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 November 17
1. Will EMU plan fly?
Register-Guard: Students at the University of Oregon will soon decide whether they're willing to pay an extra $300 a year to cover proposed expansions of the Erb Memorial Union and Student Recreation Center. A weeklong voting period will begin when students return from their Thanksgiving break. The outcome is seen as crucial to the ultimate approval of the massive project, which will cost a total of $160 million and significantly expand both facilities to meet current needs. Ben Eckstein, the UO's student body president, said he hasn't decided whether to support the new fees but will meet with other student leaders to hammer out a position. He said the project has pros and cons, with the cost being the biggest concern. "It's a big new fee," he said. "We would be committing to a lot of money when students are struggling to go to school." Seventy percent of the project costs would be paid through bonds that would be repaid with revenue from the new fee. Students would pay an extra $100 per term to cover those payments.
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Media mentions for November 16
1. Student attacked near University of Oregon campus
KPTV FOX 12, similar stories in multiple media outlets: The Department of Public Safety at the University of Oregon is warning students to take extra safety precautions after a report of a sexual assault near campus. Authorities say a student was sexually assaulted just after midnight on Sunday, Nov. 13. The victim was reportedly followed on foot and attacked after leaving a party near West 18th Avenue and Kincaid Street. Police are investigating the attack. The suspect is described only as a 6' tall white male with a medium build and light brown hair. Public Safety officials encourage students to walk in pairs at night, always carry a fully charged cell phone, and be aware of their surroundings at all times.
2. One tough ticket
Oregonian: When the ABC television cameras pan the student section in Autzen Stadium during Saturday's Oregon-USC football game, take a good look at the few, the lucky, the resourceful, the brave. For Oregon students, attending a home football game is difficult. Tickets are both expensive and scarce when compared with other Pac-12 schools. "The demand is far greater than the supply," said Ben Eckstein, president of the Associated Students of the University of Oregon. "A lot of students aren't able to obtain tickets." A $1,519,045 chunk of the incidental fees paid by students to attend Oregon goes to the athletic department for tickets. The student section is capped at 5,448 for Pac-12 games, enough seating for less than one fourth of the student body.
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Media mentions for November 15
1. Higher Tax Rates on The Wealthy Would Reduce Tax Revenues
Cascade Business News, by Joe Stone, UO economics professor: In the midst of persistent economic hardships and unsustainable public deficits, the Obama administration's proposal for wealthier Americans to pay a 'fair share' of taxes to ease fiscal and economic difficulties is widely popular, but raising tax rates on upper incomes will be counterproductive and make things worse. How do we know this would be so? First, Europe tried it. Despite having lower statutory tax rates on the wealthy than most European countries, the U.S tax system is more progressive and more effective in raising revenues from the wealthy than most European systems. Don't believe it? Whatever our opinions or political views, the data tell us this in several different ways.
2. University of Oregon to save $98,000 a year with lightbulb swap
KMTR: With budgets tightening for state universities across Oregon, the University of Oregon is switching on a new idea, cutting tens of thousands of dollars in electricity costs by swapping old lights out with newer more energy efficient ones. The UO is in the process of replacing thousands of fluorescent tube lights. Once the project is complete, university engineers estimate the swap will save around 98,000 dollars a year in electricity costs. Crews will replace old T12 style fluorescent bulbs with newer T8 style lightbulbs and new power sources. UO engineers say the T8 bulbs are more energy efficient and also provide more light than T12 bulbs.
3. Invasive false brome grass is spreading, but Oregon's insects are biting
PhysOrg.com: After hiking in Oregon, a University of Oregon plant biologist suggests, people may want to brush off their shoes and comb through their dogs in an effort to curb the spread of an invasive grass that is expanding its range. The grass is false brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum), a native of Europe and Asia, which likely landed in Oregon by way of USDA experimental plots in 1939 near Corvallis and Eugene. This grass likely was brought in, along with other grasses from around the world, to test as a range-improvement crop, but in the test plots the genotypes crossed to create "a little monster" hybrid, according to research published in 2008 by Mitchell Cruzan of Portland State University. The grass escaped and is found today across Oregon, north to south from Astoria to Grants Pass and from west to east from the coast to near Madras, but mostly it is concentrated in the Willamette Valley.
4. UO Pays Athletic Department to Rent Suite at Autzen
KEZI (video available online -- story follows in its entirety): The University of Oregon pays its athletic department $375,000 a year to rent out the presidential suite at Autzen Stadium. President Richard Lariviere uses the suite to host guest dignitaries or big university donors during Duck games. Still, one UO professor thinks there should be more of a separation between the university and the athletics department. But according to the UO, the money for the box doesn't come from tuition. "The president's office pays for that through a foundation, through the University of Oregon Foundation. And the reason we pay for it is that's revenue forgone. If the president's office didn't use it, it would be sold to a sponsor or would generate revenue," said Phil Weiler, UO Senior Director of Communications. "If you asked the public what does the university pay for the presidential suite, so far as I know, no one ever had that discussion in public before." Economics professor Bill Harbaugh says the athletic department boasts being one of two dozen self-sustaining athletic departments in the country, yet it still gets money from the university.
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Media mentions for November 14
1. Evidence of Ancient Lake in California's Eel River Emerges
ScienceDaily: A catastrophic landslide 22,500 years ago dammed the upper reaches of northern California's Eel River, forming a 30-mile-long lake, which has since disappeared, and leaving a living legacy found today in the genes of the region's steelhead trout, report scientists at two West Coast universities. Using remote-sensing technology known as airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and hand-held global-positioning-systems (GPS) units, a three-member research team found evidence for a late Pleistocene, landslide-dammed lake along the river, about 60 miles southeast of Eureka. ... "The damming of the river was a dramatic, punctuated affair that greatly altered the landscape," said co-author Joshua J. Roering, a professor of geological sciences at the University of Oregon. "Although current physical evidence for the landslide dam and paleo-lake is subtle, its effects are recorded in the Pacific Ocean and persist in the genetic make-up of today's Eel River steelhead. It's rare for scientists to be able to connect the dots between such diverse and widely-felt phenomena."
