Gazing at the moon one night, UO junior Francesca Varela started contemplating the idea of a nocturnal society, where the sun had gotten too strong and people only came out at night.  Following that vision and her penchant for writing, she found herself grasping a copy of her first published novel, Call of the Sun Child.

“I felt like I had something to say also, I wanted to bring people’s attention back to the natural world and help them break free of what society is telling them and have them think for themselves more,” Francesca said.

The environmental studies and creative writing major first heard her own call to nature after a year-long encounter with a bard owl that sat on a branch in her backyard. According to Francesca, the owl — perched with his back facing her and his head all the way around — calmly locked his pitch-black colored eyes with her own.

“I had never looked at a wild animal before and I felt something change inside of me. After that, every time it was there I went outside and watched it,” Francesca said. “It was some primal feeling. Even my dog felt it, at that exact moment she started growling.”

Since then, Francesca’s awareness and interest for the natural world has increased, fueling much of her writing.  Although Call of the Sun Child is her first published novel, Francesca recalls writing her first piece about the planet Neptune in the third grade.  Later that same year, the nine-year-old created a 36-page “little story” about a snail.

Francesca’s mother, Traci Varela, says that she would always find her daughter playing in the woods behind their home with a journal in hand, “that’s her solace.”

The West-Linn high school graduate describes her writing trademark as descriptive, illustrative and poetic, which she finds funny since she doesn’t like writing poetry. Throughout her time in college, Francesca believes the exposure to a diverse set of ideas has also developed her writing in a more mature and well-rounded way.

“Francesca’s prose is both careful and imaginative,” Francesca’s creative writing instructor Sarah Blakley-Cartwright said. ” She never asks a reader to work without ample pay-off.”

Still, the soft-spoken writer restricts herself from sharing any of her work until it is finished in fear of jinxing it. In the case of her novel, it took Francesca about six months of writing before she showed it to her most trusted confidant: her mother.  Although she tries not to force anything, Francesca pushes herself to write something each day, even if it’s at least a sentence.

Since finishing Call of the Sun Child, Francesca has written another book and has an idea for another novel, which she doesn’t plan on starting until this summer.  The young novelist admires work with messages behind them and strives to do the same, for her it’s usually to reconnect with the natural world.

“Once that connection is made, people will learn to care again,” Francesca said. “Once they learn to care, change can happen and we can change the negative aspects of the way we treat the environment today.”

Thomas Failor is a 47-year-old, full-time, working man, husband and father, and is currently enrolled in the Applied Information Management masters program — despite living 250 miles north of campus. For the last two years the Tacoma, Wash. native has dedicated one to two hours (three if he’s lucky) every evening to completing University of Oregon’s only online masters program, one course at a time. For students like Failor, support, communication and engagement are key for student success, no matter what format a course is in.

Earlier this month the UO announced the launching of its first Massive Open Online Course through its American English Institutes and Linguistics department. The free open class is aimed to help foreign English language instructors build upon their skills. It will partner with educational technology company Coursera to offer the course. A 2013 Managing Online Education Survey, reported that 5 percent who “signed up for a Coursera MOOC earned a credential signifying official completion of the course.”

Though the AIM program does not keep track of its completion rate, according to program manager Sonya Faust, the program does a good job at working with its students, giving them individual attention and helping them complete the program — despite never being in the same room as their teacher. Available program statistics show that about 16-24 students complete the program every year in the average time it takes to complete a traditional masters program. About 20-25 students enter the program every year with a total of 40 students in the program.

“I was not a rockstar student in my undergrad days. I didn’t have a big fancy GPA, that’s for sure, but I had a lot of technology experience,” Failor said. “If I wanted to continue in a more technical role, (I would have to have gotten an) information systems type of education.”

Failor has worked in and around information technology for more than 20 years, after getting his undergraduate degree in history. Through the AIM program, Failor has learned the mechanics of digital technology and received insight through his instructors who are both UO faculty and current field professionals.

