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 July 17
UO's football palace: Phil Knight-funded project is another jewel for athletics program
Register-Guardsimilar stories in USA Today and Business Insider: Massive concrete pillars to hold together the $68 million operations center that Nike's Phil Knight is building for the University of Oregon football program are shooting up next to Autzen Stadium. The new center will feature two skybridge-linked buildings -- on the north and east sides of the Casanova Center -- that will rise six stories on top of underground parking. Opening day is set for fall 2013.
Should Law Schools Put More Money Into Career Services?
Above the Law: I think we've established that law schools, as currently constructed, are terrible at helping their students find jobs and preparing students to practice law ... Is there anything law schools can do to make themselves actually useful to their students? ... Oregon is reorganizing its career services office and creating a 1L course to get students to focus on career development. Here's how Oregon explains the class: This class offers every student early exposure to professional opportunities, expectations, and responsibilities; connections with experienced professionals; and one-on-one attention from a career counselor focused on helping each student identify individualized goals and strategies.
Summer's Slide Puts Kids Behind When School Starts Again
OPB: About ten kids in bright blue Portland Parks t-shirts are scampering in circles around two grown-ups in a game of "freeze tag." Nearby, a long line is forming for the free lunches here at Northeast Portland's Glenhaven Park ... But all the freeze tag and free lunches conceal a secret about summer. "The summer break is a problem," according to reading specialist Pat Prevost is not the only educator lamenting the long summers kids spend away from the classroom ... Keith Zvoch is an associate professor at University of Oregon. He spent three years studying a summer program at the Bethel district in Eugene. And he compared that with how fast students read after not going to summer school. "They can lose up to five or ten words per minute. On the other hand, kids who go to summer school, and receive this intensive intervention over the summer period, instead of maintaining or losing ground, they're actually gaining the ability to read words, on the level of an additional five or ten words per minute."
Zhao on Entrepreneurship, the Common Core, and Bacon
Education Week: I recently read Yong Zhao's World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students (Corwin, 2012). The book is an intriguing one, and once I began reading I found it difficult to put down. In his book, Mr. Zhao argues that the elements of the American education system that foster creativity and entrepreneurship in its students and are most envied by China (including by the renowned education system of Shanghai, with its test-taking dominance) are in danger of being destroyed altogether by current U.S. reform efforts such as the Common Core State Standards. Using the relatively unwieldy metaphor of a sausage-making machine, Mr. Zhao argues that while China's mastery in turning out identical sausages (i.e. extremely high test scores) is unparalleled, it can never make bacon. America, on the other hand, doesn't make sausage as well as China does, but every now and again it turns out a fantastic piece of bacon. In this metaphor, he points to Steve Jobs and Lady Gaga as (you guessed it) the bacon. ... Mr. Zhao (UO College of Education professor and associate dean) was kind enough to answer my questions about his proposed education paradigm and its potential impact on teachers, via email. Our conversation, which has been condensed and edited for space, appears below.
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Late mentions for July 16
Oregon Bach Festival posts box office records yet again
Oregon Music News: It's three record-breaking years in a row for the folks at the Oregon Bach Festival ... The 2012 edition of the University of Oregon event surpassed $550,000 in total sales, eclipsing last year's mark and racking up twelve sellouts. The most ambitious yet with 65 events in seven Oregon cities and ten venues, involving 650 musicians, this year's Festival attracted nearly 18,000 ticket buyers from more than 37 states and 12 foreign countries, and drew a total audience of more than 33,000.