The 2015-2016 school year was full of protests, rallies and new faces in administration and other departments. Here are five of the stories that had some of the biggest impacts on the University of Oregon:

UCC shooting and recovery

Fall term began with a national tragedy. On the morning of Oct. 1, a shooter at the Umpqua Community College campus killed nine people and left seven others wounded. The shooter acted alone and was also

UO honors the victims of the UCC shooting with a candle light vigil. (Cole Elsasser/Emerald)

killed after exchanging gunfire with police. The UCC campus closed down until Oct. 5.

Meanwhile, Eugene and students at the UO organized various outpourings of support, holding a candlelight vigil in Alton Baker Park on Oct. 4. The university also organized a vigil the following night. In their next game against the Colorado Buffaloes, Oregon football players sported ribbon stickers on their helmets in support of UCC, and the same ribbon was emblazoned on the field at Autzen Stadium.

Black UO students demand to be heard

The eyes of the nation turned toward the University of Missouri on Nov. 9, when the football team officially refused to practice or play for the school until the president of the university, Tim Wolfe, resigned. The strike echoed the demands of several Mizzou student groups, including a graduate student who participated in his own hunger strike for a week. The impacts of the demonstrations reached UO, where various student groups launched protests of their own.

Students hold up signs advocating for racial equality. (Samuel Marshall/Emerald)

On Nov. 13, the Black Women of Achievement organized a rally and march called “In solidarity with Mizzou,” which drew a crowd of around 500 people. Students, faculty and community members shared their experiences with racism at the university. After the rally, organizers formed the Black Student Task Force and met with UO administration to present a list of their own demands to “create a healthy and positive campus climate for black students.” These demands included renaming buildings like Deady and Dunn Hall, both of which are named for men who had connections with white supremacy groups.

In April, UO President Michael Schill and Vice President for Equity and Inclusion Yvette Alex-Assensoh published a letter to the campus community addressing six of the 12 demands from the BSTF. The actions that the UO plans to take by fall of 2016 include bringing six historically black fraternities and sororities to campus, establishing an African American advisory board and expanding efforts to re

cruit African American students. Efforts like renaming the buildings are expected to take longer to accomplish.

More turnover for UOPD

Carolyn McDermed, UO police chief from 2012-2016 (Cole Elsasser/Emerald).

The University of Oregon Police Department struggled through a few snags this year. Most notably, three members of its department, Lieutenant Brandon Lebrecht, Sergeant Scott Cameron and Chief Carolyn McDermed, were ordered by a jury to pay $750,000 in a lawsuit against them. In 2014, former UOPD officer James Cleavenger said he was wrongfully terminated in a

retaliatory manner for reporting misconduct within the department. Although the university expects to pay the damages through insurance if it loses its appeal, it may take time for the legacy of the department’s misconduct (which included a frequently updated list of people and things that officers classified as needing to “eat a bowl of dicks”) to fade. A few months after the loss in court, McDermed unexpectedly retired on Feb. 26 — even though she had appointments scheduled out for another week, including a meeting about Track Town 2016. A public records request filed by the Oregonian later revealed that the university paid McDermed $53,000, or the equivalent of the four months left on her contract plus two weeks of accrued vacation, to leave the position. The university brought back retired UOPD officer Pete Deshpande to fill the position temporarily and then accepted applications to replace him until May 19. The university said it plans to hire the new chief by the end of June.

Another year, another tuition raise

One of the key topics of student protests on the steps of Johnson Hall this year was tuition. On March 4,

University of Oregon President Michael Schill expresses his support for the tuition increase (Samuel Marshall/Emerald)

the BOT approved a tuition increase of 4.7 percent for in-state students and 4.5 percent for out-of-state. In the past decade, tuition has almost doubled, and student leaders have led protests each year to fight against increases.

The Board of Trustees sets tuition after getting input from the Tuition and Fees Advisory Board, a process that alienated some students this year.

The TFAB has two student members to ensure that student voices are included in the tuition recommendation to the BOT. At a meeting in late January when both student members were absent, the TFAB decided on its tuition recommendation and then cancelled all its remaining meetings.