2. Risky Business
Woman's Day: Researchers at the University of Oregon were surprised by their recent study of risk-taking behavior. When offered the choice of whether to accept a payment for correctly completing a non-competitive task or a potentially larger reward for beating opponents, guess who showed more willingess to take a risk? Those who were 50. Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't twenty-somethings who at reach their competitive peak and were most comfortable betting on their abilities, but the 50-somethings. "We expected to find the competitive risk-taking going down," William Harbaugh, professor of economics said in a news brief. "Seeing it going up to age 50 was surprising."
3. Lawyer's service awarded
Register-Guard: Few careers come as neatly full circle as that of longtime local lawyer William "Bill" Wheatley. Late last month, Wheatley received the John Jaqua Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Oregon School of Law. Wheatley founded a downtown Eugene law firm with the award's namesake nearly 50 years ago. The two men practiced together until Jaqua's death in 2009. Wheatley, 78, continues to do so solo. And, even after 52 years in the business, he still gets nervous before a big trial, he confessed. "Last night I woke up at two o'clock worrying about this case I'm trying (in Medford) at the end of the month," he said with a grin. It's a nerve-wracking profession, he said.
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Media mentions for November 13
1. The Bigfoot Breakdown
KTVL: Bigfoot has a dedicated research organization, the "Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization," that documents sightings across the nation. Bigfoot even has a dedicated television series called "Finding Bigfoot" on the Animal Planet channel. They try using modern technology to find it. But it's the scientific community at large who doesn't believe Bigfoot exists. Dr. Matthew Johnson is out to change that. Eleven years ago, he says he encountered a Bigfoot and since then he's aimed to prove their existence. Johnson's research is well known his work can be found in local articles and websites. ... However, anthropologists from the University of Oregon and Wildlife biologists from Oregon's Fish and Wildlife hesitate to conclude that Johnson's findings prove the existence of Bigfoot. "Dermal ridges... if you really wanted to could probably be faked." said Dr. John Lukacs, a longtime professor of Anthropology. Lukacs is more familiar with the Asian version of Sasquatch, known as the Yeti. He spent three field trips to Nepal where natives still report sightings of the Yeti.
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Media mentions for November 12
1. Editorial: Bursting at the seams
Register-Guard: Record enrollment in the Oregon University System is a sign of good health -- it shows that the state's seven public universities are offering the education that students want and need. As enrollment passes the 100,000 mark, however, the University of Oregon and its sister institutions have to bear in mind the risk of spreading their resources too thinly among a growing number of students. They must also brace for the prospect that growth in enrollment will continue, creating an urgent need for investments in faculty and facilities. Total OUS enrollment is up 3.5 percent this year, to 100,316 students. The UO's enrollment grew 4.5 percent, to 24,447. Just 10 years ago, the UO had 19,008 students. That's a 29 percent increase in the course of a decade, and the growth is apparent in a tight housing market, waiting lists for classes and packed lecture halls.
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Late mentions for November 11
1. Oregon's public universities top 100,000 students
KOIN 6, story follows in its entirety: The number of students enrolled in Oregon's seven public universities has surpassed 100,000 for the first time. The Eugene Register-Guard reports that the University of Oregon led with a 4.5 percent increase this past year, adding 1,058 students to reach nearly 25,000. Over the past two years, enrollment at the UO has grown by 9.2 percent, even though the university graduated its largest class ever last year. International student enrollment this year grew by 17 percent to 2,116, including an increase of 300 from China alone. UO administrators say they've reached a number that they can serve without significant new investment in facilities and staff. Universities throughout the state's seven-campus system are seeing similar growth. Oregon State University grew by 5.1 percent to 24,977 students, and Portland State University grew by 1.5 percent to 28,958.
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Media mentions for November 17
Will EMU plan fly?
A student vote nears on a fee to help fund a $160 million project
By Greg Bolt -- The Register-GuardStudents at the University of Oregon will soon decide whether they're willing to pay an extra $300 a year to cover proposed expansions of the Erb Memorial Union and Student Recreation Center.
A weeklong voting period will begin when students return from their Thanksgiving break. The outcome is seen as crucial to the ultimate approval of the massive project, which will cost a total of $160 million and significantly expand both facilities to meet current needs.
Ben Eckstein, the UO's student body president, said he hasn't decided whether to support the new fees but will meet with other student leaders to hammer out a position.
He said the project has pros and cons, with the cost being the biggest concern.
"It's a big new fee," he said. "We would be committing to a lot of money when students are struggling to go to school."
Seventy percent of the project costs would be paid through bonds that would be repaid with revenue from the new fee. Students would pay an extra $100 per term to cover those payments.
That's a significant increase for UO students who already pay the highest tuition of any public university in the state and have faced hefty increases in recent years, including a 9 percent increase this year. Tuition and required fees this year topped $8,700 a year.
Several students who were in the EMU's Fishbowl on Wednesday said they were against the project, citing the new fee as the big concern.
"I don't think I'm going to support it," said Alyona Volokhina, a junior majoring in psychology. "I know they say the rec is always over capacity, but I've never found anything wrong with the rec (center) or the EMU ... that money can go to better use."
Johnny Felix, a freshman math major, said he thought the improvements were unnecessary.
He said that if he votes, he'll oppose the referendum proposals because of the higher fees.
"Based on the rec center and what we have at the EMU, we don't need anything else," Felix said.
But Eric Vanderhoof, a junior in biology, said he would vote for the proposal because of its potential to add more recreational areas and places to relax at the EMU.
"I do support it," he said, "There are definitely some good improvements they can make."
Robin Holmes, the UO's vice president for student affairs, said the university recognizes the burden the new fee would place on students but said it's important to move ahead even in difficult economic times.
"The reality is that even during tough economic times, we still have to go forward as an institution," she said. "These projects and the need to update these facilities is something that has been around for quite a while."
She said the university has worked to keep costs as low as it can and said both the university and private donors are chipping in to keep the student portion of the bill lower. Typically, she said, such facilities are funded entirely by student fees.
