The highlight of the evening, by far, was the awarding of the Community Service Award to Richard Lariviere. Seeing Richard receive this award and such a warm welcome from our community was quite the treat. Richard is well known for his community-wide efforts to increase access to public education for all communities, civil rights, civic engagement, and for fighting intolerance and injustice throughout Oregon. He has been and continues to be a champion of civil rights, and his efforts did not go unnoticed in the short time we had the privilege of him serving as our University President. He is missed.

I also had the chance to meet with the newly formed Parent Leadership Team, a group of engaged parents who are developing regional chapters of UO parent groups all over the United States. These groups will be focusing on providing the University with the most up-to-date issues and concerns that parents have, as well as serving as a problem-solving arm for the University with matters like transporting their students home during the break periods to planning successful watch parties in their areas. Fundraising and providing needed resources in key areas will also be a focus of the group. It was great to meet so many involved and enthusiastic parents!

Our very own Kees deKluyver, Dean of the Lundquist School of Business provided the keynote address to the parent group. He was inspiring and entertaining as usual!

Congratulations to all of our winners:

• Donella-Elizabeth Alston, Administrative Program Assistant, Department of Ethnic Studies.
• Tayah Lin Butler, Academic Advisor, Building Business Leaders Project, Lundquist College of Business
• Shaul Cohen, Associate Professor, Department of Geography
• Reagan Le, Academic Advisor, Office of Multicultural Academic Success
• Dominick Vetri, Professor, Law School

The Holden Center’s service learning program organized a day of service at the SOVA Community Food & Resource Program’ food pantry today. It was a fantastic event. UO students, staff, faculty and administrators were on hand to help fill food boxes that will later be delivered to those without enough to eat. The Duck, Oregon cheerleaders, and the Oregon Marching Band joined together at the event as well and performed the fight song and other inspirational pieces to get us ready to go. It was hard work, but well worth it.

We have participated in a service project as part of our BCS bowl trip for three years in a row. We first became aware of this incredible way to give back to the host communities from Ohio State, who graciously partnered with us at their service-learning project three years ago. We promised we would “pay it forward” every chance we could, and that is exactly what we have been doing, and will continue to do so.

Service is central to the UO’s mission, and we strive to enact our commitment in our hometown, home state, nationwide, and globally. We know how important it is to give back, regardless of the community, and in appreciation for all that we have and the privileges that many of us enjoy.

Our students really understand the importance of service. As part of our service-learning program, UO students spend thousands of hours each year serving the community. They clean up parks, plant and harvest nutritious food, care for children with special needs, raise money for important causes, provide after school recreation and tutoring, and help build affordable housing.

It was indeed a pleasure to partner with our on-field opponents, the Wisconsin Badgers, and our hosts, the Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles, to extend our commitment of service to help the hungry in our host city where one in six Angelenos are without adequate food.

A special thanks goes to Deanna Chappell Belcher, Director of the UO’s Service Learning Program (http://serve.uoregon.edu/), for coordinating the event; as well as assistance and hearty participation from: Kathie Stanley, Kathy Holmes-Sullivan, Chicora Martin, Lori Landers, Alex Notman, Brenda Tuomi, David McCandless and the whole Student Affairs team. Ben Eckstein, ASUO President and Katie Taylor, ASUO Vice President were on hand, too. I would also like to thank Lori Berquam, Dean of Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the other Badger fans for participating with us. Hopefully, we will have another chance to assist another community next year.

Today marks the end of a presidency but not the end of what our University must accomplish going forward. The sign of a good leader is how the organization functions when the leader is no longer there. If an organization is solely dependent on the charisma and influence of the leader, it is really about the leader and not the goals and values of the organization. However, if an organization can continue moving forward and knows what it needs to do regardless of the leader, you know you are on the right track. While we will surely miss his daily presence and leadership, he has left the University stronger than when he arrived.

One of the things that he engendered and inspired in us is to be bold and to take chances. President Lariviere had an uncanny ability to make you think that everything was your idea; that the reason why we were doing well was because of what we as individuals were accomplishing collectively. He was so fond of saying, “You guys don’t know how good you really are.” It’s time for us to demonstrate why he always said that. We must remember that and honor his tenure as the 16th University of Oregon president by moving forward with purpose and determination. Thanks for everything Richard. You will be missed, but not forgotten.

More than one hundred UO alumni, faculty, staff, and students gathered together for the first ever Multicultural Alumni Event at the University of Oregon. After contacting over 7,000 multicultural alums, we were thrilled to welcome home alumni who have been waiting for their university to invite them back to be a part of all of our success. I was honored to provide the keynote address for this illustrious event. This won’t be a one hit wonder—the UO Alumni Association and Student Affairs will spin off this success to help form multiple affinity alumni groups throughout Oregon as well as plan for the next reunion, as well as the establishment of a multicultural advisory committee and finding many opportunities for alumni to interact with our current students. It was a great afternoon and I look forward to our next opportunity to interact with our alums.

In 284 days, the University of Oregon will be an entirely smoke and tobacco-free campus. These efforts are part of a larger healthy campus initiative, but it’s also about a healthy environment. Becoming a smoke and tobacco free campus is not just a public health issue, but it is also a sustainability issue by helping to keep our campus green and more beautiful. Today, students, staff, and faculty picked up thousands of discarded cigarette butts that were strewn all over the campus grounds. When we go smoke and tobacco free next year, discarded cigarette butts will be a thing of the past.

The U of O announced the policy change before any other school in the PAC-12, and several others have now followed suit. The ban is not only going to affect cigarette smokers, but also users of other tobacco products, like smokeless tobacco. It’s good for our health and it’s good for the UO.

After a vigorous and spirited debate and campaign, the fate of the EMU/SRC referendum was decided: less than 200 votes shy of an affirmative vote to renovate and remodel the Student Recreation Center and less than 700 votes shy to renovate and expand the EMU. As disappointing as the results were for some, the need to completely renovate and remodel these facilities stays the same—dire. The SRC continues to burst at the seams with interested students who need a place to exercise, take PE classes, and play intramural sports. The addition of more and more students on the campus only makes the workout space less and less adequate.

The EMU has over 10 million dollars in deferred maintenance, is a maze of corners, inefficient spaces, and is severely limited in form and substance. It is time to start and really make the student union into the hearth of campus that it really can be. Full-fledged conference facilities, doubling the amount of student organizational space, and the addition of a world-class concert hall are just some of the amenities that we could achieve with a renovation. It is not unusual for a referendum to fail the first time through. We were hoping we would not suffer the same fate, but we remain committed to the goal of providing students with the facilities they want and deserve. We will regroup, and provide more education about the benefits to the campus and the entire campus community.