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E-clips, Oct. 9

Top stories for October 9, 2007: Meditation of body-mind boosts performance, reduces stress, a story based on a UO news release, appears in multiple media locations, including Reuters, MSNBC and the London Telegraph); The Oregonian reports on UO plans to borrow total price of the new arena; bicycle theft hitting hard on campus, reports the Daily Emerald; and the Register-Guard responds by way of editorial to President Frohnmayer's statements to the state Board of Higher Education.

Meditation of body-mind boosts performance reduces stress (London Telegraph, multiple other media): Hard evidence that meditation does indeed cut stress has been published by researchers. After meditation training of 20 minutes once a day for only five days, people had measurably less anxiety and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol than a control group who learned how to relax instead, according to the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The experimental group also showed lower levels of anxiety, depression, anger and fatigue than was the case in the control group. "This study improves the prospect for examining brain mechanisms involved in the changes in attention and self-regulation that occur following meditation training," Michael Posner, the co-author and professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Oregon, said. (UO News Release)

UO plans to borrow total price of arena (The Oregonian): The University of Oregon will not spend a dime of Phil Knight's $100 million donation on a basketball arena. Instead, it will borrow the $200 million cost of the arena using state bonds and pay back the money with arena revenues and annual donations from fans, Oregon officials say. The plan means that rather than private donors financing the bulk of construction, as was planned a few years ago, taxpayers will bear the arena project's financial risk. Oregon's plan is preliminary and needs approval from the State Board of Higher Education and the Oregon Legislature. But some UO faculty members already are worried about the university borrowing such a huge sum and skeptical about the latest projections for the arena's revenue.

Bike theft on the rise again at UO (Daily Emerald): Although it's common knowledge that bike theft on campus is a problem, bicyclists should know their property is even more likely to be stolen this year. Sgt. Chris Phillips at the Department of Public Safety said the bike theft rate has increased at least twofold since spring term. "Just over the past week we've caught four or five," said Phillips. Four people were arrested Wednesday and Friday by Eugene police for attempted bike theft.

Can the UO compete? (Register-Guard editorial): The 2007 legislative session was the best in a generation for higher education, with an 18 percent increase in state financial support for the Oregon University System. Lawmakers basking in the warmth of that achievement might have been shocked to hear University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer warn the state Board of Higher Education last week that his institution is in danger of slipping from the top tier of American universities. They shouldn't have been surprised. In fact, the slippage has already occurred.

UO physicist Dave Soper to share a top 2009 APS prize

UO physics professor Dave Soper is a 2009 winner of the J.J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Physics. He will share the prize with John Collins (Penn State) and Keith Ellis (Fermilab) when presented formally in May during the American Physical Society's annual meeting in Denver. Soper was cited for his "work in perturbative quantum chromodynamics, including applications to problems pivotal to the interpretation of high-energy particle collisions." Quantum chromodynamics is a theory of strong nuclear interactions among quarks -- fundamental constituents of matter.

The prize honors J.J. Sakarai, a Japanese-American particle physicist who authored leading textbooks on quantum mechanics and the principles of elementary particles during a career at the University of Chicago and UCLA. This year's winners bring the total number of honorees to 36, including three who later won the Nobel Prize.

3 UO faculty are finalists for Oregon Book Awards

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From left to right, UO professors Lauren Kessler (journalism), Steven Bender (law) and Ehud Havazelet (creative writing) are finalists for the 2008 Oregon Book Awards. Winners will be announced on Sunday, Nov. 9, at the Portland Art Museum.

Media Links

Campus Magazines:

Oregon Quarterly

Cascade (CAS)

Newspapers:
Daily Emerald (UO students)
Register-Guard
Eugene Weekly
The Oregonian

Campus Radio:
a) Eugene's Classical
KWAX (99.1 FM)
b) Student Run
KWVA (88.1 FM)

TV Stations:
KEZI, Channel 9 (ABC)
KVAL, Channel 13 (CBS)
KMTR, Channel 16 (NBC)
KPTV (FOX-12, Portland)
 
Public TV, Radio:
Oregon Public Broadcasting
NPR (LCC, 89.7 FM)
KOPB (1600 AM)

News/Talks Radio:
KUGN (590 AM): UO Sports
KPNW (1120 AM)

UO Alumni News

1) Keep up on alumni news with the official e-newsletter of the UO Alumni Association.

2) Alumni in Portland have their own newsletter: See PDX Ducks.

 
Investors worried, tuned into news reports, UO psychologists tell Wall Street Journal writer

Paul Slovic mug shot    Two with University of Oregon ties named to new FDA risk advisory panel

Since 2001, investors’ comfort zone with their stocks has nose-dived from little worry about negative returns to growing worry about their stocks going nowhere for maybe a decade, reports UO psychologist Paul Slovic in an interview with Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig about today’s economy. In same article, UO psychologist Ellen Peters notes that American investors are spending a lot of time following, especially on TV news, the economic turmoil. Zweig’s column, however, carries the message that those who have some cash and can conquer their stock-phobia may be a good position, likening their potential investments to a venture in emerging markets. (Read story – may require paid subscription)

Sense of entitlement? Not in faces at military base, writes UO's Tom Bivins

Tom Bivins UO journalism professor Tom Bivins, sipping coffee and watching youthful faces at San Antonio's Fort Sam Houston, says the often-discussed "sense of entitlement" thought to exist in today's college-aged students was absent among like-aged faces wearing U.S. Army uniforms. His comments appear in a commentary in The Oregonian. (Read it)

UO spinoff MitoSciences collects 2008 Emerald Award for Innovation

MitoSciences Logo

The biotechnology company MitoSciences Inc., a technological spinoff founded in 2003 by University of Oregon scientists Roderick Capaldi and Michael Marusich, captured the Eugene Chamber of Commerce's 2008 Emerald Award for Innovation on Sept. 24. The company was among four winners of Emerald Awards.

For full details of the chamber's fifth-annual event, read the story in the Register-Guard.

UO ranks high in two national college guides

Princeton Review logoThe University of Oregon is one of 11 colleges that received a Green Rating of 99 (the highest score) in The Princeton Review’s “Green Honor Roll.” The news received national attention from the CBS Early Show, ABC World News with Charles Gibson, and other national and local media.

Fiske Guide 2009 The UO is also included in the 2009 edition of the Fiske Guide to Colleges as a Best Buy school. From the guide: "UO may be the best deal in public higher education on the West Coast."

Media Relations Contact Info

Phone: (541) 346-3134
Email: uonews@uoregon.edu


Staff Members (Position Details)
Phil Weiler: 541-346-3873; pweiler@uoregon.edu
Julie Brown: 541-346-3185; julbrown@uoregon.edu
Heidi Hiaasen: 541-346-3606, heidih@uoregon.edu
Jim Barlow: 541-346-3481; jebarlow@uoregon.edu
Pauline Austin: 541-346-3129; paustin@uoregon.edu
Shannon Rose: 541-346-3314; roses@uoregon.edu

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