OPLSS 2026 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.

In the West Coast states (Oregon, Washington and California) there is no separate minimum wage for some workers. Thus, a tip is never required. If you receive good service, you should tip however much you feel is comensurate with the service you received. In certain other, backward states, there is a separate minimum wage for certain workers to accomodate continued slavery after the Civil War. In those states, tipping is expected in order for the workers to make a living wage.

The State of Oregon does not collect a sales tax on most things. Therefore, the price listed is the price you will pay. Certain non-tangible things, like hotel stays, are subject to a local tax.

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.

Being mostly evergreen forest, the Pacific Northwest is subject to forest fires in the summer. In 2017, teenagers started a fire in the Columbia River Gorge (near Mount Hood by Portland) by setting off illegal fireworks. The fire was declared "contained" after three months, but wasn't fully extenguished until the next summer. About 150 hikers were trapped in the smoke overnight. The old Highway (a tourism experience you shouldn't miss) was closed for a year. A section of the Pacific Crest Trail (the western-most section of the Great Western Loop) was closed for a year. The air quality in Eugene, 150 miles away, was severely affected with residents advised to stay indoors for several weeks. The kid who started the fire was sentenced to 12 months of community service and a $36.6 million fine. In 2020, the Holiday Farm fire caused a shelter in place order for Eugene residents, followed by several weeks of stay indoors advisories. (The first morning, I woke at 4am thinking I had left the stove on and the house was on fire.) In general, OPLSS occurs too early in the summer to be affected by forest fire air quality issues.

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 100 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're 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. In 2025, when President Trump declared that Portland was in a state of war lead by people in chicken costumes, federal judges found this not credible, but hilarious.

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 America 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 purchase of Seward's Folly from Russia, along with extending Oregon up to the 54.4^th paralell would have given Britain only 200 miles of Pacfic coastline. 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 any Pacific coastline. 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.

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

April 1, 2023

Chag Pesach Sameach

At Sundown tonight, the Jewish Pesach (Passover) begins. In the Torah, the Passover is the last of the plagues that the Hebrew God sent to Egypt to compel the Egyptian pharaoh to let Moses take his people to the promised land of Canaan from which they had been abducted to use as slaved to build the paramids. Thus, Pesach is celebrated as a time of freedom or liberation.

On the first night (or first two nights) of Pesach, Jews hold a ritual meal, or Seder, which involves many food courses, scripted questions and answers, and lots of singing. I have never attended a Hebrew Seder, but the Catholic Chuch has an abbreviated Seder, based on the Jewish ritual and intended to be performed on the first day of Pesach. I have attended that. Because I was not the youngest attendee, I did not get to ask the questions, but I assume they are the same questions asked at a Hebrew Seder.

Most modern archaeologists believe that Judaism did not arise because of slavery by the Egyptians, but the agricultural revoltuion. It does not make historical sense that the Hebrews were forced to built the pyramids. The Egyptians of that time were a highly xenophobic people. For example, their word for Egyptian was "person," and their word for the Nile was "river." Everything outside Egypt was considered but a shadow of reality inside Egypt. In particular, the pyramids, the resting place of their gods, were never allowed to be touched by non-Egyptians. (They had scientific proof that Egypt was at the center of the Universe, because every day at noon, the sun was directly over Egypt, which makes sense if you've never been outside of Egypt or spoken to a non-Egyptian.)

The Agricultural Revolution was when society changed from hunter-gatherers to herderss and planters. Since this was more efficient, it lead to the rise of something the world had never seen before: leisure time. Instead of everyone having to spend their time satisfying their own needs, a single farmer or sheep herder could support hundreds of people. Thus, some people became farmers, but some people became merchants, and some people became tailors, and some people became carpenters. In particular, this lead to wealth disparity, where the farmers would get very little money, but the merchants would get more, and the lawyers would get more still. This caused a popular rebellion in the land of Canaan, where the farmers and herders rose up against the people in the cities. Many archeologists believe that Sukkot is a holiday from this time to remind the people not to becometoo enamoured of city life.

Acceptance has been established for people who applied before the March 16 deadline. By the end of the day, you should receive an email from me informing you or your status. In most cases, some documents will be attached. If you do not get any additional documents, it is explained in the email. If you have any questions, or do not get an email from me by tomorrow morning, (Hey, you in Austalia, Singapore, and Hong Kong, tomorrow morning means April 2 AM to me, not you. I don't have any idea how your timezones work, or anything else.) email me and I will see what happened.

