A University of Oregon international student is facing charges for allegedly raping a female student in October, according to court documents.

The defendant, Kelvin Hernandez-Mendoza, 25, a Honduran citizen, studied computer and information science at UO.

The alleged sexual assault happened on Oct. 1, when Hernandez-Mendoza invited the victim to his apartment off campus to “watch a movie and listen to music from Honduras,” according to an affidavit by UOPD officer Thomas Harrison. The affidavit states that the defendant forcibly anally penetrated the victim two times that night and made her perform oral sex once.

Hernandez-Mendoza worked at the Mills International Center in the EMU. He was also the recipient of a scholarship through the International Culture Services Program, which brings students from around the world to UO. The program sends students into Eugene-Springfield schools and community groups to give presentations about their countries.

He was arrested by UOPD on Feb. 20 at the Lillis Business Complex at 9:50 a.m. without incident. He is in Lane County Jail and his trial is set for April 17 at 9:30 a.m. at the Lane County Courthouse.

Hernandez-Mendoza is being charged with sexual abuse in the second degree, a class C felony. His bail is set at $50,000.

UO Spokesperson Tobin Klinger said that Hernandez-Mendoza is no longer enrolled.

The Emerald did not publish the victim’s name for reasons of confidentiality.

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A student was robbed at gunpoint on Saturday around 3 a.m., but was unharmed, according to a report by the University of Oregon Police Department. The suspect is still at large.

The suspect was described as a black male in his mid-20s with a heavy build. He wore a blue hoodie, light-colored jeans and possibly a nose ring, according to the report.

The robbery took place at East 16th Avenue and Hilyard Street.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Eugene Police at 541-682-5111.

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After the car struck them, Sarah Oldham’s first concern was knowing whether she could still use her legs; Emma Hill’s was to wait for help because she knew her arm was broken.

The car, honking, its passengers shouting, drove away before the two students could glimpse its license plate.

On Sunday, Jan. 24 at about 1:15 a.m., Hill, 19, and Oldham, 19, were victims of a hit-and-run on Hilyard Street and East 14th Avenue. Their parents are offering a $1,000 reward for any information on the suspect leading to his arrest, and they’ve hired a private investigator.

Hill underwent surgery on her fractured wrist a week ago. The metal plate and six screws will serve as a personal reminder of the dangers of motor vehicles.

“I have that forever now,” Hill said.

The incident fractured Oldham’s humerus in her arm and tore a ligament in her knee. But they both said they’re healing well. The two University of Oregon students both wear slings, and both have trouble sleeping at night. But it’s not just from the injuries.

“After it happened, I was having dreams about it happening over and over again,” Oldham said.

Hill now has anxiety when crossing the street — a daily routine for her. She thinks back to that night it happened, when the two were crossing the street walking home from a friend’s house.

“I looked at the driver through the windshield. He could see me and stop, but he just didn’t stop,” Oldham said.

According to the police report, the white sedan first “clipped” one their friends, Zackary Kuhn, in the ankle, but he wasn’t hurt. Kuhn estimated that the car was going about 10 mph when it struck Oldham and Hill. He also saw the license plate — possibly California, possibly numbered 05374 or something close.

Witnesses described the driver as a darker-skinned male with short brown hair. The car held two males and one female passenger.

“They don’t even know if we got hurt,” Oldham said.

“They don’t even know if we were dead,” Hill echoed.

The two have been coping with the lack of justice since that night. Police ran the plates and found no match. The case was suspended the day after due to a lack of leads.

That’s when the parents got involved. Hill’s mom, Genevieve Chesnut, hired a private detective, set up an email account and began offering $1,000 rewards for information leading to the arrest of the driver.

Chesnut said that police are still seeking a witness living at The Campus Lofts at Hilyard Street and 14th Avenue and are still running different combinations of the license plate.

Coming back to school was hard for the two victims, but the school’s Accessible Education Center was a great help to both of them, they said. They were assigned an advocate, Carrie Fuller, to help them in their academics and through their recovery. Fuller, UO’s interim support services coordinator for crisis intervention, emailed the student’s professors to work out a plan for classes. She also got them therapy referrals.

“We’ve gotten a good amount of support from the University,” Oldham said. “It was all taken care of.”

Hill said she wants to know if the driver and the passengers think about the hit-and-run every day.

“I would say, ‘I hope you can’t sleep right now. I hope something is bugging you to the point where you can’t sleep, because I can’t sleep,’” Hill said. “‘And it’s not my fault.’”

