June 19, 2000
Gov. John Kitzhaber's executive order, signed in mid-May and setting state agencies on a course toward greater sustainability, is in harmony with a broad range of efforts already under way at the University of Oregon.
"We are energetically pursuing an integrated approach to increasing sustainability," says Vice President Dan Williams, Administration. "These efforts range across all aspects of our work--in our facilities and long-term planning, our academic programs, our extensive recycling program and our work in energy management and conservation."
This commitment to sustainability leaves its mark on the physical layout of campus.
"We fully integrate sustainable approaches into building design and construction--that's just how we do business," says Chris Ramey, University Planning director and university architect. "One measure of this, for example, is that there are more places to park bicycles on campus than there are places to park cars."
The university is a leader in another key area of sustainability--recycling. The UO Campus Recycling Program, founded in 1991, has received national recognition and was honored as the 1997 Outstanding School Recycling Program by the National Recycling Coalition.
"We are pleased that the executive order recognizes the benefits of environmental stewardship in state business practices," says Karyn Kaplan, Campus Recycling Program manager. "This move is right in line with our work here at the UO, where we are very proactive in our stewardship practices."
Among the UO efforts related to sustainability are:
For example, more than 95 percent of the copy paper used at the UO has at least 50 percent recycled content. The default copy paper contains 100 percent post-consumer recycled fiber. All campus copy machines now do double-sided copying and contain energy-saving features.
The UO maintains the Reusable Office Supply Exchange and a furniture exchange where campus groups can contribute surplus items and acquire what they need. The furniture exchange redistributes about $75,000 in office furniture annually.
The campus vending machine contract includes a charge to the vendor for energy use and waste production.
The university has recently started purchasing carpet made from 100 percent recycled materials. Additionally, when the carpet wears out, it is recycled as part of the original contract, thus saving landfill costs and reducing environmental impact.
A copy of the UO Comprehensive Environmental Policy is available at darkwing.uoregon.edu/~recycle/enviro_policy.html.
Even though formal recognition of the 125th anniversary of the university's first class of students is a year away, planning is already progressing for ways to mark the special occasion during academic year 2001-2002.
President Dave Frohnmayer has named a 12-member 125th Anniversary Committee to gather ideas from faculty, staff, students, alumni and other friends and supporters of the university about how best to mark this milestone. Janet Fratella, director of outreach projects in Public Affairs and Development, is chairing the panel which has been meeting since March.
"We've adopted a theme, 'Pride, Passion and Promise,' and a logo is currently being developed," Fratella says. "This summer, we're forming subcommittees to spearhead specific celebration initiatives, and by this fall, we will have a clear idea of our activities."
With the fall 2001 Convocation and the spring 2002 Commencement as its "bookends," the 125th anniversary celebration is intended to honor and celebrate the university's history and collective achievements and to build awareness about the University of Oregon.
Right now, Fratella says, what the committee needs most are suggestions from all members of the campus community for projects, events and other ways to acknowledge and celebrate 125 years of UO contributions and achievements.
"An updated Atlas of Oregon is in production, and we will publish a special insert, '125 Ways the University of Oregon Has Touched the World,' in the Winter 2001 issue of Oregon Quarterly," Fratella says. "Consequently, the committee also is seeking examples of significant UO impacts on society from faculty, alumni and others."
Members of the 125th Anniversary Committee are Adell McMillan, retired EMU director; Toby Deemer, Graduate School; Associate Vice President and Dean of Students Anne Leavitt; Ken Lehman, Affirmative Action; Scott Barkhurst, Music; Steven Shankman and Julia Heydon, Humanities Center; Becky Couch-Goodling, President's Office and Arts and Administration intern; Christine Sullivan, UO Alumni Association director; and Hope Pressman and Margie Lehrman, UO Foundation trustees.
To submit suggestions and for information, call Fratella, 6-5559, or send e-mail to jfratell@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Jeanne McLaughlin does the kind of work people often read about or watch in the movies but seldom see firsthand.
The UO graduate student in biophysical anthropology is an adviser to the Lane County medical examiner's office in special forensic cases. Like FBI Agent Sculley on "The X-Files," she is a specialist in identifying human skeletal remains that have decomposed or been burned beyond what a standard autopsy can handle.
In one such case, McLaughlin helped to identify a badly decomposed skeleton that was found in the Lane County woods. By determining the age, sex and approximate time of death, she enabled authorities to open a missing person's file. McLaughlin received a Sheriff's Appreciation Award in 1998 for her work in the case.
