UO E-Clips is a daily report prepared by the Office of Communications (http://comm.uoregon.edu) summarizing current news coverage of the University of Oregon.

Media mentions for January 5

1. A New Theory for Fish that Walk

Astrobiology Magazine: A small fish crawling on stumpy limbs from a shrinking desert pond is an icon of can-do spirit, emblematic of a leading theory for the evolutionary transition between fish and amphibians. This theorized image of such a drastic adaptation to changing environmental conditions, however, may, itself, be evolving into a new picture. University of Oregon scientist Gregory J. Retallack, professor of geological sciences, says that his discoveries at numerous sites in Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania suggests that "such a plucky hypothetical ancestor of ours probably could not have survived the overwhelming odds of perishing in a trek to another shrinking pond."

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Late mentions for January 4

1. Rose Bowl Win Brings Intangible Benefits to UO

KEZI: The Ducks' Rose Bowl win goes way beyond the initial thrill of the team winning the game. A win of this magnitude puts the University of Oregon in a place it hasn't been in a long time and gives the school even more tools when it comes to attracting students and getting donor support. The immediate benefits of winning the big game were easy to see and hear directly after the Rose Bowl ended. The third straight BCS appearance by the Duck football team gave the University of Oregon that much more exposure on the national stage. "Certainly, we couldn't afford to buy four hours of advertising on a Saturday afternoon that's focused on the University of Oregon, but big time college athletics gives us that kind of exposure," said UO Director of Admissions Brian Henley. Henley says the admissions department is using that exposure to showcase the academic opportunities available to students. That effort seems to be working. In the past four years. There's been more than a 100 percent increase in admission applications. "In 2007, we had around 11,000 applications for admission. In 2011 we had somewhere in the neighborhood of 22,000," Henley said. Last fall the UO saw record enrollment at 24,500 students.

2. Draft report urges Oregon to hold the line on bond debt

Statesman Journal: A panel is likely to urge Oregon lawmakers not to issue new state bonds backed by income taxes or lottery proceeds. A draft report presented today to the State Debt Policy Advisory Commission projects that the state should hold the line on debt backed by the tax-supported general fund. Even with a restructuring of lottery-backed bonds last spring, allowing for up to $282 million in new capacity, the latest report suggests that lawmakers should stick with the $223 million they authorized during the 2011 session. The commission is led by state Treasurer Ted Wheeler. The other members are two lawmakers -- Rep. Phil Barnhart, D-Eugene, and Sen. Richard Devlin, D-Tualatin -- and Michael Jordan, director of the Department of Administrative Services, and Tim Duy, an economist at the University of Oregon who is the public member.

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Media mentions for January 5

A New Theory for Fish that Walk

Summary: A new study could re-write our understanding of how ancient fish evolved to walk on land.

A small fish crawling on stumpy limbs from a shrinking desert pond is an icon of can-do spirit, emblematic of a leading theory for the evolutionary transition between fish and amphibians. This theorized image of such a drastic adaptation to changing environmental conditions, however, may, itself, be evolving into a new picture.

University of Oregon scientist Gregory J. Retallack, professor of geological sciences, says that his discoveries at numerous sites in Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania suggests that "such a plucky hypothetical ancestor of ours probably could not have survived the overwhelming odds of perishing in a trek to another shrinking pond."

This scenario comes from the late Devonian, about 390 million years ago to roughly 360 million years ago. Paleontologist Alfred Romer, who died in 1973 after serving on the faculties at the University of Chicago and Harvard University, saw this time as a period of struggle and escape -- and important in fish-tetrapod transition -- to ensure survival.

Reporting in the May 2011 issue of the Journal of Geology, Retallack, who also is co-director of paleontological collections at the UO's Museum of Natural and Cultural History, argues for a very different explanation. He examined numerous buried soils in rocks yielding footprints and bones of early transitional fossils between fish and amphibians of Devonian and Carboniferous geological age. What he found raises a major challenge to Romer's theory.

"These transitional fossils were not associated with drying ponds or deserts, but consistently were found with humid woodland soils," he said. "Remains of drying ponds and desert soils also are known and are littered with fossil fish, but none of our distant ancestors. Judging from where their fossils were found, transitional forms between fish and amphibians lived in wooded floodplains. Our distant ancestors were not so much foolhardy, as opportunistic, taking advantage of floodplains and lakes choked with roots and logs for the first time in geological history."

Limbs proved handy for negotiating woody obstacles, and flexible necks allowed for feeding in shallow water, Retallack said. By this new woodland hypothesis, the limbs and necks, which distinguish salamanders from fish, did not arise from reckless adventure in deserts, but rather were nurtured by a newly evolved habitat of humid, wooded floodplains.

