Student Mental Health Advocates are in the EMU Amphitheater today from 12 to 5 p.m. handing out snacks, coffee, tea and free Stress Less Kits to students. The event is a part of the winter term Stress Less event going on all week.

The event is designed to help students through the stresses of finals and the end of the term.

According to Juan Rivera, one of the founders of the event, Stress Less has expanded over the years. The event began four or five years ago and only lasted one day during dead week; now, Student Mental Health Advocates partner with other on-campus resources to hold the week long event.

The Rec Center is holding free exercise classes like yoga and crossfit throughout the week; for more on how exercise helps your stress levels, check out the Kara Thompson’s article here.

Other event partners include the Duck Nest, which is hosting animal therapy from 2 to 4 p.m. tomorrow and the Student Sustainability Center is hosting zero waste crafting from 1 to 3 p.m. on Friday.

The president of Student Mental Health Advocates, Jennie Shen, said the event “helps students to get by” during the stresses of finals.

See the whole calendar of Stress Less events here.

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Terri Nordone’s abortion experience happened in high school.

She remembers that on a bright and sunny day, one girl walked into the abortion clinic and another girl walked out, she said. Now Nordone speaks about her experience with abortion at events and teaches support classes for women and men who have had experiences with abortions.

A pro-life group at the University of Oregon, called Students for Life, brought Nordone and two other speakers to an event on Thursday night called “Women Speak! The Abortion Experience No One Talks About.” All three speakers were from Save One, a religious program for abortion support.

Students for Life hosted the event at Lillis Business Complex, but they also meet Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in the EMU. According to the group’s Orgsync profile, they focus on providing resources and information about abortion alternatives.

When she was fifteen years old, Nordone became pregnant unintentionally. Her father made her an appointment at an abortion clinic. Nordone returned to school a few days later.

The family didn’t talk about that day until years later. Nordone said that she has still never spoken to her father about the abortion. She has never had kids and said that she has to deal with the fact that her “only child” was aborted.

Nordone said that she had been a student at the University of Oregon at one point, but the abortion experience caused her to drop out. Depression and eating disorders accompanied her time as a student.

“No one can dispute how it affected me, that is reality,” Nordone said about her experience.

Nordone said she fulfills a purpose by speaking at Save One and teaching classes. She said that telling her story has gotten a little easier with time; in the beginning she would tear up when she would tell it.

Melody Durrett, director of Students for Life, said it is important to challenge the “predominant narrative” of abortion on campus.

“The predominant narrative is that abortion is no big deal and that you shouldn’t really feel bad about it,” said Durrett, who is the director of Students for Life.  

“I think that in reality a lot of women have really negative consequences from their abortions,” Durrett said, “and people really don’t talk about that.”

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Tablecloths and decorations in bright red, green and yellow set the stage for Sharon Alitema Saturday night as she performed a dance, called the Kinyarwanda, from her home country of Uganda at the African Student Association’s (ASA) Taste of Africa Night.

Dancing at cultural events provides a way for Alitema, an architecture major at the University of Oregon, to showcase her culture through entertainment. She said that being in a country far away from her own can be difficult; but, these events give her a taste of home.

Taste of Africa Night is an annual event put on by the ASA every winter. According to Fatoumata Traore, who serves as a co-director for the ASA, the event used to be formal but they wanted it to feel more open for people because not everyone owns formal attire. So this year they kept it casual.

One thing that Traore said was important about the event is that it helps to “break the stereotype of Africa.” She said that people often mistake Africa as a country, and ignore the individualities of the 54 countries within the continent.

Alitema said she waits for these events to pull out her African attire. “In the Eugene culture people wear sweatpants every day,” she said, “I have a whole box of African clothes I can’t wear.”

This year’s event consisted of multiple activities, a short three-performance show with drummers and dancers, as well as dinner, which included plantains, couscous, chicken, fish, puff puff and rice.

Throughout the night, students tasted Ethiopian coffee and waited in line for henna tattoos, while others played a map game and guessed where each of the countries were located in Africa.
The biggest event that the ASA puts on is called Africa Night, scheduled for June 3 in the EMU Ballroom. However, the ASA staff consists of seven people, so while this event is not the biggest event that the association holds, it can still be difficult for them to host.

