The Lane County Chronicles

By Shi Violet Herring

June 4, 2021

EUGENE, Ore. — Van-Life has set Isaac, Dorit Liss, Daniel Gaudenti and Kate Fifer free. The term Van-Life is extremely inclusive to people who live on the open road. They are all connected by their similar, almost migration, instinct and a strong sense of community.

Americans have a hustle culture. When one looks up the terms hustle culture and toxic productivity, one will find hundreds of videos explaining how the capitalist system encourages working until failure. This was inspired by a study by Anders Ericsson, that found that people can only accomplish productive work for four-hours a day, and it also found that people need several hours of play each day. Van-life seems to find a way around this system.

One Van-Lifer, Isaac, who asked that his last name remain anonymous, is the owner of a shortbus conversion business called Skooliana. Isaac said that this lifestyle has caused a complete mindset shift. One day he wanted to go to the beach, and he then realized that he could stay at the beach and drive to work early in the morning. After that, he had no idea why anyone would live any differently.

“Having the freedom to choose your destiny and your life, like, it’s the little things that make it what it is,” said Isaac.

Van-Life has a community of people with similar mindsets. He said, “The people and the community are the best part about Van-Life.” Isaac said that after high school, how is anyone supposed to make friends? Everyone has everyone’s back in the Van-Life community.

“It’s all really welcoming and forgiving; for example, I just had somebody yesterday reach out to me saying that they were on the road from Georgia and were going to be passing through Eugene,” said Isaac. “They wanted to hang out, so we went to a hot spring last night,” he said. “Now I consider both those people really good friends, so it just brings people together,” said Isaac.

Isaac recently met Daniel Gaudenti and Kate Fifer over Instagram; where Gaudenti and Fifer document life in their creamy-yellow Blue Bird bus conversion. Gaudenti and Fifer lived in Eugene when they decided to start converting their short bus, Laurel. They both worked at Jazzy Ladies, a quaint cafe in downtown Eugene, when they finished their bus build. Fifer said that the year before they jumped on the van-life bandwagon, they got a taste of travel and could not let it go.

Some Van-Lifers do work a 9 to 5 job, but they do it for a fraction of the year. Gaudenti and Fifer, who have been experiencing van-life for two years, spend most of the year adventuring and then go back to work when they need the money. They said that they have picked up jobs on their adventures in Tennessee, California and Oregon. They have also worked with Fifer’s Grandfather during certain seasons.

Gaudenti said, “I feel like you realize what’s actually important in life.”

One of the biggest changes for Gaudenti and Fifer was that their world seemed to expand. They realized with this lifestyle they could carry out their dreams of opening a restaurant wherever they wanted. Their overall mindset changed, and their goals expanded into a dream of buying land somewhere to open a restaurant that has space for Van-Lifers to stay overnight.

Gaudenti and Fifer talked about the different outside perspectives that also go along with vanlife. They said that while the people of Eugene and Nashville might understand the appeal of van-life; all over California, people would look at them like they were homeless.

“There is a distinction between people acting like we are down on our luck rather than like we are doing something cool purposefully,” said Gaudenti.

Van-Life inspires a community of people who prioritize seeing more of the world. This community also includes the people it inspires through the process. Gaudenti said that people all over Oregon get excited to see their bus. It makes them feel like they are a part of something bigger. Van-Life is very adaptable to a person’s goals and priorities. Gaudenti recently graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Southern New Hampshire University while traveling in their van. Their traveling had to be centered around internet access and cell reception to take his classes online, so now that he is graduated, they are free to go anywhere.

Dorit Liss, who also has become friends with Isaac, always had a packed bag in her car to go on weekend camp trips throughout high school. Never liking to stay in one place too long, Liss bought her first bus, Nugget. She said that since she had no prior building experience, her first bus build was extremely difficult. Liss said that she is so grateful that she got to go through the experience because it made her current bus build much easier. Her new home is named Gumboot, which is fitting for a person with a background in marine biology.

Van-Life has enabled Liss to develop a strong community with likeminded individuals. While Van-life is incredibly versatile, Van-Lifers seem to have some similarities amongst them. Liss said that most Van-Lifer seem to be doing Van-Life for similar reasons: the urge to keep moving and a desire to see more of the world. There is also a very spirited almost free-sounding quality to Van-Lifers. It makes one notice the worry or stress that most people carry with them throughout their lives.

Liss said that Isaac is like the Van-Life overlord, and that she has gotten to meet a lot of robust people through him. The biggest difference that Liss has seen since starting Van-Life, is a complete mindset shift. She said that she used to be a very avid planner, but now she can pick up jobs when she needs to and travel when she wants too.

“On the road, like, you cannot be firm in anything, nothing is ever for sure, and you always have to have a backup plan and expect the unexpected,” said Liss.

Even with this in mind, Liss said that Van-Life has caused her to become more spontaneous and venture outside of her comfort zone.

