Here’s a question I find myself asking: Is now the time, and is 2077 Willamette Street the place, to build an indoor track and field complex?
Saving Civic’s Spirit
July 3rd, 2015 7 Comments
Tags: Civic Stadium · Hayward Field · Michael Schill · Moshofsky Center · NCAA · Phil Knight · University of Oregon
Tracktown USA: Improving for the Long Run
May 15th, 2015 6 Comments
We can’t know how many marathon runners finished Sunday’s race with their best time ever. Conditions were near ideal, so chances are good that many returned home with that deep satisfaction of never having done better.
Tags: Bill Bowerman · Eugene Marathon · Hayward Field · Jogging · NIKE INC. · Phil Knight · Prefontaine · Steve Prefontaine · University of Oregon · Vin Lananna
PERS Retirement Funding Prompts Creative Solutions
May 8th, 2015 No Comments
I knew I had come to the right place, even if it was a disconcertingly dark place. Farsnow continued. “This is impolite to say, but it’s now 3.6 million Oregonians against 331,000 PERS members. It’s us against them.”
Tags: Bankruptcy · PERS · University of Oregon
Suggestive Moves Provoke Questionable Response
March 20th, 2015 2 Comments
Navigating group dynamics to reach collective decisions is an essential skill for the good citizens our university hopes to train. Those skills will be on full display during the next Board of Trustees meeting.
Tags: cheerleaders · Ginevra Ralph · The Wisdom of Crowds · University of Oregon · UO Board of Trustees
It’s More than a Big Game — Life Has Changed Since 2007
January 9th, 2015 No Comments
What followed seemed like chaos at the time, but now we can see that a fundamental realignment was underway. For the United States economy and for collegiate football, nothing has been the same since.
Tags: Jim Radcliffe · Ken Woody · University of Oregon · US Federal Reserve
How to Succeed as a University President (unpublished)
August 15th, 2014 5 Comments
We also may never know whether the Board of Trustees was displeased with their president. It may have been simply that they were given power to hire and fire their university president and they intended to use that power.
Tags: Go Ducks · Michael Gottfredson · University of Oregon · University of Oregon Board of Trustees
UO President Quit? Yeah, Right
August 15th, 2014 3 Comments
Willfully ignored was an odd coincidence. Forty years ago last week, headlines blared with the most famous resignation in American history. Richard Nixon also gave only one day’s notice.
Tags: Chuck Lillis · George Pernsteiner · Michael Gottfredson · Richard Lariviere · The Field Museum · University of Oregon · University of Oregon Board of Trustees
Housing, Havens and Hash
July 25th, 2014 No Comments
Economists have a charming term for this cascading causality: creative destruction — “destruction” because the status quo crumbles, “creative” because something new takes its place.
Tags: Capstone · Chicago-based Core Campus · ESPN INC. · Kesey Square · University of Oregon · US Federal Reserve
Excellence Matters; Success Doesn’t
March 14th, 2014 2 Comments
Between Ken Kesey Square at the heart of downtown Eugene and all of the University of Oregon buildings that bear Phil Knight’s imprimatur, it’s easy to overlook the legacy of Bill Bowerman and the culture of excellence he attempted to instill here.
Tags: Ashton Eaton · Bill Bowerman · Chip Kelly · Ken Kesey · Marcus Mariota · NIKE INC. · Oregon · University of Oregon
Kill the Eugene Celebration
September 20th, 2013 12 Comments
After it’s gone away for a year or two, do you know what will happen? Something else will sprout to take its place.
Tags: Cynthia Wooten · Eugene Celebration · Pearl Street Block Party · University of Oregon · Whiteaker Block Party