With the Pacific Northwest being full of breweries and gastropubs, there is always an interesting craft beer to try. Here’s a list of the best microbrews that are currently on tap here in Eugene.

Ninkasi Brewing Company – Take a tour of the brewery and see the work that goes into every bottle of beer or grab a bite to eat from one of the locally owned food carts out on the patio.

Hop Valley – Stop by the tasting room to catch a game on the brewery’s 12ft projection screen television or fill up a growler for home.

Oakshire – Visit the Public House for a taster flight or board Buster. The brewery is always updating its beer list, and releases a new beer every Tuesday at 6pm.

Viking Braggot Co. – Check out Eugene’s only Braggot Brewery, which was opened by two UO graduates in 2012.

Elk Horn – Head to this family-owned brewery on the corner of Hilyard and Broadway, which serves an array of southern dishes with local influences.

McMenamin’s – With three Eugene locations this cafe and brew pub offers a wide array of beers. When visiting, make sure to get an order of the famous cajun tots.

The University Graduation Ceremony will be held on Monday, June 13 at 9 a.m. in Matthew Knight Arena. Doors will open for guest seating at 7:30.

The following list is the schedule of school, college and department ceremonies.

This piece reflects the views of the author, Kristie Middleton, and not those of Emerald Media Group. It has been edited by the Emerald for grammar and style. Send your columns or submissions about our content or campus issues to letters@dailyemerald.com.

Over the last decade, phrases like ‘go green’ and ‘reduce your carbon footprint’ have become firmly embedded in our lexicon, just as Earth Day has become an annual celebration. As an environmental advocate, this couldn’t make me happier.

I’ve been inspired to see people switch to efficient light bulbs, recycle and use canvas shopping bags instead of paper or plastic. Nearly two thirds of Americans say they recycle on a regular basis compared to a quarter of Americans in the 1990s.

Yet, while more people have come to recognize the carbon footprint cost associated with everyday behaviors like driving cars, a leading cause of environmental degradation has remained largely hidden: factory farming.

According to the United Nations, animal agribusiness plays a prominent role in climate change. Wherever factory farms operate, there is sure to be environmental degradation. Untreated manure from hog farms runs off into our rivers, streams and other waterways, killing fish and causing algal blooms.

When this waste inevitably reaches our oceans, this creates what scientists call ‘dead zones’—areas of the ocean where all life dies off or moves away due to a lack of oxygen. The damage done to our planet by animal agribusiness is well-documented and ever-increasing; as our population grows so too does our demand for meat.

The good news is that more and more people are connecting what we put on our plates with our impact on the planet. The result is that we as a nation are enjoying more meat-free meals as a way to help ourselves and the planet that sustains us.

Since its inception in 2003, Meatless Monday has mushroomed. The idea is simple: enjoy a holiday from meat one day a week. It’s a simple solution with manifold benefits. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, “If every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetables and grains…the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off of U.S. roads.” A Carnegie Mellon University study found that we’d each do more good for the planet if we ate meat-free just one day a week than we would if we ate exclusively local foods.

There are even more compelling reasons: farm animals, like the dogs and cats we consider members of our families, are individuals with personalities, needs and the capacity to suffer. Yet on industrial factory farms, they’re often treated like mere units on a production line with little consideration for their suffering.

And, of course, eating more plant-based foods and fewer animal-based foods is good for our health, too. The American Heart Association recommends “substituting some of the meat in your diet with vegetables” as a simple way to reduce our risk of heart disease (America’s number one killer). Even former governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger has touted the virtues of meatless eating, pointing to fitness celebrity and vegetarian Bill Pearl, who according to Arnold is, “one of the greatest bodybuilders ever.”

Equally exciting is the new world of food you’ll begin to explore when you enjoy more meatless meals. From exotic fare like Indian and Ethiopian dishes to familiar favorites like spaghetti with marinara and vegetables or bean burritos, there’s no shortage of options.

Perhaps the easiest — and tastiest — way to improve our diet is by practicing the Three Rs: “reducing” or “replacing” consumption of animal products and “refining” our diets by choosing products from sources using higher animal welfare standards.

