As University of Oregon student and Taylor’s bouncer Ross Beam changed the leaderboard at Taylor’s from “Ducks beat the Bucks” to “We still love our Ducks,” he refused to be pessimistic about the University of Oregon’s loss against Ohio State at the National Championship.

“It was kind of heartbreaking,” Beam said. “But we made a lot of strides as a team this year. We had a lot of good things this year.”

Beam was in the Persian Gulf in 2007 when he saw his first Ducks game on the Armed Forces Network. He’s been a fan ever since. When he returned to the states he applied at the UO and got a job working security at Taylor’s. He’s currently studying history.

UO senior Jacob Bentley wasn’t as optimistic about the game’s outcome.

“I’m disappointed,” Bentley said. “I really thought we could do more with the team. It’s progress. We’ve made a couple steps in the right direction.”

Some reactions to the game were more extreme: Several small fires were reported to Eugene Fire Department around the West University area, including a burning office chair at 20th and Harris.

Many fans, however, were reserved: Quiet students streamed out of Rennie’s Landing as Drake’s “Started from the Bottom” played in the background. Beam said he didn’t expect any trouble at Taylor’s the night of the loss.

“We usually have a pretty well-behaved crowd,” Beam said.

As kickoff approached earlier that night, hopeful students gathered to watch the game in bars on 13th Avenue, as well as in different watch parties on campus. About 100 went to the Student Recreation Center, where ESPN had a camera crew and the university offered free pizza. Sophomores Joe Casebier, Eric Fruchtbam and Paarth Patel were three of the students who went to the SRC to watch the game.

“The atmosphere is the number one (reason I came to the SRC), that’s for sure. I’m a Duck fan and I want to be with all my people,” Casebier said.

The SRC also gave students the opportunity to be on ESPN, which was present at the Rec Center on game day.

“We want to to be with the fans, and who doesn’t want to be on ESPN?” Fruchtbam said. “I’m definitely trying to be on ESPN.”

In the EMU fishbowl, students were given green and yellow leis, glow sticks and free snacks as the game began. The EMU watch party attracted current UO students as well as prospective Ducks. Romeo Recinos, a third year Western Oregon University student, drove 55 minutes to watch the game at UO. He plans to transfer to the University of Oregon in the fall, and welcomed the chance to visit his future home.

“There’s a camaraderie when you come together with people who have a common interest,” Recinos said. “It gives me a feel of the campus life and being a part of that community.”

Current UO sophomore Tyler Payne also came to the watch party for the community.
“It’s a big thing for the school and I thought being here with the students would be a little more exciting,” Payne said.

Lifetime fan Mark Dodd watched the game at Rennie’s Landing. Dodd grew up loving the Ducks, and has a giant ‘O’ and a Duck peeking through tattooed on his calf.

“There’s no other team,” Dodd said.

Unlike Dodd, Isaac Zornes is a newcomer to Eugene, and was also the only Buckeyes fan in Rennie’s Landing.

“I believe in fundamental football,” Zornes said. “I cheer for the Ducks, I cheer for my Buckeyes.”

Emerald reporter Anna Lieberman also contributed to this article.

Follow Scott Greenstone on Twitter @smgreenstone

Follow Francesca Fontana on Twitter @francescamarief

Follow Lauren Garetto on Twitter @laurengaretto

Fifty percent of current University of Oregon students have indicated that athletics was either important or very important in their decision to come to UO, according to Vice President for Enrollment Dr. Roger Thompson. Oregon is well-known in California and the states west of the Rockies for its sports, Thompson said, and events like the National Championship are helping spread the name to the Midwest and further.

The University of Oregon sent 25 deans, the Provost and Interim President Scott Coltrane to the National Championship game. Their goal: Meet prospective students.

At the Alamo Bowl last year, UO spent $20,000 on a recruiting event and enrolled six or seven students. If they graduate, those students’ tuition will add up to nearly a million dollars for the school, Thompson said.

