For decades, the Outdoor Program has been a staple of the UO community, offering a diverse range of services from scheduled trips and events to year-round gear rentals and bike loans. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, students and community members have been given even further incentive to explore the outdoors.
Junior Lucy Partridge transferred to the university in the fall of 2020 and found the Outdoor Program to be a crucial help during a year of virtual learning.
“I’d really been focused on school that year, and there were a lot of meetings on Zoom,” Partridge said. “Getting outside was really good for me because it allowed me to meet a lot of people in person and do bike rides, kayaking. It was great that we were still able to do that when so many programs on campus were closed.”
The Outdoor Program was only closed for about two months at the beginning of the pandemic. Social distancing protocols barred the program from using vans to transport students, forcing staff members like director Margaret Hoff to adapt. Yet they also saw an opportunity to foster community at a time when campus activities were predominantly virtual.
“We really felt like getting outside was one of the few things people could do, and that we had a responsibility to be resilient and figure out a way to make that happen,” Hoff said.
Thus, the Outdoor Program worked to sanitize equipment from the rental barn and bike shop while still offering socially-distanced services. Hoff noted self-guided tours –– hikes around Eugene, kayaking and river float trips –– were available at a time when the rest of campus was largely remote.
Since UO’s return to in-person services, the Outdoor Program has resumed its full offering of activities — and demand for them has skyrocketed to higher levels than before the pandemic began. “We’ll have an event with 10 open slots and we’ll easily get 30, 40 people who want those spots,” Hoff said. “If we had the resources to match demand, we could triple the amount of trips we’re currently doing.”
Partridge, now the program’s social media coordinator, has noticed students are increasingly using the outdoors to build a community. “I think it’s been great in particular for first-years, or people who were in the dorms last year all virtual and didn’t really have a way to meet people,” Partridge said. “If you’re introverted, if you just want to be outside… I think it’s a really positive force for your mental and social health.”
The Outdoor Program has also been working to emphasize inclusivity. “The perception people have had, for years, is that the outdoors is a white bro space when that’s absolutely not true,” Hoff said. “So we’ve been working to do a lot of queer hikes, we’ve partnered with the Black Cultural Center, [Native American Student Union]… and I think that we’re starting to be successful in being as welcoming as we need to be.”
Last year, it pledged $20,000 over the 2021-22 school year to broaden its reach among groups that have been historically marginalized or excluded from outdoor activities, offering free trips and events for student affinity groups. The program will also host the Redefining Outdoorsy Summit on Feb. 12, a speaker series that seeks to educate UO students about diversity, equity and inclusion in the outdoors.
Ultimately, Hoff believes being outdoors ought to be a universal experience. “People always say getting outside is important now more than ever, and I disagree with that,” Hoff said. “It’s always been a necessity. It’s just that people have been forced to slow down and find out that, yes, nature’s cool!”
For Partridge, the program couldn’t be a better fit. “I’ve never had a day where I didn’t want to go to work,” Partridge said. “It’s low-cost, it’s convenient and it’s accessible, and I encourage everybody, especially if you’re a beginner, to give it a try.”
Extended Reading: Redefining Outdoorsy with UO Outdoor Program
