Safe Ride is an assault-prevention shuttle that was founded in 1985 to address the increasing epidemic of sexual assault, specifically on college campuses, according to Safe Ride Director of Operations Zoë Wong.

One in five women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted while in college, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

“Our increase in ridership over the years makes it clear that campus safety and assault prevention are still tangible issues at the University of Oregon,” Wong said.

Safe Ride started with both men and women as paid staff. However, only women were allowed to drive the vans. Up until 2001, Safe Ride only offered its services to women.

According to its website, Safe Ride’s mission is “to provide inclusive, safe, and accessible alternatives to traveling alone at night.”

Safe Ride is open to all incidental fee-paying University of Oregon students, staff and faculty. It gave over 22,000 rides during the 2016-17 school year. In fall term of 2017, Safe Ride gave rides to 10,819 people.

Its office is located inside the Women’s Center in the EMU. The office is open during office hours, which can be found on its website.

“As a ‘for the students, by the students’ organization, we believe that the advocacy work of our employees and volunteers makes a tangible difference,” Wong said. “Our main goal is to ensure that every incidental fee-payer has safe transportation both on campus and in the surrounding community.”

Safe Ride is funded through incidental fee funds via the ASUO Departments Finance Committee. Safe Ride’s annual budget for the current fiscal year exceeds $250,000. With that money, it operates four vans Sunday through Thursday and six vans on Friday and Saturday.

“One of our biggest constraints is our budget,” Wong said. “An increase in funding would result in parallel increases to the number of vans that we can run and the number of staff that we can employ.”

According to Safe Ride’s website, it’s statistically shown that chances of assault decrease when traveling in groups of four or more. Because of this, Safe Ride extends its services only to groups of three or less.

Safe Ride’s boundaries are marked by the Randy Papé beltline, Pioneer Parkway, 46th Avenue and City View Street.

Riders can use Safe Ride as many times as they can schedule per night; however, they must complete their first ride before scheduling their second. Rides can be scheduled through a voicemail system on the day of the ride request.

Safe Ride operates during the fall and winter term Sunday through Thursday 6 p.m. to midnight, and Friday and Saturday 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.

During the spring term, its operating hours are Sunday through Thursday 7 p.m. to midnight, and Friday and Saturday 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Over the summer, Safe Ride operates Sunday through Thursday 9 p.m. to midnight, and Friday and Saturday 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Safe Ride also supports the annual Take Back the Night rally, and is a strong proponent of intersectional feminism, Wong explained.

“We are proud to be a feminist organization and work in close collaboration with the Women’s Center. We believe in equity, inclusion, and intersectional feminism,” Wong said.

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If you’re a student at the University of Oregon who chooses to dine on campus, chances are you haven’t given much thought as to where your food comes from. Or maybe you assume that it was made at whatever dining venue you got it from, such as the Dux Bistro, Common Grounds or Fire ‘n’ Spice.

While it may be true that individual dining venues create and plate entrees, at some point or another that food made its way to that dining venue from the central kitchen.

Head Chef William Mullins. (Natalie Waitt-Gibson/Emerald)

The central kitchen produces 100 to 150 sushi rolls, 250 wraps and 400 sandwiches in any given day. These products are called “finished goods,” and are usually found in a refrigerator section of a dining venue already wrapped and ready to go for students.

The current location of the central kitchen opened in the spring of 2016 and was previously located in the basement of Carson Hall. The central kitchen, located on Columbia Street between 17th Avenue and 19th Avenue, is a warehouse-sized building of about 22,000 square feet.

The venue houses the equipment and a 100-person staff needed to produce the 2,000 to 6,000 meals per day that UO students consume, according to William Mullins, Assistant Director of Culinary Operations.

Chef Mullins came to the UO in July after previously working at the Oregon State University kitchen for five years. Before coming to university operations, Chef Mullins worked in the hotel industry after going to school at the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park.

Chef Mullins additionally has over 25 years of experience as a chef. His first job was cutting baked potatoes open at a steakhouse, and since then he’s been working his way up to where he is today.

“I love it here,” said Chef Mullins. “It’s so much fun getting to be creative every day.”