The UO has been recruiting in Texas — mostly Dallas — for three years. In those three years recruitment from Texas has gone up 160 percent. This year, UO will spend $30,000 on sending those 25 deans, although the trip will end up costing the university more than $110,000, according to numbers gathered by The Oregonian.

But according to Thompson, the cost is worth it. Dallas has a growing number of high school grads — a projected 15,000 in 2020, over nearly 13,000 in 2009 — according to data from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. The state of Oregon, on the other hand, is projected to lose high school graduates during that time.

“There’s some advantages to going where the people are,” Thompson said.

In the past, members of faculty have criticized the university sending so many staff members to games, wondering if the administration needs to send so many athletics staff members and officers of administration while few to no faculty have the trip paid for.

Officers of administration going include the deans of the Honors College, School of Journalism and Communications, the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Education. The money for travel, expenses and lodging comes out of the budgets of each of these departments, so it is each department head’s choice whether or not to go.

What are they expecting the Nationals to yield?

“We’ll see,” Thompson said. “We know that among our students, 50 percent indicated that athletics was either important or very important in their college search process. They want to learn in the classroom, they want a good career, but they also want to cheer for their school’s team their entire life and be proud of their alma mater.”

Before the strike ended, Dr. Bonnie Mann told The Emerald she believed the University of Oregon was preparing to fire her.

Mann, chair of the philosophy department, was one of the department heads caught between the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation and the administration during the GTF strike. She signed a letter with 11 other department heads saying they wouldn’t let finals graded by non-faculty and non-GTFs be entered for fall term.

Though she thought she could be facing repercussions down the road for this action, Mann now believes the administration is no longer pursuing disciplinary actions – but is speaking of the current erosion of trust between the administration and faculty.

According to Mann in a meeting with Andrew Marcus, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Marcus told her that the administration was gathering information for an disciplinary hearing.

“In the second meeting, I said ‘But I already answered this question last week, why are you asking me this again? What’s this meeting about?’” Mann said.

According to Mann, Marcus replied, “To be frank, so that we can take disciplinary action down the road.”

Administration cannot comment on personnel issues, said Julie Brown, senior director of communications at University of Oregon.

“Writing a letter to express viewpoints is well within anyone’s rights on our campus,” Brown said in an email to the Emerald. “Fulfilling duties as employees is expected, including assigning and entering for students, if a position is responsible for that duty.”

The department heads are in a unique position with the university. Heads are technically administration, but they are also tenure-track faculty, according to the Executive Director of United Academics David Cecil. United Academics is the faculty’s union. Department heads are faculty who take tasks on as a service to their departments, Cecil said.

When faculty unionized in 2012, the union and the Employment Relations Board decided that department heads counted as management, not faculty, according to Cecil. So their contracts are negotiated between the university and the department chairs themselves, and they don’t have protection of the union.

But neither Mann nor Michael Dreiling, president of United Academics, see the administration taking action since the GTFF and the administration came to an agreement in December.

“They were exercising their academic freedom, and they cannot be penalized for exercising their academic freedom,” Dreiling said. “Because the circumstances changed, I don’t imagine there would be any grounds (for discipline).”

Mann believes the same thing. In a follow-up email to the Emerald on Jan. 6, Mann said she hadn’t heard anything about disciplinary action from the administration and assumes they’ve backed off. But after the controversial Academic Continuity Plan and the faculty’s resolution to oppose administration, relations between the two may need to be rebuilt.

At the end of the strike, Interim President Scott Coltrane said it had been a challenging time for the campus, and that it was time for the administration and labor to begin rebuilding trust. A little less than a month earlier, Chuck Lillis said that the UO has a bad reputation for administration-faculty relations in an address to the University Senate.

“We’re all hoping this is just behind us now,” Mann said.

Sexual assault. Student workers on strike. Mariota. Heisman.