Holmes also said the administration will respect the student vote. If the referendum is rejected, the projects will not be built and the facilities will remain as they are.
Phased in over two years
But she said the idea that students are satisfied with the buildings runs counter to a survey the UO conducted last year and comments of students who use the buildings. The survey showed support for a fee-funded expansion.
If approved, the new fee would be phased in over two years. Students would pay $60 a year beginning in fall 2012 and the full $100 per term beginning in 2013 and continuing until the bonds are paid off in 2042.
The bonds would total $112 million. The UO would raise $35 million in private donations -- it recently announced a $10 million gift toward a new EMU concert hall -- and use $13 million it already has set aside.
The UO first went to the state Board of Higher Education for permission to levy the student fees in May, but board members balked after hearing that students had not voted on it and that the fee would be imposed before the buildings open.
The board voted, with some misgivings, to approve the project. But the UO decided not to bring the project to the state Legislature for approval without first letting students vote on the fee.
Then, Eckstein decided to yank the fees for the EMU portion of the project off the November ballot, over a dispute with UO administrators on student involvement in the building's design and a lack of guarantees about the amount of space to be allocated to student groups.
Those issues were settled last week, when the UO agreed to space and student involvement terms. The vote will now go ahead on the full project, which includes adding 100,000 square feet to the much-used recreation center and demolishing and rebuilding much of the student union.
The UO says both facilities are undersized for the number of students attending the UO. The student union is crowded and poorly organized, while the recreation center lacks enough room for a campus with 24,500 students, administrators say.
The project would add a concert hall, bike center and multicultural center to the EMU and a swimming center, weight and cardio space and a three-court gym to the recreation center. Other spaces would be upgraded with modern technology and energy-saving features, plus expanded space for studying, conferences and student activities.
A space for students
Eckstein said a major issue for students, particularly with the EMU expansion, is making sure that the buildings remain student-oriented and student managed. With features like the concert hall, conference center and new retail space, he's concerned about the student union losing its focus.
"We want to make sure the building is still a student building," he said. "We don't want our student union to become a shopping center and we don't want our student union to become a community center. It should be a student center."
Student leaders understand that the building is outdated needs expansion, and that the recreation center isn't large enough. Eckstein said he supports the idea of improving them but hasn't yet decided if the project that's on the table is the best approach.
"In the long run, of course we need to renovate the student union and the student recreation center," he said. "But they need to be done in the right way, at the right time and at the right cost. That's why the student vote is so important. Only students can decide if this is the right project."
How many students are paying close attention to the issue is unclear.
In the past, few UO students have voted on this type of referendum ballot.
The last such vote was held in 2008 and fewer than 1,000 students participated. Most of the students interviewed on the issue Wednesday said they were unaware that a vote was coming up.
Eckstein said he urged administrators to hold the vote in the spring, when student leaders are chosen and turnout is higher. But UO officials said they want to move quickly to keep the project cost as low.
Holmes said waiting until spring would cause the project to miss the construction cycle and the February legislative session.
If turnout is as low as those earlier votes, the result still will stand. But Eckstein said the university may have a difficult time getting the Legislature to approve the project if there hasn't been meaningful student approval.
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Media mentions for November 16
One tough ticket: Oregon students find themselves squeezed out of home games at Autzen
By Ken Goe, The OregonianEUGENE -- When the ABC television cameras pan the student section in Autzen Stadium during Saturday's Oregon-USC football game, take a good look at the few, the lucky, the resourceful, the brave.
For Oregon students, attending a home football game is difficult. Tickets are both expensive and scarce when compared with other Pac-12 schools.
"The demand is far greater than the supply," said Ben Eckstein, president of the Associated Students of the University of Oregon. "A lot of students aren't able to obtain tickets."
A $1,519,045 chunk of the incidental fees paid by students to attend Oregon goes to the athletic department for tickets. The student section is capped at 5,448 for Pac-12 games, enough seating for less than one fourth of the student body.
Students who want to make sure they could see all the home games had the option of spending an additional $250 for one of 1,500 student season tickets. Those sold out quickly.
Students without a season ticket can try to get individual game tickets in a digital lottery offered on the UO website on the Sunday before each home game. A certain number of tickets have been reserved for the members of each class.
And good luck with that.
"Demand is really high," said Duck Athletic Fund executive director Garrett Klassy, who oversees the athletic department ticket office. "So the tickets are usually gone within a couple minutes."
In fact, it's difficult to get through, even for students who have lightning reflexes and the web addresses bookmarked into their laptops or smart phones.
Senior George Lukaszewski said he and some friends have figured out a system to beat the lottery, at least some of the time. But their system isn't perfect.
"It's really frustrating," said senior Kaelee Kress, a senior. "There are about 5,000 kids in my grade, and how many ever of them that want to go to the game are logging on at the same time. The site crashes."
In three years, she could count on one hand the number of times she was able to get a student ticket -- actually, a pass that is digitally encoded on the student's university ID card -- through the lottery.
She still went to the games. Despite working two jobs, she still patronized scalpers for three years until her parents took pity and bought a season ticket for her this season.
"I begged for three months, and got one for my birthday present," she said.
Junior Lauren Johnson tried to get a season ticket, but said they were sold out.
"I was willing to pay," she said. "I went online right when I was supposed to, I signed on right when I as supposed to, and they already were sold out."
Johnson is from Southern California and attended Oregon, in part, because of the football program.
She sometimes buys standing room tickets available to the general public, and then sneaks into the student section. She has lots of company, which creates other problems.
When the student section fills, game security personnel close it. Students who have tickets but are slow to arrive aren't admitted until other students leave.
"At the Arizona State game I got a ticket through goducks.com, but they were holding so many people I missed half of the first quarter," Johnson said.
Students who leave their spots for food or to use a restroom, might not get back in.
"I've seen people do some pretty extreme things not to leave, like going to the bathroom in a bottle," senior Grant Schuberg said. "Really, anything goes in the student section."
The problem stems from a combination of Oregon's stadium size, and the success of the program.