The findings, he said, dampen both the desert hypothesis of Romer and a newer inter-tidal theory put forth by Grzegorz Niedbwiedzki and colleagues at the University of Warsaw. In 2010, they published their discovery of eight-foot-long, 395-million-year-old tetrapods in ancient lagoonal mud in southeastern Poland, where Retallack also has been studying fossil soils with Polish colleague Marek Narkeiwicz.

"Ancient soils and sediments at sites for transitional fossils around the world are critical for understanding when and under what conditions fish first walked," Retallack said. "The Darwin fish of chrome adorning many car trunks represents a particular time and place in the long evolutionary history of life on Earth."

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Late mentions for January 4

Rose Bowl Win Brings Intangible Benefits to UO

EUGENE, Ore. -- The Ducks' Rose Bowl win goes way beyond the initial thrill of the team winning the game.

A win of this magnitude puts the University of Oregon in a place it hasn't been in a long time and gives the school even more tools when it comes to attracting students and getting donor support.

The immediate benefits of winning the big game were easy to see and hear directly after the Rose Bowl ended.

The third straight BCS appearance by the Duck football team gave the University of Oregon that much more exposure on the national stage.

"Certainly, we couldn't afford to buy four hours of advertising on a Saturday afternoon that's focused on the University of Oregon, but big time college athletics gives us that kind of exposure," said UO Director of Admissions Brian Henley.

Henley says the admissions department is using that exposure to showcase the academic opportunities available to students. That effort seems to be working. In the past four years.

There's been more than a 100 percent increase in admission applications.

"In 2007, we had around 11,000 applications for admission. In 2011 we had somewhere in the neighborhood of 22,000," Henley said.

Last fall the UO saw record enrollment at 24,500 students.

But it's not just the quantity of students interested in attending the UO. It's also the quality.

Henley says last year's freshman class was the most academically prepared.

As more students seek enrollment, the UO is getting more selective with who gets in.

"I would like to think that Oregon has a number of different reasons why students have come here to study for academics, but we all freely admit that the football and the investment in athletics has helped us tremendously," said UO Managing Director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center Paul Swangard.

It also doesn't hurt when it comes to donor support.

"There's absolutely more people giving. There's more money being given," Swangard said.

That money isn't hard to spot. Take a quick walk around campus and most people can see the benefits.

"I still think it does wonderful things to create an environment where people are just excited to be on this campus and students are excited to be here," Swangard said.

The average GPA of freshmen entering the UO is about a 3.6.

Henley says the high caliber of students leads to increased retention and graduation rates down the road.

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Draft report urges Oregon to hold the line on bond debt

A panel is likely to urge Oregon lawmakers not to issue new state bonds backed by income taxes or lottery proceeds.

A draft report presented today to the State Debt Policy Advisory Commission projects that the state should hold the line on debt backed by the tax-supported general fund.

Even with a restructuring of lottery-backed bonds last spring, allowing for up to $282 million in new capacity, the latest report suggests that lawmakers should stick with the $223 million they authorized during the 2011 session.

The commission is led by state Treasurer Ted Wheeler. The other members are two lawmakers -- Rep. Phil Barnhart, D-Eugene, and Sen. Richard Devlin, D-Tualatin -- and Michael Jordan, director of the Department of Administrative Services, and Tim Duy, an economist at the University of Oregon who is the public member.

Wheeler said the commission will take official action next week.

Under a 1981 law, the Legislature sets limits on the issuance of state bonds, whether paid for through the general fund or other self-sustaining sources, and the limits are in a bill that lawmakers pass at the end of sessions to accompany the budget. The same law created the commission to advise lawmakers.

Although lawmakers do not have to take further action in their 2012 session starting Feb. 1 -- their first constitutional session in an even-numbered year under Oregon's annual-sessions law -- Devlin said he is concerned about potential pressure on lawmakers to authorize more projects funded by lottery-backed bonds.

Devlin, who's also Senate co-chairman of the Legislature's budget committee, said that declines in lottery proceeds over the past few years have hurt programs such as economic development and education, which receive shares of those proceeds for operating money.

"They are now tied to a source that is not growing," said Devlin, whose own view is that lawmakers should be cautious about tapping more in lottery-backed bonds.

Barnhart said if lawmakers are convinced there is a promising job-creating project that should be paid for by lottery-backed bonds, they should be free to consider it during the 2012 session -- but sponsors will have to make their case for it.

"No one asked the question today, but everyone is thinking about it," Barnhart said afterward.

Based on a recommendation a year ago by the commission, the 2011 Legislature chose not to increase the state's limit on general-obligation debt backed by the general fund, even though lawmakers ended up authorizing about $167 million in such bonds -- far less than in recent two-year budget cycles.

The target for debt service payments is 5 percent of general-fund income. The rates are projected in the report at 5.07 percent in the year ending June 30, and 5.02 percent in the budget cycle ending in mid-2013, although Laura Lockwood-McCall, director of the Debt Management Division for the state Treasury, said the actual rates may fall below those projections because of lower interest rates.