These and other things propelled University of Oregon into the state and national spotlight in 2014. As the university inched further away from complete state control and a new governing Board of Trustees was introduced, the school has been looking more and more for outside methods of funding. Criticism of the administration at UO has reached a high note, and students crowded outside Johnson Hall throughout the year to protest the administration’s lack of transparency, hikes in tuition, and refusal to provide paid leave to Graduate Teaching Fellows. President Gottfredson left UO, and GTFs left their classrooms to strike. Marcus Mariota won the Heisman trophy.

As 2014 draws to a close, The Emerald reflects on top headlines at the University of Oregon.

ASUO elections mired in controversy

ASUO presidential candidate Thomas Tullis was released from Lane County Adult Corrections at 3:45 p.m. on Sunday after illegally obtaining communications during a conversation held with former presidential candidate Ben Bowman, Marshall Kosloff and Alex Titus. (Andrew Seng/Emerald)

University of Oregon freshman and ASUO presidential candidate Thomas Tullis recorded a conversation where opposing Mighty Oregon candidate Ben Bowman, his campaign manager Marshall Kosloff and Alex Titus tried to convince him not to run in the election. On March 18, Tullis filed a grievance requesting that Bowman and senatorial candidate Emily Wu be removed from the ballot. Also on March 18, Kosloff resigned from the Mighty Oregon campaign.

The Elections Board disqualified Ben Bowman from elections, stating that he violated eight sections of the ASUO election rules on March 20. Bowman appealed this decision. On April 4, Vice President of Student Affairs Robin Holmes stepped in and reinstated Bowman as a Mighty Oregon candidate in the election. Upon administration’s decision to step in, the entire elections board resigned, stating that they would come back to work if the admininstration stepped out of the decision making process of the election. Beatriz Guitterez, Thomas Tullis and Taylor Allison remained as ASUO presidential candidates for the 2014-2015 school year. Gutierrez, a part of the Ducks Like You campaign, won the election.

A timeline of these events is here.

Basketball players accused of sexual assault

Oregon guard Damyean Dotson (21) reacts moments after the 70-68 loss against the UCLA Bruins.The Oregon Ducks play the UCLA Bruins at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Ore. on Jan. 30, 2014. (Taylor Wilder/Emerald)

News broke on May 5 that three University of Oregon basketball players were accused of allegedly sexually assaulting a UO freshman. Law enforcement dropped the case on April 14, stating that there was insufficient evidence to prove criminal conduct.

The police report, which included 12 separate interviews, was released on May 5. Due to the situation the accused players, Damyean Dotson, Dominic Artis and Brandon Austin were no longer participating in UO athletics. However, the trio was permitted to play in the Pac-12 Championship and NCAA tournaments despite the athletic department’s knowledge of the accusations. Not removing Artis, Dotson and Austin protected the team’s Academic Progress Rate from dropping too low and getting penalized by the NCAA.

University of Oregon Board of Trustees takes reins from Oregon University System

(Dominic Allen/Emerald)

A Board of Trustees that has final say in who UO’s next president will be, and also sets tuition rates and delegates charge of the student conduct code took governance on July 1. Before the board was established, the UO was one seven universities under Oregon University System rule. This year Oregon State University, Portland State University and UO all created their own boards of trustees.

University President Michael Gottfredson resigns

University of Oregon President Michael Gottfredson speaks with the media about the sexual assault case regarding three Oregon basketball players. The University of Oregon holds a press conference following the recent sexual assault case at the Ford Alumni Center in Eugene, Oregon on Friday, May 9, 2014. (Ryan Kang/Emerald)

Michael Gottfredson, former president of the University of Oregon resigned suddenly on August 6. Gottfredson said in a letter to the university that his desire to return to academia and spend more time with his family were his reasons for leaving UO. He was awarded a $940,000 severance package, and Vice President Scott Coltrane was elected by the Board of Trustees to serve as interim until the elected presidential search committee finds a replacement. The next president will be the sixth in seven years.