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 believes 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, would send email composed by tapping Morse Code on the case. In 2022, 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 out your purchases in a really loud voice, and HyperX announced its new keyboard, with a lawn planted on each key, so when you are composing conspiracy tweets, you can touch grass. In 2024, RFC 9564 Faster Than Light Speed Protocol (FLIP) was added to the Internet Engineering Task Force RFC database. This year, Warhammer announced Warhammer — The Emperor Protects a new musical on Broadway.

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, (She also confused Baal, a Phoenician God or possibly a generic name for foreign gods in the Bible, with Jupiter, the chief God of the Romans. Phoenician pagans couldn't have conflicted with Christians, since the Phoenicians were long gone before Jesus was born.), but it was probably a much later cultural conflict between rural populations and urban populations. The Islamic folk tale 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 a starving Christopher Columbus accidentally ran into the Americas 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 it tasted bad and 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.

You should get a letter of invitation and an invoice from me. Your registration charge is determined by me and listed on your invoice. When you go to the payment site, you need to pay the amount of money shown on your invoice. Do not pay for things that add up to more than your invoice shows you owe. If you want to mske changes to your invoice, let me know.

In the email, I will tell you how I intend to write your name on "official documents." In particular, if you are using the document to enter the US, please make sure that the name I list matches the name on your passport, as the border guards may want to see both, and the letter I send you will only be accepted if it matches your passport.

Foreign Participants:
The letter of invitation has specific language for the US State Department during your visa interview, and specific language for the US Customs and Border Protection officers. Whether you go for a visa interview or obtain clearance through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, you should have the letter of invitation ready at the border, and pay attention to my February 3 remarks about what not to say during a visa interview and at the border.

March 20, 2026

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. Both Noruz and the equinox are 24 hours beginning at 7:46 AM in our timezone.

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 sentient.) 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) 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.

As an aside, the planet Venusvwas called two things by the Romans. Since Venus orbits closer to the sun, it can only be seen from Earth as either preceding the sun at dawn, or trailing the sun at dusk. During the day, you can't see venus because the sun is too bright. The Romans called the star that arises just before dawn Lucifer, the Bringer of Light, and the star that sets just after dusk Vesper. (In German, the word for Occident is Abendland, "evening land" and the word for Orient is Morgenland, "morning land.") It was only later that they realized it was the same star.

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, 8, 9, and 10 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 calendar, 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.

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 is approximately the same as the cost of a taxi from the Eugene airport to campus. (If you are sharing a taxi, of course it will be cheaper for you,) Book the train when you book your flight. In the past, people have been stuck overnight in Portland, because the train was full. 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.

To reiterate from the travel page, if your destination is EUO or your train number is 4 digits, you have booked a bus. If your destination is EUG and your train number is 2 or 3 digits, you have booked a train. A train is more fun if you are travelling with a group of OPLSSers. If you tell me what time your flight lands, I will tell you who else is arriving at that time.

On American trains, you are asked to use earbuds for phone conversations and to listen to music/podcasts, but you are allowed to have loud conversations — this is America. America does not have Harry Potter-style trains with each compartment having three seats facing three other seats, but each car should have two tables across for one another with four seats around each table. If there are more than two of you, use those.

March 17, 2026

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 264-year-old tradition (a long time here, since the USA is only 237 years old). 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 three-leaf clover with the words, "Kiss me, I'm Irish" although those people are not usually Irish, and the three-leaf clover is neither botanically nor symbolically related to the shamrocks symbolizing Ireland.

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 shamrock to explain the Catholic doctrine of the Holy Trinity — One God who is composed of three parts: the Creator, the Saviour, and the Holy Spirit infused in the Corpus Cristi. The shamrock, a species of clover that always has three leaves, has since become a symbol of Hibernia.

Portland hosts a leprechaun colony headed by Patrick O'Toole who claims it is the only leprechaun colony West of Ireland. They appear to be the happy, drunken kind of American leprechaun, rather than the Irish leipreachán, a kind of daoine beaga ag déanamh bróga agus mischief.

For those who question my stating the US is only 237 years old above, That is the correct age of the US, despite officially celebrating its 250 alleged birthday this year. 250 years ago, the Continetal Congress sent a letter to King George III of England saying they no longer acknowledged his sovereignty. Then, they fought a War of Independence, Then, they created the Confederacy of American States. Then, that failed, because they gave too much power to the individual statess and not enough pover to the Federal Government. (George Washington famously said that the one thing from England that we must never allow is political parties. Nevertheless, the first political parties were founded by members of his cabinet: The Democrats were founded by Thomas Jefferson, who believed that the individual states should have the most poswer, and the Federalists were founded by Alexander Hamilton, who believed the Federal Government should be even stronger. Strangely, only Thomas Jefferson rose to leader of the Federal Government.) Then, they created a new Constitution for the United States of America. Then, that passed each of the states legislatures. Then, they held the first elections in 1789, Then, the new President was sworn in in 1790. So, one might say the nation began in 1776, but the country began in 1789-1790.

