Near the end of spring term, most students are too busy trying to balance midterms and tanning to worry about the fate of Oregon’s university system. However, as the end of the 2012-2013 academic year draws to a close, a proposition that would significantly rearrange higher education remains a hot topic in the Oregon State Legislature: Senate Bill 270.

If passed, SB 270 would allow the University of Oregon to create an independent governing board, removing the University from shared governance under the Oregon University System.

According to architecture professor Peter Keyes, under the current system, the UO is restricted from achieving its full potential because the OUS is too far removed from the University proper.

“A state board that’s overseeing eight institutions, they can’t possibly understand all eight campuses,” Keyes said. “It’s pretty impossible for a state board to understand deeply enough each institution to make accurate decisions for the individual schools.”

The most important benefit of having an independent board, Keyes believes, is greater freedom as an institution. Under the new system, a UO institutional board would be in charge of the direct hiring and firing of the University president, as well as the direct collection of bond revenue and its allocation to University departments.

Both students and faculty alike have voiced serious concerns regarding the passing of SB 270 in its current format.

As the bill is currently written, the UO’s independent governing board would be appointed by the state governor. In addition, a University faculty member, student and the UO president would sit upon the board as “ex-officio” — meaning voteless — members.

Before placing their faith in an independent board, faculty and students would like to see the ambiguity behind the appointing and representation of board members resolved.

Associate professor of Sociology Michael Dreiling believes in the potential of an individual board. However, before he believes that they will constitute a positive change, he would like to see voting rights granted to the student and faculty member on the board.

“I’m instinctually inclined to support the idea of an independent board as long as the principles of student faculty and staff involvement are enshrined in that legislation,” he said. “If we’re going to do it, I want to do it right.”

ASUO Senator and Oregon Student Association member Lamar Wise shares Dreiling’s hesitations.

“Fundamentally I do disagree, but knowing that this is an issue that has a lot of support and is reasonable, I believe that if this is to be passed, in order to at least be fair, it should have equal representation,” Wise said. “What I would want, and what (the Oregon Student Association) is looking for is a proportional representation and allocation for each constituency.”

Ultimately, Keyes believes that the best way to mediate differences of opinion and craft legislation that best suits the needs of all parties is to generate awareness and conversation about the issue.

“You want to make sure that everybody who’s involved is there and talking because that way you make better decisions,” he said.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aidis not known for its simplicity. Filling it out involves weeding through pages and pages of a complicated financial questionnaires, including estimating parental income to generate an “expected family contribution” for college expense, which in turn determines federal aid allotment. 

Things get even more complicated when you throw same-sex parents and divorce into the mix, as is the case for University of Oregon student Csea Leonard.

“Federal financial things are very complicated with same-sex couples,” she said, “and then when you add up parents splitting up, it can also be really complicated. Sometimes it’s really frustrating, especially with things like the FAFSA that are already complicated.”

But for students of unmarried or same-sex parents, the process is about to get clearer.

According to an announcement made by the U.S. Department of Education on Monday, FAFSA will include an option to describe the household situation as “unmarried and both parents living together,” in addition to allowing students to indicate whether or not they come from a homosexual household by 2014.

According to a statement made by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, this update will “ensure taxpayer dollars are better targeted toward those students who have the most need” by collecting a more accurate estimate of the financial situation of two-parent households.

Unfortunately for most students affected by the 2014 FAFSA change, this could lead to a decrease in federal aid.

Traditionally, parents who are unmarried or whose marriages are not federally recognized were not documented by the federal application. The new FAFSA policy would require the documentation of both cohabiting parents. For students whose secondary parent contributes a significant household income, aid packages will likely decrease.

Despite the impact that the FAFSA change might have on some students, Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships Jim Brooks doesn’t see the change having a significant impact on UO aid packages.

“I don’t anticipate any decrease in the scholarship funds that the UO awards,” he said. “The students receiving scholarships where need is one of the eligibility criteria may change, but the change in parents on the FAFSA will not result in a decrease of our scholarship funds.”

