With classes back in session, students attempting to navigate campus today will have run-ins with debris from this past weekend’s winter storm.

UO Campus Operations have kicked it into full gear attempting to clean up fallen trees and keep students, faculty and staff safe.

Garrick Mishaga, campus exterior team supervisor, has been working with his team to complete this task.

“Unfortunately, Saturday mid-morning the weather took a turn where we weren’t expecting temperatures to maintain. We kept having freezing rain,” Mishaga said. “Due to the weight on the limbs, especially in the older parts of campus with mature trees, we started to see limb failure just from the weight of ice.”

From the very beginning, the Campus Exterior Team prioritized what they believed was most important to begin returning the UO campus to it’s normal safe condition.

“We started to block off some of the areas and limb materials so that we could make sure it stayed safe around campus,” Mishaga said. “We want students, faculty and staff to stay away from certain areas. Material on the ground we started moving out of the way to make sure sidewalks were clear. Contact with buildings was a high priority as well.”

Different specialists have also been called in to assess different parts on the debris and work on specific projects.

“Right now we have two outside contractors working on projects including hazardous trees. Our campus arborist is taking care of the high precaution areas,” Mishaga said.

At this time the dollar value of the damage is unknown. All efforts are currently being channeled into the safety of students, faculty and staff. This is not the first time UO has dealt with situations like this one and they have a plan moving forward.

“Two years ago we had a similar situation. We normally create an assessment matrix,” Mishaga said. “We go around and assess trees so we know exactly which ones are damaged, where they are located and what it will cost.”

Once the assessment matrix is created or any other additional information is available, it will be sent to UO Risk Management for further investigation.

For members of  Fraternity and Sorority Life, few symbols inspire more pride than their house. Though community engagement is the pinnacle around which FSL functions, for older members of the community being required to live in the house can be a bit of a challenge.

Individual chapters must meet a minimum number of residents in their houses in order to offset the expense of maintaining the buildings. Occasionally, that means requiring upperclassmen who might otherwise live independently to partake in the group community.

“If the house is not at full capacity, it becomes inefficient. It means those that are living there have to pay more money and do more work in terms of general up keep and maintenance for no additional benefit,” Chi Psi President Sam McKellar said.

The live-in requirement can be exciting fo freshmen moving directly from residence halls, but for upperclassmen who join a chapter later in their college careers, moving from an apartment back into residence hall-style living isn’t always ideal.

Amber Erkan, a junior transfer student in Alpha Chi Omega, has loved being in her sorority since bid day.

“I picked Alpha Chi Omega because every girl I talked to was different and genuinely true to herself,” Erkan said.

While she loves her sisters and her chapter, the sorority’s live-in requirement came as a bit of a shock to her.

“At first, I was bummed about the live-in requirement because I am living off-campus this year and didn’t want to go back to living with less independence and freedom the way I did in the dorms my freshman year,” Erkan said.

Erkan recognizes that it’s a dilemma unique to the upperclassmen members already accustomed to living independently.

“I would have been stoked to live in from the start if I was moving in after living in the dorms,” Erkan said. “Living in is going to be a very unique experience.”

Many chapters do not have trouble getting members to live in because even non-freshmen members, like sophomore Nakai Corral from Delta Tau Delta, cannot wait to move into their houses.

“Generally speaking we don’t have an issue finding people who actually want to live in because living in is awesome and it’s by far one of the most affordable options on campus and in Greek life,” Corral explained.

Like Corral, Erkan has also found many positive aspects to living in the house and the idea has definitely grown on her. Since Erkan plans to study abroad, the term-to-term leasing agreement is a perfect opportunity.

“My opinion on (living in) has since changed,” she said. “I am fortunate that I can live in the house because I won’t have to sign a lease for an apartment or house that I would live in for only one term.”

Upperclassmen may find it difficult to convince themselves that moving back into community-style living environments is a good idea, but it’s often a sacrifice required for the good of the group.

“We are encouraging the older members to live in as their knowledge, wisdom and advice help keep things running smoothly,” McKellar said.

Students traveling to and from campus today should take extreme caution. According to weather reports, there will be approximately 2-6 inches of snow falling through Friday.

The University of Oregon Police Department posted snow safety tips online for students to refer to in instances when it is absolutely necessary to travel.

“Pay attention to the standard common sense things. Don’t travel unless you absolutely have to and just slow down,” Kelly McIver, communications director for UOPD, said. “Be cautious. Give yourself plenty of time and be aware of cars around you because there may be accidents.”

Krista Dillon, assistant director of Emergency Management, suggests that students look into LTD for safe travel plans.

“LTD is a good option,” Dillon said. “They have a great twitter feed with the most up to date routes. That’s the best place to find it. LTD’s website also will tell you about routes and detours that may exist to campus.”

