UO E-clips, Nov. 8

On track for all races (Register-Guard): Shawn Fincher says he could hardly have felt more welcomed when he arrived in Eugene three years ago. Now, he wants to make sure that the athletes who arrive in Eugene for the 2008 Olympic Trials -- especially black athletes -- feel equally at home. Fincher, a fundraising officer at the University of Oregon, heads a 23-member “Blacks on Track Team” committee with a precise charge: Educate Trials volunteers about the need for cultural sensitivity when greeting the hundreds of African-American athletes, fans and family members expected to land in Eugene next summer. “We want to ensure as a community that we’re putting our best feet forward -- not just to the country but to the world,” Fincher said. “This is the most important track meet second only to the Olympics, and we want to do our part to be good hosts.”

Mountain search for missing Oregon professor intensifies (Salem-News.com): The air and ground search for a University of Oregon professor missing since Sunday will get back underway this morning. Searchers on the ground and in the air searched the Cascade Mountain foothills east of Eugene yesterday for 63-year-old Daming Xu, who went missing after telling friends he was going on a day hike. Lane County Sheriff Russell Berger says other hikers came forward yesterday, saying they saw Xu Sunday near the Ollalie Summit. They said he may have been carrying a backpack. Berger says the biggest challenge Xu faces is the nighttime weather, which could dip below freezing overnight. There were 26 searchers involved in the ground search including six on horseback. Two helicopters were also used during yesterday's search. Xu is described as 5-foot 8-inches tall and 155 pounds. Anyone with information is asked to call Lane County Sheriff’s Dispatch at 541-682-4141. Salem-News.com will have more on this story as soon as it becomes available.)

Search intensifies for UO professor missing in wilderness (Register-Guard): Colleagues of Daming Xu on Wednesday joined the effort to find the University of Oregon mathematics professor, who has been missing since Sunday when he left for a day hike in the wilderness near Cougar Lake. Xu, 63, has taught statistical mathematics at the university since 1990. Co-workers have been teaching his classes since his disappearance, university spokeswoman Pauline Austin said. He told his family that he was going for a day hike in the Willamette National Forest east of Eugene. He was expected back Sunday to teach a class at 10 a.m. Monday. He is believed to be without warm clothing, food, water or a cell phone. Searchers have been working around the clock since Xu’s family reported him missing to Eugene police on Sunday night. On Wednesday, the search effort included two Army National Guard helicopters and 26 searchers, including six on horseback, Lane County sheriff’s Lt. Randy Smith said from the base camp on U.S. Forest Service Road 19 near Olallie Mountain, where Xu was last seen. Three UO faculty members also joined the search.

Standing up for veterans (Register-Guard): The plain red flags dotting a University of Oregon lawn this week don’t stand for country or duty or patriotism. But for campus veterans, their meaning is just as profound. That’s why it was veterans who asked to place several thousand of the flags when the Iraq Body Count Exhibit returned to campus this week. Each of the little markers represents a soldier -- a brother, a sister, a comrade in arms -- who has died in a war now in its fifth year. “It was intense at times, but it was good that we did it,” said Sean Jin, a junior economics major who will enter the U.S. Navy after graduation. “It should be vets that put these down because it was vets that knew these people and served with these people.” Putting the more than 3,800 flags in the lawn near Chapman Hall last weekend is just one of the projects taken on by the Veterans and Family Student Association, a group that’s in its first full year on campus. Other volunteers placed almost 150,000 white flags, each representing six Iraqi dead.