UO E-clips, April 17-18

Note: Today's on-line version of e-clips covers two days. The Office of Public and Media Relations moved home to Johnson Hall on Thursday.

Higher ed for sale: Buyer beware (Forbes.com): Many baby boomers--nearing the end of their working careers and contemplating their legacies--are being enticed to donate large sums of money to charitable organizations and causes, including their alma maters. According to one estimate by two Boston College scholars, charitable gifts and bequests will likely exceed $6 trillion by mid-century. U.S. colleges and universities will receive a significant percentage of the total. … Lorry Lokey, founder of the publicity distribution company Business Wire, donated $74.5 million to the University of Oregon, most of it for the Lorry I. Lokey Science Advancement and Graduate Education Initiative.

Frohnmayer denounces ‘gutter bigotry’ at forums (Register-Guard): University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer is winning praise in some circles for his denunciation of recent Pacifica Forum talks as “gutter bigotry” deserving “summary censure.” In a recent letter to UO faculty and staff, Frohnmayer characterized a recent Pacifica Forum speech as “unabashedly racist,” and described a Pacifica Forum member’s online rebuke of a student journalist’s opinion column as anti-Semitic.

MitoSciences turns research into business (Register-Guard): MitoSciences, a local biotech company founded by two scientists at the University of Oregon, is on track for some rapid growth. The company’s products, which enable researchers to monitor the health and function of mitochondria --the energy centers of cells -- have implications in developing new drugs and fighting diseases, such as cancer and diabetes. MitoSciences recently made two major announcements. The company has agreed to pay the UO more than $4.6 million over the next decade for exclusive rights to commercialize a number of biotech innovations.

UO unwilling to negotiate with city for research park (Register-Guard): The University of Oregon is not interested in negotiating ways to make it faster or cheaper for the city of Eugene to help McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center build a new hospital at the UO’s Riverfront Research Park, university officials said Wednesday. That means that if the City Council wants the research park for a hospital site, the city must find 60 or more suitable equivalent acres near the UO, pay the university up to $110 million to build new facilities to house the park’s current tenants, and wait the estimated five or more years for the moves to be completed.

OSU could offer 1,500 students new tuition grant (Corvallis Gazette-Times): Oregon State University is leveraging state and federal financial aid packages in a new program that will allow 10 percent of its in-state students -- about 1,500 people -- to attend the university without paying tuition or fees. “We’re pretty excited. Tuition costs and the costs associated with a college education are pretty daunting for many of our students,” said OSU President Ed Ray. … Late last year, the University of Oregon announced that it would launch a program called PathwayOregon to allow lower-income students to attend UO tuition free.

Neighborhood group will ask membership to weigh in on UO arena plan (Register-Guard): Neighbors living closest to the University of Oregon’s proposed new basketball arena will be asked next week if they want to formally oppose the project. Members of the Fairmount Neighbors Association say the project threatens the livability of their neighborhood and want the university to open the project to a public review. They’ve already appealed a city finding that the university doesn’t need a conditional use permit to build the $200 million pavilion, a step that could force additional measures to protect the neighborhood.

UO prof granted Guggenheim (Eugene Weekly): Late one night, UO anthropology and folklore professor Philip Scher went to his office to check his email. "I was floored," Scher says. He had been awarded a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship. "It felt like a long shot," says Scher. "It was a complete surprise." Scher was chosen from a pool of more 2,600 applicants and plans to conduct research in the Caribbean. The average award is about $43,150, though amounts vary for each project.