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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 10, 1999)
Tuesday. August 10. 1000 Weather forecast Today Partly Cloudy High 80, Low 55 Wednesday Partly Cloudy High 72, Low 56 Pulling a costly one Students and their families reportedly lose more than $100 million per year because of bogus scholarships/PAGE 3 Will the Ducks deliver? Head coach Ernie Kent foresees a bright future for Darius Wright and the Ducks next season/PAGE 5 An independent newspaper Volume 101, Issue 15 University of Oregon www.dailyemeraldcom Refer M The Student Senate issues a resolution in support of the OPEU PAGES Members of the Ore gon Public Employ ees Union are vocal as well as adamant in their demands for a contract. Matt Stiffler/for the Emerald UO ‘focused’ on settling OPEUpoints to ‘windfall’ of funds as proof that demands can be met By Sara Jarrett Oregon Daily Emerald The rally conducted by members of the Oregon Pub lic Employees Union in the EMU Amphitheater last Wednesday demonstrated the union’s commitment to fight the University for what the union calls “contract fairness.” The University is just as “focused to come to a settle ment,” said Philip Brans ford, the assistant director of communications for the chancellor’s office. “Progress [toward that goal] is undisputed.” The OPEU’s proposal of a six-percent salary increase during a two-year contract and continuation of full-paid family health insurance comes at a time when the higher education department is receiving a “windfall of Legislative money,” said Bart Lewis, an OPEU member, at the rally. “We have gotten some pos itive responses from Salem,” Bransford admitted. “It’s the biggest chunk of reinvestment in over a decade.” The money is slated, how ever, for stabilizing the tu ition freeze, which has been in effect for the last four years, and aiding the stu dent-driven budget system, according to Bransford. That system allows each campus to keep the tuition it raises, as well as allocating state funding based on student enrollment. In the past, each campus collected its tuition then gave it to the chancellor’s of fice. It was then combined with state contributions and divvied back out to the cam puses. The new plan is a “very flexible, highly responsive model for budgeting,” Brans ford said. “The Legislature en dorsed it when it gave [the higher education system] the increase.” One concern of the OPEU is the proposed elimination of a $38 flex-incentive for choosing a lower-cost health plan. “Saying the $38 is disap pearing is inaccurate,” Brans ford said. “The governor is in terested in streamlining health insurance.” A merger between two health-insurance boards dur Turn to OPEU, Page 4 Grant to fund new research $2.7-million grant will allow students to learn both developmental and evolutionary biology By Edward Yuen Oregon Daily Emerald Biologists have been studying the devel opment and evolution of organisms for years. They conduct research to explain how some species can develop specific body parts while the others cannot. Limited resources, however, have hin dered biologists from conducting extensive researches to connect developmental and evolutionary biology. But that situation is changing at the Uni versity. The biology department recently received a $2.7-million grant from the National Sci ence Foundation (NSF). As a part of the NSF’s Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) grant, the fund ing allows the department to train scientists in multiple aspects and obtain new research equipment. With the help of the funding, the department can also bring in experts or graduate students to work at the University. But University students will benefit most. “The fund supports students who want to study problems of the interface of embryol ogy, evolution and genomics,” said John Postlethwait, a biology professor who is one of the faculty members overseeing the grant. Biology Professor Michael Lynch is an other faculty member with the same respon sibility. Traditionally, students are trained in ei ther developmental biology or evolution bi ology but seldom in both disciplines, Postlethwait said. The IGERT grant, which funds both undergraduate and graduate re search, will allow more research to be con ducted simultaneously on multiple aspects. Susan Bassham, a fifth-year doctorate stu dent, is one of the first recipients of the new grant. Bassham conducts her research on isolating genes from primitive chordates. Her study focuses on the evolution of genes that allows some fish to develop ap pendages. Other research conducted at the Univer sity includes patterning the nervous system of zebra fish, conducted by Biology Profes sor Judith Eisen, and study of the cell diver sity of fruit flies, conducted by Biology Pro Turn to BIOLOGY, Page 4 Catharine KendalVEmemld Fifth-year doctorate student Susan Bassham will use grant money to study the genes of certain fish.
