The Quest Fund gifted the University of Oregon’s College of Education $6 million for its HEDCO Clinic to assist with yearly operational costs for its programs, which provide low-cost educational services to the Eugene-Springfield community.

Located in the southern wing of the HEDCO building on campus, the clinic is currently the home of the Center for Healthy Relationships, the Speech-Language-Hearing Center, and the CTL Reading Clinic. For six years, the clinic has provided master’s degree students of many disciplines with hands-on experience in a clinical setting.

The new endowment will cover the daily operational costs, expand and update the existing service and create more opportunity for students to get hands-on experience, dean of the College of Education Randy Kamphaus said.

The endowment will also allow for more existing funding to go toward increasing research efforts for the College of Education, one of the more successful research programs at the university. UO is currently ranked second in the nation for education graduate programs in research productivity per faculty member and is in the top 15 overall for education programs.

The financial support of this endowment will also allow the clinic to establish a center for the family-based treatment of autism.

“The endowment will support technology updates in these services,” Kamphaus said. “It will also help us double the size of the office and the current services.”

The federal-fund research on autism, leading by Dr. Wendy Machalicek, will have an opportunity to expand services that focus on working with families, Kamphaus said.

During Oregon’s primary elections on May 17, Eugene chose its next mayor, Lucy Vinis, by a landslide. The Emerald sat down with future Mayor Vinis to talk about her background and plans for Eugene before her term begins in January of next year.

Why did you decide to run for mayor?

Well, a lot of my friends are very politically minded, and we all try to keep up with local government and issues. They kept on telling me that I should think about running, so I decided that I would talk with some people and just see if this was something I could even do. I decided that once I hit some resistance I would stop. If I went to someone and they told me that it wasn’t a good idea, then I would just accept that and it wouldn’t be a big deal. But I never really got that resistance. People were all very supportive of the idea. So I just kept on going.

You’ve been billed as a progressive candidate. How did you come by that kind of platform, and what does it mean to you?

In the early stages of my campaign, I canvassed a lot of homes and talked to Eugene residents. And I found that a lot of the issues that kept coming up were things that I had a background in and an interest in. Homelessness is a big one, and I think I’m the only candidate who has real experience with that, having worked for ShelterCare [as development director]. Land use and space was another. I have a lot of experience as a private consultant on agricultural issues and resource allocation. How do we continue to grow and thrive while containing our urban sprawl? I focused my platform on making strides in these areas. Being progressive to me means listening to what people are concerned with and thinking about the future. Coming up with long-term goals and solutions to those concerns.

The mayor often serves a tie-breaking role in city council votes. How will you utilize that responsibility in policymaking?

As a mayor, you always hope to break as few ties as possible. I would hope that the city council will be clear in their decisions and that it will be very obvious what the people want. In that way, my vote won’t be as polarizing. I don’t anticipate that that will be the case in all the issues that will be put forth, but I will look to have open and clear communication with the councilors, and them with their precincts, so that we have a full understanding of what needs to be done.

How do you, as mayor, plan to foster a relationship with the university community, and how would you go about tackling the issues and problems that are inherent in a college town?

The first thing I would say to college students is that what happens in local government is of immediate importance to students. Our decisions, around student housing and protection for residents [and] around transportation, have a direct impact on the quality of your life in this city. I encourage students to be involved and pay attention. At the same time, you as students have a tremendous impact on the quality of life for longtime residents. Again, with housing and development, there has been a lot of conversation around making more room downtown. There is always going to need to be cooperation between the university community and the established residence because it’s all part of one community – our community. And while there may be inherent problems and tensions, the university is a tremendous resource for our city. It’s a massive employer and the research it leads helps our economy and profile. We also benefit a lot from the tourism at football games and other events that put us in the national spotlight. I will always try to focus on that balance between the needs of local residents and the needs of the university and its population. There is a lot of cooperation already between the UO leadership and local government, so I think really it’s just about continuing to do the same good work.

The Eugene-Springfield Fire Department responded to a 2-alarm fire at the Eugene Mission on Wednesday night. More than 200 people were in the building, but the fire department reported that all occupants made it safely outside.

The fire started in the kitchen and severely burned the inside of the structure. Investigators estimate the damages to total around $300,000 and are still trying to determine the cause of the fire. They do not believe the fire was intentional or suspicious.

