UO E-clips: Jan 17

UO eyes baseball park(ing) options (The Oregonian): When Joe Giansante needs to take a break during his workday, he often heads out to the Autzen Stadium parking lot. Giansante, the University of Oregon's director of community relations and special projects, uses that time to picture what it would look like if a baseball stadium sat in place of those vacant parking spots. Even though nothing is official, it appears that the Autzen Stadium site is the likely home of Oregon's baseball team, which is being reinstated in 2009 after being eliminated in 1981.

Proposed UO arena: Get out the checkbook (The Oregonian): The University of Oregon's proposed basketball arena will have a shorter, more expensive mortgage than the school had planned, according to the state treasurer's chief of staff. That change, combined with a new estimate of how much it would cost to operate the arena, pushes fixed costs for the arena project close to $20 million annually. Oregon officials, who meet with the Legislature's Joint Ways and Means Committee today, planned to fund the arena's $200 million construction entirely with 40-year, state-backed bonds.

University Health Center's director resigns (Oregon Daily Emerald): Students who visit the University Health Center may not notice anything different, but one important figure has moved out of his upstairs office. Former health center Director Tom Ryan handed in his resignation just before winter break last year after serving four years in the position. Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs Mike Eyster has temporarily taken his place. Ryan declined to comment on why he left the post.

Illuminating the final frontier (Daily Emerald): Two University researchers hope to shed some light on a little-known phenomenon. Gamma rays, or light emissions that originate beyond the solar system and can last as little as a fraction of a second, have puzzled scientists since they were discovered. University researchers Raymond Frey and Isabel Leonor are involved in an international science group that helped discover where a gamma ray may have come from - or at least where it did not come from. The findings could one day give scientists a better understanding of the universe outside the solar system.

Asia on display (Register-Guard): Buddha’s back. The four-ton carved marble figure of Buddha, which was created during China’s Jin Dynasty (1115-1234), has been off-stage at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art since the museum closed down for renovation in 2000. Even after the museum re-opened in 2005, the enormous and popular Buddha was kept in the basement vault, where it has undergone an extensive and careful cleaning by a professional art conservator.