By Daniel Noonan

June 1, 2021

It’s a Tuesday morning in Oregon’s Capitol building and two members of the state legislature are having coffee. The two exchange pleasantries and return to their respective offices. They work right down the hall from one another and if you watched them interact, you would have no inkling that their respective parties had spent the last election cycle raising millions of dollars to defeat the other. The public saw two representatives fighting, opposed to one another, but what Joseph Erickson saw was something quite different. Erickson is a legislative aide working under Representative Lisa Reynolds. Erickson’s job is to communicate with constituents and posit strategies to help pass bills in the Oregon House of Representatives.

“You see it all the time,” Joseph Erickson said. “People from opposing sides of the aisle, people on different congresspeople’s staffs…when the campaigning ends people get along well.” Erickson didn’t name names, but he described that such scenes are common in the capital building. “It’s hard to be hostile with people that you work down the hall from,” Erickson said.

When facing the public Oregon’s representatives do bitter war under the constant pressure of needing to raise money for campaigning. These election cycles give off the impression to voters that the people that represent them are as antipathetic to one another in private as they are in public.

“To be honest I don’t know who my representative is,” Becky Warnell said. Warnell is a Sophomore Family and Human Services (FHS) major attending the University of Oregon. “I feel like republicans and democrats wouldn’t get along; they seem so opposed to one another.”

“I think people’s view of politics stops outside of the federal government,” Erickson said. “People really don’t understand what happens in local politics or what people can get done at a local level…so many of the changes that people actually experience are products of decisions that people like me have made.”

“I want to say his name is…Jeff Merkley?” Austin Murray said. Murray is a recent graduate from the sports business program at the University of Oregon. “I feel like I know nothing about my local officials.” Out of 17 students interviewed on the University of Oregon campus, there were only two that knew who their elected official was.

“Sharon Meieran represents my district,” Jillian Phillips said. Phillips is a Junior FHS major. “It’s a shame that I’m one of the only people but I’m not surprised. It’s not as if local politics gets any news coverage.”

“Pam Marsh is her name,” Navon Encarnacion said. “I remember bubbling her name in on the ballot.” Encarnacion is a Junior and a Chinese major at the University of Oregon. “It makes sense to me that no one knows who their local representatives are. I’d bet some of them didn’t vote in the general.”

Those who didn’t know their representative cited a lack of education on the matter.

“I don’t think I’ve seen any coverage of a local election,” Sam Inada said. “I couldn’t even tell you when they get elected.” Sam Inada is a Junior and a computer science major.

As Erickson describes it, once the members of Oregon’s legislature are done waging their wars of words and funds, they come back together in the capitol to get to work in unison. In between the public and the private are the decisions that our officials make. The public gets to see what legislation gets passed but is oblivious to why and how.

“Most bills get passed easily with bipartisan support,” Erickson said. “Every career politician has their own pet project and for the most part the bills that we pass involve small projects that cost a relatively small amount of money.”

General public ignorance of the inner workings of local government doesn’t seem to be contributing to any lethargy in the capital – at least when it comes to the smaller projects. In the same way that harmony is abandoned when election season comes around when the stakes are increased all civility goes out the window. Erickson’s descriptions paint the picture of a clean and highly functioning lab of democracy. Democrats and Republicans able to find common ground, able to compartmentalize the venom of the campaign when it comes time to run the state. However, Erickson insists that “the system is broken.”

“In so many ways we are different but the same,” Erickson said. “But when it comes time to deal with the partisan issues that would be considered charged in the larger political climate, things start to fall apart.” In February of this year when the Oregon legislature came into session the republican coalition walked out of the building citing concerns over the governor’s COVID-19 policy. 2021 is the third year in the row that the republican delegation has walked out during the session to prevent democratic legislation from getting passed. Despite having a supermajority, the Democrats are unable to take advantage because the Republicans abuse the rules of quorum.

“I think this is a great example of the so-called urban rural divide,” Erickson said. “Voters in these rural senators and representative’s districts love seeing them walk about. It’s like they feel as though their elected official is sticking it to the liberal elite.”

It appears to be impossible to pin down exactly what local politics are like. One moment our officials are in heated political campaigns leveeing huge sums of money and time to bury their opponents and the next they’re enjoying each other’s company with a warm Styrofoam cup of coffee. Then suddenly the coffee has soured and the seeming respect they shared goes out the window. If our politicians are loyal to anything it’s themselves and the dissonance of local politics make it hard to discern anything past that.

By Hannah McIntyre

June 1, 2021

By Nathan Garcia

May 31, 2021

There are multiple college students across the US who have managed to find some positives in the last year and a half.

For some, social distancing was a dream come true while others had to make an effort to improve their new lifestyle. These unexpected opportunities allowed some students to have an optimistic outlook on how covid changed their life.

