In an attempt to access online academic journals, hackers working on behalf of the Iranian government stole the usernames and passwords of 62 University of Oregon professors from 2014 to 2017, according to U.S. Department of Justice documents obtained by the Emerald. The cyberattack was a coordinated effort to steal academic data and intellectual property from more than 300 universities located in the U.S. and abroad.

The University of Oregon confirmed on Friday that hackers, who worked for a company connected to the Iranian government known as the Mabna Institute, did not seek any UO specific data or research. Instead, the hackers were looking to use login credentials to access academic journals that UO faculty members have subscriptions to.

“We have no indication based upon internal forensics that any UO data was stolen,” UO spokeswoman Molly Blancett wrote in an email statement. “The FBI confirmed that they had no indication in their investigation that UO data was a Mabna target.”

In February 2018, the U.S. District Court of Southern District of New York filed a sealed indictment that formally charged nine Iranians with the “university hacking campaign.” According to the indictment, the coordinated effort targeted over 100,000 professors and about 3,800 U.S. professors fell victim to the campaign. As a result 31.5 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property, which cost universities almost $3.4 billion to obtain and access, was stolen.

The data and stolen login credentials were used by Iranian intelligence services and also sold to customers, such as public universities, in Iran who could then access online library systems, according the indictment.

In October 2017, the DOJ sent UO a letter stating that professors’ accounts had been targeted by hackers since 2014. The letter contained the usernames and passwords for the accounts of 62 UO professors.

The letter also contained a grand jury subpoena from the Southern District of New York requesting “information setting forth the annual costs associated with University of Oregon’s online academic journal subscriptions and eBooks/monographs available electronically to University of Oregon professor accounts, from the 2013-2014 academic year to present.”

According to the letter, the DOJ had reason to believe the hackers were targeting academic data and online academic databases.

“Upon receiving the subpoena, the UO Information Security Office immediately took remediation steps with accounts of the impacted faculty, and performed internal forensics on our systems,” Blancett wrote. “Our internal investigation found no indicators of UO data access or th­­eft. The FBI confirmed this, with their investigation also finding no indication that UO individual data was a target or was stolen.”

The technique the hackers used to take the login credentials is known as “spearphishing.” The hackers, posing as professors from a foreign university, sent faculty members a message containing a link that appeared similar to a legitimate UO domain.

In the letter, the DOJ said it believed that a fake login screen that captured the username and password would appear after the user clicked the link.

After the DOJ’s indictment became public in March, UO released a statement saying that the attack had “missed” the university, but UO Information Services recommended “beefing up passwords and being on guard.”

As a result of the hack, the UO launched a program that aims to reduce the number of faculty and staff members who may become victims of phishing.

“We have recently launched an online educational training for cybersecurity for faculty and staff to help prevent being victim of a phishing attempt,” Blancett wrote. “It is available through MyTrack, and we have done targeted outreach on campus to encourage adoption. We are in the process of rolling out communication widely.”

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The U.S. Supreme Court denied the Trump administration’s request for a stay, or a halting of legal proceedings, in the Juliana v. United States climate change lawsuit on Monday. The lawsuit, whose plaintiffs include two University of Oregon students and 19 others, claims that climate change and carbon emissions violate the plaintiffs’ fifth amendment rights to life, liberty, property and due process. The court also upheld the trial date of Oct. 29.

Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is set to retire today, stated that the “breadth of respondents’ claims is striking, however, and the justiciability of those claims presents substantial grounds for difference of opinion.”

Julia Olson is the chief legal counsel for Our Children’s Trust, the group helping to bring forth the lawsuit. “This decision should give young people courage and hope that their third branch of government, all the way up to the Supreme Court, has given them the green light to go to trial in this critical case about their unalienable rights,” Olson wrote in a press release.

Oral arguments for the lawsuit took place at Eugene’s Wayne L. Morse Courthouse on July 18 and a crowd of about 40 supporters gathered outside of the building to support the plaintiffs. During the arguments, attorneys representing the government said that the plaintiffs’ claims violated the separation of powers, or the distinct constitutional duties of the federal government’s legislative, judicial and executive branches, because the courts would be dictating national energy policy.

