ASUO External Vice President Patrick Kindred was arrested at 7:50 p.m.  on Feb. 9 outside of 7-Eleven on 13th Avenue and Alder for second degree criminal trespass, second degree criminal mischief, resisting arrest and was later charged with disorderly conduct. On the morning of Feb. 10 the charge of criminal mischief was dropped.

Kindred was arrested by UOPD. The contact began at the edge of campus on 13th and Kincaid.

Kindred suffered a concussion in 2014 and has been dealing with the effects since then. He was responsible for a post on the Ducks Like You Facebook page on Feb. 6. Police are also reportedly investigating a series of other Facebook posts on Kindred’s personal account, some of which contained threats. These posts have since been deleted, but some of them appeared on social media only a short time before Kindred’s arrest.

“We can confirm that there is an active law enforcement investigation into the social media,” UOPD spokesperson Kelly McGiver said. “Any time the university becomes aware of some information that gives people concern or might involve a threat it’s something that we take seriously.”

ASUO President Beatriz Gutierrez delivered the following comment regarding Kindred:

“He’s not just someone I work with. He’s also our friend and we care very deeply about his health, and our priority is his health and we would really appreciate if people would respect the privacy and sensitivity of the situation.”

According to Chief of Staff Lamar Wise, Kindred remains in the position of External VP.

The Feb. 6 budget hearing between the athletics department and the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee, which determine annually the amount and price for student ticket distribution for football and men’s basketball games, led to yet another stalemate in reaching an agreement. The ACFC approved a proposal of an 18.9 percent decrease to the Athletics Department’s current ASUO budget. Later, this decision was overturned due to faulty voting processes, according to ACFC Chair Andrew Lubash.

The budget hearing was the second held this year to work out how much it will cost students next year, regardless of whether they attend athletic events or not, to receive the same amount of tickets to athletic events that they received in the 2014-2015 school year. Students pay for 5,448 tickets per regular season football game and 1,854 per basketball game. These are distributed via a lottery system (when you log onto goducks.com and watch the O spin for an hour hoping to get a ticket) that is funded by a percentage of the Incidental Fee, which each student pays every enrolled term.

This year the student body as a whole paid the Athletics Department $1,695,348 for the ticket lotteries for football and men’s basketball. The Athletics Department opened negotiations this fall requesting a 10 percent increase to provide the same amount of tickets for the 2015-2016 year. This would mean an additional $169,535 and would bring next year’s total to $1,864,883.

The ACFC met with Athletics on Jan. 16 and negotiated the request to a possible 3 percent increase rather than 10 percent. That would mean students would pay $50,860 more than they did this year. However, no official agreement was reached, and the ACFC discussed the athletics budget again in a meeting on Jan. 30. Ronnie Grenier-Hemphill, the chief liaison between the Athletics Department and ACFC, informed the Committee that Eric Roedl, Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director of Finance, had brought up the possibility of having to cut the amount of tickets, if anything less than the 3 percent increase were approved.

The Emerald followed up with Roedl on the matter and he delivered the following comment:

“Maybe we’d adjust the ticket allotment in some ways to more accurately reflect the value and the money that’s being transacted…we’d continue to have dialogue to find something that works for everybody.” Roedl said.

Another factor in the process to determine student tickets is the discount. Students don’t pay for the entire market value of the 7,302 tickets they get. This year students paid for 42 percent of the market value of the tickets, and Athletics covered the remaining 58 percent. Although there is language in the agreement that states a guideline to move towards a 50-50 payment ratio, students have never paid 50 percent of the market value.

“It’s a guideline, it’s not something rigid,” Roedl said. “I think our top priority is making sure students have good access to tickets and we meet student demand, and continue to be a big part of student life.”

The 10 percent increase requested by Athletics in fall would have changed payments to a 45-55 ratio. The 3 percent increase, would have maintained a 42-58 percent payment ratio. Factors like inflation and the rising demand for tickets as our teams improve cause costs to rise for Athletics, which is why they request more money to provide the same amount of tickets. It can be difficult to track how all the percentages line up, however.

The 18.9 percent proposal, however, takes a new approach entirely. Created by ACFC member Megan Gleason, it deals with another segment in the cost-factoring process. The price of tickets is split into two categories: ticket value and a donation fee value. The donation fee accounts for reserving seats in game stadiums. Within their individual payments, students pay the donation fee in full, and the ticket value, and the 58 percent Athletics discount is then applied to the overall cost.  Gleason’s proposal makes no change to current 58-42 discount on ticket prices, but cuts out the cost of the donation fee. Under her proposal, students would only be paying the ticket value.