Ethiopian athletes go missing

The four Ethiopian track and field athletes who were reported missing on Saturday, July 26, 2014 (from left to right): Amanuel Abebe Atibeha, 17, Dureti Edao, 18, Meaza Kebede, 18, Zeyituna Mohammed, 18. All four were located safe days after being reported missing.

On Saturday July 27, four Ethiopian athletes that were competing in the IAFF World Junior Track and Field Championships that took place at the University of Oregon were reported missing. Three women, Dureti Edao, Meaza Kebede and Zeyituna Muhammed all 18, and one male, Amanuel Abebe Atibeha, 17, weren’t seen in their dorm rooms on Saturday morning, and were announced missing shortly after. On Monday, July 28, UOPD found three of the athletes that were in the Beaverton visiting family and friends. Muhammed was later found in Federal Way, Washington on Tuesday, July 29.

Survey says one in 10 women are sexually assaulted at UO

University of Oregon professor of psychology Jennifer Freyd speaks to the rally participants before making the silent march towards Johnson Hall. UO Coalition to End Sexual Violence, Safe Ride, and other campus groups organize a rally to show support for survivors of sexual assault on Thurs., May 8, 2014. (Ryan Kang/Emerald)

University of Oregon psychology professor and researcher Jennifer Freyd made national headlines when she released a survey saying one in 10 women experience rape at UO. The story was picked up by the Huffington Post and the Los Angeles Times, among others, and became part of the national conversation about campus rape. Freyd is still revealing findings, including statistics saying that nearly half of women in Fraternity and Sorority Life have experienced non-consensual sexual contact.

UO announces $2 billion fundraising campaign

University of Oregon alumni gather in a tent at Hayward field for the announcement of a capital campaign on Friday evening. (Ryan Kang/Emerald)

The most ambitious higher ed funding campaign in state history was announced on Oct. 17 at a private event on the eve of Homecoming at the University of Oregon. In the next four years, the UO hopes to receive donations of more than $2 billion that will go to fund scholarships, hiring of 150 new tenure track positions, and expanding research, construction and renovation projects. It’s part of the university’s plan to boost it’s AAU ranking, especially when it comes to research, according to Mike Andreasen, Vice President of University Advancement at UO.

Graduate Teaching Fellows go on strike

Language department GTFs strike outside of Friendly Hall early in the morning on Tuesday, December 2. (Taylor Wilder/Emerald)

After over a year of contract negotiations, hundreds of Graduate Teaching Fellows at University of Oregon went on strike on Dec. 2, the Tuesday before finals week. For the next eight days, around half of all university GTFs did not come to class–the union estimates 650 to 700, which is a little more than the 618 GTFs that voted to strike Oct. 27. Discussion sections and classes were cancelled, and professors cancelled final papers or changed exams until the strike ran its course. On Dec. 10, however, the university and the graduate teaching fellow’s union reached an agreement and GTFs headed back to class.

“This has been a challenging time for our campus,” President Scott Coltrane said at the end. “It is now time for us to begin rebuilding trust.”

Mariota first Duck to receive Heisman trophy

Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota (8) hugs Oregon linebacker Danny Mattingly (46) after the game. The No. 2 Oregon Ducks play the No. 7 Arizona Wildcats in the Pac-12 Championship at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California on December 5, 2014. (Ryan Kang/Emerald)

After a highly decorated season that has the Ducks heading to the College Football Playoff against Florida State, Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota received the Heisman trophy. Mariota broke records all season, totaling 4,478 yards and 53 touchdowns, sweeping all six Heisman regions with 778 first-place votes and 90.92 percent of total votes. Mariota’s acceptance speech was short.

“To all my teammates, I love every single one of you and I am truly grateful for all the experiences,” Mariota said during the speech. “I hope each of you will take pride and understand that this is your trophy.

The governor wants the university and the graduate students to find a solution.

