OPLSS 2022 Info | University of Oregon

I'm not sure how the Pacific Northwest looks to people from other regions of the US and other countries.

Eugene is very low in terms of interpersonal crime, but higher in property crime. So, while none of my friends have ever been mugged, bikes left in the open on campus after 6PM are not safe.

Because of the mountainous nature of the Pacific Northwest, the rivers are well controlled by dams. The almost constant rain in winter can cause the ground to become unstable and trees to fall. Although there have been spectacular mudslides in the Pacific Northwest, they have generally been hundreds of miles from Eugene during the winter. We do not have hurricanes, but the wind can combine with the rain to cause trees to fall and knock out power lines. This really doesn't happen in summer, though. With global climate change, any sense of "normal" weather is a myth, but prior to 2000, it didn't rain in Oregon from June 21 to September 1. During OPLSS in 2009, this trend was broken when it rained at 8PM for about 30 seconds. Since then, it has rained several times during OPLSS, one year lasting all through the night.

Occasionally, we have very small earthquakes. They're so small that I usually don't notice until it's reported in the news. However, western Oregon is in the Cascadia Subduction Zone , which runs from Vancouver Island to Mendocino California , and makes up our local participation in the Ring of Fire . Each year, North America moves about 1 ½ inches to the left. This causes the Juan de Fuca Plate, which holds up the local bit of the Pacific Ocean, to be subducted under the North American Plate. Actually, it does not so much subduct as lock together and build up pressure. Then about every 500 years, a massive earthquake (about 9.0 magnitude with resulting North American/Asian tsunami) occurs and the plates slip past each other really fast only to lock up again. The last Cascadia earthquake happened on Jan 26, 1700 at 9PM, (we know the time even though there were no Europeans living here, because we know when the tsumani created devastation in Japan the next day) so your trip to Oregon will probably miss the destruction of the Pacific Northwest by about 30 years. I appologize for the lost tourism opportunity, but the next cascadia subduction event will be glorius when Vancouver, Portland and Seattle are destroyed in a massive fiery cataclysm.

In case you worried about war, the last time Oregon was involved in local fighting was 1942 in World War II, when a Japanese submarine fired on the military base at the mouth of the Columbia River, but missed and destroyed a local sports field instead. The kids were not playing there at the time. The same submarine then launched a plane which dropped two incendiary bombs into the forest, igniting fires that were quickly extinguished.

Before the 1940's, war with Britain almost broke out in 1846 over the border. Prior to that time, the word "Oregon" was claimed by Europeans to be a Native American word referring to a large, fresh water lake in what is now southern British Columbia. Linguists find no credible word in the 300+ Native American dialects spoken here, and there is no such lake, but when no lake was found, the word came to refer to the area from what is now southern British Columbia down to what is now the California-Oregon border. Although most European occupants of that territory were French fur trappers who worked for the Hudson Bay Company, which labeled the area of what is now all of British Columbia down to what is now Eugene, Oregon as the Columbia Department of the Hudson Bay Company, eventually the word Oregon referred the United States loyalists who wanted to extend American to the Pacific Ocean. The Oregonians had the slogan "54-40 or Fight!". Setting the border at the 54.4^th parallel would have given Oregon most of what is now Canadian British Columbia. The British wanted to extend British Columbia down to the 42^nd parallel, the top of what is now California, which was owned by Mexico at the time, thus denying the United States access to the Pacific Ocean. The Treaty of Oregon set the border at the 49^th parallel , the current border, and nobody fought. In 1871, the border was clarified by Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, an impartial observer, after the Pig War , a war between the US and Britain.
When the US invaded Iraq in 2003, the only UO Peace Studies major camped outside the University President's office in protest, thus closing the Peace Studies program due to war.

June 15, 2022

The restrooms in the North end of the Law Center promenade are marked "male" and "female". There is no law in Oregon about how to assign gender identity. The restrooms nearer the lecture hall are marked "Urinals and Stalls" and "Only Stalls".

The restrooms on the first floor of Fenton Hall are marked "male" (only one toilet) and "female" (two stalls). There are also single-use, all gender restrooms on the second floor. Across 13^th street from Fenton, Tykeson Hall has multiple-use restrooms. So, if you want to use the restroom during the lecture, you should use the ones down the hall to the North, but during the break, it may be more convenient to go out the South door, across the street and use those. They are not separated by gender.

On Monday, June 20, campus will observe the Juneteeth Holiday. The Law Center will be locked, but we will let you in. However, please be on time, since we will be going into the lecture at 9am, and there will not be anyone else in the building to let you in.

On Saturday, June 25, instead of entering the Law Center through the main entrance, which will be locked, you will have to enter the South door nearest the lecture hall.

On Saturday, July 2, to enter Fenton, the main entrance will be locked so, you will have to enter the South door nearest the lecture hall. The main entrance of Fenton is inconvient to access the lecture hall normally, since it requires stairs and the south door doesn't.

For the Participant Talks in Deschutes Hall, the building is locked at 5PM. I will let you in, but please be prompt, because when the talks begin at 8PM, I will be required in the hall on second floor.

June 9, 2022

Installed Software

Some speakers ask that you be prepared to run software along with them, or as exercises outside of the lectures. (See Steve Zdancewic and Thorsten Altenkirch) It is recommended you do that prior to OPLSS and test it out in case there are problems with your installation.

Meals

The cafeteria menu is posted online. Your room and board plan includes breakfast (7AM-9AM), lunch (NOON-2PM) and dinner (5PM-8PM). (The webpage may suggest other meals, because it is set-up for the academic year, which is different.) I will try to predict other groups using the cafeteria at the same time as us, and make announcements at lecture. In general, the youth athletic camps break for lunch at noon and resume at 1PM, so normally, you will do better to go to lunch at 12:45 or so. Similarly, the kids are hungry after physical activities, so they tend to eat dinner early. It is better to eat dinner at 6PM or 7PM, like a normal person.

