The Erb Memorial Union will be undergoing a network shutdown in order to replace some old equipment Thursday morning, from 6 a.m. to noon. The outage was announced by EMU Maintenance employee Jake Vasey.

So if you’re studying or working in the EMU, you won’t be able to access the internet via wi-fi or an ethernet connection during that six-hour block. Campus cash will also be down during the network shutdown. Tamarra White, manager of the Card Office and Guest Services at the EMU, posted on its website this afternoon that the UO Card Office will be closed during the shutdown hours, and plans to reopen at noon barring any further delays.

All other EMU services should remain open, but may take on fewer operations due to the lack of internet.

“This is just something that construction needs to do in order to switch over to new telecommunications equipment,” said EMU Director Laurie Woodward.

Just over a year ago, the University of Oregon filed a lawsuit over design faults in the concrete foundation of Global Scholars Hall. The UO is suing the firms associated with the building’s construction, which finished over five years ago.

Chief among the firms is Hoffman Construction, an Oregon contracting company based in Portland. Also involved in the suit is the architecture firm that designed GSH, Zimmur Gunsul Frasca, and the engineering firm that planned the building’s foundation, Cadena Consulting.

The university states that Hoffman Construction was responsible for overseeing “preconstruction and construction phase services” of GSH and that they hired out ZGF as an architecture partner on the project back in 2010, who in turn hired Cadena. UO’s claim is that GSH’s cement foundation is cracking and sloping, creating extra costs and problems with the building’s functionality. The most notable of these connect the design flaw to faulty electrical and plumbing systems as well as physical defects leading to modifying spaces and furniture.

UO Communications Director Tobin Klinger said that the building’s defects do not put residents in any danger.

“I want to stress that there is no safety concern here,” Klinger said. “This is simply about design flaws that led to repairs that we believe the people who constructed the building should be responsible for.”

Third-party appraisals of the building and claims by the defendants confirm that there are no safety risks posed by the cement deflection.

Legal teams for each party declined to comment on specific details of the ongoing case.

Here is a timeline of the major actions in this lawsuit:

March 13, 2015: UO files its initial complaint with Marion County Circuit Court for $8.5 million in reparations.

April 20, 2015: Cadena Consulting responds to the allegations, saying that it was not responsible for the building design or construction. The firm says that it should not be implicated since it was a third party and only listed in a few of the university’s allegations.

June 29, 2015: Hoffman Construction responds to UO’s allegations by denying responsibility for the building design. While Hoffman acknowledges that the cracking in serviceability repairs exist, the firm asserts that the university’s approval of the plans makes it responsible for paying for damages.

Dec. 11, 2015: UO amends its complaint to specify more of the repair and appraisal costs necessary to address the faults, and it clarifies the roles of each of the defendants as they pertain to the building contract. Specifically, UO points out that Hoffman construction assumed responsibility over the design and either did or should have known about the defects before building on top of a faulty foundation. The amount of reparations is increased in this amendment to just under $43 million.

Feb. 19, 2016: Hoffman motions to have its involvement in this suit and the allegations against it dismissed since it was not the licensed designers on the building contract. The firm also asserts that UO’s complaint “muddied the waters” of this suit; therefore, the doubt being created should be enough to dismiss the claims.

April 19, 2016: Judge David Lieth denies Hoffman’s motion to dismiss the allegations.

University of Oregon Provost Scott Coltrane announced today that the search for a new Dean of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts, which began last fall, is over. Christoph Lindner, professor of media and culture at the University of Amsterdam, has been named the A&AA Dean. He will begin his role on Aug 15, in time for the 2016-17 academic year.

Lawrence Hall hasn’t had a permanent dean since former UO President Michael Gottfredson’s resignation in 2014. The former dean of the A&AA school, Frances Bronet, left the position to serve as interim provost in lieu of Scott Coltrane while university Board of Trustees searched for a permanent president. After Michael Schill was named President and Scott Coltrane reassumed his position as provost, Bronet left the UO to become the provost at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Brooke Muller has been serving as Interim Dean since the search for a permanent replacement began.

Lindner is currently the Director of the University of Amsterdam’s Cities Project, a research project that focuses on cultural, historical, and geographic complexities of urban communities within city planning and architecture.

“Lindner stood out as the candidate whose background and academic work best compliments the incredible diversity of A&AA’s programs,” Coltrane wrote in his announcement, “With an academic focus on the relationship between cities, globalization, and issues of political ecology … Lindner is uniquely qualified to build consensus and craft a visionary 21^st-century future for A&AA.”

