Whether you’re attending the University of Oregon for business, athletics, journalism or recreation, 13th Avenue is a place that every student will become very familiar with.

From Duck swag to paper clips, The Duck Store is the place to go when you need school supplies or books. The store contains a small coffee shop as well as tech support, so when you stay up all night writing a paper and your computer crashes, you can fix two problems at once. The Duck Store is the place where students can pick up books for their classes each term and it can get very busy; so the earlier you shop the better. Prices on athletic gear ranges from $15-$120. The Duck Store is located at 895 E. 13th Ave.

Everybody gets hungry, and Noodle Head is the place for good food at a consistent price. Advertised as $6.50 all dishes all day, Noodle Head provides a variety of dishes from noodle soups, plates, specials (salads and curries) and rice bowls that makes eating out easy to fit into a budget. Noodle Head can be found at 880 East 13th Ave.

Bubble tea, also known as boba milk tea has a home on 13th Ave at Milky Way Tea and Pastry. Great for breakfast or a snack during the day, Milky Way offers bagels from $1.55-$5.90, coffee from $1.50-$4, smoothies at $3.75 and the bubble tea at $3.25. One thing to keep in mind when going to Milky Way is that the shop only accepts cash for any purchase below $4. Milky Way can be found at 854 E 13th Ave.

If you’ve got a bike, it may need a repair at some point. In business for 26 years, Blue Heron Bicycles sells, repairs and rents bikes out to those who need it. The shop also offers accessories such as saddles ($25-$200), helmets ($35-$65), locks ($15-$85) and baskets ($20-$50). Blue Heron can be found at 877 E. 13th Ave.

Thirteenth Avenue extends through campus, past academic halls to the Erb Memorial Union (EMU for short). There a student can find a quiet place to study, check out the various clubs at the University or grab a bite to eat. Filled with cafés, fast food and areas to lounge and meet with friends, the EMU is bustling with students around the clock. The building is located at 1222 E. 13th Ave.

A relatively new addition to 13th Ave, Teriyaki Boy offers more than just teriyaki believe it or not. With a large menu including pork, chicken, beef  ($7.50-8.50) and seafood the Japanese fast food restaurant makes sushi as well as the well known chow mein dish($6.25-$7.50). Teriyaki Boy is at 844 E 13th Ave.

If you loathe Starbucks or need a quieter atmosphere when you sip caffeinated liquid, Espresso Roma Café is the place to go. It offers a wide variety of drinks and pastries, and has an open sitting area in the back that either makes for a cozy spot in the rain, or a peaceful retreat in the sun. Prices for drinks and food range from $2.50-$4 and $1.95-$4.75 respectively. They can be found at 825 E. 13th Ave.

Do

1. Make sure you keep your keys with you at all times. It’s easy to get yourself locked out of your room either by mistake or a breeze through the window. Double check when taking a shower, otherwise you’ll have a ton of fun walking through campus in a towel to get a spare key. Lanyards work well but a carabiner attached to a belt loop can make it even more secure.

2. Keep your dorm room door open when you can, otherwise everyone will think you’re really shy or that troll that lives under bridges and doesn’t want to hang out. When you go out for food, invite dorm mates, you’ll make friends! If someone has an open door it’s much easier to ask, and it applies to your door too.

3. Do your laundry regularly and if possible during the week. In a tight space, smells can become pungent if left unattended. The worst part is that after a while your nose will get used to the scent, so you may forget about it. Doing it during the week or at unorthodox times and you’ll avoid the crowds of everybody else who does it on Sunday.

4. Buy bed risers from Bed Bath and Beyond or Target. Placing them under your bed allows for way more storage space for boxes or a place to shove trash and dirty laundry.

“We recommend students look at the ‘what to bring checklist’ available on the Dash or the University Housing website,” said University Housing marketing director Michael Griffel.

Don’t

1. Don’t be a slob with your stuff. Nobody likes the person who is overly rigid about boundaries, but if you’re going to be messy, at the very least keep it on your side. If it’s not in the way of your roommate, it’s your problem, not theirs.

2. Don’t try to pack your entire room from home and put it into the sardine cans we have for dorms (unless you’re living in LLC or the Global Scholars Hall, then you can probably try). Bring the essentials, and you’ll find that you can live with less stuff.

“We recommend you bring what’s necessary … rather than packing a car full of things,” said McKenzie Winders, housing service center specialist for LLC and Barnhart Hall.

3. Don’t be that person who blasts rap music out of their dorm window for the rest of campus to hear. On the first sunny day, there’s a 99.99 percent chance you’ll hear music, but if it’s you, make it something classy, like Sinatra or Dean Martin. At the very least keep the tunes fresh.