Inter-Cultural Communication

For non-Americans, asking simple directions can be tricky. The points of reference that are valid in European cities are not the same in American cities. It is always better to ask me, or someone from Eugene, a specific question than a general one. For example, one year, a European woman said that Eugene natives act friendly, but they are really duplicitous. "How so?" I asked. "Well, every time I ask directions to downtown, they tell me how to get to the library." "Take the EMX to Eugene Station" "I don't want to go to the library. I want to go downtown." "Downtown is the library and the bus station and maybe Voodoo Doughnuts." "I want to go to the section of town with lots of dancing." "Well, you'll never find that downtown." She should have asked directions to Taylor's rather than directions to the library, because her cultural reference to "downtown" is not the Eugene understanding of the term, but if she knew about Taylor's, she would probably not have to ask how to get there. Thus, it would be better to just say what you want, as in "I want to go dancing," and we will cheerfully tell you where to go.

Climate

Oregon is not a humid climate. If you are from the US interior Southwest, you may find it a bit humid, but if you are from anywhere East of the Rocky Mountains in the US, or some foreign places, you will find it very dry. This means that at night, there is a 30F or more drop in temperature. Because the usual school year runs from October to May, the dorms have heating, but no air conditioning. I usually get requests for extra blankets, which I can accommodate. The typical pattern in Oregon is to open the windows when the sun goes down, but keep them closed in the heat of the day. (see the April 26 aside about hay fever)

While you are in Eugene, the weather will be hot, and the river will be cool, but don't go jumping into the river. The rivers here are fed by snow melt in the surrounding mountains. Therefore, the water is barely above freezing. People occasionally jump into the river to cool off, and their bodies are recovered downstream. Wading is refreshing, but do not jump into the water all of a sudden without acclamation.

May 30, 2022

Happy Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a US holiday to celebrate veterans who died while serving in the military. At US government installations, flags are raised in the morning and then lowered to half staff until noon. Until World War I, Memorial Day was known as Decoration Day and used to decorate the soldiers' graves who died in the American Civil War. Today, Memorial Day is often celebrated by families who decorate the graves of loved ones who may not have been veterans. In my family, we decorate the graves of my father and gradnfather, veterans who served in WWII and WWI, but died many years later. (My grandfather was born in Italy, but served in the US military during WWI to gain citizenship.) We also decorate the graves of my grandmother and aunt, who were not veterans.

It is generally seen as the first day of the American Summer Season, and lots of families take the opportunity to go camping. Many camp grounds require reservations from Memorial Day until Labor Day (the official end of summer in September).

After the American Civil War, both sides claimed different days to honor their war dead. A unified date was established after World War I to honor all veterans. The current date is just after Canadian Victoria Day — Victoria Day is the penultimate Monday in May, and Memorial Day is the last Monday in May, so Canada's summer starts one week earlier than ours.

When I was a kid, people passed out poppies to commemorate deaths in World War I that occured in the poppy fields of Flanders. This is not a current practice in the US, but I believe Canadians still do it on their Rememberance Day in November.

Alcohol

There is no drinking alcohol allowed in public areas in Oregon (and specifically on the University of Oregon campus) unless you have OLCC licensed servers controlling access. Specifically, this means that you can drink in your dorm room, if the door is closed and the people in your room are all 21 years or older, (Supplying alcohol to people under 21 is illegal.) but you cannot drink in the public areas of the dorm. — One year, OPLSS participants had the idea to put beer bottles in the ice machine, and the 10 year olds in the building were stealing the beer to take to their rooms and drink. If you want to drink with the other participants, you should go with us on our walks.

Marijuana

Similarly, there is no smoking marijuana in public or supplying it to minors in any form. See section below for limitations on smoking, which include marijuana. Eugene's marijuana shops offer a large variety of edible products.

Smoking

Oregon cities are largely non-smoking. Smoking includes tabacco, clove cigarettes, marajuana, and anything else that causes people in your vicinity to partake in the drug you are inhaling.

In Oregon, it is illegal to smoke inside a public building or within 20 feet of any building entrance, or on State owned lands, such as a beach or wilderness area. The city of Eugene does not allow smoking in city-owned places, such as parks or transit facilities. The University of Oregon is a Smoke and Tobacco Free University, which includes prohibiting vaping or smoking marijuana in your dorm room. Smoking by OPLSS participants who are not UO students results in a $30 fine. If you are staying at a hotel, it is probably smoke-free — ask the hotel. This means that you will be hard pressed to find anywhere to smoke conveniently. You can stand in the middle of some streets, waterways and railroad tracks on campus, and while it is not technically illegal to smoke there, it is strongly discouraged for safety reasons, and casual littering like leaving a cigarette butt in the street is illegal. In most places in Eugene, smoking does not include ecigs, but University of Oregon policy considers them a prohibited tobacco product. Chewing tabacco is similarly prohibited by the University, but not the city or the state; however, most restaurants, bars and taverns will not allow chewing tobacco, and spitting chewing tobacco in the street is the kind of casual littering that is illegal in Oregon.

Therefore, if you are addicted to nicotine, in addition to the items listed on May 10, you should plan on bringing nicotine gum or patches, or you can obtain them here.

May 26, 2022

Access to computing resources on campus is governed by applicable US laws. In particular, US law says that sharing copyrighted content over the Internet is illegal, and the copyright holder is entitled to huge damages from the perpetrator and anyone who allowed it to happen. Therefore, the University of Oregon has incentives to disable your access if you are doing something illegal. For whatever logistic reason, it is better/easier for them to forbid your MAC address accessing resources than disabling your credentials.

Access to computing resources on campus is governed by applicable US laws.

In 2007, the University of Oregon

and the Oregon Attorney General were the first to refuse to abide by subpoenas filed by the RIAA under the new law; however, this was on the grounds that the RIAA supeona asking for ANY evidence of sharing copyrighted material was "unduly burdensome" because it would have involved university personell conducting interviews to establish who was actually doing illegal sharing, and the university is not employed by RIAA. At the same time, if the MPAA or RIAA asks for specific information, or identifies specific MAC addresses to be disabled, the law states that the University of Oregon must comply immediately. RIAA and MPAA are pretty fast about identifying violations of their copyrights.

In particular, US law says that sharing copyrighted content over the Internet is illegal, and the copyright holder is entitled to huge damages from the University of Oregon, if they allow it. Therefore, the University of Oregon has incentives to disable your access if you are doing something illegal.

May 17, 2022

Health Care

In the US, if you need urgent assistance call 911. The emergency operator can connect you with emergency medical service providers, the fire department or the police in any jurisdiction in the US. This should work on cell phones. For non-threatening situations, you can use University Oregon emergency contacts.

