On April 21, a black banner with white writing appeared over 13th Avenue on the University of Oregon campus.

It read: “I’m taking over.” And it was signed with the initial “M.”

That was accompanied by tweets from the account @M_Oregon, like this one:

Not to be overlooked #UNCOVERM pic.twitter.com/aMF1Lt5CC1

— M (@M_Oregon) April 24, 2015

This presence that haunted campus for a week finally revealed itself. At around 11 a.m on April 28, the website for the #UncoverM campaign was unlocked to students with the password “meningitis” hidden in its tweets. This was followed by a campus-wide email from the University Health Center revealing that it, along with a group of advertising students, was behind #UncoverM.

The campaign was an effort to spread awareness about meningitis prevention among students, as well as to usher in the university’s second round of vaccinations in May. Two and a half weeks ago, the health center approached Allen Hall Advertising for help in publicizing the next round of vaccinations, as well as prevention techniques and information about the most at-risk groups.

AHA assembled a team of eight members to create a campaign that would attract students’ attention in a way that university voices couldn’t.

“We wanted to present the information in a way that could actually be communicated to students because students aren’t actually going to read a poster or they’re not gonna go to a website and read about meningitis in their spare time, so we needed a way to integrate this information in a way that can spark their curiosity,” said Spice Walker, a member of the AHA #UncoverM team.

The team chose Twitter as its chief platform to reach students. The two members of the team running the account tweeted out an obscure clue every day. The first letter of these clues spelled out “meningitis.”

“We kind of thought, okay, let’s make meningitis a villain, something people can identify and something people can actually fight against, but also leverage their curiosity in order to drive their curiosity,” said Chris Drachkovitch, another member of the campaign team.

Students’ reactions were mixed, ranging from fear to frustration

@M_Oregon I feel like I’m a part of The Imitation Game, where the password changes everyday. #racingagainsttheclock #uncoverm — Juliann Larese (@DancieJuliannie) April 23, 2015

 

@M_Oregon great, now I can finally be Nancy Drew

— Carolyn Cruze (@Cruze_Carolyn) April 24, 2015

The Twitter feed even caught the attention of alumni and staff. Brandt Hamilton, a 2014 graduate, said that he first heard about the campaign after ending a Skype session with advertising professor, Deb Morrison’s advertising class.

“At first it was my mom trying to get me to call more,” Hamilton said. “It’s good community management.”

In coordination with the university, the team also dispersed flyers and wrote approved messages on bathroom mirrors in lipstick. They even got to hang another banner on the crane at the EMU construction site.

However, they ran into some trouble when a message that was not approved was written on a bathroom mirror and concerned students alerted UOPD

“The intention wasn’t to scare the crap out of people, that’s for sure,” campaign team member Zachary McKinney said.

Some students did start to catch onto the secrets, like the fact that the first letters of #UncoverM’s tweets spelled out “meningitis,” which was exactly what the team wanted, said McKinney.

The team pulled the campaign together in a matter of two weeks, simply because they thought the issue was important.

“We’re doing this because we want to do it and when the health center contacted us, we were 100 percent on board…” Drachkovitch said. “We think it’s a really important issue that students need to be aware of.”

The #UncoverM website lays out the information and is now live. The health center’s second vaccination effort will be held May 12-14 in Matthew Knight Arena.

Follow Kaylee Tornay on Twitter @ka_tornay

Kira Hoffelmeyer contributed reporting to this article.

Sometimes mistakes involving hundreds of thousands of dollars can mean good things for students. At least, that’s the case with an over-realized fund.

The over-realized fund is the money that comes from students that the University of Oregon administration never saw coming because it accounted for the present and paying the incidental fee. This year, the ASUO Senate is overseeing $264,763 of unanticipated money. Now, students can help decide how to spend those funds.

Over-realized funds are not something that happen every year, but that doesn’t make these funds rare. The last over-realized fund happened in 2012, which funded several projects including the Native American flags that now surround the EMU Amphitheater and contributed to a Bike Share program that is still in the works.

Over-realized funds can be much more accessible to students than surplus. For example, some of these funds were given to ASUO-recognized student groups at Wednesday night Senate meetings. A student or group does not need to be ASUO-recognized to apply for over-realized funds for a project or event they would like sponsored. The over-realized committee looks at all the requests and makes a recommendation to the whole Senate body. Senator Will Iversen is chairing the over-realized committee this year.

