The sun is out, syllabi have been distributed, ASUO elections are here to haunt and taunt us and finding parking has become a competitive sport once again. Smells like the start of spring term to me!
If national politics weren’t giving you premature wrinkles from all the times you raised your eyebrows in awe, you can count on the ASUO elections to do the job. Looking to lead the university’s student government are three individuals, representing three different slates: Zach Rentschler for One Oregon, Samara Mokaya for Duck Squad and Quinn Haaga for I’m with UO.
If this year’s election season is going to be anything like past years, you can expect some forceful campaigning, petty grievances and other dramatic twists and turns, sometimes involving lawsuits and arrests.
It’s quite humorous to me because as someone who has never been involved with student government, it seems like there’s a lot of commotion around springtime elections. Then once it’s all over, students retreat and the ASUO continues quietly doing the same (busy) work it has always done.
But, as one for democracy and inalienable rights, I encourage you all to vote. You never know, maybe positive change and progression on our campus will come from one of these slates. Voting opens on Monday, April 4. Make sure you peruse the Emerald’s “A crash-course on student government at UO” parts 1, 2 and 3 at dailyemerald.com to understand how it all works.
“Let’s not make this a popularity contest” is what people say about campus elections and about last week’s Instagram Algorithm Apocalypse threat. For days leading up to March 29, the photo-sharing platform was abuzz about a proposed update that would order Instagram users’ newsfeeds by whom they interact with most rather than in reverse chronological order, as it is now.
This idea of algorithmic sorting left people disgruntled, along with some companies and other organizations that count on Instagram as a promotion tool. I personally don’t see this as a huge deal — some people I follow but don’t like or comment on their posts that much would fall to the bottom of my feed. Facebook made a similar change a while back and that seems to be working.
Because of all the negative feedback Instagram received about the update and all the aggressive PSAs warning people about the coming “apocalypse,” Instagram tweeted on March 29: “We’re listening and we assure you nothing is changing with your feed right now. We promise to let you know when changes roll out broadly.”
May the ‘gramming commence, artists.
Other news blowing up my feed, unfortunately, was the UO men’s basketball team’s loss in the NCAA  tournament. It is sad that the Ducks’ run is over, but we can be proud of how far they got.
Head coach Mike Krzyewski and his No. 4 Duke squad were outscored by the No. 1 Ducks in the Sweet 16 82-68.
 

It was an absolute spectacle of a game! Stars like Kobe Bryant and wife Vanessa were in attendance. It all ended with a cherry on top when Dillon Brooks hit a three-point shot at the buzzer that made Coach K’s Blue Devil horns expose themselves.
The Duke leader had to spend March 25 apologizing to Oregon head coach Dana Altman and Brooks himself for his statement after the defeat in which he said Brooks is “too good of a player to be showing off in the end.”
Oregon’s game against No. 2 Oklahoma was also an exciting show, but sadly not for Duck fans, resulting in a 80-68 defeat. The Sooners’ Buddy Hield was a force that could not be beat. The Oklahoma senior scored an impressive 37 points against the Ducks and he told fans to “blame it on Kobe.” Hield cozied up with the retiring Laker during Oklahoma’s Sweet 16 game against Texas A&M and the rest is history — a love story for the books.