Lubash expressed his support of the proposal at yesterday’s hearing.

“I have yet to hear a compelling reason why we should be paying the donation fee,” Lubash said.

Not all members felt it was necessary to venture into territory where Athletics had hinted that ticket numbers could be cut, however.

“They feel they’ve answered every question they can,” Grenier said. “At the end of the day, 3 percent is manageable for us.”

The ACFC proposal vote was 3-3, before Monquize Dusseau, executive finance director broke the tie in favor of the proposal.

However,  ACFC Chair Andrew Lubash later discovered that the Green Tape Notebook, which contains all the rules regarding ASUO procedure, does not give the Finance Director authority to break a tie in the ACFC, and per Robert’s Rules of Order, the tie indicated a motion failure.

Before the mistake in the voting process was revealed, Athletics was informed about the 18.9 percent decrease proposal and filed an appeal.

The next hearing will take place on Tuesday Feb. 10 at 8 a.m. in the EMU Rogue River Room. Now, because the passed proposal has been overturned, it will be yet another normal budget hearing to work out a proposal for the ACFC to present to Senate on Feb. 19.

A controversial post appeared on the Ducks Like You Facebook page Friday morning.

The post, which was shared on the page at around 8 a.m., read, “I quit have fun learning to continue being assholes to God to his face lmao.”

It is not yet clear who is responsible for the post, but since it came from the Ducks Like You page itself, it could only have come from someone with administrator access to the page.

The post was removed an hour later. ASUO President Beatriz Gutierrez says the Executive is looking into the situation.

Check the Emerald for updates on the story.

Wednesday’s meeting entailed a house packed with club sport athletes, eight special requests and finance committee updates as budget season continues for the ASUO Senate.

Special requests included the Young Americans for Liberty, which requested $900 to attend the International Students for Liberty Conference in Washington, D.C. in February, and transfer requests from both Mecha and the Vietnamese Student Association for events. The Black Student Union also came to request a name change for one of its line items.

Club Sports turned out in full force for a $40,000 request to send various teams to regional and national competitions. Students from all different teams crowded into the Walnut Room to demonstrate the diversity of athletics and show their support for the Executive Administration members presenting the request.

Senate asked about things like fundraising and the nature of Club Sports’ allocation of the money. The process for funding Club Sports is similar to Senate: It takes the lump sum of money and distributes it to the teams who either qualify or choose to go to national competitions and tournaments.

“I just wanted to make a quick note to Senate that this request comes in annually, cause our club sports rock and they go to nationals every year,” Senator Miles Sisk said.

He went on to say that the EMU Board, which works with Club Sports, is looking into how it can eventually provide for national competition funding in the Club Sports budget.

The request was passed by a unanimous vote.

After special requests, Senator Lasken was nominated to replace Freshman Representative Hao Tan as a student seat on the University Senate. Tan had discovered that he had a scheduling conflict that would prevent him from attending University Senate meetings. Senators then volunteered for positions on faculty/student committees within University Senate that will focus on topics like grievances, curriculum and employment.

Senator Truong then brought up the idea of the Stipend Model and changes that could be applied. The Stipend Model that applies to this year cannot be changed because the Dec. 1 deadline has passed. Senator Truong proposed making changes for the next year. S

enate eventually decided to table further discussion until spring term, when the senators-elect will be present to take part.

In officer updates, Treasurer Will Iversen announced that surplus remaining is at $246,462, which is 51.3 percent of the original budget.

Finance committees are either close to finishing or are finished with their budget hearings.

ACFC Chair Andrew Lubash talked about the debate surrounding negotiations with two of the largest contracts, Athletics and LTD. The EMU Board has only one remaining budget hearing next week. DFC is finished with its budget hearings, and PFC has several yet to go.

Live coverage of the ASUO Senate

Agenda

Last week’s Senate meeting saw the confirmation of one of the most difficult positions in the ASUO to fill properly: the elections board coordinator. This year, the responsibility to establish rules for and oversee elections will fall on sophomore Monica Nunan’s shoulders.

Nunan is an English and women and gender studies double major. She applied for the position of coordinator because of her interest in politics.