While you are in the US, you may need either a US State issued driver's license, or a passport as personal identification. In particular, if you go to any establishment that dispenses alcohol, they will want to see your identification showning you are at least 21 years old. In most states, including Oregon, each tavern, bar and restaraunt owner is required to inspect the identification of every customer (at restaraunts, only if they are buying alcohol), and credibly believe that the identification is valid and issued to that person. Unfortunately for Foreign participants, this may mean that whatever identification you are using is unfamiliar to the bartender and therefore, rejected. Your passport should always be accepted. A tavern, bar or restaraunt can lose its ability to serve alcohol if they do not comply with this requirement. Undercover police often enter taverns to see if they get carded, and if not, they shut the tavern down. For example, I am over 60 years old, and I must show identification to gain access to a tavern. If I were friendly with the bartender, it wouldn't make a difference, unless I'm OK with my friends being unemployed. An attendee of OPLSS once said, "It's my right as an Englishman to get drunk," and I pointed out that English Rights don't extend to America (c.f. Letter sent to King George III in 1776).

Febuary 17, 2026

The Month of Ramadan probably begins Today.

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. In muslim tradition, Ramadan is the time when Allah gave the Torah to Moses, Allah gave the Psalms to King David, Allah gave the Gospel to Jesus, and Allah gave the Quran to Muhammad.

The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, so it is eleven days shorter than the Gregorian solar calendar. This causes the Islamic months to come earlier each year on the Western calendar. In particular, a month begins when the first quarter moon "appears in the sky." Some Muslims take this to be the calculated day of the first quarter moon, either based on their position on the Earth or Saudi Arabia, some take this to be the day that they personally see the first quarter moon, and some take this to be the day that a committee in Saudi Arabia reports they were able to see the first quarter moon. Even scheduled first quarter moons happen on different days in different locations because of the position of the sun and moon in the sky as it passes over that location. Thus, the beginning of Ramamdan (or any other lunar month) may vary by as much as a day depending on the meaning of when a month begins, and celestial and weather conditions.

To be clear: Housing on campus is arranged through me. When I tell you that you have been accepted to OPLSS, I will tell you I have reserved housing in the dorm for you, and ask you to tell me if you do not want it before May 18, 2026. Some people will pay through the credit card website, some people will pay through wire transfers, and some people will obtain a fellowship that pays for housing, so the credit card website is in no way linked to obtaining housing. Going to the credit card website and paying for housing does not guarantee housing is available. You have housing reserved for you when I tell you I have reserved housing for you, and send you an invoice with housing listed. 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, and if you cancel housing, I will send you an invoice that shows you do not have to pay for housing.

Happy Mardi Gras

Today is known by various names in various languages and regions. Mardi Gras is a French phrase meaning "Fat Tuesday". In German, they call today "Fasching". In spanish they call today "Carnaval", a phrase meaning "meat is still valued". The Christian tradition is to celebrate today with lavish feasts, because tomorrow begins 40 days of denial of pleasure to focus on spiritual purity.

Lent, which begins tomorrow, consists of 40 days of denial of pleasure to commemorate Jesus spending 40 days in the desert fasting and praying. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, when certain Chritians go to church to get a cross of ashes placed on their foreheads. These ashes are from the burning of palm leaves after the previous year's Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday happens the week before Easter Sunday, 40 days after Ash Wednesday, to commemorate when Jesus entered Jerusalem amid the crowds of people lining the streets with palm leaves as a sign of respect, before he celebrated Pesach with his apostles and was subsequently tried, convicted and executed by the authorities.

The historic sacrifice during Lent is giving up eating meat, but any sacrifice will serve. Thus, vegetarians might give up alcohol. Teetotalers might give up smoking. Non-smokers might give up swearing. Etc. Some Catholics in my church just give up meat on Fridays, which is historic and why, for example, geese are considered fish, because bird flesh is classified as meat by the church, but fish flesh is not. Rather than eat fish every Friday, as is the long-standing Catholic custom, my friends eat pizza or macaroni and cheese, which begs the question of what is actually a sacrifice and what is just satisfying Pascal's Wager.

