ENVIRONMENTAL PHOTOGRAPHY

TREACHEROUS LANDSCAPES

In an environmental photography exhibit, Ron Jude encapsulates the earth in 20 magnificent images, aiming to raise awareness about humans’ environmental impact.

BY TREVER BOLTON

Underneath you right now is an immense amount of earth, 1,802 miles to the core. We often forget how much Earth we have paved over or leveled to create and foster our bustling lives. The recent Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art exhibit, “12 Hz” by Ron Jude, amplifies the faces of rock, stone, granite and all of Earth’s familiar hard foundation in all its glory. The large 56 x 42 inches black and white photographs are paired with an audio installation by Joshua Bonnetta that includes field recordings and seismic readings of our Earth's subtle movements. Coming from speakers in the corners of the white walled exhibit, the low humming and groaning of the earth washes over the atmosphere. Its deepness of sound parallels the rocks that are exposed by the shifting of the earth in the photos.

The exhibit was put on as a part of the Barry Lopez Foundation for Art and Environment, which is an environmental advocacy group that puts on arts exhibits to spread awareness of climate change. Jude, with Toby Jurovics, the director of the Barry Lopez Foundation, organized the traveling exhibit and narrowed it down to 20 photos out of more than 40. These captured moments are from Oregon, California, Hawaii and Iceland.

“In the beginning, I didn't really know what the work was. I was just sort of making it to see if I could get some traction with it,” Jude said. “But it was pretty early on that I knew something was happening.”

Capturing the focused landscapes of Oregon started off as just exploring the new state for Jude as he grew up in Idaho. “It's a process of discovery really. I go to a location, and I just tune into it and try to figure out what could sort of work in service to the bigger ideas that I have about the work,” Jude said. Bigger ideas of environmental awareness through these photos quickly became the theme for the work.

Two of the most stunning works in the exhibit is “Glacial Ice with Foliation #2” and “Glacial Ice with Foliation #3” which are only two parts of a much larger image. Just the two on their own show a magnificent scale for the icy subject. The beautiful natural structure of ice shows us the strength of the glacier that has cut and exposed earth’s landscapes through the ages with its slow movements. It also captures the sadness as you see the melting curves on the surface impacted by the slow heating of the earth due to our excess consumption.

Jude captures the layers of rock to make them look like silky flowing waves, showcasing beauty that is often overlooked. He also captures the waves of the ocean in “Marine Layer,” making the treacherous water frozen like the earth it carves.

“One of the main things that stands out to me is all the texture in the pictures and the way they are exposed,” freshman Kyla Schmitt, a viewer of the exhibit, said. “I really like the ones with the seas where there’s a layer of mist over everything, it’s very ominous.”

Every image encapsulates what the Barry Lopez Foundation wants to communicate with the viewer. “How do we engage in a conversation about our relationship to the landscape of the natural world, and it's a very different thing in the 21st century than it was in the 20th. I think that a lot of our sort of expectations and hopes for the world are changing,” Jurovics said. Unearthing the exposed landscapes of rock brings our minds to parts of the earth we don’t appreciate often enough.

To enjoy these pieces, visit the JSMA where you can view the photos in all their gargantuan glory in the Schnitzer Gallery on the second floor. The exhibit will be there until March 13.

Ron Jude is a photographer and instructor at the University of Oregon. Jude’s exhibit “12 Hz” features black and white landscape photography from around the globe. “12 Hz” can be seen at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene. (Serei Hendrie/ Emerald)

OTHER EXHIBITS ON DISPLAY AT THE JSMA

ALEPH EARTH is open through Feb. 20, 2022 A collaborative exhibit that merges art, music and technology.

SALVADOR DALÍ: ILLUSTRATOR, PRINTMAKER, STORYTELLER is open through Feb. 27, 2022 A sampling of Salvador Dalí’s works of surrealism.

ART HEALS is open through Feb. 27, 2022 A collection of pieces created in the JSMA’s Art Heals program that works with healthcare providers and patients.