Thriving Introverts

On March 17, 2020, an email from the Chief Resilience Officer Andre Le Duc read “The university will be shifting to a modified operational status.” John Aitchinson was thrilled when he got this notification.

“I was super excited when I found out, I definitely like getting away from cities and I am more of an introvert so I was very ready to get away from all the congestion in Eugene,” Atchinson said. “I packed up my bags that day and was out of there.”

Aitchinson took advantage of online classes and stayed home for fall and winter term. While he took classes, he and his 4 friends from high school decided to open a fishing guide service on Lake Shasta. Aitchinson said “there were 5 of us in a tiny tent trailer, it was early mornings, usually 2 or 3 am, taking clients out from sunrise to sunset. It was hard work but at the end of the day it was so much fun fishing with your friends and getting paid to do it.”

Unexpected Family Reunions

Steven Kaiser, a junior at Oregon, thought that he and three brothers would never live together again as they left for college one by one. What he couldn’t have predicted was everyone being back together in March of 2020 for a 7-month lockdown during a national pandemic.

“It was nice to have all three of my brothers back in the house again,” Kaiser said. “We fished, hiked, and made some funny memories that would have never happened if it wasn’t for the pandemic.”

One thing that Kaiser took away from spending so much time with his mom was learning how to cook. Kaiser said, “This was the first year I had to cook by myself in college so my mom taught me how to make all kinds of meals and it has come in very clutch.”

Fitness Journeys

As the pandemic moved into the summer and quarantining became the new reality, Kevin Sullivan decided to use this time to get in shape. Sullivan, a junior at Oregon, took up running to pass the time, burn off the home-cooked meals and prepare his body if he did happen to catch the virus.

“I started to go on runs because it was an excuse to get out of the house,” Sullivan said. “With gyms being closed, it was a great way to stay in shape and was actually therapeutic. I am still running today in Eugene and I love it.”

Outdoor Hobbies

With limited choices of what one could do throughout the pandemic, going outside was always an option. Nicole Mcginnis, a junior at The University of Washington took advantage of the weather and free time in Southern California. Mcginnis honed in on her skills in a variety of activities.

“With online school I was able to spend a ton of time skiing, surfing and biking,” Mcginnis said. “Focusing on these hobbies during the pandemic was a great way to safely see people during a time when face-to-face interaction was so rare.”

At the beginning of the pandemic, Mcginnis was struggling with not being able to see anyone. “I was depressed at first,” Mcginnis said. “But once I started surfing and doing other outdoor activities once a day it really aided my social wellbeing.” Mcginnis realized that stepping outside after being on a computer all day is so important for one’s mental health.

Online School

Although online school has its cons, the ability to have a flexible schedule can be a huge pro. Marilena Vassalli, a junior at Washington, took advantage of the fact that she could do her classes wherever she wanted. This allowed her to visit her boyfriend for long weekends without having to stress about going back to Seattle.

“Online school has actually been great for me and my boyfriend,” Vassalli said. “Covid is probably the reason we are dating in the first place and now the flexibility of online school is helping our long-distance relationship.”

The way college students have matured, learned, and connected with others during this crisis is uncharted territory. These stories, experiences, and realizations will shape each individual into who they become as life moves on post-pandemic.

By Benjamin Smith

May 25, 2021

EUGENE, Ore. — At 2:00 p.m. on May 10, 2021, the University of Oregon was one of the final dominos in a line of universities to tumble in requiring its students and staff to be vaccinated before returning to in-person instruction this fall. “We have concluded that to protect the health and safety of our university community and the communities we serve,” said UO President, Michael Schill, in the announcement, “[we] will require students, faculty, and staff who will be on campus to be vaccinated prior to the start of the fall 2021 academic term.”

This announcement has left many in relief and others in disbelief. Dan Morrison, a senior professor at the School of Journalism and Communications, believes that the mandate is no different than other safety precautions the government has taken in the past. Likening the vaccine requirement to the regulations that the federal government imposed with seatbelts in 1968, Morrison said, “This idea that people can say you have no ethical right to tell me what to do—well, I got news for you, the government does that on a regular basis!” However, some feel that this is a different ballgame.

The current vaccines being produced on mass that are widely available in the United States have been approved under the Emergency Use Authorization Act; not to be confused with FDA approval. Having been vaccinated himself, Alec Sapolin, a senior at the SOJC, feels for those who believe that’s cause for concern. “I will say that it is truly a shame that people are being forced to get a vaccine in fear of being removed from an institution when the vaccine isn’t even FDA approved,” he said in an exchange over instant messaging.

The matter is even more convoluted due to a single word in the UO’s announcement: philosophical. It’s provided in parentheses along with two other non-medical exemptions, “religious” and “other belief.” The ambiguous nature of philosophical and other beliefs has left many wondering if the mandate has any teeth at all. At this time, President Schill’s inbox volume did not allow for comment on the situation.