“So they’re very interactive. This is not a one-way flow of information,” Failor said. “It’s a pretty tight-knit community.”

According to Failor, there are a variety of ways to communicate in the course, and it’s up to the professor how they handle it. He has had an overall positive experience with the 21 courses he has taken – regardless of whether teachers have chosen to post lectures through YouTube or require more interactive weekly video chats.

Communication and organization of the department was apparent to Failor and it has provided a strong feedback system. He recalls an instance in which he was emailed by a professor and  invited to become a guest instructor after he suggested adding a component to a course through a course evaluation.

“Even though I haven’t seen the people that run this program face-to-face, I feel like I have a great relationship with them because we’ve been working on this program together for the last two and a half years,” Failor said.

Despite similar overcast and gloomy skies to Oregon, 19 UO students traveled almost 5,000 miles for the opportunity to attend a conference on global justice and human rights at Oxford University during their spring break.

A total of nine Clark Honors College undergraduate students and 10 graduate students from the Conflict Dispute Resolution Program were selected for the conference.  The program, in its second year, was made possible through The Stern Fellowships Fund.  Students from other universities also joined the group for the week-long trip.

The conference held personal resonance with Ben Nussbaumer, a junior and economics major, because of his prior involvement in the military.  The 24-year-old was given the opportunity to share his experiences during two overseas trips as a Marine infantryman with the group.

“I got to see a lot of the world in that time and interact with a lot of cultures and people and gave me an interest in a world beyond the United States,” Nussbaumer said.

Nussbaumer came away from the full days of seminars, workshops and discussions with a deeper understanding for human rights.  His favorite part of each day, however, was team time, a break during the morning where he, his peers and faculty members gathered together in an old dining hall, drank coffee and tea and discussed what they had learned.  It is something he wishes would be imitated in other programs.

“I hope they come out with a deeper appreciation of human rights. There really is immense value of hearing about this from the perspective of another country outside of the United States,” Cheyney Ryan, a UO professor emeritus in the Conflict and Dispute Resolution Program told the University of Oregon in a recent Around the O article.

Students also worked with Hugo Slim, a senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict and one of Oxford’s leading authorities on the area of human rights.

Hayley Shapiro, a senior studying international relations, appreciated the straightforward and honest worldview of the lecturers and guest speakers. Though it was a little disheartening at times, she believes that the no-nonsense worldview helped to raise a level of maturity and awareness in the group. Shapiro, who travels the world working as a humanitarian clown through the Gesundheit institute, was able to come away with a more holistic view of humanitarian work within all its levels.

“If anything I came away humbled that these people were willing to share their experience and be so raw about it,” Shapiro said.  “I think it’s definitely left an imprint on everyone, regardless of everything they have seen or have been through, they are still passionate about their work.”

The insight provided has motivated Nussbaumer and Shapiro to pursue an interest within this field, although still exploring through which outlet.

“I think its valuable to consider the humanity of other people,” Nussbaumer said. “Even in the most discouraging of circumstances such as war, there can be a resolution and that it’s a goal worth pursing if someone is interested in trying to make life better for people.”

Long before the Ducks made frequent trips to bowl games, the University of Oregon was known as a premier research institution. Since 2011, Kimberly Espy, vice president of research and innovation and dean of the graduate school, has made it her priority to keep that legacy alive.

After World War II,  the United States government began investing a lot more heavily in research with big federal contributions to help move projects along, Provost Scott Coltrane said. One manifestation of this investment at the UO is The Institute of Molecular Biology, the first institute of its kind in the country founded in 1959.

Today there are more than 20 interdisciplinary research centers and institutes at the UO, ranging from specialties in the sciences to humanities. As VP, Espy oversees each of these areas, in addition to 70 graduate programs. Still, she looks forward to the end of her days where she can unwind in the lab.

“The time I am able to spend on my research is my favorite part of the week,” Espy said. “Because that’s actually who I am, I am a researcher and that’s what I care about.”