Maure Smith-Benanti, assistant director of the LGBT Education and Support Services Program at the UO, believes government policies alienate same-sex couples and their children and will continue to do so until equal marriage rights are granted across state and federal lines.

“It’s a long-overdue recognition,” she said of the FAFSA change. “I think that until marriage rights are pretty standard and fair and equal across the board, (federal procedures) are going to continue to be very problematic to navigate.”

Because Leonard’s parents are now separated in terms of living arrangement, she will not be impacted by FAFSA changes. Regardless, she views the FAFSA change as a positive way of incorporating the children of nontraditional households into the political system.

However, she concedes, it certainly doesn’t make the paperwork any less complicated.

“It’s a step in the right direction, yes,” she said. “Does it make the process easier? No.”

For the first half of Wednesday’s faculty senate meeting, UO legislators worked together to tidy up faculty housekeeping. For the most part, debates over legal matters and committee qualifications were flowing unanimously and without too much confrontation. That is, until Senator Bill Harbaugh’s proposal to request academic funding from the UO Athletic department sparked some lively debate.

In his opening remarks, President Michael Gottfredson addressed the senate with a reminder of two pieces of higher education legislation currently working their way through the Oregon state Legislature in Salem: Senate Bill 270 and House Bill 3120.

The former would create an independent governing board for the University of Oregon. The latter would consolidate various higher educational departments under a highly licensed Higher Education Coordinating Committee. Both bills are currently pending legislation in their proper Subcommittee’s On Education.

“This issue is a very important matter for us, of course,” Gottfredson said of SB 270. “It’s a matter of considerable consequence for how we are governed and in turn how we finance ourselves in the long run.”

After giving a brief congratulatory statement regarding recent faculty success in various research departments and Oregon Softball’s Pac-12 Championship win, Gottfredson turned the meeting over to Senate President Robert Kyr.

Motions presented over the next hour included a Legal Representation Policy proposed by Senate Chair and Law Professor Margaret Paris, which was postponed pending more accurate wording and moderate revisions by Kyr to committee requirements under tenth year review, all of which were passed despite some banter over technical terms.

With roughly thirty minutes left in the senate meeting, Kyr read the final motion on the agenda: Harbaugh’s legislation entitled “Payments from the Athletic Department for Academic Purposes.”

Over the last eight years, the proposition stipulated the UO Athletic Department has made repeated promises (first in 2004 and then again in 2008) to contribute financially to the UO Academic mission — a promise that it has failed to realize except in terms of granting scholarships to it’s athletes and making contributions to the Knight Library. Over the same period, UO Athletic expenditures have more than doubled, and the University’s academic budget has been depleted to help finance the purchase of the Matthew Knight Arena land.

Harbaugh’s motion proposed that the UO Senate request Gottfredson to require the Athletic Department to pay “the full cost of providing tutoring and academic support for student-athletes,” as well as “the full cost of the bonds used to purchase the Knight Arena land,” and “set aside from its budget a sum equal to two percent of the athletic department’s prior year spending on athletics, and redirect these funds toward UO’s academic purposes,” specifically for scholarship distribution.

After multiple speeches for, and against the motion, an interjection from Associate Mathematics Professor Dev Sinha and its amendment from legislation to a resolution, the motion was passed 19-4.

“We’re asking the athletic department to pay their bills,” Economics Professor Glen Waddell said when the floor was opened for comments. “It’s about time.”

Win Min was offered a scholarship to study as an international student at the University of Oregon in 2008. However, it wasn’t until 2010 that Min could accept his tuition-paying International Cultural Service Program Scholarship and enroll. As the child of humble vegetable farmers working as a community English teacher for a salary of $50 a week in Myanmar, it took Min two full years to save enough for living expenses in the U.S. so he could immigrate on an official student visa.

“It is very, very difficult to be able to come and study in the U.S., even if you get academy scholarships from the University,” Min, a Public Policy Planning and Management major said. “You must show that your family income will be able to support you while you are studying in the United States … that is a lot. That’s why not many students can afford to get a visa.”

