UO E-clips, March 8-10

Oregonians should prepare for recession (Statesman Journal): State's fiscal structure makes for uncertainties … University of Oregon economists say Oregon seems to be headed for a recession. Good thing we live in a state that has its financial house in order for just such a day. Oh, wait, that's Washington, which scored an A-minus for managing fiscal resources, according to "Grading the States 2008," a report card by the Pew Center on the States.

Anti-aging solution (Register-Guard): The grand old stadium has never looked better. Built in 1919 for the University of Oregon football team, two years passed before a six-lane cinder track was added to Hayward Field, first giving shape to what has become "sacred ground" for the sport of track and field. Over the past nine decades, there have been numerous fixes and upgrades to Hayward Field. But it wasn't until the most recent $8 million renovation -- a necessary step in order to serve as a suitable host for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials -- that the aging facility truly felt as if it belonged in the 21st century.

3 a.m. girl may end up at UO; and she supports Obama (The Oregonian): A young woman who appears in the controversial "3 a.m." political ad is possibly headed for the University of Oregon. She also says she is a supporter of Barack Obama, not Hillary Clinton, who the ad attempts to promote. Casey Knowles appeared on the Today show Monday morning to discuss the ad and during her interview with Matt Lauer, she revealed that she has applied to the UO and hopes to concentrate on international studies.

Corporate marketing deals often ‘win-win' (Register-Guard): Nike Inc. isn't the only major corporation lending its branding and marketing acumen to community partners. IBM, Apple and other technology companies, for example, have long donated their design expertise to showcase their technology's advantages, said Larry Chiagouris, associate marketing professor at Pace University in New York City. ... The practice began moving from the corporate world into the realm of government and nonprofit organizations about 25 years ago, said Lynn Kahle, a marketing professor at the University of Oregon.

Nike teams up with Oregon Bach Festival (The Register-Guard): Late last year, John Evans and George Evano, officials with the Oregon Bach Festival, pushed past swinging doors and stepped inside Nike Inc.'s "innovation kitchen" -- the lab and playground of Nike's creative team, led by designer Tinker Hatfield. The first object to catch the eye of Evano, festival marketing director, was an oversized marimba that looked as if it had been wheeled straight out of a 1940s Hollywood musical. There also were poster images from some of Nike's ad campaigns and a timeline of dozens of Air Jordan basketball shoes and prototypes, Evano said.

Good instincts (The New York Times Magazine): Charity, do-gooding, philanthropy it's all just selfishness masquerading as virtue. So says the cynic. In modern times, the theory that each of us, despite occasional appearances of self-sacrificial nobility, is ultimately and invariably looking out for No. 1 got a big boost from Darwin's theory of evolution. By the logic of natural selection, any tendency to act selflessly ought to be snuffed out in the struggle to survive and propagate. ... And that is just what researchers at the University of Oregon found in a study published last year in Science. Nineteen students were given $100 each and told that they could anonymously donate a portion of this money to charity. The students who, on average, donated the most showed heightened activity in the pleasure centers of their brain as they gave up the money.

Oregon Board of Higher Education gives blessing to new Ducks arena (Associated Press, appearing on KTVZ.com, in its entirety): The proposed basketball arena at the University of Oregon has cleared another hurdle. The Oregon Board of Higher Education gave its OK yesterday at a meeting, although a few members complained that they hadn't been told of an early study of the finances and that they had little time to consider the project. The arena will replace McArthur Court. It is expected to cost $200 million. Revenue from the arena is supposed to pay off the construction debt. Nike co-founder Phil Knight is giving the school $100 million for a fund that school officials say will be a fiscal backstop. The university now is getting ready for the bond sale. It wants to move quickly on construction before materials prices rise further.

Hospital shortens list of potential sites (Register-Guard): McKenzie-Willamette Medical
Center is rapidly narrowing its search for a site on which to build a new hospital. Eugene officials on Friday said the Springfield-based hospital has whittled its list of potential sites to five: three in Eugene and two in Springfield. Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy said the Eugene finalists are the University of Oregon Riverfront Research Park along Franklin Boulevard; a 20-acre parcel owned by Guard Publishing Co., publisher of The Register-Guard, on Chad Drive; and a 35-acre site on Coburg Road owned by the Eugene School District.