Lindner is a founding director of the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis and served as the director of the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis from 2010-14.

“A&AA is ideally positioned to be a global leader in the study of design, visual culture, and the built, natural, and social environments,” Lindner said in a prepared statement. “I am looking forward to working with everyone with everyone at A&AA, as well as with the wider UO community, in shaping this vision.”

Oregon lost a Duck, a best friend, a brother and a son at the beginning of April. Connor James was a freshman studying biology at the University of Oregon. James died falling from a train on April 1. At 18 years old, he is survived by his family: his parents, two sisters and three step sisters.

Originally from Washington state, James moved to Salem, Oregon, to attended elementary school. In fifth grade he started playing lacrosse, which would become a driving passion in his life. Lacrosse led him to a close friendship with another fellow Duck, Chris Arreola.

James and Arreola met in sixth grade at Judson Middle School and became fast friends. Arreola played baseball, but James was adamant that his friend should join him on the lacrosse field.

“I’ll never forget how determined he was to teach me and fuel my own love for the sport,” said Arreola. “He would spend hours after school teaching me how to pass and catch the ball. That’s the kind of guy he was.”

A midfielder, James was a natural on the lacrosse field, becoming the team captain in his senior year at Sprague High School. They made it to the state playoffs that year.

The head coach of the Sprague Olympians lacrosse team, Efrain Guzman, has said publicly that James’ number 6 will be retired for the rest of this season.

Friends remember James as the comedic heart of each of his friend groups.

“Connor was always the one cracking jokes and lightening the mood,” said Arreola.

The two long-time friends were roommates in Spiller Hall on campus. They made other friends in the residence hall through a first-year interest group called the Politics of Hip-Hop.

“It was so nice because we all already had something in common,” said Alivia LeMaster, another member of James’ FIG. “It was really perfect for starting that friendship, and I met Connor through Chris.”

LeMaster said the FIG group hung out in James and Arreola’s room often, watching movies and laughing together.

“Connor was so funny and surprising,” LeMaster said. “We would be watching a movie and suddenly he would just break out with some joke or another.”

Arreola attended the memorial service held for James at the Salem Alliance Church on April 9.

“It wasn’t a traditional type of funeral,” Arreola said. “It was more a celebration of life – mostly friends and family gathered around telling stories while we played some of Connor’s favorite music.”

“Howlin’ for You” by The Black Keys and “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen were a couple of the songs played.

James’ family started a fund with which they hope to set up a lacrosse scholarship. The website for the funding page can be found at gofundme.com/vjxgxmak.

James’ birthday was April 20. He would have turned 19 years old.

Over 100 students and faculty attended Elizabeth Armstrong’s lecture April 21 at the Ford Alumni Center. So many were in attendance that several dozen students were left without seats, listening along while sitting cross-legged in the back of the room.

The talk, titled “Status, Violence, and Alcohol: How Status Competition Creates Risk,” was part of a series of discussions for Sexual Assault Awareness Month hosted by the ASUO Women’s Center, Fraternity and Sorority Life as well as the Department of Women and Gender Studies.

Armstrong’s talks focused on research that found social status to be at the root of many of the behaviors that lead to higher risk of sexual assault and rape. By actually living in a residence hall for a school year, Armstrong and her research partners were able to interview more than 50 women living on a co-ed floor about their experiences with dorm life, Greek Life and the college party scene.

The findings of this report echo the risks highlighted by the external report of the FSL community that was published earlier this month. Armstrong focused largely on the behaviors of young women who were rushing for, or members of, sororities on campus.

“What we found, resoundingly, is that concerns with status led these young women to pursue risky behaviors,” said Armstrong, “They are more likely to drink, and they are more likely to hook up to increase or solidify their social status.”

Armstrong’s research also highlighted that the FSL hierarchy gives fraternity men a lot of power over the social scene. Often, fraternities are allowed to have parties while sororities are not, leading to a higher percentage of women going to fraternity parties to drink.

Men also tend to have easier access to transportation, leaving women, particularly first-year women, at the will of fraternity members to get to and from events and parties.

Similar to the external report conducted of UO FSL, Armstrong highlighted that a blackout culture within colleges leads to higher risk of sexual assault.

“The ability to drink a lot of alcohol, to party a lot, is seen as a marker of social status,” said Armstrong, “And by having an abundance of alcohol as well as control over who gets access to it gives fraternities a tremendous amount of control.”

UO Professor of Sociology C.J. Pascoe moderated a Q&A discussion after the talks, introducing public commentary by saying, “I have only been at the UO for a short amount of time, but it seems to me that some of these same issues may be at play on our own campus as well.”

