Each day brings finals week one step closer and, as the end of the year nears, deadlines are the top thought on students’ minds. On a national level, another deadline looms: On July 1, 2013, the interest rates for subsidized student loans are set to double from 3.4 to 6.8 percent.

With fewer than six weeks left until the end of the last bipartisan compromise, which lowered subsidized rates to 3.4 percent in 2011 and extended that rate through 2012, Congress is scrambling to establish yet another plan to mediate the costs of higher education for the foreseeable future.

Proposals from the Democratic side of the table include implementing an annual revision of interest rates based on the costs of covering student loan programs, as well as lowering interest rates to match that which the Federal Reserve charges big banks. The first, the Responsible Student Loan Solutions Act, would lower the rates according to charges determined by the Secretary of Education; S.897 is the second proposal, which would change the interest rate on loans to 0.75 percent for one year starting on July 1.

Republican leaders in the House of Representatives have recommended HR 1911, or the Smarter Solutions for Students Act, which would move all student loans to be set according to a market-based rate, changing yearly to reflect government debt in the form of a 10-year treasury note, setting caps for student rates at 8.5 percent. Because this bill reflects market rates, there’s also a chance that loans could decrease — however, there’s equal potential for an increase.

In light of proposals on both ends of the spectrum, economics professor Timothy Duy says that whether or not loan rates rise or fall is a question of where higher education sits on the government’s priority spending list.

“It’s relatively straightforward to figure out interest rates that are close to the government’s cost to capital,” he said. “The question then would be, should the federal government push interest rates even lower than that to subsidize the cost of higher education?”

Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships Jim Brooks, doesn’t expect to see a change in the number of students accepting federal loans, regardless of fluctuation in interest rates. Students, he believes, will continue to do whatever it takes to finance their education.

“If the student loan interest rates increase for subsidized loans on July 1, 2013,” he said, “I do not expect it to impact student loan borrowing. Students will use available resources to help with the cost of their education, and I expect that student loans will continue to be one of those resources.”

UO student Rosalyn Harvey, is one of the students for whom loans are a survival necessity. She is depending on both subsidized and unsubsidized loans to help pay the cost of living and tuition while she focuses on her education.

“If I didn’t have loans, I don’t know what I  would do,” she said. “They pay for tuition, help with rent and sometimes food. Whatever they decide to do, students are just going to have to deal with it … I don’t see another alternative.”

The Student Recreation Center at the University of Oregon has been re-opened after a brief evacuation earlier this evening. Around 5:25 p.m. fire alarms went off in the building when a student on the basketball court hit a sprinkler head with a ball, flooding the court and tripping the alarm system.

Senior Patrick Dougherty was playing basketball on the easternmost court of the SRC when the alarm was tripped by patrons on the other half of the court.

“Somebody hit the sprinkler with the basketball,” Dougherty said. “There was black water … a lot of it.”

Following the alarm, patrons were evacuated from the building and instructed to wait across the street as the Eugene Fire Department and UOPD arrived to assess the scene. After fifteen minutes, students were allowed back in the building to access lockers and work out in the weight rooms, upstairs cardio and pool areas.

According to Eugene Fireman John Ticer, the dark, rancid smelling water that initially flowed out of the pipes can be attributed to the infrastructure of the building.

“The pipes that are in the building are iron, so they oxidize,” Ticer said. “It smells kind of bad, and it’s black, and that’s normal.”

Ticer reports that after the sprinkler was fixed, the scene posed no threat to SRC patrons.

“The biggest concern now is just going to be getting the water out of the wooden floor so that it doesn’t warp,” he said upon leaving the scene.

According to Facility Manager Pauline Tran, this was the second alarm to sound at the SRC in recent months. In her opinion, facility managers and staff reacted quickly and efficiently, handling the situation while avoiding student hazards.

“It’s just a matter of getting people to respond seriously and getting people out of the building,” Tran said. “As far as me and the rest of the staff. I’m proud of what we did and how we responded.”

Although it is standard procedure to evacuate the SRC in case of alarm, administrative reaction to the sprinklers aggravated some patrons.

“There’s no reason to close the gym. That’s one spot of the gym,” UO Professor Emeritus Ken Liberman said. “To kick everybody out — that’s stupid.”

Mary Lawrence will be awarded one of the most prestigious distinctions in the field of law education on June 3 for a project that she started 35 years ago.