“It takes months to plan,” Traore said, “but at the end of the day it is beautiful.”

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Kincaid Street west of Knight Library will be closed until Friday due to construction.

Workers using a crane are lifting a new heating, ventilation and cooling system to the roof of Knight Library as part of a project to replace mechanical systems in the Special Collections section of the library.

Jana Gerow, the owner’s representative for University of Oregon Campus Design and Construction, said that Kincaid Street was the only place for a crane to operate near the library.

The overall project of replacing the Special Collections mechanical systems will not be completed until mid-July, according to Gerow, and there will likely be a need for another crane between now and then.

For updates on the construction project, click here.

Today is the first day of HVAC construction for the Knight Library. For construction updates please click here: https://t.co/8vGkBQWApm pic.twitter.com/rYhwbrWVHO

— UOregon Libraries (@uolibraries) March 1, 2017

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Once construction on the new residence hall on 17th Avenue is complete, the University of Oregon will have 10 functioning dorms. As the new dorm comes online, a new requirement for first year students will begin as well. In fall 2017, all first year students will be required to live on campus. 

Currently, the university houses about 80 percent of first year students on campus. According to Leah Andrews, the director of marketing and communications for university housing, the number of first year students living on will rise to approximately 90 percent next year. The remaining first year students are expected to fall under exemptions. For example, if a student lives with their parent or guardian within a 30 mile radius of the university, they are not required to live on campus.

According to Andrews, space is not going to be an issue. Even without the new residence hall, the university would have enough space to move to a live-on requirement. However, opening a new residence hall in the fall gives the university the opportunity to take half of Bean hall offline and to begin renovations without losing any space.

UO is the last public university in the state to move to a live-on requirement, according to Andrews. Other universities such as Oregon State have seen GPA improvements and higher retention rates after moving to the live-on requirement.

“Student success is at the heart of this change,” Andrews said.

According to a study by UO’s Division of Student life, students who live on campus for their first year have on average a 0.13 higher freshman GPA than students who live off campus.

The study also states that students who live in a conventional residence hall have a higher life satisfaction rate and higher rate of social belonging than those who live off campus in their first year. The report concludes that students who live on campus their first year are more likely to graduate than their off-campus peers.

UO’s cheapest room combined with the standard meal plan costs $11,430 a year. This has raised concerns in the past among students about the increasing costs of a college education.

When OSU required first year students to live on campus, it was only one element of the campus’ First-Year Experience program.

OSU’s goal was to increase student retention and increase the six-year graduation rate, according to Brian Stroup, associate director of university housing and dining for OSU.

“We have well over 10 years of data that says students who live on campus have a higher GPA overall than the average of those that live off campus,” Stroup said.

The decision to move to a live-on requirement at both the UO and OSU were made by the leadership at each university and not by the housing departments.

“It was a decision made by the university for the overall success of students,” Andrews said.

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The University of Oregon and a Eugene utility company recently partnered to begin a new program offering free energy efficiency assessments for Eugene area rental properties.

The UO Office of Sustainability started the Home Energy SCORE Program two weeks ago. Students working with the program are sent out in pairs to assess local rental properties using the U.S. Department of Energy’s Home Energy Score to rate the home’s energy efficiency.

Amelia Burnett and Abigail Graham are interior architecture students at the UO and employees of the program. During a home assessment they measured windows and ceiling heights to make sure they lined up with previous records from Eugene Water and Electric Board — the partner company in the program. Types and sizes of windows determine how much heat can escape for the home.

Steve Mital, the UO Office of Sustainability Director and EWEB Board of Directors member, who oversees the program, said, “The window square footage and ceiling heights are needed to ensure apples to apples comparisons to other homes.”

As part of the assessment, the two students removed an outlet cover to check for insulation in the walls and used an infrared camera to check for heat escaping the room. Outside the house, they inspected roof vents, openings in the foundation and the coloring and style of the roofing material. According to the assessment team, the lighter the color of roofing, the more heat it reflects — an important factor in energy conservation.

