The University Senate voted to change the multicultural requirement for students at the University of Oregon at its meeting Wednesday afternoon.

The multicultural requirement will now require incoming students to take one class out of each of the two new categories: “US: Difference, Inequality, Agency” and “Global Perspectives”. You can read more about the changes here.

These changes will be in effect fall 2019.

This change replaces the current requirement that requires students to take two classes out of three categories: “Identity and Pluralism”, “American Cultures” and “International Cultures”.

According to the multicultural requirements task force, the previous requirement allowed students to graduate without taking a class that explains the racial history of the United States.

These changes are aimed to ensure that all students who graduate UO have been educated on American history as well as global cultures.

In 2016 the Senate created a task force to address the multicultural requirement after the Black Student Task Force brought up an issue with the previous requirement.

The task force worked to redesign the multicultural requirement and proposed changes to the Senate throughout winter and spring term before voting.

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The University of Oregon launched the Center for Big Learning on campus, giving UO access to a broad network across the country of computer science research institutions and increasing research opportunities for graduate students at UO.

The Center for Big Learning is located on the third floor of Deschutes Hall and will create “state-of-the-art” technologies and procedures to establish the university as a leader in computer science research through “deep learning,” according to its website.  

The center opened after a $175,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, or NSF, and belongs to a program called the Industry Cooperative Research Center, or ICRC.

The grant covers the expenses necessary to run the center as well as scholarships for graduate students to work at the center, according to Dejing Dou, professor of computer science and director of the center.

Dou said the fact that UO has access to the Talapas computer, which can process mass amounts of data faster than a normal computer, made UO more competitive for the NSF grant.

The ICRC is a network of three other universities across the country: the University of Florida, the University of Missouri and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

According to Dou, the universities within the network share data, information and resources with each other to increase their research capabilities.

The network also connects researchers across the country through weekly Skype meetings and biannual in-person meetings. UO will host the ICRC meeting in fall 2019.

The Center for Big Learning takes big steps in data research

The center works with companies who pay a $50,000 a year membership to be a part of the NSF network and become industry partners. The university will work with the industry partners and conduct research on its data.

UO has already signed on Wells Fargo, IBM Research and Data Logic and plans on partnering with five other companies by the end of the month.

“It’s exciting because we have seen the overwhelming interest from industry partners,” Dou said.

Dou will lead a research team of around 10 graduate students who will sign on to different research projects for each industry partner.

According to Amnay Amimeur, a third-year Ph.D. computer science student who works at the center for big learning, the research projects will be personalized to fit the company’s issues with the researcher’s goal.

For example, Wells Fargo signed on to be a part of the center to gain insights on fraud risk from data research, according to Amimeur.

The center and Wells Fargo will then match a student to the project based on common goals.

These research projects will start in the summer, after a meeting between all universities in Florida later this month.

Dou said this opportunity for graduate students will help them understand the industry better than an internship would.

“Once a student finishes their education and training in the center, they are ready to do the full-time job, “ Dou said.

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If you are an honors-bound student majoring in business, general social sciences, romance languages or chemistry, your requirement for departmental honors just got harder.

The University of Oregon has updated its requirements for awarding honors to eliminate solely GPA-based departmental honors at the university and now requires a research thesis alongside a strong GPA.

After an extensive review of honors awards at the university, the Honors Task Force presented a report to the University Senate that catalyzed changes to come in departmental and Latin honors at UO.

The university will eliminate all departmental honors that are based solely on GPA and will standardize Latin honors to be equal across all terms. Also, the registrar’s website will host a main document defining what honors are and how each major can achieve them to be clearer for students.

These changes will not affect seniors graduating this spring.

According to Frances White, professor of anthropology and co-chair of the Academic Council, these changes are aimed to make achieving honors fair across the board at the university.

“You’re basically giving honors to a group of students that haven’t done a thesis – haven’t done all the extra work and research that a thesis-based route student would have,” White said. “They could have the same GPA, but one of them has done way more to get honors than the other has.”

Departmental honors are awarded within a department of study, such as the Lundquist Business School or the College of Arts and Sciences.

According to the report from the Honors Task Force, among the 37 majors that offer departmental honors, eight of them have GPA requirements only.

The Senate also passed changes to Latin honors at the university to make them more equal across all terms. In the past, Latin honors were awarded to the top 10 percent, 5 percent and 3 percent of the graduating class each term.

This led to inconsistencies between students graduating in different terms. According to Julia Pomerenk, assistant vice president for enrollment management and university registrar, over the course of a five-year period, the average GPA for receiving Latin honors was lower in the summer than it was in other terms.

