The University of Oregon spent $23,397.29 commissioning the historical report on Frederic Dunn and Matthew Deady, documents show.

Three historians worked on the 34-page report released last August. The team of historians included David Alan Johnson, professor of history at Portland State University; Quintard Taylor, professor of history at University of Washington; and Marsha Weisiger, associate professor of history at UO. The university paid the historians $7,500 each for their work.

Yale and Georgetown are other notable universities that have changed building names in recent years. The Emerald attempted to obtain records showing the actual cost of renaming those buildings but employees at Yale said that the school had no such records to share. Georgetown did not return emails pertaining to similar records.  

In addition to the fixed fee of $7,500, the historians would be reimbursed for travel to and from UO, materials for research, along with meals and lodging expenses up to $2,500. Weisiger was the only historian who was reimbursed for any travel, documents show. Last July she went to Portland to meet with the other researchers and conduct research at the Oregon Historical Society.

UO President Michael Schill announced that a panel would be assembled to determine whether Deady and Dunn Halls should be renamed in 2016. Gregg Stripp, senior adviser and chief of staff in the president’s office told the historians they had been selected as the panel via email on June 29, 2016. In that email, Stripp set a deadline of Aug. 5 for their work to be completed.

With the bulk of the work and cost out of the way, UO is now tasked with the on-the-ground work of converting Dunn Hall to Unthank Hall.

While the sign on the building now reads Unthank Hall, digital and physical versions of campus maps must be updated as well. Ken Kato, the director of Campus Geographic Information Services (GIS) and Mapping Program says the digital maps change in seconds, while updating the physical maps take longer. Kato said there were already plans to update campus maps before the Board’s decision to rename the building.

“We were planning to update them this summer regardless of the name changes,” Kato said. “If we weren’t doing the full map updates this summer, we would create an adhesive overlay that covers a building with the changed name.”

He noted that it would cost a couple hundred dollars for Campus Planning and Facilities Management to print, install and update the maps, but this would not be billed to the university. According to Philip Carroll, a landscape supervisor at the university, the costs to install the new maps are not exorbitant.

“It’s not a $5,000 project but it’s not a $100 project either,” Carroll said. “I would say that installing the new maps should cost anywhere between $300-$600.”

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In-state students may see a tuition increase reprieve if state lawmakers decide to push $70 million across the table to the Higher Education Coordinating Commission this year.

The HECC voted down a 10.6 percent tuition increase for Oregon residents last month before approving the hike weeks later. Despite student protests and strong condemnation of the decision by ASUO, University of Oregon administrators insisted the increase was necessary to cover rising costs.

Now, Senate Bill 5524 will potentially increase the Higher Education Coordinating Commission’s budget by $90 million next biennium. The public university support fund is set to increase 10.4 percent, or about $70 million.

Tobin Klinger, a UO spokesman, said the university has been working in Salem for months to encourage more investment in higher education.

“We’re really thrilled that they have recognized the value of higher education to the state of Oregon,” Klinger said. “They are a partner in helping to provide critical relief in terms of tuition cost.”

If the Legislative Fiscal Office’s proposal is accepted, universities will be required to roll back their tuition increases by 3 to 4 percent. According to the senate bill materials, UO would be required to hold its tuition increase to 6.56 percent next year.

In November, UO President Michael Schill, along with the presidents of Oregon’s six other public universities, wrote a letter to state legislators asking for $100 million. Schill has said that if the state increases funding by that amount, tuition increases would be capped at 5 percent. According to Schill, every $20 million the state pledges to higher education funding, the UO will be able to reduce its tuition increase by 1 percent.

One month after the university presidents requested $100 million, Gov. Kate Brown released her budget for the 2017-19 biennium. That budget offered increases to K-12 spending but held funding for public universities flat, a move described by administrators as an effectual cut.

Now it appears that Brown and other lawmakers are reconsidering their position, considering the heavy burden students are bearing for their education.

At the time, higher education funding was held static due to the $1.6 billion shortfall the state faced over the next two years. It is still unclear where this $70 million will come from.

If the bill passes, the UO Board of Trustees will reconvene in order to determine what the new tuition cost will be, Klinger said. Because they already approved the 10.6 percent increase, they will have to vote on a new cost. Klinger said the school would be able to reduce the tuition increase significantly.

