EMU Impact Report 2025
Letter from the Director
Dear Erb Memorial Union organization, community, and friends of the EMU:
Presented in the Annual Impact Report for the 2024–25 academic year are highlights from our collection of programs, services, and spaces and the impacts the EMU organization has as part of our campus community.
As the old saying goes, the only constant in life is change. In reflecting on the past year, that theme sums up a whole lot of the experiences we have had within and around the EMU. In the modern parlance, we are “working hard to pivot in an everchanging and dynamic ecosystem that requires organizational resilience and innovation to respond with efficiency and effectiveness in our outputs.” After having done a scan of the internet and a rousing “conversation” with the AI modeling within, I have determined we need to engage with “organizational neuroscience” to employ “workforce gigification” and create “digital twins” so we can engage as a “teal organization;” which I guess is a shade of green. All that to say, lots of changes have happened, and as per usual, the EMU continues to thrive at the heart of the University of Oregon campus!
Embedded in this 2024–25 Annual Impact Report, you will see both data and stories that highlight how our facilities, services, and programs continued to grow and create incredible experiences for our students and the UO community. And, while we are saying farewell, organizationally, to the Outdoor Programs and the Club Sports program, as they move into alignment with the Department of Physical Education and Recreation, we also welcome in new colleagues as we are now organizationally part of the Division of Student Life Experiential Learning and Engagement area. These shifts offer new opportunities and give us a chance to support the new University of Oregon strategic plan, called Oregon Rising, as we embark upon our next year of operations.
Given so much is impacting higher education and the world around us right now, I hope the time you take to read this brief report offers something positive for you as you see the impacts the EMU has made. To achieve these impacts, it takes excellent people. It is the people who work here and engage here every day that make it what it is—and these are the impacts they have. For that, I am continually inspired and grateful.
All the best,
Eric Alexander, EMU Director
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Center for Student Involvement
The Center for Student Involvement (CSI) contributes to all Oregon Rising goals. CSI supports timely graduation by helping students “finish in four” through intentional retention activities. These include free food at events, stipend-based scholarships that help students earn and save money, and strong social support through student clubs that foster connection and engagement.
Student well-being, career preparation, and flourishing are central to CSI’s mission. The program identifies and supports at-risk students through referrals, safe spaces, and partnerships with campus support services, while also emphasizing career readiness through mentoring, guest speakers, and multiple class partnerships each year. All CSI activities are designed to strengthen student belonging and flourishing, with professional staff contributing broadly through participation on eleven committees.
CSI by the Numbers
- Between all services and events, CSI reached 25.65 percent of the UO student population.
- There were 117 collaborations/partnerships of all kinds:
- 32 academic
- 26 student organizations
- 21 EMU programs/services
- 15 other campus entities
- 14 Student Life departments
- 9 non-campus groups
- Resource Center saved clubs $81,204 through the Supply Nest free event equipment checkout system.
“My time at the CSI has given me endless connections and opportunities at UO. It gave me a community for two years and introduced me to great coworkers who are now my friends. It has given me amazing job/professional experience and has been invaluable to my time at UO.”
— Abby Emrich, BA ’25 (Art)
Communications and Outreach by the Numbers
- EMU Instagram account: 3,262 followers up 1.1 percent from 2023–2024, 88 posts up 37.5 percent from 2023-2024 which had 75,092 reach (views) up 2.8 percent from 2023-2024, and 5,797 engagements (views, likes, or comments).
- Overall social media channels there were 6,047 engagements and 103,341 impressions (views).
- Digital Displays:
- Processed 142 requests from 11/21/2024 to 6/5/2025
- Had 72 requests during winter term and 67 requests during spring term
- Sixty-six departments and student organizations made requests
- Most requests were from ASUO with 23.
Communications and Outreach
Through supporting EMU events, creating engaging social posts that highlight all that is in the EMU, providing an avenue to student organizations to promote their events, enhancing the physical spaces in the EMU, and promoting student employment, the communication team helps to build the welcoming environment where students and the UO community flourish.