For the last 20 years, Espy has been a clinical neuroscientist specializing in the development of young children. She admits that not everyone wants to work with a bunch of three-year-olds but recalls having fun with her research.

As the VP of research, Espy still loves working at an institution where faculty are “discovering tomorrow’s knowledge today,” giving students the opportunity to learn new things first hand before reading about them in a textbook five years from now.

In her administrative role, Espy’s goal is to reduce stress on faculty so they can focus on discovery. However, her path has not been without challenges, including government shut downs, agency sequestrations and federal budget cuts.

In particular, having fewer dollars available for faculty research has created stress for faculty members, Espy said. Often, research faculty have to make tough decisions cutting the amount of work they had hoped to accomplish, the number of student workers they hoped to have, or spending more of their time applying for grants.

“[Regulations] are very detailed and difficult,” Espy said.  “And shoot, faculty members just want to be focused on things they love the best: doing research and creating new knowledge that benefits students.”

Moving forward, the office of research hopes to integrate more collaboration with undergraduate students and to create a stronger presence on campus. Projects include launching a capstone program where students could work alongside faculty to carry out an independent research project. The university plans to officially announce this program later this spring and hopes to launch a pilot of the program next fall.

“If you do what you love, you’ll love what you’ll do,” said Espy. “Research is fundamentally about discovery. As I have found as my research has unfolded, there are always new questions to be asked that get me excited, and that propel you on to the next question … it’s a never ending process that feeds onto itself that I think is very exciting.”

Opinions on online degrees are becoming more esteemed as online education gains traction among accredited universities and students increasingly migrate to the web for courses.

A 2013 study by Babson Survey Research Group shows online enrollment at 7.1 million student, which accounts for 33 percent of total higher education enrollments. Many have questioned the value of an online degree, but the study shows that learning outcomes for online education has increased over the years. Of the 2,800 chief academic officers and leaders surveyed, 74.1 percent learning outcomes in online education as the same or superior to comparable face-to-face environments.

The University of Oregon has been slower than other universities in expanding its online education market. About 4,000 UO students took an online course between 2012-2013 in about 60 titles, according to Kassia Dellabough a Senior Program Manager from the UO’s Office of Academic Extension.  This spring, the University will be launching its first Massive Open Online Course designed to help educators more effectively teach English as a foreign language through its American English Institute. The UO also offers one other fully online degree, a masters in Applied Information Management.

According to officials, the university is looking to ensure quality above quantity in the courses it offers online.

Associate professor of anthropology Josh Snodgrass is the chair of undergraduate council, a body that reports and reviews on the quality of general education at UO. It is currently developing guidelines for support and oversight of online courses.

“I frankly am kind of skeptical of all online degree programs. They are often, in other places, done poorly,” Snodgrass, who believes online education is great in regards to accessibility, said. “There are examples out there that are done well but I think you have to be very careful and it’s really hard to do right.”

The undergraduate council has helped to craft guidelines for online learning around three points: communication, academic dishonesty and quality of interaction. They hope these guidelines will help to standardize and elevate rigor for online courses at the UO.

The group is also working on possibly adding an extra piece for the course evaluation process which would require online instructors to go through a university level process instead of through their department, which is the current procedure.

As an instructor for 11 years Robert Voelker-Morris understands the bad reputations online courses receive when students confuse convenience with ease. Voelker-Morris also serves as the teaching effectiveness program’s educational technology specialists and helps faculty who want to transition into an online platform develop their program. He has redesigned his own courses throughout the years to improve the experience for his students by establishing a strong presence, interaction and feedback loops.

“I think online learning, just like any kind of learning, is not for anyone,”  Voelker-Morris said.

“The University of Oregon has been thoughtful in its approach to online education. It is likely that more online education opportunities will be offered in the future as it fits with curriculum and the teaching needs of the university,”  a statement from Doug Blandy at Academic Affairs said.

Blandy points out that a majority of courses use a form of online education to assist in-class and in-laboratory interaction with faculty and students.