If I tell you I have reserved housing for you, please let me know by May 18, 2026 if you do not want housing. On May 18, I must tell the housing authority how many rooms OPLSS will be occupying, and the housing authority will charge OPLSS for the number of rooms I say, regardless of whether they are occupied. In particular, if you accept a fellowship from one of our sponsors, you must cancel the fellowship by May 18, if you do not want to use it. Sponsors will not pay for empty rooms; although, housing will charge us for empty rooms. Thus paradoxically, you must pay for an empty room not cancelled by May 18, even if the room is free to you if you occupy it.

February 15, 2026

Happy Maha Shivaratri

Maha Shivaratri is the annual Hindu festival to honor Shiva, and commemorate Shiva performing the Divine Dance. It is a celebration of overcoming darkness and ignorance, and is usually spent in all-night meditation on ethics.

In Catholic School, we were taught that the four major gods in Hinduism were Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and Kali, and we had to learn the aspects of each. In brief, Shiva is the God of Death, Dance, Destruction and Rebirth. Since Hinduism has the transmigration of souls as a foundation, death and rebirth are seen as the same thing, as are destruction and rebuilding. Thus, when Grandma dies, if she led a good life, she is reborn as something better. On the other hand, if she led a bad life, she must be reborn at a lower level and work her way back up. "Pay attention to your dharma or be subject to your karma" is what we were taught. Shiva, who oversees this process, is thus very powerful.

In US popular culture, however, the main deity in Hinduism is generally portrayed as Ganesh, the son of Shiva, shown as a four-armed elphant-headed being. The worship of Ganesh, is very widespread in Hinduism, as well as Jainism and Buddhism, religions we also studied in Catholic schools, but with no mention of Ganesha. Ganesh is largely worshipped because of his apsects as the remover of obstacles, and imbuer of intellegence.

Some random points of trivia from my head:

Hindu culture arose when the Europeans who had settled in Iran and formed the basis of Aryan culture there migrated into the Indian subcontinent and mixed with the Dravidians about 3500 years ago.
To include the Vedic and Persian languages, is why European languages and culture are called Indo-European.
Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen, was from a group of more recent migrants of Zoroastrians from Iran to India called the Parsi, who migrated for religious freedom after the islamic conquest of Persia in the 7^th century.
The Roma, called Gypsies due to the mistaken belief that they were migrants from Egypt, represent the migration of Vedic speaking peoples from the Indian subcontinent back to the European pennisula.
We think that Indo-European culture originated in Ukraine, and spread west to the European pennisula. From the European pennisula, it spread southeast to Iran and further east to India. In the process, Estonia, Finland, and Hungary were left out, and are part of the Uralic culture. Türkiye stopped being Indo-European when the central asian Turks migrated there 1000 years ago, long after a thousand ships were launched by a particularly winsome face. Before that, Türkiye was called "Asia Minor" to distinguish it from India which is southwest Asian.

The housing authority has not yet identified the residence hall we will be occupying, but the room layout for the dorm will be either "double" or "single" here. If you have a double room, there will be two beds, but you will be the only occupant. There is one communal bathroom for women and one for men. The showers have a small, private disrobing area next to the private shower, and the toilets are in individual metal privacy stalls.

If you need to stay an extra day, or arrive a day early, it would behoove you to tell me as soon as possible.

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 a couple of blocks of the lecture hall.

There are, of course, more housing options in Eugene including AirBnB, but the above hotels are within easy walking distance of OPLSS.

February 3, 2026 — For Foreign Participants:

It is never too early to work on obtaining travel papers to the US. The US President has proposed an additional $250 refundable bond for visitors, but if you complete the requirements before it is in place, you can avoid the extra expense. The following are the guidelines I have offered successfully in the past.

OPLSS is a Conference, not a Course of Study
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", or an official misinterprets your intentions, including US border guards, you will be turned away from the US until you have been accepted into a degree-granting program.

Neither electronic pre-approval nor a visa guarantee that you are actually allowed in the US. On the day you arrive, a US border guard will decide whether you are allowed in the US. For that interview, the invitation letter I send will be useful.

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

Travel papers to leave your country
Most governments do not care if you leave their country, but you should check whether your government requires you to file any papers.
Travel papers to enter the United States
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, please ask the entity that gave you the SEVIS document about your visa limitations. If necessary, direct them to this page for clarification. When you arrive, be careful which words you use at the border. One participant was interogated for hours at the border because she used the word "school."

I would suggest that you use "OPLSS" without saying what the individual letters are for, or say you are attending a conference on Types, Proofs, and Program Logics. 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.