“Depending on the GPA of the students who are graduating at the same time you are, that might vary. It does vary,” Pomerenk said.

This means if you had a GPA of 3.63 when you graduated, you would have received Latin honors if you graduated in the summer quarter but would have not received them if you graduated in the spring quarter.

The university registrar is working on a solution to make earning honors equal across the entire year so that the GPA requirement does not change within the academic year.

The Honors Task Force was convened by former Provost Scott Coltrane last year to analyze the state of honors at the university, according to White. The task force presented a report to the Senate last June that called on the academic council to propose changes to the Senate.

The Academic Council presented these changes to the Senate based off of the Honors Task Force report, which the Senate later passed on April 11.

Changes to the Clark Honors College were also proposed; however, the CHC is restructuring itself and will address these changes in their remodel, according to White.

“It’s unfair between the students. The goal is to make honors fair,” White said.

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The University of Oregon Campus Shuttle announced in a Facebook Post yesterday afternoon that it will be expanding its routes to reach students who live near Autzen Stadium.

This route, the “Autzen Line”, will take students to the Stadium Park Apartments and McKenna Apartments. The shuttle will leave the EMU on the hour and get to the apartments on the half hour.

The new route will launch after “Take Back the Night” Thursday evening at 8:30 p.m.

The UO Campus Shuttle runs from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. every day and offers two other routes to get students home.

“We hope that our shuttle routes and the additional Autzen LIne will help provide safe transportation around campus and the apartments near Autzen,” the Facebook Post read.

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In a massive move towards becoming more competitive in university research, the University of Oregon has put its faith in the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation, or OVPRI.

The OVPRI extended its resources to help faculty conduct even more research at the University of Oregon. These changes are aimed to improve the University of Oregon’s national ranking and attract external funding for the university.

“Research helps foster education. That’s one piece of our mission as a university,” said David Conover, vice president of research and innovation. “The next piece of it is to advance knowledge and advancing knowledge in many disciplines requires external funds.”

The OVPRI provides several services to researchers at the university, including applying for the legal rights to research ideas, drafting proposals for grants and fellowships and reducing administrative overhead costs. The office is also improving facilities and resources on campus.

Conover presented developments the OVPRI is implementing at the university Senate meeting last Wednesday. You can read more about them online.

The changes to come include new facilities and resources, such as a high-performance computer called Talapas and high-speed internet to make high-speed data processing at the university much faster. Data processing typically takes a long time, according to Conover. The internet should be up and running by late May.

According to Conover, the OVPRI expanded its “seed grant” program this year. A seed grant is a smaller money award, usually around $50,000, to kickstart a research project to make it more eligible for larger grants from companies or institutions outside the university.

The OVPRI promoted this program and received “around 20” applications for seed grants this year, Conover said.

The UO Center for Environmental Futures was awarded $600,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation earlier this month. The center received a seed grant from the OVPRI to start their research that later led to their award.

The university also created incentive awards for the graduate students to apply for fellowships and grants as well.  Postdoctoral student of psychology, Caitlin Bowman, was awarded $2,000 for submitting an application for a fellowship.

“The Vice President’s Research and Innovations office had an incentive award for submitting the fellowship that I actually received,” Bowman said.

The OVPRI also began a partnership with the Oregon Health Science University to create collaborative grant opportunities between UO and OHSU. The grant will work like the seed grants, but candidates are eligible to apply from both UO and OHSU and the universities will share their resources. Around 40 applications came in for the program’s first year a few weeks ago and will be reviewed by both OHSU and UO. The winner will be announced in late May.

Professor of computer science Dejing Dou, who has conducted five research projects at UO, said that receiving funding at the university for projects is “very competitive” and time consuming.

Dou went on to say that he thinks the structural changes to research at the university from the OVPRI are going to help attract top graduate students and postdoctoral students to UO.

Funding for the OVPRI is primarily from federal returns of external grants, according to Conover. When the university conducts research, they receive a federal return for the resources they use. They don’t receive any money from student tuition.

According to Conover, another exciting development is the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerated Scientific Impact.The Knight Campus is not a project of the the OVPRI, but the office will provide aid and resources for its research endeavors, just as it aids various other colleges on campus.

Conover said the university has not experienced a change in research this great in several years.

“In recent history, this is the biggest thing by far,” Conover said.

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In the coming weeks the University Senate will hold elections to slate a new vice president and president-elect after it officially instates its new president, Bill Harbaugh.

As Senate president, Harbaugh said he will focus on updating course evaluations, continuing the conversations on core education and improving the relationship between University of Oregon administration and the Senate.