Craft Center
The Craft Center provides student-driven offerings that give students broad, hands-on experiences throughout their four years of campus life. By integrating the arts and creative process, the Craft Center fosters connection, involvement, critical thinking, and experiential learning that enrich students’ academic and personal development.
Through inclusive spaces and workshops, the Craft Center helps students find a strong sense of community and belonging. Staff are deeply committed to supporting student needs and interests, ensuring that all voices are represented and that every student has the opportunity to thrive during their academic career.
Craft Center by the Numbers
- 9,848 visits (card swipes) to the Craft Center, fall through spring of 2024–25
- More than 1,016 new studio orientations given to students
- More than 1,000 tokens collected for the crafting gumball machine
- 3,380 participants for events, Freebie Fridays, and group activities
“I learned so much and had such a lovely time participating in this workshop. Hannah was absolutely incredible—she was knowledgeable and did a wonderful job explaining both the process and providing advice based on color theory and fabric styles. Amazing content, and such an interesting and rare opportunity to learn this art form. So grateful this was made available.”
— Feedback for Kinusaiga: Japanese Fiber Art Workshop
(instructor Hannah Austin)
Custodial by the Numbers
- Supporting the EMU’s 1.8 million visitors in the 2024–25 school year
- Supported 14,000 events with extra trash pick up
Custodial
EMU Custodial team continues to advance the Oregon Rising mission by supporting students, staff, faculty, and the public by providing a continuously cleaned building; no space is left untouched. Custodians also interact with daily building users, whether it is a smile, encouragement, or the fact that all 23 bathrooms are always stocked.
Custodial supports flourishing because its diverse view of the EMU community includes taking care of the needs of custodial staff, all building users, and the EMU staff collectively to become stronger. We all need each other to rise.
Esports
The Esports Program focuses on three pillars: competition, community, and career. These pillars are focusing on delivering on Oregon Rising through developing a flourishing community online and creating mentorship and internship opportunities with gaming and esports companies through guest speakers and collaborations. Additionally, developing a sense of belonging through competitive community and casual game nights.
Esports by the Numbers
- Online community of more than 2,500 gamers
- 15 competitive teams
- More than 200 students visit the Esports Lounge each week
Event Services by the Numbers
- Event Services supports more than 15,000 meeting and event bookings per year.
- Generated more than 20,000 hours of student employment opportunities for more than 50 students across five different positions.
- Provides student employees access to 34 training modules including a wide range of career readiness skills and professional competencies such as customer service, inclusive leadership and unconscious bias, de-escalation, and technical troubleshooting.
Event Services
Events Services provides services and support to a wide range of campus events. Events provide opportunities to increase access and awareness of services, engage the alumni network, provide career readiness training and networking opportunities for students, offer access to co-curricular educational talks about global issues, climate, academic interest areas, and so much more. Having diverse offerings of events is crucial to foster community, belonging, and inclusion, and contributes to campus engagement and student retention. In addition to the benefits to event attendees, Event Services offers substantial opportunities for co-curricular learning, career readiness, and increased campus engagement and belonging to our student employees and student event planners.
Facilities
EMU Facilities supports the maintenance and project supervision necessary to maintain the EMU as a clean, safe facility capable of meeting the needs of students and users. Maintaining the structural, infrastructure integrity, and sustainability efforts of the EMU is a primary goal of the Facilities Department.
EMU Facilities supports career readiness through real experiences for student employees in administrative and trade skills such as maintenance and building safety duties that will carry with them after they leave school and join the work force.
Facilities by the Numbers
- EMU Facilities maintains more than 230,000 square feet of EMU-controlled buildings.
- The EMU’s Energy Use Index (EUI) is 72.
- The EUI rates energy use per square foot and the EMU’s is below the national average of 110 in buildings of similar size.