UO students have a smaller percentage of the seats than most of their Pac-12 brethren. Klassy said this is, in part, because a few years ago, when the football team wasn't doing as well and the students were not regularly filling their section, Oregon's student government chose to bargain away 1,250 seats in exchange for a lower payment to the athletic department.
"When we got Section Nine back, we sold it to season ticket holders," Klassy said.
Oregon's student tickets are relatively expensive. Klassy said after combining the student fee and season-ticket cost, students pay half of fair market value for the seats they receive. A mandatory donation to the Duck Athletic Fund is factored into the cost for two of the five stadium sections that comprise the student section.
Based on a survey of other Pac-12 schools, Oregon is the only one that includes a donation to the athletic department as part of the price of a student ticket.
"I would like to see it become more affordable," Eckstein said. "I would like to see a lower cost for the tickets and the required Duck Athletic Fund contribution. That should make it more affordable."
Eckstein contends the price the students pay to attend games is greater than most realize because of subsidies from the academic side of the university to the UO athletic department.
But without dispossessing season ticket-holders or expanding the stadium, it's difficult to see how Oregon is going to satisfy every student who wants to see very game, even at the current prices.
Which means for the foreseeable future, there are going to be unhappy members of a campus community in which football has become part of the culture.
"A lot of the reason I came here was for the sports, especially football," Johnson said. "It's not like they lied to you, but a lot of people came to this school to be part of the football atmosphere. They came to watch these games.
"When you don't get a ticket it's almost like an unfulfilled promise."
Pac-12 student sections
ARIZONA
Cost: $95 pass for all sports but men's basketball; $135 including men's basketball.
Seats Available: 10,000.
Stadium Capacity: 57,803
ARIZONA STATE
Cost: $120 season ticket, $20 single game.
Seats Available: 11,400.
Stadium Capacity: 71,706
CALIFORNIA
Cost: $100 season ticket.
Seats Available: 4,200 (in ATT Park while Memorial Stadium is renovated).
Stadium Capacity: 45,000.
COLORADO
Cost: $110 football only, season pass; $150 all-sports season pass.
Seats Available: 12,000.
Stadium Capacity: 53,613
OREGON
Cost: $250 season ticket; single game tickets paid for by student fees.
Seats Available: 5,448.
Stadium Capacity: 54,000
OREGON STATE
Cost: Paid for by student fees.
Seats Available: Usually 6,000, sometimes more.
Stadium Capacity: 45,674.
STANFORD
Cost: Paid for by student fees.
Seats Available: 6,000.
Stadium Capacity: 50,000
UCLA
Cost: $99 football pass; up to two guest tickets for $25 to $30.
Seats Available: 12,000.
Stadium Size: 91,136.
USC
Cost: $155 season ticket; guest tickets, $30.
Seats Available: Approximately 12,000 depending on demand.
Stadium Size: 93,607
UTAH
Cost: Paid for by student fees, guest tickets, $35.
Seats Available: 6,000.
Stadium Size: 45,017
WASHINGTON
Cost: $120 for games in Husky Stadium.
Seats Available: Approximately 6,000 depending on demand.
Stadium Size: 72,500
WASHINGTON STATE
Cost: $129 season ticket; $29 per game.
Seats Available: 9,234
Stadium Size: 35,117
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Media mentions for November 15
Higher Tax Rates on The Wealthy Would Reduce Tax Revenues
by Joe Stone for CBNIn the midst of persistent economic hardships and unsustainable public deficits, the Obama administration's proposal for wealthier Americans to pay a 'fair share' of taxes to ease fiscal and economic difficulties is widely popular, but raising tax rates on upper incomes will be counterproductive and make things worse. How do we know this would be so? First, Europe tried it.
Despite having lower statutory tax rates on the wealthy than most European countries, the U.S tax system is more progressive and more effective in raising revenues from the wealthy than most European systems. Don't believe it? Whatever our opinions or political views, the data tell us this in several different ways.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a nonpartisan organization comprised of the world's most advanced and successful economies, calculates income inequality before and after taxes. By this measure, the U.S. tax system is even more progressive than those in European welfare states. Despite higher tax rates on the wealthy in Europe, actual taxes paid by the wealthy as a share of their total income are lower in Europe than in the U.S.
But wait a minute, we ask: how do higher tax rates on taxable income result in lower revenues?
With very high tax rates, taxable income and tax revenues tend to decline, both absolutely and as a share of total income. Individual responses to higher tax rates, wealthy, middle class or poor are limited only by the expansive boundaries of human creativity and imagination and by the extent of our tolerance for ever more intrusive government restrictions on individual choice. Examples of likely responses are well understood and demonstrated: for example, less incentive for entrepreneurs to introduce the innovations or take the risks that can help to expand employment opportunities and incomes for everyone, and increased incentives to minimize income subject to taxes. Again, the list of possible responses is endless, but we can easily see their effects by comparing the share of taxes paid by the wealthiest taxpayers to the share of total income they receive.
In the U.S., the richest ten percent pay a higher share of taxes relative to their income than in Sweden, France, Germany, Britain, or Japan, and this share became even higher after the Bushera tax cuts, which increased the actual share of taxes paid by the wealthiest Americans relative to their share of income. Indeed, in terms of actual tax revenues, either in absolute or relative terms; it is more accurate, if less politically popular, to say that the Bush-era cuts were tax hikes for the rich rather than tax cuts.
Taxpayers at any income level are not robots programmed by IRS accountants, so statutory tax rates are not the same as realized tax ratios because we all tend to change our behavior in one way or another in response to changes in tax rates.
An increase in statutory tax rates can, and has, decreased revenues, both absolutely and as a share of income.
The U. S. faces real issues that contribute to our distressingly high level of income inequality, but overall, our tax system is not one of them. Indeed, It is just the reverse. Incomes are more equal after taxes than before, and the improvement in equality after taxes is greater in the U.S. than in the 'fair' tax systems of European welfare states that some in our country urge us to emulate.
If our priorities are to grow our economy, increase revenues from our wealthiest citizens, and ease the relative tax burdens of the poor and middle class, we will not view the likely results of higher tax rates on the wealthy as either fair or effective in solving our problems. Broadening the base of taxation while maintaining or even lowering tax rates is much more likely to be effective in both stimulating growth and raising tax revenues.
