So many exciting events and news have taken place on campus this year, from the Dalai Lama’s visit to the altercation between a law professor and student activists in the EMU amphitheater.
James Olmsted was caught on video harassing a student, taking his phone and putting it in his pocket during a confrontation that took place near the EMU amphitheater. The fight happened during a mock border check-in exercise organized by Students Against Imperialism. Now, Adell Amos is taking over all of Olmsted’s courses.
“We were prepared for having people who were not going to agree with us,” said Jaki Salgado a co-founder of students against imperialism. “We never expected anyone to come up to the group and be so blatantly racist.”
Soon after, the Oregon State Board of Higher Education voted to add the EMU renovation and expansion project to the Oregon University System’s Capital budget. The request was approved, and $84.3 million will be put in towards the renovation and expansion from the state. In November of 2012, a total of 4,006 students voted for the referendum put forth by the ASUO regarding the project, which meant that students will pay a $67 fee per term, starting fall of 2014 to help fund the project.
Later, news quickly spread that the UO Department of Public Safety would be turning into a full-armed police force, therefore changing its name to the UO Police Department, originally starting off the year an unarmed force. The name change would be a small step in the direction to a full-service force with 11 official officers in fall of 2012, with the intention to expand and is expected to take up to six years to do so. So far there has not been a change in the arms that campus officers carry, but as of Friday, June 7, 2013, the UO has decided to move forward with the decision of higher arms for the campus officers.
One of the biggest controversies this year was the Social Host Ordinance, which went into effect March 2 and holds residents criminally responsible for hosting, organizing and allowing an unruly event or social gathering. This ordinance states that property owners and event hosts can be penalized with multiple violations under one household. Residents effected soon after the ordinance was implemented reported that each resident was fined $350 for unruly gathering and $350 for noise complaint for a total of $700 total per resident.
“Every resident there (was fined), including the guy who just biked in from the bar while the cops were at our house — he wasn’t there, (but) he got the fine,” said one of the residents. “I was fast asleep in my room. They (the police) came and shined their lights through my window, I got the fine.”
The past year has been very successful for UO basketball but unfortunately Matthew Knight Arena was still unable to meet ticket sales expectations.The arena is expected to return $7.7 million in operating revenue — just over $3.2 million short of what it was projected to gross when the athletic department originally drew up a funding model back in December of 2010.
Throughout the year we have had our ups and downs here on campus, but overall, it is just another school year in the life of a student.