United States immigration policy forbids eligibility for a student visa without demonstration of a prospective student’s ability to cover all “anticipated educational and living expenses” during their first academic year in the U.S., according to the University of Oregon International Student Financial Statement. Proof of funds must be documented in terms of personal or sponsor savings, or government-awarded funds.

For Min, that amounted to securing funding for more than $40,000 in educational fees.

“I wouldn’t be here without scholarships,” Min said. “I (was) just a community development volunteer. My family is just simple, normal farmers who grew vegetables and other crops. They never would have made this amount of money.”

International students face significant obstacles to studying in the U.S. At high-end private schools, equal admissions to international students is denied depending on socioeconomic status. For international students at the UO, it’s not the admissions process that skews attendance equality — it’s the government.

“At the University of Oregon we are need-blind in the admissions process,” enrollment management vice president Roger Thompson said. ”As it relates to international students studying in the U.S., they have to be able to show their ability to pay (one full year tuition) … that’s not a University of Oregon thing, that’s a United States thing.”

Renowned private universities such as Stanford and Brown are in the midst of mediating their denial of “need-blind” admissions for international applicants, which has led to practices restricting the admittance of international students based on their ability to pay tuition. In contrast, the UO practices need-blind admissions for all students. This means that regardless of residential standing – in state, out-of-state, domestic or international – applicants are admitted based on academic and extracurricular merit, not financial need.

Despite the UO’s more equitable admissions practices, international students face significant barriers to attendance because of government immigration finance policies and limited financial aid.

According to Assistant Director for International Recruitment Robert Hardin, international students can receive scholarships and loans from their home countries. However, the amount and availability of scholarships varies dramatically by region and loans often require a credit history and collateral often not possessed by applicants. What’s more, international students are prohibited from receiving U.S. federal aid, and are restricted in their employment ability to on-campus jobs at no more than 20 hours a week.

Such restrictions make it incredibly difficult to secure enough funding to get that visa.

Although the immigration policy is tough, both admissions coordinators and some international students themselves believe that the legislation is a fair way to protect foreign students in the U.S. from financial destitution.

“We can’t have international students coming here who can’t afford to be here,” Hardin said. “I think it’s a tough policy, but I don’t see another way to do it.”

To lessen the financial burden of international costs, the UO and International Student and Scholar Services program has made a number of scholarships and alternatives to federal aid available to the international student population.  Examples of these include an international student work study program, scholarships and donor endowments.

According to Abe Schafermeyer, UO director of international student and scholar services, approximately $1.3 million is annually awarded to the UO population of roughly 2,500 international students from 90 different countries. Still, he says, with rising tuition cost and international admittance, there’s not enough to go around.

Over his last two years in the U.S., Min, the international student from Myanmar, has watched the value of his scholarship decline because of increasing tuition costs. Currently, the ICSP scholarship only covers the cost of 10 of the 12 credits demanded for Min to be considered a full-time student — requiring that he supplement his school studies with a 20-hour work week to pay his extra credit costs and living expenses.

Schafermeyer says that although Min’s situation is unfortunate, it isn’t uncommon. Over the last years he has found himself trying to balance the financial security of international students with their geographical and economic diversity, a difficult task that has resulted in a decrease in new scholarship recipients and additional pressure for existing candidates.

“I don’t want these students to fall into a situation where they can’t finish … but I also don’t want to decrease the number of underrepresented countries that want to live and learn in this country,” Schafermeyer said. “The challenge is that each year tuition is increasing, but the amount of the scholarship funding is not.”

Schafermeyer believes that in comparison to other public universities, the UO does an above average job of offering scholarships for interested international students. However, as costs continue to rise, he believes it’s imperative that scholarship funding increase to maintain international diversity.

“Our international student population is expected to grow and we want to keep a rich diversity of international students on our campus,” Schafermeyer said. “I hope to make the scholarship programs grow by raising awareness around campus of the many benefits that international students bring to our university community.”