Olson, who represented the plaintiffs in court, said that the plaintiffs’ rights to life, liberty and property were compromised by the effects of climate change, such as flooding. Olson also offered a rebuttal to the government’s assertion that there was an issue with the separation of powers by bringing up previous cases that warranted the court’s intervention, such as voting, housing and prison.

The Emerald will continue to report on this story as the lawsuit proceeds.

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Update at 5:08 p.m. on Friday, July 27: Newly released body camera footage from the Eugene Police Department shows the moments on the night of May 11 when EPD officers drew guns on a KWVA student-DJ Sterling Baraquio and ordered him to the ground during their search for a trespassing suspect in the Erb Memorial Union.

UOPD body camera footage released earlier this week showed a UOPD officer leading Baraquio out of the building to the east entrance of the EMU, explaining that he did not want him to get caught up in the K-9 search that EPD was conducting to find the suspect.

The officer stopped short of the exit that Baraquio was leaving, and about 17 seconds passed before he radioed to the EPD officers outside that Baraquio, an employee, was evacuating, and not a suspect; however, the UOPD officer did not say which doorway Baraquio was exiting.

According to EPD spokeswoman Melinda McLaughlin, the officers followed department policies and protocols due to the lack of information that was provided to them, saying that “the officers who encountered [Baraquio] performed as we would have expected them” because “they didn’t know who he was, and based on his movements whether he was the suspect, and whether or not he was armed,” and that the possibility of an unknown individual, who could have been a suspect or potential suspect, exiting the building was “a possibility the officers had to account for.”

EPD body camera footage released Thursday recounts the scene from outside the EMU and shows an EPD officer running to the entrance from across the grass. Although the audio was cut off for the first 30 seconds, the EPD officer recording the interaction shouts for Baraquio to get down on the ground.

According to McLaughlin, EPD officers were not aware which side of the building Baraquio was exiting. McLaughlin wrote in a statement that officers saw Baraquio come out of the building, go back in the building and then reemerge.

“Upon encountering an unknown person exiting a building, and who was moving in a way to draw their suspicions (coming out, going back in, coming out), and who could possibly be a suspect (and potentially armed), they drew their weapons,” McLaughlin wrote.

Although it is not shown on the body camera footage from EPD or UOPD, Baraquio confirmed in an interview with the Emerald on Friday that he did try to re-enter the building.

“I walked out of the building and was going to ask the UOPD officer another question, so I turned around,” he said “As soon as I turned around, that’s when the cops started yelling.”

McLaughlin said the EPD officers approaching the EMU interpreted Baraquio’s movements as suspicious and drew their guns and shouted for Baraquio to get on the ground.

In a May interview with the Emerald, Baraquio described the interaction as “one of the scariest experiences of [his] life.”

“I have never been put in that situation before, or anything close to it,” he said. “Having weapons drawn on me, I didn’t know what was going to happen.”

EPD’s body camera footage shows the UOPD officer coming out of the EMU 10 seconds later to inform the EPD officers that Baraquio was not a suspect. EPD officers immediately told Baraquio to get up and leave.

In the body camera video, the EPD officer recording can be heard confirming on his radio that Baraquio is an employee and “not involved.”

Baraquio then asked the officer, “What am I supposed to do when you’re yelling at me?” to which the officer told Baraquio they thought he could have been a suspect.

“Well somebody broke in so we thought you were involved,” the officer said. “So just for now, boogie out of here man. We’ll get you back in once we clear.”

The officer then turned and walked away from the EMU, and 19 seconds later told the other officer, “That was interesting for a minute. He was turning and like running back in and everything.”

—

The University of Oregon Police Department released officer body camera footage this Tuesday of a spring term incident during which a student said officers pointed guns at him outside of the EMU. UOPD also released the police report and computer-aided dispatch log from the incident.  

This is the first time UOPD has released officer body camera footage. The Emerald filed an appeal with the Lane County district attorney on Monday asking her to disclose the records after UOPD took more than two months to turn over the requested records. Under Oregon Public Records Law, disclosure of body camera footage is appropriate when the “public interest requires disclosure,” and UOPD agreed, writing in a post on its website that it believes “this particular situation to be of heightened public interest to the UO community.”