Looking to define philosophical exemptions, I reached out to James Crosswhite, a professor of rhetoric and philosophy at the UO. “I think it’s deliberately ambiguous, because religious exemptions are recognized,” he said on the subject.

“If there were some disagreements about the processes and procedures or the way they drew conclusions from the knowledge about the vaccine, I guess that could be philosophical belief,” he said from across an all-too-familiar Zoom lobby.

“That’s what I don’t understand and that’s what frustrates me. For me it feels like they were trying to please both sides in this weird way,” said Nika Bartoo-Smith, a third-year journalism student. “They felt pressured to make a stance on vaccines, but they also knew that there were [going to be] people who were not excited about it so that’s why they put this grey area.”

Providing another perspective on the exemptions, Professor Morrison feels it could be financial in nature. “They are desperately trying to figure out ways to get students to come back,” he said, “because the university is a business. They lost so much money this last year. Across the board.”

So as much as it may be to protect the community, it might be driven by the need to get the university operational again to stabilize revenues.

“There’s pressure coming from all directions [and] Schill is doing the best he can as far as I can tell. I still don’t think we’ve quite figured out how to handle this just yet,” Morrison said. “It’s an impossible spot. There’s no easy answer. I’m not even sure there is a right answer.”

Financial or not—deliberately required or not—the mandate has left the community desperately searching for a middle ground. With a nationwide chasm manifesting, Bartoo-Smith feels that a middle ground is achievable if people are just willing to empathize with one another.

“The biggest issue I see is this unwillingness to have a conversation and see each other’s side and have a real conversation,” she said. “We need to do a lot more empathizing with each other because we don’t do enough of that in society. We don’t hear each other’s concerns—valid concerns—on both sides.”

The need for a middle ground is essential—the need for understanding even more so. Flagship universities across the country have been hit hard, with the COVID pandemic eviscerating usually stable and rising revenues. Beyond finances, though, the nation longingly looks towards some semblance of normal, with vaccines being portrayed as a possible route.

“People are mature enough to look at the data, weigh the pros and cons, and make their own decisions,” said Sapolin. Having done so, the UO feels that decision should be clear, but ultimately has left it up to the individual. The impetus is now on us to come to a consensus on how to achieve a middle ground that favors everyone’s beliefs with safety in mind.

By Carson Colville

May 25, 2021

EUGENE, Ore. — “Ohh. Where do I start?” Lydia Fish, manager at Mountain Rose Herbs, said as she chuckled. Working at the shop, she has received a number of strange requests that she often cannot legally answer. Mountain Rose Herbs is tucked away near the 5th Place Market, just steps from downtown Eugene. The shop is stocked full of herbs, essential oils, spices, and teas. Working at Mountain Rose Herbs, Fish and her associates frequently encounter customers who are full of peculiar questions and in search of medical advice.

Lined with baskets full of herbs and adaptogenic roots and mushrooms on one side, and soaps and clays to craft DIY skincare products on the other, the shop attracts a wide variety of customers. Customers who frequent the store are typically in search of herbal and holistic remedies which makes education a pillar in Fish’s job description. New customers are often lost, as the store contains so many unfamiliar and unconventional products. Employees of Mountain Rose Herbs find it’s important to familiarize themselves with their customers’ needs and desires.

Fish explains that the majority of customers who have specific requests often tiptoe around their needs. These customers ask which products would be helpful to cure illnesses or prevent exposure to various environmental threats. While Fish and her associates cannot legally recommend herbs or essential oils in response, they can provide customers with products that are “known to be helpful,” said Fish.

Given the commonality of medical-related requests, Mountain Rose Herbs trains their employees to respond. It’s critical for them to react delicately, as customers often offer private details about their health and life. “We give a disclaimer that we can’t give any medical advice,” said Fish, then, “try to direct them towards an herb of something that is known to be supportive.” It’s important for employees to not entirely shut down a customer’s request, but instead politely suggest something that could have the medicinal properties they’re looking for. Fish said that they “use terms like ‘supportive, soothing, known to be helpful,’” and avoid suggesting that any product has the ability to cure or prevent an illness.

Offering medical advice to customers or suggesting that a product has certain medical properties is against FDA regulations and could create a plethora of problems for Mountain Rose Herbs. Employees of the shop are not allowed to “say anything that resembles medical advice,” said Fish. If they were to offer medical advice and a customer had a negative experience or reaction to a product as a result, Mountain Rose Herbs could be sued for damages. Instead, employees approach these interactions by “trying to find an herb that is known to support certain systems but from the perspective of general knowledge as opposed to this would work for you,” said Fish. While situations where customers are seeking medical advice happen frequently at Mountain Rose Herbs, it’s imperative that employees refrain from offering legitimate advice and remain sensitive.

Customers will often be in search of radical herbal remedies. Fish illustrated a particular incident, “This gentleman came in with Keen sandals and long hair,” she said. “This was at the peak of when 5G had just started to come out and he insisted on taking borax internally to fight radiation.” As per her job description and FDA regulations, she politely responded by saying she was unable to recommend that as a safe remedy.