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University of Oregon journalism professor Tom Wheeler died on Saturday, according to reports from the school. He was 70 years old.

There was no information on the cause of his death.

The SOJC is holding an informal gathering in Allen Hall today at 5 p.m. to honor and remember Wheeler.

Juan-Carlos Molleda, Dean of the School of Journalism and Communication, announced Wheeler’s death in an email to the SOJC community on Sunday. Molleda wrote that Wheeler was in the Bay Area when he died. Molleda’s email stated that professor Scott Maier informed him of Wheeler’s death.

Maier could not immediately be reached by The Emerald.

“I will always remember him for his teaching passion, wonderful sense of humor, and collegiality,” Molleda wrote in the email.

Wheeler was teaching J371 Feature Writing and J101 Grammar this term. The SOJC will find other faculty members to take over for the remainder of his classes this term, according to an email sent to students.

Students may visit the counseling center if they are feeling distressed or call the UO crisis support line at 541-346-3227.

Update: Read Tom Wheeler’s obituary by The Emerald here.

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A former University of Oregon professor is suing the school because he claims that he was discriminated against because of his Asian-American heritage and his boss made him do odd, unethical chores. The amount of the lawsuit is unknown.

The plaintiff, Dr. Yongli Zhang, was born in China and immigrated to the U.S. in 2003 when he was 27. He joined the University of Oregon in 2009 to teach business, according to the lawsuit

Plaintiff and former UO professor Dr. Yongli Zhang (Courtesy of ResearchGate)

The defendant is one of Zhang’s coworkers, Dr. Yue Fang, and is being sued along with the school. Fang was one of three members reviewing Zhang’s tenure application. Fang is also Chinese-American.

The lawsuit states that Fang “forced” Zhang to help his son with a high-school science project. It also states that Fang forced Zhang to “falsely include Fang’s high school-aged daughter’s name in the enrollment in one of Zhang’s classes so that she should earn college credit.” Also, the lawsuit states that Zhang was forced to loan Fang $40,000 to buy a new home.

UO spokesman Tobin Klinger wrote in an email to The Emerald that “The University disagrees with the allegations and will address them in the court proceedings,” but is unable to provide additional details.

The defendant, Dr. Yue Fang (Courtesy of University of Oregon)

The lawsuit implies that Fang acted in such a manner because “the Chinese culture that Zhang grew up in required a respect for elders and senior colleagues.” The lawsuit also says that because of the small size of the Chinese-American community, “Fang knew that the more recent immigrants like Zhang tend to rely on more established immigrants like Fang for guidance and assistance in navigating the American workplace.”

But then, according to the lawsuit, Fang asked for credit in one of Zhang’s research papers, although he was not involved with it.

“Because Fang was upset at Zhang’s refusal and because Zhang’s conduct no longer fit
Fang’s stereotype of a subservient Chinese immigrant, Fang used his influence to deny Zhang’s tenure application,” in 2015.

According to the lawsuit, UO didn’t grant Zhang a tenure position, didn’t renew his “expected” contract and conducted no investigation into the matter.

The lawsuit states that Zhang was “confident in the prospects of his tenure application,” which included five publications in academic journals, two papers in first-round review and one paper ready for submission.

Dr. Fang, the defendant, still teaches at the UO Lundquist College of Business.

The Emerald reached out the Zhang’s lawyer, David Griggs of Griggs Law Group, for comment but did not immediately hear back.

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A hit-and-run on Sunday that left two 19-year-old women injured has caused their parents to seek help finding the suspect. They are offering a $1,000 reward.

The two women, UO students Emma Hill and Sarah Oldham were walking home on Sunday at 1:15 a.m. when they were struck by a white sedan with California license plate on the intersection of Hilyard Street and East 14th Ave., according to the police report. Hill suffered a fractured right wrist and a bruised face, according to Hill’s mother, Genevieve Chesnut. Chesnut said Oldham suffered a fractured shoulder and a knee injury.

According to the police report, one witness, Zackary Kuhn, said that the sedan was a white Honda Accord with a California license place resembling 05374, 0734 or 057374. Kuhn said the driver was a male with darker skin wearing a dark shirt, and a female and two males were in the back seat.

Kuhn also stated that the car clipped his right ankle before hitting the Hill and Oldham.

The two victims’ parents have set up an email, hitandruneugene@gmail.com, asking for help in finding the suspect.