Overview of the incident

The KWVA incident transpired on the night of May 11, when officers were clearing the EMU because they believed that a trespassing suspect fled into the building to hide from the police. Student-DJ Sterling Baraquio was inside the building in KWVA’s DJ studio at the time.

The body camera footage corroborates Baraquio’s statement that the officer didn’t escort him outside of the building.

The officer entered the radio station, identified himself as a police officer, and yelled for Baraquio to leave. The officer then entered the studio where Baraquio was sitting and told Baraquio to come with him. After leaving, he drew his weapon, which was not pointed at Baraquio. The officer went to the door and called to Baraquio two more times to come with him and told him that he was “not fucking around.”

The officer told Baraquio that there was a possible suspect in the EMU and told him that he needed to go. Baraquio left the radio station in front of the officer with his hands up, and the officer told him that he was not in trouble and that he wanted to make sure Baraquio was not caught up in the K-9 search that was being conducted by the Eugene Police Department.

“Finally he tells me that I’m not being arrested or anything — he’s just escorting me out of the EMU just for precaution because they lost a suspect,” Baraquio said in an interview in May.

The officer instructed Baraquio to leave outside the EMU doors (by the video panel) and apologized to Baraquio for “being gruff” and said that he did not want him to get hurt. When Baraquio asked the officer where to go, he told him to go “as far away as he can get” and recommended that he go to another building and to come back in an hour or so.

Baraquio left the building. The officer waited about 17 seconds to radio the other officers from EPD that were outside the EMU and tell them that the student exiting the building was an employee.

The officer went back to the door and yelled to the EPD officers that Baraquio was an employee and needed to be let through. “You’re good go get past them,” the officer said.

In a previous interview Baraquio told the Emerald it took several minutes for the officer to go back to the door and tell EPD officers that he was a student and not a suspect. Following that interaction, the officer entered the EMU again.

In an interview in May, Baraquio said that after exiting the EMU, the EPD officers waiting outside drew their weapons on him and yelled at him to get on the ground. Due to the Emerald only having the body camera footage from one officer from UOPD, it can only confirm Baraquio’s account that the officer told the officers outside the EMU that Baraquio was not a suspect.The Emerald cannot confirm that EPD mistook Baraquio for a suspect outside of the EMU.

Working to rebuild trust

Following the incident, UOPD said that it launched a formal investigation into the incident. The investigation concluded that there was “no violation of law or policy” and that Baraquio was never confused with the suspect. UOPD Chief Matthew Carmichael said in an interview with the Emerald that anytime an incident like this happens, the situation is debriefed with the officer involved and UOPD goes through the video.

Carmichael said that the officer could have improved his communication with Baraquio and walked him outside, but his response did not break protocol.

“The officer’s response was within the guidelines and the officer was intensely focused and the last thing we want to do is have students in that area with the dog,” Carmichael said. “We could’ve communicated a heck-of-a-lot better.”

According to the UOPD website, Carmichael met with Baraquio after the conclusion of the investigation and watched the video with him. Carmichael said he apologized to him, for among other things, not communicating clearly and making Baraquio feel unsafe.

Going forward, Carmichael said that he and UOPD are working hard to bridge the relationship between the radio station and said that sitting down to talk with the station’s staff is a way in which both parties can move forward.

“We’re playing catch-up, but we’re working to have a better relationship with them,” Carmichael said.

Carmichael said that he is working with Baraquio and hopes to regain trust with the community.

“It’s our responsibility to be in a state of preparedness,” Carmichael said. “We’re human and make mistakes, but we train to minimize mistakes.”

The Emerald reached out to UOPD on Tuesday night to find out if the officer outside was wearing a body camera and also reached out to EPD to see if their officers were wearing body cameras and has not received responses yet. The Emerald will update this story as more information becomes available.

The post [Updated] UOPD and EPD release body camera footage of KWVA radio station incident appeared first on Emerald Media.

Editor’s note: This post was updated at 9:50 a.m. on July 19 to correct AP Style. 

On Wednesday, attorneys made oral arguments in Juliana v. United States — the case in which 21 plaintiffs, including two UO students, are suing the U.S. government over carbon dioxide emissions and climate change.