Did you know that your veins move depending on the weather? In warmer temperatures, or after working out, veins rise to the surface of the skin to dispel body heat. In cold weather, they shrink closer to the bone to keep the body warm. This process, part of the body’s natural adaptation to maintain equilibrium, is one of the phenomenons that persuaded Josef Khalifeh to major in Human Physiology. He finds it simply fascinating.

Khalifeh added a business minor to his educational goals when he decided that someday he might like to own his own medical practice. And the chemistry minor — that was a given considering all of his pre-med requirements.

“I counted and through some weeks I spent 80 hours in the library last term,” Khalifeh said. “It was ridiculous.”

Khalifeh’s academic endeavors are driven by the underlying desire to become a physician in the field of internal medicine, a career path inspired by a family struggle with medical issues. The 20-year-old hopes to eventually help the surrounding community by setting up free healthcare clinics in impoverished areas of the country.

“You feel really good when you help someone. You get a head rush,” he said. “I feel good that I helped that person, and that’s what helps drive me.”

Khalifeh also pushes himself to learn medical practices in the field. Each week he volunteers in the Sacred Heart Medical Center emergency room maintaining patient rooms and providing assistant to medical technicians. Over winter break, Khalifeh was invited to the Ronald Reagan-UCLA Medical Center. This summer, Khalifeh will travel to Panama with a group of medical students, working with approximately 55 patients over the course of a week.

“It’s nerve wracking looking at all of the schooling I have to do. It makes me nervous. I can’t say that I never have any doubts,” Khalifeh said. “You can’t look at the long road. It’s too overwhelming. You just have to go one step at a time.”

His appearance in the university’s “You Will” promotional video sparked a connection with UO Alum and UCLA Patient Healthcare Liaison Michael Richards. After discovering Khalifeh’s medical ambition and inviting him to visit UCLA, where he shadowed shifts in a Level-One trauma unit, Richards has become a personal and professional mentor for the inspiring doctor.

“What makes Josef special is that he is such a good person. He takes care of his family and he is just a wonderful young man,” Richards said. “What I hope for Josef is that…he finds in medicine a career that will give him satisfaction in life, as it has for many others.”

Imagine for a moment the life of a champion collegiate athlete:

Day after day, countless hours are devoted to a pristine balance of athletics and academics. Drive and enthusiasm on the court, track or field is matched only by the perseverance in classroom activities demanded by scholarship contracts. For nine months of the year, you work to uphold the pride of your team, your university and your sport. Now imagine that, despite months of dedication, there is no guarantee your athletic scholarship will be renewed for the following year.

New scholarship regulations adopted by the NCAA in August of 2012 were implemented to reduce the cause of such uncertainty for college athletes. Previously, student athletes were liable to scholarship review at the end of each academic year under a system of annual scholarship distribution. Now, the association has opened its doors to allow the distribution of multiyear scholarships to ensure the financial stability of athletes for up to five years.

So, what does this mean for the University of Oregon? Nothing yet. So far, the school hasn’t offered a single one.

James O’Fallon, the UO faculty athletic representative to the NCAA, claims the UO is not withholding such awards from possible recipients — there simply doesn’t seem to be a strong incentive to switch scholarship styles.

“There’s very little difference between the level of scholarship results,” O’Fallon said. “My understanding is that (multiyear scholarships) haven’t caught on much of anywhere yet.”

According to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, the UO is not the only school hesitating. Of the two-thirds of Division-I schools currently offering these awards, very few athletes have received long-term aid packages. Other major sports schools, such as the University of Colorado and Oklahoma State University, have also opted out of offering multiyear scholarships this year.

One of the main reasons these scholarships are offered is to address the issue of  unfair defunding of student athletes who meet their scholarship requirements but are at risk of the illegal denial of scholarship money and removal from a team due to coaching conflicts, injuries or a drop in performance level.

According to O’Fallon, the current financial aid appeals system in place at the UO effectively prevents the unfair denial of scholarships, rendering the biggest benefit of multiyear scholarships void.

