Faculty and staff as well as GTFs and other students are encouraged to volunteer for the solution teams that will move the campus into Phase Two of the Process for Change.

Construction of the $18.4 million Student Recreation and Fitness Center on East 15th will begin Feb. 4. Completion is expected in the spring of 2000.

Fencing of the work area between Esslinger and the Bowerman Family Building will close the sidewalk along the south side of East 15th. In mid-June, the sidewalk will be closed on to University Street, and the Leighton Pool main entry will move temporarily to the University Street side of Esslinger.

Early stages of demolition also will require closing East 15th to two-way traffic for about three weeks beginning March 12. Until April 10, traffic will travel only in a west-bound direction.

About 20 parking spaces on the site will be lost until June 1999 when they will be relocated to a newly developed parking area south of the new addition.

The project, funded entirely by student-generated fees, consists of additions and alterations to current recreation and fitness facilities in Esslinger Hall--a new entrance, weight room, cardiovascular exercise area, three-court gym with a running track above, rock-climbing wall, juice bar, fully remodeled locker rooms and new all-weather fields.

General contractor is Hyland Construction of Eugene. Architects are TBG Architects of Eugene in association with Cannon-Parkin of Los Angeles.

For information, call project manager Mark Henry, Facilities Services, 6-2243.

The Oregon State System of Higher Education has assumed a new name and logo as it moves toward fundamental changes that many hope will lead to an educational system that is more flexible, entrepreneurial and responsive to the changing market for education.

"The new name, the Oregon University System, more clearly conveys that this is the state's own system of undergraduate, graduate and professional degree-granting institutions and educational centers," Chancellor Joseph Cox said during the Board of Higher Education's Jan. 16 meeting in Beaverton.

"The logo symbolizes the board's commitment to maintaining a dynamic and open system of public higher education and to making fundamental changes that lead to greater access and expanded educational opportunities for Oregonians," said Herb Aschkenasy, president of the Board of Higher Education.

The Oregon University System will phase in use of the new logo as revised information pieces are developed and existing supplies of printed materials are replaced.

Funk and Associates, a Eugene design firm, developed the logo in close collaboration with higher education representatives who began work on the design project nearly a year ago.

Copies of the university's just-completed self-study for a new Division I athletics certification, conducted under auspices of the National Collegiate Athletics Association, are available for public review in the Reserve Room at the Knight Library.

An electronic version will be made available in February on the World Wide Web.

"We invite any public comments on the report," says Vice President Duncan McDonald, Public Affairs and Development, who heads the committee that pulled together the report.

The self-study is part of a new process to certify an institution's eligibility to participate in NCAA championships. A peer review team headed by Utah State University President George Emert will visit the UO campus April 7-10 to examine governance, academic integrity, fiscal integrity and equity in Intercollegiate Athletics.

McDonald said the NCAA most likely will issue its determination about the UO review in late summer or early fall.

"We welcome this opportunity to demonstrate how athletics are woven into the fabric of the university," said President Dave Frohnmayer who appointed the UO self-study committee. "We are justifiably proud of the strong academic support provided to our student-athletes and of the openness with which all aspects of our athletic programs are conducted."

Chairing the self-study panel's four subcommittees are Ralph Barnhard, Chemistry (governance); Martha Pitts, Admissions (academic integrity); Sherri McDowell, Business Affairs (fiscal integrity); and Ken Lehrman, Affirmative Action (equity).

For Portland metropolitan area visitors from campus, the UO Portland Center, 722 S.W. 2nd Ave. at Yamhill downtown, has a fully equipped "drop-in office" where you can make phone calls, check your e-mail or simply sit at a desk.

The office has a computer that is connected to the UO network and phones hooked to the OSSHE Network so all you need to do to call the UO campus is to dial five digits as if you were on the Eugene campus.

For information and to reserve a spot, call Linda Wardlow, 5-8409.

In honor of 70 years of UO basketball, limited-edition Mac Court bleacher plaques are on sale at $100 apiece ($75 deductible). Proceeds will benefit the UO Athletic Department, Physical Education and the Recreation and Intramural Program. Each 10x13-inch plaque contains numbered seat sections salvaged when the original bleachers in McArthur Court were replaced with theater-style seating in March 1997. See plaques at the UO Bookstore, the Casanova Center and the UO Alumni Shop in Portland. After a month of brisk sales, more than 100 of the framed mementos of "The Pit" remain. To order or for more information, call Gary Walker, 6-4100, or Dawne Dougherty, 6-1041.

University of Oregon visitors this summer and next may detect a distinctive Southeast Asian tone.

The university has been selected to host the Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute (SEASSI) during the summers of 1998 and 1999. More than 150 undergraduates, graduate students and professionals from a wide variety of fields will spend nine weeks in intensive study of 11 Southeast Asian languages ranging from Burmese, Tagalog and Hmong to Khmer, Thai and Vietnamese.

From June 15-Aug. 14 this summer, SEASSI participants also may enroll in seven one-credit area-studies courses taught by internationally recognized scholars and professionals. In addition, they may gather weekly for informal research-interest group discussions, and a range of cultural and recreational activities will be available.

"We're honored to have been selected to host SEASSI by the 14-member consortium that oversees this cooperative venture of the country's leading Southeast Asian linguists and area-studies specialists," says Lori O'Holleran, Asian and Pacific Studies research and grant coordinator.

