Even with fall out of the way, the ASUO is going to experience sweeping changes coming into the new year.

For the winter term, the executive branch of the ASUO will be staying busy with ensuring that the two new programs it’s launching in the winter run as smooth as possible. The new office of affordability and the Duck ‘N Cover program were created in response to students growing concerns of tuition increases.

“The key thing that always comes up is how to make school more affordable,” ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz said. “That’s why we’re institutionalizing an office in the executive that’s dedicated just to affordability.”

Rachel Gowland, director of the student affordability office, is currently the only person assigned to the department, but according to Dotters-Katz, the office will be fully fleshed out with more staff members throughout the term.

The ASUO is also starting a campus-wide campaign called Duck ‘N Cover, an initiative that looks to help students better understand their health insurance options with the University of Oregon, as well as the Affordable Care Act.

“We’re wanting to get students registered and be covered with health insurance, no matter where it comes from,” Dotters-Katz said. “We want to help students know the new health care laws and what the coverage means to them. Our website is already up and running, and we’re doing a lot of our campaigning for it during the term.”

ASUO student health commissioner Candace Joyner said that the program will help students enroll with any health insurance plan they choose to apply to. To raise awareness for the campaign, Duck ‘N Cover will also be partnering with Planned Parenthood of Southwest Oregon.

Along with all of this term’s new programs, the ASUO will also focus on preparing its move from the EMU to McArthur Court. Due to the EMU renovations, the ASUO and 13 other programs will move into McArthur Court by the beginning of spring term.

“We’re working on our move to go as smoothly as possible because these will be our temporary offices for the next two years,” Dotters-Katz said. “It’s essential that we’re in a good place for the next couple of years and we want to make sure that we’re still able to facilitate students and do our job as well as possible.”

The ASUO senate is experiencing change as well. Senators Jonathan Wu, Lexi Olson, Kevin Frazier, Stephanie Schie and Parker Williams have all resigned from their senate seats, and within the next month the executive will appoint new senators, which will then have to be approved by the senate.

The senate is welcoming change though, and its members looking forward to everything this term has to offer.

“What our goals should be is to listen to the voices of the students and student programs, as we were elected to do,” senator Helena Schlegel said. “I’m excited to continue working with students and programs to make the university a more inclusive and safe place.”

With blueprints and sledgehammers in hand, construction workers have begun the long process of renovating the Erb Memorial Union, which is expected to be completed by June 2016, according to the EMU website.

“Right now we’re going into the first phase of the renovation process,” said ASUO Senator and EMU Board member Miles Sisk. “The first phase of construction deals with moving the craft center over to where the computer lab and student union offices are.”

The new craft center will begin construction during the second week of January, but before then, the student union offices and computer labs that were once there need to move to temporary locations. Student programs such as the Arab Student Union, LGBTQA and Jewish Student Union will be moving into the basement floor of the EMU, where The Break used to be.

“We’ve moved all of the programs that were in the construction pass during winter break,” said Dan Geiger, the EMU renovation manager. “All student unions have been moved into The Break, and we’ve created office spaces for them to continue their work.”

Eleven student programs will be moving into The Break and call that area their new home until the end of spring term. The EMU computer labs will relocate to Knight Library.

Outside of constructing the new craft center, Geiger said the next big objective in phase one is relocating 14 programs to McArthur Court by the end of winter term.

“What’s on the horizon now is preparing McArthur Court for the programs that will relocate there, and that’s a pretty major part of the project,” Geiger said. “We’re getting ready to set up temporary offices in McArthur Court right now. All of the offices that are in the ‘70s part of the EMU will packing up their things and moving there.”

Among the programs moving to McArthur Court are the ASUO, Club Sports, EMU Marketing Center and the EMU Ticketing Office.

If all goes according to plan, Geiger said that phase one of the EMU renovation should end in May and transition seamlessly into phase two of the project, which is demolishing the part of the EMU from the 1970s in favor of building more technologically advanced accommodations for students. Phase three will begin in March of 2015, and will have the same objectives as phase two, except it will be working on the section of the EMU from the 1950s.

Even though it’s just the early stages of the renovation process, Geiger said that everything is still on schedule and going as planned.

“We haven’t run into anything that’s been too much of a problem yet,” Geiger said. “The key to doing such a monumental project like this is to always plan 20 steps ahead, while at the same time being prepared for the curveball.”

The east side of the EMU is going to get some much-needed color before its last hurrah.