The case, which begins trial on Oct. 29 and is presided over by Honorable District Judge Ann Aiken, could have serious consequences for the United States if the judge finds the government responsible for the plaintiffs’ accusation that the government’s use and production of fossil fuels endangered them. Juliana v. United States also raises questions as to how the Fifth Amendment, which ensures life, liberty, property and due process, should be interpreted in regards to climate change. The case is as much a question of constitutional law as it is about environmental sustainability.

Oral arguments were set to begin at 2 p.m. The Register Guard reported on Tuesday that the government filed a stay with the Supreme Court of the United States, meaning that they intended to stop the case from proceeding; however, during oral arguments, the attorneys for the plaintiffs said that they would file a response for the stay application by noon next Monday.

At 1 p.m., a crowd of roughly 40 demonstrators arrived at the Wayne L. Morse Courthouse bearing turquoise signs that read “LET THE YOUTH BE HEARD #YouthvGov.” Demonstrators sang a version of the song “This land is your land, this land is my land” that substituted the original lyrics for ones that promoted environmental activism and cheered when the plaintiffs and their attorneys entered the courthouse.

Oral arguments began at 2 p.m. with opening remarks coming from the defendants. The United States’ attorneys argued that the case raises an issue with the separation of powers — or the distinct constitutional duties of the federal government’s legislative, judicial and executive branches.

Juliana v. United States has a long list of defendants, which includes President Donald Trump, the Environmental Protection Agency and United States Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke.

The government’s attorneys argued that the court ruling in the plaintiffs’ favor would be an example of the court system determining policy, instead of allowing Congress to pass legislation.

The United States’ attorneys also argued that the plaintiffs were not able to clearly tether their symptoms of anxiety, asthma and natural disasters such as flooding to U.S. policy and government action.

Julia Olson, the plaintiffs’ attorney, spoke after the defense and made the case that the plaintiffs’ Fifth Amendment rights to life, liberty, property and due process were infringed upon by the government’s actions.

In a rebuttal to the government’s assertion that there was an issue with the separation powers, Olson pointed to past issues in which the courts have weighed in on policy, such as cases relating to voting, housing and prison.

“The constitution is silent on the national energy system, but is loud on liberty,” she said.

Despite the differences the parties had, both agreed at the end of the proceeding that President Trump can be dismissed from the case without prejudice — meaning that he is not involved in the case now, but can be brought back in at a later date if necessary.

Olson said that because of the wide scope of the lawsuit, the court would be able to award the plaintiffs the remedy, or relief, they want, even if the president was not involved in the lawsuit.

“The defendants say we can get the remedy we want without the president because we’ve sued other federal agencies and officials,” Olson said. “We’re saying ‘Fine, let’s narrow that issue; he can be out of the case. If we need him, we can move to bring him back in.’”

Following the end of oral arguments, the plaintiffs and their attorneys held a press conference at 4 p.m. and addressed the demonstrators who filed into the courtroom to watch the arguments.

One plaintiff, 21-year-old Jacob Lebel, spoke of the effects of climate change on his farm near Roseburg, Oregon.

“This is only the tip of the iceberg and the beginning of the destabilization that climate change has instilled for me and my generation; it’s one of the worst things I can think of,” he said.

Aji Piper, a 17-year-old plaintiff from Seattle, WA, said that the case can be a catalyst for change in other parts of the world.

“The remedy that we’re seeking has to do with getting the courts to order the government to take responsibility through instituting a national climate recovery plan,” he said. “If we were to win this case and get the remedy and as a country start moving towards a renewable and sustainable economy, we would see the rest of the world follow along.”

The post Climate change lawsuit involving two UO students sees first arguments in court appeared first on Emerald Media.

After losing May’s Republican primary for Oregon’s 4th Congressional District to Art Robinson, University of Oregon student Stefan Strek says he wants a recount. Strek, who received 3.36 percent of the vote in the primary and is known for controversial statements such as comparing women to cats, said the results of the primary are inaccurate.

Strek said the campaign went well and said he wouldn’t change anything about how it went.

“The campaign went really solid, and I honestly think they’re just making up the numbers.” he said. “I honestly think most of those people who got those ballots voted for me.”

Cheryl Betschart, the Lane County elections clerk, said that she has no reason to believe that the election was tampered with.

“Our equipment is tested four different times for accuracy, three times before the election and one time afer to ensure that everything is counted accurately,” she said. “That was completed and there were no discrepancies found.