The main criteria for a viable over-realized fund request are that it benefits campus, aligns with the mission of ASUO and is a one-time, nonrecurring cost.

That last criterium is important because the over-realized fund, which is essentially a mistake that yields extra funds, inherently shouldn’t exist. There isn’t a guarantee that the same funds will be readily available the next year. Current EMU Board member Taylor Allison, who was a senator her sophomore year who sat on the over-realized committee, said that a project that would be dependent on over-realized for continuing costs runs a risk.

“I like to see it as a special pot of money that no one is inherently entitled to,” Allison said.

That’s not to say every project that gets money from the over-realized fund needs to happen only once. The 2012 Senate funded a performance by Macklemore to kick off Mallard Madness, which puts on a concert at the end of spring term every year. After the initial boost from the over-realized fund, ticket sales from each year now help fund the next year’s concert.

Another option could be to just give the students back the money, but that didn’t go so well in past years. In the 2008-2009 school year when the over-realized fund reached into the range of millions of dollars, ASUO president Sam Dotters-Katz decided to use that money to alleviate the student I-Fee for the following year. Unfortunately, administration had over-estimated the amount of I-fee money by about $400,000. That summer was spent scrambling to use the next year’s over-realized money and the prudent reserve fund to cover the debt. The Green Tape Notebook, which contains all the rules of operation for the ASUO, mandates leaving some of the over-realized fund untouched for just such emergencies.

Mallard Madness was one of the most controversial over-realized allocations in recent memory. Allison said that Senate is often divided in philosophy: whether student fees should be put toward events like concerts and fun student events or if they should be allocated toward more projects like infrastructure.

“Sometimes, it’s really challenging choosing between all these really cool project ideas,” Iversen said. Nevertheless, he encourages students to apply for things they’re passionate about.

The over-realized committee will be accepting applications until April 27.

ASUO Senate had a mixed bag of an agenda at its April 22 meeting, which lasted over two and a half hours. Senate confirmed a freshman representative, appointed a new senator to the University Senate and saw an increase to surplus for the first time this year.

Hunter Mackin was the nominee for Senate Seat 21, Freshman Representative. Mackin is an economics major who is a former volunteer for the ASUO, pledging a fraternity and involved with club Jiu-Jitsu. Senate President Rebecca Rhodes said she had no issues with Mackin’s resume, but she was displeased that no one who had interviewed Mackin from the ASUO Executive showed up to introduce him or answer questions. Several other senators expressed similar sentiments. Rhodes said she was unsure of whether she was comfortable confirming Mackin due to the absence of Executive staff. Other senators, like Will Iversen, said they didn’t think that should affect the vote.

“I don’t think he should suffer because Exec couldn’t muster one of their large staff to be here tonight,” Iversen said.

Senate confirmed Mackin with one abstention from Hao Tan, who lives with Mackin.

Following the confirmation, Senate turned to its selection of a replacement for Conner Lasken to attend University Senate meetings. Senators Francisco Morales-O’Connor and Lizeth Marin were nominated. Morales-O’Connor accepted the responsibility to attend.

Senate also saw several special requests, most of which were fund transfers within groups. However, a few requests produced extended debate. One was the request made by the Public Relations Student Society of America for $6250 to fund an internship event, which would feature a talk given by Lauren Berger, known as the “Intern Queen,” to talk about how to succeed in securing internships. According to Laura Berger’s website, she has been featured on The Today Show, Fox & Friends, The New York Times, The New York Post, Teen Vogue, Bloomberg, LA Weekly, among others.

Senator Tan raised concerns about holding this event at the end of the year, when many internship application deadlines have already passed, and said that he feels securing internships is already “harped on so much.”

Senator Morales-O’Connor disagreed.

“I think a lot of students don’t actually know about internships,” Morales-O’Connor said. “This is a really awesome free event for those who might not be able to get the services otherwise.”

Senate passed the request and all the others. However, this week surplus gained a $20,000 return via the Child Care Subsidy, resulting in the first Senate meeting of the year in which Senate received more money than it spent.