4. Don’t needlessly spend your dorm food points. If you’ve got the standard plan you’ll have enough for meals and a little extra, which means keeping an eye on the points and budgeting is a smart plan. If you’ve got the extra meal plan go bonkers, you’ve got almost too many points for one person. Winders suggests bringing a mini fridge to store easy snacks in your room.

The Housing Department has a lengthy list here with specifics on what to bring.

Many students look back on their college years as fond memories, but few find themselves coming back to find harmony in their lives. Originally a student at the University of Oregon, Norma Driscoll was an anthropology student turned art enthusiast.

Years ago, Driscoll painted the campus with her husband before he passed away late last year. Urged by her son to go back and revisit the same spots, Driscoll has been spending her days this summer painting locations like the Pioneer Statue and Friendly Hall.

“My son thinks I’m pretty good at painting, so he leaves me out here and sets me up. We used to paint here some years back, my husband and I,” Driscoll said.

Driscoll found that most people shy away from dedication to art forms like painting due to the lack of steady funds. However, she reflects back on her life choices positively, appreciating what pursuing the arts has given her.

“The payoff is just a gradual process. So that the years that come at you in my part in life, you’re very glad you did it,” Driscoll said.

She attributes much of her early inspiration as a student to one of her teachers, Jack Wilkinson, who helped her find that art can be more than just a hobby.

As her life progressed after college, she found that many things in life are not eternal, which strengthened her bond to her painting.

Driscoll believes that while the current college generations are intelligent and on their way to achieving their goals, their lives are somewhat watered down by the desire for our society to upgrade when something we own becomes obsolete.

To Driscoll, painting is something that is eternal and can bring harmony to her life.

“People get to middle age now and there’s already a perspective they have, they begin to realize some of the investments they made earlier on aren’t paying off,” Driscoll said.

Driscoll recommends that when we make it past the necessary youthful illusions on life that it’s important to contend with reality, rather than continuing to dream.

“If you really get into art, it doesn’t just disappear and become obsolete. It’s something that’ll carry you through your whole life, and I think that’s a good investment,” Driscoll said.

Many of Driscoll’s paintings can be found here.

Many of you knew that your summer would come to an end and that you’d have to leave home at some point. For this means a flight to Eugene or Portland, but for others it’s time to buckle up for some good old-fashioned road trippin’. Put some new batteries into your GameBoy Color — if you’re not driving — and dust off the “Pokémon Red Version” cartridge because smartphone or not, you’ll be going through some areas without any cell service. If you don’t have a GameBoy or something fun to keep yourself occupied, then you’re going to have to read.

If you’re headed southbound to Eugene on Interstate 5, there are quite a few attractions that will serve as fun pit stops on the way to the University of Oregon.

First up is Wild Waves Theme Park in Centralia, Wash. After spending who knows how many hours in a hot car, it’s a great place to cool off and relax. It’s a combination of a water park and an amusement park so you’ll want to carve out a couple extra hours in your schedule to get everything in. The trick here is to go on a water slide, then run over to a roller coaster to spin-dry. Rinse and repeat. Wild Waves (36201 Enchanted Pkwy S. Federal Way, Wash.) admission is $40 for adults above four feet  tall, $33 for anyone shorter than four feet tall and two years and younger get in free.

Much closer to Eugene is the Enchanted Forest in Salem. It’s a theme park entirely dedicated to old storybook tales like Humpty Dumpty and Alice in Wonderland. The park is located at 8462 Enchanted Way S.E. Turner and tickets run $10.50 for adults, $9.50 for children ages 3-12 and ride tickets cost $1 each.

If you’re northbound, there are even more attractions lined up for you.

In case you weren’t aware, there are no In-n-Out Burger joints in Oregon. Word to the wise, stock your body up on those jungle-style fries, four by fours and Neapolitan milkshakes. If you want to make fast friends. Located all over California, the last stop before crossing into Oregon is Redding, while the average double-double costs $3.20, fries are $1.50 and shakes are $1.99. Get as much In-N-Out as you can before you get here because nobody’s going to want to hear about how devastated you are about the lack of jungle-style anything in your life.

In the small city of Winston, Ore., there’s a place where people swap places with animals. Wildlife Safari has lions, tigers and bears in addition to various other wild animals. At this place, the animals roam free while people are confined to their vehicles. There’s even a wallaroo, an animal related to kangaroos and wallabies. At times, the staff will allow visitors to feed the giraffes, but feeding any of the other animals is prohibited. Wildlife Safari is located at 1790 Safari Rd. in Winston. Tickets cost $17.99 for ages 13-59, $11.99 for ages 4-12 and kids younger than 3 get in for free.

The University of Oregon School of Law has two new associate deans. Jennifer Espinola and Erica Daley have been appointed as the associated dean of students and associate dean for finance and opearations, respectively.

Because law students study on a semester system rather than a term system, they begin studies late in the summer before the normal Sept. 30 school start. This required both Espinola and Daley to familiarize themselves and settle into campus and their jobs earlier than most other University staffers.

