UO E-clips, July 24

UO completes sports marketing agreement totaling $67.1 million (Register-Guard): The University of Oregon has finalized a 10-year agreement worth more than $67 million from sports advertising, promotions and endorsements. The deal with the Oregon Sports Network and IMG Communications was announced last February, but the contract wasn’t signed until last month. The university released a copy of the agreement in response to a Register-Guard public records request. The agreement is the most lucrative sports marketing deal ever signed by the university. IMG is one of the country’s largest sports, media and entertainment companies and represents 11 other large universities through similar deals, including the universities of Michigan, Nebraska, Texas and Tennessee.

The Olympics: It’s all about the shoes (Forbes.com): Athletes competing at this summer's Olympics are fighting for a trip to the medal stand. For Nike and Adidas, the Beijing games are a brawl for 21st century dominance of the sneaker world. … Adidas paid approximately $100 million in cash and merchandise donations for the partnership rights, according to various reports. The company will supply apparel to athletes, staff volunteers and technical officials, plus sponsor interactive Internet gaming featuring several Chinese athletes, to place its brand in front of the crowd. Nike's gone another way, focusing, as usual, on sponsoring specific athletes. "Nike has never had to be an 'official sponsor' to make inroads," says Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon.

Strong museum scholars find their work in play (Democrat and Chronicle, New York): The serious work of analyzing play is the focus of a new journal launched by the Strong National Museum of Play. The quarterly American Journal of Play debuted this month with five articles on children's psychology, education and sociology. Scholarly in tone and appealing to professionals dealing with children, it's the first interdisciplinary journal devoted to play, Strong officials say. … University of Oregon psychology professor Marjorie Taylor finds that children often create imaginary companions — and are aware they aren't real. And Pennsylvania State University modern history professor Gary Cross traces how play reflects social change in America, from the Puritans to Disneyland.

Demise of a corrupted reading program (Rutland Herald, Vermont, commentary piece): The absolutism of No Child Left Behind is crumbling under the weight of testing requirements, Reading First mandates and unrealistic expectations. Like the great empires of the past its demise is centered on those who are most intimately involved in seeing its perpetuity. Underfunding and mismanagement of major programs are turning its foundation into muddy terrain while the schools and teachers who serve on the front lines are thwarted by unrealistic goals and punitive measures. … At the center of the controversy is the promotion of a methodology that rewarded individuals specifically at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the University of Oregon.

Hynix chip plant to shut (Register-Guard): Amid a lousy market and low prices for computer memory chips, Hynix Semiconductor plans to close its west Eugene factory and lay off 1,113 employees in the next two months, company officials said Wednesday. Hynix’s public statement came after Jong Kap Kim, chairman of the local plant’s parent company in South Korea, shared those plans in closed-door meetings with Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy. … The 1,113 jobs at Hynix represent 0.7 percent of Lane County’s nonfarm payroll of 158,000 workers, so that’s a significant loss “that will certainly resonate around the county,” said Tim Duy, a University of Oregon economist.