“The background is that we don’t take away scholarships,” he said. “It’s been about 12 years since we’ve had a contested case over the removal of a scholarship.”

Under the current scholarship system, any student athlete who believes that his or her scholarship has been unfairly denied renewal has the opportunity to file an appeal before the Financial Aid Appeals Board, which is tasked with determining whether the student has been subjected to unfair discrimination. If the student does not find the committee’s ruling adequate, he or she can then file an appeal to the UO president for final consideration.

Despite the appeals system, UO biology professor Nathan Tublitz believes the annual scholarship system puts too much power in the hands of the coaches and administration who review the applicant’s eligibility. What’s more, he believes the fickleness of annually renewing scholarships is an unnecessary stressor on student athletes. In his opinion, the constant doubt as to whether one’s scholarship will be renewed and the lengthy, tedious process of filing an appeal in the case of unfair renewal denial puts undue pressure on student athletes.

“These processes take a long time and put a lot of stress on the student, particularly if the student has been terminated inappropriately,” Tublitz said. “It’s much better to give them multiple years with a clause that says they can be terminated if they do something wrong.”

Ariana Williams, a senior studying English and a middle blocker for the UO volleyball team, considers annual scholarship awards motivational tools. Although she says she is intrinsically motivated to work hard and that she trusts her coaches not to deny her annual scholarship because of performance variability, she believes that for other athletes the threat of scholarship revocation is a necessary motivator to make an effort on the court and in the classroom.

“I just don’t think its very smart to give people four scholarships to come play at any school,” she said. “I feel like they’ll be comfortable, so they won’t really feel like they have to get after it.”

According to O’Fallon, the decision about whether or not to grant multiyear athletic scholarships ultimately rests with individual coaches; however, he doesn’t believe the UO is likely to adjust their current practices unless forced into change by recruitment practices.

“It will affect us a lot if schools start using the multiyear scholarship as a device for recruiting activity,” he said. “We’re likely to see schools that are a little bit farther down on the pecking order try to make up by offering longer scholarships to the most marketable recruits.”

Should these scholarships become a prominent recruiting tool, he believes the UO might have to revisit the issue of offering them to capable athletes; but for now, he maintains the athletic department is doing its best to ascertain the most beneficial scholarship policy for student athletes.

“I think the question that needs to be asked is, ‘From a student athlete’s welfare perspective, are (multiyear scholarships) really better or not?’” he said. “I think it’s a mixed message.”

On the back wall of Marvin King’s office hang an assortment of handmade thank you notes, letters and drawings. Ask him about them and he will smile proudly, chuckling while he recounts his favorite tales of his last fourteen years working for the University of Oregon Student Recreation Center and reminiscing over the best young people he’s encountered on the job.

It’s the students that keep this 76-year-old maintenance repairman working eight hours a day, five days a week.

“That’s the only reason I work here is for the students,” King said. “I just love the kids. They’re like grandkids to me.”

In the maintenance repair domain, his specialty is fixing the rec center’s broken workout equipment. He was originally hired as the primary groundskeeper and maintenance repairman for the rec center, but as the facilities expanded, his job has become specialized in the field that he knows best: manual repair work.

“I find it rewarding to make stuff work when it breaks down,” he said. “It’s a challenge.”

As the youngest of five siblings who were all passionate about cars, he learned the language of mechanics at an early age. In the 50 years since, he has worked as a mechanic, machinist, millwright, construction worker and volunteer fireman, to name a few. In addition to his duties at the rec center, he is responsible for the upkeep of equipment and appliances in Gerlinger Hall and the Gerlinger Annex. The racks that hold medicine balls and body bars in the Gerlinger dance hall, for example, are King’s signature inventions.

Molly Kennedy, assistant director of marketing and communications at the rec center, has worked with him since he arrived at the university in the late ’90s. She believes that his technical skills are essential in keeping the rec center functioning smoothly.

“He has a tremendous amount of skills in a variety of areas,” she said. “He is super talented, he can fix anything and he also loves working with the students.”

