Multiple University of Oregon students, faculty and community members voiced their concerns over labor relations, free speech and climate action at UO’s Board of Trustees meeting on March 18.
During the public comment session of the meeting, multiple United Academics of UO and UO Student Workers Union members emphasized the possibility of a potential strike during the upcoming spring term.
“For the first time we could see a faculty strike starting as early as March 31st, the first week of spring term,” Mike Urbancic, president of UA, said.
UO faculty continued to express their desire for higher faculty pay and resolution in collective bargaining.
“If shortchanging the faculty at this junction has been a foundational assumption underpinning the administration’s budgets and initiatives in recent years, that would be inexcusable, indefensible and categorically unacceptable,” Urbancic said.
Several pro-Palestine students voiced concerns regarding the issuing of code of conduct violations to students involved in pro-Palestine protests given the recent arrest of Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University.
“I stand behind Students for Justice in Palestine’s demand for amnesty for student protesters being pursued by UO code of conduct violations. I demand that UO call for the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil and denounce student activists’ arrests,” UO student Bella Esbeck said.
UO Board of Trustees Chairman Steve Howerda said the code of conduct violations were “not always a freedom of speech issue (when students) go outside the guardrails of what society has put in place.”
“Sometimes the line is crossed and maybe that is a time to take a deep breath so the line is not crossed,” Howerda said.
Some students voiced their concerns over UO’s response to the ongoing Israel-Hamas War.
“If you do not act upon our demands of disclosure and condemning political persecution of student activists, the legacy of this board and you, (UO President John) Karl Scholz, will be one of complicity in genocide,” Phia Dornberg, a UO student, said.
Dornberg ended her statement by uttering a swear word at the board.
“Despite being a public institution by the people, for the people, you’ve denied a very basic demand of disclosure and financial transparency. F— you,” Dornberg said.
Several students attended in support of a transition from a gas fire boiler system to an electric boiler heating system, which would cost approximately 45 million dollars, and 3.5 to 5.4 million annually for operations, according to the meeting’s agenda.
The boiler heating system would also result in a ”radical” reduction of greenhouse gas emissions “surpassing” the goal of reducing 80% by 2050, the goal set by the Oregon legislature in 2019.
UO student Mia Luscher spoke in support of the transition to an electric boiler heating system.
“Myself and thousands of other students pay an exorbitant amount to call ourselves Ducks, and our voices should be heard. We care about the decarbonization of UO,” Luscher said. “In order for us, the young people of the world, and our children to thrive, we need your support to fix a problem that none of us started.”
Associated Students of the UO also spoke during the meeting.
ASUO requested an increase to their incidental fee — a mandatory fee all UO students pay — of 5.68 percent to $8.25 per student for the 2026 academic year.
According to Tiera Garrety, the ASUO finance committee chair, the request will help ASUO support 160 campus clubs and organizations.
Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer Jamie Moffitt spoke about the university’s budget.
Moffitt said there was a $3 million deficit partly due to fewer incoming out-of-state students than projected.
“I am more worried about setting ourselves up sustainably in the future so our revenue is covering cost,” Moffitt said.
In his “President’s Report,” Scholz listed some issues facing UO including the increase in out of state students, union negotiations, and government funding shifts.
“We are on top of what is going on. At the same time, the confluence and challenges we are now navigating is unlike anything I’ve seen in my 30 plus years in education. It will take all members of the UO community: students, staff, faculty, trustees, alumni and others who care about the university pulling together to help us meet this moment,” Scholz said.
jazz • Mar 23, 2025 at 10:57 am
Says the ODE: “Some students voiced their concerns over UO’s response to the ongoing Israel-Hamas War.”
To this: “If you do not act upon our demands of disclosure and condemning political persecution of student activists, the legacy of this board and you, (UO President John) Karl Scholz, will be one of complicity in genocide,” Phia Dornberg, a UO student, said. Dornberg ended her statement by uttering a swear word at the
board. “Despite being a public institution by the people, for the people, you’ve denied a very basic demand of disclosure and financial transparency. F— you,” Dornberg said.
I find it to be a sad day for journalism when such behaviors are euphemistically described as ‘voicing concerns’. This is about shouting “demands,” laying down F-bombs and students who have never contributed one cent to the school.
A series of administrations are responsible for allowing this kind of sanctimonious immaturity, contempt, and piety to become normalized at Oregon. Their longstanding policy is to look the other way, ostensibly in the name of free speech, which has led to such a devolution of critical thinking that Oregon students either can’t or won’t dare acknowledge the 1300 mass murders that led to the current predicament in Israel. Did a single protester show up at the EMU fishbowl to protest the October 7 slaughter that started this mess? No. Or is this business of supposedly being about peace really just propaganda? Yes.
The lameness of Oregon administrators has empowered hysterical individuals who knowingly represent groups who have called for, and still call for, the outright annihilation of the Jewish state for seventy-five years. They have created an atmosphere where a bunch of students were literally allowed to take over Johnson Hall, trash it, and then walk off wearing masks.
So, now, thankfully, Johnson Hall is about to be made to take control of this campus. Here’s a guarantee: they will capitulate just like Columbia did, yet not because this long-overdue correction requires those “who care about the university pulling together,” if past behaviors are to count for anything.
Sometimes, watershed shifts occur because those that need to be pushed really only care about their career tracks and money.
Same end result.