Eugene Mission Director Jack Tripp told KMTR News that the mission could be out of service for a while due to the repairs needed on the kitchen, calling on the community to lend assistance and donations. The Eugene Water & Electric Board made a donation of ready-made meals to the Mission, which they plan to serve over the next couple of weeks while the kitchen is out of service.

University of Oregon President Michael Schill’s official investiture as the university’s president was on June 1. The ceremony, open to the public, was held in the Matthew Knight Arena and attended by UO faculty, alumni, investors and community members.

While Schill has been the serving as president of the UO for almost a year – having taken office on July 1, 2015 – this event formally bestowed him the rank of university president.

At the ceremony, Schill was presented by UO Board of Trustees Chairman Chuck Lillis with the President’s Centennial Medallion and the University Mace, both signs of the university and its leadership.

This is a process that the UO has become very familiar with lately as Schill is the third invested UO President since 2009. Including Schill, the UO has had 18 presidents in its 140 year history.

Since Schill took office, tuition costs increased by 4.7 percent for in-state student and 4.5 percent for out-of-state, and 79 faculty were laid off amid cuts to the College of Arts and Sciences, most of whom taught classes in the humanities. Other departments may see continued cuts in the future.

UO President Michael Schill’s investiture ceremony was on June 1. (Photo courtesy of the University of Oregon)

Schill has commented publicly on this, calling out the state legislature, which has continually voted to defund public higher education. He said in April that costs and tuition will continue to go up, but that he aims to keep those increases low whenever possible.

In his investiture speech, Schill outlined what he considers to be the leading myth about public universities: that higher education at public institutions is no longer a good investment due to these rising tuition costs and devalued liberal arts education.

“These myths prevent our students from opening the doors to a lifetime of opportunity,” Schill said, “They distract policymakers and they divert resources.

President Schill vowed to increase the funding for access scholarships for disadvantaged students looking for a college education. He also said he plans to increase the size and funding of the university’s research programs, emphasizing the importance of innovation for the UO to be a world-renowned institution.

“I’m incredibly honored and humbled … to formally accept the responsibility of leading this great institution,” Schill said. “Over the past year I’ve come to love Oregon, and I’ve come to the clear conclusion that the future is very bright for the University of Oregon. I’m not going anywhere.”

It was mid-afternoon on May 19 in the White House when President Barack Obama addressed the East Room full of what he called an “astonishing amount of brainpower.” Gathered with their families were some of the greatest scientific minds in the country, among them the University of Oregon’s Geri Richmond, waiting to be honored with National Medals of Science or National Medals of Technology and Innovation.

“Geraldine Richmond, The National Medal of Science,” President Obama called out. “For her landmark discoveries of the molecular characteristics of water surfaces; for her creative demonstration of how her findings impact many key biological, environmental, chemical, and technological processes; and for her extraordinary efforts in the United States and around the globe to promote women in science.”

There was applause as she accepted the medal and posed for pictures with the President.

It wasn’t the first time Richmond had been honored at the White House. The first was under President Bill Clinton for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science. But this was the first time she and her family were able to actually tour the entire East Wing and take photos with the President.

“The event was spectacular,” Richmond said. “President Obama is such a warm and friendly person that being able to meet him in person was awesome.”

Growing up on a small farm in Kansas, Richmond got her Bachelor’s of Science from Kansas State University before attending UC Berkeley to get a PhD in Physics Chemistry.

She came to the University of Oregon to teach and pursue research in 1985 and is currently the Presidential Chair in Science.

“I am so honored to receive this medal as it represents years of hard work and dedication of many research [associates] that have worked tirelessly in my laboratory to make the discoveries we have made,” Richmond said.

Richmond just got back from Okinawa, Japan, where she is helping female faculty and students advance their careers in science, a part of her COACh program, which has taken her around the world to countries where it is difficult for women in science fields.

She also directs the Presidential Undergraduate Research Scholars Program at the university, which directs undergraduate students to conduct world-class research while earning money toward their education.

Former head of the UO Chemistry Department Michael Haley succeeded Richmond as the Richard and Patricia Noyes Professor of Chemistry in 2013 and has worked closely with her over her more than 20 year career in education.

“This award is well-deserved,” Haley said. “She has been a great, visible ambassador for the UO. She pushes frontiers, not only in her own research but in all the other things she does too, like promoting women in science.”

Richmond said she hopes to continue and expand her work with all these different programs that she either founded or currently directs.

“My research goals are to continue doing the best cutting-edge science that we can,” Richmond said.

