I want to win the gold not only for myself but for her. The Olympics are where the best of the best come to compete for the gold and to be a part of that would be an honor.” McCormick added, “Seeing even some college students that made it to the Olympic stage is even more inspiring because it reassures [me] that I can do it.” 

Athletes like McCormick make the Olympics what it is: a beautiful display of hard work, perseverance, excellence and rigorous training to achieve something for themselves, their families, their communities and their countries. 

I know many people may not watch the Olympics for various reasons, or maybe they just don’t care to. I’m not saying you need to, but you are missing out. The Olympics are far from perfect but they display the extraordinary feats, records and physical limits that humans, athletes and Olympians alike continue to surpass, which I believe is worth being witness to. 

There will never be a foolproof way to do the Olympics. But the Olympics show us what we already know. 

Our world has corruption, inequalities, unfairness, advantages and disadvantages because of the lottery that is life. Countries are not on equal standing with one another. The Olympics expose the harsh unfairness of our world but also serve as an opportunity to challenge them.

In an NYT article from 2021, in reference to the Tokyo Olympics, Lindsay Crouse wrote it perfectly: “We can, and should, be critical of the Olympics as an institution while still appreciating the achievements of Olympians themselves.”

While people may be critical of the Olympics, ending them or ignoring issues will not fix them. 

The Olympics do so much, regardless of how “well” a hosting country does.

Remarkable achievements flooded this year’s Olympics. To name a few, Cindy Ngamba earned the first-ever medal for the IOC Refugee Olympic Team in women’s boxing. Four NOCs won their first-ever gold medal for their countries: Botswana, Dominica, Guatemala and Saint Lucia. Six world records were set by Americans, including Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s 400m hurdles final, and the University of Oregon’s very own Cole Hocker won gold and set the Olympic record for the men’s 1500m. 

Even the Olympians who did not receive medals nonetheless have remarkable lives and stories. Zeng Zhiying of Chile was one of many athletes who were not the “traditional youthful age of Olympians.” She stated, “It was our family’s dream, my dream, to get into the Olympic Games. That didn’t come true previously. But it’s OK. I’m now 58 years old, my dad is 92 years old. I finally made that dream come true for him.”

I cannot wait for the next Olympics, not because I have anything on the line personally, but because it’s one of the most remarkable events of competition, unity and peace on a global stage, even if only for a short few weeks.