Students protesting the tuition hike on March 4. (Samuel Marshall/Emerald)

Fraternity and Sorority Life struggles to curb misconduct

Fall rush week ended with less-than-encouraging results about the rate of sexual assault among members of fraternity and sorority life. The latest survey released in October 2015 and conducted by UO psychology professor Jennifer Freyd showed that 35 percent of sorority women reported experiencing attempted or completed sexual contact during their time at the university, compared to 26 percent among non-sorority women. The 2015 results echoed similar survey results from 2014, which culminated in a moratorium on any expansion of FSL, including adding new chapters. Although the October results showed improvement over the previous year, the moratorium was extended in April following the results of another external review of FSL released in the same month that revealed other concerns about high-risk behavior in chapters.

But sexual assault wasn’t the only topic tied to FSL. Two fraternities, Delta Upsilon and Delta Tau Delta began accepting transgender men into their chapters. Delta Upsilon also extended its policy to ensure that all sexist and genderist language is not tolerated.

Fraternity Phi Delta Theta was suspended from campus for two years for an underage drinking incident, and Beta Theta Pi was disbanded for high-risk hazing behavior. The Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity returned to campus during winter term.

This decorated cooler was left behind at Slaughterhouse Island on Shasta Lake. (Courtesy of Jennifer Vick Cox)

During the weekend of May 20, UO FSL came under national scrutiny after a massive littering incident at Lake Shasta. After

photos of the litter — showing UO gear and a cooler painted with Lambda Chi Alpha’s letters and the words, “Do you wanna do some blow, man?” went viral, the university and the FSL community came under fire, despite the fact that the annual visit to the lake is not an official university or FSL-affiliated event. The UO Lambda Chi Alpha chapter was suspended by its national headquarters just a few hours after the photos went viral. Although fraternity and sorority members couldn’t initially go back to the lake to help cleanup crews because the litter was too hazardous, the students eventually returned to assist with the cleanup.

The 2015-2016 school year was full of protests, rallies and new faces in administration and other departments. Here are five of the stories that had some of the biggest impacts on the University of Oregon:

UCC shooting and recovery

Fall term began with a national tragedy. On the morning of Oct. 1, a shooter at the Umpqua Community College campus killed nine people and left seven others wounded. The shooter acted alone and was also killed after exchanging gunfire with police. The UCC campus closed down until Oct. 5.

UO honors the victims of the UCC shooting with a candle light vigil. (Cole Elsasser/Emerald)

Meanwhile, Eugene and students at the UO organized various outpourings of support, holding a candlelight vigil in Alton Baker Park on Oct. 4. The university also organized a vigil the following night. In their next game against the Colorado Buffaloes, Oregon football players sported ribbon stickers on their helmets in support of UCC, and the same ribbon was emblazoned on the field at Autzen Stadium.

Black UO students demand to be heard

The eyes of the nation turned toward the University of Missouri on Nov. 9, when the football team officially refused to practice or play for the school until the president of the university, Tim Wolfe, resigned. The strike echoed the demands of several Mizzou student groups, including a graduate student who participated in his own hunger strike for a week. The impacts of the demonstrations reached UO, where various student groups launched protests of their own.

Students hold up signs advocating for racial equality. (Samuel Marshall/Emerald)

On Nov. 13, the Black Women of Achievement organized a rally and march called “In solidarity with Mizzou,” which drew a crowd of around 500 people. Students, faculty and community members shared their experiences with racism at the university. After the rally, organizers formed the Black Student Task Force and met with UO administration to present a list of their own demands to “create a healthy and positive campus climate for black students.” These demands included renaming buildings like Deady and Dunn Hall, both of which are named for men who had connections with white supremacy groups.

In April, UO President Michael Schill and Vice President for Equity and Inclusion Yvette Alex-Assensoh published a letter to the campus community addressing six of the 12 demands from the BSTF. The actions that the UO plans to take by fall of 2016 include bringing six historically black fraternities and sororities to campus, establishing an African American advisory board and expanding efforts to recruit African American students. Efforts like renaming the buildings are expected to take longer to accomplish.

More turnover for UOPD

Carolyn McDermed, UO police chief from 2012-2016 (Cole Elsasser/Emerald).