If you need health care for non-life threatening conditions, you should go to Nova Urgent Care which is west along 13^th street past the end of campus, three blocks to Patterson. It is on the SW corner. It is open 8AM to 8PM every day. You should expect to pay a hundred or more dollars if you do not have insurance.

If you need major medical treatment, you should go to the Emergency Room at PeaceHealth, Sacred Heart, University District campus which is west along 13^th street past the other end of campus, two blocks to Hillyard. It is on the NE corner. It is always open. You should expect to pay several thousand dollars if you do not have insurance. If you have to be transported by ambulance, that will be several thousand dollars more.

If you go running or biking in the heat,

be sure to stay hydrated. A particpant learned in 2018 that going to the emergency room is a very expensive way to obtain bottled water. From experience, I can tell you that when you excerisize in the heat, you lose water and electrolytes. Drinking copious water only makes your electrolyte imbalance worse, which can lead to sudden loss of consciousness. So, while it's important to stay hydrated, it's also important to maintain your electrolyte levels. Going to the emergency room is also a very expensive way to obtain a bottle of Gatoraid.

The Emergency Room at Sacred Heart can treat everything that Nova Health can treat, but at much higher cost. Even if you have insurance that covers medical expenses, emergency room care can be very confusing if you are not used to American health care. After a trip to the emergency room, you can expect between five and ten separate bills from separate entities: the hospital itself, and every person who treated you, or consulted in your treatment, some of whom you may not have met. US law says that Sacred Heart must treat you and determine costs and payment later. Nova Health, on the other hand, will tell you all the costs, but will either expect you to provide your insurance information, or pay before receiving treatment.

If you are from another industrialized country, you will find the US Health Care system is much more expensive and not as good as what you expect (unless you are having a heart attack), but this is where you are, so you need to use what is available in an emergency. If you are not living in the US, you should obtain prior paperwork from your country to cover medical expenses while in the US.

Small Appliances

The April 26^th entry says to bring a laptop and adapter to US electrical outlets, if needed. Of course, other small appliances will also need an adapter. The dorm does not have hair dryers or irons. I think of these as "personal grooming items," (see April 26). Hot plates and other cooking appliances are not allowed in your dorm room.

Participant Talks

The information on participant talks is on the schedule page You should let me know if you want to give a talk. The point is to get other participants interested in collaborating with you in the future. A talk should consist of a short presentation of your research followed by an off-the-cuff dialog with the audience. If you want to give a talk, you should send me a title and abstract that describes your research. This is good practice for giving talks to an audience of critics as well as your peers.

May 13, 2022

We are staying in the Living Learning Center. I have updated the check-in and check-out sections of the travel information page. Your check-in instructions will vary depending on what time you will arrive.

If you are thinking of driving a car to OPLSS, or renting a car when you get here, think again. The University of Oregon's general policy on driving to campus is "Who told you to do that?" During the school year, I would definitely tell you not to bring a car. During the summer, you may be able to find parking; however, on July 1^st the overnight parking is mostly being taken over by the World Athletic Championships and it will become very difficult to find a spot to park for the night. If you insist on having a car, you can obtain a visitor parking permit from the UO Transportation Office . The "permit" is a virtual permit that allows a car with your license plate to park, and must be purchased each day ($18).

The local hospital and the university have a bike share service. You can visit their website and set up an account. The rental bikes are distributed around Eugene, and you rent one by walking up to it and scanning the QR code with your phone. The bike will unlock for you. Your account is charged for the time you spend riding it until you lock it up again at your destination. The bikes do not come with a helmet, so please bring your own.

Points of interest on the map:

LLC North — where you will be staying
Global Scholars Hall — Conference Desk where you will check-in/-out
Carson Hall — where we will be eating
Knight Law — where the first week lectures are
Fenton Hall (Mathematics Department) — where the second week lectures are
Deschutes Hall (Computer Science Department) — where the student talks will be and possibly where you go before check-in
Store — where you can obtain groceries, non-prescription medications and sundries

May 12, 2022

If you have a housing package, the meals will be served at the Cafeteria. The hours are:

Breakfast 7:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Lunch 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Dinner 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM

If you are not staying in the OPLSS housing, you can pay at the cafeteria door and eat with the other participants.
Some common concerns:

Food Allergies: Gluten-Free

Many Americans think that gluten-free means high protein. Many say "gluten-free" when they mean "low-carb". This makes no sense, since gluten is a protien that displaces carbs and is not present in corn, the most common source of carbs in America. Gluten is chiefly found in wheat, barley and rye products. People who are genetically very british may have a condition called Celiac Disease which is an attempt by one's immune system to defend against gluten by destroying the small intestine. (That'll teach it!) The symptoms are extreme abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomitting when even small amounts of gluten are consumed. Although marking something gluten-free is chic in the US, it is not treated as a medical claim, as it is in England, Canada, or Australia. Many things which people think of as gluten free, such as meatballs, may contain gluten in America.

The menu (hours will change during summer) and the item labels in the serving area contain markings for problematic food ingredients, including milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame seeds.
Vegetarian/Vegan/Raw Foodist: If you are vegan or vegetarian, there should be no problem finding adequate hot and cold food in the cafeteria. If you are raw foodist, there is an extensive salad bar. There is also a large selection of fresh and once frozen fruit, although some frozen fruits may have been blanched (heated briefly) before being frozen.
Halal: As an official of the State of Oregon, I cannot legally cooperate with US federal officials if they try to set up a religious registry, so any information you give me about your religion will not be shared with federal officials, or even other state officials except in aggregate.
I do not know of any halal butchers in Eugene, and the cafeteria does not order halal meat. In general, my Muslim friends find plenty to eat at the cafeteria, by sticking to the vegetarian offerings.
Kosher: Kosher is tricky. This surprised me since I know many Jews in town. Talking to my friends and the Jewish Student Union and Hillel and several Rabbis, it seems to come down to "if you live in Eugene, you have to make compromises." It is certainly possible to observe a Jewish-American, not-very-strict, kind-of-kosher, by abstaining from certain foods. In the cafeteria, asking "Is it kosher" is probably not as good an idea as asking for the ingredients, which the chef will be happy to share with you. Anyway, the answer to "Is it kosher?" is always no, since the cooking utensils and serving vessels are not kosher.
Jhatka: Since the meat in the cafeteria is neither expressly halal nor kosher, it is unlikely to be Kutha, but American butchery practice is not guaranteed to be strictly Jhatka either. While chickens are often killed with much suffering, cows and pigs can suffer as a result of unintentional mechanical failures. If you have strong ethical beliefs, you might want stick to the vegetarian options.
Free-Roam/Cage-Free Livestock: Since US law does not specify what it means to raise livestock cage-free, and the University does not have resources to investigate the source of animal products past the USDA oversight at the packing plant, asking for cage-free animal products would just be an invitation for suppliers to lie. Therefore, the dining hall cannot certify that any animal products were or were not produced in cage-free environments.

