(Eleanor Klock/Daily Emerald)
On June 3 the University of Oregon Board of Trustees had their final meeting for the 2023-24 academic year. During the meeting they discussed a wide range of topics including future housing projects, structural changes in the College of Education and issues surrounding Federal Student Aid.
The Board discussed FAFSA and changes to its language in order to reduce confusion, as well as difficulties with FAFSA’s SSN filing issues — something which has caused problems for students.
FAFSA processing did not begin until early March and even then only occurred in small batches, which caused filing numbers to decrease.
According to the National College Attainment Network Tracker, the largest changes to FAFSA filing became visible on March 29, when a decrease of 39.6% was recorded.
These issues produced delays in financial aid offers to students. No offers were made by mid-April 2024. In Fall 2023, a total of 25,170 offers had been made; the following year only 19,440 were made.
Changes made on campus include east campus housing efforts for a new residence hall — plans for which were first finalized in 2003. The new residence hall will most likely be built behind Kalapuya Ilihi, and additional buildings will be constructed next to Global Scholars hall and Justice Bean hall.
Destruction of houses in the surrounding neighborhood where the new residence halls will be built will begin in May 2025, before construction begins the following July.
Zadie Niedergang, a first year biochemistry major, shared their perspective on the housing plans.
“As I understand it, a lot of the residential housing right there is university owned, like grad student and family housing,” Niedergang said. “I have a couple of friends, like non-traditional students who live in those houses, and I think it’s really beneficial because it’s a mix of university housing and normal housing. I think that in a lot of ways, the University of Oregon is taking over Eugene.”
The College of Education’s plan for educator equity is designed to restructure the college’s retention of educators and professors from varying backgrounds. Changes in education within the classroom will take place as well, making emotional and social learning practices a priority for students.
According to the presentation made by the Dean of the College of Education Laura Lee McIntyre,, and Associate Dean Dianna Carrizales-Engelmann, programs such as affinity groups, social justice and first year mentoring “are all conducted in addition to the rigorous content and equity centered programming.”
Jessi Steward, the senior associate director of the Erb Memorial Union and the director of Student Engagement programs, noted that student oriented programs will typically revise their structure following the academic year.
“I think there are always changes,” Steward said. “You know, every program looks at what’s working and does a good assessment of ‘how well did that work?’ and ‘what can we do to make it a little bit better.’ So I would say there’s always incremental change.”