Joe Stone is W.E. Miner Professor of economics at the University of Oregon and former senior economist for international trade policy on President Reagan's White House Council of Economic Advisers. Any opinion expressed is his own, not necessarily that of the University of Oregon.
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University of Oregon to save $98,000 a year with lightbulb swap
Reported by: Chris McKeeEUGENE, Ore. (KMTR) -- With budgets tightening for state universities across Oregon, the University of Oregon is switching on a new idea, cutting tens of thousands of dollars in electricity costs by swapping old lights out with newer more energy efficient ones.
The UO is in the process of replacing thousands of fluorescent tube lights. Once the project is complete, university engineers estimate the swap will save around 98,000 dollars a year in electricity costs.
Crews will replace old T12 style fluorescent bulbs with newer T8 style lightbulbs and new power sources. UO engineers say the T8 bulbs are more energy efficient and also provide more light than T12 bulbs.
A Federal Government mandate on certain T12 power sources, or ballasts, is forcing the switch.
However, the University of Oregon is getting a good deal on the light swap, thanks to EWEB. The utility is paying for about 40% of the 681,000 dollar project.
"We're looking at saving about 1-million, 6-hundred-thousand kilowatt hours per year. And that's roughly equivalent to the energy usage of roughly 150 residences per year and all.. So this is also equivalent to the energy used in the Erb Memorial Union here on campus, so it's a significant savings in energy," says Dave Smith, the University of Oregon's Campus Energy Engineer.
About 33,000 lightbulbs will be replaced on the UO campus. Because of the sheer number of bulbs, a private contractor will tackle most of the work starting in early 2012, likely sometime in January or February.
The UO is also looking to install new lighting controls and occupancy sensors across campus as part of the project. Campus engineers estimate the work will take most of 2012 to complete. Once its complete, engineers estimate it will take about three years for the lights to pay for themselves in energy savings.
According to campus engineering, all of the old T12 lightbulbs will be recycled.
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Invasive false brome grass is spreading, but Oregon's insects are biting
After hiking in Oregon, a University of Oregon plant biologist suggests, people may want to brush off their shoes and comb through their dogs in an effort to curb the spread of an invasive grass that is expanding its range.
The grass is false brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum), a native of Europe and Asia, which likely landed in Oregon by way of USDA experimental plots in 1939 near Corvallis and Eugene. This grass likely was brought in, along with other grasses from around the world, to test as a range-improvement crop, but in the test plots the genotypes crossed to create "a little monster" hybrid, according to research published in 2008 by Mitchell Cruzan of Portland State University. The grass escaped and is found today across Oregon, north to south from Astoria to Grants Pass and from west to east from the coast to near Madras, but mostly it is concentrated in the Willamette Valley.
Bitty A. Roy, a scientist in the UO's Institute of Ecology and Evolution, studies the ecology of false brome. In two new studies, Roy and colleagues report that the grass is somewhat controlled in its native Europe by two pathogenic fungi (Claviceps purpurea and Epichoe sylvatica), which block reproduction, but its only known and less-lethal enemies in Oregon are insects.
The National Science Foundation-funded research is detailed in separate papers in the journals Ecology and Mycologia. The findings, Roy said, provide support for the "enemy release hypothesis," which says invading plants are free from the enemies of their native habitats. But, she added, they still fall prey to local generalists such as herbivores in the areas they invade.
False brome is growing rapidly in Oregon, challenged only by local insects. Credit: University of Oregon
Roy and colleagues studied 10 sites in Oregon and 10 in Switzerland to determine what damages are inflicted on the grass by fungi, insects, mollusk and deer. In Switzerland, they found more kinds of enemies, but the biggest ones were generalist mollusks and the two specialist fungi.
In Oregon, only generalist insects are the enemy. "Generalists can cause a lot of damage, too," Roy said. "We found that this grass actually gets eaten more by insects in its invaded range than it does in its home range."
While such insect damage may slow its growth, false brome now appears to be entrenched among the more than 25 percent of non-native plants now growing across the state, Roy said.
"There has been extraordinary, exponential growth, especially since 1989. The conditions are now perfect to spread, because it has had time to genetically evolve and adapt. We carry things around with us -- sometimes accidentally, sometimes on purpose. Then they become our nemeses. This really is a case of 'this is the house that Jack built,'" Roy said, referring to a British nursery rhyme. "Once something gets here, it's really difficult to control it."
False brome also has been confirmed in both Washington state and northern California, the spread of which is monitored by the states' agricultural departments. It has also recently shown up on the East coast. "Grasses are particularly dangerous invaders. They tend to do wholesale ecosystem change," Roy said. Brachypodium sylvaticum grows really well in the shade and in the forests."
Where it grows, it blocks forests' floors, keeping tree seeds from falling to the ground and germinating. It stays green throughout even dry summers. Its impact in encouraging or retarding the spread of wildfires is currently being pursued in controlled burn studies underway by one of Roy's students in a project with the U.S. Forest Service.
There is no easy answer on how to stop the spread, Roy said. Biological control, in which another non-native species is introduced to kill an invasive plan, can backfire, she said, recalling when Oregon agricultural officials imported moths to attack tansy ragwort in the 1970s. Because the ragwort was related to native ragwort, the moths did not discriminate in their attacks and are still found in Oregon today.
For now, she said, being diligent about wiping off clothing and animals after hiking in areas where the grass grows is helpful for reducing spread. She also suggests public participation in special cleanup projects, one of which at Mt. Pisgah, southeast of Eugene, has resulted in a reduction of the grass.
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Media mentions for November 14
Evidence of Ancient Lake in California's Eel River Emerges
ScienceDaily -- A catastrophic landslide 22,500 years ago dammed the upper reaches of northern California's Eel River, forming a 30-mile-long lake, which has since disappeared, and leaving a living legacy found today in the genes of the region's steelhead trout, report scientists at two West Coast universities.
Using remote-sensing technology known as airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and hand-held global-positioning-systems (GPS) units, a three-member research team found evidence for a late Pleistocene, landslide-dammed lake along the river, about 60 miles southeast of Eureka.