May 9, 2022

The Culture of Oregon

Oregon is very much against littering and senseless trash. In 1971, Oregon's Governor invented returnable soda cans to cut down on casual littering. The same governor, kind of a legend in Oregon, enacted our public beaches law , spearheaded the clean up of the Willamette River , and hosted the Governor's Pot Party. When the Governor's Pot Party was planned to avoid violence when Richard Nixon came to Portland, the Governor told his staff this would be the last thing they did as leaders of the state. In fact, he was reelected the following year and served four more years as governor.

If you wish to do any shopping in Eugene, ask me for a bag before you go — in 2017, an OPLSSer went 5 miles away to a store and forgot to bring a bag; the clerk eventually gave him a bag for free, provided he never tell anyone in law enforcement.

A typical Oregon story is the history of the Bull Run Watershed. In the 1890's, the City of Portland built a gravity-fed water system to bring clear water from Mount Hood snow melt to the city. In 1904, President Teddy Roosevelt made it illegal to trespass on the surrounding 102 miles of forest, for fear of befouling the water. In the 1960's, the US Congress directed the US Forest Service to begin harvesting the trees from the protected area. In 1973, a Portland resident sued the federal government for infringing on his right to clear water and won. In 1977, congress repealed Teddy Roosevelt's law with a new law that said logging could continue as long as it was not shown to hurt water quality. In response, environmentalists got the courts to halt logging in most of the area to protect the endangered Northern Spotted Owl and other species dependent on the forest. However, some continued logged caused muddy water in February of 1996. As a result, the Oregon congressional delegation managed to get congress to again make it illegal to trespass in the watershed. In 2004, New York city found that purchasing the land around the Hudson River Watershed and adopting the Oregon model would be cheaper and more effective than other proposals they studied.

If you are from the East Coast, when you look at Oregon on Google maps, you may be surprised by the percentage of publicly owned land, but if you are from the West, it will seem normal. By the way, when a bunch of out-of-state people tried to seize the Malheur Wildlife Refuge to privatize it, the people of Oregon were upset because (1) they should stay in their own states instead of causing trouble here; and (2) they were seen on video disturbing Native American artifacts. The criminals tried to get the Northern Piute Tribe to say it was OK, but they weren't having it.

The housing packages with OPLSS begin with check-in at 4PM on Sunday, June 19. Your first meal is dinner that day from 5-7:30PM. You can arrive any time that day. I will be on campus at 10AM and you can drop your luggage off at my office. (full instructions on the Travel Information page, Check-In section.) After the housing office closes at 8PM, you can get your keys by calling the number on the door. I will post that number here, when I get it. Flights arriving anytime between 8AM Sunday to 2AM Monday are pretty normal for OPLSS.

The housing packages with OPLSS end with check-out before Noon on Sunday, July 3. Your last meal is lunch at 11AM on Sunday. People sometimes book flights that leave during the last lecture on Saturday. I would suggest not doing this if you can avoid it. If your flight leaves later than 2 or 3PM on Sunday, I let you into the department lab with your luggage, where you can work in an air-conditioned environment. If your flight leaves later than 8PM Sunday, however, you will have to arrange a motel room, or a stay at the Eugene Hostel.

May 8, 2022

During OPLSS, you can use the UO guest wireless network or the eduroam wireless network. To use eduroam, your institution must be a member. Please consult your campus network administrator before arriving at OPLSS.

UO guest and eduroam will work well in your dorm or on other places on campus; however, the classroom is configured to have fewer than a dozen guests and fewer than a dozen eduroam users when classes are in session. So, you will have limited bandwidth. I suggest you take the following steps:

During lectures, use only text-based services on your laptop.
Download any software used by the lecturer before attending the lecture. Details of software used in the lectures are contained on the topics page under the entry for each lecturer.

May 5, 2022

Happy Cinco de Mayo.

Cinco de Mayo is a US holiday to celebrate a Mexican victory against France. During the US Civil War, the breakaway Confederate States asked the French for assistance. During the American War of Independence, a kind of civil war, the French had assisted the Americans throw off British rule. (Of course, Louis XVI assisted the Americans, just before he was executed by Napoleon I. The confederation asked Napoleon III for assistance on the theory that anyone named Emperor Napolean would harbor resentment to the US.) In the meantime, Mexico had announced its intention to default on its foreign debt. While Britain and Spain renegotiated their terms with Mexico, France sent an invading army and quite successfully defeated the Mexicans at first. Eventually, on May 5, 1862 in the Battle of Puebla, the badly outnumbered Mexican army managed to defeat the more organized French troops. Even so, the French managed eventually to take Mexico City and install a French government, but the Battle of Puebla served as a rallying point for Mexican resistance forces who finally defeated the French in 1867. To the US, the Battle of Puebla left the French troops thinned and demoralized enough that they concentrated on battling the Mexican army, rather than Napolean's plan of using a subjagated Mexico as a base of operations to assist the Confederate States, as a start in the French take over of North America.

Except in Puebla, Cinco de Mayo is not generally celebrated in Mexico; however, it has become a huge celebration in the US. Immediately after the war, Mexican Americans (US citizens of Mexican heritage) living in California began celebrating the holiday as their contribution to ending slavery in the US. (California had only changed from Mexican to US rule 20 years earlier at the conclusion of the Mexican-American War) In the 1960's, the movement around Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers Union began celebrating Cinco de Mayo again as a holiday celebrating the contributions of Mexican Americans. Today it has become a major beer drinking holiday in the US, like St. Patrick's day or Oktoberfest, where everyone pretends to have ancestry that's not borne out by the facts.

