With campus police adding firearms to the uniform, UOPD joins the ranks of armed security in Eugene that includes the Eugene Police Department and the Lane County Sheriff’s office. While it is a big step toward keeping the city protected, it is also important to look at how the local departments can keep from stepping on each other’s toes.

EPD Captain Karl Durr, a 29-year police veteran who took over the desk this year after transferring from the Palm Beach County Sherrif’s Office in Florida, says the two have worked in concert since he’s been on the job by being in constant communication.

“We have a good relationship with the U of O overall, especially the UOPD,” Durr said in an interview with the Emerald. “If there are any issues that come up we work together with them. We have an officer at the West University substation, which is near the campus but not on the campus, who can sort of be the go-between.”

Part of that success, too, is having a number of employees who have worked at either station.

“The chief was a former EPD lieutenant here before she went to UOPD,” Durr said. Carolyn McDermed, the chief of campus police, spent 17 years with the city police.

EPD has 186 sworn officers in its command, almost an army compared to UOPD’s 10. Though UOPD’s jurisdiction is primarily the 295-acre campus, crime can sometimes spill out past the edges. Both departments can tag-team a case if necessary.

“There are lots of things that spillover on campus,” UOPD spokesman Kelly McIver said. “We may be dealing with people here who may be engaging in criminal activities in other parts of the community.”

For example, on Sept. 15 UOPD was called to a suspicious man near the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art who was suspected of carrying an explosive device of some kind. By the time UOPD arrived, the man had migrated toward Alder Street where campus police could corral him with the help of the officers at EPD’s West University substation. The suspect was cited and taken to a hospital.

“The territory on the ground, the boundary marks, those are just marks of responsibility. Our job is to work collaboratively to get the job done,” Durr said. UOPD and McIver insist that their number one priority will always be campus.

“We just don’t have a lot of bodies to throw at things that are happening off campus because our primary mission is to make sure the campus is secure,” McIver said.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story mistakenly called the Captain rank of Eugene Police Department “the top desk.” Chief Pete Kerns holds that position

After nine months of careful and sometimes contentious bargaining, the first ever faculty union contract between teachers and University of Oregon reached a handshake agreement Wednesday afternoon.

Members of United Academics, the faculty union, will vote to ratify the contract next month. Bargaining leaders are optimistic that the tenets of the contract will be please the teachers, who only became certified in April 2012.

“Our students benefit from the talents of professors who share their knowledge and passion for research and scholarship every day,” said University President Michael Gottfredson in a statement, “and this first contract reflects a fiscally responsible agreement that rewards excellence and invests in our faculty – strengthening the University of Oregon for all of our community.”

Faculty bargainers posed for pictures together after a deal was tentatively struck. The deal is the culmination of nine months of back-and-forth, where the University has been reluctant to offer salary increases in the face of declining state support and locked-in tuition rates for the next couple years.

“We firmly believe that this is a good contract not only for the faculty of the University of Oregon but for the University of Oregon,” said Dave Cecil, a lead bargainer and director of the American Federation of Teachers, Oregon. “I know the [bargaining] team hopes it’s overwhelmingly received, it’s a really good agreement.”

Much of the bargaining centered around faculty salaries, academic freedom and policymaking within the university. Salaries have historically lagged behind other public research universities in the country.

“We put a salary and compensation package in place that helps the University moves closer to our peer institutions, but do it in a fiscally responsible way,” said Tim Gleason, Dean of the Journalism School and a member of the university’s bargaining team. “We put as much money on the table as we could.” The University of Oregon agreed to raise faculty salaries to 11.9 percent and 12.4 percent for tenure/tenure-track and non-tenure track respectively.

Other issues have been about academic freedom. Teachers have been concerned with both their right to voice concerns with university operations, as well as helping implement policies throughout the campus, which have often been top-down decisions from the administration in the past.

“The nice thing is that even tenure-track faculty who really never had a voice before will have a voice in how their merit raises are configured, what are the requirements, how we internally govern ourselves,” said Deborah Green, associate professor of Hebrew literature and language at UO and a member of the union bargaining team. “We protected a lot of that and made, I think, a real difference in how the university works.”

The University of Oregon will also boost merit raises 8 percent, offer longer contracts for non-tenure-track faculty, and relax previous rules against tuition discounts for children of faculty. The contract will be effective through June 30, 2015.

It has simply been too much in the eyes of the rural neighbors to Emerald Meadows to continue any longer. Too much noise, too much litter and one too many coyotes swimming across the slight creek of the Willamette River in retreat of thumping bass, has led to the surrounding neighbors of Emerald Meadows to take their concerns to the Lane County Commissioners.