Before building renovations in May, student groups and artists will take part in turning the dozens of drab, grey slabs of pillars into pieces of art. The project will take place within the first few weeks of winter term and the pillars will be on display for the remainder of winter and spring terms.

“We’ve just been looking for some ideas for what to do with that side of the building that encompasses its large skylights and pillars,” EMU Board member Miles Sisk said. “Then I just thought that with all of these ugly concrete columns that support the building, we should get a bunch of paint, divvy them out to students and make a piece of art.”

Sisk is currently in charge of the EMU art project. He’s secured as much paint as will be needed with no cost to the students — the EMU administration and facilities services are supplying materials.

“The idea for student groups is that their work should represent what the group does, and if it’s a student artist, the theme we’re looking for them to to encompass is memories, and however they want to go with that,” Sisk said. “The idea is to make the project as open as possible.”

The project is open to any student groups and students on campus, and within the next few weeks, Sisk will be spreading the word out on campus. Sisk is also looking at getting UO departments involved, as well as possibly involving parts of the surrounding Eugene community.

“We’re definitely excited. For Ducks After Dark, the EMU is where we’ve seen our visions become a reality,” said Brandi Freeman, a chairwoman for Ducks After Dark. “The EMU is our home, and I think I’ve spent more time there than I have in my own apartment.”

Freeman said that as far as ideas for what they’re going to do with their pillar, they’re looking to emphasize their logo as prominently as they can.

The pillars of art will also be temporary. According to Sisk, the project will hopefully be done within a few weeks in the winter term, so that it can be on display all the way up to the day that the EMU is deemed a construction zone. There are no current plans to save the pillars, but high resolution photos of the pillars will be taken.

“I think that’s an interesting aspect — the fact that it’s temporary public art, which in my opinion is a form of art within itself,” Sisk said. “These columns literally hold up this building. This building was built for students, and metaphorically speaking, it’s students that hold this building up and have kept it going. We’re making a unique metaphorical bound by having the students personally express themselves on the pillars that have kept their building up.”

On the verge of one of the most important budget seasons for ASUO, the executive, senate and finance committees are having a difficult time finding common ground on how to deal with the 2014-15 finances.

For next year, the University of Oregon administration is recommending that the incidental fee’s growth cap be brought down from 7 percent to 3.5 percent. Students will have to pay less in fees, but in return all incidental fee-funded operations will be forced to tighten their budgets, which could lead them to cut out some of their services or lay off their employees.

As of now, the ASUO Executive is in support of the 3.5 percent cap. According to ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz, staying with the 7 percent growth would make the ASUO budget and the incidental fee one of the largest in the country.

“The incidental fee does tremendous things for students,” Dotters-Katz wrote in the memo regarding support for the 3.5 percent cap. “However, we believe that leaders must step up in difficult times and make the difficult and occasionally unpopular choices based on the options they have.”

The executive may be willing to make the tough choice, but the committees that budget the incidental fee-funded groups aren’t quite as willing.

Among the four committees that deal with those funds, two of them proposed their 2014-15 budget that included a percentage increase that was above 3.5 percent. The EMU Board proposed a 4.5 percent increase, while the Department Finance Committee proposed a 7.08 percent increase.

The DFC budgets for large campus groups and organizations such as the Oregon Marching Band and University Theatre. Within all the departments they budget, the DFC has to take into account student employees.

“If we don’t get the growth we need, the first thing to go would be student positions,” ASUO senator and member of the DFC Ryan Fritsen said.

The budgets that were proposed were a best-case-scenario situation, so the likelihood of students losing their jobs is high.

“I think the biggest consideration right now is getting clear on what senate wants to do,” Fritsen said. “There has been talk about a 5 percent versus 3.5 percent growth in regards to how senate wants to approach next year’s budget.”

The 5 percent growth is what some senators are suggesting to be a good common ground. Sen. Helena Schlegel said that senate needs to be reminded that they aren’t bound by the executive’s choices.

“That cap is an unreasonable level given that the groups are asking for just the essentials,” Schlegel said. “Five percent cap is a reasonable compromise.”

Not all of senate agrees. Sen. Josh Losner said that committees need to understand that the new cap isn’t a recommendation. It’s essential.

“The 3.5 percent administrative recommendation should be a necessity for us to follow,” Losner said. “We continue to go about the recommendation and flirt with the cap every year, and now it’s time for us to put our foot down.”

No budgets have been approved yet, but in the winter term the ASUO branches and financial committees will have to find some common place in order for next year’s budget to work.