“The proposed higher education budget would bring critical tuition relief to the students of the University of Oregon, allowing us to reduce next year’s tuition increase by more than a third,” Schill said in a prepared statement. “I want to thank the state’s legislative leaders for this important step in the right direction. I hope it is a sign of the state’s continuing commitment to supporting an excellent, accessible higher education system for all Oregonians.”

The Senate recommended on July 1 to pass the bill with amendments following a work session June 30.

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An unidentified man stole a UOPD patrol car early Wednesday morning. The car was recovered about an hour later at 4:30 a.m., but UOPD is still searching for the suspect.

According to UOPD, the car was left running in front of a University of Oregon building on Walnut Street. The officer was inside the building at the time.

While it is standard procedure to leave cars running while officers are not in them — in order to keep electronic systems running — the officer left his keys in the car, according to UO Police Chief Matthew Carmichael. Leaving keys in the car is not standard procedure.

“This is a pretty serious event,” Carmichael told the Emerald. “It’s pretty brazen for someone to steal a marked police car.”

The man broke the driver’s side window to get inside the car. Besides the broken window, no other damage was done to the car, according to police.

The suspect broke in through the driver’s side window. (Michael Tobin/Emerald)

Police tracked the car using in-car technology and located it with the help of Springfield Police.

Carmichael stressed that the in-car technology, originally implemented as an accountability measure, was key to locating the stolen car.

The security camera in the car captured footage of a white male with shaggy dark hair who is around 6 feet tall, according to police. Surveillance video of the suspect can be viewed here.

Police are asking anyone with information to call UOPD at 541-346-2919. Anonymous tips can be left at 541-346-2974.

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The University of Oregon — well known for its liberal student body — is ranked the worst major college in the U.S. for viewpoint diversity, according to a new report from the Heterodox Academy.

UO sits at the bottom of the list of 152 schools with enough information to compile a score. Out of a possible 100, UO scored only 15. Rounding out the bottom of the list were Harvard University (16), UC Berkeley (16), Northwestern University (19), New York University (20).

University of Chicago, where President Michael Schill worked prior to UO, topped the list with a score of 98.  George Mason University, College of William and Mary and the University of Tennessee- Knoxville all tied for second place.

Researchers admit that quantifying viewpoint diversity is difficult. The purpose of the guide is to enable high school seniors to avoid the “walking on eggshells” culture in much of higher education today.

Heterodox Academy, a group of 925 academic members interested in viewpoint diversity, used four factors to determine the score for each school: whether the university had endorsed the Chicago Principles of free expression, the FIRE rating for the school, the ISI (Intercollegiate Studies Institute) rating and any events relevant to free expression since 2014.

UO has fared poorly in FIRE’s ranking, appearing in the list of the 10 worst schools for free speech each of the last two years. Each university’s fire ranking makes up 30 percent of their HxA score.

In 2017, FIRE gave UO yellow light ratings for its facilities scheduling policy and its broad language used in the harassment and discrimination complaint and response policies.

Laura Beltz, a member of the policy reform team at FIRE, said the main issue with the policies is definitions that are much broader than Supreme Court definitions. She suggested that UO adopts definitions that line up with Supreme Court standards.

The ISI guide is an admittedly partisan, right-leaning evaluation of universities in America. Its influence contributes 25 percent of the HxA score.

In addition to outside evaluations, HxA examined events that occurred on campus which included students, faculty or administrators. This test contributed 45 percent of the overall score but events involving students were weighted more heavily than those involving professors or administrators.

HxA didn’t find any incidents involving students or faculty but three relevant events involving administrators resulted in a “red” rank.

Events included a clash between students, a UOPD officer and an anti-abortion activist and the subsequent Jefferson Muzzles award handed out in response as well as interference in student life by the Bias Response Team — which the university has taken measures to investigate.

The final test used by HxA is whether universities embrace the Chicago Principles of free expression. This is a bonus test where universities are rewarded for embracing them or similarly strong policies but do not lose any points for failure to adhere to the principles.

UO Faculty Senate Vice President Bill Harbaugh wrote on his blog that, “It’s a little unfair to criticize us for not endorsing the Chicago statement on academic freedom. The UO Senate has enacted much stronger free-speech and academic freedom policies than Chicago,” but added, “It’s just that our administration feels free to break them when convenient.”