McLaughlin, 25, is also a part-time volunteer for the Lane County Sheriff's Office, logging more than 600 hours last year. This February, she was named the 1999 Sheriff's Search and Rescue Volunteer of the Year for her efforts as an Explorer scout leader, search coordinator and Hasty Response Team member. The latter job involves responding to calls for lost or injured people, often in remote wilderness areas.
When not volunteering, McLaughlin is trying to become a certified forensic anthropologist, a highly specialized occupation that has only 40 members in the United States. Currently, she is working with anthropological researcher Guy Tasa, Museum of Natural History, on a study of cranial deformation among prehistoric Chinook Indians. The practice of flattening the foreheads of young children for social ranking and beauty was fairly common to Pacific Northwest Indians and has fascinated anthropologists for years. Tasa and McLaughlin hope to establish more precisely where and when the practice occurred in Oregon and Washington.
"Jeanne is really remarkable," Tasa says. "Our only anthropology student doing archaeological and forensic work, she's very diligent and thorough in her approaches to both."
McLaughlin, a Eugene native, says she plans to invest seven more years of intensive study to achieve her goal. Once certified, she would like to work for a medical examiner's office or have her own lab and research facility as part of a police agency. In the meantime, she will keep juggling her UO studies and her volunteer work.
"I really enjoy what I'm doing right now," McLaughlin says. "I'm getting a lot out of my study at the UO, but I also enjoy being outside and helping people at the same time. It's exciting. Sometimes we get to save people's lives, which makes it all worthwhile."
--Bill Steele, Communications Writer
The UO Library began providing access to a new suite of general and multi-disciplinary periodical indexes on July 1, according to Faye Chadwell, collection development head. Among the databases constituting this suite are Academic Search Elite, Business Source Elite and Health Source Plus.
Serving many disciplines as a principal resource, Academic Search Elite will provide access to abstracts and indexing for nearly 2,880 scholarly journals, dating to 1984. Of these, 1,676 are peer-reviewed. The full text for more than 1,250 journals, many dating to 1990, also will be available.
These databases, all products of EBSCO, will replace the INFOTRAC databases, including Expanded Academic Index and General Reference Center, which the library had previously offered.
"The library opted to make this transition to a different set of periodical indexes for various reasons," Chadwell explains. "The EBSCO databases offer a superior searching interface, access to a greater number of titles, including full-text titles, and the option to link directly to periodicals holdings in the UO Library's catalog."
In addition, because this purchase is a part of the Oregon Statewide Database Licensing Group's collaborative effort to provide access to a general periodicals database for all public, academic and K-12 libraries in Oregon, Chadwell says the University of Oregon also significantly reduced its costs for this type of resource.
For assistance or information about this change, consult a reference librarian, 6-1818, or browse libweb.uoregon.edu/systems/ebsco.
Deborah Carver has been named interim university librarian following the retirement of George Shipman. A national search for a new university librarian will begin in the fall, with the expectation of filling the endowed post by July 2001. Carver, associate librarian for public services and collections since 1994, came to the university in 1990 as assistant librarian for public services. Named the Oregon Library Association's 1999 Librarian of the Year, she is a 1973 magna cum laude graduate of the University of Massachusetts and holds master's degrees in library science from the University of North Carolina and in public administration from the University of Virginia.
Dennis Munroe became director of Physical Activity and Recreation Services on July 1, succeeding Karla Rice who retired. The assistant director of recreational sports at OSU since 1994 and aquatics coordinator there from 1992-94, Munroe was aquatics director and an instructor in the discontinued UO College of Human Development and Performance from 1988-1992. An exercise test technologist, Munroe is a graduate of Walla Walla College and the University of Dayton.
Elizabeth Bickford became Student Financial Aid director on July 1, succeeding Ed Vignoul who retired. Assistant director since 1981 after one-year stints as a financial aid official in Seattle and Los Angeles, she received the Oregon Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators 1998 Distinguished Service Award. Bickford is a graduate of Humboldt State University and the UO.