The current program evolved from $CORE, a program started by a UO student in 2012. Originally the program aimed to supply students who lived off campus with “freebies” like energy efficient light bulbs, low-flow shower heads and weather stripping.

According to Mital, there are still programs in place through EWEB to assist renters with improving their scores; however, the current program through the Office of Sustainability is no longer focusing on “freebies.”

Mital said that with the new format, the program expanded to the entire Eugene area, instead of being limited to students. The program mainly focuses on low-income renters.

Unlike $CORE, The Home Energy SCORE Program requires access to an attic in order to asses the insulation, ductwork and whether or not the space is vented. This means scores cannot be given to apartments.  

“We are doing 240 assessments this year. We have kinda mapped that out,” Mital said. “It will take about 20 weeks to complete all that work and we are two weeks in.”

Julie Havelka, a current tenant, scheduled an assessment because she was unhappy with the heat in her home and wanted to know how efficient her home was.  

Pointing to her heavy sweatpants and layered shirts, Havelka said her home is always cold, which is burdensome because she works from home.

Students give each property a score of 1-10 after the assessment. Renters, as well as the property owner, are sent the score once information from the inspection is compiled and analyzed.

The students employed by the program were required to obtain certifications and training to get the job. The eight students selected have all completed certain courses from the UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts as well.

The City of Eugene contributed $10,000 to the program, which covers the labor for the assessments, according to Mital. EWEB provided $3,000 for the students’ training and certifications.

Kim Carson, Co-Curricular and Monitoring Coordinator for the Office of Sustainability, oversees the scheduling and fills in for students on assessments.

In terms of what the Office of Sustainability spends on the program, “It basically comes down to Kim’s hours,” said Mital. Carson said she usually spends eight hours a week on the program, but that number can be as high as 16 hours a week depending on whether or not she goes on assessments with students.

While the new program format is just getting started, Mital said, “This year we’re focused on a successful pilot.  That’s the first and most important step towards making a case for on-going funding.”

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University of Oregon President Michael Schill announced this morning that he will not dename Deady Hall despite demands made by the Black Students Task Force in fall 2015. He also wrote that a renaming process for Cedar Hall, previously Dunn Hall, will move forward and that the university will begin work on a Black cultural center.

Following the BSTF demands, Schill appointed a committee that assisted in establishing criteria for what would justify the denaming of a building. Schill appointed three historians to “research the historical record of Dunn Hall and Deady Hall’s namesakes” and released their report on Aug. 9, 2016.

“In my view, the facts set forth in the historian’s report do not support overturning the presumption of renaming Deady Hall,” Schill said.

Schill wrote in the announcement that Deady was “a deeply flawed man. He held racist views which I find abhorrent and contrary to the principles of our university. His support of slavery prior to the Civil War cannot be excused.” However, unlike Dunn Hall’s namesake, “he was not the head of an organization which espoused violence against vulnerable populations.”

Schill acknowledged that many students will still see Deady Hall as “a symbol of racial intolerance…” However, ” While the process of naming or denaming a building has symbolic value, symbols are less important than actions that affect the material circumstances of members of our community.” 

In the same release, Schill said that the university will fulfill one of the BSTF demands by building a new Black cultural center at the university. He said he plans to work with students to design the space. A $250,000 donation was made to the project by Dave and Nancy Petrone and fundraising efforts will continue.

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University of Oregon President Michael Schill announced this morning that he will not dename Deady Hall despite demands made by the Black Student Task Force in fall 2015. He also wrote that a renaming process for Cedar Hall, previously Dunn Hall, will move forward and that the university will begin work on a Black cultural center.

Following the BSTF demands, Schill appointed a committee that assisted in establishing criteria for what would justify the denaming of a building. Schill appointed three historians to “research the historical record of Dunn Hall and Deady Hall’s namesakes” and released their report on Aug. 9, 2016.

“In my view, the facts set forth in the historian’s report do not support overturning the presumption of renaming Deady Hall,” Schill said.

Schill wrote in the announcement that Deady was “a deeply flawed man. He held racist views which I find abhorrent and contrary to the principles of our university. His support of slavery prior to the Civil War cannot be excused.” However, unlike Dunn Hall’s namesake, “he was not the head of an organization which espoused violence against vulnerable populations.”