The US has a Visa Waiver Program with many countries. The Visa Waiver Program does not apply to all citizens of Visa Waiver Program countries.
- Travel to the United States under the Visa Waiver Program
  - A Passport from your country of citizenship
    To enter the US, your country of citizenship must issue you a passport. Also, you may need your passport as identification while here.
  - Electronic pre-approval from the US
    When you fill out the electronic pre-approval form, and when questioned at the border, be clear that you are coming here for a scientific conference. Even though you will have to say University of Oregon and OPLSS, you want to emphasize that it is a business purpose. Do not write school, study or student. Education purposes require a visa, even from visa waiver countries, and OPLSS cannot supply you with the required paperwork to obtain a student visa.
- Travel to the United States without the Visa Waiver Program
  - A Passport from your country of citizenship
    To enter the US, your country of citizenship must issue you a passport Also, you may need your passport as identification while here.
  - A business visa from the US State Department.
    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 ambassador to your country. If your interview goes badly, and you are asked to do another interview, plan to bring more evidence. If you have no more evidence, then there is no point in another interview.
    
    Be prepared for your visa interview. Do not have anything sent directly to the embassy. Bring all materials with you to the interview. If some piece of evidence is not in English or not in the interviewer's language (the locally spoken language of that embassy), it must be translated by a certified translator. This means, if you are studying in a country which speaks a language other than your native language, documents from your country of citizenship must be translated. Here are the things you may need at your interview at the US embassy:
    - DS-160 Visa Application Form (DS-160 FAQ) Complete the form online, but bring the confirmation page showing you completed the form and paid the $185 application fee.
    - A valid passport issued by your country of citizenship
    - A photo (a copy of the photo you uploaded as part of the DS-160 application
    - Be prepared to submit all details of social media that you use.
    - Bank statements or other evidence that you will be able to pay all the costs of the trip.
    - Letters or printed social media showing you will not overstay your visa. This is very important. The interviewer must be assured that you are not a "risk to emigrate to the US". Evidence of this type can be communications with local relatives and friends showing they are dependent on your return and\or communications from your employer or academic advisor showing it would be more advantageous for you to remain in your country/program than relocate to the US. All things being equal, the interviewer will believe that it is advantageous for you to remain in the US, So, you must bring evidence to the contrary.
      It is not useful to bring evidence of relatives or friends currently living in the US, as this indicates you may be a risk to emigrate to the US.
    - I will issue a letter of invitation which you may also take to your visa interview, but it is not requried. The letter of invitation is used when arrive in the US.
    - I will issue an invoice which may be useful to you in showing what your expenses will be along with evidence of how you will cover your expenses, including letters from your institution or other source of funds you will use. Since I encourage you to begin travel preparations early, your visa interview may occur before you receive an invoice from me; in that case, you should bring a copy of the rates page.
Travel papers to return to your country
Before you leave your country, make sure you have any papers necessary to return to your country, probably, a passport.

Address for Visa Documents

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

1410 Agate Street
Eugene OR  97403

The contact information for visa applications is

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

January 25, 2026

If you apply (with a recommendation, if required) before March 16, you should hear back from us by April 6. If not, please send email to summerschool@cs.uoregon.edu asking what happened to your application.

What to expect when you apply

When you fill out the registration form and hit apply,

Your browser will look over the form and make sure you haven't left anything blank or included a Letter of Motivation that is longer than 1MB. It will prompt you to fix that, if necessary. If there are no blanks, clicking submit should result in your browser showing a webpage from our server.
- If our server is running normally, your browser will say you have successfully submitted your application.
- If there is a problem with our server, your browser will say there is a problem with our server and you should email the information to us.
You should immediately receive an automated email from apache@cs.uoregon.edu to the account you gave us.
- If you do not receive such an email, check your spam folder for a message from apache@cs.uoregon.edu. If you can't find a message, it probably means you mistyped your email address; so, you should immediately send an email to summerschool@cs.uoregon.edu telling us you submitted an application but did not receive a reply.
- An error encountered on our server will result in you receiving an email indicating an error occured. You should email summerschool@cs.uoregon.edu with the information about the error, so we can fix it.
In the reply email, it may indicate that your advisor must send a Letter of Recommendation. If so, please make sure your advisor sends this to summerschool@cs.uoregon.edu before the registration deadline.

You should not hear further from us until about two weeks after the application deadline. However, you can send email to me to inquire about your status or modify your application.

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Address for Visa Documents

What to expect when you apply