Jennifer Espinola

After 10 years at the University of South Florida, Espinola has been at the University since Aug.12.

“I get to work with the team that helps students with admissions, help with crises, financial aid, so pretty much anything outside of the classroom experience,” Espinola said.

In the past, Espinola has worked as the assistant dean of students and assistant director for the Center for Alcohol & Other Drug Education at the University of Miami.

While at South Florida, Espinola was the co-director and adjunct instructor in leadership studies, director of the Center for Student Leadership Development and director of Student Government Advising, Training and Operations.

She’s no stranger to face-to-face interaction with students and her job history shows her skill in the field.

“It’s an incredible opportunity, my entire career has been in higher education so this is a perfect blend of my passions,” said Espinola.

Erica Daley

Daley has been at work since July 12.

“I’m responsible for all the business activities in the law school. I’ll work directly with the Dean and the executive staff to run the operations of the school,” Daley said.

Like Espinola, Daley comes from a background rich with experience at jobs like executive director and CFO for Miller Nash LLP in Portland as well as executive vice president and CFO for CompView Inc., in Beaverton. Daley earned her MBA at the UO as well as a bachelor’s degree from Portland State University.

She believes there’s no better time to get involved in law.

“Baby boomer lawyers are starting to retire finally, it’s a perfect time for students to enter law school. By the time they’re done, there’s going to be space for them, and I think that’s what everybody has been waiting for,” Daley said.

Although Espinola and Daley are new, they hope to make the law school, and the University of Oregon the place to be.

“We want to be one of the premier law schools in the country, and we’re working hard to make sure that happens,” Daley said.

The name Bowerman is known at the University of Oregon for the weight it carries in track and field circles. But Tom Bowerman hopes that people associate that name with philanthropy as much as they do Track Town, U.S.A.

The Bowerman family has recently donated $1 million dollars to the University of Oregon School of Law through the Oregon Community Foundation.

This gift will mostly go toward to the school’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center, a program focused on the environment and natural resources, as the title suggests.

The $1 million gift will effectively double the amount of fellows at the law program able to do research as well as supports a research assistant to work with the fellows.

Not only does the Bowermans’ donation double the amount of fellows in the program, but it also will help graduates find public interest environmental and natural resource careers after graduating, as well as help to fund stipends for students working in summer programs.

“For the ENR center it’s a very special and important gift. It’s thanks to the ongoing support from the Bowerman family and it’s a really significant and important gift that we appreciate,” said Heather Brinton, the managing director for the ENR center.

A 1969 graduate of the UO’s architecture program, Bowerman told UO News that he gave the gift hoping to tap into “talent, energy and enthusiasm for important policy research that provides a real value to our world..”

“The University of Oregon’s law school is an undisputed leader in the rapidly changing field of environmental law, and we are grateful for the Bowerman family’s recognition and generous support of this critically important area of scholarship,” UO President Michael Gottfredson told UO News.

AT&T may be adding to the environment by planting a tree in a south Eugene neighborhood in the lot of the Crossfire church. However it’ll be made of metal and will only look like a tree to disguise its true purpose as a cell tower.

At Crossfire church on 4060 West Amazon Drive, passerbys in the future may see such a tree put in place to combat the lack of cell service.

At the church and the surrounding areas, the service has been abysmal, according to bookkeeper Caitlin Pederson.

“I have to walk around, hold my phone up and when I find a bar I can’t move,” Pederson said.

In the past, the church has tried to fix the situation with what could be considered a bandage, but even that hasn’t been a reliable source of service for the people who work at the church.

“Through AT&T we do have a micro cell that hooks up through our Internet service, but it’s still not very good,” said Chuck Giddens, an associate pastor with the church.

Although cell service is nearly nonexistent near the church grounds, the surrounding neighborhood also suffers. Pastor Aaron Taylor hopes that a cell tower would not only help his church but the community as well, which is something he looks to as criteria for change.

Public response to the possibility of a disguised cell tower has come in the form of comments on a Register-Guard article that criticize the design and call for a cross-shaped cell tower.

Shaped like a tree trunk and fitted with an appropriate amount of branches, a mono pine conceals antennae, while the height and bark application can be adjusted.

Like a real tree, a mono pine would fade and deteriorate with age but the church is negotiating to maintain the appearance of the tower in an effort to make sure that after a year or two it doesn’t fall apart and lose its camouflage.

In order to be sure that the tower wouldn’t put the community at risk, Taylor researched and learned more about the risk of microwaves and radiation, in case the tower could pose a threat. “I think the cell phone next to your face is going to be worse than anything 70 to 90 feet in the air,” he said.

Lack of service and possible exposure to radiation aside, the extra tower is needed due to the increase in smartphones that can use the Internet on top of calling and texting.

