UO E-clips, May 3-5

Phil Knight's influence transforms University of Oregon athletics (The Oregonian): Phil Knight, escorted by two University of Oregon cheerleaders, walks toward a Nike auditorium stage and sits on a leather couch near fellow Ducks booster Pat Kilkenny and his wife. It is May 2006. University officials have fashioned the venue into a basketball arena -- complete with popcorn and ticket takers -- for a private pitch aimed at getting Knight to deliver on a pledge. Three years earlier, UO President Dave Frohnmayer had called Knight "absolutely committed" to helping pay for a basketball arena to replace the aging McArthur Court. But the money hadn't materialized.

Knight holds court (Register-Guard): Phil Knight wanted to talk. He wanted to defend financing the University of Oregon's $200 million basketball arena through state-backed bonds as innovative and responsible -- and not "some kind of unseemly scam on the taxpayers." He wanted to explain how the architects and construction company were selected five years ago, when the project was to be largely financed by private donations and when he put a "brilliant and hard-nosed" associate in control to keep costs down.

Knight: Nothing underhanded about arena financing (Register-Guard): Phil Knight gave his views on two controversial aspects of the $200 million basketball arena project recently: The funding mechanism and the selection of the arena architects and construction company. Knight said that financing the arena through state-backed bonds that will be in effect insured by the Athletics Legacy Fund created by his $100 million pledge, rather than through a single-purpose gift from him, was proposed by UO senior associate athletic director Jim Bartko, who saw the University of California consider similar approaches while he worked there, and by UO director of athletics Pat Kilkenny.

The Olympic Trials: UO Impacts (Oregon Daily Emerald): Near the end of June, thousands of people will file into Autzen Stadium. But they won't be football fans. That's where organizers will be handing out credentials for more than 8,000 athletes, media members and volunteers involved with this summer's U.S. Olympic Team Trials for track and field, to be held at Hayward Field starting June 27. It's also one of many ways the University will offer a supporting role to the Herculean effort - including about 2,300 volunteers - going into organizing the 10-day event.

Online alter ego (The Register-Guard: You've heard the expression "Get a life," but how about, "Get a second life?" That's what I did, recently, when I signed up for a free account at Second Life (www.secondlife.com), the leading Internet-based virtual world. I chose an "avatar" -- a character for me to control in this user-created, computer-generated realm. I gave myself a name (Lewis Berggrun) and downloaded some free software. Before I knew it, I was off and running -- also flying, teleporting, jet skiing, sailing and ballroom dancing. Really, I wasn't doing any of these things. ... Jonathan Richter, a research associate with the Center for Advanced Technology in Education
at the University of Oregon, said that only when you've started connecting with people who have similar interests can you truly appreciate Second Life.

Physics pioneer Wheeler made science seem magical (Register-Guard, guest viewpoint by UO professor Jim Isenberg): John Wheeler died a few weeks ago, at 96. His life spanned a revolutionary era in physics that saw all our ideas on space, time, and the universe completely reworked. Wheeler's ideas played a major role in all of this. More important, though, is the effect Wheeler had on his students. The students he inspired and cajoled and loved have been leaders of the physics revolution from the 1940s to this day. The first time I really talked to Wheeler was during the student strike of the late spring of 1970. I was a freshman at Princeton, going door to door for something called the Movement for a New Congress.

Offsets have a place in carbon control efforts (Register-Guard, guest viewpoint by Bob Doppelt): Sens. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va., are promoting a bill to establish a national cap-and-trade program that would regulate carbon emissions from industry. One provision would allow emitters to meet their emission reduction targets by purchasing carbon "offset" credits. The Western Climate Initiative, in which Oregon is participating, also has included offsets in its cap-and-trade proposal. Even Delta Airlines, which serves Lane County, is selling carbon offsets as a way of reducing the environmental impacts of its flights.

UO museum gets $1 million for traveling shows (Associated Press): The University of Oregon's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art has won $1 million to help it play host to major traveling exhibitions. The money comes from the Coeta and Donald Barker Foundation, created by the former Eugene residents. Donald Barker owned several Eugene companies. He died in 1980, Coeta Barker in 2005. The museum said the endowment would generate about $40,000 a year toward putting on exhibitions like the West Coast premiere of Cuba Avant-Garde, which is to open October 4. The museum's 4,000-square-foot gallery for showing such exhibitions has been renamed for the couple.