If the bus is not an option for you, walking or biking is the best option, although it could also be dangerous.

“If you are a pedestrian, do not walk into the road. Cars will not be able to see you as well as normal,” McIver said.

Dillon also has safety precautions to keep in mind.

“Look out for slick sidewalks, take your time and don’t be in a rush,” Dillon said. “If you are biking, letting a little bit of air pressure out of tires may help with traction. Do not travel anywhere unless you absolutely have to.”

The Emergency Management and Continuity website has helpful links to the UOAlert! blog, inclement weather walking and biking routes and human resources inclement weather policies.

UOAlert! announced that classes Thursday evening and Friday morning will be suspended. Campus remains open at this time.

See more about today’s snow here.

The fate of the coffee-colored house on the corner of 15th Avenue and Alder Street has been confirmed for another year following a confirmation on Monday that its current residents, University of Oregon fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi, will continue living in the house for another year.

Confusion regarding the future of the ”Mocha Mansion,” which is owned by alumni of UO fraternity Phi Gamma Delta, has been circulating since Fiji was reinstated on campus last spring after a 15-year absence.

Esponda, a national property management company that specializes in fraternity houses at the national level, has confirmed that AEPi has signed a contract to stay in the house.

“AEPi will be in the house next year,” Rob Derdiger, managing director at Esponda, said. “They have a lease agreement with the property manager and have the place secured for the next year. It’s all just contract agreements.”

Rumors regarding the house have been circulating for as long as Sam Gutin, current president of AEPi, can remember.

“I’ve been hearing rumors about the house since my freshman year,” he said. “I was concerned at first but honestly, hard work is rewarded. I’ve had faith in Nationals.”

Josh Losner, AEPi’s former president, has full faith in Esponda’s ability to negotiate the living agreement between the fraternity who owns the house and its current occupants since the very beginning.

“They are well-qualified individuals. They have been doing this for years and I trust them because they have never let us down and they’ve never let anyone else down nationally,” he said. “They’re that good.”

As far as the rumors on campus are concerned, both Fiji and AEPi seem to be doing their best not to address them.

“Rumors are rumors. I just tell my guys to be the bigger man,” Gutin said. “Just let the events unfold and everyone will appreciate it. Don’t give false information or make promises that you can’t keep or don’t know enough about.”

According to Gutin and Losner, AEPi is also convinced that Fiji members are not the ones behind these rumors.

“You know, we hear these rumors … I don’t think it’s Fiji spreading them. I know the leadership of Fiji and I can’t imagine that they would say anything,” Losner said. “I respect how they do things. They are wonderful guys.”

Until recently, AEPi was unsure as to the future of the house. However, Gutin had prepared himself and his brothers for any outcome.

“There are many great chapters that don’t have houses,” Gutin said. “Sigma Nu, Kappa Sig, Pi Kapp, they have all grown immensely without houses. It’s a nice place to congregate, however it is not absolutely necessary and I think the chapters that don’t have houses have really proved that.”

Moving forward, AEPi will continue to focus on being the best chapter that they can be without the fear of having to find a new house hanging over their head.

“Not much will be changing, but there definitely is a sigh of relief to have it confirmed, but we always kind of knew,” Gutin said.

Phi Gamma Delta could not be reached for comment.

After yesterday’s fire in Esslinger Hall, things are back to normal this morning at the UO Student Rec Center.

According to Bryan Haunert, associate director of facilities, operations and services at the Rec, the building is open under normal business hours today.

“We are up and operating at regular capacity. All programs and hours and everything are on normal operating procedures,” Haubert said.

A small fire in Esslinger Hall last night set off the sprinkler system at the Rec at approximately 6 p.m. The water damage from the sprinkler system led staff to close the building for the rest of the evening before opening it again today. The cause of the fire has not yet been released.

In social terms, the words “greek” and “geek” couldn’t be further apart.

But for members of the University of Oregon Greek Community, grades are a higher priority than you might expect.

“Our fraternity organizations are dedicated to academic excellence because of the personal and intellectual growth that accompanies education and diligent work,” Morgan Plew, president of UO Fraternity and Sorority Life’s Panhellenic Council said. “We also strive to provide academic support to our members since being a student is first priority.”

Each term, a ranking of the top fraternities and sororities is created to show which chapters rose to the occasion in terms of academic achievement. Fall 2013 term rankings for UO FSL were released early this month.

Topping the list for Sororities with a 3.29 cumulative GPA is Alpha Kappa Alpha, a historically African American sorority with only three members at the UO.

“It may seem like it’s easy (to get good grades) because there are only three people, but there is a lot of pressure because if one person has a bad term it brings us down a lot,” Lauren Wilson, president of UO’s Alpha Kappa Alpha chapter said.

