UO E-clips, June 4

Colleges expect big classes in the fall (Coos Bay World): The University of Oregon’s recent scramble to rustle up housing for incoming freshmen is only the highest-profile example of public colleges bracing for a population boom. Driven partly by the economy, partly by demographics and partly by new public funding for college scholarships, a larger-than-usual freshman class is expected on state campuses this fall. At Southwestern Oregon Community College, the board of education decided to freeze tuition and fees, which officials expect to make the South Coast school even more attractive to perspective students.

UO battles discrimination claims (Oregon Daily Emerald): The Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity has faced its share of criticism since its creation in 2003 -- the most recent of which has involved a suit alleging that the University has not followed its own affirmative action policies. The current controversy stands between a former University administrator, Joseph Wade, and the University's Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity, or OIED, specifically the hiring of current Vice Provost of Equity and Diversity Charles Martinez.

Tales of the trail (Register-Guard): It is history that Phil Knight, the former University of Oregon runner, in partnership with his former coach, Bill Bowerman, founded Blue Ribbon Sports, the company that became Nike. And it is history, too, that the first athlete who came to represent the fledgling company, as both symbol and salesman, was distance runner Steve Prefontaine, whose memory lives, 33 years after his death, in the Prefontaine Classic track and field meet Sunday at Hayward Field. But there is this, too: If you lived in Eugene, and parts of Oregon, in the early 1970s, chances are that you bought your first pair of Nike running shoes from Geoff Hollister … who … at 62 and fighting an ongoing battle with cancer, has told his story in a new book.