The link between France and the Southern US states is deep. Only the US state of Louisiana and the Canadian Province of Quebec base their laws on the Nepoleanic Code rather than English Law. Lawyers are trained to either appear in Louisiana Courts, or elsewhere in the US, but not both. I assume Quebec is similar.

If you have a housing package for a shared room, and you know who you want as a roommate, please let me know by May 17^th. I would encourage you not to do this. One of the purposes of OPLSS is to meet people in the field. When putting together the room roster, I try to put Americans with non-Americans, East Coast people with West Coast people, etc, to make sure that you are meeting people you would not otherwise know. If you ask me to put you in a room with your lab partner, I will do that, but you are missing out on part of the point of OPLSS. You already talk about PL research with your lab partner; this should be an opportunity to talk about PL research with someone else. Also, I tend to put people from the same school in adjacent rooms, so it's not like you won't see the people you know.

May 1, 2019

Happy May Day!

Other Oregon firsts

Oregon was the first state in the United States to:

Ban CBN (2022)
Restrict Perspective, an herbicide that kills trees (2019)
Provide state-wide rent control (2019)
Provide 3 gender options on state identification (2017)
Provide a public retirement savings plan for all citizens not covered by their employer (offered in 2017, becomes mandatory in 2020)
Elect openly bisexual governor (2016)
Elect openly trangendered mayor (2008)
Require a prescription for Sudafed (2005)
Require all elections be held by mail (2000)
Hold a federal election by mail (1996)
Legalize physician assisted suicide (1994)
Pass law prohibiting state police from assisting federal immigration officials (1987)
(I heard a radio program about a migrant family calling the Oregon police to make the Federal police stop threatening them.)
Elect the first Chinese-American to a state senate (1982)
Establish a state food bank (1979)
Elect an Arab governor (1978)
Ban fluorocarbon aerosol products (1977)
Establish urban growth boundaries (1973)
Decriminalize cannabis (1973)
Require soda cans/bottles be returnable (1971)
Have a presidential primary election in which ordinary citizens were allowed to vote (1910)
Have a female governor, Carrie Shelton (1909) — predated women's right to vote in the US by 3 years
Hire a female policewoman, Lola Baldwin (1908)(hired by City of Portland)
Enact a statewide labor day holiday (1887)

I don't know whether this is a first or not; according to my father's law partner, more than 100 years ago, two women walked into the Registrar's Office in Oregon City, and said they wanted a marriage license. The clerk told them it would be $25. They said, "You noticed, we are both women, right?" The clerk said there was no discount, so the two women paid the $25 and became married. I have never been able to independently verify this story, and both my father and his partner have been dead for more than 20 years.

Oregon was the first US state to create a day honoring labor, although it was in June. There are links on the Venue page about the other great May Day tradition: Morris Dancing.

April 27, 2022

If you want your nametag to indicate your pronouns, please email me with the information.

Pronouns commonly used in Oregon

He, him, his
She, her, hers
They, them, their
Ze, hir, hirs
Co, co, cos
Per, per, pers

April 27, 2022

Pronunciation:

Oregon is generally pronounced by non-natives as "o-ree-GONE", but by natives as "OR-ee-gun" [IPA 'o℧r.i.gən] or "OR-ee-gn" [IPA 'o℧r.i.gn] (The accent on the first syllable, with the final syllable having a syllabic n and no vowel). Similarly, natives say "eu-GENE" [IPA ɪu.'gin] not "EU-gene". The mispronunciations seem hickish to us. I have never figured out if people say that to make fun of us, or really think we would talk that way — we don't. There was an episode of The Bob Newhart Show when Bob's neighbor's brother, a park ranger, showed up: Warden Gordon Borden from Oregon. Everyone said Oregon correctly through the episode except Gordon, leading me to think that people think we talk that way. On the other hand, nobody on that show talked like they were from Chicago.

To be clear: Housing is arranged through me. Going to the credit card website and paying for some kind of housing does not guarentee that kind of housing is available. Not everyone pays by credit card, so there is no connection between the credit card payment site and housing reservations. You have housing reserved for you when I tell you I have reserved housing for you. Similarly, not paying for housing does not cancel the housing I have reserved for you. Telling me to cancel your housing will cancel your housing.

The website says you must pay your registration by the middle of May to hold your place at OPLSS. The website also says you must arrange or cancel your housing by the middle of May. This means that you do not have to pay your housing until you arrive, but you will be liable for the cost if you do not tell me to cancel by the middle of May.

Sometimes, through the machinations of arithmetic, it may not be possible to pay your housing through the credit card website. In that case, you will have to use one of the other methods of payment listed on the rates page.

April 26, 2022

If you applied, with any required recommendations, before today, and were accepted, you should have already received an acceptance letter, suitable for obtaining a visa to the US, and an invoice. Please have the letter with you when crossing the border into the US. If you have not received both of these, please let me know so I can see what happened to your application.

Please don't pay for things that don't appear on your invoice! If you want to change your accomodations, please email me and I will send you a corrected invoice which you can pay. It looks very bad to auditors if you pay more money than your invoice shows. If you have extra money lying around, book a trip to Trinidad and Tobago, but do not send it to me unless I have sent you an invoice that indicates that amount on the "total due" line.

Things to bring to the summer school:

