The 2015-2016 school year was full of protests, rallies and new faces in administration and other departments. Here are five of the stories that had some of the biggest impacts on the University of Oregon:

UCC shooting and recovery

Fall term began with a national tragedy. On the morning of Oct. 1, a shooter at the Umpqua Community College campus killed nine people and left seven others wounded. The shooter acted alone and was also killed after exchanging gunfire with police. The UCC campus closed down until Oct. 5.

Meanwhile, Eugene and students at the UO organized various outpourings of support, holding a candlelight vigil in Alton Baker Park on Oct. 4. The university also organized a vigil the following night. In their next game against the Colorado Buffaloes, Oregon football players sported ribbon stickers on their helmets in support of UCC, and the same ribbon was emblazoned on the field at Autzen Stadium.
 
 

Black UO students demand to be heard

The eyes of the nation turned toward the University of Missouri on Nov. 9, when the football team officially refused to practice or play for the school until the president of the university, Tim Wolfe, resigned. The strike echoed the demands of several Mizzou student groups, including a graduate student who participated in his own hunger strike for a week. The impacts of the demonstrations reached UO, where various student groups launched protests of their own.

On Nov. 13, the Black Women of Achievement organized a rally and march called “In solidarity with Mizzou,” which drew a crowd of around 500 people. Students, faculty and community members shared their experiences with racism at the university. After the rally, organizers formed the Black Student Task Force and met with UO administration to present a list of their own demands to “create a healthy and positive campus climate for black students.” These demands included renaming buildings like Deady and Dunn Hall, both of which are named for men who had connections with white supremacy groups.
In April, UO President Michael Schill and Vice President for Equity and Inclusion Yvette Alex-Assensoh published a letter to the campus community addressing six of the 12 demands from the BSTF. The actions that the UO plans to take by fall of 2016 include bringing six historically black fraternities and sororities to campus, establishing an African American advisory board and expanding efforts to recruit African American students. Efforts like renaming the buildings are expected to take longer to accomplish.
 

More turnover for UOPD

The University of Oregon Police Department struggled through a few snags this year. Most notably, three members of its department, Lieutenant Brandon Lebrecht, Sergeant Scott Cameron and Chief Carolyn McDermed, were ordered by a jury to pay $750,000 in a lawsuit against them. In 2014, former UOPD officer James Cleavenger said he was wrongfully terminated in a retaliatory manner for reporting misconduct within the department. Although the university expects to pay the damages through insurance if it loses its appeal, it may take time for the legacy of the department’s misconduct (which included a frequently updated list of people and things that officers classified as needing to “eat a bowl of dicks”) to fade. A few months after the loss in court, McDermed unexpectedly retired on Feb. 26 — even though she had appointments scheduled out for another week, including a meeting about Track Town 2016. A public records request filed by the Oregonian later revealed that the university paid McDermed $53,000, or the equivalent of the four months left on her contract plus two weeks of accrued vacation, to leave the position. The university brought back retired UOPD officer Pete Deshpande to fill the position temporarily and then accepted applications to replace him until May 19. The university said it plans to hire the new chief by the end of June.
 

Another year, another tuition raise

One of the key topics of student protests on the steps of Johnson Hall this year was tuition. On March 4,

the BOT approved a tuition increase of 4.7 percent for in-state students and 4.5 percent for out-of-state. In the past decade, tuition has almost doubled, and student leaders have led protests each year to fight against increases.
The Board of Trustees sets tuition after getting input from the Tuition and Fees Advisory Board, a process that alienated some students this year.
The TFAB has two student members to ensure that student voices are included in the tuition recommendation to the BOT. At a meeting in late January when both student members were absent, the TFAB decided on its tuition recommendation and then cancelled all its remaining meetings.

Fraternity and Sorority Life struggles to curb misconduct

Fall rush week ended with less-than-encouraging results about the rate of sexual assault among members of fraternity and sorority life. The latest survey released in October 2015 and conducted by UO psychology professor Jennifer Freyd showed that 35 percent of sorority women reported experiencing attempted or completed sexual contact during their time at the university, compared to 26 percent among non-sorority women. The 2015 results echoed similar survey results from 2014, which culminated in a moratorium on any expansion of FSL, including adding new chapters. Although the October results showed improvement over the previous year, the moratorium was extended in April following the results of another external review of FSL released in the same month that revealed other concerns about high-risk behavior in chapters.
But sexual assault wasn’t the only topic tied to FSL. Two fraternities, Delta Upsilon and Delta Tau Delta began accepting transgender men into their chapters. Delta Upsilon also extended its policy to ensure that all sexist and genderist language is not tolerated.
Fraternity Phi Delta Theta was suspended from campus for two years for an underage drinking incident, and Beta Theta Pi was disbanded for high-risk hazing behavior. The Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity returned to campus during winter term.

During the weekend of May 20, UO FSL came under national scrutiny after a massive littering incident at Lake Shasta. After photos of the litter — showing UO gear and a cooler painted with Lambda Chi Alpha’s letters and the words, “Do you wanna do some blow, man?” went viral, the university and the FSL community came under fire, despite the fact that the annual visit to the lake is not an official university or FSL-affiliated event. The UO Lambda Chi Alpha chapter was suspended by its national headquarters just a few hours after the photos went viral. Although fraternity and sorority members couldn’t initially go back to the lake to help cleanup crews because the litter was too hazardous, the students eventually returned to assist with the cleanup.