Russel Blumish cuts trail mix bars into individual pieces. (Natalie Waitt-Gibson/Emerald)

At the central kitchen, operations start at 5 a.m. every day with general production and depending on the amount of catered orders, a day can end anywhere from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m.

Around 60 student employees work in the central kitchen, many of them in the catering department, according to Chef Mullins. The catering department can be one of the busiest departments depending on the day and how many orders the staff receives.

Orders can be things like coffee service, breakfast pastries, fruit platters, hot foods, or sandwich and lunch meat platters. The catering department is also in charge of putting on the late night breakfasts that happen during dead week and finals week at the UO, as well as the IntroDUCKtion lunches in the spring.

According to Chef Mullins, the central kitchen provides almost all bakery items, including duck cookies, croissants, muffins and cookies among many of the other bakery items found in the dining venues.

The central kitchen makes all of the dining venues soups, salad dressings, marinades, sauces and salsas. Soups are made in batches that are no less than 30 gallons in size at a time.

“On any given day we probably produce anywhere from 200 to 400 gallons of beans, soups, or sauces,” said Chef Mullins.

As far as sustainability is concerned at the central kitchen, they try to source as much produce and meat as they can locally, according to Chef Mullins.

Lance Elliot seasons grilled vegetables. (Natalie Waitt-Gibson/Emerald)

“It’s not just dorm food,” said Shawn Savage, the central kitchen sous chef.

“The work we do is about telling our story and making ourselves relevant,” said Chef Mullins. “If we want to produce better quality food, we’re the ones that drive that.”

Along with trying to find as much organic food as possible for students, the central kitchen also does their best to provide students with as many vegan, vegetarian and other options as they can.

“We have recipes that we specifically write for vegan and vegetarian foods,” said Chef Mullins.

Chef Mullins and the rest of his staff are always aiming to give the best food that they can to students. “The food we make helps the students feel at home,” said Chef Mullins. “It’s their first time away from mom and dad. It makes a more successful student.”

The post Ever wonder where food on campus comes from? Here’s a look at the UO central kitchen. appeared first on Emerald Media.

Global Scholars’ Great Room looked like a rave on Tuesday night with laser lights and students jumping up and down to the beat — except that the entire room was silent. The room was so quiet that someone walking by wouldn’t have even known there was a party inside if the door hadn’t been open.

On Tuesday, Global Scholars Hall Government hosted its first silent disco as a community bonding event. At a silent disco, participants bring their own device and headphones and listen to a playlist that the DJ broadcasts through a certain medium (YouTube in this case).

The silent disco’s origins go back to a 1969 Finnish sci-fi film “Ruusujen Aika,” (“A Time of Roses”), in which the first silent disco was depicted at a house party, according to United Kingdom newspaper The Telegraph. During the ‘90s, silent discos became popular at outdoor parties because they provided a way to avoid noise complaints.

The silent disco has since shown up at music festivals such as the Glastonbury Festival, Bonnaroo Music Festival and Coachella. In 2005, the term “silent disco” was properly established according to The Telegraph, and in 2011, it was added to the Oxford Dictionary.

Stephanie Schofield is the GSH government programming coordinator. She said she was inspired to host a silent disco after seeing videos on YouTube of Coachella hosting their own. Schofield had also learned that ASUO put on a silent disco last year.

During the days leading up to the event, there were posters put up throughout GSH with a barcode that a QR app could scan so students could put together playlists of songs they would like to hear at the disco.

Schofield said that she had originally put together two and a half hours of music for the three-hour event, leaving the other half hour for participant’s suggested songs; however, after a surge in suggestions, she had to cut 45 minutes of music out of the original playlist.

“It was so fulfilling to see everyone around me having a good time,” said Schofield.

Students enjoy GSH’s first silent disco. (Mel McCalla)

Majoring in computer science and her drive towards building a community led to the excitement Schofield had about putting this event together. “I love making a community,” she said.

Schofield said that Mel McCalla, a GSH government senator, helped her get the technical side of the event together, including the YouTube livestream. Kayden Kendrick and Maggie Thompson, who both participate in the Residence Hall Association and GSH Government, helped with the decorations.

An estimated 50 students participated in the silent disco, according to Schofield. “I think it was really successful,” she said.

