Getting back in the swing of things this spring term with an ASSOU Recap. The ASSOU April 11th meeting commenced with agenda approvals, minute corrections, and the Land Acknowledgement speech.
The budget for clubs has been approved for the next year, and the EPIC Heist event has been pushed back to a future date. ROTC is focusing on land navigation for their advanced camp event being held this summer. The SFBC meeting in regards to budget cut management was held off and pushed to a later date. The student fee increase was approved, now to $118 a term.
There was a survey that has now closed (as of April 15th) gauging students’ opinion on textbook affordability. The survey was conducted by students of University of Oregon in collaboration with the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission, focusing on the state-wide student opinions on no-cost and low-cost course materials.
To reiterate, starting next year, there will be changes to General Ed. requirements for degrees; University Seminar classes will be reimagined to serve students better by providing meaningful education. This will not affect the way University Seminars are taught; there will still be unique subjects/topics of discussion unique to each USEM professor. USEM 102 and 103 will become 122z and 123z, now functioning as writing courses. The FUSE essay will remain the same.
Students will now only need two lab science courses to meet their G-Strand, two classes for Humanities and Social Sciences, and the H.I.J. Strands no longer need all three to be satisfied, only requiring the J-Strand and either the H. or I. Strands to be met. The Degreeworks website will be updated as well (if it has not been already), changing the layout and adding functions– such as class descriptions including every strand they meet in Degreeworks. The General Ed. requirements will roughly be around 44 credits, giving students more room to take classes that interest them, rather than those that simply meet their degree requirements.
Certificates will also be more accessible for students to apply for, and allowing students who have already graduated or will be graduating to apply for a certificate as a post-bac through Student Success Coordinators.
There was a planned discussion and voting for the Election rules, but it was pushed back.
For some final announcements;
- Merlin Gerhard is working on a project encompassing poetry from transgender poets. You can reach out to Gerhard via email at gerhardl@sou.edu
- The Oregon Fringe Festival is coming soon, starting April 26nd and ending April 30th. The Fringe Festival showcases a menagerie of art, ranging in content, media/format, and style; Paintings and sculptures, plays, music, cinema, etc.
The meeting was adjourned after each member gave out kudos. Keep an eye out for upcoming ASSOU meetings, held every Tuesday at 6:00pm on the third floor of the SU.