Follow Max Thornberry on Twitter @Max_Thornberry . 

**A previous version of this story referred to Bill Harbaugh as the Faculty Senate President. His title has been updated.

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Today is Saturday, June 3. Here are the three stories from this week that you need to know.

In this weekly news wrap-up, Podcast Editor Emerson Malone and Senior News Editor Max Thornberry talk about the Unthank-ful new dormitory name; how UO is starting to address IT issues on campus and then we close with some Yelp reviews of the Domino’s on Franklin Boulevard, which has been officially purchased by the university so construction on the Knight Campus can begin in the fall.

This episode was produced by Emerson Malone. Our theme music was written by Evan DuPell. We also include a recording of Frederic Chopin’s “Ballade No. 2 in F Major, Op. 38” as performed by Frank Levy.

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The state of Oregon is facing a $1.6 billion deficit. It has not been responsive to requests by universities for increased funding.

Last November University of Oregon President Michael Schill, along with the presidents of Oregon’s six other public universities, wrote a letter to legislators requesting $100 million for higher education costs across the state. That amount would have kept UO’s in-state student tuition increase below 5 percent.

On Thursday, May 25, the Higher Education Coordinating Commission approved UO’s tuition increase for in-state students. This decision came after a months long process of discussion and decision making by administrators and students across the university.

The Board of Trustees voted in March to approve the 10.6 percent increase for residents and 3 percent for out-of-state students, totaling $945 more per student next year. The increase reduces UO’s $15 million deficit to $8.8 million. That number is being reduced by $4.5 million in cuts that Schill announced in April. Schill attributes the majority of the budget deficit to increasing Public Employee Retirement System costs, increased salaries for faculty and disinvestment in higher education by the state.

In addition to tuition increases, the university has addressed budget issues by cutting faculty and staff around campus. Schools such as the College of Arts and Sciences have budgets that are made up almost entirely of faculty pay.

CAS was one of the first schools to be affected by cuts when the dean of CAS non-renewed 31 staff and faculty members last month. More cuts soon followed as the Substance Abuse and Prevention Program was discontinued for the 2017-18 school year, eliminating 18 more jobs.

(Kelly Kondo/Emerald)

In addition to balancing its budget, UO is pivoting back to emphasizing its status as a research institution. Non-tenure track faculty members — temporary instructors whom are signed to 1- to 3-year contracts — are being phased out as the university makes more space for tenure-track faculty.

In the flurry of cut programs and jobs, some stood out for students.

Kevin Alltucker was a beloved professor in Family and Human Services who made up his full-time requirements by also teaching in the Clark Honors College and Planning, Public Policy and Management departments. He was not laid off but was told by the school he would have his hours cut below the level required for full-time benefits. He decided he would not return next year. His announcement, made on Twitter, prompted an outpouring of student response and a petition to save his job.

Schill hinted that if the tuition increase was not approved by HECC, more cuts would be necessary to address the deficit. The day after the original request was denied by a 4-4 vote, UO spokesman Tobin Klinger confirmed that 54 staff positions would be non-renewed for the 2017-18 school year.

“The Higher Education Coordinating Commission’s decision yesterday [May 11] to reject the University of Oregon’s tuition plan is disappointing and creates uncertainty on our campus,” he wrote. “If it stands, we will be forced to make even deeper cuts at the UO than are already anticipated, including cuts that will likely affect student support services, academic programs, and jobs.”

Former ASUO President Quinn Haaga and Vice President Natalie Fisher were the only student government representatives from the six public Oregon colleges to approve of any kind of increase.

Fisher told the Emerald she didn’t see any better option for the university. She acknowledged that UO needs to balance cutting faculty and increasing tuition. A compromise was found by the Tuition and Fees Advisory Board — on which Fisher serves as a student representative — that a 10.6 percent increase would be sufficient to meet the needs of the university.

According to Fisher, an increase of 20 percent would have solved the university’s deficit problem and allowed it to retain its current number of faculty.

Current ASUO leadership disagrees with its predecessors.

External Vice President Vickie Gimm told the Emerald that Haaga and Fisher did not represent her because they are graduating seniors who “should not be speaking on behalf of the students who will be affected by this decision.” She said the tuition increase affects low-income students of color at UO.