The University of Oregon Police Department struggled through a few snags this year. Most notably, three members of its department, Lieutenant Brandon Lebrecht, Sergeant Scott Cameron and Chief Carolyn McDermed, were ordered by a jury to pay $750,000 in a lawsuit against them. In 2014, former UOPD officer James Cleavenger said he was wrongfully terminated in a retaliatory manner for reporting misconduct within the department. Although the university expects to pay the damages through insurance if it loses its appeal, it may take time for the legacy of the department’s misconduct (which included a frequently updated list of people and things that officers classified as needing to “eat a bowl of dicks”) to fade. A few months after the loss in court, McDermed unexpectedly retired on Feb. 26 — even though she had appointments scheduled out for another week, including a meeting about Track Town 2016. A public records request filed by the Oregonian later revealed that the university paid McDermed $53,000, or the equivalent of the four months left on her contract plus two weeks of accrued vacation, to leave the position. The university brought back retired UOPD officer Pete Deshpande to fill the position temporarily and then accepted applications to replace him until May 19. The university said it plans to hire the new chief by the end of June.

Another year, another tuition raise

One of the key topics of student protests on the steps of Johnson Hall this year was tuition. On March 4,

University of Oregon President Michael Schill expresses his support for the tuition increase (Samuel Marshall/Emerald)

the BOT approved a tuition increase of 4.7 percent for in-state students and 4.5 percent for out-of-state. In the past decade, tuition has almost doubled, and student leaders have led protests each year to fight against increases.

The Board of Trustees sets tuition after getting input from the Tuition and Fees Advisory Board, a process that alienated some students this year.

The TFAB has two student members to ensure that student voices are included in the tuition recommendation to the BOT. At a meeting in late January when both student members were absent, the TFAB decided on its tuition recommendation and then cancelled all its remaining meetings.

Students protesting the tuition hike on March 4. (Samuel Marshall/Emerald)

Fraternity and Sorority Life struggles to curb misconduct

Fall rush week ended with less-than-encouraging results about the rate of sexual assault among members of fraternity and sorority life. The latest survey released in October 2015 and conducted by UO psychology professor Jennifer Freyd showed that 35 percent of sorority women reported experiencing attempted or completed sexual contact during their time at the university, compared to 26 percent among non-sorority women. The 2015 results echoed similar survey results from 2014, which culminated in a moratorium on any expansion of FSL, including adding new chapters. Although the October results showed improvement over the previous year, the moratorium was extended in April following the results of another external review of FSL released in the same month that revealed other concerns about high-risk behavior in chapters.

But sexual assault wasn’t the only topic tied to FSL. Two fraternities, Delta Upsilon and Delta Tau Delta began accepting transgender men into their chapters. Delta Upsilon also extended its policy to ensure that all sexist and genderist language is not tolerated.

Fraternity Phi Delta Theta was suspended from campus for two years for an underage drinking incident, and Beta Theta Pi was disbanded for high-risk hazing behavior. The Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity returned to campus during winter term.

This decorated cooler was left behind at Slaughterhouse Island on Shasta Lake. (Courtesy of Jennifer Vick Cox)

During the weekend of May 20, UO FSL came under national scrutiny after a massive littering incident at Lake Shasta. After photos of the litter — showing UO gear and a cooler painted with Lambda Chi Alpha’s letters and the words, “Do you wanna do some blow, man?” went viral, the university and the FSL community came under fire, despite the fact that the annual visit to the lake is not an official university or FSL-affiliated event. The UO Lambda Chi Alpha chapter was suspended by its national headquarters just a few hours after the photos went viral. Although fraternity and sorority members couldn’t initially go back to the lake to help cleanup crews because the litter was too hazardous, the students eventually returned to assist with the cleanup.

Two weeks of ground campaigning, four grievances and 6,269 votes later, One Oregon executive candidates Zach Rentschler, Tori Ganahl and Adam Sharf are going head to head with I’m with UO candidates Quinn Haaga, Natalie Fisher and Zach Lusby in a runoff election.