Guest Services by the Numbers
- Average lost and found items received per school year: 1,279 items
- Average lost and found items returned per school year: 1,149 items
- Average student organization keys checked out in a day: 36 keys
- Guest Services is staffed from building open to building close, seven days a week. This is an average of 16 hours per day.
Guest Services
Guest Services is located at the O Desk on the ground floor of the EMU and acts as a central hub for information both about the EMU building and university campus. Guest Services staff are responsible for checking out keys to the student organization offices in the building, keeping track of lost and found items, checking out the equipment for the pool table in the building, and performing hourly building walks to ensure that there are no safety issues.
ID Card Services
Through producing and supporting the Flock Card—UO students’ official university ID—ID Card Services opens doors to student success! With the Flock Card students have access to their on-campus homes, university programs and services, meals, and more. The declining balance account on the card provides an opportunity to improve students’ financial literacy through management of the funds loaded on their ID. Through employment in the ID Card Services office, students learn vital job skills that increase their career readiness.
ID Card Services by the Numbers
- Distributed 5,163 UO ID cards during 2025 IntroDUCKtions
- Rebranded the UO ID to the Flock Card, holding a contest for a new student designed card
- Printed 11,965 ID cards and badges
- Approved 9,468 photo uploads
KWVA by the Numbers
- 100 percent student leadership and operation
- 24/7 broadcasting with more than 80 active DJs
- Live UO sports coverage with student commentary
- Diverse programming that reflects equity and inclusion
KWVA 88.1FM
After more than 30 years of serving Eugene–Springfield, KWVA’s operations strongly reflect and support the Oregon Rising strategies:
- It equips students with practical skills.
- It strengthens inclusive and engaged community.
- It fosters equity, collaboration, and cross‑disciplinary media work.
Mills International Center
The Mills International Center provides programming and a space that fosters cross-cultural learning and a sense of belonging for US and international students. Mills supports Oregon Rising goals by cultivating a sense of belonging and community, a critical factor in student thriving, persistence, and on-time graduation. Further, Mills employs 15 students from diverse backgrounds who gain significant work experience—a meaningful impact on their career preparation. We help our community flourish via all these avenues, and our Learning Cafes where all students/staff, of all backgrounds, can learn to connect across differences, engage in meaningful dialogue, and celebrate their differences.
Mills International Center by the Numbers
- Total visits for 2024–25: 14,733. Of these, 91 percent are repeat visitors.
- Mills is a space that can be scheduled by other units/groups. In 2025, 118 events were held in the space (55 Mills events, 63 events put on by other units).
- Fourteen different Language Circles ran during 2024–25: Chinuk Wawa, Korean, French, Italian, English, Mandarin, German, Russian, Japanese, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Thai, Vietnamese. (Language Circles are informal language practice groups led by native speakers that meet every Monday afternoon/evening during the school year.)
- Four sections of Mills’ signature workshop Learning Cafe: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Belonging, Teamwork, and Communication ran during 2024–25; each one a small group of six to twelve people (students and staff) gathering once a week for nine sessions across a term.
“I am learning to question where I am before questioning where I might assume others are. This is useful in my interpersonal relationships as well as my working relationships with my supervisor and those that report to me. Learning Cafe encouraged me to be more open to seeing the differences.”
— Learning Cafe participant
Moss Street Children’s Center by the Numbers
- This year 90 percent of the families responded to MSCC’s annual experience survey.
- This year each of our preschool classrooms offered vision, dental, and hearing screening and multiple referrals were made for further evaluation.
- This year MSCC served undergraduate, graduate, law, and post doc students, and staff and faculty families. Some of these families qualified for MSCC free services through its state Preschool Promise slots.
“Knowing my child is safe, loved and cared for by incredible human beings is the only way I’m able to continue to work on my goals!”