Recounts are expensive, as the cost is determined by how many precincts are recounted in a county. Oregon’s 4th District has seven counties, and Lane County alone has 80 precincts.

Betschart said that a recount of four precincts in 2010 cost $8,000, and that the costs would be significantly higher to recount all 80 precincts. Oregon law requires that recounts be done by hand.

“I estimate that it could be 15,000-$25,000 for Lane County,” she said. “It could take up to a week to prep everything and validate everything. You’re paying for people to do all the work, but it can be done.”

Jeff Doty, an elections supervisor in Benton County, said that he couldn’t give an estimate to recounting the votes in the county.

“Everything is different from election to election, so I can’t give you an honest answer,” he said. “We can’t estimate personnel costs until after the fact.”

The official results of the election will be available by June 14, and according to the Secretary of State’s election calendar, Strek has until June 19 to file for a recount.

Strek said he will crowdsource the money to fund the recount and said he was working to get the message out to the “big players,” who he described as “political organizers, high-ranking politicians and heavy investors.”

Strek said he raised $500 during the primary, but due to technical problems on the Federal Elections Commission’s website this could not be confirmed by the Emerald.

Running for Oregon’s 4th Congressional District wasn’t Strek’s first attempt at public office. In 2016, he ran for mayor of Eugene and received just over 1,000 votes. Strek said that people who lived outside of Eugene were receptive to his ideas, which inspired him to run for higher office.

“There was a large amount of people I spoke with who supported my viewpoints, but couldn’t vote for me since they didn’t live within city limits,” he told the Emerald in March. “People like that I approach things objectively with an open mind.”

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A group of roughly 40 community members and University of Oregon faculty members who oppose the demolition of Hayward Field’s East Grandstand met in Agate Hall Thursday evening to share their concerns about proposed renovation of the historic site.

The meeting was organized by East Grandstand Supporters, a group that is working to promote the restoration and preservation of the venue, as stated on their Facebook page.

The group’s goal is not to halt the renovation, but to advocate for a renovation that includes the East Grandstand. The date of the demolition is still unclear: the city of Eugene approved permits for the site’s demolition earlier this month but they have not been issued.

“We’re not against the renovation at all — we want the renovation but we want appropriate renovation,” said group member and former Oregon track and field coach Peter Thompson. “The university right now is not working with the community.”

Jonathan Pincus, one of the group’s organizers, said that access to information regarding the renovation has been sparse.

“The people pushing for the development of the project have withheld information for so long and created a compressed timeframe,” he said.

Information regarding the renovations has been difficult to come across as it’s being handled by the The University of Oregon Foundation, a non-profit organization that is not subject to public records laws.

Among some of the members’ complaints was the design of the stadium in relation to the surrounding community.

“We don’t need something sleek and glitzy — we need something Eugene,” Thompson said. “This is the best place to live and train in the world.”

But glitz and glamor were not the sole arguments against the current renovation of Hayward Field: parking was also a concern. James Tice, a UO architecture professor, said that parking for the stadium’s target capacity of 30,000 fans will take up 50 acres.

According the Register Guard, the proposed renovation will eliminate 115 parking spaces from E. 15th and University streets to create a “pedestrian plaza.”

While the original goal for the stadium was to have the renovation complete for the 2021 IAAF World Championships, it may need to be finished earlier in time to host the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials, which will be decided no later than June of this year.

Thompson and the East Grandstand Supporters hope to meet with UO President Michael Schill to discuss the renovation plans.

“If we don’t try, people say there’s no hope,” said Thompson.

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If you leave your bike on campus, you’re going to want to lock it up. In the last five years, there have been 694 cases of bike theft reported to the University of Oregon Police Department. Stolen bikes are difficult to recover; UOPD closed 95 percent of bike theft cases from 2013-2017 without ever identifying a suspect, let alone returning a bike.

Sgt. Jared Davis, who has worked with the university since 2010, said that bike theft is a blanket problem across campus; however, some areas, such as around large buildings, are particularly vulnerable to bike theft.According to the five years of UOPD crime data, Knight Library and the Student Rec Center both had 31 reported cases of bike theft and Lawrence and McKenzie halls had 24 and 18 cases, respectively.