According to Kennedy, his bright and companionable personality also add to the social environment of the rec center, serving to humanize the gym.

“Marvin is a very special person,” she said. “He’s a real person and he’s willing to get to know people and he builds relationships not only with the employees, but also with the patrons who come to work out.”

Among the students King has befriended, Amanda Butt is one with whom he has grown especially close. Two terms after beginning work at the rec center last fall, he and Butt – or “Ms. Montana” as he has nicknamed her — are pals. She looks to her older coworker as a seasoned counselor and a friend, someone who can stand in as a parent figure while her own are hundreds of miles away.

“It’s nice to have somebody who’s been around the block and who’s got some words of wisdom. It’s comforting,” she said. “He definitely is concerned about us. He doesn’t like to see us stressed out, he doesn’t ever burden us with his problems at all.”

In addition to King’s hands-on day job, he also pursues physical work of a more organic nature — something he calls “hobby farming.” In 1964, he and his wife built a house on a piece of property 16 miles west of the Eugene airport. With time, and the arrival of four children, he began to amass a collection of flora and fauna. He and his wife currently own four horses, over 100 chickens, seven ducks and over 30 varieties of organically grown fruit trees.

His current agrarian pastime is grafting fruit trees — most recently, a species of Appalachian apple that reminds him of his childhood in Kentucky.

“I like to go pick an apple off the tree that’s really ripe,” he said. “As far as quality goes, you won’t even begin to have the right quality until you pick one ripe off the tree.”

King expects to be surprised by the variability of his maintenance workload at the rec center on a daily basis in addition to fickle weather patterns that affect his agronomic pursuits. However, one thing in his life that remains a constant source of felicity are the students he meets at work.

“Fourteen years I’ve worked here, been around thousands of (students) and never had a problem with a kid yet,” he said. “(Students) are the most wonderful thing in the world.”

The University of Oregon Selection Advisory Committee — on the hunt for a replacement provost of outgoing Jim Bean — met for the first time on Monday evening to lay the groundwork for the rest of the search.

“We are just starting the search process,” said Alec Murphy, committee chair and geography professor. “We were really just talking generally about how we’re going to do things from here on out.”

Bean announced his intent to return to faculty status at the UO for the 2013-2014 academic year in early February. He plans to continue his duties through June 30, the end of the current fiscal year, at which point an interim provost, appointed by UO President Michael Gottfredson, will hold the position until a new permanent one is chosen.

The provost search committee — composed of faculty, staff, administration and students — is charged with the task of recruiting, interviewing and refining a list of potential candidates. According to Murphy, after the committee has approved a suggested list of final candidates, the process will be passed along to Gottfredson and his leadership team for final selection.

Murphy and the rest of the committee hope to complete their process over the span of the summer.

“The hope is that we can bring the search to a conclusion by the end of the next calendar year,” he said.

According to the job description, the provost serves as the “chief academic officer” for the UO and is responsible for overseeing key academic matters such as faculty appointments, promotions and tenure processes, academic recruiting and curriculum standards.

According to Murphy, although the search committee hopes to complete its task as quickly and efficiently as possible, they won’t allow themselves to be constrained by the coming of the next academic year if they haven’t yet found a good pool of strong candidates for the position.

“Our goal is to find a suitable candidate going forward,”  he said. “We are looking for a strong academic who has the drive and initiative to lead a major research institution.”

When Mike Andreasen was hired as vice president for University Development in 2010, his goal was to lead the department in building external support for the campus community. Since then, the responsibilities of public relations have changed in accordance with the evolution of technology and communications, and the University of Oregon is changing to keep up with the times.

The department is merging University Development and University Relations into a new program titled University Advancement, which Andreasen is appointed to lead. Although the departments are shifting, he said his goal of building support for the UO remains the same.

“Generally the functions that are being performed now … will continue,” Andreasen said.

Under the renovated system, to be implemented in mid-April, the seat of former vice president of University Relations will be eliminated when incumbent Michael Redding leaves the UO at the end of April.

