All university operations beginning after 10 a.m. this morning will resume normal operating schedule, a University of Oregon Alert confirmed Friday morning.

Classes and activities before 10 a.m. this morning were cancelled in response to Thursday’s inclement weather.

University employees are expected to report for their normal working schedules regardless of the 10 a.m. class delay.

Additional exceptions to campus operations include:

– The Women’s Basketball Game against Utah has been rescheduled to 2 p.m. on Saturday and the game against Colorado to 5 p.m. on Monday

– The Student Recreation Center will open at 10 a.m.

– Moss Street Children’s Center will open at 10 a.m.

– The Vivian Olum Child Development Center will open at 9:30 a.m.

A Winter Storm Warning issued by the National Weather Service in Portland around 5 a.m. this morning warns that Eugene is expected to receive between 4 and 8 inches of snowfall before before 4 a.m. Friday morning.

The warning predicts that snowfall, though light in parts of Eugene this morning, is expected to increase over the day reaching its peak this afternoon and tapering off sometime Friday morning.

The University of Oregon Alerts System posted a warning yesterday following a prior snow warning to inform the community that the university will be monitoring conditions and that an an announcement will be made through the Alerts System if any change to the normal university schedule is enacted.

As of yet, there  have been no new announcements from UO Alerts.

The UO warns all university affiliates to act according to their best judgement when traveling to campus in inclement weather and encourages those who assess personal risk to be too great for travel to make alternative arrangements with their classrooms or professors.

In cases of Winter Storm Warnings the NWS suggests that those traveling in areas of snowfall have a flashlight, extra food and water in case of emergency.

See more on today’s snow here.

Names of almost 1,500 of the University of Oregon’s highest performing students were released yesterday on the roster for the dean’s list for academic achievement during fall term 2013.

Of the 20,808 undergraduates enrolled last fall, 1,465 earned their place on the list — that’s about seven percent of the total undergraduate population.

Last term was average in terms of achievement in comparison to Fall term 2012, Winter term 2013 and Spring term 2013, which all reflected a similar dean’s list distinction of about seven percent of undergraduate enrollment.

To earn a place on the quarterly dean’s list, a student must be enrolled in at least 15 credits for the designated term and score a GPA of 3.75 or higher in at least 12 of those credits.

Names of this year’s honorees can be found here.

A week after erecting “No Trespassing” signs around the homeless encampment of Whoville, the City of Eugene has put up a fence around the compound.

“(The fence is) really just to secure the site and prevent trespassing,” Laura Hammond, community outreach coordinator for the City of Eugene’s Planning and Development Department said. “Eventually once everyone leaves the fence will be closed because the area isn’t open to the public.”

According to Hammond, Whoville has been situated on property allocated for the Hillyard Street Extension Project since it was erected four months ago. The city’s hope, she says, is that people will slowly move out of the area.

Jennifer Frenzer, an advocate for the unsheltered of Eugene, doesn’t view the fence as the appropriate course of action. She applauds the previous social work put in by the city but doesn’t believe enough is being done to help find Whoville dwellers new places to live.

“Instead of taking a social work approach … they switched gears and brought in an eviction notice,” Frenzer said. “(Whoville residents) don’t want to argue, they don’t want to fight with anyone, they just want to move to the next site.”

Hammond says the city’s future plans remain tentative.

“Our plans are not to have a confrontation or a deadline,” she said. “We’re working with everyone to have a transition that works for everybody involved.”

Underage drinkers seeking medical attention for themselves or friends suffering from alcohol poisoning could receive medical amnesty under Oregon law thanks to a bill sponsored by Oregon Rep. Margaret Doherty, the Oregonian reports.

According to the Oregonian, Doherty’s inspiration for the law came from the story of a fraternity hazing incident in 2008, where an 18 year old freshman at a University of California school died of alcohol poisoning because his fraternity brothers were afraid of the consequences of driving him to the hospital. It’s an all-too-common fear according to a research study at Cornell University, where 19 percent of undergraduates said they would think about seeking medical attention for a friend with suspected alcohol poisoning, but only 4 percent actually called emergency services.

Dougherty’s law would apply amnesty from a “minor in possession of alcohol” charge to both the individual in medical danger and the caller; however, it would not extend to other crimes such as driving under the influence or possessing other controlled substances.

The bill, called D-Tigard, is set to be considered next month in the Oregonian Legislature.

Congressman Peter DeFazio will be among a panel of experts speaking about the Fast Track Authority and Trans-Pacific Partnership trade legislation from 6 to 7:30 p.m. today in the Fir Room of the Erb Memorial Union.

Currently in the process of international negotiations, the Trans-Pacific Partnership is an expansion of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (P4) that was struck between the U.S, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore and Brunei in 2005 in order to boost economic relations and improve trade flow between the five countries. If approved, the TPP would expand upon P4 to include a dozen countries including Japan, Australia, Peru and Mexico.

Critics of the partnership argue that the agreement is not mainly about trade (5 of the 29 draft chapters relate directly to trade) and would lead to problems from increased outsourcing to restricted intellectual property laws globally.

