UO E-clips, Jan. 9

UO arena's financial viability questioned (Register-Guard): An analysis by a faculty panel paints a far riskier picture of the University of Oregon’s proposed new basketball arena but stops short of saying it shouldn’t be built. The 29-page report released Tuesday questions whether the proposed 12,500-seat arena could produce the amount of revenue the athletic department is counting on and whether fans would pay the sharply higher ticket prices. It recommends that the university take steps to protect its general fund from any losses the arena might generate if the project goes forward. The report by a four-person subcommittee of the UO Senate is much more cautious than one done internally by the athletic department and another done by professional consultants at Conventions, Sports and Leisure Inc. Both conservatively estimated that the arena would bring in enough to cover costs.

UO arena projections criticized (The Oregonian): A report compiled by a University of Oregon senate subcommittee and released Tuesday criticized revenue projections for the school's planned $200 million basketball arena and concluded that the athletic department's research for the project was rushed and inadequate. The subcommittee also cited "shortcomings" in a previous report by outside consultants and voiced concern that fans will bear a heavy burden for the new Eugene arena: an average season ticket that could cost more than double what it does now. The 25-page report was compiled over four months by four professors, including university senate president Gordon Sayre and business professor Dennis Howard, a national authority on athletic donations and athletic-venue construction. Four university staff members attended the subcommittee's meetings, including university general counsel Melinda Grier.

New state law to break book bundles (Daily Emerald): State legislators made an effort to protect students' checkbooks through a new law that went into effect this term, which aims to make textbooks more affordable. But whether students end up saving any money is in the hands of publishers and professors. College students in Oregon spend an average of $900 per year on textbooks - nearly 20 percent of tuition and fees - and a 2005 U.S. Government Accountability Office report found that textbook prices have increased at twice the rate of inflation during the last two decades. Beginning this term, textbook publishers must comply with three new rules geared toward helping students save money. (NOTE: UO economist Joe Stone addressed the rising costs of textbooks in an opinion piece published in the Daily Emerald last July.)

Error -- reboot newspaper (Fort Worth Star-Telegram): In 2007, the Star-Telegram published 499 corrections -- a paltry number, one might suspect, in light of a recent study of 10 metro newspapers that found fewer than 2 percent of factually inaccurate articles were corrected. If that were true of the Star-Telegram, we would've published nearly 25,000 error-flawed articles. (Those 499 corrections constituted a record low since we started compiling annual totals in 2002 -- the highest total being 734 in 2003.) … There has never been a greater need for accuracy. That's clear from the finding above and from research by Scott R. Maier, an associate professor at the University of Oregon's journalism school.