REMEMBER THIS: HUNG LIU AT TRILLIUM is open through Aug. 28, 2022 Chinese-American artist Hung Liu explores tradition, history, migration and social justice.

ASKING FOR A FRIEND:

PREPARING FOR THE VALENTINE'S DATE

(Alexis Barrett/Emerald ) 44 E 7th Ave in Eugene (corner of 7th Avenue & Willamette Street)

"What’s a nice low-key Valentine's date?"

-Valentines Day

Asking for a Friend is the Daily Emerald’s sex and relationship column. Every other week, Aisha Ghorashian answers anonymous questions about anything from how to date, to sex, to how to heal a broken heart. Submit a question here:

BY AISHA GHORASHIAN• TWITTER @AGHORASHIAN19

Valentine's Day is coming up! The day of flowers, red hearts, candy, appreciation and spending time with your partner. Searching for the perfect date for your loved one can lead to added stress. Well, you can stop losing sleep because here are some nice and not too intense dates for you and your person!

Cooking a small homemade dinner

together: This is a great date for those who are more introverted and want to spend time alone. Cooking seems daunting but there are some college friendly recipes that will make you feel like a gourmet chef. Some fun recipes include: DIY pizza night or salmon date night, from Lauren Leone’s College Cooking column, or shrimp scampi.

Wine/cider/beer tasting: If you are of age, grabbing a drink together could be very fun. Most wineries or breweries have decent prices and have an intimate setting that can be very romantic for you and your partner. Eugene has an abundance of wineries/breweries nearby! 255 Madison is a calm wine bar that has a very laid back vibe with affordable drinks. For beer lovers, Ninkasi Better Living Room has the cutest bright blue decor with very tasty brews.

Go on a hike: This may seem basic, but if you have a car and can get out of Eugene, there are some beautiful hikes that are about 1.5 miles outside of Eugene. A hike allows you to disconnect from other people and reconnect together. Some great hikes near here include Blue Pool, Tidbits Mountain and Diamond Creek. To spice it up a little bit, there are a few hot springs that are a nice place to relax. Belknap Hot Springs is about an hour out of Eugene, and it offers a serene view of the river with piping hot pools to soak in. A little closer in, McCredie Hot Springs is an off-road spot that is more trafficked but also very fun to dip in after a hike.

Surprise them with breakfast in bed:

Now this is very intimate, but if you have that sort of relationship with your partner you can create a nice breakfast or brunch. This is a great date idea because it creates that intimate environment where you and your partner can feel close. Easy breakfasts to make are: waffles or pancakes with toppings, an egg omelet with avocado toast or a bagel and cream cheese. To add some flare, go ahead and give them a flower in an old drink bottle or write a cute little appreciation note.

Try a new restaurant: The goal is to spend time together, so trying something new can spark good conversation and hopefully a good time. Luckily, Eugene has some topnotch restaurants to try. For a full meal some great spots to try are: 1960 Cocina, Izakaya Meiji Company and Krob Krua Kitchen.

Craft Night: This may sound silly, but finding a fun craft to do together whether it’s painting, collaging or drawing can bring you close to one another. Even if you’re bad at crafts, doing the activity together can bring about fun conversations and allows you to create new and fun memories together. Whether that is crafting a fun art project or laughing about each other's abysmal skills, Eugene has some great stores where you can buy craft supplies! MECCA is a local store that sells used art/craft supplies.

There is this myth that Valentine's dates have to be extravagant. In reality, there are some amazing options that are cheap, fun and will make you appreciate the person you get to spend the day with. In the end, Valentine's Day is about being with your person and celebrating the relationship you have built together.