Small changes multiplied by millions make a big difference. Each of us, by pledging this Earth Day to participate in Meatless Monday, can make a tremendous difference for the world and its inhabitants all year long.

Kristie Middleton is senior food policy director for The Humane Society of the United States. Contact her at KMiddleton@humanesociety.org.

This piece reflects the views of the author, the ASUO Executive, and not those of Emerald Media Group. It has been edited by the Emerald for grammar and style. Send your columns or submissions about our content or campus issues to letters@dailyemerald.com.

On March 9, an editorial was published in the Register-Guard which minimized the efforts of students at the University of Oregon in the tuition setting process. In the opening paragraph, the piece questions the work of students, stating, “They should have been in Salem the day before, when the state Legislature adjourned without doing anything to relieve the pressures that are relentlessly pushing tuition skyward.” The truth of the matter is that students from across the state, including students from the UO, are constantly in Salem asking for tuition cost relief and other resources for students.

Throughout the month of February, ASUO State Affairs Commissioner Amber Potratz and now ASUO Multicultural Advocate Vickie Gimm – both dedicated student activists promoting positive and inclusive change on campus – attended an Oregon Student Association statewide lobby day and meetings with the Higher Education Coordinating Commission in order to advocate for students.

With President Schill taking a defeatist approach to additional state funding, reinforced by his comments at the Board of Trustees meeting, there was no support from bodies such as the HECC. After hearing testimony from Amber and Vickie, HECC questioned Jamie Moffitt, the UO’s Chief Financial Officer, and was disappointed by the allocation of funding that was given to the University last year.

In January, the University Government Affairs team asked that the ASUO aid in sending students to Salem for a University Lobby Day with other campuses across the state. The priorities that university presidents and the schools were looking for included capital construction and extensions of tax breaks, but no requests for helping students where we need it the most – tuition dollars. The University of Oregon wanted to take students in order to get what they wanted with the support of students, without prioritizing our needs as funders of this campus.

Several years ago, the UO administration along with other schools in the state asked the Legislature for support in breaking away from the Oregon University System in order to gain more autonomy in being able to gain funding. It is true that the state appropriation of funds to higher education has been dwindling since certain policies passed in the 1990s; however, the University has not done enough to support students who ask for state funding, and does not work properly to secure more funding and allocate it to student needs in order to earn more funds from the state.

One role of the Board of Trustees is to keep tuition affordable without significant hikes. When the Register-Guard asks why students are not in Salem asking for money, they should actually be asking why board members and administrators aren’t in Salem asking for more funding, or increasing fundraising efforts to bridge gaps in tuition. Students should be thanked for taking time outside of classes and work to go to Salem and advocate for themselves while the board and administrators consistently ignore their needs.

When the state does not allocate more funding to higher education because it does not trust what the administration prioritizes with the dollars, it does not hurt the administration; instead, it devastates students. Jamie Moffitt will collect her check at the end of every month, just like Michael Schill and Scott Coltrane will.

Their irresponsible practices force students to go hungry, to be homeless and to drop out of school with enormous amounts of debt. The school prioritizes funding specific scholarships, which privilege traditional students rather than creating new funding mechanisms for marginalized students who wish to, and need to, attain a higher education.

In addition to being hurt with added costs, President Schill’s priorities for budget cuts sees that social science and humanities departments are being cut significantly or completely in order to prioritize funding to hard sciences, journalism and business. This practice limits the ability for all students to complete general education requirements here at the UO, and is therefore antithetical to the supposed goals of the University.

With non-tenure track faculty being cut in these departments, students are losing people they look up to and seek guidance from in scholarship and life. We are paying more to lose opportunities based on what a president who has been here for less than a year seeks to prioritize. There is not a place for student input, just a Johnson Hall who pretends to listen.

Since last June, students have participated in every Tuition & Fees Advisory Board (TFAB) meeting, including asking for three forums for more student input than just the regular members. At these meetings, the administration came in with a list of budgets and priorities which were made without student input, presented the information to students and then took feedback with no action or change made to address student concerns. At the forums, administration members often had a condescending tone towards students and were not willing to change any of the recommendations they were making to the President.

