Former UO student and prisoner of North Korea, Kenneth Bae said in a press conference on Monday that he admits to committing crimes against North Korea. Bae also said that he would be safely returned if the United States government were able to cooperate with North Korea.

“I believe that my problem can be solved by close cooperation and agreement between the American government and the government of this country,” Bae said at his press conference.

According to the Associated Press, Bae said that his sister’s and Vice President Joe Biden’s remarks about him being detained for no reason have hindered his chances of leaving.

“I think these comments infuriated the people here enormously. And for this reason, I am in a difficult situation now,” Bae said. “Although I was in medical treatment in the hospital for five months until now, it seems I should return to prison. And moreover there is greater difficulty in discussions about my amnesty.”

“Bae’s comments are an appeal to Washington to actively persuade Pyongyang to release him,” Kim Jin Moo said, a North Korea expert at the South Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. “We shouldn’t take Bae’s comments merely as his own. The reason why North Korea had Bae make this statement … is that they want Washington to reach out to them.”

Bae’s appearance came weeks after a Korean War veteran from the United States was released from a North Korea prison. After a few weeks in prison, Merrill Newman, who is 85 years old, was released because he apologized for his alleged wrongdoings of committing war crimes towards North Korea during the war.

Kenneth Bae has been in prison for over a year now. He is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence of hard labor for allegedly committing crimes against North Korea.

If there was ever a time to be a part of the ASUO, now would be that time.

After five Senators resigned from their positions over winter break, Senate is now in the middle of a hiring process to fill the recently vacated seats.

The reasons behind former Senators Kevin Frazier, Lexi Olson, Stephanie Schie, Parker Williams and Jonathan Wu leaving the Senate vary from everything to balancing time commitments and studying abroad.

Parker Williams, the first senator to resign, left due to her commitments to her sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma.

“Last year I was elected Vice President of my sorority, and with it came a lot of responsibility,” Willams said. “I haven’t been able to be as involved with Senate as I would have like, so I had to resign. There a great group of people, and I wish nothing but the best for them.

Wu can commiserate the difficulties of balancing time commitments.  He left to take a heavier course of classes for the term.

“I also wanted to be able to concentrate my efforts, instead of spreading myself thin, towards my responsibilities on the Clark Honors College Student Association and the Mock Trial team,” Wu said.

Schie resigned from Senate to move to Las Vegas to accept a teaching job from Teach for America, an organization that sends teachers out to community with low academic test scores. Schie is currently finishing up her UO degree online and working full-time to pay for her moving expenses. Olson also resigned to travel, but she’s going a little further west than Schie. Olson is studying abroad in London, England during winter term.

Senate is in the middle of the hiring process right now to fill the five seats, as well as searching for a Freshman Representative. The Freshman Representative seat wasn’t vacated, rather, this is when Senate usually hires for the position.

“It’s going really well so far. As of now, we’ve interviewed nine people,” said Senator and member of the hiring process Quinn MacLean. “What we do in the hiring committee is interview all of the applicants, and then we make our recommendations to the Executive, who decide who they’ll appoint.”

According to MacLean, 15 people have applied for the six open positions. After the Executive makes their appointments, the potential new Senators will go in front of Senate where they’ll be asked various questions. If Senate is satisfied, then they’ll approve the appointment, making six students brand new ASUO Senators. The process is expected to last two or so more weeks.

Adam Lanza — the infamous 20-year-old who killed 26 people in Newton, Connecticut before killing himself —  called into the University of Oregon radio station, KWVA in 2011.

Lanza called in on John Zerzan’s show, “Anarchy Radio.” During the call, Lanza talked about a Connecticut chimpanzee who was shot by the police after it attacked a woman in 2009.

According to CNN, the New York Daily news identified the caller as Lanza, and confirmations by two of the shooter’s friends were also received by the newspaper. There have been no further confirmations.

“His attacks can be parallel to the attacks, the random acts of violence, that you see on your show every week, committed by humans which the mainstream also has no explanation for,” the caller who was possibly Lanza said. “An actual human, I don’t think it would be such a stretch. He very well could be a teenage mall shooter or something like that.”

The ASUO Senate helped fund the Muslim Student Association and the Chinese magazine HuaFeng for their upcoming projects and events Wednesday night. Leading up to getting the requests granted though was a bit of a struggle for the groups.

HuaFeng Magazine has gone to the ASUO on multiple occasions throughout the year to request funds for printing expenses for its quarterly magazine. This time though, HuaFeng was looking to get funding for a group retreat on the coast.

“We’ve never used the ASUO money for things outside of printing,” Xueyang Ma said, HuaFeng editor and ASUO International Student Advocate. “But this time, we’re unfortunately going to have to because we don’t have enough funds.”

During week seven of winter term, Ma and the other 38 members of the HuaFeng Magazine staff were looking to do a retreat in a beachfront property house. According to Ma, there are no structured plans for the retreat. Senator Miles Sisk was hesitant to support the request, mentioning that there isn’t a reason to travel for a bonding event when those experiences can be found on campus.