Coming in first place for Fraternities was Alpha Epsilon Pi, with an average GPA of 3.2.

“We have been working hard to raise our grades, hold brothers accountable and give them opportunities to study,” Alpha Epsilon Pi’s President Sam Gutin said.

Gutin says that the fraternity holds their members to a high standard by making sure they know the consequences if they do not meet minimum grade requirements.

“Basically, if a brother does not make grades, they are then contacted by our academics chair,” Gutin said. “They cannot go to social events like functions or registered parties. There is an appeals process where they can come in half way through the term and show us if they are doing well and we will consider lifting it.”

Both fraternities and sororities are under pressure on a national level to ensure that they live up to academic standards.

“We have to answer to national headquarters for grades and also the school for status on campus,” Wilson said.

According to Fall 2013′s Grade Ranking Report, Fraternity and Sorority Life holds an average GPA of 3.06.

Other fraternities that topped the list were Delta Tau Delta, coming in second among fraternities, Sigma Chi, following in third, and Sigma Nu in fourth.

For sororities, Sigma Mu Omega came in second, Chi Omega in third, and Alpha Phi in fourth.

Fraternity Rankings:

1. Alpha Epsilon Pi (3.2)
2. Delta Tau Delta (3.16)
3. Sigma Chi (3.16)
4. Sigma Nu (3.12)
5. Lambda Chi Alpha (3.09)
6. Beta Theta Pi (3.06)
7. Sigma Alpha Epsilon (3.02)
7. Sigma Phi Epsilon (3.02)
9. Pi Kappa Phi (3.01)
10. Phi Gamma Delta (3.01)
11. Phi Kappa Psi (2.99)
12. Phi Delta Theta (2.99)
12. Sigma Pi (2.99)
14. Delta Sigma Phi (2.96)
15. Chi Psi (2.91)
16. Kappa Sigma (2.69)
17. Alpha Phi Alpha, Inc. (2.67)

Sorority Rankings:

1. Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc. (3.29)
2. Sigma Mu Omega (3.22)
3. Chi Omega (3.22)
4. Alpha Phi (3.15)
5. Kappa Alpha Theta (3.15)
6. Delta Gamma (3.12)
7. Pi Beta Phi (3.12)
8. Kappa Delta (3.12)
9. Alpha Chi Omega (3.09)
10. Kappa Kappa Gamma (3.07)
11. Gamma Phi Beta (3.05)
12. Delta Delta Delta (3.04)

More and more students are interested in joining Fraternity and Sorority Life, and new chapters are forming in order to accommodate them. The fraternity Delta Upsilon will be returning to campus this spring, and its return will give Ducks thinking about pledging a fraternity a total of 18 chapters to choose from.

Delta Upsilon was previously at the University of Oregon from 1934 until 1972 but lost its charter. The fraternity was recently invited back to recolonize.

This is an exciting time for many students who found an opportunity in this new chapter. Kyle Wizner, a transfer student, has committed himself to this organization as a “founding father.” Every new member at this point is a pledge, but by stepping up and helping to recolonize the fraternity, he will be known as one of the founding fathers for the rest of Delta Upsilon’s time at the university.

The representatives from the Delta Upsilon national headquarters aiding the recolonization are Mark Gehrke, Angel Ochoa and Jordan Guess. Gehrke, director of expansion for Delta Upsilon, is excited to see a this chapter recolonizing at Oregon.

“Delta Upsilon was invited to return to the University of Oregon, and university administrators and alumni from the chapter are both very excited to see DU’s return,” he said.

According to Wizner, the three headquarters representatives will be passing along leadership of the chapter around March, ultimately leaving its direction to the members of the fraternity.

“It’s a really unique opportunity to be able to leave my mark on a fraternity,” Wizner explained. “It’s easier to do with a brand new fraternity than one that has already been established.”

According to Wizner, Delta Upsilon also does not run the same way other chapters may.

“Delta Upsilon is a non-secret fraternity, which means we are able to share our rituals and everything with people who are not members,” Wizner said. “I think it’s cool to be able to share something like this with friends and family members.”

Approximately 30 bids have already been extended and accepted.

“I like Delta Upsilon because of what the fraternity stands for as well as the group of guys who have already accepted bids,” Hayden Rahn, a new sophomore pledge of Delta Upsilon, explained. “We all have one common goal: making Delta Upsilon the best it can be while becoming better men while doing so.”

While these students are excited and ready to get things going, the three delegates from Delta Upsilon headquarters are still looking for more new members. Delta Upsilon will become an official part of the Interfraternity Council spring term.

“We are already hosting events for recruitment purposes but we’ll begin to hold service, philanthropic and social events spring term,” Gehrke explained. “There will be a public colonization ceremony towards the end of winter term and then the colony will work to become a chapter of Delta Upsilon within the next 18 months.”