Additionally, from June until January, the primary discussion point of TFAB and the Board of Trustees was a guaranteed tuition model, leaving less than a month for discussion on tuition increases for the 2016-2017 academic year. Students testified against guaranteed tuition model at the September Board meeting as it would have raised tuition by approximately 10% for the next incoming class, and not been accessible for many students who dream to attend the UO. The University continued to pursue researching this model and dismissed student voices at the time. Though the model was taken off the table for this year, the tuition increases for next year are still not sustainable for students in the future.

We have been involved in talks about tuition for the entire year. In the past, students have been involved for the entire year as well. We are constantly advocating in Salem. We are constantly working with the administration. We are constantly questioned and ignored. We are constantly asked to pay more. We are students. We are parents. We are Veterans. We are people of color. We are people in the LGBTQIA community. We are people with disabilities. We are from around the world and within the United States. We are people, asking for a fair chance at a degree in higher education, but without a board, administration or community there to support us, we are forced to pay more money each year at the risk of not being able to afford it.

This piece reflects the views of the author, Joel Benner, and not those of Emerald Media Group. It has been edited by the Emerald for grammar and style. Send your columns or submissions about our content or campus issues to letters@dailyemerald.com.

Divestment, socially responsible investment, investment in your children’s future, these are all different ways to say the same thing; the time has come to transition out of the industrial revolution era and instead begin a sustainable revolution. Large wholescale changes – like the one we need to make – in this world are rare, and those that leave their mark on history are even rarer.

As Robert Kennedy said, “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.” This quote exemplifies exactly how civil rights and women’s suffrage were gained, and presents the only way that we have a chance to slow the effects of climate change.

Here at the University of Oregon the Climate Justice League, an environmental activism club, is doing just that. We are trying to take baby steps towards the goal of sustainability by getting the UO to remove their investments in fossil fuel companies. The school currently has half a percent invested in these companies totaling upwards of $1.3 million and our group has been staging a sit-in for the past two weeks in order to make this happen. Over 50 universities have already divested, so why is the UO, a sustainability icon in the academic world, lagging behind?

The university is caught in a conflict of interests. Clearly the students and faculty support the idea of divestment, this is shown in over 1100 student signatures and the UO Senate voting unanimously in favor of a resolution suggesting full divestment within 6 months. This resolution was passed on Jan. 14, 2015 yet the UO foundation has done nothing.

There is a clear disconnect between the faculty and students, and the administration who, state in the University mission statement that they “…value our shared change to steward resources sustainably and responsibly” and, “…enhance the social, cultural, physical and economic wellbeing of our students, Oregon, the nation and the world”.

The administration is not doing enough on the issue of global climate change and it is surprising that a school that claims to be sustainable is fighting a cause against its own students and faculty that will enhance the social, cultural and physical wellbeing of students, Oregon, the nation and the world.

***Editor’s Note: The following was contributed by Alex Morrison, a University of Oregon graduate. This piece reflects the view of the author and not those of Emerald Media Group. Send your columns or submissions about our content or campus issues to letters@dailyemerald.com.

It’s always kind of funny to read about how athletes are portrayed by someone who has little contact with them.

It’s always something negative, something blown out of proportion, something the athletes themselves can almost never defend because of the omnipresent public magnifying glass.

In regards to the recent article written about the Mariota Center and its reminder of “wrong priorities,” there are some fair points made and some glaring issues from people with an agenda.

My hopes in this is to bring a little perspective to points I’ve heard made by people that simply don’t know what they’re talking about, and most often by people that have little or no common ground with athletes so they attack their way of living when athletes simply would not do the same.

I played college football at a small college where we were lucky if we got shorts that year for daily doubles. We worked out in the basement of a stadium where I saw more people get hurt from the equipment than get stronger from it. We didn’t have multimillion dollar anything, let alone a new facility every few years. I understand the jealously in that first hand.

I brought that understanding and connection with athletes to my time at the U of O as I pursued a Master’s degree. For nearly three years I tutored athletes in the Jaqua Center. I interacted, talked, laughed, learned and taught almost everyday during my time there.

Craziest thing was… I got to know these athletes. I got to understand their interests outside of sports. I got to understand the struggles they go through, just like every other student on campus.

But for some reason many people on this campus seem to forget that. They seem to fixate on the negatives. They seem to look at one incident, cast a wide net and paint with broad strokes.