Besides institute offerings, two professional conferences also will take place during SEASSI.

Graduate students and others will present research papers June 26-28 during the SEASSI Conference, "Worlds Within: Minority Groups in Southeast Asian Nations."

Those interested in language teaching may attend the Council of Teachers of Southeast Asian Languages Conference on Researching and Preserving Indigenous Languages, set July 10-11. Included will be a day-long field trip to Native American villages where Oregon linguists have worked to preserve indigenous languages.

"Actually, all SEASSI activities except the language classes--the short courses, film series, dance performances, festivals and workshops--are open to all," O'Holleran says. "Sign up for the one-credit courses through Summer Session, and watch local calendars for details about the cultural and recreational activities."

Tuition for the 1998 SEASSI program is $2,100. Housing, food and other living expenses are extra.

Graduate students have until Jan. 30 to apply for Foreign Languages and Area Studies (FLAS) awards which cover SEASSI tuition and provide a $2,400 stipend for living expenses.

A limited number of partial- and full-tuition fellowships also are available. Application deadline for these grants is March 15.

Sign-ups for the institute itself are due April 15.

In a 10:30 a.m. ceremony on Tuesday, Jan. 27, the hearth area in Hendricks Hall will be renamed the "Frazier Hearth" and dedicated in memory of William Allen "Al" Frazier whose 1995 death ended a distinguished 26-year career as a county planner in New York. The event also will acknowledge gifts from the estate of Frazier's parents establishing the Al Frazier Endowment Fund to aid graduate students in public affairs and from the elder Frazier's estate, his sister Jean Frazier Geist and his wife Joan Frazier for the Hearth Area Refurbishing Project. A 1963 UO graduate in sociology, Frazier earned a master's degree in public affairs in 1968.

In the spotlight

Susan Plummer, Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity; Kathy Cooks, University Scheduling; Marlene Koines, History; and Vice Provost and Dean Steadman Upham were honored Jan. 20 as recipients of the university's 1998 Martin Luther King Awards.

Gov. John Kitzhaber has appointed Joanne Hugi, University Computing director, to a four-year term on the 12-member Oregon Telecommunications Forum Council.

Karen Kelsky, Anthropology, has received a $30,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant and an Oregon Humanities Center award that will free her during the 1998-99 academic year to write a book based on her doctoral dissertation. The working title of the book is The Cosmopolitan Woman: Gender, Race and Internationalism In and Out of Japan. Kelsky will spend one term at the University of Washington as an affiliate of the Rockefeller Program in Critical Asian Studies. The Humanities Center award will free Kelsky from her teaching load next fall.

Peter Ho Davies, Creative Writing, is one of seven Oregon writers who received $20,000 National Endowment for the Arts fellowships for prose and prose translation.

Lani Loken-Dahle, Physical Education, is director for the 1998 World Acrobatics Congress to be held Feb. 6-8 in Las Vegas.

Elizabeth Wheeler, English, won the Doyce B. Nunis Jr. Award in March 1997 from the Historical Society of Southern California for the best article by a new or emerging scholar.

Nathaniel Teich, English, received a $14,000 continuation grant from the National Writing Project for operation of the Oregon Writing Project program for public school teachers.

George Sheridan, History and International Affairs interim vice provost, and Polly Welch, Architecture, were inducted Dec. 1 as honorary members of the Golden Key National Honor Society. Honorary members are selected for their contributions to the community as well as the university and its students.

On the move

Mary Farrington became assistant director of the Architecture and Allied Arts research and development office on Jan. 1. In the half-time post, she will concentrate on annual and special-gifts fundraising and donor relations. The Dorris Ranch program manager for the Willamalane Park and Recreation District since 1987, Farrington is a graduate of Colorado State University and the UO.

Albert Leong became head of Russian at the start of winter term. He replaces Virpi Zuck who had held the post temporarily.

In Print/On Display

Quintard Taylor, History, is the author of In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West (W.W. Norton 1998).

Candy Davis, Public Safety, is the author of "Fast Freeze," a short story published in the literary journal Frontiers (Frontier Communications, 1997). The first Magnetic Poetry anthology also included some of Davis' work (Workman Publishing, 1997).

Robert Haskett and Stephanie Wood, History, are co-editors of Indian Women of Early Mexico (University of Oklahoma Press, 1997).

Cristina Calhoon, Classics and Romance Languages, published an article, "Lucretia, Savior and Scapegoat: The Dynamics of Sacrifice in Livy 1.57-59" in Helios, vol. 24, no. 2 (1997).

On the podium/stage

Jim Brau, Physics, organized the 1997 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium, held Nov. 9-15 in Albuquerque, N.M., which attracted more than 300 scientific papers. Held in conjunction with the IEEE Medical Imaging Conference, the symposium was concerned with instrumentation for high-energy and nuclear physics and related fields.

In memoriam

Ralph C. Rands, Educational Policy and Management emeritus, died Dec. 31 at Black Butte Ranch. A UO alumnus, Rands, 75, was a well-known educator who joined the UO faculty in 1973 and retired in 1986. Memorial contributions may be made to Eugene's Relief Nursery Memorial Fund.