Local and student groups that showed up to clean the debris left behind at Lake Shasta last weekend were turned away by the U.S. Forest Service on Wednesday. The USFS reported that the debris was too biohazardous for regular clean-up crews to handle.

The now-infamous incident of left-behind litter after the UO’s Shasta Lake retreat this weekend has garnered national attention and led many local and student groups to travel to the area to pick up after those who left the mess. Photos of the litter indicate that members of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity may have been partly responsible for the trash left behind.

However, Phyllis Swanson, spokesperson for the Shasta Trinity National Forest Services, told the L.A. Times that used condoms, tampons, and human feces were left behind at the site on Slaughterhouse Island that were too much of a biohazard for regular clean-up crews to handle. A team of 25 workers from the Forest Service had to be sent to the site to safely and properly dispose of the waste.

It is unclear at this time which student groups were turned away this morning, though UO fraternity leadership has publicly announced that they would make efforts to get clean-up crews down there.

Last month, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission announced the first 12 licensed marijuana growers in the state, and Lane County’s first, New Breed Seed, is just a quick drive away in Cottage Grove.

New Breed Seed paid $3,750 to become certified by the OLCC as a tier 1 outdoor grower, giving it permission to grow plants within a 20,000 square foot space.  With one fully operational greenhouse already producing plants, it should have sellable products by mid-July.

NBS owner and operator Harold Frazier graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in microbiology. Unlike most growers, he is not interested in growing buds that can then be sold at dispensaries, but rather the genetics of particular strains of cannabis and how they react with one another.

“We look to provide the highest quality genetics in our seeds,” Frazier said. “I’m interested in seeing what these plants can do.”

Being certified by the OLCC means that NBS has to keep in compliance with state regulations, including having an outdoor site that is secured by a fence and surveyed by cameras 24/7. Visitors to the site have to sign in and be accompanied by an employee at all times.

These rules are put in place to ensure that the cannabis is not tampered with and maintains quality and safety standards mandated by the state. The rules cover everything from pesticide use to safe testing the product for potency.

“Growers being in compliance means a safer and better product for our customers,” said Myron Brandwine, general manager of Casper’s Cannabis Club near the University of Oregon campus. “There will likely be fewer black market dealers too, which is good for dispensaries.”

Frazier pointed out that some of these regulations also pose problems for growing crops.

“Having to plant your crop on the same fenced-off plot year after year is a basic agricultural no-no,” Frazier said. “It doesn’t allow for the kind of crop rotation that we know plants need to be healthiest.”

Frazier noted however that as the state becomes more accustomed to the idea of legal marijuana, regulations may change, potentially leading to solutions to these problems.

These regulations also create high barriers to entry into the growing business. In order to track and control cannabis, the state creates these rules – and the annual fees – to ensure that only legitimate businesses are growing the plants, and that these businesses will take safety concerns related to agriculture and controlled substances seriously.

While the emergence of certified growers may provide some benefits to dispensaries, Brandwine thinks this could also lead to limited competition and higher prices.

Not all counties in Oregon have or will have licensed growers. Some areas of the state chose to opt out of the recreational selling and producing of cannabis, meaning that while it is still legal to use marijuana recreationally all over Oregon, some areas are barren of places to legally buy it.

Frazier thinks that will change going forward.

“They are losing out on tax dollars,” Frazier said. “Once people get more comfortable with the plants and see the economic benefit of the industry, I imagine more counties will change their opt-out status.”

The number of Californians who attend the University of Oregon has more than doubled in the last nine years. To put that into perspective, you only need to look as far as the UO’s nicknames: University of California—Eugene or Cal State Oregon.

At the beginning of this year, there were 8,495 out-of-state students at the UO, with Californians making up over half of that at nearly 5,000. In 2007, there were 2,279 Californians attending UO.

These yearly increases are partly because of policies within the UC system that drive college-bound Californians to other states. And Oregon schools are welcoming them out of a need for more tuition dollars.

Oregon State University saw a 77 percent increase in out-of-state students from 6,583 to 11,700 between fall term 2010 and fall term 2015.

“The reality is that when the state legislature votes to defund public universities, we are left with some tough choices to make,” UO assistant vice president and director of enrollment Jim Rawlins said. “This mentality [of enrolling more out-of-state students] is part of the budgetary [balancing] of every public university. We charge out-of-state students more than it costs to go here so that we can charge in-state students less.” 