“I thought that would be a really cool way to be involved and actually make a difference,” Nunan said.

Each year, the coordinator is in charge of writing election rules, advertising, interviewing and hiring the remaining four members of the elections board, and managing campaigns as they progress throughout winter and spring term. It is one of the hardest positions for the Executive Board to find candidates for, because it requires a lack of prior connections to ASUO members that could lead to biased decisions, yet it calls for a person with some knowledge of elections and spirit for political engagement.

“You have to find someone who is not biased but the only way to do that is to find someone who doesn’t know anything, really,” Senator Andrew Lubash said. “But they still have to be organized and all of these other things. That’s why it’s so hard.”

The Executive ran an advertisement in the Emerald for weeks and received only two applications in November. However, the other applicant withdrew their application. Consequently, Nunan was the only one called in for an interview.

“The process was a little jumbled in terms of taking applications after their deadline, because no one was applying,” Chief of Staff Lamar Wise said. However, he said, Nunan’s interview made it clear that she was a qualified candidate for the job.

“She already had some experience with outreach for a regular state election,” Wise said, referring to Nunan’s involvement in the Vote or Vote campaign to register students last year. “We were confident that she could do the job based on her experience with being an editor at the Siren… We also got the sense that she was very good at communication, and that, I personally think, has been lacking the past couple years.”

Nunan’s confirmation was marked by concern, most vocally from Senator Emeritus and current EMU Board member Taylor Allison about the thoroughness of the hiring process due to the lack of applicants or interviews. However, Senate confirmed Nunan 9-4-1.

The elections board coordinator must also be prepared to handle grievances in the thick of elections, and so an ability to stand one’s ground is also valuable. Wise compared the position of the coordinator to a referee in a sports competition.

“Right now I’m pretty open to what people are telling me, but I’ll be looking at past elections and what may have gone wrong,” Nunan said.

Every coordinator and elections board shapes elections differently. Nunan’s goals are to implement spending caps on campaigns, distribute elections information as early as possible and hold elections early spring term. These ideas will take further shape when Nunan hires the rest of the board.

“The feeling of accomplishment that’ll happen after I’ve read the elections results, I’m just kind of looking forward to that moment, like oh I did it, I managed to do all the things I needed to do,” she said.

Follow Kaylee Tornay on Twitter @ka_tornay

This week’s ASUO Senate meeting included only three special requests and appointments for two positions, and was concluded in one hour and 17 minutes.

Senate President Rebecca Rhodes was absent, so VP Miles Sisk led the meeting. Senator Andrew Lubash announced that the ASUO Senate has been invited to hear Governor Kitzhaber speak at the Law School on Thursday.

Elle Mallon, gender and sexuality diversity advocate for the ASUO, also came forward during the public forum to announce that the LGBTQA3′s Drag to the Future event is happening this Sunday in the EMU.

The first special request was made by the UO Financial Management Association, requesting $800 to send 20 students on a site visit to Seattle where they would have the opportunity to liaise with representatives from Microsoft and Amazon. Senate passed the request in a vote of acclimation.

Next up was the Jewish Student Union, who requested $10,000 to fund students from various groups around campus, all of who wish to attend the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference in Washington D.C. The event brings pro-Israel Americans and leaders from around the world together to discuss and strategize about American policy pertaining to Israel and the Middle East. The students would also get the chance to lobby members of Congress about their agendas.

Several presenters of the request have been to the conference before, as well as a few members of Senate. Attendance at the conference is aimed at more people than just those who support or are invested in Israel.

“What’s really important about this conference is that it’s open to anyone,” said Taylor Allison, a member of Quack PAC and former Senator who was one of the presenters of the request.

Senate voted to fund the request with no “nays” and the only abstentions from Senators Lasken, Lubash and Klosno.

The last request was made by the Black Student Union, their third of the year. They asked for $4,854 to put on a Divine Nine Step Show event, which will review the history of Black Greek Letter Organizations and the Divine Nine, the combined organization of nine African-American fraternities and sororities. The UO BSU is taking over this event from Oregon State University, and it plans to add a line item for the event to its budget during this year’s budget negotiations. Senate passed the request with a unanimous vote.

After the conclusion of special requests, Senate turned to the appointment of two new senators to attend and represent the ASUO at University Senate. Lubash nominated Freshman Representative Hao Tan and William Iversen nominated himself. Because there were no further nominations, the two senators were appointed without the need for a vote.