However, bikes are most frequently stolen at the residence halls. Hamilton had the most reported incidents with 53, followed by Bean with 37 and Carson with 34. Here is the breakdown by each dorm:

Nicholas Abusaid, a freshman living in Hamilton this year, said he left his bike by the Rec Center for three days only to find that someone tried to steal its parts.

“I thought I lost my bike last week,” he said. “I found it and it looks like someone tried to remove the brakes. I’m actually on my way to get it fixed.”

The Emerald created a heat map of where bikes are frequently stolen on campus.

But on-campus housing isn’t the only target — Spencer View Apartments, located near Amazon Park, saw 34 reported incidents of bike theft.

UOPD spokesman Kelly McIver says that because Spencer View Apartments houses families, children’s bicycles are frequently left outside, which make them vulnerable to theft.

Davis says it’s important to be aware of one’s surroundings when locking up a bike.

“Be mindful with where you park your bike,” he said. “If your bike is located near a security camera we have more of a chance of identifying a suspect.”

According to the Eugene Police Department, 790 bicycles were stolen last year alone in the city of Eugene; 754 were stolen in 2016 and 1,048 in 2015.

Jeff Blondé, a program manager with EPD’s Crime Prevention Unit, says that bike theft is largely a crime of opportunity.

“If the opportunity presents itself, bicycle thieves are going to steal,” he said. “Bicycles are portable, easy to transport and not that difficult for thieves to sell.”

Blondé also said that a majority of bike theft happens in heavily populated areas, such as downtown.

“It’s a place that’s full of bikes and busy, distracted people and it’s easy for thieves to use the cover of that to steal bikes”

While Blondé says bike theft is a crime that is difficult to prevent, both he and Davis recommend that cyclists secure their bicycles properly with a U-lock, as bolt cutters can easily cut cable locks.

Blondé also recommends that students register a bicycle with UO Parking and Transportation through the department’s Project 529 program. He also encourages students to provide the most up-to-date contact information so the department can contact them quickly if their bike is recovered.

However, Blondé said that recovery of registered, stolen bicycles averages around 10 to 15 percent, and he encourages students to take the preventive measure of securing their bicycles properly.

Correction: This article was updated to clarify Blondé’s comments on students registering their bicycles.

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“Shasta Weekend” is usually an exciting trip for students to have fun and spend time with friends. But this year’s trip turned tragic after a University of Oregon student was found dead early Saturday morning.   

Authorities identified the student as Dylan Pietrs, a 21-year-old business administration major from Denver and a member of Phi Gamma Delta, which is commonly known as FIJI.

“Shasta Weekend” is an annual event attended by hundreds of UO students at Shasta Lake in Northern California. According to the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office, the specific cause of Pietrs’ death will be determined in the next week by a post-mortem exam, but authorities suspect no foul play was involved.

The sheriff’s office said students found Pietrs Saturday morning in a sleeping bag inside a small tent.

Pietrs’ friends remembered him as honest and caring.

UO student Jason Agtarap recalled when he first met Pietrs through a program called “Semester at Sea.” The program allows students to take classes on a ship and visit multiple countries.

Agtarap said Pietrs approached him as he ate dinner alone and started up a conversation with a joke, and the two became close friends.

“The entire time I had known Dylan, I had known him to live so deeply. He was someone who would always ask how you’re doing, and not because it was polite, but because he genuinely cared,” Agtarap wrote in an email to the Emerald.

“I treasure all of the late-night conversations we shared while stargazing on the Indian Ocean, and even though he may have left us, I know he’ll never stop exploring this world,” Agtarap wrote.

Dylan Piertrs (second from the left) and Jason Agtarap (right) sailed through a point that was 0 degrees latitude and 0 degrees longitude, so they joined two other UO students to form two O’s representing both their school and their location. (Courtesy of Jason Agtarap)

“Shasta Weekend” is not endorsed by the University of Oregon, said UO spokesman Tobin Klinger. Students, mostly members of Greek life from UO, Oregon State University and other schools such as University of California Davis, spend a weekend at Shasta Lake in houseboats and tents on the shore during different weekends in the spring.