In 1978, as a professor at the University of Oregon School of Law, Lawrence helped to found the Legal Research and Writing program at UO Law — a program that grew to be recognized as one of the most distinguished in the country since its inception.

For this effort, and others during her time served as a professor in the UO School of Law, Lawrence will be awarded a Burton Award for outstanding contributions to legal writing education. The annual award ceremony is set to take place in the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

In addition to the Burton Award, Lawrence was a 2013 recipient of  the lifetime achievement award from the Association of Legal Writing Directors and the Legal Writing Institute and was awarded a Meritorious Service Award from Oregon Law in 2010. After retiring in 2010 she continues to hold a position as associate professor emerita in the UO School of Law.

A mile-wide tornado struck suburbs in southern Oklahoma City late Monday afternoon. The National Weather Service recorded the storm having winds up to 200 mph. Structures damaged by the storm included an elementary school and a medical center, CNN says.

Students sticking around Eugene this summer can look forward to a brand new way to express their creativity. Throughout the month of August, Create! Eugene, a workshop-driven celebration of the arts, will showcase exhibitions and demonstrations in its inaugural attempt to get creative juices flowing.

The festival, hosted by the Arts and Business Alliance of Eugene, will run throughout the month of August, during which time 100 different public workshops, exhibitions and competitions will be hosted at locations throughout the city. Workshops range in variety from hours to days long, free to $500, felting to watercolor painting and will be offered to locals or tourists just passing through.

Brent Hanifl, the Create! Eugene coordinator, hopes that the event will facilitate new opportunities for entrepreneurial artists and distinguish Eugene as an art-tourism destination.

“Getting people to come to Eugene and interact with the art community is a great opportunity,” Hanifl said. “We really wanted to brand Eugene as a creative tourism destination.”

Late last week, the Lane Transit District announced its commencement of the engineering process for the expansion of the EmX into West Eugene. The project, which will expand the existing EmX route to include West 11th Avenue toward the Target near Beltline — adding 25 new stations along the way — is expected to continue through the winter of 2014.

Lisa VanWinkle, manager of communications of the project, predicts the biggest impact the engineering phase will have on students who live within a half mile of the projected route is increased contact with EmX workers. Over the course of the next few months, workers will be scouting the neighborhoods and encouraging correspondence from the general public in order to develop the most beneficial plans for the projected route.

The expansion will not impede existing EmX services.

“Our existing EmX service continues on in full strength through all of this,” she said. “During the engineering phase, people may notice surveying crews or technical crews around the route gathering information.”

One possible consequence of the expansion is a new market for more accessible student housing along the route.

“The beauty of this new service when it opens,” she said, “is that it will be one, ongoing route that travels from West Eugene to Springfield. It will be a one-seat ride.”

Coffee fetcher. Errand runner. Fledgling. The title “intern” rarely carries a positive image.

“A lot of the time, the term ‘intern’ has the negative connotation that you don’t know anything as a college student,” senior public relations and advertising major Megan Bauer said. “You have to put yourself in a position where you have to be taken seriously or they think of you as someone who’s just starting and who isn’t really knowledgeable.”

And she would know. Upon graduating from the University of Oregon this spring, Bauer will have performed five internships and attained two professional job titles in the career field of her choice.

Although her personal experience is driven primarily by the intrinsic motivation to explore her future career prospects, Bauer’s resume reflects the kind of rigorous extracurricular agenda demanded by the modern white-collar work force.

In an increasingly competitive job market, impressive classroom work, glowing professor recommendations or an impressive grade point average can no longer be counted on to guarantee college graduates a jump start in their desired career field. Instead, job applicants are expected to have professional experience under their belts before hitting the job market.

Unfortunately, this often means working for free, and bearing the brunt of the office jokes.

Steve Bagwell, managing editor of the Yamhill Valley News-Register, would never consider hiring an employee without real-world intern or professional experience. In order to impress veterans of the journalism industry, he says, it’s necessary to demonstrate professional drive and dedication, regardless of whether or not it comes with a paycheck.

“The chances that your first internship will be paid are very slim. You’ve pretty much got to do an unpaid (internship) to get into the running,” Bagwell said. “If you’re not doing internships and you’re not working with campus media, you’re not setting the bar for what it takes.”