Harbaugh has been part of the Senate for eight years and was the president of the Senate last academic year. He ran to be the vice president for this year while he was still president.

According to the Senate bylaws, the Senate vice president is elected at the last meeting of spring term. The vice president then becomes the president after serving as a vice president for a year.

The vice president coordinates all of the committees within the Senate and must stand in for the president if they are ever absent from a meeting.

“The way it works is you are elected as vice president and president-elect. So you really run a year before you actually become president so there’s kind of a training period,” said Harbaugh.

The Senate president receives a raise of $30,000 and still teaches a full course load, according to Harbaugh. The raise can be used for research money or a summer salary, according to the Senate website.

Comparable universities relieve their presidents from teaching courses and the president focuses solely on Senate matters, Harbaugh said.

The Senate is negotiating with the administration to imitate other university Senate structures, according to Harbaugh.

Harbaugh said that one of the things he wants to address as Senate president is improving the relationship between the Senate and the administration.

“I’ve worked pretty well with the administration, but they would prefer to make the large decisions themselves without consulting the Senate and the students,” Harbaugh said. “I need to push back on that as Senate president to make sure the Senate has an active role in running this institution.”

One of the ways Harbaugh plans on achieving this is through reorganizing some of the Senate committees to work more efficiently with university administration.

University of Oregon political science student Jade Warner said she was unaware UO had a Senate and felt she and her fellow students do not know what they have power over.

“They should definitely reach out to students,” Warner said. “We are the people paying for this institution.”

Warner went on to say students themselves should strive to get involved as well. “If we can get from it what we want, it can be a better experience for everyone involved,” she said.

Students have a lot of ways to get involved in the Senate to create change, according to Harbaugh.

There are five student positions within the Senate, as well as opportunities to serve on the different Senate committees.

“I encourage students if they are interested in a subject to let me know, and I will do my best to find a committee that’s within that area that they can serve on,” Harbaugh said.

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The University Senate unanimously voted to change departmental honors on campus at its meeting on Wednesday following recommendations from the Honors Task Force report last June.

Changes include eliminating departmental honors that are based solely on GPA and creating a regularly maintained document outlining all honors opportunities at the university that will be posted on the registrar’s website.

These changes will be in effect by fall 2019. Seniors graduating this spring will not be affected by this change.

The changes to the GPA-based honors come after inequalities between different departments’ honors. For example, a sociology major at UO needs a 3.4 cumulative GPA, where a biology major needs a 3.3 GPA in upper division credits and an intensive research thesis to receive honors.

Departmental honors are separate from university-wide honors. The Senate also voted to standardize the GPA for earning university-wide honors to be consistent across all quarters of an academic year.

These changes will be in effect by fall 2019 and the academic council will continue working to make more changes to be in effect as the policies are clarified, according to Senate president Chris Sinclair.

Follow Hannah Kanik on Twitter: @hannah_kanik

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The University Housing department proposed expansions and renovations to the University Health Center at a Board of Trustees meeting last month. The project will be approved or denied once the budget for the renovation is finalized and reviewed by the Board. The budget, anticipated to be between $17.8 and $19.2 million, is scheduled to be finalized in April.

The student population has grown significantly since the last Health Center remodel in 2007 and now the center is failing to meet the needs of students, according to Michael Griffel, director of university housing. The student population has grown by over 2,000 students since 2007, reaching nearly 23,000 in fall 2017. He said students are also using the health center services more than they were before.

The objectives of the remodel include increasing the amount of space in the center to accommodate the amount of students who use the health center. It’s also in anticipation for the student population’s future growth.

The proposal includes constructing a 22,500 square foot addition to the health center, as well as renovating 11,000 square feet of the existing structure to improve confidentiality, expand services and update deferred maintenance on the building. According to Griffel, they plan to break ground in June of 2018 and complete the renovation and addition by fall 2019.

“There just isn’t capacity in the current facility. We don’t have enough clinical space,” Griffel said. The proposed renovations include updating the heating, ventilation and air conditioning as well.

The renderings of the building show a large, L-shaped addition to the health center. Griffel said the building is expected to be “quite attractive.”

Griffel said they are still working on how best to conduct business in the Health Center during the renovations. One of the ideas now is to construct the addition first and move operations into it while the existing structure is renovated.

The Health Center’s last update in 2007 cost $10 million and created new procedure and treatment rooms and added 10,000 square feet to the center.

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This term, the University Senate hopes to change the general education requirements for all students. Other goals on its agenda include approving honorary degrees and updating leadership within the Senate.

Core education

The Senate is making changes to general education, now called core education, to better align with the university mission statement.