Continuing the conversation next week, the Sexual Violence Prevention Board will hold an all-day call to action rally on April 25 on the Condon lawn. Look for the big chalk board in the quad that day to attend and get involved.

Also next week will be a Coalition for Consent, a monthly discussion group that meets in Straub 252 that focuses on education and prevention of sexual assault and harassment.

Talking with Californian University of Oregon students about why they came to Oregon can often yield complaints about California’s higher in-state tuition and academic standards. For Patrick McClellan, a Palo Alto native who attended Mountain View High School in California before going to the UO, these lamentations are nothing new.

“I’ve always heard the rumors that it’s 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 each year.”

The latest audit of the University of California school system finally gave solid proof of these assertions and highlighted some major reasons for the increasing number of Californians attending Oregon schools. Last years’ data for UC schools shows that certain behaviors and decisions of the UC Board severely disadvantage residential Californians in being accepted to UC campuses.

UC schools have been lowering academic standards for non-residential students over the past five years in order to accept more non-residential applicants.

Last year, UC schools collectively accepted about 16,000 students that were below the mean SAT/ACT scores, contributing to a more than 400 percent increase in non-residential enrollment.

“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,” said Margarita Fernandéz of the California State Auditor’s Office. “This was not the case for non-residential students.”

Fernandéz referenced a key shift in the business models and profit-motives of the UC campuses. Before 2007, all UC schools had to hand tuition revenue over to the UC Board of Reagents, where it was then divided up amongst the 10 campuses. Now, UC schools get to keep all of the revenue from non-residential tuition rather than give it away, placing a clear advantage toward seeking out-of-state enrollment.

McClellan says that these circumstances reflect his own reasoning for seeking college outside of his home state.

A junior studying economics, McClellan said he chose UO for its college-town feel. Growing up near Stanford University, he wanted a school that could match the same social and academic atmosphere for less money.

“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?”

McClellan said that even though the realities of the UC school system can be frustrating, he doesn’t feel like he had to settle for UO. Current president-elect of the ECON Club, he feels that the experiences and connections he’s acquired from the UO have benefitted him.

On your walk to morning classes, you may have seen the Bernie Sanders booth across from the Duck Store or noticed the clipboard-clad volunteers making sure that Sanders supporters are registered as Democrats in time for the primary. As the presidential spotlight makes its way toward Oregon’s May 17 primaries, Eugene is already feeling Sanders’ presence.

This is largely due to the fact that the Lane County for Bernie chapter just opened its Eugene Headquarters at 2809 Friendly St. With coordinated phone banking and public events, the Sanders camp hopes to solidify a win in Oregon. They appear to have a strong voice in Eugene.

“We are seeing a really strong voter base for Sanders and a lot of volunteer action,” said Chris Wig, chairman of the Lane County Democratic Party.

Wig said that Sanders typically does well in areas with a large white, liberal population, and few places fit that description as well as Eugene.

“This is still a very close race. I didn’t honestly expect Bernie to do as well later on in the primary season,” Wig said. “But he still tends to struggle in areas with a more diverse voting block.”

The Bernie Sanders Center in Eugene was started by Democrat voters and then approved by the national campaign. Candidates’ headquarters are typically started by the campaigns themselves and then local volunteers join in.

The Sanders campaign is expected to open offices in Portland, Medford and Bend as well.

University of Oregon Senior Xander Berenstein has been volunteering for the UO Students for Bernie group since last summer when he co-founded it along with recent UO graduate Chase Kelly-Reif.

“This is the first election that I’ve seen where a candidate is bringing up issues that actually affect me,” said Berenstein. “I haven’t really been active politically before, but I really saw the need to join in on this movement.”

Berenstein refers specifically to Sanders’ promises to make public universities accessible and his awareness of climate change as two large areas where college-aged supporters connect to his campaign rhetoric.

Berenstein is often one of the students out gathering signatures and registering voters around campus.

“People often recognize me as that ‘Bernie guy’,” Berenstein said, clad in a green and yellow “Imagine Bernie” shirt. “They have seen me out around campus all year long.”

Berenstein said that the group coordinates a lot with the larger Lane County campaign. The group’s next big focus is going to be canvassing the Saturday Market.

Considering that Eugene has often been a hotspot for Democratic hopefuls, and Sanders’ son Levi graduated from UO with a degree in history, Berenstein said it’s almost certain that Sanders will make an appearance on campus before the primaries.

The UO group meets every Wednesday in Gerlinger 301 and also attends the Lane County chapter meetings on Saturdays at noon at the campaign center.