In response to this type of employer mindset, the U.S. Department of Labor announced in April of 2010 six guidelines used to regulate unpaid internships, drawing a fine line between voluntary, educational work and bona-fide slave labor. Among these restrictions are the stipulations that internship experience must reflect learning found in an “educational,” rather than industrial environment, that an employer can’t benefit disproportionately as a direct result of an intern’s labor and that both parties have agreed upon the terms of an uncompensated contract for the benefit of the intern, with no promise of a future paid position.

Some employers find these restrictions an undue limitation on their ability to hire interns.

“In this job you learn by doing, not watching,” said Joe Beach, editor of Salem’s Capital Press, an agricultural newspaper. “I think that you, as a student or reporter who gets experience, should have the power to decide whether you want to work for free or not.”

Despite the willingness — and sometimes even desperation — of students to gain experience, Beach refuses to take on unpaid interns. Although he’d like to help educate as many fledgling reporters as possible, he simply doesn’t have the funds to recruit more than a few paid interns and he’d rather not face federal retribution for an inability to pay every reporter who wants to contribute.

For students, this only increases the pressure.

“I knew that if you didn’t have an internship under your belt when you graduated, you wouldn’t get a job,” UO alumna Emily Jaffe said. “I knew that it was incredibly competitive in where you worked and what internships you got.”

Despite the hesitation of her parents, and the fact that it meant living at home as a poor college student, it was this competition that pushed Jaffe to take an unpaid internship in her hometown of Los Angeles in the summer of 2012. As a “web development” intern, she spent her days fetching coffee for company executives, with her own gas money.

After that, Jaffe participated in a paid internship in Portland in which she was paid little, demanded to work late hours on quick-turn around projects on short notice, and caught in the middle of a war between two conflicting supervisors.

Despite her unfortunate experiences, Jaffe believes that things turned out for the best. After graduating from the UO at the end of fall term 2012, she took a job at the PR firm that she interned for in LA — where her boss was so impressed by her dedication during her unpaid internship that he offered her a bonus at the end of the summer — and she also received a job offer from the firm in Portland, which she promptly declined.

In her opinion, the banality of the internship is a necessity that’s almost impossible to escape.

“An internship is a sacrifice,” Jaffe said. “You know you’re going to be a poor college student no matter what. But you don’t want to be a poor college student after you graduate. It’s definitely important to take those internships.”

Bauer never had to go on coffee runs. However, as a financially independent student, she has had to learn to manage part time jobs and unpaid professional experience in order to stay ahead in her career field. Unfortunately, she has also had the bitter experience of having to relinquish a renowned internship experience for the sake of her wallet.

When an opportunity arose to intern for the summer at Buzzmedia, a PR group in Los Angeles, financial restraints forced Bauer to pass it up, despite its networking possibilities.

“It’s a good opportunity because they work with a lot of celebrities and it’s a big name. It would look amazing on a resume,” Bauer said. “I just didn’t think there was any way possible for me to move down there and work for 30 or 40 hours a week and not be paid. I just couldn’t afford it.”

Two days after walking at graduation on June 17, Bauer will begin her sixth — and hopefully final — professional internship. After completing years of public relations and advertising work, Bauer is confident in her abilities to start out as an entry-level employee. She recognizes that a career-oriented internship with esteemed PR firm Waggener Edstrom Worldwide was too good to pass up, despite the fact that it means donning the title of “intern” once again.

In the end, it all boils down to the job prospects.

“It’s a little bit hard for me because I know that I’m ready for entry level, but I know that it will be a good opportunity,” Bauer said of her coming internship. “I think that I’m still a little disappointed that I’m starting with an internship, but they promote you after three months to an entry level position … So that’s why I decided to take it.”

Classes can be a serious strain on both your calendar and your wallet. Are they educational? Yes. Necessary? Yes. Expensive? Absolutely. Time consuming? Without a doubt. As technology improves and more courses are offered online, students are increasingly turning to web-based courses to alleviate the time constraints imposed by the traditional university structure. For out-of-state students, the benefits are seemingly twofold: not only do online courses save transit time — sometimes, they’re also half price.

At the University of Oregon, online courses follow one of two fiscal models: tuition based, or self-supporting. In accordance with the Oregon University System, tuition-based online classes differentiate in price according to residency status and credit load and are managed through individual UO departments. Self-supporting courses, however, are offered through a department in conjunction with the office of Academic Extension and follow a set fee determined by Academic Extension. This results in a set price, regardless of residency status.