Governor John Kitzhaber called both Interim President Scott Coltrane and Joe Henry on Dec. 1, president of the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation and encouraged them both to “continue negotiations,” according to Melissa Navas, press secretary for the office of the governor. That was the day that mediation ended and the GTFF announced their strike.

Coltrane said it was a friendly conversation, according to Julie Brown, senior director of communications at the University of Oregon. Henry has not yet commented.

A staff member from the governor’s office has been in contact with both sides since Monday, according to Navas.

Graduate students who are a part of the GTFF have been striking since Tuesday, Dec. 2. The GTFF and the university will return to negotiation Thursday.

If you want to understand the background of the strike, here’s a timeline.

There’s a reason more students are wearing black today.

In the wake of the court decision not to indict Darren Wilson on Nov. 24, the University of Oregon’s Black Student Union reacted with a tweet to their organization asking students to wear black:

We are having a black out tomorrow to support the families and to come together as a community. Please spread the word. #ducksflytogether

— Black Student Union (@UOREGONBSU) November 25, 2014

The BSU will be holding a solidarity and support vigil at 5 p.m. at the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza. The Emerald will be covering students on-campus today who are participating in the “black out.”

#FergusonUO Tweets

University of Oregon Senate voted yes on a resolution to oppose UO administration’s plan for finals in the event of a strike by graduate teaching fellows on Nov. 19. The resolution is titled “Opposition to Efforts by Academic Affairs to Dilute and Degrade Academic Standards in the Event of a Graduate Teaching Fellows Strike.”

By supporting this resolution, University Senate is saying two things:

– University Senate does not support the administration’s plan to change finals and called it “diluting academic standards” in the resolution. The plan includes turning final essays into multiple-choice tests, shortening long essay finals, or hiring non-GTF graduate students, officers of administration or even upper-level undergraduates.

– University Senate doesn’t appreciate the UO administration sending the plans to department heads instead of discussing the plans with the senate. University Senate wants to instead work with the university and come up with a solution together.

Originally, the plans were sent out with a stamp of ‘confidential,’ which the senate pointed to as an attempt to hide the plans from them in the resolution. Barbara Altmann, senior vice-provost of Academic Affairs, denied this. Altmann said the watermark was “vestigial,” and that the university knew emails would be shared and the senate would learn of the plans.

Members of administration who attended the meeting stated that the university’s first priority in making these plans is to protect the students who need final grades on time for registering in sequential classes, financial aid and scholarships.

Altmann said the university wants the “collaboration” of employees.

“We would very much like to tap into your pedagogical expertise,” Altmann said. “And have you help us figure out what unusual measures we can best use in these unusual times.”

Gene Psaki, a co-sponsor of the bill and senator for Romance Languages, said that graduate students are students too, and protecting them should be on the university’s mind as well.

“There isn’t a way for a seamless educational delivery here in the absence of the GTFs,” Psaki said.

The co-sponsors of the resolution are Monique Balbuena, senator for Clark Honors College; Jane Cramer, senator for Political Science; John Davidson, senator for Political Science; Diane Dugaw, senator for English; Deborah Olson, senator for Education; Gina Psaki, senator for Romance Languages; and Gordon Sayre, senator for English.

Faculty Senate will be voting on a resolution to oppose administration in the event of the Graduate Teaching Fellowship Federation strike next week. The resolution, titled “Opposition to Efforts by Academic Affairs to Dilute and Degrade Academic Standards in the Event of a Graduate Teaching Fellows Strike,” is in response to a memo sent by the administration to deans and directors on Oct. 24 stating plans for continuing finals week in the event of a GTF strike.

The memo detailed plans that department heads could use in the event of GTFs not working during finals week. These plans included changing essays to multiple-choice tests or skipping finals altogether. This memo was stamped as confidential and not sent to faculty, according to the resolution.

The resolution claims that these measures would weaken academic standards that the faculty have a duty to uphold. It asks that the administration work “openly, publicly and transparently with the UO faculty” in finding a solution that would keep academic standards.