With temperatures dipping down to the negatives on Saturday night, Eugene has had to endure a cold that doesn’t come around here too often.

Starting on Thursday night, the National Weather Service issued a report that the southern Willamette Valley area should be expecting to get two to four inches of snow. Eugene didn’t end up getting 4 inches of snow — instead, the city got 12 inches in some areas.

In the midst of the constant snowfall on Friday, the University of Oregon canceled all classes and events for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Approximately 200 car accidents happened between Friday morning and Saturday night, according to the Eugene Police Department.

Eugene hit one of its coldest points ever on Sunday morning at -10 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. The only recorded time it was colder than that was 41 years ago in 1972, when the temperature was at -12 degrees. Eugene’s unexpected and rare cold rush is a part of a nation-wide cold snap due to a massive and vicious arctic air that started from the north and is currently going south.

Arctic airs are masses of air that are formed primarily over the Arctic Basin, Greenland and the northern interior of North America, according to the Meteorological Society’s meteorological glossary. The air is a hard cold that can stretch throughout large areas of land.

This particular arctic air was formed over the arctic ice cap, according to the National Weather Service. The worst of Eugene’s cold weather is behind it, but other parts of the country won’t get the harsh weather until later this week. Temperatures in Eugene will warm up throughout the week, with the low for Monday forecast at 35 degrees and a high Thursday at 48 degrees, according to AccuWeather.com.

32 million people will be affected by this countrywide storm of ice, snow and low temperatures, according to the Weather Channel.

Oregon is among the first areas in the nation being affected by the arctic air, but some states were hit harder than others. Arkansas had the worst power outage in the country this year with 10,000 residents currently without power, according to the Weather Channel.

States that usually never have to deal with the cold are currently getting the worst of it, with parts of southern California and Texas expecting to get below freezing temperatures. Four people have died in San Francisco from hypothermia over the weekend and San Francisco hasn’t had the full effect of the arctic air yet.

The ASUO wants students to “Duck ‘N Cover” this winter term.

In a new campaign that began on Thursday, the ASUO released a website that is suppose to be a part of the “Duck ‘N Cover” campus wide initiative to help students better understand what the Affordable Care Act is, and how they can benefit from it.

“It is imperative that our students know there are affordable healthcare options that are readily available to them,” ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz said. “And that is what the Duck ‘N Cover campaign is all about.”

According to ASUO student health commissioner Candace Joyner, the campaign’s primary goals are to make sure that students are aware of the Affordable Care Act, and to educate students on how this will affect them. Students will also get help with enrolling in the health insurance if they decide to do so.

Outside of being a website, the campaign will also attempt to have a strong presence on campus with an information table outside of the EMU during winter term. They’re also partnering up with Planned Parenthood of Southwest Oregon in an effort to raise even more awareness about the Affordable Care Act.

The Affordable Care Act, which has been commonly referred to as Obamacare, is a law that has been put into place that looks to make health insurance more affordable by expanding public insurance coverage. The law also requires private insurance companies to cover all applicants, regardless of pre-existing conditions.

“We can’t have a healthy society, university, or global community until we have healthy people,” Joyner stated. “I believe it’s important to educate students about the Affordable Healthcare Act because of the benefits it provides and the important changes it will create.”

For more updates on the Duck ‘N Cover campaign, visit the website.

The Eugene Police Department has reported in a press release that between 4 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., 32 car crashes have occurred on Eugene’s first snow day of the school year. As of 2 p.m., another 128 had been reported, bringing the total to 160.

Eugene police public information officer Melinda McLaughlin says that there have been no major injuries from the crashes, but multiple car crashes have happened around the University area, including one accident on 18th and Hilyard that was cited as a reckless endangerment and two separate car crashes on Willamette and 19th.

“The longer the snow is out, the more packed it will become which will make it more slick,” McLaughlin said. “Even if you have a green light, make sure to look both ways because not everyone will be able to stop on the roads today.”

According to McLaughlin, Eugene Public Works Emergency has been working on plowing the snow off the roads since 4:30 a.m. Roads that are more travelled on are getting top priority. The EPD has on its website which roads are being plowed.

According to the university parking transportation department, no parking citations will be handed out today.

“If students don’t feel comfortable with driving tonight, they can leave their cars on campus overnight without a citation,” parking transportation office clerk Kelsey Pardon said.

According to a UO Alert that was sent out Friday Afternoon, all classes, events and non-essential services beginning at 2 p.m. or later today will be suspended.