An Emerald reporter at the scene recalled the series of events Saturday morning. Around 9 a.m., people were getting ready for another day, joking and laughing, when the news began to get around that a Phi Gamma Delta member had been found unresponsive.

After several students flagged down an emergency response boat, the news only took 10 to 15 minutes to spread throughout the students in attendance. Within half an hour, students stopped applying sunscreen, began turning off their music and waited to hear if the unresponsive student was OK.

As news of Pietrs’ death spread, the houseboats and campsites fell silent. Students were stunned.

“It totally changed the mood, it was super upbeat and after, we were just wondering where to go,” said UO student Christina Crolla, who didn’t know Pietrs personally but was on the trip.

Emily Ray, a UO junior who was camping near Pietrs’ tent, said the news caused the usually upbeat tone of the weekend to drastically shift.  

“People were holding their friends close and praying, and a lot of people were crying,” she said. “All the boat captains and riders made the decision to load up the boats and return a day early. I was so proud to be part of a student body that would do anything for one of their fellow classmates regardless of whether or not they knew him.”

Although no one officially announced that the trip was cancelled, all thoughts of continuing the weekend were quickly dismissed.

“We had to pack up and leave; it’s a respect thing. I didn’t want to stay there,” Crolla said.

People were ferried back to the marina between 11 a.m. and mid-afternoon. The authorities assisted in the ferrying process.

Crolla said the boat ride from the campground to the marina was silent.

Following early media reports of the death, the UO Division of Student Life released a statement on Saturday evening acknowledging the tragedy of Pietrs’ death, but also condemning the Shasta trip as a whole.

“As devastating as this sudden passing is, it is important to point out that this tragedy is connected to an unauthorized tradition among many college students,” the statement said. “Students from many institutions have a history of demonstrating poor life choices during visits to Lake Shasta. These activities are contrary to the values of the university and fraternity and sorority organizations.”

The university’s statement triggered an uproar on social media, and by Sunday morning the UO Division of Student Life amended its original statement without announcing the revisions. Klinger acknowledged that the social media backlash contributed to the revision.

Jill Niedermeyer, a UO junior, wrote in tweet on Saturday, “Taking time to call out students for their ‘poor life choices’ is blatantly disrespectful on the day of his passing.”

As a student studying public relations, I am frustrated with the way UO chose to handle the statement regarding the death at Shasta this weekend. Taking time to call out students for their “poor life choices” is blatantly disrespectful on the day of his passing.

— Jill Niedermeyer (@JillNiedermeyer) May 20, 2018

Agtarap was also upset about the statement. “To those who knew and loved Dylan, it was an insensitive and unjust tribute to his impact on this campus, and within our hearts,” he said.

At 11 a.m. on Sunday, the UO announced on Twitter that it updated the post and regretted the “insensitive tone of the earlier statement.”

The Division of Student Life has updated its statement on the passing of a student at Lake Shasta. We offer our deepest condolences to the friends and family of the student, and we regret the insensitive tone of the earlier statement.

— University of Oregon (@uoregon) May 20, 2018

After reading the statement, Justin Hanes, a senior public relations major, wrote an email to Vice President for Student Life Dr. R. Kevin Marbury, Dean of Students Kris Winter and President Michael Schill, calling on them to apologize for the initial news release.

“They need to take full ownership of the comment in their press release,” Hanes said. “The comment invalidated everything else they said previously. It’s like writing something really meaningful and then saying ‘but.’”

On Sunday afternoon, Marbury released a statement apologizing for the original statement. Marbury wrote that the intent of the original message was to “quickly respond to a tragic situation” and to “provide resources to support the community members affected by Dylan’s passing.”

“That statement should have reflected that our focus was and remains on assisting Dylan’s family and friends as they deal with this news,” Marbury wrote. “We have heard from a number of you and greatly appreciate your perspective that the statement came across as insensitive.  As the leader of the Division of Student Life, I offer my apology.”

The national headquarters of Phi Gamma Delta tweeted an official statement Sunday extending condolences to Pietrs’ friends and family. “Our thoughts are with all those who have been touched by this tragic loss,” the tweet read.

Phi Gamma Delta extends its heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Dylan Pietrs, our undergraduate brother from the University of Oregon who died during a camping trip on Saturday, May 19. Our thoughts are with all those who have been touched by this tragic loss.

