UO E-clips, Oct. 18

New UO finance center gets $2.4 million (Portland Business Journal): Six alumni of the University of Oregon's business school are funding a new Securities Analysis Center with a combined donation of $2.5 million. The gifts will help the Lundquist College of Business ramp up the newest track in its MBA program, hiring a director and opening an office in Portland to act as a liaison between the business school and Portland's finance industry. Jim Bean, dean of the Lundquist College, said the securities analysis program, which launches in the fall of 2008, will eventually include 150 students per year, including 30 MBA students. He hopes to raise enough money to fund a $15 million endowment to support the center.

Shape of things to come (Register-Guard): When CEOs from Nike, Columbia Sportswear and Intel say they want something, people listen. So when top executives voiced interest in a product design program at the University of Oregon, faculty in the school of Architecture and Allied Arts were all ears working to create the Northwest’s first product design program, slated to launch in the fall of 2008. With internships already promised by Northwest powerhouses Nike and Columbia, program organizers say they hope to make the four-year program in Eugene and advanced degree program in Portland nationally competitive. “There is a huge demand for product designers in today’s job market,” says Kate Wagle, head of UO’s art department and co-director of the new program. Wagle says she sees the program as a way to help students in the Northwest secure jobs that currently are being filled by recent graduates from East Coast and California schools.

New arena excitement tempered by concern (Daily Emerald): The new arena that University administrators hope to build will replace the 80-year-old McArthur Court as the home of Ducks basketball, and also provide lower Willamette Valley residents with the largest venue around to host concerts and attractions. But it may give local residents a headache if the University doesn't include them in the plans. The proposed arena site lies on the east side of campus, in the Fairmount Neighborhood, where the old Williams' Bakery building now sits dormant on the corner of Franklin Boulevard and Villard Street. In 2004, that stretch of road handled more than 27,000 cars per day, and the city's transportation department recently put speed humps in the area to discourage people from cutting through the neighborhood, said Rob Inerfeld, the city's transportation planning manager.