Twenty-three UO employees with six centuries of service among them were honored June 1 during a retirement recognition reception. Those recognized included C. Melvin Aikens, Anthropology; Lewis Atkinson, Ronnie Egger and Abraham Ocon, Facilities Services; Ralph Barnhard, Chemistry; Marilyn Cooper and Maxine Lee, Law; Dawne Dougherty, Karla Rice and Becky Sisley, PARS; Karen Faletti, Darlene Fisher and Koleta Mayfield, Housing; Douglas Hintzman, Psychology; Charlene Larison, Biology; Gary Martin, Music; Marlys Meckle and Edmond Vignoul, Student Financial Aid; Judy Moffett, University Health Center; Judith Risbrough, Business Affairs; Celia Scott, Olum Child Development Center; Nathaniel Teich, English; and Ethel Weltman, Museum of Art. Others who have retired since June 1999, representing more than five centuries of service, include Larry Adams, EMU; Fred Babcock, Housing; Roger Best, Marketing; William Disher, University Health Center; Donald Brodie, Law; Jerome Diethelm, Landscape Architecture; Micki Donahue, Academic Advising; Judy Fossum, Michael Hoffman and Carol Karp, Business Affairs; Gerald Fry, International Studies; Adrienne Lannom, ERIC; Kent Loobey, National CIS; Donald Owsley, Facilities Services; Barbara Corrado Pope, Women's Studies; David Povey, Planning, Public Policy and Management; Debbie Rauch, Arts and Sciences; Bill Rockett, English; Karyn Schleicher, Library; Robert Smith, Registrar; Wolfgang Sohlich, Romance Languages; Richard Wielesek, Chemistry; and Jerry Williams, Theater Arts. The provost also has approved emeritus/a status for Aikens, Best, Brodie, Fry, Hintzman, Martin, Rice, Rockett, Sisley and Teich, as well as for Richard Clark, Music; Richard Gale, Sociology; Arnold Ismach, Deanna Robinson and Ronald Sheriffs, Journalism and Communication; Ellen Johnston Laing, Art History; Allan Sieradski, Mathematics; and Michael Utsey, Architecture.
On the podium/stage
Among presenters at the 85th annual meeting of the National Communication Association in November were David Frank, Honors College and Peace Studies; Susan Glaser, Business Communication; Ellen Riordan, Women's Studies GTF; and Alan Stavitsky, Journalism and Communication.
Twenty faculty are 2000 Summer Research Award recipients: Henry Alley, Honors College; Steven Brown, East Asian Languages and Literatures; Virginia Cartwright and Howard Davis, Architecture; James Crosswhite, Dianne Dugaw and Daniel Wojcik, English; Jane Dawson, Political Science; Juan Armando Epple, Romance Languages; Daniel Falk, Religious Studies; Fritz Gearhart, Music; Richard Hildreth, Law; Leon Johnson, Art; Karen Kelsky, Anthropology; Charles Lachman, Art History; Clare Lees, English and Comparative Literature; Dean Livelybrooks, Physics; Steven Lowenstam, Classics; Christopher Phillips, Mathematics; and Paul van Donkelaar, Exercise and Movement Science.
Mike Eyster, Housing, began a three-year term on the ACUHO-I Executive Board, effective July 1.
Cristina Calhoon, Classics, received a stipend to attend the NEH Summer Seminar, "Representing Geography and Community in the World of Imperial Rome," at the American Academy, Rome.
Alexandra "Sandy" Bonds, Theater Arts, is the recipient of a U.S. Institute for Theatre Technology Fellowship. She will use the $15,000 grant--the only one awarded--to pursue her research of Chinese opera costumes during trips to Beijing this summer and next to continue her studies with the Academy of Traditional Chinese Opera.
Jack Bennett, Student Retention Programs, and Stephanie Dixon Winchester, EMU, received the 2000 D.U.B.S. Award during Spring Family Weekend in May. They were recognized for their efforts as administrators which have shown the highest concern and involvement in enhancing the education and lives of the student body.
Brian Matthews, Physics and Molecular Biology, will be honored Aug. 5-9 in San Diego as recipient of the 2000 Stein and Moore Award, the Protein Society's highest honor. Recognizing lifetime contributions at the highest level to the study of proteins, the $10,000 award is named for two Nobel Prize-winning scientists. Matthews has been a pioneer in developing methods to determine the three-dimensional structures of proteins.
Robert Petit, University Health Center medical administrator, is a fellow of the American College Health Association. He was honored for setting professional standards of excellence and for his visionary career contributions during the May 31 ACHA annual meeting in Toronto.
Peter von Hippel, Chemistry, has been named as recipient of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology-Merck Award for outstanding contributions to research in biochemistry and molecular biology. He received the award in June in Boston.
Linda Hearn, Dance emerita, died June 2 in Sandia, Texas, of cancer. A graduate of Texas Woman's University in Denton, Hearn, 59, joined the UO faculty in 1965 and retired, due to multiple sclerosis, in 1982 after teaching dance, golf and badminton and chairing Dance since 1974. In 1969, Hearn created and directed the touring dance company, Dobre (Cosmopolitan) Folk Ensemble. She also led student dance tours to more than 60 schools and civic groups throughout the Northwest. Recognized twice for her teaching prowess, she was honored in 1987 for distinguished service to her profession by the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. A memorial service for Hearn was held June 6 in Lake Jackson, Texas. Contributions may be made to Dance or to the Multiple Sclerosis Society.