In the wake of Supreme Court victories striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act and restoring marriage equality to California, the LGBT rights movement faces the challenge of how to achieve marriage equality nationwide while also addressing the many other issues facing LGBT people, such as widespread homelessness among LGBT youth, astronomically high rates of violence and discrimination against transgender people, and the absence of legal protections for same-sex parents in most states. 

More than 3,000 students from across the globe will arrive at the University of Oregon on Thursday, Sept. 26, to begin the college experience. Here’s a great way to welcome them: Leave your car at home.

The University of Oregon's Celebrating Champions website is profiling one new UO freshman each day – exploring everything from hometowns to academic interests to the things people might be surprised to know. And even the one personal item each student must bring with then to college. Here's a week's worth of the profiles: Abby Gray High school and home town – Lake Oswego High School, Lake Oswego, Ore.

National Geographic photographer Sam Abell returns to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art on the University of Oregon campus at 2 p.m. Sept. 28 for the lecture, “My Journey in Photography.” Abell’s photography is included in the new Schnitzer exhibition “National Geographic Greatest Photographs of the American West,” which opens to the public the same day. The exhibition, on view through Dec. 31, includes photographs by Abell, Ansel Adams, William Albert Allard, Edward Curtis, David Alan Harvey, William Henry Jackson, Sarah Leen and Joel Sartore.

The weekly AroundtheO photo gallery focuses on the people and places that make the University of Oregon special.