The Holistic Options for Planet Earth Sustainability (HOPES) conference, an annual gathering hosted each spring term by the University of Oregon’s School of Architecture and Allied Arts, is one of the only student-run sustainability conferences in the United States.

The event features lectures, panel discussions, workshops, exhibitions, and nightly mixers. It is free and open to the UO community as well as the general public.

UO researchers recently completed a major national study on ways to best manage campus emergencies, the findings from which were spotlighted on The National Center for Campus Public Safety (NCCPS) website.

“The Umpqua Community College tragedy underscores the importance of campus emergency management programs,” said Robert Parker, director of the Community Service Center (CSC), the program in the UO’s Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management that completed the study.

Fall 2016 marked the 15th year that students in the Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management (PPPM) have partnered with local organizations to help draft strategic plans, providing a boost for community organizations with limited financial resources.

Zudegi Giordano, office coordinator in the Department of Planning, Public Policy, and Management, and Beth Roy, executive administrative assistant in the Department of Art, are among recipients of this year’s Outstanding Employee Awards at UO. They were honored during a reception at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art on November 30.

The City of Eugene is home to innumerable fire hydrants painted with eccentric designs: a Lego character, the Oregon Duck, a Dalmatian, a hula dancer, a squirming red squid, or simply a bunch of colorful dots.

But getting one of these idiosyncratic hydrants painted, surprisingly, isn't simple.

A&AA Dean Christoph Lindner moved from The Netherlands to Eugene in summer 2016 partly due to a program established at the UO. 

“One reason I uprooted my life from Amsterdam and came to Eugene included the Sustainable Cities Initiative,” Lindner told a crowd gathered in the Jaqua Academic Center for Student Athletes to kick off the SCI’s 2016–17 collaboration with the City of Albany, Oregon.

A&AA welcomes these new tenure-track faculty members for the 2016–17 academic year.

A story in the July 27 issue of the Woodburn Independent features the UO Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management’s course “Green Cities,” where a UO class is providing ideas for the City of Gervais to improve its efforts in sustainability. Several dozen students are participating in the summer class, learning about sustainability topics ranging from water conservation to economics. The class is taught by Instructor Ric Stephens.

The University of Oregon’s Sustainable City Year Program (SCYP) will be working once again in the Willamette Valley, this time in partnership with the City of Albany.

The City and the University of Oregon are planning twenty different projects for the 2016-17 academic year ranging from economic development to parks and recreation planning. Beginning in September, students from more than ten disciplines at the UO will work closely with the Albany community over the next year.

Christoph Lindner, professor of media and culture at the University of Amsterdam, will join UO as the new A&AA dean beginning August 15. With a CV that includes research in globalization, sustainability, and creative practice, Lindner brings a unique roster of qualifications and perspective to lead A&AA. We caught up with him recently to ask a few questions via e-mail about how he envisions A&AA’s future.