The HECC disagreed. Documents show it determined that UO met the criteria of determining “clear and significant evidence of how Oregonians who are underrepresented in higher education, including low-income students and students of color, would benefit more under the university’s proposal than one that stays within the 5 [percent] threshold.”

In its report, the HECC wrote that UO guaranteed that its Pathway Oregon program would continue. Qualifying students are considered “low-income students” as one requirement is to be Pell Grant eligible. HECC noted that 42 percent of Pell Grant eligible students at UO are students of color.

Despite meeting four of the five criteria set by the HECC, the initial vote failed, resulting in a petition from UO that was approved last week. Between the two votes, Haaga and Fisher along with incoming Faculty Senate President Chris Sinclair sent letters to the committee. Haaga and Fisher’s letter urged committee members to reconsider its decision.

“Over the past four years, we have experienced first-hand the consequences that are derived from a lack of faculty and staff” The letter went on to say the effect of the cuts is seen. “through multiple week waiting periods to schedule counseling appointments, larger class sizes and inconsistent advising that has as [sic] times led us down the wrong academic paths. We fear that these issues and many more will increase at an exponential rate next year, further disadvantaging all students, especially those that cannot afford to take an extra term or even extra class.”

Sinclair wrote that fewer class options and larger class sizes are two side effects of the current budget crunch.

“Faculty are all too well aware that the price of tuition increases fall on the backs of our students, especially on low-income and underrepresented student populations. We wish it were not so,” he wrote. “We wish the state prioritized higher education so that we could provide affordable, high quality education to Oregonians without unduly burdening those in challenging economic situations.”

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University of Oregon President Michael Schill has nominated DeNorval Unthank Jr. as the namesake for Cedar Hall, formerly Dunn Hall, according to university representatives.

Schill delivered his nomination to the Board of Trustees in a memo on Tuesday.

“Based on historical records and information gathered on these four inspiring individuals, a meeting with the committee about the finalists, and subsequent conversations with various individuals and groups, I have decided to formally recommend that we permanently name this wing Unthank Hall, after DeNorval Unthank, Jr.,” he wrote.

The final candidates were delivered to Schill earlier this month. According to Schill’s criteria, candidates should be individuals who made significant contributions to UO or the state of Oregon; someone who had fought for justice and equality of Black people in Oregon along with a number of other requirements.

Unthank Jr. graduated from the School of Architecture and Allied Arts in 1951 as the first Black graduate from the school. He worked as an architecht in the Eugene-Springfield area on numerous public and private buildings.

“His works include our own McKenzie Hall, meaning that students can see and experience a tangible example of Unthank’s success and lasting legacy,” Schill wrote. “This physical space is a reminder to us all that this extraordinary man overcame racial discrimination as a child in Portland as well as discrimination and overt acts of hatred at the University of Oregon.”

Besides his professional success, Unthank Jr. met the criteria of promoting justice and equality. He worked with groups in Portland focusing on low-income housing and assisted living.

Dunn’s name was on a wing of the Hamilton residence hall, it has been temporarily named Cedar Hall since last September.

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One University of Oregon student group is inviting students to experience what life in a refugee tent is like. The tent, in the lawn between Condon Hall and Chapman Hall, is complete with a bedroll, cookware and study materials. It’s open for students to explore.

No Lost Generation is one of the first student chapters of a larger international initiative started by international associations such as the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and MercyCorps.

The tent was filled with the trappings of a temporary home. (Max Thornberry/Emerald)

“The reason we created a model refugee tent is we wanted to help people put themselves in the shoes of a refugee and what that would be like living in these conditions,” said Maria Pervova, a co-founder of the student group. “Especially if you are trying to access education … we wanted to help people to be able to sympathize.”

No Lost Generation is trying to impress on students how many refugees are just like them.

“Something that a lot of people don’t realize is that hundreds of thousands of refugees are youth that are our age,” said Harley Emery, a sophomore and co-founder of NLG, “[They] are heading toward a college education and [their] education was interrupted by the war in Syria.”

NLG modeled the tent on campus after a shelter found in the Middle East, according to Harley. While the group is focused on refugees from the Middle East specifically, they acknowledge that the scope of the crisis is much broader.

“This is just the largest crisis right now so we’re trying to help alleviate that,” Pervova said.