Location of the accident, which happened Sunday, Jan. 21 at 1:15 a.m.:

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Movies about the watchdog element in news media are now more important than ever. And because of President Trump’s frequent bashing and undermining of the press, “The Post’s” timing couldn’t be more perfect. That historical context is what makes movies like this one special.

“The Post,” directed by Steven Spielberg, tells the true story of Katherine Graham (Meryl Streep), the strong-willed but protective owner of the Washington Post in the 1970s. Her struggle between choosing what’s best for her business and what’s best for the public — knowledge of the truth behind the Vietnam War — makes up the film’s central conflict.

That truth dwelled in a top-secret leaked report called the Pentagon Papers. The New York Times was the first to report on the story, threatening President Richard Nixon’s public image and causing him to obtain a court injunction that forced the Times to keep the story out of print.

But The Washington Post got its hands on a copy of the report too, and Graham had to decide whether to publish the report — risking jail time and losing her business —  or submit to the will of the president.

In perhaps the most powerful scene, just after Graham makes up her mind, legendary Managing Editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) picks up the phone and rings the pressmen waiting to run the press. “It’s Ben,” he says. “Run.”

And that was the decision: to publish the Pentagon Papers on the front page of the Washington Post.

The movie also pits the New York Times against the Washington Post — two of the most powerful newspapers in the country at that time. The battle to get the scoop, and to be the first to publish the many mini-stories within the Pentagon Papers, makes for an on-edge tension that’s hard to shake. But the leaders of the two papers end the movie united by a common enemy — Nixon’s administration — when they are summoned to the Supreme Court.

The acting alone makes the movie worth seeing. Bradlee — a hard-nosed, cursing editor seeking a fight — isn’t often a role that Hanks plays, but he plays the role with gusto, and pulls it off. And Streep brings out her character’s inner struggle in some tearful and laughable moments.

Many minor characters in the film are recognizable, too. “Better Call Saul’s” Bob Odenkirk and “Arrested Development’s” David Cross both play Washington Post reporters. Shots of hot metal typecast being stacked and sorted for printing the newspaper are sprinkled throughout the movie. The mechanical clattering of lead letters and ink pressed on paper is a throwback to the glory days of print journalism.

Movies about the newspaper industry often win major awards: “Citizen Kane” won Best Screenplay in the 1941 Academy Awards; “All the President’s Men” won four Academy Awards in 1977, including best Best Writing Adapted Screenplay; and Spotlight won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, in 2016.

And with award’s season coming soon, “The Post” deserves a spot among them.

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He calls himself fundamentally a bioengineer, but his next job is going to be bigger.

Robert Guldberg, a Georgia Tech professor and leader in scientific research, will be the executive director of Oregon’s $1 billion scientific school, The Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact, according to an announcement on AroundtheO Monday.

He currently holds Georgia Tech’s Director’s Chair for the bioengineering and bioscience school. He also is a faculty member of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech. 

He will manage an estimated 750 jobs created by the Knight Campus, set to open in 2020, and his starting annual salary is $550,000.

According to his Georgia Tech bio, his past research focuses on these scientific ventures:

• Musculoskeletal growth and development
• Functional regeneration following traumatic injury
• Degenerative diseases, including skeletal fragility and osteoarthritis

In his promotional video by UO, Guldberg said he appreciates a diverse team.

Guldberg earned his bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan.

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Professor Chris Sinclair walked into his Deady Hall office Wednesday and was blasted by a wave of 90-degree heat. Then he found that his glass whiteboard was shattered, apparently broken because of the rapid heating of his office, he said.

Deady’s 70-year-old steam heating system causes rooms to reach unbearable temperatures, usually during the fall and spring when the system can’t adjust to Oregon’s fluctuating weather. Students and faculty have been complaining for years, Sinclair said.

Faculty, students and administration agree the heat is an issue, and the UO is approaching the state legislature for funds to renovate Deady. But Deady’s funding will compete with four other “challenging buildings” on campus that UO also looks to be renovated.

A shattered pane of glass is seen in the office of math professor Christopher Sinclair in Deady Hall. (Adam Eberhardt/Emerald)

Although Sinclair can’t prove the heat broke the glass, he said the heat in Deady is a “perennial problem.”

Sherilyn Schwartz, building manager of Deady Hall, agrees that the heat is a problem, especially in October when temperatures are much lower at night than during the day.