Andreasen will commence his new position working as vice president of University Advancement on April 15.

UO economics professor Bill Harbaugh — administrator of the UO Matters blog — keeps a close eye on campus administrative policies, especially in regards to extraneous spending. In his opinion, the creation of University Advancement could be a positive change to consolidate departments.

“I sort of think it makes sense,” he said. “President (Michael) Gottfredson really needs to do something to cut administrative costs, and this will hopefully save at least one salary because you’d have one vice president instead of two.”

Although the budget for University Advanced has not yet been projected, Gottfredson says the creation of University Advancement was intended to provide a more integrated and efficient approach to public relations while conserving funds. The 2012 budgets for both the University Relations and Development departments were $11,731,767 and $9,804,642, respectively. This is compared to $8,730,767 for Relations and $7,708,584 for Development in 2009, an increase of $3 million and $2 million over three years.

“This change will … create efficiencies and cost savings, which I intend to invest in our research and instructional operations,” Gottfredson said in an announcement released on April 2.

Betsy Boyd, associate vice president for public and government affairs, is one of the administrators who will find her chain of command and supervisory structure rearranged due to the most recent administrative overhaul. Her department — previously accountable to University Relations — will now be a sub-department of University Advancement.

Although the overhaul is a new development in terms of university progression, its implementation will actually return the system to the model it functioned as before the appointment of former UO President Richard Lariviere in 2009 — one that most universities use and allows greater financial efficiency, according to Boyd.

“Redding’s departure creates the opportunity to return to a model that’s used at a lot of universities where you combine all the external relations functions under one vice president and save some money because he’s got the opportunity to create efficiencies,” she said.

She is optimistic about the future direction of UO communications under the administrative efforts of Andreasen.

“I’m excited to have the opportunity to work with somebody who is well poised to help the university make clear its mission to the state and provide some support for our service mission,” she said.

According to Andreasen, despite the change in the department titles, their core mission of raising outside community support for the UO remains the same. The biggest change, he said, will be an increase in efficiency between the two departments.

“The change is just working in a consistent and efficient way,” he said.

In addition to restructuring these departments, the Office of the President is receiving a facelift in the form of a new director of public affairs and president’s office communication.

According to the classified posting at Poynter Institute Online, the new communications director will be directly in charge of the preparation of the president’s oral, visual and written materials; the development and implementation of new internal and external communication policies, in addition to collaborating closely with the offices of public and government affairs; and strategic communications. A large aspect of the new position will be regulating the use of increasingly digital mediums of communication, including maintenance of the website for the president’s office.

Phil Weiler, vice president of the office of strategic communications, said new methods of communication have increased the demand for presidential correspondence over recent years and necessitates the implementation of a communication specialist specifically for the president. He claims that the position is not a new one — as the new director of public affairs and communication will also be filling the role previously occupied by a presidential speechwriter up until Lariviere’s administration in 2009.

“I think this is a recognition of the fact that there are more ways to communicate with the public than we’ve ever had before,” Weiler said.  “Hopefully, it’s going to open up new opportunities on campus and off for the president to be working with other groups.”

Director of communications for the Office of the President at Arizona State University, Denise Quiroz, saw her duties increase with technological advancement as well. When she first started at ASU a decade ago, she was the lone communications officer who dealt specifically with communication needs for their president. Since then, she has moved into an increasingly managerial role, coordinating three additional communications staff members who specialize in the areas of graphic design, constituent communications and community liaison.

In her opinion, technology is the leading motivator for these types of changes.

“As more and more work came to pass, we needed more and more help to handle everything,” she said. “With online communications and social media and all of that, there’s a lot to handle.”

As innovation continues in the field of technology, Weiler believes that it’s time for the UO to catch up with its peer institutions — like ASU — by updating its communications in order to better suit the needs of its students.

“There hadn’t been any investment for a very long time in any of the central administration,” he said. “We need to do a little bit of catch up in order to make sure that we’re not negatively impacting the educational opportunity of students.”