An external review of Fraternity and Sorority Life at the University of Oregon affirms concerns about sexual assault within the community, Vice-President of Student Life Robin Holmes said Monday.

Holmes personally requested the report, which examined documents and conversations with campus as well as fraternity and sorority members for issues related to sexual assault. The report came to several conclusions, including the following:

• The FSL community regularly engages in high-risk behaviors, or behaviors that increase the likelihood of sexual assault or harassment. Of these, substance abuse and hazing were cited as key  high-risk behaviors.
• FSL leadership reports being ill-equipped to handle these behaviors or specific incidents of sexual harassment due to being all-consumed with behavioral issues. Students expressed frustration that they are expected to handle these problems internally, despite being ill-equipped to do so.
• Sorority members acknowledged a general sense of peer pressure to not report potential incidents of sexual assault due to the negative effect it may have on chapters.
• “Blackout culture,” which the report described as a general acceptance that drinking to the point of blackout regularly is normal,  is considered socially advantageous and rarely socially damaging.
• The size and quotas, as well as the inability to remove problem members from chapters, are all factors in the current reality. Staff and faculty express frustration that too many “free passes” have encouraged a lack of accountability within FSL.

The report makes several recommendations as to how to solve for these high-risk behaviors. Most of them fall into the theme of establishing of closer cooperation between FSL leadership, the UO administration and the Office of Student Life to encourage compliance with sexual assault prevention practices.

One step is the implementation of a $100 mandatory fee for fraternity and sorority members that will go toward funding three or four new positions in the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life.

The Division of Student Life also is extending a moratorium on new fraternities or sororities colonizing at the UO, and current membership levels will be capped until staffing is increased.

Updates to come.

A previous version of this article used part of a quote from Christie Scott that did not fully explain hers or OLCC’s position. The current version more accurately explains the legislative process should the liquor measure pass.

This November, Oregonians will vote on whether grocers that are licensed to sell beer and wine will also be allowed to sell liquor. Currently, only state-certified stores are allowed to sell liquor. This is the first time that such a measure has actually made it on the ballot, though grocery associations have lobbied for a bill for years.

Pat McCormick, a spokesperson for Oregonians for Competition, the main petitioners for the ballot measure, says that the current state-run monopoly system is bad for the government and for residents.

“It makes little sense for the government to be responsible for enforcement of alcohol laws on one hand and to be promoting the consumption of liquor by selling it on the other,” McCormick said.

If passed, this measure would prevent the state from selling liquor and instead make its largest function liquor law enforcement. This entails everything from drunk driving laws to making sure that stores aren’t selling to minors.

McCormick says that the measure has been received well by Oregonians.

“They like the idea of being able to buy distilled liquor at the same place that they already can buy beer and wine,” he said. “It leads to more convenience for the consumer and less hassle for the government.”

Liquor sales are the third biggest source of money for Oregon, behind revenue from taxes and the state lottery. Losing this revenue source will mean a lot of restructuring of programs that directly benefit from liquor revenue, as well as the potential for a liquor tax in the future.

“It’s inevitable that the legislature will try to change programs and try to share in that revenue source,” said McCormick. “We wanted to make that process more transparent and revenue neutral.”

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission breaks down where each portion of liquor sales currently goes.

Almost half of the costs are absorbed by manufacturers, meaning half of each dollar goes into making the liquor itself. Thirty seven percent represents revenue for the state, county and city. The rest goes into OLCC’s operating costs, bank card transaction costs and commission for the sellers.

Christie Scott of OLLC describes what may happen due to the measure passing.

“This is a challenging decision the legislature will have to make since this measure doesn’t replace the revenue,” Scott said. “It could result in an added spirits (liquor) tax that would replace the current liquor markup. However, if the result is increasing manufacturing costs and higher commission, the result could also be higher prices for consumers, as was the case in Washington.”

Scott says that a tax somewhere else could be used to account for this loss in state revenue. A third option is that services that directly benefit from state-run liquor sales may be reduced.

Liquor retailers will still need to buy and renew licenses issued by the state, a fact that McCormick said will not take away from state revenue. Scott pointed out however that the revenue from licensing does not amount to half of OLCC’s operating costs.

If passed, the measure would take effect in July 2017.

Oregon’s recent decision to raise the minimum wage may ease some of the financial burden for students — but it could also lead to some drastic changes for the University of Oregon and minimum wage jobs on campus.

Oregon’s minimum wage will incrementally increase over the next six years. The most recent increase will take effect on July 1 at $9.75 per hour. By the end of the hikes, the base wage for Oregon will be $13.50 in midsize counties and $12.50 in rural areas.