How fair is that?

If you or anybody else had to live what they do you might have a bit of appreciation for their 10-12 hour days. I know students and staff members alike live out these days with similar hours, but if that’s the case what makes your hours more important?

Do I think the facilities are overkill? Absolutely. Do I think these athletes have deserved and earned these facilities? Absolutely. How many national championships have the track team and acrobatics and tumbling team brought home? How many sold out crowds has the football team drawn? How many playoff appearances have the baseball, softball, volleyball, and basketball teams earned?

But people don’t look at that.

You look at Stabile’s comments about tying sports culture to a “detrimental party culture.” Maybe I’m wrong but isn’t this a college campus? So you’re telling me that if you or anybody else went to a campus without any sports teams you wouldn’t see any partying or bars? Come on.

That’s not just athletes, that’s 18-23 year olds everywhere.

I completely agree there should be an academic facelift with some facilities. Allen Hall’s revamp makes it one of the most beautiful on campus, just like Lillis or the Rec Center or the Lokey Science Facility. Oregon has quickly become a premier academic institution and should reflect that.

But also keep in mind every building with a ‘Knight’ on it, or the Knight scholarships, or the endowments, etc. Keep an open mind to the fact there have been major contributions to the university as well. But I digress.

My biggest issue in articles like this boil down to one simple fact that’s always confused me: A vast majority of the time, the people who are quickest to cast blame, point fingers and bastardize athletes are those with the least amount of contact with athletes.

Plain and simple.

Many of you have never talked to the athletes. Many of you don’t want to. If you did you might be surprised at how bright and optimistic they are. You might be surprised they all don’t aspire to be professional athletes, and instead want to change the world in a positive way with their work.

You might be surprised that every single one of them is just as normal as you and me. But because they’re put on a pedestal in the media many of you give yourselves the right to bombard them with reasons to be your scapegoat for a much bigger problem in our educational system.

The post Guest Viewpoint: Response to the Mariota Center appeared first on Emerald Media.

If you have never been to a big name music festival then you might think that spending $300 or more on a ticket for a weekend event is ludicrous. If you’re like me, and love going to music festivals, then you know the festivities begin long before the actual weekend comes.

Some die-hard fans buy their tickets to Sasquatch, Coachella or EDC way before the lineups are even released. These people have been budgeting out their money all year in preparation for the day tickets go on pre-sale. Once the ticket is purchased, it is time to start getting physically and mentally prepared for the festival months in advance.

You are going to be walking, standing, and dancing your ass off for three or four days in a row. This can take a toll on your body. Making sure you are working out and eating right for a few months is actually enjoyable when you have a goal such as being able to rage for a long weekend with no complaints. You don’t want to be the person with blisters on both feet after day one who is falling asleep before the late night sets even start.

Preparing for music festivals is not something you should do alone. You want to convince all your friends why they should go with you to one of the most exciting weekends of the year. Music festivals can be eye-opening experiences full of new music, new people and new memories that you want to be able to share with your friends. Finding a group of random people to go with can be thrilling, trust me I did it my freshman year, but bragging to your friends about an amazing weekend is not as great as laughing about it together months later.

After I have my group set, I find myself noticing everything that could make the event more memorable in every store I walk into. In the past I have purchased giant flowers to use as totem poles, wands covered with flashing LED lights and materials to make a personalized flag for our campsite. Random toys and supplies are always a hit at the festival grounds, but what people notice most are your outfits.

Depending on the festival you go to you are going to want to look into how people usually dress. Knowing your surroundings can help you decide how much you want to fit in or stand out of the crowd. You can stay with your own personal style or follow a theme with your group such as dressing up as food or wearing onesies.

While thinking about what you want to purchase for the weekend does get you excited, nothing brings more enthusiasm than predicting and finding out what the lineup of artists will be. You can go through the lineups from years past, check the fan threads on the Internet and do your best to guess who is going to be performing for you in just a few months.

The day the lineup actually does come out is one of the most exciting days leading up to the festival. Finding out that some of your predictions were right and that you are going to see a few of your all-time favorite artists play is a mind-blowing experience in itself. Yes, your mind will be blown months before the festival even begins. Although the lineup will have some artists that you listen to on a daily basis, the best part of preparing for a music festival is listening to all the artists that you have never even heard of.