He believes the change to University Advancement will allow the department to re-evaluate its operations and help it improve.

“Now is the logical time for us to take stock of how we operate internally and how we can do it better,” he said.

As the office continues to evolve, Andreasen holds the same vision that drove the departments before.

“I see the office as one that serves the campus community,” he said. “That is my vision and purpose.”

Ryan Kelly might be a highly trained and experienced martial artist, but one of the University of Oregon adjunct professor’s most sought-after accomplishments is the attainment of a “beginners mind.”

As a student of Jeet Kune Do — the teachings and philosophies of Bruce Lee — Kelly has dedicated his life to a model of tolerance and understanding. According to Lee, the path to satisfaction depends on abandoning preconceived “ways” of thinking and maintaining the open mindset of a beginner to constantly reassess and evolve personal preference — something Kelly has taken to heart.

“I don’t have a ‘way.’ I’m always searching; I’m always seeking, so I’m willing to  listen, I’m willing to read, I’m willing to try, I’m willing to research,” Kelly said. “Bruce Lee’s philosophy and the way that he approaches fighting and the life has become my life.”

Kelly was introduced to the world of martial arts as an elementary school student when his parents enrolled him in an after-school Judo class. With the progression of his skills came a voracious appetite for the martial arts.

After learning Judo, Kelly expanded his repertoire to include the arts of Karate and Tae Kwon Do. When he was 14, Kelly was introduced to Jeet Kune Do, Lee’s practical synthesis of various martial arts forms. Unlike other martial arts, Jeet Kune Do emphasizes the adaptation of existing ideologies and fighting styles to fit individual preferences — both physical and spiritual — over the importance of a predetermined fighting style.

“As soon as I was introduced to (Jeet Kune Do) when I was 14 or 15 years old I said, ‘This makes sense, this is who I am, this is how I’m going to live my life,’” Kelly said. “I’m going to have a beginners mind, I’m going to seek different cultures, different ways of seeing different philosophies, different systems of belief on health, diet, religion, philosophy — everything.”

As a professor at the UO and the owner of the Northwest Martial Arts Academy in Eugene, Kelly hopes to pass along Lee’s philosophical teachings regardless of the art form he’s teaching — Jeet Kune Do, Mixed Martial Arts, Women’s Self Defense, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or Muay Thai.

Among the most important teachings that Kelly hopes to inspire in his students are the ideas of “truth in combat,” which entails focusing on martial arts techniques that have an applicable use in modern-day fighting. Also, developing a “style without style” by mixing the strengths of various fighting forms to develop a non-classical, individual hybrid.

The most well-rounded fighters, Kelly says, are those who have opened their minds to all different perspectives of philosophy, martial arts, diet and religion and taken the time to determine which approach works best for them.

“If you’re trying to find what’s going to work for you in self-defense then you have to be able to accept yourself as an individual and realize that no specific martial arts system or style was made for you,” Kelly said. “When you run into martial arts styles and systems you can’t  just judge them by how good of a fighter they’re going to make you — you also have to ask yourself, ‘Does this add value to me as a human being, does it enrich my life?’”

Sean Friedman-Sowder, a recent UO graduate and active martial artist believes that his first Jeet Kune Do class with Kelly six years ago was an invaluable introduction to the world of hand-to-hand combat.

“The stuff wasn’t really flashy, you know, it was how to do some really practical martial arts techniques and I thought that was really interesting,” Friedman-Sowder said. “I highly recommend that anyone who is interested in martial arts take his class before they look into other forms … it was a really good introduction class that opened my eyes.”

For Kelly, teaching is the ultimate reward. Not only is he able to prepare people to defend themselves in real world situations, but he can also encourage his students to abandon their preconceived notions of the world around them — to think more like beginners.

“It makes me feel great to know that I have a chance to make an impact in someone’s life,” Kelly said. “I know that what I’m giving people, the empowerment, the willingness to look at other cultures and other ways of life. If I can even just reach out to a few people every term, I would think that it’s a life worth living.”