I’m with UO came out of the general election with a slight lead in votes. Haaga says her priority is to “keep running a clean campaign.”

Haaga is the presidential candidate for I’m with UO. (Taylor Wilder/Emerald)

As an executive ticket, that’s something I definitely want to enforce and make sure that we are doing everything by the book and [being] honest with the students,” Haaga said.

Haaga, who has been involved with two other ASUO elections, said more students are aware of the election because “all three campaigns are very strong” and they put forth all the open seats. She also said the usage of social media contributed to the high voter turnout. Last year, the top two executive tickets received 2,733 votes in the general election compared to 4,362 in this year’s.

“I definitely expected that we would do well, but didn’t expect that we would do this well,” Haaga said. “[The reason is] because our campaign is very honest and down to earth. Our message is very tangible and easy for students to connect with. We are not throwing out these flashy ideas. That allows students to connect with our campaign.”

I’m with UO is the only campaign in this election without any grievances filed against it. One Oregon has had three.

“All these rules are put in place for a reason — the elections board wants the election to be as fair as possible,” Haaga said. “If you are not following these rules, you can’t really say you stand for these values.”

One Oregon’s executive ticket came in second in the general election, with almost 300 fewer votes. Rentschler said the campaign will focus on exploring new connections.

“Turnout was high this year, but over 70 percent of students didn’t vote, so there are still a lot of [students] out there that we haven’t reached out [to] yet,” Rentschler said. “We will also let the folks who voted for us last week know to vote again because I think a lot of people are very excited.”

One Oregon also needs to make sure its volunteers and candidates are following the rules, Rentschler said.

Rentschler is the presidential candidate for One Oregon. (Taylor Wilder/Emerald)

“Because this is the first election for a lot of folks [with One Oregon], we need to make sure they stick to the message and know what they are doing campaign-wise,” Rentschler said.

In addition, both campaigns will continue to educate students about their platforms.

“We will push on different aspects on our platform, because we have talked about transportation, Uber and textbooks for the last two weeks, but our platform is much more than that,” Rentschler said.

But getting the word out for One Oregon will be difficult, because the slate is banned from campaigning both on campus and on social media from April 11 to April 14.

Students can vote in the runoff election to decide the next ASUO President and other senate and financial committee candidates on DuckWeb beginning 9 a.m. April 11. Voting closes at 4 p.m. on April 15.

Here’s a timeline of everything that’s happened in the 2016 election so far:

Two weeks of ground campaigning, four grievances and 6,269 votes later, One Oregon executive candidates Zach Rentschler, Tori Ganahl and Adam Sharf are going head to head with I’m with UO candidates Quinn Haaga, Natalie Fisher and Zach Lusby in a runoff election.

I’m with UO came out of the general election with a slight lead in votes. Haaga says her priority is to “keep running a clean campaign.”

Haaga is the presidential candidate for I’m with UO. (Taylor Wilder/Emerald)

As an executive ticket, that’s something I definitely want to enforce and make sure that we are doing everything by the book and [being] honest with the students,” Haaga said.

Haaga, who has been involved with two other ASUO elections, said more students are aware of the election because “all three campaigns are very strong” and they put forth all the open seats. She also said the usage of social media contributed to the high voter turnout. Last year, the top two executive tickets received 2,733 votes in the general election compared to 4,362 in this year’s.

“I definitely expected that we would do well, but didn’t expect that we would do this well,” Haaga said. “[The reason is] because our campaign is very honest and down to earth. Our message is very tangible and easy for students to connect with. We are not throwing out these flashy ideas. That allows students to connect with our campaign.”

I’m with UO is the only campaign in this election without any grievances filed against it. One Oregon has had three.

“All these rules are put in place for a reason — the elections board wants the election to be as fair as possible,” Haaga said. “If you are not following these rules, you can’t really say you stand for these values.”

One Oregon’s executive ticket came in second in the general election, with almost 300 fewer votes. Rentschler said the campaign will focus on exploring new connections.

“Turnout was high this year, but over 70 percent of students didn’t vote, so there are still a lot of [students] out there that we haven’t reached out [to] yet,” Rentschler said. “We will also let the folks who voted for us last week know to vote again because I think a lot of people are very excited.”