“I’ve never seen it necessary to spend thousands of dollars on a retreat for something that I’d say that thousands of college students are getting right here already,” Sisk said. “I’m not picking on you specifically, but I do want the retreat to be something that the ASUO needs to talk about, and unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be voting for this.”

Sen. Helena Schlegel looked to see if maybe finding cheaper housing would be an alternative to lower the group’s $3,301 request, but Ma said that he had already tried that option, but that it was difficult to find room for 38 people at a reduced cost.

After a motion was made, senate decided to unanimously accept HuaFeng’s request of $3,301.

Senate had questions for the Muslim Student Association’s request as well, specifically the possibility of the MSA profiting from the request, which isn’t in concordance to the Green Tape Notebook, which serves as a constitution.

The MSA were looking to turn their student guide into an app for iPhone and Android devices. The app would be the same as the student guide that they hand out at the beginning of every term, except this one would have language options in both arabic and english, where as the physical guide is only in arabic. They were requesting $2,000 from the ASUO, and on top of that, they were planning on charging one dollar for the app, which would go towards fundraising.

“We have pretty strict rules on what we fund,” Sen. Taylor Allison said. “Since there’s going to be a charge to the app, I don’t think we’re allowed to fund it.”

Sisk suggested that they don’t charge the app so that the ASUO could fund the project, but if they’re able to find an organization that is willing to fund the app with the fee, then the MSA could go ahead and give the $2,000 back to the ASUO. After agreeing to the terms, the MSA was granted its full request.

Live coverage of Wednesday night’s ASUO Senate meeting:

Senate Agenda

Speaker’s List

On a corner dirt lot on Broadway Street in the middle of the night, Todd Nelson secures the perimeter of the place that he’s been calling home for the last five months. With a crowbar in hand and an injured back from fighting in Iraq, Nelson does the best he can to ward off bad company for the residents of Whoville, a DIY homeless campsite that has 65 residents just looking to survive.

“If we’re not together, then it’s everyone for themselves,” Nelson said. “And if we do that, we’re susceptible to thieves and druggies that are looking to start some trouble when all we want to do is have a decent place to sleep.”

Whoville came to be last August when the Eugene Safe Legally Entitled Emergency Places to Sleep organization, better known as SLEEPS, began a month-long protest outside of the Eugene courthouse to demand a safe place for homeless people to sleep. City council responded to the protest by legalizing two homeless campsites at Roosevelt Boulevard and Chambers Street. The two legal homeless campsites only allow 15 people maximum per site, meaning that those that are turned away move to Whoville, which is still considered an illegal campsite according to the city.

“We’re only missing one thing, and that’s police protection from the outsiders,” Nelson said. “We need to be able to protect the women better.”

According to Nelson, Whoville has more women than men in the camp, and one of those women are pregnant. Nelson says that she’s three months pregnant, and she’s been staying at Whoville for the last month. If anyone is hurt in Whoville, Nelson and one other person do what they can with the one small medic kit that’s suppose to help all 65 residents.

For food, the camp relies on a dining room that’s provided by the Eugene Mission. For 57 years, the Eugene Mission has been the constant helping hand for the homeless.

“Really, we are the only game in town. This is it,” Dana Eck, Eugene Mission director of operations, said. “We’re able to hold 360 people, and on a daily basis we make 700 meals.”

Even with their high-capacity, Eck says that on some nights — particularly the coldest ones — the shelter has to make the hard decision of turning people away. Once they’re left without a place to stay, by the mission, some homeless people resort to steal others supplies to get them through the night.

One night while Nelson was securing Whovilles’s parameter, two strangers came to the site looking to rob whatever they could find. Nelson approached the two men, who attacked, using his own crowbar against him. Nelson ended up with two bruised ribs.

“I can’t fight the way I used to, and to be honest I don’t really want to,” Nelson said. “Fighting just leads to more fighting. I’ll defend this place when I need to, but this place is meant for survivors, for the people who need a place to stay and have nowhere else to go.”

Along with the new year comes dozens of laws that have been enacted and are now officially required. Among some of those laws are ones that will affect students now and in the future.

Over the last few years, texting and driving have gone hand in hand with each other. Fifty-five percent of young adult Americans believe that texting and driving doesn’t affect their driving, and 77 percent of young adults are fairly confident that they won’t crash while they text.

Confidence is one thing, but facts are another.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 18 percent of all fatal car crashes are due to driving while texting. The most recent number of people being killed nationally due to a distracted cell phone driver rose from 3,267 in 2010 to 3,331 in 2011. Within those two years, 800,000 more people were injured in a distracted-driving related accident.

It’s because of those haunting numbers that Oregon has decided to make the consequences for texting and driving more severe. Starting with the new year, fines for texting and driving have almost doubled from $50 to $160, and a judge can add up to $500 to the charge.

According to Eugene Police Department Public Information Officer Melinda McLaughlin, texting and driving is an offense that the Eugene Police are actively searching for. McLaughlin says that in 2013 alone, 954 total citations were handed out for texting and driving.

