I lived in Eugene for 11 years and taught at the UO for eight. Don’t know anything about the Chinese program, but I can say that it’s a nice school, as state universities go. Chronically underfunded by the state of Oregon, alas, and struggling as a result (faculty salaries are low compared to similar schools, for example), but nevertheless some excellent faculty and students, a “green” attitude, a park like setting all make the campus attractive. And of course at the moment, this long time sports loser now boasts the top rated college football team in America. Sports and outdoors are big there in part because of the nearby hiking, rafting etc opportunities and because of the heavy – some say too heavy – presence of Nike, based in Beaverton, but deeply involved in funding athletics as well as other parts of campus, including the very nice library.
The most insightful comment I ever heard about the city itself is that Eugene is a college town superimposed on a mill town, which explains its generally progressive politics and the occasional head scratching moves in the other direction.
It’s too bad that the campus isn’t a few blocks closer to what passes for a downtown (the actual old downtown was lost to urban “removal” in the '60s and '70s and has never recovered), because that would energize both.
Another important attraction: its proximity to the cultural center of Portland, two hours north. But there’s a surprisingly relatively strong performing arts scene in Eugene itself. And there’s an aging counterculture/hippie faction (which blooms each summer at the Country Fair) that can be a little annoying yet stiil admirable for its idealism. It’s also two hours from the most beautiful stretches of the Oregon coast, two hours from the Cascade mountains, three hours from Ashland and its theater scene. In fact you can make a good case that what makes Eugene most livable isn’t the city itself but what it’s near.
Generally, I think, Eugene is considered a congenial place to raise kids and experience the advantages of a university town so it doesn’t feel so small or provincial, with just enough good restaurants, performances, cultural events and of course the magnificent surrounding natural beauty etc to satisfy most people. Also a very good library, public transportation, bike infrastructure, parks, and so on. Seems as though a lot of Portland, Bay Area and LA types move there to raise families. It feels very sleepy compared to such actual urban environments, but not at all a bad place to spend your college or grad school years.
Hey Brett, didn’t know you taught at UofO. Being an academic for a very long time (ex-academic now), I can’t say much about it except that I have always heard it was a good school. I went to school on the east coast (New York and New Jersey), so don’t know as much about west coast schools. I do know of a friend’s daughter who just transferred there. She is a film major and is very excited about the program. She was going to a pretty well-known east coast school.
Sorry can’t help more!
Alex
Being British myself I can understand this problem. Students, in particular, tend to have very strong views on various subjects as they emerge into the world with fresh brains sifting through all the information out there looking for opinions.
Unfortunately, the British-at-large can on occasion be guilty of a ‘holier than thou’ attitude, especially when it comes to cultures they do not understand well (which, sadly, is most cultures). We seem (as a nation) to hold a very parochial view of things, and while this fault is not unique to the British I can see that for a student coming over here it could be an issue.
It is also ‘fashionable’ for students to express certain views that they believe will be acceptable to their peers, presumably through a desire to be accepted by the group. I can only add that below the surface there is a lot of respect, desire for understanding and willingness to learn and I hope one day the lady in question will re-visit to the UK and have a more positive experience. When they want to, the British can be the epitome of politeness and good manners.
I did not travel extensively until I was in my mid 30s, and the subsequent experiences I had made me see the world (and the people in it) in a somewhat different light than I had imagined prior to stepping foot outside my native shores.
This would be extremely unlikely to happen in the UK. You could walk down the street of just about any town in the Country with a t-shirt bearing with the legend “I am an atheist” and you would be unlikely to get so much as a disparaging word. It’s strange how places can be so reasonable in one respect and so annoying in others!
Eddy
Thanks all for these further insights. UO and Eugene sound like a good bet. Brett, your information is particularly useful and I’ll make sure to pass it on.
Eddy, I too am a Brit – I often think of it as technically a Brit, really “a citizen of the world” having lived in a fair number of countries and travelled in around 40 … and not having been born in Britain, though of British parents and in a British protectorate, and never really having had a home in England till I was around 25. So I do know what we’re like, though I suppose I can see us more from the outside as a result of my life and travels.
The first friend actually enjoyed her time in London and travelled a fair bit around the UK and Europe; the attitude of those British fellow-students having been the only real blot on the landscape. She is back working for the local Foreign Investment Bureau, which handles applications from overseas companies wanting to set-up here, so she travels once or twice a year for work and has made a couple of quick trips to the UK since that time.
For the other friend, and the “I’m an atheist T-shirt” … yeah, you could wear one in the UK and no one would turn a hair – unless you’d happened to be one of our neighbours about 15 years ago, and bumped into the narrow-minded, Calvinist Scot who lived two doors down from us … there was virtually a street-party when he and his wife moved back to Edinburgh!
Thanks
Mark