SESSIONS MUSIC HALL MAIN HALL SESSIONS MUSIC HALL LOUNGE FEB 11 FRIDAY 18+ AGES WELCOME 9PM DOORS 10PM SHOW FEB 13 SUNDAY 21+ AGES WELCOME 7PM DOORS 8PM SHOW

SESSIONS MUSIC HALL MAIN HALL SESSIONS MUSIC HALL MAIN HALL FEB 14 MONDAY 21+ AGES WELCOME 7PM DOORS 8PM SHOW FEB 18 FRIDAY 18+ AGES WELCOME 10PM DOORS 10PM SHOW

SESSIONS MUSIC HALL MAIN HALL SESSIONS MUSIC HALL MAIN HALL FEB 19 SATURDAY 21+ AGES WELCOME 8PM DOORS 9PM SHOW MARCH 3 THURSDAY 18+ AGES WELCOME 9PM DOORS 10PM SHOW

Eric Williams Jr. yells out after sinking a half court shot to end the half. The Oregon Ducks Men’s basketball team faces the Oregon State Beavers, on Jan. 29, 2022 at Matthew Knight Arena. (Serei Hendrie/Emerald)

UNRANKED AND UNDERAPPRECIATED,

OREGON’S SIXTH MAN JUST

WANTS TO WIN As Oregon men’s basketball has begun to right the ship, the Ducks’ sixth man and defensive conduit Eric Williams Jr. is helping keep them afloat. BY SHANE HOFFMANN • TWITTER @SHANE_HOFFMANN

This article originally appeared on The I-5 Corridor.

Eric Williams Jr. didn’t want to be known as the leading scorer on a team where success was sparse.

The numbers were historic, yet unsatisfactory. A spot in the record books, the accolades; it felt empty.

In his eyes, they didn’t prove a thing.

“I think winning games and being on a winning program means more,” the Oregon men’s basketball senior wing said. “I think that helps you moving forward.”

Williams Jr. broke out as a high school senior after transferring to New Haven — a 30 minute drive from his hometown of Port Huron, Mich. His scoring prowess, on display throughout New Haven’s run to the 2017 state championship, first brought him to Duquesne for college.

There he set a Duquesne single-game freshman record for points and rebounds, leading the team in both categories through his two-year stint in Pittsburgh. He hit a school-record nine 3s in a game as a freshman and once scored 40 as a sophomore. He had arrived, clawing his way out of the underthe-radar Michigan hoops scene and turning into a full-blown Division I success.

But it was a lack of team success — a 35-29 record in two seasons at Duquesne and no NCAA Tournament appearances — that pushed the then20-year-old west to Eugene, where he’s become a conduit for the Ducks’ mid-season surge in his second season with the team.

Williams Jr. just wants to win, and for this iteration of the Ducks, that means coming off the bench for the first time in his career. Time was ticking.

The Division I offer he so desperately desired hadn’t come and Williams Jr. was ready to settle, ready to commit to Davis & Elkins, a small Division II school in West Virginia.

The Michigan basketball scene is under-recruited. Not for lack of talent, rather the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s archaic rules. Teams can’t travel more than 300 miles for games during the season, limiting access to tournaments and competitions. Nationally televised games are out too.

“[Their rules] should have been changed 20 years ago,” Wendell Green Sr., the director of Michigan Playmakers, said. Williams Jr. played for the Detroitbased AAU program through high school.

The state has a single AAU shoe circuit team (private AAU leagues sponsored by shoe companies Nike, Adidas and Under Armour). These teams receive money and gear from the companies on a yearly basis

and often compete in national tournaments. Some states have three or four. The Family, out of Detroit, is Michigan’s sole program.

“That’s hurting kids in terms of image,” Green Sr. said. “A lot of our top kids have left and gone to prep schools and other top programs.”

Williams Jr. was never a part of The Family. He didn’t get the flashy shoes or gear either, and he missed the chance to showcase his talent at national tournaments. Parlay the lack of exposure with a 10-inch high school growth spurt and you can begin to understand why the records he set as a freshman at Duquesne came as such a surprise.

“There’s more kids that can be seen,” Auburn point guard Wendell Green Jr., who played alongside Williams Jr. on the Michigan Playmakers, said. “There for sure is a lot of kids that come out of Michigan that are underrecruited, but a lot of kids can play.”

Williams Jr. collected a host of NAIA and Division II offers after ascending into one of the state’s premiere talents as a junior.

But Division II wasn’t the goal.