In fall term of 2013, the average 12-credit undergraduate student will pay $227.19 per credit. For an out-of-state student, the price-per-credit is almost tripled at $670.18. The average price of a self-supporting online class is $230 — regardless of which state you call home.

According to Sandra Gladney, associate director of Academic Extension, the decision as to which model to follow rests in the hands of the department offering the online class. For example, all online classes offered through the economics department for the fall of 2013 will follow the traditional, residency and course load-based tuition model. In contrast, all online classes in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts will be funded through self-support.

Ian Edwards, an adjunct instructor in the department of anthropology, has taught the class Anthropology 161: Introduction to World Cultures both online and in person. As an instructor, he strives to ensure an equal educational opportunity for the students in his class, regardless of the platform with which he delivers it or how much the class costs. Although this requires making small alterations in class syllabus, online discussion boards in lieu of discussion sections for example, similar grade distributions in both of his courses leads him to believe that the caliber of education he provides is the same across the board.

“I would have to say that I strive for the best in making them comparable. That’s kind of what’s required of me,” Edwards said of his classes. “So far things are suggesting that they are.”

Trevor Smith, a junior majoring in political science, has taken six to eight online classes over his last three years at the UO. As an in-state student, he is more motivated by efficiency than finance.

“Mostly I just take them because of flexibility,” Smith said. “I can do work on my own time and I don’t have to be locked into a schedule.”

Although they may present a cheaper model of education for out-of-state students, Smith doesn’t necessarily believe that they represent an easier or less time-consuming one.

“Just like any normal class, the difficulty ranges from class to class … if you don’t manage your time well, it will really mess you up,” Smith said. “In the end, I’d say that you get basically the same education either in-class or online.”

After logging onto myedu.com, it takes about 10 minutes to put together a class schedule for your next term at the University of Oregon. Curious about what your chances are of obtaining that coveted A-? Want to see a visual matrix to plan your naps? Hesitant to sign up for that 8 a.m. class before checking the professor’s student ratings? Myedu.com can help.

What’s more, after creating a username and password, students can use myEdu to explore internships, search job opportunities around Eugene and build a portfolio to showcase achievements to potential employers. This website has it all.

According to Bill Morrill, assistant director for technology in the UO Office of Academic Advising, myEdu and other networking websites like LinkedIn and Rate My Professors are examples of a student movement toward increasingly digitized educational and occupational networking.

“I’ve been working in advising and career counseling for 19 years now, and there’s been a big change in the use of technology,” Morrill said. “I have seen and heard more and more from students trying to pick classes from what other students are saying about professors.”

For junior cinema studies major Zachary Twardowski, technology simplifies planning ahead. Although he sticks to DuckWeb for building his schedule and browsing potential classes, Twardowski runs his potential teachers through Rate My Professors in addition to speaking with friends who have taken the same course. It was through applying for online scholarships through Fastweb.com that Twardowski first encountered myEdu. Since, he has used the portal to augment the resources provided by the UO for job and internship searches.

From an academic advising standpoint, Morrill believes that Twardowski’s balance between digital and personal interaction is key to planning ahead.

“It’s difficult to use reviews about personal teaching styles without having the full story in the background,” Morrill said. “Personally, I think talking to the professor beforehand is a good way to choose classes. Talking with students who have taken the class before would also be helpful because then you can actually ask questions.”

To keep up with increasing digital dependence, the UO Career Center is planning its own technological overhaul.

 By fall 2013 the UO hopes to have developed a site similar to popular portals like myEdu and LinkedIn, says UO Career Center Director Daniel Aguilar. Ideally, Aguilar says, the site will generate an automatic profile for any student with a UO identification number.

Twardowski, for one considers the possibility entrancing.

“I think that’d be very helpful,” he said of the Career Center’s potential website. “It kind of streamlines the process so that someone calling you in for an interview already knows a lot about you and your activity and involvement in things.”

Although sites like myEdu and LinkedIn create a portal through which prospective employees can connect with employers, Aguilar hopes to remind students that they are merely tools for providing meeting opportunities. True connections, he says, continue to require real life face time.

Eleven thousand people sat shoulder to shoulder in Matthew Knight Arena on Friday, gathered collectively to witness a once-in-a-lifetime lecture opportunity from Tenzin Gyatso — his holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama.