Borax, a powdery white substance, is typically used in cosmetic or cleaning products and is generally considered to be unsafe to ingest. The shop suggests that customers might use Borax powder in a DIY bath salt blend and advise against any internal usage. Mountain Rose Herbs indicates a proper and suggested use on all of their products. The Borax packaging reads “Intended Use: Cosmetic use only.” This small, but very clear wording on the bottom of the crisp white packaging seems to have gone right over this customer’s head. Fish said that she was “startled” by such a request, and mentioned to the customer, once again, that she cannot recommend consuming Borax powder, or any other product to ward off radiation.

Although Fish advised against consuming Borax, this gentleman insisted on the benefits of using it internally, and purchased the Borax powder anyway. Fish remains perplexed by this experience, saying it was “incredibly strange, but not uncommon.” She said that she and her employees often deal with situations like these, where customers are persistent about using products incorrectly. While Mountain Rose Herbs cannot prevent customers from using their products how they wish, they strongly advise against improper use and reinforce that they cannot offer medical advice.

Many of the shop’s products are known to promote certain benefits, but employees must refrain from using terms like “cure” and “prevent.” FDA regulations prohibit Mountain Rose Herbs from using these terms, or offering anything that might come across as medical advice. Employees are trained extensively on how to respond in these situations, as it’s quite common for questions of the sort to be asked. “It’s something we deal with more often than you’d think,” said Fish. These encounters never cease to amaze Fish, despite her working with the company for many years.

By Mollie Herron

May 29, 2021

EUGENE, Ore. — A dimly lit basement decorated with periodic tables and pin up girl posters is the practice space of self-proclaimed garage-indie-punk band Hot Sheets. Chemistry professor Karen McFarlane Holman, life coach Jessica Amos, and horticulturist DJ Jamie Sloan joined forces in 2016 to create the powerful all female band that has played many shows in Salem. The group also go by the stage names Dropkick, Claw, and Bangz respectively to fit their edgy performance personas.

Holman had experience playing in bands that usually had some sort of punk influence in their music. She says the “huge distortion and fun, balls to the walls kind of music” that is punk rock is her favorite to play which is why it has had a heavy impact on her music career. Amos learned to play bass just before Hot Sheets was formed and says that her music taste is heavily influenced by her coming of age in the 90s. Sloan, like Holman, has been involved in music making for many years but learned to play the drums for Hot Sheets with a craigslist drum kit and the help of a teacher she still learns from. Sloan describes herself as “an audio file and this was just another beautiful opportunity to get deeper into music.”

The three women that make up the group each have their own careers outside of the band, but all have a similar idea of how they want to live their lives. Amos says that they no longer want “to suckle on the teat of the man” and create their own paths that don’t follow the expected norm of society. Amos’s work centers on self-acceptance and meditation practices, which others have questioned because of her involvement in punk music. She says that people give her criticism because she “couldn’t be mindful and meditative and also punk rock” but she hopes to prove through her work that people can focus on being mindful while still having edge in their lives. She says that she “feels more integrated in her work” due to her acceptance of the different sides of herself and using that to help others work on themselves.

Both Amos and Holman have children in their teens while Sloan has three cats that she claims as her own children after finding them abandoned on the street. Holman’s children have started to follow in her footsteps, and one of her sons has formed a band of his own. Dean, her son, says that he and his band, The Wolves of Church Street, “are thankful for all of the topnotch equipment readily available at their fingertips and he is personally honored to be the son of such a cool mom.” While Hot Sheets’ music consists of only a guitar, bass, and drums, their practice space is littered with keyboards and a piano that Dean and his bandmates can use.

The trio love to make music together and hope to be successful with their music but have found that the real reward is the connection they have formed with each other and the sense of solidarity they have. Even if they don’t practice every week like they plan to, the group says that their bandmates help them “step into their power” and gain confidence in situations that are not related to music at all. The main goal of Hot Sheets was not originally to make it big, but rather focused on making music they enjoyed. Now that they have seen some success from their work, Sloan has big plans for them in the future. Her dream at this point in time is to tour and play in France on Make Music Day where the worldwide celebration originated. Sloan says that while the success would be a great thing, they “are trying to conquer their lives” with the help of music and not relying on possible fame that comes with it. Amos agrees with Sloan’s opinion and says, “if Hot Sheets never becomes anything more than it already is they would feel deeply satisfied.”

If they are able to make it big Sloan has a special pair of pants that she has been saving for the big stage. She says has “one pair of pants that she bought for France, and she’s going to wear them in France.” Sloan has been holding onto her pants for the chance to wear them on the big stage while Holman and Amos live for the chance to dress up for their performances. Holman says, “the best part of being in a band is the whole separate closet for band outfits.” When going on stage the group aims for a “funky punky” type of look that engages the audience.