“Some departments are more involved than others,” Blandy said. “We are supporting efforts incrementally to focus on the quality of education over the delivery mechanism.”

The University of Oregon’s online education system has unfolded gradually over the years.  The roots of UO’s online education can be traced back to the days of distance education when faculty would drive out in station wagons to rural Oregon to deliver science labs, says Kassia Dellabough, director of UO’s office of professional outreach and development for students.

Through the years, UO’s outreach has taken a turn towards a virtual route to accommodate the increased number of students taking an online course, a local phenomenon that reflects a national trend. Despite increased interest, UO has yet to follow the lead of other universities, such as Oregon State University, in developing a centralized hub to help streamline it’s online services.

Still, this hasn’t stopped different pockets within the university from exploring the online frontier and creating unique programs of their own.

“I think when people talk about e-learning or online education, that’s a huge umbrella term for all different kinds of models of delivering a learning experience,” Director of eLearning for UO’s American English Institute, Leslie Opp-Beckman said.

Opp-Beckman oversees E-Teacher Scholarship Program that offers foreign English teaching professionals help to develop and strengthen their language skill through fully online-courses.  More than 100 countries and 1,200 people participate in the program.

Opp-Beckman is working with Keli Yerian, the director for Linguistics’ Language Teaching Specialization Masters program, to put this program online for international students based in different countries.  It would be the first online masters degree in the College of Arts and Sciences.  The university currently offers only one other online masters program in Applied Information Management.

“We’re seeing this really powerful synergy between our international global partners,” Opp-Beckman said.  “(eLTS) is a new opportunity to build off this foundation network.”

According to Opp-Beckman, teachers and students can still bond in an online classroom, in spite of having little, if any, face-to-face interaction.

“Those teachers really feel like they know each other and at the end of the course in the course evaluations again and again, the participants say ‘we’ve loved working with our lead faculty and each other,’” Opp-Beckman said. “Aside from the academic content of the course, getting to working with 20-something other colleagues around the world is incredibly enriching.”

Ayunda Siagian, one of the program’s E-Learning’s partners from Indonesia, sees a strong demand from professionals in the country.  She believes it’s a great opportunity for professionals to develop and advance their English language skills while connecting with other people around the world.

“There is all these pockets of people doing cool things but we are not a unified,” said Dellabough in terms of online educational programs.

At UO, the Office of Academic Extension and the Libraries are working on a partnership that would create an Instructional Technology Referral office as a way to help faculty navigate resources on online campus.

The new office would help to streamline the disbursed resources currently available, according to Dellabough.  She also believes it would help to create an inventory of what technological resource services are being utilized on campus as she sees a disparity among different departments.  This office would also help figure out what faculty are missing in their classes, and guide faculty through the process of adding innovative technology to their courses.

The project is currently undergoing a feasibility study to see how cost-effective it will be.

“We are trying to be thoughtful in how we’re moving forward so we can statically invest in the right direction,” said Dellabough.

According to Dellabough, the debate over distance education — like decentralized online learning platforms — has been an on-going conversation since she joined in in the 1990’s.  While the UO has focused on improving and strengthening residential, undergraduate and graduate education over the recent years, dialogue around distance education has ramped up once again.

“UO has always been big on decentralized because there is a perception of more freedom to innovate and take action in a more efficient way,” Dellabough said. “It also gives ownership down to the departmental level, where many believe it belongs.”

OSU on the other hand has made distance education a priority and created a robust online education platform called E-Campus in 2002.  It has help to streamline resources and infrastructure needed in order for it to provide its 34 online bachelor’s and graduate degree programs.

“We feel very strongly as a land grant institution we should provide access to all learners in this state, not just those who can get to a traditional class room,” said director for ECampus, Lisa Templeton. “By putting (degrees) online we have been able to provide … access to an OSU education to learners all across the state, country and the world.”