Schill acknowledged that many students will still see Deady Hall as “a symbol of racial intolerance…” However, ” While the process of naming or denaming a building has symbolic value, symbols are less important than actions that affect the material circumstances of members of our community.” 

In the same release, Schill said that the university will fulfill one of the BSTF demands by building a new Black cultural center at the university. He said he plans to work with students to design the space. A $250,000 donation was made to the project by Dave and Nancy Petrone and fundraising efforts will continue.

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Julie and Keith Thomson gave a $2 million gift to the University of Oregon for a staff upgrade to the HEDCO training clinic, which is part of the College of Education, the university announced today.

UO plans to use the funds for creating a new position in the clinic, which will help provide low-cost educational services, according to the announcement, and will “serve as an advocate for the families who visit the clinic, helping them navigate different services and get the best care possible.”

Julie Thomson is an alumna as well as a member of the College of Education advisory council. Keith Thomson was the chair for the UO Foundation Board of Trustees and is the retired Vice President and Oregon site manager for Intel Corporation.

The HEDCO Clinic houses the Center for Healthy Relationships, the Speech-Language-Hearing Center, and the Center of Teaching and Learning, according to its website.

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As winter term starts, these six construction projects on campus move closer to completion.

Chapman Hall: Set for completion winter 2018

Chapman Hall awaits a construction permit to start renovations, scheduled for March. UO is not holding any classes in Chapman and the Clark Honors College is temporarily operating out of Mac Court until renovations are complete.

Workers have already completed interior demolition, according to Project Manager Gene Mowery, which allowed for confirmation of the design; workers opened up the building and were able to see what it needed.

“Essentially we have gutted the building,” said Mowery. “There is still some historic fabric that is left in the building; but, this is a very extensive renovation.”

Built in 1939, Chapman was once home to the original UO bookstore and humanities classes, but it’s purpose has changed. Mowery said the renovation is “timely” not only regarding system updates but concerning space configuration as well, to better serve its current uses.

The renovation is scheduled for completion beginning winter term 2018 when the Honors College resumes its normal operations in Chapman.

New unnamed residence hall: Set for completion in June 2017

The new residence hall, just south of the Global Scholars Hall, is well under way and construction continues through winter and spring terms to meet the June completion date.

According to George Bleekman, project manager, the shell is completed and the windows are installed.

The hall is currently unnamed, according to Michael Griffel, UO Director of Housing. Griffel is currently working with students in the Residence Hall Association to choose a name and begin the naming process.

Berwick Hall: Set for completion June – July 2017

Berwick Hall changes look with a new renovation, located near the School of Music and Dance. The Oregon Bach Festival received donor funds to build the new hall, according to the project description on the Campus Planning, Design and Construction website. The project costs about $8.7 million — all donated.

“We are working right now on putting a roof on the building and looking for some dry weather in which to do so,” said project manager Martina Oxoby.

The project is scheduled to be completed sometime during the Bach Festival next season, which runs from June to July, according to Oxoby. They are hoping to have an event centered around the building at that time as well.

Oregon Hall: Set for completion fall 2018

Oregon Hall will soon be undergoing renovations also. According to Patrick Munker, project manager for Oregon Hall, workers are about two weeks from knowing when construction will begin, however, parts of the building have been vacated.

The business affairs offices on the first floor temporarily moved to the Thompson Center on East 13 Ave.

Pacific Hall: Set for completion June 2018

Parts of Pacific Hall and Huestis Hall are undergoing renovations as well, with crews working in scattered areas throughout the buildings.

Pacific Hall is undergoing multiple renovations including rooms on the first and second floors and in the basement.

Pacific is scheduled to be completed in June of 2018, according to the Campus Planning, Design and Construction website.

Huestis Hall: Set for completion May 2018

In Huestis Hall, workers are renovating two rooms to create a new lab, according to the Campus Planning, Design and Construction website.

A Register-Guard Article from September reported that 14 labs will be updated upon completion. Half will be used for current faculty and half will be used for new hires.

Huestis Hall is scheduled to be completed in May of 2018.

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