A laptop

For Foreign Participants:
If you are not from North America, bring a power converter for your laptop. US power outlets are 120 volts at 60 hertz. If you come here without a power adapter, it may take you a number of phone calls and missed lectures to figure out where to get one, so it is probably easier to obtain one from your local apothecary (or whoever sells them in your country) before coming. To operate at the lecture hall, power adapters must have a profile that allows you to plug into an outlet like the picture.
Soap, shampoo and other personal grooming items.
If you think you have a cold at OPLSS,
what you probably have is an allergy to grass pollen. Most people from Asian countries are quite unused to American grass pollen, and even people from parts of this country are often unused to the level of grass pollen in Eugene. An allergy to grass pollen usually manifests as:
- nasal congestion
- sinus pressure, which may cause facial pain
- runny nose
- itchy and watery or red and burning eyes
- scratchy throat
- cough
- swollen, bluish-colored skin beneath the eyes
- decreased sense of taste or smell
- increased asthmatic reactions — If you have asthma problems, please consult your physician before coming to the Willamette Valley.
There are various over-the-counter medications that are available at any Eugene supermarket. However, many drugs for pollen allergies take several days before they start working, and/or make you feel drowsy. Even over-the-counter medications can interact badly with other drugs you are taking — Please consult a physician or pharmacist before mixing medications. Here are some things to do to minimize your pollen exposure:
- Remain indoors with the windows closed as much as possible.
- When going outside, wear sunglasses and a breathing mask that covers your mouth and nose. Wear a hat or scarf to keep pollen out of your hair.
- After going outdoors, rinse your nasal cavity with saline solution (1/4 tsp of salt added to 4 oz of bottled water — do not use unfiltered tap water). Rinse your eyes with clear water. For burning eyes, place a wet washcloth over your eyes.
- Take a shower and wash your hair before bed. This will avoid the situation where you deposit pollen from your hair to your pillow, and then inhale it.
Typically, I tell everyone to bring allergy medication. The main agricultural products in the Willamette Valley are grass seed and mint, so if you are allergic to grass pollen, expect to feel the effects while you are here. Typically, the grass pollen count is worst in June, with the level tapering off as summer progresses. Some students travelling to OPLSS experience pollen allergies for the first time. You can see a complete pollen report at www.weather.com, zip code: 97403 (pay attention to the grass number). Pseudofed is a prescription drug in Oregon, so if you intend to purchase it here, either bring a prescription, or use one of the better, non-prescription alternatives.
You should not bring pillows, blankets or towels (see April 25 entry)

April 25, 2019

Acceptance has been established for people who applied and received a recommendation before April 15 and grant funding has been allocated.

By default, I assume you want a shared room in the dorm. Based on capacity, we have a very limited number of single rooms available. You should let me know if you want a single room. Please let me know if you have mobility problems, although the dorm has an elevator, and the lecture hall is wheelchair accessible on the first floor.

This year, we will be in the Living Learning Center. The room layout for the dorm is Living Learning Center Double. (You have to scroll down.) I suggest you not bring your own sheets and towels since housekeeping will probably throw them in with everyone's linen when they change your room linens. In the past, this has lead to much consternation, especially if your linens are white, or slightly off-white as you look through the campus collection of laundry trying to find your sheets. If you do need to bring your own sheets, I suggest you put a sign on your door asking that your linens not be laundered. Also, talk to me so I will talk to the housekeeping staff.

I thought this would be obvious: the dorms have laundry facilities . For the past 20 years, a load of laundry is $0.75 and dryers are free, but Housing is negotiating with the laundry vendor right now, so it is possible it will change. The laundry room does not vend little packets of soap, but there is a supermarket four blocks away. I suggest you pool together with other participants needing landry soap or bring some with you.

In the past, very few participants have chosen to stay elsewhere during OPLSS. The dorms are not deluxe accommodations, but there is usually lots of discussion that goes on in the dorm, and participants who stay off-campus have felt isolated from this. However, if you want a hotel room near campus, here are a few options that are within 5 blocks of the lecture hall.

April 1, 2022

Happy April Fools Day.

April 1 is generally known as April Fools Day, on which people generally say outlandish things. Since everyone knows it is April Fools Day, nobody beleives the jokes, but there are always people who forget what day it is, and take your statements as true.

In 1957, the BBC broadcast the Swiss Spaghetti Harvest, showing farm workers picking strands of pasta from a spaghetti tree. In 2005, US National Public Radio did a story about how New England maple trees, normally tapped for maple syrup, can explode into maple syrup geysers if left untapped. In 2012, Google announced a new Android that instead of requiring a clumbsy keyboard for input, you would compose email by tapping Morse Code on the case This year, the UK's National Trust announced a program to replace paintings that must be taken off public display for cleaning or restoration by live people dressed as the missing art pieces; outfitter Moosejaw announced its plans to reduce paper consumption by not giving receipts, but instead shouting our your purchases in a really loud voice, and HyperX has announced its new keyboard, with a lawn planted on each key, so when you are composing conspiracy tweets, you can touch grass.

Scholars are not sure when the tradition of April Fools began, but it probably has to do with a law passed in 1564 France when the year was officially declared to begin on January 1. Prior to that time, it was common to either begin the year on January 1, or on March 25 with a celebration of Spring that ended on April 1. After the law, rural people continued to have the Spring celebration. The city folks refered to the country folks as "April Fools." Lisa Simpson, on The Simpsons, characterized this as a cultural conflict between Pagan Romans and Christians, but it was probably a much later cultural conflict between rural populations and urban populations. The Islamic story that April Fools celebrates the Christian defeat of the Moors on April 1 by first addicting them to tabacco to make them foolish, is not possible, since the Christians defeated the Moors on January 2, 1492, and tobacco, a New World plant, was unknown to the Europeans at that time. Later, in the summer of 1492, when Christopher Columbus accidentally ran into America while trying to find an ocean route to Japan, he was given fruit and tobacco by the Native Americans. He ate the fruit and threw the tobacco away, since Europeans had no idea you were supposed to smoke it. I'm not sure who was more foolish, the people who didn't know how to smoke it, or the people who did.

While here, it is possible to use the Student Recreation Center (location) with a Daily Pass. The Student Recreation Center is across the street from the OPLSS dorm. If you want to obtain a pass for more than one use, you must also obtain a UO community card from University of Oregon Card Services. (location) They require that once you are on campus, you send an email to uocard@uoregon.edu with

You are requesting a "Community Card" and when you expect to pick it up
Your name
A picture of your face; you should not be wearing a hat or any other ornamentation that would obscure your appearance; the picture should be of you looking directly at the camera
A picture of a government issued identification of you; for US citizens, this is usually a state drivers license; for non-US paricipants, this is usually your passport

Your community card costs $10 and can be picked up on campus from the first floor of the building immediately to the Northwest of your dorm along the footpath. I (and the Card Office) suggest you visit the Student Recreation Center once to see if you like the facilities/summer hours. For further access, you can obtain a community card and a Recreation Center Pass.

The Month of Ramadan begins Today.

I don't say "Happy Ramadan" because the Month of Ramadan is the Muslim month of daytime fasting and increased vigilance of Jihad, the eternal struggle that humans experience between the weaknesses of the flesh and spiritual purity. Although Iftar, the meal with friends and family after sunset to break the day's fast, is a joyous celebration, the month is meant to be spent in religious contemplation.

