James F. Miller has given Arts and Sciences a lead gift of $1.5 million to create the James F. Miller Theatre Complex. The project includes construction of a new theater that will have a variety of production configurations, replacement of antiquated theater lab spaces, and renovation of the venerable Robinson Theatre.

The university plans to match Miller’s gift with $1.5 million from combined institutional and public resources, and an additional $1.5 million from other private sources.

A group of longtime theater supporters are collaborating to create a "Friends of University Theatre" group who will help raise the matching private funds to complete this project.

Once the matching funds have been raised, the project is slated to take three years to complete.

"This development offers many new opportunities for our students and faculty," says Jack Watson, Theater Arts department head. "Perhaps most important is that we will all have a new sense of pride and purpose, a new momentum to allow us to not only maintain our current high standards, but also to raise those standards and explore new and exciting forms of production.

"It’s rather like being given a new set of paints with exciting new colors available," Watson says. "It increases the potential for truly creative art."

University drama facilities are laboratories where students experiment and learn the skills expected of today’s theater practitioners, explains Janet Rose, Theater Arts technical director. University Theatre labs, now 50 to more than 100 years old, limit students’ learning opportunities.

"Mr. Miller’s generous gift allows us the opportunity to design and construct a brand new theater, replacing an inadequate Arena Theatre in Villard Hall," Rose says. "The new theater will give us an intimate space that we can reconfigure into different actor and audience relationships. This will give the students experience in a variety of theater shapes found throughout the world."

Miller, 96, is a longtime business investor and counselor who for decades has been a strong advocate of higher education.

"I want other people to have the opportunity I never had," Miller responded when once asked about his support of education.

In Oregon, Miller has invested in both private and public educational institutions; the University of Oregon, he says, exemplifies one of the better schools in the arts.

Miller’s first job was delivering newspapers. He began his business career at age 16 as an office boy for Blyth & Co., Inc., in Portland. He quickly gained a reputation for his ability to conduct research and for his recall of data and statistics.

He took an educational leave from Blyth & Co. to attend the University of Washington but could only afford a semester. He returned to his old company just before the stock market crash, then thrived in the investment community from 1929 to 1935, while others were having difficulties selling securities.

Miller became a legend in the investment business, putting together more than 50 years ago one of the first leveraged buyouts in American history. He helped Albermarle Paper Manufacturing Co. buy the Ethyl Corp., which was owned jointly by General Motors Corp. and Standard Oil Co. He also was a key figure in many forest products industry acquisitions.

He rose to become president of Blyth & Co., Inc., in New York in 1955. He has served on the board of directors for numerous firms, including Georgia Pacific, Ethyl Corp., Maine Central Railroad, Louisiana Pacific Corp. and Fiberboard Corp.

Miller and his late wife Marion have given generously to many of Oregon’s cultural and educational institutions. Among them are the Portland Art Museum, Oregon Symphony, Oregon Community Foundation, Lewis and Clark College, Linfield College, Willamette University and Portland State University.

What you can do to save energy:

• Turn off lights when not in use (classrooms, offices and restrooms)

• Turn off computer monitors when they are not in use

• Turn off printers when they are not in use

• Turn off computers and printers at night and on weekends

• Turn off copiers at night and on weekends

• Avoid the use of space heaters

• Dress for cool mornings and warmer afternoons

• Spread the word to others about saving energy

Energy is money. Spend it wisely.

Price, 45, replaces Duncan McDonald in the position formerly called vice president for public affairs and development. After four years in the post, McDonald is returning to the classroom as a professor in Journalism and Communication, where he was dean from 1994–97.

When Price starts his new job in 103 Johnson on July 16, he will report directly to Frohnmayer and will oversee the same offices as McDonald has—university fund raising; public, media and governmental relations; alumni affairs; university publications including the alumni magazine "Oregon Quarterly;" radio station KWAX-FM; and marketing and licensing of UO merchandise.

"Allan Price has been extremely successful at convincing alumni, donors, legislators and the public that the health of Arizona’s economy is closely tied to the quality of the state’s universities, and that experience will be very helpful to Oregon," says Frohnmayer. "An ASU campaign he directed has raised almost $500 million in private gifts, much of it for student scholarships and endowed faculty positions. He also helped promote passage of a state tax measure that is providing an additional $45 million a year for research at Arizona universities."

Price says he accepted the UO job because "I was attracted to the quality of life in Eugene and was really impressed with the University of Oregon, both the quality of the institution and the quality of the people I met. People there are really excited and ready to go. There’s a real sense of potential. It was an attractive professional opportunity and personal lifestyle choice for my wife and me. I am eager to begin."

At ASU, Price has been responsible for the same areas he will oversee at Oregon plus operation of three university performing arts facilities and a public television station. In addition, he has overseen management of a 40-acre commercial real estate development on university property and helped establish the Arizona Technology Incubator in Tempe, a business-university partnership that nurtures technology-related startup companies.

Price has worked for ASU in various administrative capacities since 1989. Before that, he served as associate director for public affairs for the Arizona Board of Regents and worked as a senior policy analyst for then-Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt.

He obtained his bachelor’s degree in social work in 1982 and his master’s degree, also in social work in 1983, both from ASU. He is currently completing a doctoral degree in public administration.

Price and his wife, Susan, a human resources consultant and free-lance writer, have two sons—Nicholas, 23, and Zachary, 17.