As the ceremony began, those in attendance sat anxiously on the edge of their seats, watching the red and yellow-robed monk’s every movement while several more watched in real time online. Minutes passed. People fidgeted in their seats. Finally, under the collective gaze of thousands of students, faculty and the general public, Gyatso approached the front of the stage to begin his speech.

A blanket of silence fell over the stadium. Somewhere in the audience, a baby wailed.

With his first words, the 77-year-old man shattered the anticipatory tension that hung in the air. Softly, slowly, he began his speech. Each influx of his voice intimately addressed the crowd gathered before him — not like a professional speaker domineering the podium, but rather like an aged man in conversation with a close friend. Even without a microphone, his message would have carried loud and clear to gawkers hundreds of seats deep in the comfortable silence generated by absolute awe.

However, for some on campus, his message rings false. 

“He is kind of an enemy to Chinese,” Fengyi Zhang, an international student from China said of the Dalai Lama. “If he’s here we cannot get angry or something … but we still feel uncomfortable.”

Zhang’s reaction to Gyatso’s visit was primarily of political discomfort. Although on an ideological scale he disagrees with the Lama’s teachings and political objectives, he didn’t feel overly threatened by Gyatso’s appearance. However, within the UO Chinese community, Zhang says that there are others who feel more strongly about the issue. A friend of Zhang’s, who declined an interview with the Emerald, skipped classes on the day that Gyatso appeared on campus. Should there be any further involvement between the UO and the Buddhist monk, she plans on transferring schools.

Visits from the Dalai Lama to schools across North America have also warranted more substantial consequences from the Chinese government.

According to reports from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, three months after hosting His Holiness for a speech in September 2009 and presenting him with an honorary degree, they were dropped from the Chinese Ministry of Education’s list of accredited universities.

For Chinese students at discredited universities, this generates uncertainty regarding the value of their degrees and their future job security in China.

Tulane University in New Orleans plans to host Gyatso as the commencement speaker at their graduation ceremony on May 18. Michael DeMattia, a news editor at the Tulane Hullabaloo, reports that tensions are high regarding the possible Chinese denunciation of that campus as well.

“We don’t have any confirmation on whether their degrees are going to be blacklisted,” DeMattia said. “Many of the Chinese students are concerned that they won’t be able to find employment after they graduate, regardless.”

In contrast to the Dalai Lama’s appearance at both Calgary and Tulane, Gyatso’s visit to the UO appears relatively low-key. Instead of presenting Gyatso with an honorary degree, which according to Dave Hubin, the assistant to University President Michael Gottfredson, have only ever been bestowed upon four or five recipients, Gyatso received the still prestigious, albeit more-common Presidential Medal. In addition, his lecture was an optional event for students in comparison to his appearance at Tulane’s commencement – an almost obligatory event for graduating students.

Kaiping Zhang, a UO Business and Economy librarian who moved from China to the U.S. in the ’80s, believes the prominence of the event presents an important distinction. Considering that Gyatso’s appearance was unlikely to anger the relatives of Chinese relatives, as his appearance at graduation likely would, she believes that the Chinese government is unlikely to respond to the Dalai Lama’s speech.

“I don’t think the university has to worry about it,” Zhang said. “On the whole, it’s not going to be controversial, and I don’t think it will affect Chinese students.”

According to Hubin, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Presidential Medal specifically because his ideals of global peace and inter-religious unity reflect those of the University as a whole.

“It’s a tremendous event in the university’s history, and I am glad we are able to bestow the Presidential Medal,” Hubin said.

When making the decision to present the Presidential Medal to Gyatso, the UO was unaware of the possibility of its degrees being blacklisted by the Chinese Ministry of Education.

“It played absolutely no role in our decision,” Hubin said.

Though Hubin said that he is uncertain of the likelihood of the UO being blacklisted, for some students, the mere appearance of the Dalai Lama on campus brought up concerns about the UO’s future involvement with the Tibetan activist.

At the moment, Zhang remains unconcerned about the safety of his UO degree in China. In his opinion, merely attending the same university where the Dalai Lama appeared is not enough to anger the Chinese government. However, he claims that if the UO displays the intent of aiding Gyatso in what Zhang believes are misled political attempts, he will seriously reconsider his choice of American universities.

“America is a kind of like freedom country, so people can do anything they want because it is legal,” Zhang said. “Even though I feel uncomfortable, we cannot stop things like this.”