There are many outdoor activities to do in Eugene. Within a 30 minute walk from the dorms are

The Ridgeline hiking trail
Pre's Trail and other running paths
fishing in the Willamette River — requires a license; bring equipment
Canoe rental
a disk golf course ($3.00)
the Columns rock climbing area
a covered skate park — bring equipment
tennis courts — bring equipment
other city parks

March 28, 2022

Here is what should happen if you submit a Registration:

A webpage should show your registration was accepted and the details you just submitted. Please check the email address to make sure it is correct. If you submit a registration with a typo in the email address, I have no way to reach you. If you did make a typo in the email field, you should immediately email summerschool@cs.uoregon.edu with the correction.
You should receive an email confirmation of your registration.
If you are applying for a grant, when we receive the required letter of recommendation, you will receive an email acknowledging the letter has been received.
After the April 10 deadline, you will receive an email indicating your acceptance into the program. At that time, I will give you options for housing. You will only need to respond if you do not want me to reserve a shared room in the dormitory. When I have notified everyone of their acceptance, I will post a note on this website that I have done so. If you did not get an email from me, you should send an email to summerschool@cs.uoregon.edu asking about your status, as I have probably misplaced your application.
If you are applying for a grant, it takes us longer to decide how the grant money is allocated. At some point, you will receive another email stating your grant status. When I have notified everyone of their grant status, I will post a note on this website that I have done so. If you did not get an email from me, you should send an email to summerschool@cs.uoregon.edu asking about your grant status, as I have probably misplaced your grant application.
Sometime before May 16, you will need to pay your (non-refundable) registration and tell me whether you want a dormitory room. You do not need to pay for your room and board at that time, but I must tell the housing authority how many rooms we will require.

March 28, 2022

You should see as you arrange travel, that it is usually much cheaper to fly to Portland and then take a train to Eugene. The cost of a train from Portland to Eugene (about $25) is approximately the same as the cost of a taxi from the Eugene airport to campus. If you are sharing the taxi, of course it will be cheaper for you, but you should find that although it takes a few extra hours to fly to Portland and take a train down, it will save you money. In particular, booking flights directly from Eugene after OPLSS may be costly and/or quickly sold out because of the upcoming 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene.

By the way, track and field officionados at OPLSS often ask if they can run on Hayward Field. Usually, the answer is yes because it is open to the public when not in use, but with OPLSS being so close to the World Athletics Championships, sadly the answer may be no this year. However, many running paths are available near campus. Pre's Trail ( Steve Prefontain is a local hero) is a short walk across the river.

March 20, 2022

Happy Nowruz.

Nowruz is the first day of Spring, and the first day in the Hijri calendar used in Iran and Afghanistan. Although Nowruz is part of the secular calendar, it's origins are from Zoroastrianism, the religion of the Persian Empire that still gets a reserved seat in the Iranian Parliament. (Three seats are reserved for Christians, one for Jews, and one for Zoroastrians.) Nowruz is celebrated in Parsi communities in India, and other Iranian peoples throughout the world. In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly recognized Nowruz as an international holiday. The Gregorian date of Nowruz varies slighly each year to coincide with the Spring Equinox, the day in the Northern Hemisphere when the short days of Winter transition to the long days of Summer. One of two days throughout the globe each year when the length of night is equal to the length of day. (ie equi-nox)

Zoroastrianism, believed to be the first monotheist religion, was founded by Zarathustra, (as in Thus Spake Zarathustra, the music by Richard Strauss played in the movie 2001: a Space Odessy when humans become enlightened.) The religion survives today in minority communities such as the Kurds in Turkey and Iraq. (In Turkey, the letters Q, W and X were illegal until 2013 in an attempt to eradicate Kurdish culture.) From the time when both Christianity and Zoroastrianism were "underground" religions in the Roman Empire, Christianity borrowed the concept of a devil, a celestial being working against God's purposes, a concept unknown in Judaism, from Zoroastrianism, which sees the world as the battleground between two forces: Ahura Mazda (the creator god) and Angra Mainyu (the destroyer), with victory for Ahura Mazda at the end of the World. From this influence, Christianity got Satan, and by transitivity, Islam got Iblis.

At the same time that the Persians were celebrating Nowruz, the Romans were also celebrating the Spring Equinox. The original Roman calendar began on the Spring Equinox, but the calendar did not have the months January and February. Those were added to the beginning of the year in about 700 BC. (It never made sense to me that the 9^th, 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th months were clearly named 7 (septem), 8 (octo), 9 (novem), and 10 (decem) until I learned this.) So, the year started in the Winter, instead of on the equinox. This is why Italian refers to Spring as Primavera, although it is clearly seconda not prima in the Gregorian calendar. The Julian caladar, introduced by Julius Ceasar in 45 BC, had enough calculation error that the Spring Equinox in the 14^th century was three days earlier than the calendar said. So, Pope Gregory XIII adopted a proposal by the University of Salamanca in 1582 to begin the Gregorian calendar. Even with the reforms of 45 BC and 1582 CE, the calendar we use in the West is less accurate than the Iranian Hijri calendar; hence the date of the equinox must be adjusted each year.

I added a field to the registration form to allow you to tell me any logistic data I need to know. Only I will see the contents of the field; it will not be used to assess your preparedness to attend OPLSS. What I intend is that before your arival, either on the registration form, or in email, you will tell me things like "I have mobility problems," "I need to bring my seeing eye dog," "I need a medical exemption to COVID mask requirements" (If COVID masking is in place for the university at that time, a medical exemption will have to be obtained prior to arriving on campus.), etc. Anything for which I need to be prepared should be communicated to me before you arrive.

March 17, 2022

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Saint Patrick's Day is a holiday in the US ostensively celebrating the cultural contributions of Irish Americans. There is a huge and sometimes controversial parade in New York City, a 258-year-old tradition (a long time here, since America is only 233 years old) which was scaled back because of COVID, but people still marched. and smaller parades elsewhere. The holiday is mostly celebrated locally, however, by requiring everybody wear green (people can be freely pinched by passers-by if they wear no green), copius beer drinking, and people wearing stickers of a four-leaf clover with the words, "Kiss me, I'm Irish."