Schofield explained that she suspects the reason the turnout wasn’t in the hundreds was that it was a Tuesday night during dead week. She explained that there was also the possibility that since it was silent, there was no music to draw in people walking by like at a normal party.

GSH government is looking into hosting another silent disco spring term, according to Schofield. She said that they’re always looking for ways to make the event better next time and mentioned the possibility of involving the game “Just Dance” in the next silent disco.

“Just Dance” is a videogame in which players choose songs and must follow their avatars coordinating dance moves. At a silent disco, the game would be projected on a screen and participants would take turns playing, while listening to the song with their headphones. People not playing in a certain round of the game could still dance along by watching the projector.

Nikki Sandoval is a sophomore at the University of Oregon who lived in GSH last year and went to the silent disco this year. Sandoval suggested that maybe next time it would be easier to use Spotify instead of YouTube because occasionally her and her friends’ music was not in sync.

“Overall, I think it was pretty fun, and I would go and check it out again,” said Sandoval.

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Students protesters charged with violating the conduct code say they are being turned away from the University of Oregon’s student legal counseling.

Some of the 13 students who were charged after protesters interrupted UO President Michael Schill’s Oct. 6 State of the University speech say they were told that receiving legal aid from the UO is a conflict of interest.

But the Office of Student Advocacy (OSA) states on its website that it “provides legal advice and assistance to students charged with student conduct code violations.” The website states that it informs students of their rights, helps obtain incident reports, assists in administrative conferences and appeals, and discusses alternative resolutions and sanctions.  

However, the OSA’s website also states that “OSA attorneys are prohibited from representing students in litigation involving the ASUO, or in a claim against any officer, agent or employee of the ASUO, the University, or any other department or agency of the State of Oregon, and any officer, agent, or employee thereof.”

According to Tobin Klinger, the Senior Director of Public Affairs Communications, the OSA follows the Oregon State Bar’s Rules of Professional Conduct when looking into possible conflicts of interest. “Individual circumstances dictate whether or not they fall under conflict of interest state codes,” said Klinger.

“We are committed to helping students with a multitude of issues,” said Hilary Berkman, the director of the OSA, and an attorney.

The OSA has been provided with a contract between the UO and Berkman. According to Berkman, the OSA and herself are obligated to follow certain policies regarding conflicts of interest, which are the policies established by the Oregon State Bar.

The OSA must “advise the affected student of the existence and nature of the conflict and the fact the Contractor must decline or withdraw from representation of the student due to the conflict,” according to Section 8.1 of Attachment A of the contract and the Oregon State Bar.

Charlie Landeros, who prefers to go by the pronouns they/them/theirs, was one of the students turned away by OSA. They led a student protest that forced Schill to cancel his State of the University speech on Oct. 6. Landeros said they sought help from the OSA after being charged with violating the student conduct code for their role in the protest.

Landeros said they were turned away and left without legal advice.

“I was told that it was a ‘conflict of interest,’” said Landeros.

According to Landeros, they were not advised of the nature of the conflict, only the existence of a conflict of interest. Landeros said that the OSA told them to look up the conflict of interest, but that the OSA did not explain how or why there was a conflict of interest.

According to Landeros, they called the OSA on Friday, Nov. 17 to receive clarification as to why students wouldn’t receive assistance. A student representative at the OSA explained that an appointment would need to be made in order for any questions to be addressed, Landeros said. Landeros provided contact information and set up an appointment for the following week, they said.

Later that Friday afternoon, Landeros received a call from the OSA and was informed that their appointment was being canceled, they said. When Landeros asked why the appointment was canceled “[they were] told that ‘answering that question was beyond the scope of their job,’” Landeros said.

According to Landeros, when they asked if the OSA representative was instructed to cancel the appointment and not help, the representative again repeated that “answering [their] question was beyond the scope of their job.”

According to Landeros, other students that participated in the protest are also being turned away from the OSA. “It feels very isolating and confusing as to why I am being refused help,” said Landeros.

“I just do not understand why people who are supposed to be taking a stance for what’s right are refusing to do so,” said Landeros.