As the festival approaches closer and closer, you start to become familiar with the new music you have downloaded. Genres you never thought you would particularly like will be completely flipped upside down by all kinds of artists from around the country, and world.

When the festival is only a few weeks away, a schedule will be released showing who is playing on which stage during your event. Now you can sit down with your friends to pick out all your favorite artists and try to get your schedules in sync. You might have to convince them that some new folk band is cool, while they insist on seeing a DJ, but this time will be full of laughs and smiles.

By the time the actual weekend comes around, you are more prepared than you ever thought you would be and you cannot wait to get to the festival grounds to start the party of the year.

I’ve always enjoyed having a June birthday. It’s right before school gets out for the summer, so in grade school, I was able to invite my whole class to celebrate. And it was nowhere near Christmas, so I didn’t have to worry about my parents combining birthday and holiday gifts.

My love for my birthdate continued through college. Spending my birthdays in warm, June-time Eugene weather was great — until junior year. Once fall term came around, my friends started to turn 21 and left me behind.

There were countless nights this year when I’d receive an invitation to a party that was a pregame to the bars in disguise. Getting up off the couch to go somewhere with the knowledge that everyone would inevitably ditch me later didn’t sound like much fun.

Even when the energy was high at house parties, the time would always come for the mass exodus to the bars, leaving my fellow minors and me to finish all the half-empty cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

When I’d try to plan some fun underage activity like laser tag or bowling, most of my friends had spent too much of their money at the bars and couldn’t go. Much of Eugene acts like there is nothing more fun to do on the weekends than go to the usually overcrowded campus bars.

A lot of us with summer birthdays get the question, “Why don’t you have a fake I.D.?” We want to come up with some witty answer, but in the end, there are lots of reasons; it’s expensive, we got it taken away by a Max’s bouncer. It costs precious cash that we could just give to a friend to buy alcohol for us.

But having an end-of-the-year 21-er wasn’t all bad.  When I turned 21, almost all of my friends were able to go out with me, which meant free drink after drink. I never had to worry about trying to go to the bars with older friends who I wasn’t close with.

My friends already knew when to hit which bars, where to order which drinks and they were more than eager to teach me the ropes of being 21.

The bars weren’t everything I expected. Don’t get me wrong; they’re fun. I went out four nights in a row for my birthday. But I had put the bars on such a high pedestal for so long that when it was finally time to go, I was disappointed.

This was what everyone had been raving about? Being tightly packed in a dark room having to fight your way to the bartender to get an overpriced drink?

Regardless, I am sure over the next year I will continue going to the crowded bars weekend after weekend. But having discovered what they’re actually like, I realize I shouldn’t have wasted time feeling left out.

The best part about being 21 is not the fact that I can go out to bars or carry closed containers around the streets, but that I can order drinks with dinner. For example, I recently had a 45 minute wait at The Vintage in Eugene. And after a couple of Vintage Lemonades, it only felt like 15.

Now I’m off to Las Vegas, where I was raised, to finally enjoy my birthday the right way.

Follow Tanner Owens on Twitter @T_Owens21

Everyone experiences stress. Some stress can be stimulating and help push us, but excessive stress can cause loss of sleep, mood swings and anxiety. Stress can come from anywhere at any time, but much of the stress that gets put on college students stems from their parents.

When talking to parents about college they like to bring up “the good ol’ days” or “the best time of their lives,” but as sleep-deprived, stressed out college students it can be hard to relate. Nothing really prepares us for what college is actually going to be like until we are fully immersed.

The best years of our life can be complicated with many different issues. Sometimes we are going to need our parents by our sides and sometimes we are going to need them to get out of the way.

Getting good grades in college is one big multi-faceted competition. We are competing against our own laziness, our peers and our parents. College students constantly need to perform week after week because a few wrong moves can cause ten weeks to go down the drain.

Parents can be a great resource for venting all of your problems, but when it comes to schoolwork they can often add unneeded stress. They don’t always realize how they are causing us to feel.