“The transition periods are the worst. It can be way too warm in the winter,” she said

She said the heating system needs to be upgraded. Schwartz mentioned two options for solving the heat problem: Installing an external heating system, which would cost over $1 million, or refurbish the building. She didn’t know how much that would cost.

“I would like to see it refurbished,” she said.

Deady Hall is heated by steam with one pipe that either turns it on or off. The system was last upgraded in the 1940s or ’50s, Schwartz said. The heat turns on in the fall when temperatures fall below 50 degrees at night for at least five consecutive days and doesn’t climb above 70 degrees during the day.

Sinclair’s office floor was covered in shattered glass. The room smelled like hot chemicals. “It’s kind of a disaster area,” he said. Sweat dripped down his forehead while he spoke. Shards lay five feet away from the spot on the wall where the whiteboard once hung.

Glass can break from thermal shock if it’s heated up or cooled down too quickly, but that also depends on minor flaws in the glass. Sinclair said the glass that broke was around $100. He also has another glass whiteboard in his office that didn’t shatter.

“This week has just been hell in here,” he said. “My concern is having an office where I can actually do work.”

Students sometimes jam chairs in the windows of Deady to let in cold air because the counterweights in the windows are broken. But Sinclair said faculty has to close all the windows at night “because bats are a problem.” And that causes the heat to get worse.

Due to the excessive heat inside of Deady Hall, students propped open a window with a chair. (Adam Eberhardt/Emerald)

Miranda Braman, a freshman majoring in math, said some rooms in Deady hit 90 degrees, and sometimes her classes end early because of it.

“It just makes you more tired and you don’t want to be in the room,” she said.

Another student, Andrew Lebovitz, earning his Ph.D in mathematics, is gathering support to get Deady Hall’s heating issue recognized and to “put pressure on the university to have the problem addressed,” he said. He’s been interviewing students and taking temperature readings, beginning last week, and he said some of the readings have been 87 degrees.

“I’ve never experienced working conditions like I have in Deady Hall,” Lebovitz said.

Deady also doesn’t have an air-conditioning system.

Deady Hall is the University of Oregon’s oldest building. It was built in 1876. It currently houses the math department. In 1972 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1977 it was designated the rare title of a National Historic Landmark.

Looking to renovate through state funding

Mike Harwood, associate vice president for Campus Planning and Facilities Management, is helping put together a request for the state legislature to fund renovations to problem buildings at UO. He’s identified Deady and four other buildings that need fixing.

During a 2015 attempt to get the state to fund the buildings, Deady was third on the list. But none of the projects on that list were funded, he said.

“Part of the challenge was that the Knight Campus came along and we were looking for matching funds for that initiative. And we were hoping that we weren’t going to compete in our other priorities,” he said. “Unfortunately it seems like the path the legislature took was to not give us a second project.”

The other buildings on the list are Villard Hall, Huestis Hall, Klamath Hall and Onyx Bridge.

Harwood said UO recently hired five architectural firms to do a 60-day, top-to-bottom evaluation of the things that need to be corrected in those five buildings. They are due Nov. 3.

Mike Harwood, associate vice president for Campus Planning and Facilities Management (Courtesy of AroundtheO)

“Once we have those then we’re going to start to prioritize,” he said. “It could be that Deady is No. 1 and it could be that Deady is No. 5.”

After the reports come in, Harwood will collaborate with UO administrators and the Higher Education Coordinating Committee to develop a collective list to bring to the legislature in spring of 2019.

Harwood thinks the legislature will soon be more interested in funding renovations for all of the Oregon universities’ old buildings, instead of funding new construction.

“I think folks are finally understanding that we got a lot of problems across the state, across institutions with buildings that have not had enough resources from the legislature to keep on top of all the system requirements that degrade over time,” he said.

Harwood said Deady’s best-case scenario is getting approved for funding in 2019 and the workers completing the project by 2021 or 2022.

“I think today’s freshmen might graduate before seeing the building improvements that we would make to Deady Hall,” he said.

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University officials confirmed an anonymous donation of $50 million to be spent at the discretion of President Michael Schill on Friday morning.

The university was responding to an article in the Register-Guard that stated a fund called the “Presidential Fund for Excellence” was created with the donation, and that none of the money would be used to fund ongoing operational costs for the University.

UO spokesman Tobin Klinger said Schill will be speaking about the donation during his “State of the University” speech at 11 a.m. today in the EMU Ballroom.

Check back for reports later today of the speech from the Daily Emerald.

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