Oregon daily emerald., November 30, 1999, Image 1

Tuesday
November 30,1999
Volume 101, Issue 64
University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
An independent newspaper
www.dailyemerald.com
Weather
Wednesday
RAIN POSSIBLE
Ducks tip off home season
Head coach Ernie Kent (right) and Oregon look fora 2-0 start
tonight at McArthur Court against West Coast Conference
foe Portland in the regular-season home opener. PAGE 7
That time of year
If you haven't found the perfect Christmas gift yet, take heart.
The EMU Craft Center winter craft fair opens today and runs
through Wednesday PAGE 4
EMU Childcare Coordinator Dennis Reynolds searches through a variety of umbrellas during the Lost and Found Sale in the Walnut RoomonTuesday3'tme,aia
Lost, found,
§p
, 1
■ The lost and found sale has lots
of items up for grabs that fit every
student’s budget
By Simone Ripke
Oregon Daily Emerald
Lauren Bennett enjoyed browsing
through the plethora of sunglasses and
jewelry until she found just what she was
looking for.
The junior political science major
came to the lost and found sale in the
EMU Walnut Room Monday morning
and left with a pair of sunglasses and a
watch with a black leather watchband.
Bennett paid a total of $4 at the cash regis
ter.
“It’s a treasure chest,” she said.
The lost and found service at the EMU
Recreation center is not sponsored by in
cidental fees, but rather the money made
during the two-day lost and found sale
will help keep the lost and found service
running, said Chessa Grasso, a junior ma
joring in sociology and the lost and found
coordinator at the EMU Recreation cen
ter.
Turn to Lost & Found, Page 3
UO gifted
$12 million
■ The second-largest donation in
University history will be used to
build the Lillis Business Complex
By Brian Goodell
Oregon Daily Emerald
The holiday season seems to bring out the
best in people. Just ask University Alumnus
Charles Lillis.
Monday, Lillis announced a $12 million
pledge toward a 200,000 square foot business
complex to add on to the Charles H. Lundquist
College of Business, making his donation the
second largest in University history.
“We’re thrilled to be able to make a gift
like this,” Lillis said with his wife at his
side. “We originally intended to make a gift
of a professorship. It’s funny how these
things escalate.”
Lillis, a professor and former dean of the
University of Colorado School of Business,
currently serves as chairman and C.E.O. of
MediaOne Group. Lillis received his under
graduate and M.B.A. degrees from the Uni
versity of Washington and earned his Ph.D.
from the University in 1972.
Lillis and his wife see their donation as a
momentum gift, one that will propel business
education in Oregon into the 21st century.
“There is a combination of leadership,
faculty and student quality that makes us
think something really special could hap
pen here,” Lillis said. “We hope our gift will
help the College of Business become a really
first rate business school.”
Private donations will pay for 90 percent
of the design and construction of the Lillis
Business Complex, with the other 10 per
cent coming from the State of Oregon. Con
struction on the $40 million building is
scheduled to begin in the Summer of 2001
and will take 18 to 21 months to complete,
said project architect Kent Duffy of SRG
Partnership, the Portland architecture firm
contracted to design the facility.
According to University President Dave
Frohnmayer, with the exception of a few
minor details, the project has full approval
from the administration.
“We’re thrilled with the choices he and
his wife have made today,” Frohnmayer
said. “This will dramatically reshape the
way we educate our students. It’s absolutely
tremendous in its scope and impact.”
Turn to Business, Page 3
Y2K leaves many millenialists waiting for the return of Jesus Christ
With the year 2000
quickly approaching,
the Emerald will run a
weekly series explor
ing how the commu
nity is preparing for
the millennium.
■ Some scholars don’t think anything as
spectacular as the return of Christ will be part
of the New Year’s celebrations
By Jack Clifford
Oregon Daily Emerald
Millions of people who follow the Western cal
endar cycle will be ringing in the year 2000 with
confetti, party horns and maybe even fireworks. Lit
eral readers of the Bible, however, are counting on
the turn of the millennium to spark events even
more spectacular: the return of Jesus Christ and an
apocalyptic end to the world.
At least one Christian sect, led by a New Yorker
who goes by the name Brother David, has already
descended upon Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives,
picked in the Bible as the spot for Christ’s return.
They believe Jesus will appear Jan. 1,2000. Before
bandwagon-types rush out and reserve flights to the
Middle East though, they should hear out at least
two University professors who pop holes in these
end of time prophecies.
“I would emphatically say that there’s nothing
that can be directly related between the year 2000
and Christian or any other religious beliefs,” said
Daniel Falk, assistant professor in the Religious
Studies Department. “There’s nothing in any of the
Biblical writings which relate an apocalypse to an
even number on the calendar. The date has no sig
nificance whatsoever for Bible scholars. ”
Falk pointed out that even though some Scrip
ture does refer to 1,000-year reigns of peace or to a
similar reign of the Messiah, it should be taken
metaphorically, not to the letter. Somehow these
references became connected to even numbers on
the calendar, Falk said.
Folklore professor Daniel Wojcik agreed with
Falk and went as far as to put down his ideas on pa
per in a book he wrote in 1997, “The End of the
World As We Know It: Faith, Fatalism, and Apoca
lypse in America.”
“These ideas are persistent and enduring in
American culture,” Wojcik said. “I don’t think that
all of a sudden everyone’s getting excited around
the year 2000. What I try to argue is that we’ve al
ways had a significant percentage of the American
population embracing millennial ideas.
“The Puritans were millenialists, Columbus had
apocalyptic ideas and there are even Native Ameri
Turn to Y2K, Page 3