The Lane County Commissioners today heard the complaints and support for the divisive Emerald Meadows, an open plot at the base of Howard Buford Park that the Lane County Parks Department has been contracting out for events, but did not come to a final decision on what to do with it. The land has been a boon for the parks department, whose state funds have been drying up in recent years and forcing them to look for funds elsewhere.

Opponents to the space, mostly the neighboring farmers, complained of blaring noise as late as 3 a.m., four hours past what city ordinances allow, as well as potential damage to the 80 acres of pasture. Those in favor say the events generate revenue not just for the parks but the city as a whole, for food vendors and nearby hotels, for instance.

“To see people kind of pigeonhole this event because of some of the music there is very disappointing to me. I think this event could bring something amazing to this community,” said Phoenix Vaughn, director of sales and marketing for One Eleven Productions, the orchestrators of Kaleidoscope Music Festival. “Now the needs of very few now are being put over the needs of many.”

Early discussions centered around Kaleidoscope. It had been a heavily hyped festival, with ads appearing in magazines and on telephone poles since before it even had an official lineup. The parks department estimates that Kaleidoscope had 8,750 individuals attend, and sold around 6,200 tickets.

Then, its three-year contract with the county was cancelled last week after a flood of noise complaints. The festivals inaugural run had been hampered with worry from neighbors in the weeks leading up to it. By its final day, 30 noise complaints had been filed, some as far as five miles away. To distance themselves from controversy, organizers of Faerieworlds, another Emerald Meadows event, took to the podium.

“I was at Kaleidoscope and I do support other music festivals, I do support the arts on every level, but I’ve never experienced that level of noise. I just hope that Faerieworlds doesn’t get thrown out with the whole lot,” said Kelly Miller-Lopez, a producer of Faerieworlds and touring musician. “I do think Kaleidoscope should get heard at the same time, but they’re very, very different events.”

The neighboring farmers, on the other hand, stood their ground that Emerald Meadows enterprise should be unplugged.

“These large events, that are happening once a month, don’t do anything for us except increase our traffic, tax our volunteer fire department and bring people into our community that break into buildings and sheds,” said Bethany Little, a neighboring farmer to Emerald Meadows, who discussed having to separate her sheep from attacking each other after being distressed by vibrations in the soil. “This is really not OK. I really hope the parks department can find a way to make money someway else because this is the wrong way.”

Estimates this year show that Lane County has received about $105,000 from the four Emerald Meadows events: The Dirty Dash in June, Cascadia Music Festival in early July, Faerieworlds and Kaleidoscope.

Still, the Emerald Meadows debate has been tabled until a legislative work session, where the commissioners will determine the venue’s future, foggy as it may be.

“I played in rock bands, played in jazz bands, and I understand what loud music is, and I am personally shocked,” said commissioner Jay Bozievich, the vice chair, who stood at a neighbor house during Kaleidoscope to hear the music for himself. “I wish we had the funds to fund parks adequately here. That leaves us with this debate here about Emerald Meadows. I hope that in the future we can find a way to work together.”

Union leaders for employees at the University of Oregon, as well as the six other public universities overseen by the Oregon University System, have decided to push back their planned day of picketing to Sept. 30, the first day of class for fall term.

SEIU Local 503, the union representing non-faculty employees on campuses across the state, released emails Sunday afternoon announcing that in order to capitalize on “inspiring momentum” from student and faculty support, their initial target of Sept. 23 will be postponed. The delay also comes after unsuccessful bargaining on Friday and Saturday, which prompted a hasty session this Wednesday.

“First, we want to capitalize on the inspiring momentum that has been building among members, students and faculty on campuses,” the SEIU said it in a statement this afternoon, alluding to calls to action from ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz as well as the Oregon Student Association. “Secondly, we want to allow more time to reach a settlement while still keeping the threat of a powerful strike on the first day of class out there.”

A statement released Sunday morning by the Oregon University System insists it hopes an extra day of bargaining might prevent a strike from campus workers, while claiming to be prepared to hold its breath should those workers decide to picket.

“Last week SEIU filed a notice of intent to strike beginning Sept.23 prior to the start of Fall term on Sept. 30,” the OUS said in the statement. “That notice may be withdrawn and we remain hopeful that a fair settlement can be reached prior to a strike. Regardless of the outcome, OUS campuses are prepared. Classes will begin on time, and campus services will proceed uninterrupted.”