Landeros said they went to the OSA on Monday, Nov. 19, without an appointment, to talk in person instead of over the phone to see if that would change things. “They absolutely refused to help me,” said Landeros. “They said that helping me would be a conflict of interest. I tried to ask for more explanations, they gave me nothing,” they said.

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The University of Oregon Housing, Residence Life and Facilities Departments held a town hall for Bean East residents on Thursday in response to resident concerns with disruptions caused by the Bean West construction.

Bean West renovations started the summer of this year and will continue through late fall of 2018. After Bean West is renovated, construction will begin on Bean East, and it will be closed for a full year.

Before construction, there were conversations about whether any part of Bean would remain open during construction, according to Michael Griffel, the University Housing Director. One of the deciding factors about keeping the other half of Bean open during construction was the number of students that needed to be housed because of the first-year live on requirement, Griffel explained.

According to Griffel, Bean has been known for its tight-knit community and no one wanted the construction to get in the way of that for the next two years. The goal of the construction is to create more of a community environment between Bean East and West.

This is the first year that the doors between the individual halls in Bean have remained unlocked in an effort to provide more opportunity for community bonding. This effort will be expanded through both Bean East and West after construction, with the ground floor becoming a study commons.

A depiction of the new study halls Bean will have after the renovations (UO Housing)

The central kitchen used to be on the ground floor between Bean East and West; however, since it was moved to another building, the ground floor between the halls has become an academic learning center, according to Landon Winter, the Fortis Construction representative at the town hall.

According to Griffel, two-thirds of this community space will be open with Bean West in the fall term of 2018. Because students lost this area during renovations, residents currently have 24/7 access to Global Scholars Hall’s kitchen, pool table and study rooms, explained Leah Andrews, the director of marketing and communications for University Housing.

Another goal of the construction is to make Bean more accessible, according to Griffel. The entrance off of 15th Avenue will have a new stair tower that includes an elevator. This area will be open along with Bean West next fall, which is why construction must occur on the two end rooms of the Parsons wing on the second and third floors.

This construction inside of Parsons hall is the cause of most concern, according to the residents; however, according to David Opp-Beckman, the facilities capital project manager for University Housing, “construction will not occur inside of Parsons hall again until June 2018.”

Opp-Beckman also gave the residents an apology for the lack of communication when the construction had shown up inside the hall without any prior notice. “That was our mess up, and we apologize greatly for that,” he said.

Because residents are living in the construction environment, they all received a $550 deduction of their housing fees, no matter their meal plan.

“Each year, housing costs go up anywhere from two to five percent due to inflation,” said Griffel. “Bean’s costs will not exceed that after renovations,” he said. Bean West residents will also receive the $550 construction discount next year, while Bean East is being renovated.

Residents are in an environment where construction begins, every day except for Sunday, at 7 a.m. with “loud construction” starting after 9 a.m., according to Winter.

Last fall, Fortis did decibel testing in the area with the tools to set a map of how loud certain tools were in certain areas of the construction and decided that anything above 90 decibels is only allowed to be used after 9 a.m., Winter explained. Residents requested that on the weekly impact reports they receive, each tool be labeled a “7 a.m. or 9 a.m.” tool to make it more clear.

Sarah Case is a resident of Parsons Hall. Her room faces Global Scholars Hall, as well as the construction. “I was studying one day and the jackhammer was going so hard outside my window that my laptop fell off of my lap,” said Case.

Five corner rooms on the second and third floor of Thornton and Parsons halls are closed off for the adjacent construction, according to Opp-Beckman. Case is two rooms away from the closed-off rooms on her side of the hall.

When a new construction worker comes on to the site, sometimes they aren’t aware of the 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. rule and will start up a 9 a.m. machine earlier than when it’s supposed to be, explained Winter.

As soon as someone realizes that that machine isn’t supposed to be running at that time, the construction workers do their best to shut it down as soon as possible, according to Winter.

Winter said that residents should notify Fortis with this information so it can be brought up in team meetings. The best way for residents to avoid accidentally being woken up by tools before 9 a.m. is to record the time, sounds and type of tool involved in the incident, if possible, explained Winter.

Andrews referred back to the Erb Memorial Union renovations, Straub renovations and the Student Recreation Center renovations to justify the Bean renovations to residents. “I know it really stinks to be on the brunt end, but it really pays off in the end,” she said.