Saint Patrick, although not officially a saint in the Catholic Church, is credited with bringing Catholicism to Ireland while casting out the snakes. He was Romano-British, speaking Latin and Gaelic, born in Britain in the 5th Century at a time when mostly what is now England was still Roman and the English were confined to Kent and Anglia, and before there was a formal system for declaring saints. He purportedly used the three-leaf clover to explain the Catholic doctrine of the Holy Trinity — One God who is also composed of three parts: the Creator, the Saviour, and the Holy Spirit infused in the Corpus Cristi. The clover has since become a symbol of Hibernia.

Portland holds a leprechaun colony headed by Patrick O'Toole who claims it is the only leprechaun colony West of Ireland.

Address for Visa Documents

When you get here, the building you will be staying in is:

1455 E. 15th Avenue
Eugene OR  97403

However, do not send mail to that address. Mail addressed to university buildings (as opposed to departments) is returned as undeliverable. Do not have things dropped off at the dorm by other couriers because there is nobody there when we are gone, and we will not be there most of the day. There is no phone number at the dorm, so you will have to use your own phone. You can give the department's phone number

The contact information for visa applications is

Zena Ariola
University of Oregon
Department of Computer and Information Science
1477 E. 13th Avenue
Eugene OR  97403
541-346-4448
ariola@cs.uoregon.edu

Address for Mail Delivered by the USPS

US Mail must be delivered to a specific person at a specific department. So, if you must have mail sent to you while you are here, you will have to address it to me:

[you] 
c/o Jim Allen — OPLSS
Dept of Computer and Info Science
1202 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-1202

Address for packages not delivered by USPS

If you are sending things, such as lost luggage, through a courier service, then you should give them the street addresss for Deschutes Hall

March 16, 2022 — For Foreign Participants:

Unfortunately, all of my advice on coming to the United States is based on information from the Obama administation and before the COVID pandemic. I cannot offer advice on how to get to the US currently, but the following are the guidelines I have offered successfully in the past.

It is never too early to work on obtaining travel papers to the US.

For non-citizens of the US, you will need the following:

I will send you a letter of invitation which you can take to the US embassy. It will not help you and the ambassador will not look at it, but so many people are convinced that they need it, that I send them anyway. The Embassy will want to see proof of your need to return to your country after your trip. Take letters from your family who are in your country, showing that they need you to return to your country, and letters from your academic program or employer, showing it is lucrative for you to continue in the university/company in your country. — that's what they want to see. Letters from family and friends who are currently in the US are probably not helpful and may be detrimental since knowing people in the US might be interpreted as evidence of your intent to overstay your visa.

Travel papers to leave your country
Most governments do not care if you leave their country, but the government of your country of residence may require paperwork to release you. To enter the US, your country of citizenship must issue you a passport, which may also be necessary to leave your country. When you leave, make sure you have any papers necessary to return to your country of residence.
Travel papers to enter the United States
Most governments do care if you enter their country, and the US Government is no exception. To enter the US, you need:
- A Passport from your country of citizenship
- Electronic pre-approval to enter the US and/or
  a business visa.
  
  Many countries are in the US Visa Waiver Program. Citizens of those countries do not need a visa to enter the US for business purposes. If you need a visa, please read and follow these instructions carefully.
  
  OPLSS is a Conference, not a Course of Study
  
  I would suggest that you use "OPLSS" without saying what the individual letters are for. The name "Summer School" is long entrenched as a name for a conference, but it is unfortunate for the government regulations about travelling to the US.
  
  You are coming here on business to attend a scientific conference. OPLSS does not grant academic credit. Although OPLSS takes place on a university campus, it is not a course of study. You need to be clear that you are looking for a B1 business visa. Do not under any circumstances say or agree that you need a student visa. Once you say that you want a student visa or that you want to "study in the US", you will never be allowed to come to the US unless you have been accepted into a US degree-granting program.
  
  There have been cases of people coming from VWP countries who have been held up at the border because they said "school" or "class" or "study" or "student" and were not allowed into the US. Therefore, be very clear that you are NOT coming to the US to study — you will be attending a conference.
  
  It is illegal for us to issue you an I-20 or any other SEVIS document, because you will receive no academic credit from the University of Oregon. These are only required for a student visa. If you are asked for these documents, be very clear that you want a B-1 visa. You will not be able to attend OPLSS on a student visa. If some other institution gave you a SEVIS document, and you will be using it to enter the US to attend OPLSS before or after beginning your studies with them, please ask them about your visa limitations. If necessary, direct them to this page for clarification.
  
  Be Prepared for your Visa Interview
  
  Depending on your point of origin, the main thing the embassy will want to know in your interview is that you are not a "risk to emmigrate" to the US. The State Department says you will need to show
  1. The purpose of your trip — The US suggests that you not bring a Letter of Invitation with you; however, since I cannot convince anyone that it is useless, I will send you one; although it will be useless.
  2. Your intent to depart the United States after your trip — It is definitely required that you bring to your interview correspondence from your family members (not residing in the US) indicating that they expect you to return, and documents from your institution indicating that they expect you to return. Failure to prepare for this point may mean failure to obtain a visa. It is not a good idea to have anything sent directly to the embassy, since it is usually discarded unless you bring it with you to your interview.
    What is not helpful is any demonstration of a link, familial or otherwise, to a person residing in the US. Evidence of ties to US residents are generally taken as counter to this requirement. (i.e. If you are attached to people in the US, you might want to remain in the US.)
  3. Your ability to pay all costs of the trip — You must show how you are going to pay for travel and housing. You should have paperwork from whatever institution is paying. If you are paying for yourself, you should have financial statements showing you have funds.
  The decision to grant a visa is left up to the US ambassador to your country and there is no appeal, so be prepared. Talk to others from your country who have attended conferences in the US. Different Ambassadors require different levels of evidence. The University of Oregon has no influence with the US State Department.
  If you are on the Visa Waiver Program, and apply for an ESTA, you should read the information above under business visa, because you will be questioned at the border about the purpose of your trip.

March 15, 2022

Here, I will be posting updates on registration deadlines, when you should expect to be notified, how to get here, and what to bring, etc.

If you apply (with a recommendation) before April 10, you should hear back from us by April 20. If not, please send me an email asking what happened to your application.

Oregon Programming Languages Summer School

Types, Semantics, and Program Reasoning

June 20-July 2, 2022

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