“It’s not just cell coverage, because we have Internet access on our devices it takes up more data which means we need bigger, taller [towers] and more sites to handle it,” Taylor said.

Scott Coltrane, the interim senior vice president and provost at the University of Oregon recited a Friedrich Nietzsche quote to the summer graduating class, saying “he who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.”

According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, 41 percent of students graduate in four years, while 66 percent of students graduate in six. For some, all that they need is the extra summer term to finish their requirements.

Olivia Garrett, an early intervention major at the University’s college of education, still has ten more weeks of class left to officially graduate, but was able to be a part of the ceremony.

“I’m feeling pretty excited, it’s nice to celebrate the rest of my cohorts finishing,” Garrett said.

For some graduates, the feeling of achievement was finally becoming a reality, especially for Christopher Hayes.

“I’m just proud as hell to be here, didn’t think I would finally make it,” Hayes said.

Hayes was dressed for the occasion in a football jersey, with shoes, socks and shorts covered in Oregon Os. Although freshly graduated, Hayes wasted no time when it came to his future and already has two businesses started up.

Throughout the speeches given by Coltrane, as well as University President Michael Gottfredson, the most common piece of advice was to relish and enjoy the moments following graduation.

Within Gottfredson’s letter in the graduation program, he describes the ceremony as a commencement due to the nature of the event. Rather than a finishing of a chapter of life, it is only the beginning of another.

As Coltrane said to the graduating class, “Each of you has mastered the standing, walking, running, climbing and dancing parts. Now it’s time for you to go out into the world and fly.”

Meehyun Michelle Ahn, a distinguished international pianist who usually plays in countries such as Austria, France, Russia and Korea is stopping at Beall Hall in Eugene to perform a concert.

In order to become as celebrated as she is, she studied the instrument first at the Moscow State Conservatory. “I had a really great teacher in Moscow. He is one of the best professors in Russia, so I learned a lot from him about the Russian atmosphere and culture,” said Ahn.

After finishing her studies in Russia, Ahn continued at the Imola International Piano Academy in Italy where she refined her skills as a pianist.

Since Ahn’s time in schooling, she has been touring the world each year playing music to international audiences.

At the concert in Beall Hall, attendees can expect three pieces; The Nutcracker Suite, a piece by Korean composer Lee Insik and piano works by Alexander Scriabin. While the Nutcracker Suite is well-known, Scriabin’s work is a little more complicated, according to Ahn.

“Scriabin is a very unique Russian composer, and it may be not as easy to understand his music,” Ahn said.

The Insik pieces are an old collection that tell the audience a story of Korean history as well as of the country’s major historical characters.

When it comes to the concert, Ahn had this to say: “My professors filled my playing with a lyrical romantic style, but the audience will decide what kind of pianist I am.”

The concert is at August 16 at 8 p.m. in Beall Hall of the School of Music and Dance. Tickets are on sale in advance at the UO Ticket Office at 541-346-4363, or at the door for $8.

@http://local.yahoo.com/info-32775013-beall-concert-hall-eugene@@

History is typically told in few formats: American, European, Asian or world history. But professors and instructors at the University of Oregon want to make history told from the Native American perspective more prominent. Kirby Brown, CHiXapkaid Pavel, Brian Klopotek, Tom Ball and many more are set to teach classes from the ethnic studies department that come together to make a Native American Studies minor.

“It was first officially proposed in the fall of 2012 and approved by the University Curriculum Committee in spring of 2013,” Brown said.

According to Brown, it’s the first large Native American studies program that the University of Oregon has offered, which will help the University to join the ranks of other major colleges in states including California, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and New York.

Classes in the minor cover topics such as history, anthropology, law and literature in an effort to educate students on Native American culture.

“We want people who take the minor to be well rounded and have a grounding in the three different areas,” said Klopotek, an associate professor of ethnic studies.

The three areas, or groups, as they’re known in the curriculum, are as follows: Group one consists of culture, language and education; group two is law, policy, governance, history; and group three is literature, media and the arts.

In order to complete the minor, a student must take 28 credits, 16 of which need to be upper division. Each student will be required to take an introductory class and at least one class from each group. Through this distribution of classes, the minor would encourage students to study native languages and work with Oregon Native tribes.

“Students do work that benefits the tribe which helps students to understand what it’s like working for a tribal community,” said Klopotek.

Faculty who worked to put the minor together worked closely with the Oregon tribes to not only give some insight to Native American culture, but to teach students about tribes close to home. By garnering an appreciation for Native American culture through hands on study and work, the teachers hope that students will delve further into Native American studies to help preserve the culture and languages.

The minor has a great amount of faculty support, and while its administrators anticipate that many students with Native American heritage will take the minor, there are students with other backgrounds who they also expect to take part.

The minor will be available to students starting in the fall.