The river today is 200 miles long, carved into the ground from high in the California Coast Ranges to its mouth in the Pacific Ocean in Humboldt County.
The evidence for the ancient landslide, which, scientists say, blocked the river with a 400-foot wall of loose rock and debris, is detailed this week in a paper appearing online ahead of print in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Science Foundation-funded study provides a rare glimpse into the geological history of this rapidly evolving mountainous region.
It helps to explain emerging evidence from other studies that show a dramatic decrease in the amount of sediment deposited from the river in the ocean just off shore at about the same time period, says lead author Benjamin H. Mackey, who began the research while pursuing a doctorate earned in 2009 from the University of Oregon. He is now a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology.
"Perhaps of most interest, the presence of this landslide dam also provides an explanation for the results of previous research on the genetics of steelhead trout in the Eel River," Mackey said, referring to a 1999 study by U.S. Forest Service researchers J.L. Nielson and M.C. Fountain. In their study, published in the journal Ecology of Freshwater Fish, they found a striking relationship in two types of ocean-going steelhead in the river -- a genetic similarity not seen among summer-run and winter-run steelhead in other nearby rivers.
An interbreeding of the two fish, in a process known as genetic introgression, may have occurred among the fish brought together while the river was dammed, Mackey said. "The dam likely would have been impassable to the fish migrating upstream, meaning both ecotypes would have been forced to spawn and inadvertently breed downstream of the dam. This period of gene flow between the two types of steelhead can explain the genetic similarity observed today."
Once the dam burst, the fish would have reoccupied their preferred spawning grounds and resumed different genetic trajectories, he added.
"The damming of the river was a dramatic, punctuated affair that greatly altered the landscape," said co-author Joshua J. Roering, a professor of geological sciences at the University of Oregon. "Although current physical evidence for the landslide dam and paleo-lake is subtle, its effects are recorded in the Pacific Ocean and persist in the genetic make-up of today's Eel River steelhead. It's rare for scientists to be able to connect the dots between such diverse and widely-felt phenomena."
The lake's surface formed by the landslide, researchers theorize, covered about 12 square miles. After the damn was breached, the flow of water would have generated one of North America's largest landslide-dam outburst floods. Landslide activity and erosion have erased much of the evidence for the now-gone lake. Without the acquisition of LiDAR mapping, the lake's existence may have never been discovered, researchers say.
The area affected by the landslide-caused dam accounts for about 58 percent of the modern Eel River watershed. Based on today's general erosion rates, researchers theorize the lake could have been filled in with sediment within about 600 years.
"The presence of a dam of this size was highly unexpected in the Eel River environment given the abundance of easily eroded sandstone and mudstone, which are generally not considered strong enough to form long-lived dams," Mackey said.
He and his colleagues were drawn to the Eel River -- among the most-studied erosion systems in the world -- to study large, slow-moving landslides. "While analyzing the elevation of terraces along the river, we discovered they clustered at a common elevation rather than decrease in elevation downstream, paralleling the river profile, as would be expected for river terraces. This was the first sign of something unusual, and it clued us into the possibility of an ancient lake."
The third co-author on the paper was Michael P. Lamb, professor of geological and planetary sciences at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.
The National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping provided LiDAR data used in the project. Additional funding support came from the Keck Institute for Space Studies.
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Risky Business
by Christina BoufisResearchers at the University of Oregon were surprised by their recent study of risk-taking behavior. When offered the choice of whether to accept a payment for correctly completing a non-competitive task or a potentially larger reward for beating opponents, guess who showed more willingess to take a risk? Those who were 50.
Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't twenty-somethings who at reach their competitive peak and were most comfortable betting on their abilities, but the 50-somethings. "We expected to find the competitive risk-taking going down," William Harbaugh, professor of economics said in a news brief. "Seeing it going up to age 50 was surprising."
Though women across the lifespan were less likely than men to engage in competitive behavior (which has implications for jobs, social positioning, and resources), it doesn't surprise me that the 50-year-olds were willing to bet on themselves.
I've felt something similar since I turned 50. I no longer care as much about what others think and I'm more secure in myself. And then there's the, "If not now, when?" tune that plays in my head, and another one that that goes, "What the expletive, I'm 50 and I'll do what I want." Does this cause me to take more risks? I think so.
For instance, recently I've reached out to several writers whom I don't know for more information about a slightly different writing field I want to enter. I figured, what have I got to lose? They could ignore my emails, but they didn't.
I entered a zombie flash mob doing "Thriller" on Halloween, though I hadn't rehearsed and just followed as best I could. So maybe that's not a competition, but a younger me would have been too self-conscious.
Have you found yourself taking more risks at midlife? What did you do, reader?
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Lawyer's service awarded
Eugene attorney William Wheatley is honored by the UO law school
By Karen McCowan -- The Register-GuardFew careers come as neatly full circle as that of longtime local lawyer William "Bill" Wheatley.
Late last month, Wheatley received the John Jaqua Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Oregon School of Law. Wheatley founded a downtown Eugene law firm with the award's namesake nearly 50 years ago. The two men practiced together until Jaqua's death in 2009.
Wheatley, 78, continues to do so solo. And, even after 52 years in the business, he still gets nervous before a big trial, he confessed.
"Last night I woke up at two o'clock worrying about this case I'm trying (in Medford) at the end of the month," he said with a grin.
It's a nerve-wracking profession, he said.
"You worry about your client," he said. "You want to do a good job, and there's always more you can do to do it better. It's not like being a dentist, where you know you've done all you can after you've drilled and filled a cavity."
He called arguing cases in court "one of the most demanding and humiliating experiences one could have."
"You say, 'Your honor, I object,' and the judge says, 'Overruled,' " Wheatley said. "You submit a motion, and it's denied, and you think, 'How could anyone deny this brilliant motion I worked all weekend drafting?' "
In giving Wheatley the award, the law school cited his accomplishments as a litigator -- including the 2002 New Carissa case he considers a highlight of his career.