During finance committee updates, ACFC Chair Lubash announced what he described as “high-drama hearings” with the athletics department and LTD regarding their contracts. Senator Megan Williams announcemed that DFC is finished with budget hearings, and PFC Chair Yelin Oh reported that the PFC had finished about 160 budgets, but has more in front of them.

The meeting adjourned at 8:17.

For more information on the ASUO, visit their website. ASUO Senate meetings are 7 p.m. on Wednesday nights in the EMU Walnut room.

“When a resolution is approved by Senate, we are saying, ‘As the ASUO Senate, we are making this statement on behalf of the student body,’” Senate Ombudsperson Samantha Cohen said. It is acknowledged, however, that the viewpoint may not be representative of every student.

This past term, two resolutions were brought before Senate.

Any student championing a stance on an issue has the opportunity to present their resolution to the ASUO.

Issues are typically on a national or campus-wide scale and the resolutions are ultimately voted on by the Senate.

The first pertained to a commitment to support increasing the presence of gender-inclusive bathrooms on campus, which was brought forth by members of the LGBTESSP, among others. Senate approved that resolution, and is currently working to improve the issue.

The other resolution Senate came with a bit more controversy, and was presented by OSPIRG. It pertained to the Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United v. FEC case of 2010.

The decision ruled that restricting independent political expenditures, most notably in the area of campaign financing, by nonprofits, corporations or labor unions was inconsistent with the First Amendment, and has been cause for controversy across the nation. Oregon was the 17th state to pass a resolution calling for Congress to nullify the decision, and the resolution presented by OSPIRG to the ASUO Senate was calling for the same. The resolution was approved, but not unanimously.

“I find it interesting that we take on Citizens United when we throw a ridiculous amount of money at our own elections,” Senator Will Iversen said.

Two resolutions from last year include the Quack PAC resolution entitled, “The University of Oregon’s Commitment to Israel’s Right to Exist and Thrive,” which expressed support for the nation of Israel and its “positive contributions to the modern world.” The vote was 13-5-1 and was a subject of long debate. Quack PAC used rationale including, “Israel serves as a leader for the free world as the only country in the Middle East that contains equal rights for all of its citizens.”

Not all members of the student body or the ASUO agree on whether national issues are something Senate should pass resolutions on.

“Resolutions are giving statements on behalf of the student body as a whole so they’re generally more fit, at least according to this philosophy, for issues pertaining to campus,” Cohen said. “There’s definitely a divide.”

Also a source of controversy was the resolution regarding the presence of Lierre Keith on campus to speak. The resolution, brought forth by UO Survival Center and allies, stated that the student body would stand in solidarity with the trans community at the UO “in condemning the discriminatory views and practices of Lierre Keith and Deep Green Resistance.”

“The resolution started off as ‘Hey, we would recommend that this didn’t happen.’ On the Senate floor, it morphed into: ‘We condemn the views of Lierre Keith,’” according to Senate VP Miles Sisk. It is possible for resolutions to change during the shaping process.

Issues can be presented to Senate during Wednesday night meetings. By the following Wednesday, the comprised resolution is put to a vote by Senate.

Meetings are at 7 pm in the EMU Walnut Room.

United States President Barack Obama delivered his sixth State of the Union address tonight in Washington.

Here are some of the highlights:

Obama began by citing some areas of success achieved recently. The economy is growing faster than it has since 1999, he said. Unemployment is lower than it has been during his whole presidency. Our campaign in Afghanistan is over, and now fewer than 15,000 troops remain there or in Iran. But, he warned, complacency must not follow, and the first area in which vigilance should be exercised is the economy.

Economic growth

Obama opened his discussion on the economy with a story of a Minneapolis couple, one that personified the kinds of struggles faced by many middle-class families. They experienced lost jobs, the decision to return to community college to work towards another career and debts incurred from student loans. However, through hard work and sacrifice, they managed to make it through the tough times to better jobs and a more stable lifestyle for their family.

“America, Rebekah and Ben’s story is our story. They represent the millions who’ve worked hard and scrimped and sacrificed and retooled,” Obama said.

However, he went on, hiccups like government shutdowns and gridlocks over fiscal policy cannot happen again and put the security of Americans at risk. Any bill that could lead to such things, he said, would be vetoed.