“What the accreditors want is alignment between what we are offering and assessing with the university mission,” said Senate President Chris Sinclair.

These changes are supposed to simplify requirements students need to graduate, such as the specifics for a Bachelor of Arts.

“We would like to be able to make some innovations on this where students can take clustered themes of courses,” Sinclair said.

For example, if a student wanted to major in business, they would take the business cluster that would satisfy all general education requirements for that student in the most efficient way possible, ultimately expediting general education requirements, according to Sinclair.

The new system would create a solid foundation that the university can build on, creating more unique aspects of the general education experience, according to Sinclair.

These changes and others have to go through an extensive review process. The soonest changes, including changed learning requirements for each class, could be implemented by fall 2018.

Honorary degree process

Last year, the university changed its policy on awarding honorary degrees to now include the Senate as a part of the chain of approval for them.

An honorary degree is a degree awarded to an individual who has done something substantial for the community without going through the typical requirements for receiving a degree.

In 2001, Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, was awarded an honorary degree at the UO for advocating for disadvantaged individuals.

During week four, the senate will have a closed meeting to discuss the nominated individuals and decide to approve or deny the individuals’ honorary degrees.

The list of approved individuals will be forwarded to President Schill and the Board of Trustees for final approval.

Appointments and elections within the Senate

Starting next week, surveys to indicate interest in serving on committees will be sent to faculty, officers of administration and classified staff.

In the Senate, several committees are responsible for a specific issue or topic, such as course evaluations or environmental issues.

The Senate either appoints or elects members to its various committees. Elections for committees will be held later in the term.

The Senate will also nominate its new vice president on the floor of the Senate during its week 10 meeting.

The current vice president will become the new president of the Senate and the current president will become the immediate past president.

“I will be rotated into the immediate past president, Bill Harbaugh will be rotated into the president, and whomever is elected to be VP will be going into that position,” Senate President Chris Sinclair said.

Last term, the University Senate passed a resolution from the UO Student Collective denouncing white supremacy on campus, began discussions on changing the general education requirements and made changes to the Clark Honors College.

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During fall term, a student demonstration sparked a debate that would challenge the student conduct code, the power of administrators, and institutionalized racism on campus. The issue even gained national media attention when the New York Times published an op-ed from President Michael Schill criticizing the protest.

After the University of Oregon Student Collective interrupted Schill’s “State of the University” address on Oct. 6 to protest several issues – including rising tuition and white supremacy on campus – they were faced with “confusing” student conduct charges and little support from the administration, according to student collective member Caroline Crisp.

Following the protest, the student collective worked with the University Senate to propose changes to the student conduct code. In response to demands from the collective, the Senate denounced white supremacy on campus and created a task force to educate the community on UO’s racist history.  

The student collective, a group of student activists, was established on campus in fall 2016 to improve the student experience at the university through substantial systematic changes.

“We all noticed that a lot of our demands weren’t being met and things weren’t getting done. Tuition kept rising, the issue of white supremacy was still not being addressed,” said Crisp.

The student collective published a list of 22 demands following their demonstration that called on the administration to address tuition prices, make the university more eco-friendly and embrace the diversity of students on campus.

Following the protest, 13 members of the collective were charged with student conduct violations — “disruption of the university” and “failure to comply.”

Students were able to appeal their charges or accept them by pleading guilty. If a student plead guilty, the charges would not show up on their university record. If they appealed and lost, the charges would show up on their record permanently.

Some students choose to plead guilty, while others, like Crisp, chose to fight their charges.

However, members of the collective had grievances with the student conduct code and the disciplinary review process they underwent following the protests. The collective challenged these processes through a resolution to the senate.

Since the protest, the collective has passed two resolutions through the senate. One established solidarity between the senate and the collective as the students navigated their conduct charges and the second denounced white supremacy on campus.

Vice President for Student Life Kevin Marbury addresses the crowd at President Schill’s speech on Oct. 6 while members of the UO Student Collective flood the stage in protest. (Sarah Northrop/Emerald)

Resolutions

The collective presented a resolution to the university senate on Nov. 15 that called the senate to support the collective and urge administration to drop the conduct charges. Additionally, the resolution asked the senate to denounce white supremacy on campus.

On Nov. 28, President Schill and Provost Banavar sent a letter to the senate urging them not to support the student collective’s resolutions.

The letter states, “The proposed resolution makes some sweeping generalizations about the university’s priorities that are not consistent with our actions.”

Schill claimed that the collective was aware of the consequences they would receive before the protest. The letter also states that the university cannot legally deny any white supremacist groups from coming to the university under free speech laws.