Wheatley was asked by the state attorney general's office to lead the legal team that represented Oregon in its lawsuit against the owners and insurers of the freighter that was run aground and abandoned off the coast near Coos Bay.
Before successfully arguing that they needed to pay the state's $25 million costs to remove the wrecked ship's hull from the ocean, Wheatley recalls immersing himself in a crash course on maritime law, oceanography, historic shipwrecks and methods of raising sunken vessels.
He wasn't daunted by wading into an unfamiliar legal realm, Wheatley said.
"That comes up in so many aspects of your practice," he said. "I represent people in medical malpractice cases, but I'm not a doctor. I handled a case against a drug company, though I'm not a chemist. ... I suppose my lack of knowledge was a blessing in some respects, in terms of communicating with a jury. Because I struggled to understand it, I could put it into words they could understand."
Wheatley said he was surprised by what he called the "duplicity" of the Britannia steamship insurance company, which paid an expert millions of dollars to try to convince the state that removal was not feasible, rather than pay the higher tab to clean up the wreck.
"I was thinking, 'You've got garbage on our beach. You put it there, and you're not being honest,' " Wheatley recalled. "I was so pleased with our governor (John Kitzhaber), who stood up to this challenge. He came down and testified how important our beaches are to Oregonians."
A rusty water valve salvaged from the New Carissa is on display in the waiting room of Wheatley's modest office across from the downtown Eugene park blocks.
The UO also cited Wheatley's role as a leader and mentor of other attorneys as a reason to honor him. The late Judge Helen Frye, Oregon's first female federal judge, was among dozens of prominent lawyers who started out in the profession with Wheatley.
"She used to be a law clerk for me," he said.
At its largest, Jaqua & Wheatley had as many as 15 associates working with the founding partners. Now, in what Wheatley calls "the ninth inning" of his practice, it's just him.
"I keep thinking I'm going to retire -- and by that I mean not working Saturdays and Sundays anymore -- but I haven't reached that point yet," he said.
Despite the long hours, Wheatley remains married to his wife of 50 years, Cherié. He attributes much of his success to her, and to his secretary of almost 50 years, Joanne Chamberlain.
Wheatley's service to the Oregon State Bar has included stints as president and chairman of the Board of Bar Examiners, and longtime participation in continuing legal education programs. Wheatley was included in the first edition of Best Lawyers of America, as well as every edition since then.
Not bad for a guy who almost didn't go to college.
Wheatley grew up in the then-logging town of Molalla. Although he'd dreamed of being a lawyer ever since discovering Erle Stanley Gardner's "Perry Mason" mysteries at the age of 12, "the thought of going to college was pretty remote when I was in high school."
"I grew up in the shadows of the Great Depression, and the country was just coming off World War II," he said. "The mentality was, I needed to get a job after graduation."
He went to work as a logger, but was "blessed by the fact that Portland State had a night school," Wheatley said. "I'd drive to Portland at night in my pickup with my chain saw in the back," he said.
The night school was affiliated with the UO and what was then Oregon State College, however, and had a caveat that students had to transfer to one of those schools for their final term and degree. Wheatley received his undergraduate English degree from the UO, and stayed on to go to law school.
Three of the Wheatleys' five children also are lawyers -- perhaps, he said, because of another case he considers a career highlight:
"About 40 years ago, I handled a case I call 'The Dog Named Bandit,' " Wheatley recounted. The German shepherd, so named because he had light fur but for dark spots around the eyes, belonged to a 9-year-old neighbor who attended school with Wheatley's twin sons.
"One day, the dog catcher enticed Bandit off (his owner's) property and took him to the pound," he said. Wheatley came home to find his boys and other neighborhood children upset, so he agreed to challenge the impounding in court.
"A boy who saw Bandit being entrapped by the dog catcher testified," he said. "My boys and other kids were character witnesses, and I brought Bandit himself into court. As a result, Bandit was acquitted and the boys probably had a more profound understanding of how significant our justice system is. I went to sleep with a smile on my face that night."
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Media mentions for November 13
The Bigfoot Breakdown
David DeRurange/KTVL.comHave you been to the Bigfoot Trap? It's located in the Siskiyou National Forest in Jackson County. Tourists visit the trap to see if a Bigfoot can be caught. Since it was completed in 1974, the legendary creature has yet to be captured in it.
Yet, the hunt for Sasquatch continues intensely today, among experts and folks in southern Oregon.
Bigfoot has a dedicated research organization, the "Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization," that documents sightings across the nation. Bigfoot even has a dedicated television series called "Finding Bigfoot" on the Animal Planet channel. They try using modern technology to find it.
But it's the scientific community at large who doesn't believe Bigfoot exists.
Dr. Matthew Johnson is out to change that. Eleven years ago, he says he encountered a Bigfoot and since then he's aimed to prove their existence.
Johnson's research is well known his work can be found in local articles and websites.
"As far as my credibility is concerned, I had some people who accused me of making this whole thing up, as a way to drum up business as a psychologist, like 'come see me, I'm the psychologist who just saw Bigfoot.' Like, yeah, that's a good marketing strategy." Johnson said.
Johnson has marketed things before not dealing with Bigfoot.
He's done seminars across the country and sells a book he wrote on parenting.
On his website, www.family-rules.com
"Immediately following the year after my family's encounter, I attended the Oregon Psychological Association's annual conference." said Dr. Johnson, "The president asked me to stand up to 300 of my peers and said, 'this is Dr. Matthew Johnson, and he's the guy who saw Bigfoot with his family and had the courage to come out and say it.' and I got a standing ovation from all 300 psychologists there. It was a real coming out to say these beings exist."
There are many others who believe Johnson.
Karl Haekler is a Grants Pass native, a veteran of Iraq's Operation Freedom and a lifelong outdoorsman.
"There is something that makes human-like tracks in our forests." Haekler said.
Within 20 miles of Grants Pass is an area where Dr. Johnson says a family of Bigfoots may live.
That's one of the many research/interaction sites where Doctor Johnson and his team camp for a couple days. Their goal is to interact with the creatures at night.
To gather data, Dr. Johnson will spray paint tracks and use a parabolic microphone to capture sounds.
