Today in my history lecture, I had a hard time listening to a lesson about sexually transmitted diseases during the Victorian Era because of the loud sounds of machinery going on across the street.
The usual, pleasant noise of campus has continuously been drowned out this year due to all the construction, and it seems like when one project is done, another starts. The EMU, for example, is nearing its end in renovations, but then there’s the science library that’s still a work in progress and a Chapman Hall remodel is on the way.
It’s true that with construction comes both audible and visual ugliness, but the end product is usually worth it, no? I mean, the ogled-after, glass structure on the corner of 13th and Agate Street, nor Rome, were built in just one day.
It won’t be no Coliseum, but the science library seems to be coming together, slowly but surely, and  by July 2016, students and staff alike will be able to enjoy a more contemporary and useful space. With Cascade, Onyx and Willamette surrounding it, the Allan Price Science Commons will be above ground – unlike the old library that hadn’t been touched since ’62 – and will include a café and a lot more study space, including rooms designated for individual departments.
The way I see it is places like the science library are the breeding grounds for our future doctors, nurses, researchers and other science professionals, so these spaces should be made to be as beneficial to students as possible. We need these now-science majors to be able to successfully do things like catch and contain serious outbreaks of illnesses, such as norovirus.
PSA: If you are experiencing stomach pain, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting or symptoms of the like, visit the University Health Center ASAP. These are all possible results of having norovirus, a sickness that is said to be both very contagious and difficult to terminate. Over the last month or so, the Health Center has reported about 30 possible cases and 20 that meet the clinical criteria of the virus.
In order to keep our campus healthy, the UO Health Center medical director Richard Brunader says to keep commonly frequented areas sanitized. So, wipe down the next Stair Master you use. Pick up all the lettuce that falls out of your Chipotle bowl and onto the EMU tables. And don’t forget to get through the chorus of at least one Drake song while washing your hands.

As we all saw this past week, not all UO students know how to clean up after themselves. It has been a Duck tradition for some time now for members of Greek Life (and a handful of GDIs) to caravan down Interstate-5 at the end of May, grab an essential In-and-Out burger and enjoy the scenery of Northern California’s Lake Shasta. Along with sightseeing, the houseboats and tents full of college students have (just a smidge of) fun.
After a group traveled south to experience the aforementioned festivities this past weekend, images of trashed Lake Shasta grounds surfaced on Facebook and went viral. These pictures from Facebook user Jennifer Vick Cox showed the obvious presence of individuals affiliated with the University of Oregon given the amount of Duck paraphernalia captured at the site, as well as visible Greek letters. For example, “Lambda Chi Alpha,” a UO fraternity, was written on a cooler, in the company of the following statement: “Do you wanna do some blow man?”
As much as I love the movie Frozen and the song, “Do you want to build a snowman?” the actions of these individuals are absolutely tasteless and unnecessary. The fraternity has been suspended by its national headquarters, and on May 24, men of the UO chapter apologized for the destruction at Lake Shasta saying they would work with the U.S. forest service to help with cleaning.
OK, now it’s everyone else’s turn to apologize. Lambda wasn’t the only group there, and what about the university itself?
Further footage from the ever-popular Slaughterhouse Island at Shasta from KRCR News shows yet another cooler with the Greek letters, Sigma Phi Epsilon, and the words, “Make America Great Again,” as a nice, cherry-on-top to the story.
Trump fans or not, no group of people should leave the amount of trash and equipment behind as this weekend’s Shasta visitors did. How about instead of “shastasizing” in a physical way every spring, those who make the trip in the future do some “shastasizing” in terms of morals and common courtesy instead?