The announcement follows a week of voting across the state to empower leaders of SEIU Local 503 to call a strike if negotiations continue to sputter. And last Monday, union leaders issued a letter of intent to strike as early as Sept. 23, a week before fall classes begin. In effect, the union told the Oregon University System that it was prepared to stall daily operations at all seven campuses if the OUS refused to budge on its current proposals.

“We are sending this strike notice now in order to meet the PECBA 10-day notice requirement, even though we are in the process of conducting strike authorization votes on campuses, and even though we are still scheduled to meet with the Employer [OUS] in mediation Sept. 13th and 14th for good faith bargaining efforts,” SEIU Local 503 said in the letter.

Though the last scheduled meeting will be this Wednesday, Sept. 18, the two sides have yet to agree on minimum salaries for the campus workers, annual wage increases known as “steps” and tax reimbursements for same-sex couples.

Thusday morning, ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz also issued a statement calling for a student walkout in support of campus employees.

“These folks work some of the lowest paying and often least appreciated jobs on campus,” Dotters-Katz said in a statement Thursday morning. “They deserve a contract that treats them with dignity, respect and most importantly fairness.”

Lamar Wise, a University of Oregon student and interim Chair of the Oregon Student Association, also expressed solidarity for the union.

“As of right now, OSA is going forward with a message that we want fair pay for faculty and our staff without that money coming from tuition.”

SEIU Local 503 took to the campus streets Friday afternoon to chant demands for a fairer contract from the Oregon University System. The march is the second in two weeks, an apparent pilot run in case the union goes on strike as soon as September 23.

The employee union represents non-faculty employees — housing workers, caterers, secretaries, etc. — in all seven public universities, and are currently negotiating their 2013-2015 contract with OUS.

SEIU Local 503 is seeking higher base salaries, stronger salary steps and tax reimbursements for same-sex couples, most notably. Union leaders have maintained that OUS’s current contract proposals would make 1,200 employees eligible for food stamps.

OUS insists that its budget from the state has stagnated in the last decade, even as student enrollment has skyrocketed. And because they’re negotiating for all seven public universities, a contract has to be treat the budgets for all schools equally, meaning a bigger budget school like UO can’t pay their employees more than a regional school like Eastern Oregon pays its employees.

With the votes counted, members of SEIU Local 503 have agreed to a potential strike against the Oregon University System, which could happen as soon as September 23 if a deal isn’t struck.

In an email Thursday morning, the employee union announced that its members had voted “overwhelmingly” over the last two days to give its leaders the authority to picket against contracts proposed by OUS. Though there is one last bargaining session on September 13 and 14, SEIU issued a letter of intent to strike to OUS yesterday afternoon.

“On campuses throughout the OUS, our members voted overwhelmingly to give our bargaining team the authority to call a strike,” the SEIU said in the email. “Because the response was so immense, we are standing by our ten-day notice to strike with OUS.”

These sessions have faltered over wages, salary steps, and tax reimbursements for same-sex couples. Union members say they had accepted salary freezes over the last two contracts due to the recession, but now a salary bump is overdue. Under the current contract proposals, SEIU claims that 1,200 employees would be earning less than $2,500 a month and be eligible for food stamps, and are thus asking for larger base salaries. OUS maintains that its budget is too thin, having been stagnant for the last decade even as student enrollment has risen dramatically.

“We are prepared for either a short strike or a long one,” said Diana Saunders, the director of communications for OUS.

In solidarity for the protest, ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz, with the support of student presidents from Oregon State and Portland State universities, has also called for students across the state walkout.

“These folks work some of the lowest paying and often least appreciated jobs on campus,” Dotters-Katz said in a statement Thursday morning. “They deserve a contract that treats them with dignity, respect and most importantly fairness.”

OUS has insisted that classes will continue unhindered, but students and teachers could be pressured to hold classes off campus in the case of a strike. In response to a potential student walkout, the OUS is supportive of the students expressing their solidarity.

“We respect anyone’s rights to hold rallies on the campuses and support issues that are important to them,” Saunders said. “That’s the spirit of academic freedom.”

More to come.

Update: According to the Oregon University System, SEIU signed and sent a letter of intent to strike Wednesday afternoon.

Secretaries, research assistants, housing employees and more could be going on strike soon.

The non-faculty employees, or classified employees, at the state’s seven public universities are currently voting to authorize a strike, in protest of the current labor deals put forth by the Oregon University System. Representatives of their union’s Oregon chapter, SEIU Local 503, say much of the contract disagreements stem from salaries and annual raises. On the University of Oregon campus, voting is taking place in Columbia 150.

