UO E-clips, Feb. 1

Autzen site makes sense (Register-Guard, editorial): No one should be surprised by Wednesday’s announcement that the University of Oregon plans to build a $15 million baseball park next to Autzen Stadium. Nor should anyone be taken aback that the UO and the Eugene Emeralds are close to a deal that would have the minor league team play home games at the new 5,000-seat ballpark. There has been no shortage of signals. For months, all signs have pointed to Autzen and away from other sites, including venerable Civic Stadium, which is simply too far from campus and requires millions of dollars of improvements that its Eugene School District landlord is in no position to make.

Officials consider basketball ticket prices (Register-Guard): Like many fans, Duane Farnham is excited about the prospect of a choice new basketball arena for the University of Oregon Ducks, and he’s ready to fork over a few more bucks for a seat. But also like a lot of fans, he has a message for the university as it begins the job of attaching price tags to the 12,500 seats in the shiny new pavilion. “I’ll try to make it work,” the Portland season ticket holder said as he arrived for last week’s game against UCLA. “But if it gets too stupid, the games are on TV.” Boiled down, that’s the balancing act the UO faces. As designers firm up the arena’s seating plan, athletic department officials must figure out a pricing scheme that’s high enough to generate needed revenue but low enough that fans aren’t priced out.

University of Oregon creates program for sustainable business law (The Oregonian): News article follows in its entirety … The University of Oregon School of Law is adding a new specialty in sustainable business law. The school said there are growing opportunities for lawyers educated in both business needs and environment regulation. The school will offer a statement of completion to students who take business law classes in addition to select courses in environmental and sustainability issues.

UO law school offers sustainable business certificate -- (Portland Business Journal): The University of Oregon law school has created a statement of completion in sustainable business law. The new certification responds to growing opportunities for lawyers versed in both the needs of new and emerging businesses and the regulation of energy and the environment. Oregon-based venture capital funds have predicted that sustainable business will comprise the next "dotcom boom," and graduates with expertise in the field are expected to be in high demand by law firms. To earn a statement of completion in sustainable business law, students must complete a business law curriculum, selected courses addressing environmental and sustainability issues, and an appropriate paper, clinic, externship, business plan or similar project approved by a faculty committee.

The art of serving the humanity (The New Nation, Bangladesh): A person who is not our relation, who perhaps never lived with poor people of any coastal area, who never in his/her life faced any poverty let alone a specter of cyclone had his heart aching silently when s/he watched in a TV news that thousands of people in coastal areas of a country on the Bay of Bengal were just washed away by the cyclone Sidr on the night of November 15 last year. … According to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Oregon, USA and published in the June 15, 2007 issue of "Science" (the most prestigious and a must read magazine for scientific researchers) pleasure centers deep in human brains---as has been exhibited in an fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) ---became highly activated, showing a phenomenon called "warm glow", when some people under experimentation voluntarily donated their own money in good causes.

Are you ready for 'stagflation-lite'? (BusinessWeek): Is another big name from the 1970s attempting a comeback? Stagflation, the worst-of-both-worlds scenario in which weak growth is accompanied by robust inflation, may be on the radar again. It's enough to conjure memories of President Gerald Ford's ill-fated campaign to talk down prices through a "Whip Inflation Now" (WIN) campaign. The risk is evident in the latest economic numbers. Indeed, Marc Faber, the widely followed global investment adviser based in Asia believes that "we're already in stagflation: no real economic growth -- or recession -- amidst inflation" in his latest Gloom Boom & Doom Report. … Perhaps most important, considering the painful monetary lessons of the '70s, most economists believe the Fed wouldn't tolerate a repeat performance. "Philosophically, the Fed is much more attuned to the problem of inflation compared to the 1970s," says Mark Thoma, an economist at the University of Oregon. Adds James Hamilton, an economist at the University of California, San Diego: "The Fed is not an omnipotent institution, but it can keep inflation under control."