In order to keep things growing, Obama invoked affordable childcare and equal pay for men and women as steps to ensure long-term economic stability, in addition to paid medical leave and higher wages. Later, he addressed issues like tax loopholes for big corporations and hiring veterans.

One avenue to providing more middle-class Americans with employment opportunities, Obama said, is by making college more accessible.

Community college

Last week, Obama announced his plan to move towards making community college tuition free for every American. Tonight, he used his economic dialogue as a segue back into that proposal. He explained that community college is an advancement opportunity for diverse sets of people, some young, some older and some returning from combat.

Obama’s plug for free community college was short but seemed to be memorable more for its impact than its length.

National security

The president’s voice never wavered as he began to speak about America’s slew of involvement in conflicts abroad. In a coalition with moderate Syrian forces, he said, the U.S. is managing to stop ISIL’s forces. However, he said, it has not been enough yet.

“Tonight, I call on this Congress to show the world that we are united in this mission by passing a resolution to authorize the use of force against ISIL,” Obama said. “We need that authority.”

He continued on to highlight the recent changes in U.S. foreign policy with Cuba and to invoke the progress made with Iran in curbing its nuclear program. Again, Obama asserted that he plans to veto any bill that threatens the diplomatic relations being developed with Iran.

Climate change

Obama made the last major point of his address center around climate change.

“No challenge, no challenge, poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change,” the President said.

He made a quick dismissal of the side of the climate change debate that questions whether climate change is a viable concern by saying that the best scientists in the world are informing us of the consequences of global warming. He cited environmental and diplomatic repercussions as reasons that Congress and the U.S. government should be leaders on the front to fight climate change.

Other moments of note included Obama’s condemnation of persecution of “women, religious minorities or people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender,” which is the first mention of bisexuals or transgender people in a State of the Union address. Additionally notable was the president’s off-the-cuff line in which he inserted a pointed comment about his success in elections.

“I have no more campaigns to run,” said Obama, interrupting his next sentence with, “I know, because I won both of them.”

The president closed with this statement:

“Let’s begin this new chapter together, and let’s start the work right now.”

View a transcript of the State of the Union address here.

Follow Kaylee Tornay on Twitter @ka_tornay

After its recent victory in the College Football National Championship, Ohio State’s merchandise reads “Undisputed National Champions” on everything from T-shirts to shot glasses. Oregon, not so much.

In order for a team to take the podium while wearing their championship gear, it has to be printed ahead of time. But what happens to the team’s apparel when it doesn’t end up on top?

The answer, as it turns out, varies depending on the circumstances. According to Slate, when USC lost to Texas in the 2006 Rose Bowl, that merchandise was either destroyed or donated, while Major League Baseball shreds the losing team’s gear and the NFL and NBA donate the merchandise to charity.

Mckenzie Sew On partners with the Duck Store to provide shirts like those that would have celebrated the UO’s victory in the College Football Playoff National Championship. The company is based in Springfield and is a collegiate licensed company, which gives it the right to manufacture and distribute official college merchandise. According to Tyler Norman, the Duck Store representative at Mckenzie Sew On, the Duck Store ordered about 2,000 national championship shirts.

“It’s rare that we would do an order like the one for the Duck Store with the national championship marks,” Norman said. “Typically we would just start right after the game or the event.”

Mckenzie Sew On now has shirts that are unusable to the Duck Store. In turn, they have a partnership that helps them deal with this. John Brown is a real estate broker and community activist. Among many other volunteer commitments, Brown works with Mckenzie Sew On to help them make use of shirts or hats they cannot sell due to misprints or premature victorious declarations. Similar to the NBA and NFL, Mckenzie Sew On chooses to send the products to people in underprivileged communities around the world, where the incorrect sports messages don’t detract from the garment’s usefulness.

Brown has known Norman as a family friend throughout Norman’s childhood, and Mckenzie Sew On has worked with Brown for seven years.

“I just do it cause it’s fun to help people and help causes,” Brown said.

He was recently named Eugene’s First Citizen of 2015 for his depth and diversity of community involvement. In the case of Mckenzie Sew On, he liaises with the Eugene Rotary to provide funding for the shirts to be shipped to parts of Central America or Africa.

“They’re perfectly good clothes,” Brown said.  “And it’s a good way to get use out of something that’s not going to be used.”

Follow Alex Wallachy and Kaylee Tornay on Twitter: @wall2wallachy, @ka_tornay