Doug Blandy, senior vice provost of Academic Affairs at UO, released this response:

“The Academic Continuity Plan is the result of dozens of conversations with department heads, associate deans and deans, so it is informed by the faculty. We appreciate the interest in being involved to serve our students as best as possible at a critical time of the term if a strike occurs. University leaders look forward to participating in the discussion at the upcoming meeting.”

The vote will take place at faculty senate on Nov. 19. Ron Bramhall, VP for non-tenure track instructional faculty affairs for the United Academics of UO first announced this resolution on Twitter:

@Univ_Of_Oregon Senate to say no to diluting academic standards if GTFF strike. Academic matters belong to faculty. http://t.co/ajdLM7mL6I

— Ron Bramhall (@BramhallUAUO) Nov. 15, 2014

A female University of Oregon student awoke to find a man climbing into her bed at 5:48 a.m. on Friday at 3225 Kinsrow Ave in Chase Village, according to Eugene Police. She screamed, and the suspect fled, after which she called 911.

Police arrived, set up a perimeter and searched for the suspect, but did not find him. The Campus Crime Alert sent out by UOPD at 1:42 p.m. described the suspect as “age 20-25, about 6-feet tall with a medium build and wearing a black sweatshirt.”

The suspect stole some money, according to the Eugene Police news release. They were not able to disclose any more information about the break-in.

When it comes to incidents of sexual assault, who doesn’t report is just as important as who does.

Last week, two reports — released within two days of each other — gave conflicting numbers about the number of survivors of sexual assault and rape at the University of Oregon. The first was a study conducted by a UO psychology professor Jennifer Freyd and her PhD students. The second was UO’s Clery report, officially known as the Campus Security and Fire Safety report, released annually by the UO Police Department.

One out of every 10 women who took Freyd’s survey said they’d been raped while attending UO and 35 percent said they’d been sexually assaulted. A total of 982 people took part in the survey.

But this year’s Clery report shows instances of sexual assault from 2012 to 2013 down by more than half — from 30 instances to 14.

The differences between the two reports comes down to how and where the data was gathered.

The Clery report, as mandated by the federal Jeanne Clery Act, has tight geographical boundaries. A map of the Clery reporting area shows that only crimes occurring immediately on campus, in UO-owned buildings, and the area between campus and Autzen are tallied. This means that some sexual assaults that are reported by students outside of those areas are not counted in the data.

“Clery doesn’t care about you at all,” said Kelly McIver, UOPD communications officer. “Clery only cares about geography.”

The 95-page report, which is primarily composed of safety guidelines, includes a few charts that tally the number of crimes that occur on the UO campus and in related buildings.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if half, if not more than half, of our campus crime alerts fall outside of the Clery boundaries,” said McIver, referring to the notifications students receive via email about crime occurring close to campus.

“We are always coaching people to not put a lot into Clery numbers because nobody thinks they are truly representative of what’s happening and it doesn’t guide us in our response or prevention efforts,” McIver said. “Just because you had something happen to you off campus doesn’t mean it’s less important.”

As far as the 50 percent drop in sexual assaults, McIver said that any increase or decrease in numbers may appear dramatic because “it still remains a vastly underreported crime.”

Underreporting of sexual assault is why Freyd’s survey is important, according to Dr. Steve Johnson, who received his Ph.D in sociology from the UO. Johnson has been designing and administering surveys for Lane County and around the UO for 30 years.

5,000 student emails were provided by the registrar for polling for Freyd’s survey. Of those, 982 students responded. This is a uncommonly low sample size, according to Johnson, who stresses that the non-respondents are equally as important.

“Are the non-respondents just people who’ve never had a problem, or people who, because of the stigma and trauma attached to people who have had a problem, are less likely to respond?” Johnson said.

Ultimately, the reports are too different to even be compared. But they do speak volumes about the reporting of sexual assault, or lack thereof.

“(Freyd’s survey) is good science,” Johnson said. “Does that mean you can’t do more or better? No. You can always do more.”