One Oregon also needs to make sure its volunteers and candidates are following the rules, Rentschler said.

Rentschler is the presidential candidate for One Oregon. (Taylor Wilder/Emerald)

“Because this is the first election for a lot of folks [with One Oregon], we need to make sure they stick to the message and know what they are doing campaign-wise,” Rentschler said.

In addition, both campaigns will continue to educate students about their platforms.

“We will push on different aspects on our platform, because we have talked about transportation, Uber and textbooks for the last two weeks, but our platform is much more than that,” Rentschler said.

But getting the word out for One Oregon will be difficult, because the slate is banned from campaigning both on campus and on social media from April 11 to April 14.

Students can vote in the runoff election to decide the next ASUO President and other senate and financial committee candidates on DuckWeb beginning 9 a.m. April 11. Voting closes at 4 p.m. on April 15.

Here’s a timeline of everything that’s happened in the 2016 election so far:

Two weeks of ground campaigning, four grievances and 6,269 votes later, One Oregon executive candidates Zach Rentschler, Tori Ganahl and Adam Sharf are going head to head with I’m with UO candidates Quinn Haaga, Natalie Fisher and Zach Lusby in a runoff election.

I’m with UO came out of the general election with a slight lead in votes. Haaga says her priority is to “keep running a clean campaign.”

Haaga is the presidential candidate for I’m with UO. (Taylor Wilder/Emerald)

As an executive ticket, that’s something I definitely want to enforce and make sure that we are doing everything by the book and [being] honest with the students,” Haaga said.

Haaga, who has been involved with two other ASUO elections, said more students are aware of the election because “all three campaigns are very strong” and they put forth all the open seats. She also said the usage of social media contributed to the high voter turnout. Last year, the top two executive tickets received 2,733 votes in the general election compared to 4,362 in this year’s.

“I definitely expected that we would do well, but didn’t expect that we would do this well,” Haaga said. “[The reason is] because our campaign is very honest and down to earth. Our message is very tangible and easy for students to connect with. We are not throwing out these flashy ideas. That allows students to connect with our campaign.”

I’m with UO is the only campaign in this election without any grievances filed against it. One Oregon has had three.

“All these rules are put in place for a reason — the elections board wants the election to be as fair as possible,” Haaga said. “If you are not following these rules, you can’t really say you stand for these values.”

One Oregon’s executive ticket came in second in the general election, with almost 300 fewer votes. Rentschler said the campaign will focus on exploring new connections.

“Turnout was high this year, but over 70 percent of students didn’t vote, so there are still a lot of [students] out there that we haven’t reached out [to] yet,” Rentschler said. “We will also let the folks who voted for us last week know to vote again because I think a lot of people are very excited.”

One Oregon also needs to make sure its volunteers and candidates are following the rules, Rentschler said.

Rentschler is the presidential candidate for One Oregon. (Taylor Wilder/Emerald)

“Because this is the first election for a lot of folks [with One Oregon], we need to make sure they stick to the message and know what they are doing campaign-wise,” Rentschler said.

In addition, both campaigns will continue to educate students about their platforms.

“We will push on different aspects on our platform, because we have talked about transportation, Uber and textbooks for the last two weeks, but our platform is much more than that,” Rentschler said.

But getting the word out for One Oregon will be difficult, because the slate is banned from campaigning both on campus and on social media from April 11 to April 14.

Students can vote in the runoff election to decide the next ASUO President and other senate and financial committee candidates on DuckWeb beginning 9 a.m. April 11. Voting closes at 4 p.m. on April 15.

Here’s a timeline of everything that’s happened in the 2016 election so far:

Two weeks of ground campaigning, four grievances and 6,269 votes later, One Oregon executive candidates Zach Rentschler, Tori Ganahl and Adam Sharf are going head to head with I’m with UO candidates Quinn Haaga, Natalie Fisher and Zach Lusby in a runoff election.

I’m with UO came out of the general election with a slight lead in votes. Haaga says her priority is to “keep running a clean campaign.”