Residents also discussed more facilities-directed issues at the town hall. On the second all-girls floor of Parsons, the restroom stalls lacked individual trash cans. Facilities were able to fix this issue within 24 hours of hearing about it.

Housing representatives suggested to the residents that they use the “fix it” forms on Starrez more often so that Facilities can solve the issues quicker. Starrez is the online domain in which residents fill out any housing related forms, including the “fix it” requests.

The housing representatives at the town hall made sure — on many occasions — that the residents knew that even though Bean East is getting renovated next year, they are still allowed to make changes that will make their residency more comfortable.

Andrews offered headphones to the residents to make studying easier during construction. Opp-Beckman proposed that there be more lighting in the Bean East courtyard at night. Andrews also offered to hold Bean East socials so the tight-knit community aspect doesn’t disappear due to the construction.

After the town hall concluded, most residents agreed that the construction is still an inconvenience; however, after learning what Bean will be like after renovations, the construction will be worth the disruption.

A depiction of what Bean will look like after renovations (UO Housing)

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Veterans Appreciation Week honored student veterans on campus this week. Although the week featured a variety of events, the university environment is lacking inclusiveness, according to many event organizers and student veterans.

The Veterans Program puts on events because the organization believes that student veterans matter, and so do their specific needs, according to Samantha Roberts, the Veterans Program Graduate Employee Coordinator. “These are individuals that sacrificed a great deal to be here. They deserve more,” said Roberts.

According to Roberts, there are about 400 student veterans enrolled during the academic year. Without a full-time coordinator, it can be difficult to meet all the student veterans needs, Roberts explained.

Roberts is the only program coordinator for the Veterans Program at the UO, and she’s doing it part-time while also going to graduate school. According to Roberts, Western Oregon University has between 100 and 150 student veterans, but they’ve hired a full-time Veterans Program Coordinator to make sure all student veterans’ needs are being met.

Roberts said the Veterans Program is there to help student veterans “transition and acclimate” to a new type of environment. The university environment can be a particularly tough transition for student veterans because of all the different life experiences they have, according to Roberts.

Roberts explained that many student veterans in a university environment feel that the university is doing the bare minimum to “check off a box.”

“Really, every day ought to be Veterans Day,” said University of Oregon Provost and Senior Vice President Jayanth Banavar at the “Unity of Commitment” ceremony on Friday that concluded Veterans Appreciation Week. “Every day is a day that we should think about you, we should celebrate you and we should do all we can to be there for you,” he said.

Being a part of the Veterans Program provides an opportunity to talk about the issue of student veterans’ needs not being met, according to Roberts. “You don’t know what you don’t know,” she said. “This is a very specific group of people who are also very diverse in their needs.”

Leah Crewse is the president of the Veteran and Family Student Association (VFSA) and is also a student veteran. She served active duty in the Air Force from 2009-2013. Currently, Crewse is a part of the Air Force reservists, where she goes to Joint Base Lewis-McChord one weekend a month to keep up with her medic certifications and trainings. She also dedicates 15 consecutive days out of the year to the reservist program.

“I think it is vital,” said Crewse of Veterans Appreciation Week. “There are so many student veterans that feel a bit alienated because of their life experiences,” she said.

According to Crewse, because the UO is a public four-year university and many students come from a traditional background, it can be difficult for student veterans to relate to other students and feel like they fit into the university environment.

Crewse said the VFSA is there to empower other student veterans. “We’re your voice…if you don’t attend the events we can’t hear you,” she said.

Joelle Rankins Goodwin is the senior associate director for recruitment administration and was the keynote speaker for the “Unity of Commitment” ceremony.

“We are always brothers and sisters in arms,” said Goodwin. “We have each other’s backs. That is our commitment to one another.”

Roberts is responsible for organizing Veterans Appreciation Week, along with other events throughout the year. The VFSA and the University President’s Office also partner with the Veterans Program for the week’s events. According to Roberts, this week is the largest Veterans Program event of the year, and she’s been planning it since the summer.