On Nov. 29 the resolution was split in two. The first resolution addressed the student conduct charges and established the Senate’s support of the collective as they navigated their charges. The second focused on denouncing white supremacy on campus.

Despite Schill’s letter, on Nov. 29, the Senate passed the first resolution supporting the collective.

On Dec. 1, President Schill wrote a letter to the senate standing by his previous statement denouncing the collective’s resolution.

“Even though there was no formal policy change from that resolution, I think the administration maybe learned a lesson on how to go about these sorts of conversations,” Senate President Chris Sinclair said.

He said it was significant that the senate supported the collective despite opposing views from administration.  

The second resolution, which denounced white supremacy on campus, was discussed at the University Senate meetings in early January. The senate debated the legality of denying white supremacist groups on campus under the first amendment right of freedom of speech.

The senate executive board, with the help of students and faculty, reviewed and rewrote parts of the resolution to be more compatible with freedom of speech laws.

The senate passed the collective’s second resolution to denounce white supremacy on Jan. 31. This resolution created a task force within the senate to combat racism on campus. The task force will be comprised of President Michael Schill, senate president Chris Sinclair, and student leaders. The task force will recruit its first members later in the term when the other senate committees are slated.

This group is set to educate the student body about possible plaques to add to the monuments and statues around campus that have been considered racist in recent months.

Institutionalized racism on campus

Institutionalized racism is a form of racism that can exist in institutions such as universities due to systematic tendencies that alienate or disadvantage minorities. For example, the university raising its tuition creates a financial barrier for students of color who come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

One of the main factors in the collective’s protests was the feeling that the university is not a safe place for minorities on campus.

“People are literally fighting for their lives,” Crisp said.

UO has white supremacy embedded in its history, represented through buildings memorializing members of the KKK and a mural in the library that represents white superiority.

Last April, a white nationalist group came to campus near the EMU. The collective wanted to recognize that these groups pose a threat to students and ensure the university does not welcome them to campus.

The collective referenced this event in their proposed resolutions to the senate. Additionally, members of the collective said the investigation to identify the members at the protest targeted minorities on campus.

The student collective is not the only student group to call out the administration on institutionalized racism.

The Black Student Task Force, made up of the UO Black Women of Achievement and the Black Student Union on campus, protested institutional racism on campus in the fall of 2015. The group emphasized systemic issues with UO and presented a list of demands to address these issues.

One year after the protest in 2016, the BSTF held a second rally on Nov. 11 to acknowledge the fact that less than half of their 12 demands had been fulfilled. They continued to fight for more changes after their protest.

Most recently, the university is working to change the multicultural requirement to educate students about the racial history of the United States.

Issues with the conduct code

Members of the collective also expressed their disappointment with the student conduct process at the senate meeting, and included their criticisms in its resolution. They said that the administration’s investigation targeted minorities and the student conduct disciplinary  process was confusing.

Administration could not provide a comment on a specific disciplinary case out of privacy of the students.

Crisp said she feels the student conduct process at the UO treated students as though they were guilty until proven innocent rather than innocent until proven guilty.

When a student receives student conduct charges they are notified of the charges and have seven days to respond before administration will proceed with the process. Students then attend an administrative conference to discuss the incident in question. Following the conference the student will receive a written decision finding them “responsible” or “not responsible.”

The administration used Facebook to identify the students at the protest to file the charges against them. This process led to false charges against Lola Loustaunau who did not attend the protest. She was charged after she marked that she was going to the protest though the Facebook event page.

In many cases, the students who were charged with conduct violations had to seek their own legal counsel, according to Crisp. The students were told by the student conduct office to talk to the Office for Student Advocacy. However, according to Crisp, they cannot take multiple cases at once with the same charges, leaving many students to seek their own legal counsel or plead guilty to their charges.

“I let the system tire me out,” Crisp said.

Following their experience navigating the process, the collective proposed changes to the student conduct code that have been discussed in the Student Conduct Committee.

These include the addition of student peers in the judgement process in cases involving free speech. The peers could be present during the administrative conference to advocate for the student being charged during the disciplinary process.

Sandy Weintraub, director of student conduct and community standards, said the committee is slated to propose changes to the Board of Trustees in June. The possible changes to the conduct code would be presented there and must be approved by the Board of Trustees before final changes are made.

“The idea behind the student conduct code is to create a set of community standards that allows everyone at the university to have a positive experience in their education that is free from being harmed by others,” Weintraub said.

According to Weintraub, it is too soon to say if any changes the collective proposed will be presented to the Board of Trustees.

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