When performing in front of an audience Hot Sheets prefers to engage with the audience and have fun and not focus on the technicalities of the music. Holman says the studio “is the place to get everything on record and lets people have them when they’re not around,” but the stage is where they enjoy being more. On stage the music they play is completely determined by audience reaction, which means some songs will be dragged on longer than the original version is or sometimes sang with a more aggressive and energetic tone.

For the next year Hot Sheets will be recording their new songs for their upcoming album. Listeners can expect to hear nine new songs and eventually at least one new music video. The album title has not yet been determined but some cover art is in the works. They want to focus on what they have done in the last year and use photos of their most recent adventures to show that despite not being able to publicly perform they are still just as close as they were before the pandemic. Hot Sheets will be performing at Salem’s Make Music Day, which will be their first live performance in the past two years followed by another performance not even a week later. The live performances are just a small part of what the group loves about the band because they don’t, as Sloan says, “work for the man” and can do what they want to do in order to be happy.

By Hunter Nusz

May 29, 2021

Harley Hunt put seven hours a day into football Monday through Friday and he never got paid for it and he believes that he never should have gotten paid for it. Harley Hunt played for Methodist University from 2016-2018, he majored in athletic training, and sports management. Hunt played division 3 football and he never made a single cent due to the current NCAA rules about college athletes getting paid or making money off of their likeness.

Hunt said that he felt that he should not have been paid by the university but he should have been able to make money off of his likeness. This is coming from someone who put thousands of hours of their life into football. Hunt continued his football career after high school by attending Methodist University in North Carolina. He started working with the team in the summer of 2016 and one thing he said was “it never really stopped.” He said that they practiced in the summer and then during the season they practiced Monday through Friday, played every Saturday and their off day was Sunday. Hunt explained a regular practice day during the season, he says “Wake up and go to 6 a.m. workouts for two hours, then went to class, then went to team meetings to watch film for two hours and then we had practice for three hours until 6 p.m.” He went through all of this almost everyday for two years and yet he still believed that he should not have gotten paid by the university.

His main reason is that if he got paid as a division 3 football player, then everyone should get paid the same. He said “If they pay D1 players then D3 players should get paid.” He said that it would be hard for the NCAA to figure out who to pay and how much each player should get paid, he said “Do they pay the division 1 football players more than the division 3 players?” He also brought up the fact of who pays the players? Is it the NCAA or the university that pays the student athlete. He did say that if the NCAA were able to figure out a fair way to pay all student athletes then he would be in favor of the student athletes getting paid.

That being said Hunt did say that the student athletes should be able to make money off of their own likeness. Current NCAA rules will not allow a student athlete to sell their own jersey for money, this is what Hunt disagreed with. He said that if a student athlete wanted to sell their own jersey or sign a piece of merchandise for money then they should be able to without any repercussions from the NCAA. He said he strongly believes this for division 1 athletes because the school often makes money from a certain athlete so that said athlete should be able to make money using their own likeness.

One thing that Hunt mentioned was that most of his teammates in college never talked about if they should be paid. “We never really brought it up,” Hunt said. “I think we never got the chance to sit around and think about it, we started our day with 6 a.m. workouts and then ended our day at 6 p.m. after a 3 hour long practice.”

Hunt mentioned that he believed that eventually college athletes will be able to make money off of their own likeness and then they will eventually be paid. He still did not know who he thought would pay them though. One final thing that Hunt mentioned was when he was asked that if he would have gotten paid during his playing time, how much would he expect. “Enough to cover my living expenses, enough to cover my basic needs.” He could not come up with an exact amount but he mentioned “enough to live a comfortable life in college.”

Tyler Weber, a senior at the University of Delaware believes that college football players should be able to receive pay. Weber’s personal view is that he believes that college football players should get paid and be able to make money off of their own image. Weber said that each division should get a different amount of pay “D1 gets the most, and D3 gets the least but they should all be able to make something.”

He believes this because each school brings in a different amount of money off of their athletic teams. Weber also talked about players being able to make money off their likeness. Like Hunt, Weber believed that college athletes no matter the sport should be able to make money off of their own name. He said that they should be allowed to sign autographs and sell jerseys to make money.

Another thing that they both agreed on was the fact that soon, all college athletes, not just football players will be paid. Weber said “they won’t be paid by the time I graduate but by the time the current freshmen are about to graduate they probably will be.”

Isaiah Passmore, recent graduate of University of Iowa and current law student at University of Miami, also agreed that college athletes should not get paid by the university. But should be able to make money if the university uses an athlete’s name or image.

Passmore said that he believes no college athlete, football player or not should get paid by their respective university. Despite saying this he believes that the universities should not stop any attempts of college athletes getting paid by another source by using their image or likeness. Passmore said that he thinks that college football players should get paid by using their image or likeness because they are playing the most popular sport and making the most money for the university.