Iversen reminded those present that the over-realized committee is still taking applications and that the first hearing for requests will be Friday, April 24. The Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee will be continuing to negotiate talks with the athletics department about student ticket allotment for next school year.

ASUO Senate meets Wednesday nights in the EMU Walnut Room. You can learn more about the ASUO by visiting its website.

Live coverage of Wednesday night’s Senate meeting

Access the agenda here.

The ASUO Constitution Court ruled that it could not remove Helena Schlegel from the ballot and that even if it were able to enforce holding another election, it would not. The court’s ruling on the last grievance We Are Oregon filed against UO Forward during the runoff election came out Sunday night.

It went on to say that to disqualify the runoff election, in which over 3,000 students voted and with a majority of the votes going to UO Forward, would “frustrate the will of the student body and the mission of the ASUO.”

We Are Oregon filed its first grievance against UO Forward, which called for Schlegel’s removal from the ballot, for allegedly using phone numbers gathered for another purpose for campaign purposes before the allowed time period. On April 8, Con Court ruled that UO Forward had violated elections rules and banned the slate from campaigning for the remainder of the runoff election.

The next day, We Are Oregon filed another grievance against UO Forward for what it called an “organized appearance.” The grievance said students wearing UO Forward shirts played games on campus and continued to make phone calls related to the election in direct violation of the Court’s ruling and sanctions. We Are Oregon then called for UO Forward to be removed from the runoff election, or in the event of a UO Forward victory, that those results be dismissed and another election be held. on April 10, Helena Schlegel won the presidential election.

Con Court’s ruling read that it did not agree with UO Forward’s response, which said that the phone calls may have been impersonated, but that “there are other political processes better suited to seek the remedy the petitioner requests.” The ruling did not include recommendations for said processes.

The Court then weighed in on the process of ASUO elections as they have played out over the past few years saying: “Each of the past several years ASUO elections demonstrate better and better student leadership at this university and, at the same time, worse and worse student leadership at this university. The Court prefers that students act with the good faith, the good character and the good judgment that they purport to have when working to get elected.”

It stated that the outcome that We Are Oregon wanted was beyond the Court’s capabilities and suggested students seek to remedy the flaws that were revealed by the situation in the elections process. Associate Justice Pat Chaney expanded on this point in an additional statement, saying that university administration has set a dangerous precedent in discarding the possibility of removing ASUO candidates from the ballot. He described the system as it is now as one of “perfect anarchy,” and closed with a recommendation:

“The ASUO must claw back from the Administration the ability to effectively regulate its own elections, or it must accept that the Administration is the only body with the actual ability to administer ASUO elections,” Chaney wrote.

All Con Court decisions can be viewed here.

James Fox, head of the University of Oregon Special Collections department, told the Register-Guard in an interview published Friday that the administration’s decision to place him on leave and decline to renew his contract were punitive measures for a confidential records release for which he was not solely responsible.

Fox’s attorney Craig Crispin told the Oregonian on Friday that he has filed notice that the archivist may sue the university.

Fox and another archivist, Kira Homo, were put on leave in January after university professor Bill Harbaugh obtained 25,000 pages from the presidential archives and published at least two on his blog. Although Harbaugh published no private information, UO spokeswoman Julie Brown said in a prepared statement that the vast majority of the records released contained sensitive and personal student and faculty information that is confidential by state and federal law. These documents were exempt from disclosure under the state public records law, Brown said.

Archivists are responsible for vetting documents for confidential information. But Fox said that because of the vast amount of information in the archives and a lack of staff, it would take years to release anything if all requested documents were vetted completely.

He spoke to his boss, libraries Dean Adriene Lim, about the archivists’ incapacity to handle the load of information. She took the issue to Johnson Hall administrators but told him she “couldn’t get anybody over there to listen,” Fox said. The Register-Guard said, an outside review in 2013 concluded that “campus records management seems misplaced in the Libraries and likely should be located elsewhere.”

The library’s way of protecting the information has been to have patrons sign a document acknowledging that there may be confidential information in their requested documents. By signing the document, patrons agree not to publish any such information if it is found, Fox said.