If students do plan on driving, then McLaughlin urges all students to drive cautiously and leave a plenty of room in between you and the other cars.

For more tips on how to drive in the snow, the EPD released an inclement weather driving tip video:

Inclement Weather Driving Tips – PSA from EPD PIO on Vimeo.

Amid the hundreds of University of Oregon students who were taking a class from professor Cathleen Leué, Jonathan Wu was just another student in the mix.

“The class was pretty large, so I wasn’t able to talk to her during that time,” Wu said. “I decided to go to her office hours one time, though, just to tell her that I really loved the class, and we ended up talking for over an hour and a half just about everything about the university, the future of online education and things like that.”

That office visit was the start of a mentee relationship that Wu had with Leué. She would advise him on everything, from choosing a major to life in general.

Their relationship abruptly ended in June, when Leué passed away at age 56.

Wu was in Taiwan for the summer and didn’t find out about her passing until the first week of school.

“She always made time for me, even when I dropped by unannounced. That’s not something that I think a lot of students can say about their professors,” Wu said. “I always went to her for advice, and she opened my eyes to a lot of things.”

Leué also helped Wu receive the Mary E. Russell Scholarship, which helped Wu focus less on paying the bills and more on academics.

“She made a very real-world impact on me,” Wu said.

Wu wants to return the favor by helping spread the word to get a $20,000 scholarship in her name as one UO students can apply for.

“I want that scholarship to become a reality so that it can help people just like Leué did,” Wu said. “I want people to see that through that scholarship, she had an impact on campus.”

Along with the scholarship, Wu is also looking to name the Social Science Instructional Labs after her, which is a group of labs Leué founded, dedicated to helping faculty and staff become better acquainted with software technology. But according to Wu, naming the SSIL after her has been difficult. Garron Hale, associate director of the College of Arts & Sciences Information Technology Support Services, agrees that naming the labs has proven to be difficult.

“I think it’s a good idea, but I know getting a building or lab named after someone is a trivial process and it takes quite a bit of time,” Hale said. Hale has taken over the director position at CASIT ever since Leué, who was the founder of CASIT, passed away.

“Having worked with her every day for about 15 years we were good friends and shared the ups and downs of running two IT departments,” Hale said. “She was very proud of what we created together.”

Whether it comes in the form of a scholarship, a lab or in some other way, Wu just wants to make sure Leué isn’t forgotten on campus.

“The way she treated and helped me reflect on how I would treat others also,” Wu said. “She helped me to become a better person.”

The ASUO Constitution Court can now officially uphold and regulate the ASUO Constitution for this year after adding two new justices to its bench.

Aubrey Hoffman and Thomas Bush are the two new court justices after they were appointed and approved by the ASUO on Nov. 13. Both Hoffman and Bush are law students at the University of Oregon, Hoffman being a first-year student and Bush in his second.

Hoffman is familiar with the university student government process from serving as a non-voting senator, an associate justice and a chief justice during her time at Portland State University.

Once she graduated from PSU, Hoffman took some time off from school and became a legal assistant at a Portland, Ore. law firm called Smith & Greaves. During her time there and when she was actively in student government at PSU, Hoffman learned that working with people with different views and thoughts from her own made her become more diverse with her understanding of law.

“Working with people with different ideas help shaped my own ideas,” Hoffman said. “I learned a lot from other people, and I’d like to share my experiences and absorb other people’s experiences, as well.”

During her confirmation at the ASUO Senate meeting, Hoffman listed being a mother of two daughters as one of the unique qualities she brings to the table.

“I’m a mom, and having to mediate conflict between my daughters has taught me to be level-headed and calm during those type of situations,” Hoffman said.

Similar to Hoffman, Bush served his undergraduate outside of the UO as well. Except he spent his time at the University of Texas.

After graduating from UT, Bush went on to be a part of Teach For America, a nonprofit organization dedicated to sending 3,600 teachers to high-need, under-resourced public schools throughout the country. For two years, Bush taught English and journalism to over 200 ninth-grade students at a high school in Ewa Beach, Hawaii.

“Even after two years, I wouldn’t call myself a good teacher by any regard, but I learned a lot from it every day,” Bush said. “Coming from that I learned what failure is like, what success is like — and I learned a lot about myself, too.”

Along with Hoffman and Bush, the other members of the court this year are Pat Chaney, Caleb Huegel and Chief Justice Allison Apana.

Live coverage of Wednesday night’s ASUO Senate meeting:

Senate Agenda

Speaker’s List