He also said “the best athletes in the country are usually football players.” One final thing about the future of college athletics that he said was that he thinks college athletes will eventually get paid. “In the next 5-10 years it will happen,” Passmore said.

By Alexis Allen

10 May, 2021

EUGENE, Ore. — It’s now been five months since the first COVID-19 vaccine was administered, a step that finally seemed like the light at the end of a perpetual tunnel. However, there is still a number of skeptical people who refuse to get the shots.

While the vaccine rollout in the United States has been relatively fast-paced, the United Kingdom is experiencing a bit of a slower process. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost half of the US population is fully vaccinated while barely 34% of the UK population is.

Connor Shrimpton, a student studying music production at the City of Liverpool College, is among the majority of people who have not yet gotten the vaccine in England—and he says he doesn’t plan on getting it at all.

Shrimpton believes the vaccine should only be given to older people with underlying health conditions. “Vaccinating healthy active people is just stupid in my opinion because you don’t need to fix what isn’t broken,” he says.

He says he is not afraid of the vaccine itself, but instead he fears for those who decide to get it. “There would be no chance you will ever see me line up and get one, even if there was a real pandemic,” he says.

Shrimpton says his reaction to the COVID vaccine is not different from other administered vaccines in the past. “Ever since a young age, when I first learned about vaccines, I was confused as to why people became dependent on them,” he says. “I used to talk to my dad about things like this and he had the exact same views as me.”

Shrimpton says that “it’s way too soon for a vaccine to come out” and he questions why health professionals “would risk vaccinating millions upon millions of people with an experimental vaccine when we don’t know the long-term side effects.”

Someone else who is concerned with the long-term health effects that the vaccine poses is Tatjana Mandic, a sophomore at the University of Oregon. She says she does not plan on getting the vaccine anytime soon and is extremely apprehensive “considering COVID has been around for about a year and vaccines typically take years to develop.”

Her main worry is that the vaccine will cause fertility issues in women. “They have zero research of the side effects from the vaccine!” she says. “I don’t know if it is true or not but it very well could cause younger generations to have fertility issues.”

She also says the recent reports of blood clots that people are experiencing as a result from the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is a tell-tale sign of this vaccine’s trustworthiness.

Apart from the possible side effects regarding the vaccine, Shrimpton believes there’s a bigger purpose behind it. “I’m 100% sure this is a depopulation agenda and I hate to say this, but I think in the next few years we are going to see well over a billion people die,” he says.

When it comes to the media, Shrimpton says the problem is that it is intentionally “feeding us information about this so-called pandemic to promote fear.” He says that mask mandates and new variants of the virus circulating the media every day are only scaring people into getting the vaccine. He compares COVID to World War II when “Germany’s main form of propaganda was fear.” Despite the media’s attempts to instill worry, however, he says that the younger generations are not falling for it and “people are beginning to wake up to the fact that they have been controlled by the government.”

In England, there has been an outbreak of protests from people who don’t support the vaccine. “A few weeks ago there was a huge protest of over 700,000 people in London. I support the people who are fighting for our freedoms,” Shrimpton says. However, he says news outlets have not been covering the protests and that the government is purposely avoiding these events in order to gain the public’s trust.

Some citizens in the U.S. also believe that the media is deliberately hiding important information regarding the vaccine. Flor Harris, who works in the health care insurance business in the Bay Area, says the media does not want to show the bad aspects of the vaccine in hopes of getting as many people vaccinated as possible. “There’s been almost 4,000 people that have died just from taking the vaccine and they don’t want to bring too much attention to that,” she says. She believes nobody should be dying from the vaccine at all and that the government needs to take action.

Because the media plays such a big role in advocating for the COVID vaccine, young adults who are learning how to make health care decisions on their own for the first time say they are concerned with being judged by the public. Capri Macchiarella, a freshman at the College of Southern Nevada, believes that “no one should be shunned for any personal health choice they make.”

Harris also believes everyone should have the ability to get vaccinated or not without being shamed. “It seems like the current political climate doesn’t allow you to really speak your mind if you have any concerns…because so many people around you want to shut you down,” she says. She believes this judgmental mindset is unfair and that “everyone should have their own choice because it is their body.”

Apart from the vaccine itself, Shrimpton believes the most problematic aspect of the virus is the pandemic lockdowns that have occurred since last March. “The governments of the world locked us up in our homes for over a year, not getting sunlight, weakening our immune systems,” he says.

Shrimpton believes that health professionals and news outlets should instead promote alternatives to the vaccine, such as practicing good diet or using natural supplements and vitamins. “The medical industry today is a mess, and it’s all about making money. They don’t care about your health at all, they would rather inject you with vaccines and drugs than intentionally try to promote healthy eating or exercise. It is frustrating that a lot of people don’t see the truth,” he says.