Haaga is the presidential candidate for I’m with UO. (Taylor Wilder/Emerald)

As an executive ticket, that’s something I definitely want to enforce and make sure that we are doing everything by the book and [being] honest with the students,” Haaga said.

Haaga, who has been involved with two other ASUO elections, said more students are aware of the election because “all three campaigns are very strong” and they put forth all the open seats. She also said the usage of social media contributed to the high voter turnout. Last year, the top two executive tickets received 2,733 votes in the general election compared to 4,362 in this year’s.

“I definitely expected that we would do well, but didn’t expect that we would do this well,” Haaga said. “[The reason is] because our campaign is very honest and down to earth. Our message is very tangible and easy for students to connect with. We are not throwing out these flashy ideas. That allows students to connect with our campaign.”

I’m with UO is the only campaign in this election without any grievances filed against it. One Oregon has had three.

“All these rules are put in place for a reason — the elections board wants the election to be as fair as possible,” Haaga said. “If you are not following these rules, you can’t really say you stand for these values.”

One Oregon’s executive ticket came in second in the general election, with almost 300 fewer votes. Rentschler said the campaign will focus on exploring new connections.

“Turnout was high this year, but over 70 percent of students didn’t vote, so there are still a lot of [students] out there that we haven’t reached out [to] yet,” Rentschler said. “We will also let the folks who voted for us last week know to vote again because I think a lot of people are very excited.”

One Oregon also needs to make sure its volunteers and candidates are following the rules, Rentschler said.

Rentschler is the presidential candidate for One Oregon. (Taylor Wilder/Emerald)

“Because this is the first election for a lot of folks [with One Oregon], we need to make sure they stick to the message and know what they are doing campaign-wise,” Rentschler said.

In addition, both campaigns will continue to educate students about their platforms.

“We will push on different aspects on our platform, because we have talked about transportation, Uber and textbooks for the last two weeks, but our platform is much more than that,” Rentschler said.

But getting the word out for One Oregon will be difficult, because the slate is banned from campaigning both on campus and on social media from April 11 to April 14.

Students can vote in the runoff election to decide the next ASUO President and other senate and financial committee candidates on DuckWeb beginning 9 a.m. April 11. Voting closes at 4 p.m. on April 15.

Here’s a timeline of everything that’s happened in the 2016 election so far:

One Oregon may not be allowed to campaign for a day if the ASUO Constitution Court upholds the ASUO Elections Board’s sanction imposed in response to a grievance filed against the campaign last week.

I’m With UO campaign manager Andrew Dunn filed a grievance on March 28 against One Oregon vice presidential candidate Adam Sharf for allegedly advertising his candidacy on social media before the date allowed in the elections rules. In addition, the grievance stated that the publishing date for the slate’s Facebook page was also a day early. Screenshots were provided as evidence for both assertions. I’m With UO asked the board to bar One Oregon from campaigning from April 4 through April 6.

In the past, campaigns submitted grievances to the elections board and publicized them to relevant media via email, but after changes to the ASUO website this year, grievances are now submitted through an online form. This method leaves sole access to grievance information in the hands of the elections board until it publishes a ruling.

In this case, One Oregon was also unaware that a grievance had been filed against it until the elections board issued its decision on April 1, barring One Oregon from campaigning on April 4, said campaign manager Amy Laube. Although no rule requires the elections board to give notice of a grievance before then, slates are typically notified so they can supply a response to the board. Laube says One Oregon was frustrated by its inability to respond before the board made its decision.

“It’s usually etiquette to let your opponent respond when a grievance is filed,” Laube said. “The [elections board] should have created a system where [One Oregon] could give a response to the grievance.”

Elections board coordinator Abraham Youhana says that it didn’t occur to him to inform One Oregon of the grievance before the board made its decision.

“I should have reached out to them. It was an error on my part,” Youhana said.

As allowed by the ASUO constitution, One Oregon appealed to the constitution court to overturn the elections board’s decision and was granted an injunction, which temporarily cancels out any sanctions from the elections board while it deliberates. So One Oregon is allowed to campaign on April 4, but may face campaigning prohibitions later in the week.

The appeal stated that the publishing date for One Oregon’s Facebook page was listed as a day early because staff were building it, but that it had published on the allowed date, a few hours after it was allowed. It did not address the allegations against Sharf.