"They may try and imitate owls and make more 'whoop' noises." He said.
Johnson said the best way to interact with them is in darkness. No flashlights. No campfires.
"Bigfooting is like fishing. Some days you get lots of bites, lots of action. Other days, you get nothing."
Another sound he captures is wood-knocking -- the sound Bigfoot allegedly makes when hitting an object against a tree.
"It happens at the time of day when they're calling the others in. Cause it's time to start bedding down." said Johnson.
Johnson's girlfriend, Cynthia Kreitzberg, is part of the team and plays tunes with her recorder -- hoping to invite the creatures.
"I'd always believed that Sasquatch was real, but I thought they were extinct. Finding out otherwise has been fun." she said.
In the mornings, Dr. Johnson spray-paints and finds prints to make cast of the footprint.
"You see the heel here on the dirt. It comes up here and you can see, kind of lightly, the impressions of the toes working its way up here and back down like right there." said Johnson pointing to the tracks.
Johnson says the creatures have a mid-torsal break, where the front of their foot can bend forward curling down to grip.
Johnson says the Bigfoots can scale steep mountain sides "with great ease."
To prove authenticity, Johnson shows off some his most revealing foot casts.
"I think they are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. Early on, my goal was to get them identified, protect their habitat, but I think they have things under control. My goal now is to come out and interact with them. Get to know 'em."
However, anthropologists from the University of Oregon and Wildlife biologists from Oregon's Fish and Wildlife hesitate to conclude that Johnson's findings prove the existence of Bigfoot.
"Dermal ridges... if you really wanted to could probably be faked." said Dr. John Lukacs, a longtime professor of Anthropology.
Lukacs is more familiar with the Asian version of Sasquatch, known as the Yeti.
He spent three field trips to Nepal where natives still report sightings of the Yeti.
It's in Southeast Asia where fossil evidence dating back over 300,000 years shows the existence of a giant ape known as Gigantopithecus.
Scientists say they are extinct, but Bigfoot researchers believe those giant apes are the ancestors of Sasquatch.
Lukacs is skeptical.
Citing evolutionary biology and population dynamics, Lukacs said primates typically travel in groups of at least 25 individuals.
"The fact that the evidences seem to pick up a footprint or a footprint track or a sighting of an individual, seems to me, contrary to the idea these animals exist, in reality." said Lukacs.
Another University of Oregon anthropologist, Doctor Stephen Frost agrees with that critique.
"All of the evidence that's ever been put forward is always a trace sort of evidence. It's unclear whether it could be faked or not. You know there are very clever people out there." said Frost.
Frost takes his criticism further, discounting the ways current bigfoot researchers prove the beast's existence.
"No one has found any visible scat, or tooth, or hair -- anything that could be verified in a scientific manner." Frost adds.
Johnson had recordings of what he says were bigfoots roaming around his campsite near Grants Pass.
Oregon Fish and Wildlife biologists hesitate to really separate those sounds from the sounds of what could actually be animals.
"It's difficult to distinguish sounds from far away. Especially with all the different types of vocalizations our wildlife can have. You know bears from a distance can make different noises, deer, elk...some birds can make some really interesting noises. Just to hear a sound and confirm somethin' it would be very difficult for me to prove."said Mark Vargas, a local district Wildlife Biologist.
A book review in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology sums up the take on Bigfoot today in the academic world.
Written by Matt Cartmill at Duke University, he compares the work of two scientists with differing views on Bigfoot.
Jeff Meldrum, from Idaho State University, agrees with Johnson in saying some of the footprints show anatomical features "that are too subtle and technical to have been generated by inexpert lay pranksters."
But University of Florida anthropologist David Daegling says pranksters can be experts too.
Fake Bigfoots like the Bardin Booger, Cripplefoot, and the Minnesota Iceman Cadaver are all examples of the length some folks have gone to prove its existence.
Daegling's fundamental question: Why do people report encounters with an animal that doesn't exist?
Try asking that to folks like Johnson.
"Just had a visual three weeks ago where one walked up during our night-sit area, where one walked up to the three of us, and walked right by me, and bumped me, spun me around, as it walked by and back into the trees and brush on the other side of our night-sit area." said Johnson.
Cartmill said it's hard to demonstrate that something doesn't exist.
Some philosophers say it can't be done.
Perhaps that's why folks continue their fascination with Bigfoot today.
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Media mentions for November 12
Bursting at the seams
Oregon universities must prepare for growth
Record enrollment in the Oregon University System is a sign of good health -- it shows that the state's seven public universities are offering the education that students want and need. As enrollment passes the 100,000 mark, however, the University of Oregon and its sister institutions have to bear in mind the risk of spreading their resources too thinly among a growing number of students. They must also brace for the prospect that growth in enrollment will continue, creating an urgent need for investments in faculty and facilities.
Total OUS enrollment is up 3.5 percent this year, to 100,316 students. The UO's enrollment grew 4.5 percent, to 24,447. Just 10 years ago, the UO had 19,008 students. That's a 29 percent increase in the course of a decade, and the growth is apparent in a tight housing market, waiting lists for classes and packed lecture halls.
The weak economy accounts for part of the increase, but it would be a mistake to assume that the enrollment surge will abate after a recovery takes hold. Enrollment of foreign and out-of-state students is up sharply -- and these are students who choose to come to Oregon for reasons other than the immediate condition of the economy. Moreover, the state has set a goal that by 2025, 40 percent of Oregonians will have a college degree, compared with 29.2 percent currently. If Oregon is serious about reaching this goal, its institutions of higher education will have to expand.
Much of the enrollment surge to date has been absorbed by packing more students into classrooms and adding lower-paid part-time and adjunct faculty. The UO's 29 percent enrollment growth over the past decade has been accompanied by a 16 percent increase in tenured faculty, and a 30 percent increase in untenured teaching staff. The UO and other OUS schools can't allow that trend to continue indefinitely without compromising the quality of education that is attracting students.
The UO and other OUS institutions can't educate today's student body, let alone tomorrow's, with yesterday's resources. Capacity must begin to keep pace with enrollment.