Gehrke, Ochoa and Guess will have a booth set up either inside or outside the EMU for the next week and encourage interested students to visit.

The University of Oregon Technology services has confirmed that Webmail services are up and running again after an outage earlier today.

The university’s email service was down this morning from approximately 4 a.m. until 11:15 a.m.

Wireless also was down this morning, but became available again at 11:06 a.m.

“It is difficult to give a precise time for Webmail because there are a lot of computers that run behind the scenes,” Patrick Chinn, director of strategic communication for information services said.

To put it simply, each server is made up of multiple certificates, which verify that emails should send and receive data back and forth. These certificates often last upward of 10 to 20 years. This morning, a certificate that was issued 20 years ago expired.

“There is a system that should pick up the expiration of certificates, but for some reason it did not pick it up this morning,” Chinn said.

Teams at the University of Oregon Information Technology services have been working on the problem all morning.

“We have a set of staff that are on call over night and we mobilized those staff,” Chinn said. “We have a Tuesday morning maintenance window between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. and that was when the problem was first noticed.”

According to Chinn, IT began receiving phone calls when most students, faculty and staff first became aware around 6:30 a.m.

“Our tech desk had a lot of phone calls this morning,” Chinn said. “In a situation like this when email is down, people often want to know what is going on, but we are unable to send out emails to them to let them know.”

Instead, IT updates their status website and encourages UO students and faculty to use this tool when they have questions.

“Our status website also had a lot of traffic this morning,” Chinn stated. “We use the status website to let people know that there were issues and it’s not a problem on their end.”

Marriage equality group Oregon United for Marriage kicked off a student  campaign today at eight schools across Oregon, including the University of Oregon. The campaign, headed by a different student chair on each campus, is targeted toward young adults (age 18-29) and is meant to raise awareness and collect signatures in order to put marriage equality on the ballot for the November 2014 elections.

Other campuses that have embraced the program include Southern Oregon, Willamette and Oregon State universities and Portland Community College.

Student volunteers today worked to collect the signatures needed to become an official group and began the outreach plan to inform students of the pain of marriage inequality.

“College students get it,” said Kenneth Sergienko, UO campus chair for the student branch Oregon United for Marriage. “They understand that denial of freedom of marriage hurts same sex couples.”

Oregon United for Marriage has set aside a section of its website specially designed for students who are interested and want to learn more.

According to this part of the website, Students United for Marriage, “eighty-one percent of young adults — regardless of political affiliation — support the freedom to marry.”

“Students generally want to stand up for equality,” Sergienko said. “Our students tend to be great supporters and that is why we are drawing such a focus to them.”

With a new calendar year comes a new generation of elected officers within the University of Oregon Greek community. Throughout Fraternity and Sorority Life, former presidents recently passed the gavels on to fresh faces with new ideas.

Matthew Swanger, former president of Sigma Pi, was honored to pass his position to the new president of Sigma Pi, his little and best friend, Bradley Wilson.

“It was actually a really cool feeling seeing my little take the gavel from me,” Swanger said. “Very rarely do you get to see best friends pass on leadership to each other.”

Wilson, a sophomore this year, has been a member of Sigma Pi since his freshman year.

“I wanted to make a positive impact on our house and I could not think of a better way to accomplish that than running for president,” he said. “The fact that my big brother was the current president at the time definitely influenced my decision as well.”

Efforts this year in Sigma Pi, according to Wilson, will focus on academics and improving the local chapter’s standing on a national level.

“We are currently working towards becoming a top 10 chapter nationally, along with increased efforts towards higher academic achievements,” he said. “I am looking forward to attending Sigma Pi’s mid-year leadership conference in St. Louis.”

Sigma Pi is not the only chapter looking forward to a year of change.

Megan Johnson, newly elected president of Alpha Phi, refers to her sisterhood as a “home away from home.” She is incredibly passionate and excited for the year ahead.

“I went into this position with the ‘go big or go home’ mentality,” she said.

Johnson strives to implement changes in Alpha Phi’s philanthropy events.

“We’re making a four-day-long competition between houses that ends in a soccer tournament,” she said. “It’s the first year that we’re doing it, so it’s really cool to be able to start something from scratch and see how it goes.”

Though these presidents and the rest of newly elected officials in the Fraternity and Sorority community have a lot of work in front of them, they also have a lot of people supporting them along the way.

“We all really loved our old president and I’m really excited to see everything that Megan will bring to the table in the upcoming year,” Alpha Phi sophomore Rachel Weinfield said. “I have a lot of confidence in her and believe she will be a great leader for our chapter.”

The former president of Sigma Pi shares a similar sentiment.

“Being president is a full-time job,” Swanger said. “Bradley is by far going to be one of the best presidents we have had because he knows how to connect with people and lead.”