Appealing to the constitution court, which is composed of non-elected justices appointed by the executive and confirmed by the senate, has stirred up controversy in past elections. This includes last year, when the court overturned a board ruling by barring the UO Forward campaign from campaigning during elections due to a grievance.

Dunn said that he understood the court’s decision to let One Oregon campaign on April 4, but he disagreed with Laube’s argument against his grievance.

“[One Oregon’s] arguement was based on fairness,” Dunn said. “But if they are really about fairness, they should have not broken the rules in the first place.”

The court has until April 5 to convene and discuss the ruling. It has no deadline in which to make a decision, but its ruling will have less impact on the election if not made before voting closes at 4 p.m. on April 8.

For some students, it’s a popular place to run. Some simply ignore it. But the 16.5-acre Eugene Pioneer Cemetery, established in 1873, remains in large part a mystery to the students who walk through it.

But to a small group of men and women with deep roots in the Eugene community, the Pioneer Cemetery is familiar ground. They work dozens of hours each month beyond the sight of students, fueled by a sense of responsibility to preserve those buried there. For some of the volunteers, that includes their own ancestors.

Check out our Innovation Piece—with videos, interactive maps, and more—here.

Live coverage of Wednesday night’s ASUO Senate meeting

The 2015-2016 legislative session wrapped up for the ASUO Senate on May 27. Though every senate goes through the same list of duties with every academic year, each group accomplishes unique milestones in its time. Here’s a look at some of the memorable moments from this year’s senate.

A shifting Senate body: Senate began the year with several resignations, and by week four of fall term, only 15 senators remained. Later in the term, the ASUO executive presented several candidates for confirmation, including Aven-itza De Primavera, Lizeth Marin and Quang Truong. Hao Tan was confirmed as freshman rep, but transitioned to Senate Seat 16 after Charlie Pontrelli resigned. Spring term saw the resignations of senators Megan Williams and Sami Tayeh.

Resolutions: The 2014-2015 senate passed several resolutions. In October, it passed a resolution presented by members of the LGBTESSP, Theta Pi Sigma and the ASUO Executive to introduce more gender-inclusive bathrooms in campus buildings. This resolution was part of a larger effort in the work to establish more gender-inclusive bathrooms, which continues. OSPIRG brought forth a resolution that also passed, which asserted dissent against the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United vs. FEC case of 2010. In January, Senate also passed a controversial resolution that called for a halt in the expansion of Fraternity and Sorority Life if a spring campus climate survey found that there are still disproportionately high risks and occurrences to campus sexual assault. Senator Samantha Cohen also helped sponsor a resolution that condemned the counseling records release of an alleged sexual assault survivor to university administration.

The 2015-2016 budget: Every senate passes the budget for the next school year, based on the projected amount of Incidental Fee money that will be available to the ASUO, and every year that comes with some predictable skirmishes. This year, Senate struggled in particular with the contracts with the Lane Transit District, which provides student access to the bus system, and the Athletics Department, which establishes the amount of student tickets that go into the lottery system for football and mens basketball games. At the final budget meeting on Feb. 21, senators debated about these contracts for several hours. Eventually, Senate decided to diminish the increase to the LTD budget and reroute some of those funds to programs like SafeRide and Designated Driver Shuttle, and it passed a zero percent increase to the athletics budget. The Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee has continued to meet with athletics to figure out the best option to keep student tickets, as the Athletics Department had said it would cut student tickets from the lottery system if it did not receive at least a three percent increase.

Over-realized: There was an unexpected surplus of money available to Senate this year, called the over-realized fund, due to a higher population of I-fee paying students than was projected by the registrar. Senate allocated $264,760 to various projects proposed by different student groups. Among these were $30,000 to the UO Rowing Club for new machines; $40,000 for solar panels to be installed on the roof of the new EMU; and $131,200 to be put towards a trans awareness conference next May.

The 2015-2016 senate took over at the last meeting of the year on May 28. Several senators will preside over the summer, but the the true tests of the new legislative body will come fall. Tor learn more about the ASUO, visit its website.