The week kicked off on Monday, Nov. 6 with the Student Veteran Center, Peer Advisors for Veteran Education, and the VFSA tabling outside the ERB Memorial Union Terrace to let people know about Veterans Appreciation Week. Monday also started “Operation Toiletries,” a fundraiser benefitting homeless veterans.

This was the first year that “Operation Toiletries” has been a part of Veterans Appreciation Week. The fundraiser was a student’s idea that was hosted by the Veterans Program. Items donated include soap, shampoo, conditioner, razors, toilet paper, nail trimmers, feminine products and other toiletry items.

The donations were collected at the Erb Memorial Union Terrace Veterans Program booth, as well as the Student Veteran Center. On Friday, Nov. 10, the donations were collected by St. Vincent de Paul’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families, and on Saturday, Nov. 11 the organization handed out these donations to the veterans experiencing homelessness in Lane County.

Many student veterans participated in other Veterans Appreciation Week events, like Wednesday’s free brunch provided by the Student Veterans Center, and Thursday’s community night which included mini golf, laser tag and bowling at Putters in Eugene.

The “Unity of Commitment” ceremony wrapped up Veterans Appreciation Week, honoring all student veterans in the Gerlinger Lounge on Friday. All UO students were welcome to help honor student veterans at the ceremony, which was sponsored by the Office of the President.

The ceremony also welcomed student veteran Michael Thomas as a speaker. Thomas urged UO students to go further than thanking veterans around campus for their service and to also ask if they need anything.

“Asking that question to the right veteran may just keep one of the 22 of us who commit suicide every day from doing so,” said Thomas.

The post Veterans Appreciation Week honors student veterans, but is it enough? appeared first on Emerald Media.

To honor student veterans, the University of Oregon partnered with the Veterans Program, the Veteran and Family Student Association (VFSA) and the University President’s Office for the annual Veterans Appreciation Week.

The week will conclude with a “Unity of Commitment” ceremony honoring all student veterans in the Gerlinger Lounge at 11 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 10. The keynote speaker for the ceremony is Joelle Rankins Goodwin, senior associate director for recruitment administration. All UO students are welcome to help honor student veterans at the ceremony, which is sponsored by The Office of the President.

The week kicked off on Monday, Nov. 6 with the Student Veteran Center, Peer Advisors for Veteran Education, and the Veteran and Family Student Association tabling outside the ERB Memorial Union Terrace to let people know about Veterans Appreciation Week. Monday also started “Operation Toiletries,” a fundraiser benefitting homeless veterans.

This was the first year that “Operation Toiletries” has been a part of Veterans Appreciation Week. The fundraiser was a student’s idea that was brought to the Veterans Program’s attention. Items donated include soap, shampoo, conditioner, razors, toilet paper, nail trimmers, feminine products and other toiletry items.

The donations were collected at the ERB Memorial Union Terrace Veterans Program booth, as well as the Student Veteran Center. On Friday, Nov. 10, the donations will be collected by St. Vincent de Paul’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families, and on Saturday, Nov. 11 the organization will hand out these donations to the veterans experiencing homelessness in Lane County.

Part-time GE Veterans Program Coordinator Samantha Roberts (left) and Team Leader for Peer Advisors for Veteran Education Trenton Goodman (right) inform UO students about “Operation Toiletries” outside the EMU Fishbowl. (Rylee Kahan/Emerald)

Samantha Roberts is the Graduate Employee Veterans Program Coordinator and is responsible for organizing Veterans Appreciation Week, along with other events throughout the year. According to Roberts, this week is the largest Veterans Program event of the year, and she’s been planning it since summer.

Many student veterans participated in other Veterans Appreciation Week events, like Wednesday’s free brunch provided by the Student Veterans Center and Thursday’s community night which included mini golf, laser tag and bowling at Putters in Eugene.

Roberts says the Veterans Program is there to help student veterans “transition and acclimate” to a new type of environment. The university environment can be a particularly tough transition for student veterans because of all the different life experiences they have, according to Roberts.

The Veterans Program is there to help student veterans find the resources that would help them most. Roberts explained that many student veterans in a university environment feel that the university is doing the bare minimum to “check off a box.”

The Veterans Program puts on events because the organization believes that student veterans matter, and so do their specific needs, according to Roberts.