After failing a test I can get pretty hard on myself, but usually I can figure out exactly what I need to do the rest of the term to pass. When telling my parents that I failed a test, they immediately make me feel like there is no way I am going to pass this term unless I lock myself in my room and delete my Netflix account.

We want to get good grades for ourselves so we can get good jobs and have good lives, but sometimes it seems like our parents don’t think so. After three years of phone calls with mom and dad they still act like I am just up at school partying away.

The actual schoolwork is only one portion of college life that can cause stress. Parents like to talk about all the great friends they made in college, but when we are stressed out over a relationship they can act like it is not important because we should only be focused on school. Going through school alone cannot be easy, but stressing over relationships can make it that much harder to focus.

I know that parents are just trying to help and that they have supported us all our lives, but adding stress to an already stressed out college student can have severe consequences.

For those of us that are lucky enough to have our parents still help pay for some portion of our lives, we know the struggle of asking them for money. Every single time it seems like they cannot believe we need more and act like we are just wasting it. Parents often act like it is somehow our fault that textbooks cost so much or that tuition increases year after year. They will never be able to grasp how hard many of us actually do try to save money.

Being away from family is sometimes hard, but what I don’t miss are the family issues. While I do like being informed about what is happening in all my relatives’ lives, I don’t prefer being stressed out about stuff that is going on hundreds of miles away. While at school we cannot really help anyone, so I feel it would be better to inform us of family matters during breaks or at least not around midterms and finals.

If your parents are a positive force in your studying efforts, then use them to your advantage during finals week. If they tend to make things worse, even without trying, maybe let them know you’re excited to see them, but you need some time for yourself to get through your exams.

From the wise words of Beyonce, “Put that damn camera down!”

As artists begin their summer concert series and music festival season comes in full swing, we are bound to see countless fuzzy pictures and shaky videos from concertgoers.

As an avid concertgoer myself, I have taken my fair share of pictures and videos, but looking back, I rarely ever look at all the footage I have. People at concerts often take the time to send their friend a video of their favorite song or post a never-ending Snapchat story that most people don’t want to watch.

It seems that the amount of phones in the air during concerts gets worse and worse every year, and for what reason? Is it because these people want to make sure they can remember every single second or do they just want to brag to their friends about their awesome time? Many artists travel all around the world to play for their fans and they want to be able to interact with the crowd and feed off of their vibes, not look out at everyone on their phones.

When you have to focus on getting good video footage of your favorite song, you can’t focus as much on the actual song. It doesn’t make sense to take your attention away from the performance in order to be able to watch it later with completely blown out sound. I see so many people get excited about a song coming on, and then the smile leaves their face as they pull their phone out and make sure they can capture the scene in the frame.

Even if you are enjoying watching the concert through a five-inch screen (which most of you don’t look like you are), the 10 people behind you whose line of sight you are blocking definitely aren’t.

Many concert ticket prices aren’t cheap, so we need to make sure we are getting the full experience and actually experiencing it with our own eyes, not through the tiny screens of our cameras and cellphones. We need to seize the moment, sing our hearts out and dance our asses off.

The professional photographers in attendance are going to take better pictures anyway because it’s their job and many of them are amazing at what they do. They are going to be able to get the perfect jumping shot or stage-dive, whereas yours would probably be a blurry mess. These photographers are here for us, they want us to use their pictures as the background of our phones and share them with our friends.

It might be cool to show people and say that you took the pictures, but if you had a fun time and you tell your friends about your experience, they will still be jealous, don’t worry.

Some phones are getting so large nowadays that if you aren’t one of the people in the first five rows, all you can see is a sea of screens, and don’t even get me started on people who hold up their tablets for an entire hour-long concert.

It is getting to the point where I would rather have an artist ban photos and videos entirely throughout the concert, like the policy the indie rock band Neutral Milk Hotel enforces. I wish I could have seen Tyson Ritter, the All-American Rejects singer, smash a fan’s iPad on-stage in 2012.

It is fine to take a photo, maybe even five, but please don’t take 90. I understand that you want to remember these moments forever, but getting a few pictures should be enough to help all the amazing memories flow back in.

Next time you’re at a concert, try keeping your phone or camera away and see how much of a difference it makes. It is much easier to dance when you have both hands open and aren’t worried about trying to hold them as still as possible.