“Moss Street has made work and academic pursuits possible”
“To put it simply: there isn’t any way I would be able to complete my education and research without Moss Street’s assistance!”
— Feedback from Moss Street Parent Survey
Moss Street Children’s Center
The mission of Moss Street Children’s Center (MSCC) is to remove the barrier of childcare for parenting students, staff, and faculty so that they can fully participate in the UO goals.
The center provides work experience, mentorship, and training for more than 40 student employees, interns, practicum students, and volunteers with children and family each year, preparing them for careers with children and families.
Child assessment and classroom observations are completed each year to ensure that staff are meeting the curriculum targets to help children meet their developmental milestones.
Retail Services
Through tenant relationships and leases, EMU Retail Services provides vital services to students that reduce barriers and meet basic needs such as legal services, technical support, computer access, financial well-being, and banking services, as well as healthy and familiar food options.
Retail Services by the Numbers
- EMU food vendors had 96,529 individual Duck Bucks transactions for a total of $883,289 in sales.
- Students used their Ducks Feeding Ducks funds at EMU food vendors for 3,529 meals for a total of $34,313 in Ducks Feeding Ducks funds.
Scheduling by the Numbers
- Created 7,272 event bookings for 245 recognized student groups
- Created 10,989 event bookings for 191 UO departments and campus partners
- 615,410 estimated total event attendees
Scheduling
Scheduling provides an enhanced sense of community and social wellness at the University of Oregon through finding space for a variety of on-campus events including orientation programs, lectures, fairs, workshops, and performances.
These events and their outcomes contribute to student mental health and sense of belonging, key factors in college completion outcomes.
In addition, the department’s student workers’ training and supervision are guided by NACE Career Readiness Competencies to provide transferable skills through experiential learning for their career preparation.
Student Sustainability Center
The Student Sustainability Center directly advances Oregon Rising by creating a flourishing community where more than 3,800 students find belonging and their “niche,” with students reporting they’ve formed their “closest friendships” through SSC programming.
The center exemplifies career preparation with 78 percent of Leadership and Engagement Program participants referencing their experience in job applications and 63 percent reporting improved leadership skills.
Student Sustainability Center by the Numbers
- Reached more than 3,800 students throughout the year
- Loaned more than 350 gowns to graduating seniors, a value of $20,316 student dollars
- Fed more than 7,000 students (total household members) with the Produce Drop
- Created climate anxiety programming for more than 220 students throughout the year
- Distributed $45,000 to support Indigenous and environmental justice faculty, students, staff, community members, and projects
Technology and Innovation by the Numbers
- Achieved a 91 percent resolve rate on facilities work tickets since adopting Team Dynamix.
- Enabled the Craft Center to serve more than 1,500 students since the implementation of InnoSoft Fusion.
- Provided system administration for EMS, enabling the successful coordination of 14,000 event bookings in FY25 for Scheduling and Event Services.
- Automated EMS reporting to help campus partners proactively prepare for non-standard events such as late-night programs, high-traffic weekends, and major campus gatherings.
Technology and Innovation
The University of Oregon’s Oregon Rising mission was advanced by supporting and strengthening campus infrastructure and enabling data-informed decision-making. These efforts contribute to a more organized, accessible, and flourishing campus environment for students, staff, and the broader university community.
Ticket Office
We provide a central location for the university and surrounding communities to come together to access arts, culture, and travel. As a central hub for UO and community members, we help inform and give assistance to exploring/engagement with local arts, cultural events, and travel opportunities.
We help students foster new experiences, connections, and inspiration they can take with them post-graduation as they become involved with their surrounding communities and opportunities in arts and culture.
As an office that employs students, we provide staff with advanced skills and a sense of belonging and purpose, as they learn through individual and shared experiences in the workplace.
Ticket Office by the Numbers
- More than 4,200 passport applications submitted (almost double from previous year)
- 4,000 passport photos taken
- Ticketed 157 events on campus (38 were student-run events)