The union hopes the picket lines will sway OUS to give a better deal if they see campuses fall into a quagmire.

“It’s very difficult to replace us for an extended period of time,” said Kurt Willcox, the lead union bargainer for the University of Oregon. “I think there will be disruption on campus, there will be difficulties with students moving into housing.”

OUS insists that the contentious points of the contract come down to a straining state budget. While the state used to provide 70 percent of the funds for classified salary, and tuition making up the difference, today that number has flipped, and enrollment has continued to climb.

“We’re still at the same budget we’ve been at 10, 12 years ago, but we have 30,000 more students,” said Diana Saunders, Director of Communications for OUS.

Both the union and OUS issued their final offers on August 23, and are scheduled to sit down again on September 13 and 14. A strike could occur as early as September 23 — a week before classes are scheduled to begin — if a deal isn’t struck by then. Voting at six of the seven universities started yesterday and continue today. The results of whether or not a strike will be authorized will be announced tomorrow.

The union says that the deal proposed by OUS falls short on salary increases and steps — yearly incremental raises based on experience and cost of living — while salaries for faculty and administrators has continued to rise.

UO has around 1,600 classified employees on every floor of the campus, from custodians and electricians, to administrative assistants. There are around 4,500 at all seven universities.

Negotiations inch toward a resolution on the University’s first collective bargaining agreement, and teachers swarmed en masse to Thursday’s session as the biggest hurdle left, salaries, came to the table.

Thursday morning, new faces and old piled into the usual negotiating room in the Knight Library’s room 121 until the collective hovering and a frantic search for chairs drew the concern of the library’s facilities manager who saw people pouring out into the hallway. For what is referred to as an “all-hands on deck moment,” United Academics had sent out an email Saturday afternoon to rally faculty for the Thursday session. What transpired, and allegedly perspired, was a jammed room that briefly stalled negotiations, with teachers sitting on the floor and practically on top of each other.

“There was no kicking out or anything like that, it was just caring for the safety of them,” said Susan Scroggins, the worker who booked the larger replacement room, noting that the bargainers and faculty reps would have been miserable stewing together so closely, with some members even resorting to sitting on the floor. “I don’t know how they expected to make it to 4 [p.m.].”

An upgrade to a larger room across the hall allowed a return the negotiating, but the faculty had hoped that their message was obvious.

“The turnout was fantastic,” said David Cecil, the union’s lead negotiation. “There’s just a lot of faculty that aren’t happy with the university’s salary proposal and we said ‘if you want to show them that, come to bargaining, because that’s when they’ll see that.’”

The University side of the table, who usually just employ two administrative members are Sharon Rudnick, a counselor from the law firm Harrang Gary Long Rudnick, insist that they weren’t rattled by the turnout.

“The process is open so anybody can come,” Rudnick told the Emerald in a phone interview. ”We tend to see more observers when we’re talking about economics. And it doesn’t particularly effect what was going on the table anyway.”

“… the University must meet its obligation to live within its means.”

After a month-long break from negotiations, the marquee topic for the day was salaries. Coming into Thursday’s session, the administration offered tenure and tenure-track faculty a 10.3 percent salary bump over three-year contracts. Meanwhile, non-tenure track faculty, in other words faculty who mostly don’t conduct research and currently make up 63 percent of UO faculty, will receive an 11.4 percent increase over the same period.

It’s an issue with several different branches, such as raises and salary floors. The faculty is seeking salary increases because the University of Oregon, compared with its peers in the AAU, is relatively underpaid. And as both sides look to wrap up this agreement before fall term starts, United Academics has decided to shift its focus primarily on salary negotiations heading into the home stretch.

“There’s been too many times when we’ve heard ‘that’s a goal we’re going to work to’ but we now have to capture it,” Cecil said. “We can’t let it go. Today we moved on a lot of economic things that were not salary to indicate to the university that we’re focused in on what’s most important, of the issues left, and that’s salaries.”

University administrators maintain that, in the face of dwindling state support, their proposals will reflect the University’s divided general fund that also must account for things like student aid, non-teaching staff members and simply keeping the lights on at the University. University bargainers insist that their proposals have been reasonable, and some conciliation in the union’s proposal yesterday will help.

“The people on my side of the table have to make fiscally responsible decisions in order to make sure that all the University’s needs can be met in a responsible way,” Rudnick said. “The economic proposals they gave us yesterday made significant movement from where they had been in part a response because they understand to get faculty salaries where they need to be is going to take a few steps.”