“It’s more than important for everyone to not be distracted on the road,” Lieutenant for the Oregon State Police Gregg Hastings said. “Receiving a text message takes a driver’s eyes from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds. At 55 mph, it’s like driving the length of Autzen Stadium field blindfolded.”

Another new law in Oregon lets students looking to enter the job market breathe just a bit easier. Starting this year, employers are prohibited to require workers or applicants to provide them access to their social media accounts, including Facebook and Instagram.

Christine Lonigan, the employment manager for the University of Oregon, says that social media shouldn’t be a relevant part of the application process to begin with.

“I’ve been doing hirings for the university for 27 years, and there’s nothing to gain that’s essential or functional from looking at someone’s social accounts,” Lonigan said. “The problem with social media is that you’re also getting an applicant’s race, gender, religion and sexual orientation while you’re looking through their accounts, and all of those things are illegal to consider while hiring someone.”

These laws, among many others, have been put fully into place as of Jan. 1. Some other new laws that have been put into place this year involve everything from who can use a tanning bed to who can get their mug shot removed from websites.

The Sexual Assault Support Services of Lane County, a confidential advocacy and outreach center for survivors of sexual violence, are having to cut back their face time with survivors at the University of Oregon.

Due to two employees quitting recently, the remaining six employees have had to cut back their hours of providing outreach, advocacy and support for people who’ve been sexually assaulted in order to keep offering all their services.

According to the annual university Clery report, sexual assault cases more than doubled from 13 in 2011 to 30 in 2012 in areas under jurisdiction of the UO Police Department. However, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network reports that up to 60 percent of sexual assaults are not reported to the police, meaning that numbers included in the Clery report could be too low.

Earlier in the year, the SASS campus advocate position almost disappeared due to a contract dispute with UO administration. According to Assistant Vice President and Dean of Students Paul Shang, a new contract is in the process of being written.

“There were a series of complications with the contract throughout the summer, and due to things slowing down during the holidays, the contract is now finally being written by the UO contracting services,” Shang said. “One of the hold ups were from the previous ASUO Senate transferring to the current senate. Intentions of the previous senate for this contract weren’t clear, but after the proposal was clarified, we talked to SASS and now everything’s back on track.”

The other major dispute with the contract was that according to the UO administration, SASS’s presence on campus would’ve been a doubling of services that the UO already offers.

Of the remaining employees at SASS, only SASS’s Executive Director B.B. Beltran is full time. Beltran says that even with the recent cutback, SASS still won’t be cutting back their services.

“Our services haven’t changed, and we’re still able to respond to people who need to talk to us with our 24/7 hotline,” Beltran said. “The only thing that will be changing is that we won’t have an advocate in person on Mondays and Fridays for drop-ins in our office.”

In order to boost services back up to previous levels, SASS is looking to hire an advocate who will deal primarily with UO students and will be located on campus. The other position they’re looking to fill is a bilingual volunteer.

In addition to providing support services, every April SASS partners with the ASUO Women’s Center to host Take Back the Night, a nationwide event at universities that aims to raise awareness for the issue and to end sexual violence. SASS and the Women’s Center turn Take Back the Night into a week-long event that involves rallies, a community tabling and a panel of guest speakers who share personal stories of surviving sexual violence.

“I just want for SASS to be able to have an opportunity to get an even bigger presence campus,” Amy Jones, a senate vice president and strong supporter of SASS, said. ”The larger their presence, the more students who have experienced sexual assault will be able to contact them for help.”

Along with the new year comes the ASUO Senate looking to get some new faces on the body after five senators resigned at the end of fall term. Senators Parker Williams, Jonathan Wu, Kevin Frazier, Lexi Olson and Stephanie Schie all resigned, leaving the ASUO Executive the task of finding new people to fill senate seats as soon as possible.

“Think about the student groups that aren’t represented here, and see if they’re interested in Senate,” ASUO Internal Vice President Azia Calderhead said at Wednesday night’s meeting. “We’re looking to get as many students from as many student groups represented here.”

The Senate applications are available on the ASUO’s website, and are due Jan. 10. The hiring process will consist of being interviewed by a hiring committee that’s composed of Senators Alivia Felciano, Quinn MacLean, Senate President Matthew Miyamoto and ASUO External Vice President Greg Mills.

“The hiring committee will be conducting the interview process, but before we interview them we’ll be sure to screen applicants via their applications,” Miyamoto said. “After that we’ll make our decisions, and then the executive will appoint who will be the next senators.”

A representative for business and economics, history and journalism, undeclared and music arts and a freshman representative are needed, as well as a representative for the Program Finance Committee and the EMU.

During a special request for the Multicultural Center, Sen. Taylor Allison shed some new light on how the body should be funding for food for events. Allison pointed out that according to the Green Tape Notebook, the ASUO handbook, food can be funded only if it’s integral to the event, if it serves all incidental fee paying students and if the food is not being used for a profit.

“It just seems interesting that the event has to be open to all students, and that it can’t be used for a meeting for just a specific group,” Allison said. “I just think it’s something that we need to keep in mind.”

Live coverage of Wednesday night’s ASUO Senate meeting:

Senate Agenda