Students at the University of Oregon take the university motto, Minds Move Mountains, to heart. For more than a decade, Mother Jones magazine has recognized the UO as one of the most activist campuses in the country, often ranking the university number one. The UO is also consistently among the top universities in the nation for the number of graduates who volunteer for the Peace Corps. Whether at home or abroad, UO students are making lasting progressive change in health care, education, environmental protection, social justice, and many other areas.

Closer to home, the university has long been recognized as a leader in sustainability. The UO Campus Recycling Program won the Environmental Protection Agency’s Partner of the Year in 2005, in part for diverting 48 percent of campus waste through recycling. University President Dave Frohnmayer also signed a 2007 commitment to eventually eliminate the university’s carbon footprint. Whether at home or abroad, UO students are making a difference.

The UO strives to create positive social change, and the university is often cited as one of the top environmentally friendly schools in the nation. So it’s no surprise that the UO was the first university in the world to offer green organic instructional labs to undergraduate classes. In the area of gender equality, the UO boasts the best-funded research institute in the country–-the Center for the Study of Women in Society.

As a UO student, your education will continue beyond the borders of campus. You can participate in internships or service-learning experiences within the Eugene community—a center of political and environmental activism. Or you could travel abroad through one of the UO’s 190 overseas study and international exchange programs. The UO also has three off-campus field study sites: the Pine Mountain Observatory, the Malheur Bird Refuge Field Station, and the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology (OIMB). OIMB, situated on 107 acres of coastal property along Coos Bay, offers an interdisciplinary course encompassing marine ecology, marine mammals and birds, and biological oceanography, as well as other programs of individualized study.

More than 250 student-run organizations let you venture beyond the classroom, across cultures, and into the world. You can promote conservation and renewable energy with the Solar Information Center. You can help work toward environmental solutions that benefit everyone through the Coalition Against Environmental Racism. Other student-run groups — such as OSPIRG (Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group), the Multicultural Center, and the award-winning Campus Recycling Program — allow students to work together to create a better world.

Students also benefit from UO’s status as a center for conferences on positive change. The Holistic Options for Planet Earth Sustainability conference, a sustainable business symposium, and the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference are just a few of the annual events at the UO. The panel discussions and keynote lectures have included Julia Butterfly Hill, Sister Helen Prejean, David Brower, Ralph Nader, and other well-known activists.  

The University of Oregon is located in Eugene (pop. 149,000), a quirky city in the heart of the Willamette Valley, which in 2006 topped National Geographic’s 10 greenest cities list. The Willamette and McKenzie rivers run through the town, and are bordered by miles of bike paths and running trails. The Pacific Ocean is one hour west; snow-covered Cascades peaks are about an hour east. The student-run Outdoor Program organizes trips to these and many other beautiful destinations between and beyond. Program activities include biking, hiking, kayaking, mountaineering, snow camping, and windsurfing.