Nationally, young adult employees (16-24) make up the largest portion of minimum wage workforce – about half according to a 2014 Bureau of Labor Statistics report. The State of Oregon Employment Department estimated last year that there are about 100,000 minimum wage jobs in the state. Based on the national average, about 50,000 college-aged Oregonians fill these positions.

Still, the UO’s preliminary estimates show that by next year, the UO could be paying student workers up to $413,546 more in total wages, UO spokesperson Tobin Klinger said, and that number climbs as high as $5.8 million by the end of the scheduled wage hike.

It’s notable that these numbers are only estimates, and they assume that the same number of students will continue to be working for the UO. For the last academic year, that number was about 4,000 students per month. Also, some students often only work for the UO for a term or less, further muddying the numbers.

“Obviously, this is a cost that we anticipate, but there are a lot of things to consider with this,” Klinger said. “For one, we have to consider that the number of students that the university hires may go down. By how much is hard to calculate because employment is determined departmentally.”

University Housing – one of the largest employers of students on campus – will have a much higher demand for minimum wage workers than, say, the Outdoor Program.

UO associate economics professor Benjamin Hansen said that it’s possible we’ll see the university employ fewer students and that “there will be fewer hours to go around.”

Klinger said it’s difficult to account for compression, which is when minimum wage workers will suddenly be making more than other workers in the same or similar job who have worked there longer. These employees’ wages would also likely need to increase, leading to further costs.

Caden Williams, a UO sophomore studying computer science, works as an office assistant for the the Office of Student Life on campus. He works for minimum wage doing general office tasks like answering the phones and emails, but he also helps with a lot of the hands-on setup for major events on campus such as graduation commencement.

Williams said that his minimum wage paycheck helps with financial strain.

“The money helps a lot with buying textbooks and some other school supplies,” Williams said.

An out-of-state student, Williams said that any extra income helps pay for the higher tuition costs.

“I’ve taken out every federal loan I possibly can and have some recurring scholarships,” Williams said. “Any amount of money from working helps me financially. I think that this minimum wage increase will do a lot to help other students like me.”

If the university will be forking out more cash to its employees, it will have to find a way to manage these costs. With tuition hikes fresh on everyone’s minds, it is natural to wonder if a higher minimum wage will bring even higher tuition.

Klinger said that while tuition increases are a way to bring in more revenue, the budgeting board factors in a lot more costs than just wages in tuition decisions.

Theodora Thompson — currently the UO chapter president of the Service Employees International Union, the group that lobbied heavily for a minimum wage increase bill – said that a wage increase can be an offset for higher tuition and costs associated with college.

“This increase will help students meet the costs of rising tuition,” Thompson said.

Originally from Singapore, Thompson came to the UO in 1995, when the minimum wage was $4.75 per hour. She recalls struggling to get enough hours to pay for the costs of living and going to school.

“I was working for a fast-food company at the time and couldn’t find enough hours to get a bigger paycheck,” Thompson said. “Once I graduated and began to work for the university, I saw an opportunity within the union to speak on behalf of those experiences.”

Sam Coffaro is also an out-of-state student. Originally from Pittsburgh, she moved to Thousand Oaks, California, and later started college at California Lutheran University. She transferred to the UO to study advertising last year.

Coffaro has a minimum-wage job as a building monitor at Allen Hall on the UO campus, cleaning classrooms and maintaining facilities. She also works seasonally for the Duck Store during the textbook rushes to make extra cash. The Duck Store’s employees are not paid by the university.

“Minimum wage isn’t really enough to live on,” Coffaro said. “If you have a car to pay off and rent on top of all the school costs, it’s just not enough to make you financially independent.”

Coffaro is trying to do just that – make herself financially independent – a requirement to apply for in-state tuition, something that would save her a lot of money while attending the UO.

Because tuition at the UO for the 2016-2017 school year was fixed before the statewide minimum wage increase, this next year will will act as a sort of trial run for how the increases — which begin in July — will play out in the future. Beginning next year, the university will likely have a clearer picture of how the increases will affect tuition.

The new law breaks the state down into different economic areas, with the largest increases happening in the Portland metro area, where the minimum wage will be $14.75 by 2022. The wage hikes will be spread out over a six-year span, giving time for businesses and industries to adjust to higher labor costs.

“We are appreciative of the legislature phasing in these increases incrementally,” Klinger said. “This gives us time to work with lawmakers to find other ways of providing funding and revenue for our public universities.”