ECampus has infrastructure that pairs designers and experts in online education and pedagogy with faculty members in academic units.  The ECampus staff helps develop online courses while faculty members focus on the discipline and content.  Multimedia experts help create a rich learning environment for students to interact with the content, faculty and other students.

Templeton feels that having a central unit to support all academic colleges made the most sense to use resources effectively.  ECampus provides a group of experts that departments can pull from to create quality online courses.

“We learned a lot, a lot of it depends on the culture of the campus and getting others to be on board with online education and understand its benefits and that takes a long time,” Templeton said.

As tuition continues to rise, low-income students and their families are having to pay a disproportionate amount of those cost increases compared to their peers in higher income levels, according to federal data analyzed by education journalists.

The Tuition Tracker created by Dallas Morning News, The Hechinger Report and the Education Writers Association uses data from the Department of Education to show what students in over 3,000 colleges and universities pay in tuition based on their families income level.

According to an article in Dallas News, the data shows a widening gap between country’s rich and poor, making it increasingly difficult for low-income students to go to college.

The University of Oregon offers one of the most affordable net price tuition rates (cost of attendance minus grant and scholarship aid) in the state for low-income students.

Data compiled from 2011-2012 shows that families at $48,000 or lower income levels paid between $11,188 and $12,698 in tuition, well below the sticker price of $21,638.  About 58 percent of freshmen of that same year received grants with an average amount of $7,074.

“There is a strong interest in keeping the university affordable,” Jim Brooks, the director of financial aid, said. “As a large state flagship institution we consider that part of our mission.”

Brooks credits the Pathway Oregon Program that caters to low-income, Pell-eligible students. The program helps to cover the cost of tuition and fees to Oregon high school students who graduated with a minimum 3.4 G.P.A and are eligible for the federal Pell grant.

The program was set up by former the Director of Financial Aid Elizabeth Bickford and Susan Lesyk from the Teaching and Learning Center after having concerns about what the UO was doing to support low-income students. Pathway was recently hailed as a model program by the U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Since its inception in 2008, Pathway has grown to fund about 1,600 students. According to Brooks, the University is opening up the program to even more students as long as they meet the set requirements. The University pulls money from the general fund and fundraising from the UO’s Foundation and Development to cover the costs.

“The university has made a commitment to say that we will find the money to do this,” said Brooks.

According to an Oregonian article, tuition at UO and Portland State University is 15 percent less than Western Oregon University. Families who made less than $48,000 in income for 2011-2012 paid about $13,000 of the sticker price of $20,941. The article also points out that in the same year, high-income families that made more than $110,000 paid 96 percent of the full sticker price for tuition at UO.

“It’s difficult balancing costs and maintaining the level of education, and keeping faculty that we need in order to keep the institution where it is,” Brooks said. “We work hard at what we do and I know sometimes students don’t think we are but I promise you we are. We are very sensitive to what it costs to go here and we want the university to stay affordable to students and so we always keep that in mind.”

Last month, a special committee appointed by the University of Oregon Senate and the President Michael Gottfredson released a special report that reviewed the Office of Research, Innovation and Graduate Education. The report uncovered inconsistencies in policies, lack of communication throughout offices and departments and an overall insufficient amount of oversight on research affairs.

“Enhancing our faculty’s ability to create and discover is a fundamental aspect of our university’s mission. We are grateful to have the RIGE report’s guidance to support our research endeavors. The report offers good insight and I will work with the provost to implement the suggestions,” Gottfredson said.

The University increased oversight by implementing stricter requirements that follow federal guidelines. Prior to these findings, the institution did not enforce the proper controls in place like audits and record keeping.

“We are a campus that has relied on goodwill. We need to make sure that we are following the rules and communicating about them better — less of a mom and pop shop and more like a business,” Provost Scott Coltrane said.

According to Coltrane, the findings do not signify a diminish in the quality of research.

Last year, the Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown’s office conducted an audit that confirmed reports of workers manipulating payroll, involving money from federal funds by recording unearned overtime on time sheets. The University has since then paid back the research costs. Two employees involved were also given notice to leave while other faculty members involved were given protocol training.