This may sound like Oregon schools are favoring out-of-state students over Oregon residents, but UO officials say that’s not the case.

“Being the flagship university for the state, we have an obligation to admit Oregonians and invest in their futures,” said Rawlins. “So we wouldn’t have the kinds of policies that would disadvantage Oregonians.”

But other state schools aren’t bound to this obligation, including California.

The latest audit of the UC system by the California state auditor stated that certain behaviors and decisions of the UC Board disadvantage residential Californians from getting accepted at their campuses.

Patrick McClellan is a junior from Mountain View, Calif. (Kaylee Domzalski/Emerald)

For Patrick McClellan a native of Palo Alto, California, going to the UO, these findings are nothing new.

“I’ve always heard the rumors that it’s so much easier for out-of-state students to get accepted at UC schools,” McClellan said. “And I’ve heard that they are accepting fewer and fewer Californians.”

There are a number of ways that California public universities have contributed to this exclusivity.

According to Margarita Fernandéz of the California state auditor’s office, UC schools have been lowering academic standards for non-residential students over the past five years in order to accept more out-of-state applicants.

In 2015, UC schools saw a more than 400 percent increase in non-residential enrollment from the previous year.

“We also saw cases where residential students would receive acceptance letters that referred them to enrollment at other schools, even ones that they hadn’t applied for,” Fernandéz said. “This was not the case for non-residential students.”

Before a policy shift in 2007, UC schools gave tuition revenue to the state governing body, the UC Board of Reagents, which then distributed funds among the 10 UC campuses based on size and other factors. After the policy change, UC schools got to keep all of the non-residential tuition rather than give it away, creating an incentive to enroll more out-of-state students.

A junior studying economics, McClellan said the size and exclusivity of UC schools reflect his own reason for seeking a college outside of his home state.

“At UC schools, it can be hard to get the classes you need on time, leading to more time spent pursuing your degree,” McClellan said, “Since I’m already taking out loans to pay off school, why not go to an out-of-state school where I know I will be able to graduate sooner and for less money in the end?”

As UC enrollment of California students began to fall, the UO’s went up. In the fall of 2008, one year after the UC policy change, the UO saw Californian enrollment increase by 558 students. In 2012, one year after the academic standards for non-residential students in California were lowered, another sharp increase brought the number up by 554.

“There are 11 Californian high school seniors to [every high school senior] in Oregon,” Rawlins said. “To cover such a big population of students, we run an office out of California that can go out to all the schools there.”

This is the UO’s only out-of-state recruitment office.

It falls to recruiters and the enrollment office to find and take advantage of all the factors that can draw high school students. Besides the economic advantages, Rawlins said one aspect of UO has been a particular draw: its football team.

“We are very fortunate to have a national spotlight on our football program here,” said Rawlins. “And while that may not end up being the reason people ultimately decide to attend here, it is a good way of getting people interested in looking at the other things Oregon has to offer.”

The football team was a big part of why senior finance major Rachel Weinfield decided to come to UO.

Rachel Weinfield is a senior from San Diego, California. (Kaylee Domzalski/Emerald)

“My high school didn’t have a football team,” Weinfield said. “So I really saw an opportunity to see something new and participate in that college culture.”

Regardless of the reasons that bring Californians here, or that cause them to go out of their home state, the UO (and Oregonians attending state schools) clearly benefits from their extra tuition dollars.

With tuition costs at the UO rising steadily in the last decade, out-of-state student tuition costs are triple the amount of in-state tuition (around $32,000 vs. around $10,000, respectively). But for McClellan and Weinfield, the payoff appears to be worth it.
“Regardless of what school you go to, you know you’re going to get roughly the same education,” Weinfield said. “So really it’s about the other kinds of opportunities you can get there. I’m very happy with where I am.”

This election year the possibility of a Trump presidency and a Sanders candidacy aren’t the only indicators of a national shift away from party lines and toward populist candidates.

This May marks the first time that the Independent Party of Oregon will have candidates on the primary ballot, and the first time since 1912 that a party other than Republican or Democrat has done so.

The IPO received major party status last year, after receiving at least 5 percent of registered voters in Oregon. It’s a young party, founded in 2007 amidst voter frustration of new state laws that prevented non-affiliated candidates from running for office. Now they have 18 candidates running for office.

Five percent may not sound like a lot, but it accounts for over 100,000 voters in the state – about 10,000 in Lane County alone, according to voter registration for March 2016. The IPO is the fastest growing party in the state, seizing a growing number of unaffiliated voters, which last year totaled over half a million.