Being a part of the Veterans Program provides an opportunity to talk about the issue of student veteran needs not being met, according to Roberts. “You don’t know what you don’t know,” Roberts said. “This is a very specific group of people who are also very diverse in their needs.”

According to Roberts, there are about 400 student veterans enrolled during the academic year. Without a full-time coordinator, it can be difficult to meet all the student veteran needs, Roberts explained.

Roberts is the only program coordinator for the Veterans Program at UO, and she’s doing it part-time while also going to graduate school. According to Roberts, Western Oregon University has between 100 and 150 student veterans, but they’ve hired a full-time Veterans Program Coordinator to make sure all student veterans’ needs are being met.

“These are individuals that sacrificed a great deal to be here. They deserve more,” Roberts said.

Leah Crewse is the President of the VFSA and is also a student veteran. She served active duty in the Air Force for four years from 2009-2013. Currently, she is a part of the Air Force reservists, where she goes to Joint Base Lewis-McChord one weekend a month to keep up on her medic certifications and trainings. She also dedicates 15 consecutive days out of the year to the reservist program.

“I think it is vital,” Crewse said of Veterans Appreciation Week. “There are so many student veterans that feel a bit alienated because of their life experiences,” she said. According to Crewse, because the UO is a public four-year university and many students come from a traditional background, it can be difficult for student veterans to relate to other students and feel like they fit into the university environment.

Crewse said the VFSA is there to empower other student veterans.

“We’re your voice…if you don’t attend the events we can’t hear you.”

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Correction: This article previously reported that the UO Student Collective had written the letter to President Michael Schill, when in fact the letter was signed by leaders of the University of Oregon Senate, the GTTF, United Academics and the ASUO.

On Monday, a letter signed by various entities released a letter in response to the student conduct code violation charges being brought against those who participated in a protest that shut down President Schill’s State of the University speech on Oct. 6.

The letter was signed by University Senate President Chris Sinclair, Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation President Jessica Neafie, United Academics President Michael Dreiling, and ASUO State Affairs Commissioner Imani Dorsey.

The letter states that they “write in a unified voice,” to address their concerns with how the charges were brought upon the students involved in the Oct. 6 protest. They ask President Schill to “cease the punitive measures against students and engage in a dialogue without the cloud of threat or intimidation,” according to the letter.

The letter comes after Schill wrote an op-ed about the protest in the New York Times, an email was sent to the student protesters informing them of the charges being brought upon them from the university, and a UO grad student received the email though she claims to have not been at the protest.

In their letter, the signers state that President Schill “obscured the nature of the tensions that energized the protest and narrowly framed the circumstances in an analysis of free speech devoid of any consideration of the relationship between power and access to platforms for speech,” in his New York Times op-ed, published Oct. 23.

In the letter, the signers address President Schill saying that “the actions of your office, particularly your New York Times OpEd, have escalated tensions, and exposed our students to intimidation and ugly responses by online commenters.” The signers also state that they “find it disturbing” that President Schill did not foresee the negative comments that would be written to the students involved.

The response letter goes on to specifically state the seven problems that the signers found with the email informing the student protesters of the charges, sent by Associate Director for Student Conduct and Community Standards Katy Larkin on Oct. 30.

The problems they identify are factual ambiguities, anticipation of conflict — not engagement, lack of oversight, intimidation, investigatory errors, derailing due process and lack of just representation and counsel, according to the letter posted to Facebook on Monday.

The signers say that “this has gone too far,” and call to “de-escalate” the situation. The group of student activists “supports [Schill’s] call for debate and discussion about what transpired on October 6th,” they explained.

On Nov. 15, the UO Student Collective will be expressing their concerns to the University Senate. “This is a much better venue for beginning a campus dialogue than the other highly constrained venue that you have pursued thus far,” the signers wrote in its letter.

The letter, posted to the UO Student Collective’s Facebook page by Nicole Francisco‎, can be read here.

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Correction: This article previously reported that the UO Student Collective had written the letter to President Michael Schill, when in fact the letter was signed by leaders of the University of Oregon Senate, the GTTF, United Academics and the ASUO.

On Monday, a letter signed by various entities released a letter in response to the student conduct code violation charges being brought against those who participated in a protest that shut down President Schill’s State of the University speech on Oct. 6.