NLG has attracted plenty of attention this week. Kate Abed, a freshman psychology major, who stopped by on Wednesday morning, said she was surprised at how small the tent was. She said the display helped her put herself in the shoes of someone living out the experience.

Study aids and cookware filled the model refugee tent. (Max Thornberry/Emerald)

“Obviously it’s nothing like it would be if you were actually in that situation but I can imagine how scary and traumatic it would be,” she said, “but being in one is a lot different than just seeing pictures of it.”

In addition to awareness, NLG was also raising funds and collecting signatures for a petition to bring a refugee student to campus next year. The petition has about 2,000 signatures, according to Pervova. Signatures show the support of students while letters of support from different departments show that the desire on campus is to do something tangible for refugees seeking an education.

In addition to letters of support, the Office of International Affairs has pledged $10,000 a year to the scholarship proposed by NLG.

Pervova and Emery hope to take the petition and letters of support to administrators later this year to ask for their support.

NLG will return with the tent next Wednesday and Thursday.

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Dean of the School of Journalism and Communication Juan-Carlos Molleda has finalized the plan to balance the school’s budget.

The SOJC has been working with the Office of Provost and Academic Affairs to balance its budget, according to an email sent by the dean to students on Wednesday. The school has to reduce its general operating expenses by $1.9 million by Fiscal Year 2020. The efforts Molleda presented will save approximately $500,000. The Office of the Provost is providing $800,000 to the school in the interim.

Approximately 93 percent of the school’s budget is related to labor costs, the email said. Molleda acknowledged the difficulty in balancing a budget that is centered around instructors so he is attempting to minimize “nonrenewals,” or professors whose contracts were not renewed for the coming year.

In the proposal, the three master’s programs the SOJC offers will be expanded by hiring a graduate recruitment manager with funds from donors. The manager will be responsible for increasing enrollment in the programs, which the budget estimates will provide $100,000 for the school.

A total of 11 positions will be cut from the teaching ranks, mostly from part-time instructors. Cuts will made to campuses both in Eugene and Portland. This includes the five instructors who were cut before May 1.

Eugene will lose one career non-tenure track faculty member — the term used to refer NTTF members in the collective bargaining agreement — and three temporary NTTF members. Portland will lose one career NTTF member and two temporary NTTF members.

Four full-time positions will be cut as well – one postdoctoral fellow, two visiting assistant professors and one career NTTF position.

In addition to the cuts, one position vacated by a retiring part-time NTTF member will not be refilled and the workloads of two other NTTF members will be reduced. The savings on these nonrenewals will total approximately $400,000.

While NTTF instructors will have workloads decreased, professors will have more on their plate. “Professors of practice” will have to teach six courses a year, up from five, and career NTTF members will be required to teach eight courses, up from six.

Cuts in non-academic areas are part of the plan as well. The SOJC has eliminated two positions from its business office by creating a shared business center with the College of Design, according to the memo. Staff attrition and reduced services are other areas Molleda said the SOJC would address moving forward.

Molleda wrote that “SOJC expenditures have grown more than 50 percent since 2013.” Schools across campus are struggling with increasing expenditures and decreased enrollment but the SOJC has “outpaced all that of all the other schools,” he wrote. The SOJC has spent more than its budget allocation for the last two years, according to the email.

As part of the budget setting process, the school has also identified courses with low enrollment. Those classes will have some sections cut beginning in fall 2017.

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Starting at 5 a.m. Tuesday, May 16, University of Oregon websites will be temporarily unavailable. The UO homepage will be the first site closed for rolling maintenance, according to Around the O.

In total, about 150 websites will be offline for approximately 30 minutes between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. Anyone trying to access a site while it is being worked on will encounter a maintenance page. Canvas, DuckWeb and websites hosted through blogs.uoregon.edu will not be affected, Patrick Chinn, associate CIO for Customer Experience wrote in an email to the Emerald.

Information Services is working on implementing regular web maintenance throughout the year.

This week’s updates are not directly related to the WannaCry malware attacks that began on May 12, Chinn said. The university’s information security team is aware of the malware and has taken steps to protect university systems. Chinn advised any students who are running any version of Windows older than Windows 10 to run an update as soon as possible.

Follow Max Thornberry on Twitter @Max_Thornberry . 

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