“I think we really appeal to the voters who feel ignored by both parties and want another option,” said Secretary for the IPO Sal Peralta. “We don’t work along party lines and often try to work across the aisle with legislators in both parties.”

Current Oregon State Lottery Commissioner and former Oregon Senator Chris Telfer is running  for State Treasurer this year as an Independent.

“I chose to run as Independent because too often in the Senate I saw people were only interested in what their party wanted and not what Oregonians wanted,” Telfer said. “The IPO gives me the opportunity to show people that there are policymakers who don’t only side with their party’s interests.”

Peralta described the IPO’s platform as generally more fiscally conservative than the Democrats and a bit more socially liberal than the Republicans.

He also highlighted that the trend since the party began has been increasing numbers of younger voters registering as Independent.

“Resoundingly, our voters are under the age of 40,” Peralta said. “We’re seeing younger generations of people not wanting to align themselves with parties that are increasingly further left or right.”

Telfer, who teaches an accounting class at Oregon State University, said that she has seen a more vocal and politically active college crowd.

“I’m encouraged to see so many young people looking at which person will best represent them, not which party,” she said. “The young generations now have the task of reshaping our democracy and the way we vote in the future.

Roughly 33 percent of registered Independents voted in the primary this year, a relatively low number. Since the party didn’t have a definitive candidate for president, Independent voters had to write in their choice. Election offices have until mid-June to count those ballots and decide on a winner.

As election results roll in, the focus is on whether the emergence of a new major party will mean a central shift in Oregon’s political landscape.

Fraudulent for-profit colleges may be stealing financial aid from larger institutions. Last month, 24 U.S. senators, including Oregon’s Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, signed a letter urging the U.S. Department of Education to evaluate national accrediting agencies’ practices to check that colleges are meeting the academic standards outlined in the Higher Education Act.

Accreditation gives a college access to the $150 billion in federal financial aid offered each year in the form of Pell Grants and loans. Fraudulent schools may be reaping the funding that could otherwise be going to institutions that strictly adhere to the standards outlined by the Higher Education Act – a minimum 90 percent graduation rate and at least 50 percent employment rate post-graduation.

In 2009 alone, students at for-profit colleges collected more than $24 billion in loans and grants. So if even a small portion of these schools are not living up to performance standards, or are committing fraud, a large amount of money is being misappropriated.

“With the ballooning cost of college bogging down students with more and more debt, it’s crucial students and families invest their higher education dollars with the confidence that they’re getting a good return,” Senator Wyden said in an email. “I have been working with my colleagues to bring down rising college costs, and to make sure students get all the facts before they choose a school.”

The concerned senators point to the recent collapse of one of the nation’s largest for-profit institutions, Corinthian Colleges, which was based out of Santa Ana, California, for 20 years before going defunct in 2015. Corinthian offered programs that certified students in specific fields like medicine, business and criminal justice. It oversaw over 100 campuses throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Corinthian doctored statistics to cover up poor academic standards and falsely marketed the quality of its courses and job placement rates to applicants. This led to bankruptcy in April 2015, leaving thousands of students with debts to an institution that no longer existed, and in some cases, without a degree to show for it. Those who did finish their education were left with a degree from a blacklisted college.

Corinthian isn’t the only for-profit school doing this. A 2011 Government Accountability Office report found at least four of the 15 for-profit schools they surveyed were also fraudulent or falsely marketing. Some school officials were even encouraging applicants to lie on their FAFSA filings in ways that would draw in more funding.

Ron Bramhall, assistant vice provost for Academic Affairs at University of Oregon, said it’s very hard for an institution to lose its accredited status.

“If a university isn’t meeting the outlined standards, or if they fail to report all that their regional accreditor requires of them, they don’t just lose their accreditation,” Bramhall said. “[The Department of Education] works more as an advisory body that way, making suggestions and recommendations. You’d have to ignore them for a long time to totally lose accreditation.”

Though the senators’ latest letter shows that some are unhappy with this lax relationship, it may not matter so much to non-profit, public universities like UO, which is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. The letter mostly targets for-profit institutions with a history of playing the system.

Senators are calling on the Department of Education to force national accreditors to tighten their standards and evaluate for-profit schools more rigorously. The DOE responded to this criticism by writing a “Dear Colleague” letter to national accreditors telling them to look into these problems, but it made no clear recommendations.