All 17 uniformed DPS officers have been trained to use these laptop-size devices to administer a shock that interrupts a short-circuiting heart, giving it a chance to resume its normal, blood-pumping beat. The university’s AEDs, purchased last fall, are a smaller version of the ones used in hospitals to allow the heart of a patient who is in cardiac arrest to restart its natural cycle.

The university decided to purchase the devices because the American Heart Association has strongly recommended they be available in public areas and anywhere there is a large group of people or an athletic activity, according to Tom Hicks, DPS associate director. Although sudden cardiac arrest is rare and DPS hasn’t had to use the devices yet, having them is a good preventative measure.

"Sudden cardiac arrest can strike anyone without warning, not just people with poor health or obesity," Hicks says.

Initially, the university looked into purchasing AEDs for specific locations on campus, such as Hayward Field and the Student Recreation Center. But because it is so difficult to predict where someone will experience cardiac arrest, Hicks believes it seems more logical to have them in positions such as the patrol vehicles that can be deployed at any time.

The response time for DPS anywhere on campus is about two minutes. This is beneficial to the victim because the chances of someone surviving cardiac arrest decrease by 10 percent for each minute his or her heart is misfiring and failing to pump blood.

Each AED gives both written and verbal instructions, and it takes less than a minute for the machine to evaluate the patient, tell the operator whether or not to shock, administer the shock and re-evaluate the patient’s condition. It won’t shock anyone who does not need it.

To be able to use the machines, DPS officers completed a CPR class that included AED training. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation classes are being restructured to include AED training because, although CPR alone will help to get the blood pumping again, only a shock will make the heart’s beat become normal again.

AEDs are available to the general public for personal use, but you have to get a prescription from your doctor. The university’s AED program is overseen by Dr. Gerald Fleischli, the University Health Center director. He will review any incidents in which the AEDs are deployed.

The portable machines also are expensive, costing about $3,000 apiece. But Hicks agrees with the AHA’s big push to make them widely available.

"It is true that it is a very expensive piece of equipment to have around for such a rare incident," he admits. "But it is difficult to put a dollar amount on someone’s life. If just one person is saved be an AED, it is worth it to have them."

–Stefani Blair, Editorial Associate

In the spotlight

Steven Lowenstam, Classics, has received an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship. His project is "Word and Picture: The Homeric Poems and Artistic Representation of Epic Myth."

Lundquist Business and University Publications employees received six awards in the 2001 Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District VIII Awards Program. In the LCB Publications Office, Alice Sundstrom received a gold medal for her design and production of the invitation to the 2000 Women in Sports Business Symposium. She and writer Joy Archer also received a gold medal in the publications category and a silver medal in the design class for the "Building Excellence" brochure. Winning a silver medal for design was the "1999-2000 Annual Report" written by Mitch VanderVorst, art directed by Sundstrom and designed by Tom Jordan of Jordan Design. In University Publications, Lori Howard won a gold medal for her design of a CSWS presentation folder. Terry Duffy received a bronze medal for her design of a series of "puzzle" mailings for the Annual Giving Program.

Four UO employees—Jon Davies, Counseling Center; Annie Dochnahl, University Health Center; and Brent Harrison and Jamaal Ryan, PARS—received the Outstanding Research and Program Awards from the American College Professional Association’s Standing Committee for Men. They were recognized during the group’s annual convention for their work on men’s health issues.

Russ Donnelly, Physics, has been named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was honored for a 30-year career during which he has been "at the forefront of the experimental study of helium II flows … and the study of turbulence using cryogenic fluids and methods."

Alexander Murphy, Geography, is recipient of the 2001 Distinguished Teaching Achievement Award given by the National Council for Geographic Education for outstanding contributions to geographic education. He is one of 10 U.S. and Canadian college and university professors who will be honored during the council’s annual meeting Aug. 1–4 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Gaylene Carpenter, Arts and Administration, has received the Innovative Teaching Award from the Society of Park and Recreation Educators, a branch of the National Recreation and Park Association.

Donna Newton has been selected as the new student loan manager in the Business Office. She replaces Jim Heiss who retired in October.

Tricia Howard, Student Financial Aid, retired on May 31.

Bill Odell, Housing retired, and Bill Smee, DPS, contributed to an anthology of horror stories edited by Elizabeth Engstrom, Dead on Demand: The Best of Ghost Story Weekend (Triple Tree Publishing, 2000).

Katya Hokanson, Comparative Literature, published "Onegin’s Journey: The Orient Revisited" in the Pushkin Review (December 2000).

Lowell Bowditch, Classics, is the author of Horace and the Gift Economy of Patronage (University of California Press, 2001).

Yoko McClain, East Asian Languages and Literatures emerita, is the author of Cultural Differences in American English and Japanese (Tokyo: Chuokoron).

Stephanie Wood, History, presented "Frida and Coyolzauhqui: Teaching Gender in Mexican History with the Net" at the American Historical Association meeting in Boston in January. She also served as commentator on the panel "Cacicas and Capullanas in the Colonial Andes" at the meeting.

Lowell Bowditch, Classics, presented "Hermeneutic Uncertainty and Female Subjectivity in the ‘Ars Amatoria’: The Procris and Cephalus Digression" at the annual meeting of the American Philological Association in January.