He averaged 20.9 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 3.5 steals per game as a senior and was named Prep Hoops Class B Player of the Year.

Surely a Division I school could’ve used that?

“A lack of stars by your name, sometimes these coaches aren't taking the chance,” Green Sr. said.

Boler’s message: “Don't let anybody force you. If you feel like you can play at the Division I level, hold out. Bet on yourself.”

A week after the state championship, it came. Duquesne’s Keith Dambrot took the chance that many others wouldn’t.

Williams Jr. was going Division I.

After a string of lower body injuries in mid-December 2021 led to an uncharacteristic slump, Williams Jr. has found himself as Oregon’s sixth man: a career-low in minutes (27), points (8.5) and rebounds (4.9), the consequence.

It could be easy to chalk Williams Jr.’s decline in production for the Ducks this season up to regression, or an off year.

But look closer.

The Ducks (15-7, 8-3 Pac-12) are 10-2 since his move to the bench. Six of his nine double-digit scoring games have come on the road, where this Oregon team has garnered its best wins. He’s shooting 42% from 3-point range, best of his career.

“I just play my same game,” Williams Jr. said. “I’ve never really cared about coming off the bench or starting… It’s a team. We all win, or we all lose… I don’t go out there and worry about myself.”

He’ll often remain on the court in the team’s biggest moments. “Sixth starter” may be a better title for the forward.

“You get a guy coming off the bench that's as good as any one of your starters, can also go for 20 [points] and win a game for you, man, you're in a great place…” assistant coach Mike Mennenga said. “Those cats are important on a winning team.”

Last season was the first in more than six years that Williams Jr. wasn’t his team’s leading scorer. He adapted. Now he’s become the Ducks’ defensive disruptor on the perimeter.

“When he's locked in and focused, there's probably not a better defender in the Pac-12,” Mennenga said.

That’s the scary part: Those close to the sixth man believe he has yet to unlock his athletic potential.

The 30 minute drive back and forth to New Haven High School. The hour-long slog to Detroit for AAU practices and games. The road trips to local tournaments.

It all added up.

By the time Williams Jr.'s mother Clarice gave the family's 2008 Chevy Impala to a friend, it had more than 300,000 miles on it.

“This was our life once Eric started playing basketball at the age of four,” Clarice said. “We missed so many weddings, so many activities. Our family vacations were traveling for AAU.”

There were countless NAIA and Division II school visits, too. They’d drive hours to see some, eventually touring half a dozen. Family and close friends questioned the decision. Everyone in Williams Jr.’s corner believed he could do better. Why spend time and money on visits to schools he’d never attend?

“I taught Eric to be humble,” Clarice said. “We want to go visit everybody.”

It took a sprinkle of that same humility for Williams Jr. to accept his role as sixth man in what very well could be his final season before attempting to venture into the pros. It wasn’t instantaneous. But remember, Williams Jr. just wants to win. And when the wins came, his fingerprints sprawled across each, he found himself at peace with his new role.

“I could see him on the bench,” Clarice said. “He was smiling. He was jumping. That’s the Eric I know.” Ducks forward Eric Williams Jr. (50) passes to Ducks guard Chris Duarte (5). Oregon Ducks men's basketball take on Arizona Wildcats at the Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Ore., on Mar. 1, 2021. (Maddie Stellingwerf/Emerald)

De'Vion Harmon (5, right) lifts up Eric Williams Jr (left) after Williams sank a shot from half court to end the first half. The Oregon Ducks Men’s basketball team faces the Oregon State Beavers, on Jan. 29, 2022, at Matthew Knight Arena. (Serei Hendrie/Emerald)

Ducks forward Eric Williams Jr. (50) holds up the ball to pass while being closely guarded by UC Riverside. The University of Oregon Men’s basketball team defeated UC Riverside 71-65 on December 1, 2021, at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Ore. (Ian Enger/Emerald)

UO WANTS WORKERS TO FAIL

Wheeler: Thanks to student organizing we know that UO is cruel and uncaring to its workers, but this also allows us to see the radical restructuring that must be done.