According to Coltrane, the inappropriate use of funds was during a time when the University was not allowed to pay classified staff for overtime or give raises from 2009 to 2013. The University requested an audit after the research office initially discovered the misreporting of funds.

“The landscape for university research funding has changed dramatically in the past few years,” said Kimberly Espy, vice president for research and innovation. “The path to the future as a successful research institution is best undertaken in an environment that encourages open, two-way conversation between administration and faculty that recognizes this new context.”

The report also points out the effects caused by the recession that has played a contributing factor in RIGE affairs. The dip in the economy not only slashed major sources of funding for research from federal and state level but lowered the value of stocks that had been donated to the UO.

According to Coltrane, the University had planned to have the funds available by 2015 for projects like building labs. Now that the stock market has improved, the funds are now set to be used in 2018. The hole in the budget led Espy, who stepped into her current role in 2011, to enforce belt-tightening policies. The vice president of research has also standardized the flow of money between research institutes and departments.

UO administration and the research faculty are continuing to work together to improve communication, collaboration and accountability between offices and departments.

“Overall, we used to be more of an informal verbal communication campus,” Coltrane said. “You can’t afford to do that in research or running a major university anymore.”

A broken sewer line on Mill street between 12th and 13th avenue has caused the area to be temporary blocked off.

Crew members are currently working on the issue but  according to Anthony Rutter from Ready Rooter & Chapman Plumbing company, it may take until 3 a.m. to get everything cleared up. One of two water lines are back on after being shut off for part of the day. The company first heard about the incident yesterday and has been working on it since 9 a.m. this morning.  

Wish that 8 a.m. class was available online? That day may come soon. The University of Oregon is currently working on an initiative to facilitate more online courses, certificates and degree developments.

About 4,000 students crossed over to the digital classroom by taking at least one of the 60 different online courses offered at UO, according to Kassia Dellabough, director of the Office of Professional Outreach and Development for Students.

Dellabough was one of the first to teach an online course in 1997 and currently part of the group looking into increasing online education offered. Dellabough also is working with UO Senate on various policies related to assessment and academic quality. She’s also looking toward some policies related to course delivery reviews.

“I have found that in many cases, students actually seem to get more engaged in some of the content,” Dellabough said. “I may have stronger student to faculty dialogues via discussions and email than I might in an office meeting or larger class interactions.”

A key driving force behind the popularity of online courses is the flexibility for both students and faculty.

Sophomore international student Mengting Li is taking two online classes this term for her accounting major. Although she has liked the flexibility, one thing Li has found difficult in her online courses is not having physical presence of a teacher or classmates makes. “It’s really hard because no one teaches you so you have to learn it by yourself,” Li said.

Oregon State University and the University of Washington are two schools that provide a robust online education system. OSU’s e-Campus has received a number of awards including a spot on U.S. News & World Report’s Best Online Bachelor’s Program in 2014. E-campus offers over 30 bachelor’s degrees and graduate programs.

For the last 10 years, the UO has offered one online masters program in Applied Information Management. The university is carefully looking at both of these models and assessing how the UO can implement a similar program that fits within its core mission and its evolving budget model. Oregon is also currently collecting data on the pricing and development of online courses.

Lee Rumbarger is the director for the Teaching Effectiveness Program and is also working on expanding the scope of online education at UO. The TEP is offering several workshops this academic year about teaching “hybrid” courses — which are partly traditional, partly online — through its “Think Small, Teach Big” series.

“Teaching online may present additional teaching challenges, but it also gives us tools for overcoming those challenges,” Rumbarger said.

Since the mid 1990s, the majority of UO’s online courses are managed under Academic Extension. Some departments offer online classes without Academic Extensions services and run them through their regular course development.

“With the recent unionization and local governing board, we are seeing some major impacts on how the UO will approach online education,” Dellabough said. “The direction and details are still in formation and under review at the president’s level.”