When the unvetted presidential archives were transferred to the library, Lim, Homo and a university administrator struck an email agreement that the library would have sole responsibility for vetting the documents, which come from the presidencies from Dave Frohnmayer to Michael Gottfredson. Fox said he had not been aware of the agreement, or that the library had sole responsibility to vet the documents. According to the Register-Guard, he did not find out about these things until after the university had launched an investigation into why the documents had been released.

In January, Harbaugh published a presidential memo that came from among the 25,000 documents he had requested in December. Administration noticed, placed Fox and Homo on leave, and tried to get Harbaugh to return the documents, which he eventually did.

In March, Fox was denied a renewal of contract. Administration maintains that Fox, as head of Special Collections, should have vetted those documents before releasing them.

“Regardless of the Libraries’ infrastructure, however, it is the responsibility of the Head of Special Collections and University Archives to supervise the archives and records management unit, and to ensure that documents containing private and confidential information are properly reviewed and not improperly released,” Brown said. 

Fox has worked at the university for 14 years. His contract will expire on June 30.

Follow Kaylee Tornay on Twitter @ka_tornay

The state of your student tickets is still in flux.

Andrew Lubash, ASUO senator and chair of the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee, decided to call a greater support base in to the committee’s ongoing struggle with athletics department over student ticket allotment: the student body itself.

On April 14, Lubash started a petition that offers signers the chance to protest the possibility of 300 student tickets being cut from the lottery system if the athletics department doesn’t get the funding increase it has requested from the ASUO this year. The petition contains a letter signed by 13 senators and three other ACFC members and has garnered several hundred signatures in its first few days.

“Students are tired of being treated like a piggy bank. Tuition is increasing, and we are already struggling as it is,” Lubash said about why he started the petition.

The athletics department negotiates its agreement with the ACFC every year to provide for student tickets to football and men’s basketball games, which are provided via a lottery system on goducks.com. In the fall, the athletics department requested a 10 percent increase in its benchmark. That request was lowered to 3 percent during winter term, but the ACFC failed to pass a recommendation in both its second and third budget hearings because it was so divided over whether any increase at all would be appropriate. The recommendation ACFC presented to Senate was therefore $o by default.

Senate then passed a 0 percent increase overall in its final budget meeting in February. Since then, the ACFC has been communicating with the athletics department to work out a contract. Finance and Administration Director Eric Roedl had suggested at the budget hearings for athletics to consider the possibility of cutting student tickets if it does not receive the 3 percent increase it requested. Those tickets that would be cut from the lottery would then be sold back to the students as 300 season ticket packages, available for individual purchase.

Both the ACFC and the athletics department have expressed their aversion to cutting student tickets from the lottery in budget hearings and statements.

“The passionate support provided by students at our over 100 home athletic events is vital to the incredible success of our programs,” Craig Pintens, director of marketing and public relations wrote in an email.

Lubash will be meeting with Vice President for Student Life Robin Holmes on April 17 to discuss how negotiations between the two parties will proceed.

Follow Kaylee Tornay on Twitter @ka_tornay

The ASUO Senate spent only $2,958 at its meeting on April 15, the smallest amount allocated this year.

Two groups that presented special requests, the Men’s Center and the Multicultural Center, transferred funds within their own groups to new line items. Senate allocated funds to Young Americans for Liberty for a barbecue. It also allocated money to the Women’s Center for its feminist publication The Siren, to the LGBTQA for a conference in Montana and to the Asian Culture Communication Association for its Japanese comic event.

Senate also formed two working groups. Senator Sammy Cohen brought forth the first, regarding the Counseling and Testing Center’s new policies about the confidentiality of student records. Senator Andrew Lubash proposed the second, which pertained to the ASUO’s contract with the Athletics Department.

Surplus is now at $38,213 when taking into account the $70,000 restriction that Senate passed on surplus. In total, $108,213 remains.

Senate meetings are Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. in the EMU Walnut Room. You can learn more about the ASUO here.

Live coverage of Wednesday’s ASUO Senate meeting

Access the agenda here.

If you ask Helena Schlegel whether or not she sees herself as a politician she’ll give you an honest answer: no.

Schlegel said her older brothers laugh about it because she’s not the type to get involved in politics.