Two members of UO Student Workers hold up posters with a scannable QR code to access their online survey. UO Student Workers is a student organization “interested in advocating for the interest of student workers,” says David Purucker, an organizer of the group. (Molly McPherson/Emerald)

BY PORTER WHEELER • TWITTER @DOCBATTINGTON

Student workers do the labor that allows our university to operate, working on the frontlines of the pandemic and the student body. They staff the dining and residence halls, the information desks, they clean campus and give tours to prospective students. From janitors to ambassadors, student workers operate at all levels of the University of Oregon. To call them essential is almost a misnomer; student workers are integral to the continued existence of the UO as a functioning institution.

Yet how is it that the workers that occupy all sorts of occupations on campus are systematically abused through low wages, understaffing and hostile management? It is unclear if UO is apathetic or malevolent, but it is a distinction without a difference, for the university has the ability and resources to provide livable working conditions. As such, the only explanation is that UO wants its workers to fail.

Despite all these students being employed by the same institution, their labor and experiences often remain separate. Before this term we only heard rumors, but a new campaign by the group UO Student Workers has begun to coalesce workers’ grievances. Beginning as an offshoot from campus’ Young Democratic Socialists of America late last November, UO Student Workers polls students on their experiences working for the university with an online survey.

I spoke to David Purucker, a graduate student and organizer of UO Student Workers, about the role of the group.

“It is a working class organization, interested in advocating for the interests of student workers,” Purucker said. “We’re interested in winning reforms to ameliorate the conditions facing student workers.”

By hearing from the community first hand, the group aims to leverage changes through UO by showing its working body the shared issues that linger in the workplace. Moreover, they hope to propose a bill of rights for student workers through ASUO, including a living wage, fair scheduling and basic labor protections.

“UO does not offer a living wage to those who are crucial to the functioning of this university,” Purucker said. “Student workers are left hungry, even when they’re surrounded by food.”

As of Jan. 6, UO Student Workers has received 100 survey responses from all kinds of student workers answering questions about their satisfaction with wages, hours and pandemic protection. The group has begun posting testimonials on their Instagram, and I was allowed access to the responses for the purposes of this story. Folks, it's much worse than we thought.

Respondents describe horrible treatment by management, unsafe working conditions and lack of training. The most common grievance was pay, with 61.2% of responses giving either a one or a two on a scale of five for satisfaction with compensation. Frustration was commonly expressed given that workers toil long shifts on top of a class schedule to make rent and put up with uncompassionate customers.

I sat down with Sibley, a former student dining worker in Carson and Global Scholars Hall who requested to only use her first name. Her experiences were a microcosm of the issues faced by the entire student working body.

“We are definitely abused by this university,” Sibley said. “They have all this money to take care of us, but they just decide we don’t matter.”

In her survey response she recalled feeling like an “expendable pawn,” regularly working five hour and 50 minute shifts as to not be given the break at six hours. It is honestly surprising UO still has a workforce despite bleeding laborers dry and the prevalence of jobs with better pay and conditions off campus.

“There are so many jobs, just leave,” Sibley said. “I wasted two years.”

These are not problems that can be fixed by quick changes in university policy or campus-wide emails, but only through bottom-up restructuring of UO’s working classes. We as a student body should feel radicalized upon hearing these experiences — not powerless — as another result from the survey found overwhelming support for potential worker organizing on campus, with 49.5% saying “yes” and 36.1% saying “maybe.”

The economic woes faced by student workers are a common struggle, and by lifting up the most exploited workers, we could leverage the conditions for all workers on campus. If you want proof that a united student coalition could bring change, it only took the UO’s graduate employee union one day of rallying outside Johnson Hall to make UO provide masks to all.

To UO students: Learn the names of those next to you, encourage those working to share their experiences and exercise solidarity with workers. As individuals, students can only beg on the whims of UO’s institutional power, but as a collective, we can demand.

Porter Wheeler is an opinion columnist at the Daily Emerald. As a student of global studies and cultural anthropology, he writes passionately about politics and culture through an intersectional lens.