UO E-clips, Feb. 9-11

Study questions impact of quality report cards (American Medical News): Twenty-one states have mandated hospital infection reporting in the last four years, and 221 health care quality report cards are listed on a Health and Human Services Web site. Last month alone saw new quality reports released in New Jersey, Minnesota and the Seattle area. The premise behind this wave of public reporting is that transparency will spur doctors and hospitals to improve quality and safety while giving patients valuable data to help them decide where to seek care. … "We haven't done a very good job of the way we have designed public reports," said Judith H. Hibbard, Ph.D, a professor in the University of Oregon's Dept. of Planning, Public Policy & Management.

Arena report shows early skepticism (Oregon Daily Emerald): A 2004 report about an earlier version of the University's basketball arena that was far more skeptical of the project's feasibility surfaced on Friday, and it predicted the arena could earn $4.1 million of annual income - drastically lower than the current guesses of $10.5 million to $16.1 million. While news about the report disgruntled faculty who were promised all relevant information about the arena project, the report's author, former City Manager Mike Gleason and current CEO of the Gleason Group, says his work is based on a completely different plan that is irrelevant to current arena plans.

UO arena key to $100 million gift (The Oregonian): Phil Knight's $100 million pledged donation to the Oregon athletic department expires June 1 and is contingent on the university securing state-backed bonds to fund its basketball arena project, according to a document signed by Knight. The pledge terms add urgency to the Legislature's emergency session, during which UO officials are trying to secure $200 million in bonds to pay the entire design and construction cost of the arena. The Legislature's emergency session started earlier month and ends Feb. 29.

Bringing history to light (Register-Guard): It’s right there buried in historic legislation approved by Congress in November: $15 million earmarked for restoration projects in the Willamette River watershed, with priority for a project “to restore the millrace in Eugene, Ore.” Passage of the $23 billion water projects bill -- historic because, to date, it’s the only time Congress has overridden a veto by President Bush -- is the first among several reasons that advocates of a resurrected Eugene Millrace are once again on the hopeful prowl. “I think this is probably our best chance,” says Jerry Diethelm, a retired University of Oregon professor of landscape architecture and longtime cheerleader for rebuilding the hidden section of millrace nearest downtown. “I think there are more things converging to make it possible than I’ve seen in my lifetime.”

The 2007 Slate 60: Donations (Slate Magazine): Two hoteliers known for providing comfort to the well-to-do are leaving a different legacy: aid to the less fortunate. That's the takeaway from the top of our annual list of the largest American charitable contributions. This year, the Slate 60 was compiled, with our thanks, by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. … Lorry Lokey--$112.5 million to various universities. Lokey, the founder and chairman of the media relations company Business Wire, has made five previous appearances on the Slate 60. This year, he gave $74.5 million to the University of Oregon; the bulk of the gift will go toward the Lorry I. Lokey Science Advancement and Graduate Education Initiative. $33 million went toward building a home for Stanford's Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Lokey also gave $5 million to Santa Clara University, for a new library complex, and $1.5 million Portland State University, to endow a chair in Judaic studies.

Model legislation drafted by a University of Oregon law professor is helping members of the Crow Nation negotiate bank loans (The Native Times): The first-of-its-kind agreement between the Crow Nation and the state of Montana will enhance economic development opportunities and is expected to provide new opportunities for a significant economic expansion for tribal members by making it possible to start small businesses, sustain companies during growth periods and allow for people living and working on the reservation to make the major purchases and investments that drive an economy. The compact is based on the Model Tribal Secured Transactions Act, drafted in large part by UO law professor Carl Bjerre in his role as reporter for the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. The organization has been a source of important law reform projects throughout its 116-year history. Bjerre was asked to serve as reporter on this Model Act because of his expertise in the law of commercial lending. The agreement will allow standardized lien filings for members of reservation communities under a uniquely tribal commercial code. Prior to the adoption of the Model Act, banks were unable to rely on liens on property used to collateralize business loans made to tribal members. Access to capital should make it possible to start small businesses, sustain companies during growth periods and allow for people living and working on the reservation to make the major purchases and investments that drive an economy.

On the money (Register-Guard): He’d given the University of Oregon gifts before. Big checks, because after a career in the insurance industry that made him a millionaire many times over, Pat Kilkenny can write big checks. For the past year, he’s given something far more difficult and personal: His time. His life. Himself. At an age when he’d made his fortune, sold his business and expected to retire to the golf courses and beaches of San Diego, Oregon’s director of athletics has immersed himself in a job that he describes as “the hardest work I’ve ever done” for a token stipend of $25,008 per year.