Not everyone will agree with each other all the time. People will always have conflicting views about certain topics, especially when that topic affects all of humanity. This vaccine is an example of that—it can be supported by one person but rejected by the next.

“You might think I sound crazy but only time will tell,” Shrimpton says.

Secondhand stores move online with the rise of apps like Depop, Mercari and Poshmark.

By Makenzie Elliott

May 29, 2021

EUGENE, Ore. — Sitting on her couch with a freshly brewed cup of tea, Rosie Zbaracki prepares for a night of posting clothing on Poshmark. Using previously taken measurements and photos she took in her garage, Zbaracki crafts a description for her item. With one more click, she shares the product with her 48,829 Poshmark followers.

Zbaracki is the co-owner of Visibly Sold, a secondhand store in Eugene, Oregon. Zbaracki opened Visibly Sold as a physical store in 2018, but soon began using online selling platforms to boost sales.

Zbaracki currently sells on Poshmark, Etsy, Depop, Mercari and eBay under the brand of Visibly Sold. According to Zbaracki, about 50% of the store’s income comes from these platforms.

“I started selling online,” she said. “And I realized that you can make a sizable income if you work on it like it is a job, like it is a business.”

These platforms are not just for those wanting to start a business out of reselling, however. For some, these apps are just ways to shop sustainably or pass off items they no longer need.

Quynh-Nhi Tran, a second-year student at Northwestern University, began using secondhand websites in high school. She said she would use them to find business and formal clothing—pieces she wouldn’t wear very often.

When buying secondhand, she said, “I don’t have to pay as much money for something that I’m only going to wear once.” For buyers, apps like Poshmark and Depop can ease the process of hunting through the racks of the local thrift store. According to Tran, simply typing in the item she’s searching for on Depop is much easier than in-person thrift shopping.

“If there’s a specific jacket that I want,” Tran said. “I can just search the jacket name, and a lot of the time it’ll come up.”

Audrie Fox is a junior at Centennial High School in Gresham, Oregon. She began using Depop regularly about a year ago when she began selling jewelry and clothes she no longer wanted.

“I think it’s a good way for selling or buying sustainable stuff because it’s usually secondhand,” she said. “And you’re not contributing to fast fashion.”

“Fast fashion” describes clothing that was rapidly produced at a low cost, often under unethical working conditions. These clothes usually follow fast-evolving trend cycles, meaning pieces are bought and discarded quickly.

Liza Williams began selling on Depop about two years ago and now regularly sells items on the app. For Williams, selling on Depop allows her to give her clothing a second life. Most of her inventory comes from her own closet, she said.

“It’s just really important to me that any piece that I purchase and love gets extended to someone else who’s really going to love and cherish that piece as well,” Williams said. In a world where consumption is easier than ever, Williams urges people to start thinking more about the labor chain attached to each item. “It’s so easy for us, from clothing to anything really, to just consume, consume, consume,” Williams said. “I really encourage people to take a step back and understand where their products are coming from.”

While these online platforms can offer more accessible ways to shop sustainably, they aren’t always so glamorous, Fox said. Things like “dropshipping” and high prices plague the sites.

Dropshipping is when sellers list an item they bought on a cheap retail website, like AliExpress, and attempt to pass it off as vintage or secondhand. This allows them to charge a much higher price and gain a larger profit, Fox said.

Fox also said she’s noticed many sellers who try and sell anything they can for a profit. Children’s clothing is especially becoming a popular item, she said—but the target audience isn’t children.

Many sellers will buy children’s t-shirts or sweater vests from local thrift stores and list them online as crop tops or “baby tees” for adults, she said. Not only is this misleading for buyers but the process takes advantage of thrift store prices, Fox said.

“People will go into thrift stores and just buy stuff, like anything that they see that’s cute or they can make a profit on,” Fox said, which limits inventory for people genuinely needing to shop at thrift stores for financial reasons.

Fox said it can seem ridiculous for sellers to charge $40 for a used top, but Zbaracki said sometimes higher prices are necessary for sellers to turn a profit.

The buyer essentially pays for the labor that goes into finding, ironing, mending, photographing and promoting the item, Zbaracki said. After breaking down the amount of time she spends finding and preparing a piece, Zbaracki said it translates to making around $7 an hour.

“Would you do a job for $6.80 an hour? No, that’s a crappy job,” she said. “A lot of people don’t think of it in those kinds of terms.” While the high prices are sometimes necessary, Zbaracki still said that people abuse these platforms. Along with dropshipping, some sellers buy high-end brands from retail discount stores, like Ross, but cut off the discount tag and list the item as full-price.

For Zbaracki, she hopes to use online platforms ethically. The money she makes from online orders allows her to give back to the community in other ways, she said. For instance, Visibly Sold has a “pay what you want” section in its physical store. Zbaracki explained that community members can self-select prices for pieces in this section.

“It’s important for me to make sure that people can get a top for 50 cents,” she said. “Because sometimes that’s all you have.”