“I like to keep up in politics because I think it’s things that affect our daily lives but I’m definitely not someone who in 10 years would see myself running for office or anything like that,” Schlegel said. “I just honestly got involved in student government cause I cared about student issues and one step led to another.”

Just because she never intended to be a politician, doesn’t mean she’s quiet. The Arizona native can speak about things she cares about long and loud enough to command the attention of a room, which she has demonstrated at campaign events and as an ASUO senator last year. With her involvement in multiple student groups, her history with the ASUO and her membership on the UO board of trustees, it would be difficult to make a case for lack of experience or awareness on Schlegel’s part.

A self-deprecating smile spreads across her face when she talks about herself. It’s when she talks about the teams she works with that any hesitation falls away and assurance gives strength to the passion in her voice.

It was never her intention to run for president. Schlegel, a Robert D. Clark Honors College student double majoring in Spanish and economics, said friends and people she used to work with in the ASUO began asking her to meet for coffee in the fall. What she thought were purely social meetings to catch up on work and classes were actually imbued with a more pointed objective: they began to ask her to consider running for ASUO president.

Schlegel said it was her original intent to get Casey Edwards, also a former ASUO member, to run for president. His goal was to persuade her to do the same.

But on Jan. 15, the UO Forward slate was set: Schlegel would run for president.

“She has always been a great advocate for students,” Edwards, a UO Forward campaign manager, said. “Also, it was really easy for us to get behind her.”

Over the next few months the team grew steadily and drew students from varying backgrounds. UO Forward decided to put forth two candidates for vice president: Francisco Morales-O’Connor and Claire Johnson.

Morales-O’Connor met Schlegel last year when he ran for Senate Seat 12 on the Ducks Like You slate and Schlegel worked as the campaign manager. Like Schlegel, he is majoring in Spanish and the two work for SafeRide. Their relationship grew this year when Schlegel asked him to run as one of her vice presidents.

“I thought it was definitely a privilege that I had, to work with Helena because I never thought I would have the opportunity again.” Morales-O’Connor said. He originally hadn’t intended to run this year.

“When Helena approached me I definitely took advantage of the situation especially since I just know how Helena works and how passionate she is.”

Johnson, the other vice presidential candidate, works with Schlegel on the Organization Against Sexual Assault. She said it was the enthusiasm of the campaign and her trust in Schlegel that drew her to run for Vice President.

“She doesn’t sugar coat anything,” Johnson said of Schlegel. “She makes herself known and I’ve never been surprised by anything, just always impressed.”

Despite her team’s confidence in their candidate, Schlegel’s presidential bid was hardly smooth. The ASUO Constitution Court banned UO Forward from campaigning halfway through the runoff election for using phone numbers gathered from an outside petition to campaign. The numbers had been collected before active campaigning was allowed and the court ruled that it violated elections rules.

UO Forward campaign manager Shawn Stevenson called the ban an attack on UO Forward’s constitutional rights.

“The Con. Court panel was an attack on direct democracy and grassroots campaigning on campus, and I’m really happy to see how the campaign stuck together, and we didn’t let it affect us, and I think a lot of that was because of Helena’s leadership,” Stevenson said. “And I am extremely excited to see what the future holds for the ASUO next year.”

The night before voting ended, the opposing campaign, We Are Oregon, filed another grievance against UO Forward for campaigning through the ban. Thursday, members of UO Forward returned to their old campaign spot with a ‘water-pong’ table and a sign that said, ‘political games are being played, and we just want to play.’

“I think that’s a true testament to our optimism in a way,” Johnson said. “I think that really shows that we were willing to stand up for anything at the end of the day.”

In the end, neither grievance kept Schlegel from the presidency. She and her vice presidents won by 192 votes.

The two slates will be working together again soon enough. Roughly half of next year’s elected senators ran with We Are Oregon. Schlegel doesn’t seem worried, she thinks that both of the campaigns care about about making student government more representative and will work hard for student issues.

Schlegel has an idea of the kind of president she wants to be.

“If there was a president that actually interacted with the student body and not just to get them to vote and then never talk to them again, I think that kind of president has a chance to make a difference in a different way.” Schlegel said.

Note: A previous version of this article stated that Casey Edwards was a former ASUO Senator. He in fact served on the ASUO Executive.