The letter was signed by University Senate President Chris Sinclair, Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation President Jessica Neafie, United Academics President Michael Dreiling, and ASUO State Affairs Commissioner Imani Dorsey.

The letter states that they “write in a unified voice,” to address their concerns with how the charges were brought upon the students involved in the Oct. 6 protest. They ask President Schill to “cease the punitive measures against students and engage in a dialogue without the cloud of threat or intimidation,” according to the letter.

The letter comes after Schill wrote an op-ed about the protest in the New York Times, an email was sent to the student protesters informing them of the charges being brought upon them from the university, and a UO grad student received the email though she claims to have not been at the protest.

In their letter, the signers state that President Schill “obscured the nature of the tensions that energized the protest and narrowly framed the circumstances in an analysis of free speech devoid of any consideration of the relationship between power and access to platforms for speech,” in his New York Times op-ed, published Oct. 23.

In the letter, the signers address President Schill saying that “the actions of your office, particularly your New York Times OpEd, have escalated tensions, and exposed our students to intimidation and ugly responses by online commenters.” The signers also state that they “find it disturbing” that President Schill did not foresee the negative comments that would be written to the students involved.

The response letter goes on to specifically state the seven problems that the signers found with the email informing the student protesters of the charges, sent by Associate Director for Student Conduct and Community Standards Katy Larkin on Oct. 30.

The problems they identify are factual ambiguities, anticipation of conflict — not engagement, lack of oversight, intimidation, investigatory errors, derailing due process and lack of just representation and counsel, according to the letter posted to Facebook on Monday.

The signers say that “this has gone too far,” and call to “de-escalate” the situation. The group of student activists “supports [Schill’s] call for debate and discussion about what transpired on October 6th,” they explained.

On Nov. 15, the UO Student Collective will be expressing their concerns to the University Senate. “This is a much better venue for beginning a campus dialogue than the other highly constrained venue that you have pursued thus far,” the signers wrote in its letter.

The letter, posted to the UO Student Collective’s Facebook page by Nicole Francisco‎, can be read here.

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The first floor of the ERB Memorial Union smelled like Halloween festivities on Monday. Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” provided the perfect backdrop for an afternoon of pumpkin carving, apple cider, and sugar cookies in the Crater Lake North room.

The Halloween atmosphere was thanks to the event that the Center for Student Involvement and the Craft Center teamed up for: free pumpkin carving for students.

Mandy Chong is the program director for the Center for Student Involvement, and Diane Hoffman is the program director for the Craft Center. Together they coordinated the pumpkin carving event.

For some students, Halloween is the first major holiday of the school year and they’re not at home to celebrate it like they’re used to.

“Every year my family has a carving competition,” said UO sophomore Taia Lucas. Lucas said she felt like she was missing out on home with Halloween coming around and not having a pumpkin, and this event really made a difference in her Halloween festivities.

Lucas said that even though her roommates didn’t want to “do any of this,” she’s much happier looking towards Halloween after this event. Lucas is also very excited to bring home her completed pumpkin to show her roommates what they missed out on.

Emma Benson carves waves into her pumpkin to reflect her love of the beach. The UO Craft Center holds a free Halloween pumpkin carving event on Oct. 30, 2017.

The Center for Student Involvement and the Craft Center will possibly continue to hold this event annually, according to Chong. The amount of students that request to have the event is what next year relies on, explained Chong.

The event came together after many students had come to the Craft Center looking for Halloween festivities, according to Hoffman.

As far as pumpkin carving goes, this has been “kind of the first year,” said Chong, since the Center for Student Involvement has done the event “sporadically” in the past, Chong explained.

The event featured hollowed-out pumpkins for students to carve in whatever way they chose. There was also apple cider and Halloween themed sugar cookies provided as snacks for students while they worked on their masterpieces.

Many students didn’t come to the event with a huge group of friends, but instead bonded with fellow pumpkin carvers over each other’s designs.

Holding the event every year depends on the student population, and what events the students would like to see happen, according to Chong.

Yuxin Cheng carves an intricate face into her pumpkin. The UO Craft Center holds a free Halloween pumpkin carving event on Oct. 30, 2017.

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