— Phi Gamma Delta HQ (@PhiGamHQ) May 20, 2018

The UO chapter of Phi Gamma Delta also tweeted a statement Sunday offering their “deepest sympathies” to Pietrs’ family, saying “even as we deal with our own loss of a good friend, we know that their loss is much greater.”

pic.twitter.com/Iio99siAMq

— FIJI Oregon (@OregonFiji) May 20, 2018

Students affected by this tragic event can call the UO student after-hour support and crisis line or schedule an appointment with the University Counseling Center at 541-346-3227.

Ethan Brenner contributed reporting to this story.

The post Tragedy at Shasta Lake appeared first on Emerald Media.

Update May 20 at 11:27 a.m.: The University of Oregon released a statement last night confirming the death of 21-year-old student Dylan Pietrs, a Business Administration major from Denver, CO.

The UO Division of Student Life also amended its original statement about the incident, removing a paragraph that said, in part: “Students from many institutions have a history of demonstrating poor life choices during visits to Lake Shasta. These activities are contrary to the values of the university and fraternity and sorority organizations.”

The university removed that paragraph after many criticized it on Twitter. You can view the university’s original statement here.

As a student studying public relations, I am frustrated with the way UO chose to handle the statement regarding the death at Shasta this weekend. Taking time to call out students for their “poor life choices” is blatantly disrespectful on the day of his passing.

— Jill Niedermeyer (@JillNiedermeyer) May 20, 2018

Wow. Not the time or place for this agenda, UO. “As devastating as this sudden passing is, it is important to point out that this tragedy is connected to an unauthorized tradition among many college students.” https://t.co/MIZnjB8xlB

— Justin Hanes (@justinchanes) May 20, 2018

The fourth paragraph is unnecessary, UO https://t.co/zrLVLTlbBq

— Karley Gauthier (@karleygauthier) May 20, 2018

At 11:12 a.m., the UO acknowledged on Twitter that the statement was changed. 

The Division of Student Life has updated its statement on the passing of a student at Lake Shasta. We offer our deepest condolences to the friends and family of the student, and we regret the insensitive tone of the earlier statement: https://t.co/FF416d8wRc

— University of Oregon (@uoregon) May 20, 2018

Update May 19 at 5:30 p.m.: Shasta County Sheriff’s Office released a press statement this afternoon saying that the cause of death is pending post mortem exam and that they have no reason to believe foul play was involved.

—

A University of Oregon student died Saturday morning at Shasta Lake in Northern California, Shasta County Police confirmed. Authorities have not yet provided a cause of death.

The student was a sophomore affiliated with the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, commonly known as Fiji. He was at the lake with hundreds of other UO students for the annual Shasta weekend event that goes Thursday to Sunday. Students at the lake told the Emerald that almost everyone left Saturday after the student died.

The Emerald is waiting to identify the student so there is time for friends and family to be notified.

Several students have died at Shasta Lake in recent years. A UO student and an Oregon State student both died in May 2005, and another Oregon State student died in 2001.

UO spokesman Tobin Klinger said the university is looking into the incident and wouldn’t release any information until notifying the person’s family.

Update at 5:30 p.m.: Shasta County Sheriff’s Office released a press statement this afternoon saying that the cause of death is pending post mortem exam and that they have no reason to believe foul play was involved.

The post UO student dies Saturday at annual Lake Shasta weekend appeared first on Emerald Media.

The University of Oregon Police Department will offer free pepper spray training classes to UO students and employees on May 10 from 4 to 5 p.m. and May 11, 6 to 7 p.m. The class, which requires online registration, will be held at the UOPD station on 2141 E. 15th Ave.

“Over the years this class has been heavily requested both by students and parents,” UOPD spokesman Kelly McIver said. “The class is designed to give people a chance to use the tools and be ready both physically and mentally to use them in a stressful situation.”

McIver wrote in an email that after a series of robberies in March, UO police held 90-minute self-defense classes twice each weekday in the first two weeks of April. You can view the Emerald’s map of the robberies here.

Students should contact Sergeant Jared Davis by phone at 541-346-9224 or by email at jared.davis@uopd.org if they have any questions.

The post UOPD will host free pepper spray training May 10 and 11 appeared first on Emerald Media.