The panel will also discuss the current senate debate regarding whether or not to grant Fast Track or “Trade Promotion” authority to the executive – a decision that would  allow Obama to expedite trade agreements by requiring congressional action within 90 days.

Rep. DeFazio is in opposition to both proposed trade bills. He will be joined on the panel by Gordon Lafer, a political economist and associate professor in the UO’s Labor Education and Research Center.

Eugene Police Department confirmed late Sunday afternoon that Cody Bennett, a University of Oregon senior studying General Social Sciences has died.

Time and cause of death have yet to be released.

More information to come.

For the first time in 14 years, Blackboard Learn is up for review.

In a presentation to faculty and university members gathered at the Faculty Senate meeting Wednesday evening, Dean of Libraries Deborah Carver detailed the progression of the most recent Learning Management System review — a process that began last winter and will likely conclude this summer.

About a year ago, Carver says, the University of Oregon began asking current faculty to submit reviews regarding what they like and dislike about the current Blackboard Learn system and features they would hope to see in an alternative online system. Last spring they interviewed potential product vendors and this fall they issued a request for proposals and received product bids from six separate vendors.

According to Carver, the first round of reviews has been submitted to vendors and “most of” the six vendors will be considered for further evaluation.

This winter the university will conduct faculty reviews of specific features across each platform — the grade book application, for example. Based on faculty review, one or two finalists will be selected and the committee will solicit faculty members to teach a class spring term with the selected platforms. Student and instructor review from the test runs will lead the committee to select a final product by this spring.

Should Blackboard be replaced, the 2014-2015 year will see two official campus learning management systems operating simultaneously as the old system is phased out.

Though faculty at Wednesday’s meeting raised some concern over student confusion with two official systems, Carver and the review committee consider the transition year the best option to implement a new system — something that can take significant effort according to schools like the University of Washington, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“We acknowledge (the possibility of confusion) and how we might mitigate that, but I can tell you right now that we’ve already got plenty of variation across campus,” Carver said on the phone, Thursday. “Unless we get a good platform that meets everyone’s needs, that variation might continue … we’re trying to get ahead of that.”

Carver says that the learning management systems under consideration are being reviewed based on their reliability, stability, functionality, interface (including mobile) and design.

Wednesday afternoon’s gathering of some of the university’s faculty and administration members revolved heavily around discussion of impending changes at the University of Oregon, including the possibility of phasing out Blackboard.

Deborah Carver, dean of UO libraries, detailed the current review of the Blackboard online education system and explained the schedule to test and elect a new system moving forward. By next fall, she said, the university should have a clear decision as to whether or not it will retain the Blackboard system. However, if a new system is selected for use, 2014-2015 will demand that campus collaborate with both systems as Blackboard is gradually phased out.

Changes to administration with the advent of the independent governing board were also discussed. President Michael Gottfredson started the meeting with an update on the progress of the Higher Education Coordinating Committee and Oregon University System in deliberating the division of administrative functions under the new governance system. Duties formerly reserved to the state have been dispersed between a group designated to deliberate “Shared Services” between the seven public universities — including labor relations, benefits and risk management — and some have been reserved to individual university responsibility, including treasury functions, tax recordings and internal audits.

In addition, Gottfredson outlined the progression of the UO’s new board of trustees which includes meetings to determine their duties in the upcoming months (schedule here), paid notice to Scott Coltrane’s Tuesday address to the UO community as a candidate for Provost, and the recent statement he released denouncing the boycott of Israeli academic institutions in the name of academic freedom.

Following Gottfredson’s remarks, the floor was opened to reports concerning various faculty proceedings (full agenda here).

A report on the state of admissions delivered by Vice President for Academic Enrollment Roger Thompson highlighted the notable achievement of UO’s most recent freshman class, including unprecedented achievements in grade point average and the economic and demographic diversity of those enrolled.

In addressing questions from the audience, Thompson explained the university’s current intentions to hold a stable enrollment rate (currently 25,400) and expressed his opinion that a pivotal goal of the university should be to capture and retain of Oregon’s top high school graduates.

“I want us to become the institution of choice for the best and brightest in the state of Oregon,” he said.

Follow Sami Edge on Twitter @sami_edge

Two University of Oregon students were arrested for hosting an unruly gathering at 1127 Ferry street Friday night.

Christopher Einar Larsen and Danny Escalante, both 21, were arrested on the grounds of prohibited noise, allowing minors to consume alcohol and hosting an unruly gathering.

According to a press release issued by the Eugene Police Department, officers responded to a noise complaint stemming from a large party at 10:40 p.m. on Friday. Approaching the scene, officers witnessed people drinking from what appeared to be open containers on the front porch. The subjects then  fled inside and announced that the police had arrived prompting 30 or 40 people to flee out the back door.

After failing to establish contact with the subjects within the apartment, police obtained a telephone warrant and forcibly entered the residence. Inside, they found upwards of 40 people, some of whom were hiding in closets, the report says.

In addition to the two arrests, 13 minors were cited for possessing alcohol and other offenses, and property including a laptop computer and stereo was seized as evidence of the prohibited noise complaint.