Still, Cecil feels that United Academics is extending an invitation to the administration to also make some movements from their earlier proposals so that both sides can meet somewhere in the middle.

“I keep using the analogy that there’s a chasm,” Cecil said. “We just took a giant step into it, and they need to take a giant step into it, too.”

Kaleidoscope Music Festival’s muddy finale saw struggles with equipment, but ultimately the crowd weathered the elements for a memorable final day.

Though it began to sprinkle in the early afternoon, the typical Northwest made a cameo appearance over Emerald Meadows when it started to pour all over the grasslands. It had appeared that a show like GRiZ’s, who took the stage at 4 p.m., might be playing to open field; but instead a hundred or so festival-goers packed upfront.

GRiZ, a Detroit-based producer specializing in electronica and funk, beckoned the crowd, taking shelter under tents in the meantime, with a few blares of a saxophone. They wore ponchos, brought their umbrellas, or generally shrugged off the rain as usual. GRiZ kicked off his set with “Getting’ Live” and told the soaking crowd, “Let’s keep it moving, yeah?”

“Right when the rain picked up there was a big drop [in the song],” Lauren Windhorn said. “It was amazing.”

At one point during the set, fans began bouncing an inflatable mattress into the air. GRiZ also led the crowd through “Shout” by Lloyd Williams, as well as the first half of “Tequila” by The Champs. Though his brand of techno-funk seemed be a great fit in making the best of an otherwise dreary afternoon.

“I thought the rain was more fun,” said attendee Jalaya Frisella-Kunst. “It made me go way harder.”

Australian electronica duo Empire of the Sun capped off the weekend. The rain had let up by the time the group took the stage and, as had been the pattern for the marquee talents at night, drew in a large crowd.

“It was a really amazing way to close out the festival,” said Kaija Bross.

Empire’s unique style, with contrasting intergalactic visuals and tribal symbols, festooned with shiny headdresses and costumes, played very well to the late crowd.

“They put in a lot of effort and you could tell,” said Claire Moxley.

Playing many songs from their most recent album, Ice on the Dune, Empire of the Sun brought live instruments and back-up dancers. They also pumped out fog that occasionally formed a screen so members could perform their costume changes.

“I really loved their dancers, they were so cool,” said Carly Lathrop.

For many students, it’s the same every year. Summer’s coming, but you hate leaving behind your house for some other tenants to pick up soon. It was perfect: it had a huge living room, your homie’s dad’s old couches and a table at least six feet long. You’re going to miss the kitchen that held, like, 15 people (or 45 if the music was right.) And all the memories in your big backyard and other soggy couch.

Take stock of the damage, though. Whether you’re picking up to move out or just moving in, there’s always nagging phrase still plying into your head like the finals you just finished: Security deposits, which you pay in the first month and hope to get back by the time you move out.

“A lot of the students don’t pay their own rent, so they don’t pay their own deposit,” says Bo Bolstead, leasing manager at Capri Apartments, who don’t even put carpets in many of their properties because they’re so costly to clean. “So when they do move out they don’t think about cleaning sometimes.”

Think of it like a lawsuit for the assault you just committed on the house over the past year. A hole in the wall near the stairs that some guy just teetered into one night, the shower gunk, even the bent blinds on the window. All of these things will factor into how much money your landlords return after you move out. On the other end of it, as you’re moving into a new place, you’ll want to make sure you document the state of your house or apartment within the first week — rental companies take it into account when deciding how much of your deposit they return.

“You know, every property management company understands normal wear and tear,” says Bolstead. “[Students] don’t even attempt to clean the showers or sink. They don’t sweep. A lot of students just pick their stuff up and leave and don’t worry about anything.”

So, what do the lords of the land suggest students attend to when moving out? After all, the price of cleaning a rug won’t be the same as fixing blinds.

“People don’t think about really cleaning their refrigerators or their ovens or their stovetops,” says Amanda Whitney, operations manager at Stewardship Properties, who say that one bedrooms average about 70 percent deposit return, while houses will always fluctuate from 0 percent to 70. “Almost every single stove top flaps up and underneath is pretty grimy and gross.”

As for preventative maintenance, the landlords suggest being wary of other people in the house and simply giving an honest effort to clean on the weekends to minimize the wear and tear. That sort of maintenance will lessen the gut punch when the security deposit check comes back.

“My best advice and the thing that I started doing was definitely not putting things off,” says Makenzie Sargent, general manager of Titan Court. “That’s the hardest thing. Your mind is always ‘I need to clean. I’ll do it later.’ But you should really try to stay on top of it.”