Wednesday, December 4,2002
Since 1900 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon
Volume 104, Issue 67
25 million years in the making
Volunteer donates fossil find
to geology department collection
Andrew VanAtta found this giant chunk of petrified
wood in June. He discovered the geological specimen,
believed to be a tree stump about 25 million years old,
while looking for fossil flora in Goshen, Ore., about five
miles south of Eugene.
VanAtta, who is a plant specialist volunteer at the
Condon Museum in Cascade Hall, said he is not sure if
the piece can be identified because it looks like it was
rotted and infested with insects when petrifaction began.
VanAtta said, however, if he had to guess the tree’s
species, he would suspect it to be a Sequoia.
VanAtta has been cleaning the piece since June, and
on Tuesday, he donated it to the Cascade Courtyard out
side the geology building. No immediate plans have been
made to move it, and staff at The Condon Museum think
it will be a permanent addition to the courtyard.
The Condon Museum is part of the Department of Ge
ological Sciences and is named after the Rev. Thomas
Condon, who was Oregon’s first state geologist and in
1876, became a professor of natural history at the Uni
versity. Condon’s personal collection of geological speci
mens became a permanent part of the University after
his death.
Thanks to many donations like VanAtta’s, the collec
tion has increased in size over the years. Today it is Ore
gon’s only professionally curated collection, and nation
wide, it is the 12th-largest collection of curated fossil
vertebrates.
— Photos and text by Adam Amato
Winter jobs
may be hard
to come by
As the holiday season approaches, students are
competing to find seasonal jobs partly due to the
lack of availability and the quantity of job hunters
Danielle Gillespie
Safety/Crime/Transportation Reporter
With winter holidays fast approaching, many University stu
dents are scrambling in search of jobs in their home towns or
the Eugene area, hoping to make some extra cash.
Jobs may be harder to come by this year, as more students
than ever will be competing for jobs. The University reached an
all-time high enrollment of 20,044 students this year, compared
with last fall term’s 19,091. Oregon Employment Department
estimates that there will be only 900 seasonal jobs this winter,
down from 2,700 last year.
University senior Christina Hur is looking for work this win
ter break in her hometown, Portland, or in Eugene because she
wants to earn money so she can travel to the East Coast next
summer to look at graduate schools.
Hur said she has been perusing the classified sections but
hasn’t decided where she might work. Last winter break, she
worked at Toys “R” Us and said she might return.
“They were really desperate for people for the holidays, and
they hired me on the spot,” she said.
However, department stores haven’t been recruiting students
at the University this year, Career Center Employment Services
Specialist Pat Ferris said.
“It could be a combination of the current economy or that
they don’t really need to advertise because they get so many in
quiries around this time of year,” she said.
Sales company Vector Marketing Corp. and the United Parcel
Service, however, have been on campus recruiting students to
work over the holidays, and they still have positions available.
Representatives for Vector sell Cutco Cutlery, a line of
kitchen knives and outdoor accessories through pre-scheduled
in-home appointments. They are paid a base rate of 812.15 per
appointment regardless of whether they sell the product, but
can earn more depending on how much cutlery they sell.
To work for Vector, representatives are required to attend a
three-day training session and purchase a 8135 start-up kit
which contains a few knives and demonstration supplies. The
representative can sell the kit back to the company at any time,
Bardell said.
“A lot of people are home during the holidays and most peo
ple will agree to an appointment even if they don’t buy any
thing,” she said. “They may even give names of other people
who might be interested in meeting with the representative.”
UPS, which sees business pick up over the holidays, has sev
eral short-term employment opportunities during winter break
as well,,UPS Universal Agent Marvin Alexander said.
“We have a lot of packages, and we bring on a lot of help dur
ing the holiday season,” he said.
Students interested in working for UPS will most likely
work as part-time package handlers or as driver helpers,
Alexander said. Part-time package handlers can work one of
four shifts; the morning, day, evening or night shift. Handlers
Turn to jobs, page 3
Weather
Today; High 47, Low 38,
rain likely after morning fog
Thursday: High 50, Low 33,
sunny after partial clouds, fog
Looking ahead
Thursday
See odd, cool historical art on
display - miniature nun habits
Friday
Oregon slopes ramp up for
skiers with tempting offers
Deadline approaches for ‘No Call’ list
Telemarketers will be fined
if they call consumers who
sign up for the ‘No Call’ list,
which was started in 1999
Ken Paulman
City/State Politics Reporter
Consumers who want to stop telemarketers
from calling them can turn to the state for help,
but they must do so quickly.
Oregon’s “No Call” list, established in 1999, is
a registry of state residential and cellular tele
phone numbers belonging to people who do not
wish to receive calls from telemarketers. Com
panies that make solicitation calls to a number
on the list can be fined up to #25,000.
So far, more than 90,000 people have signed
up on the list, which is published quarterly and
sent to more than 1,000 telemarketers in
the United States, Canada and the Dominican
Republic.
The deadline to sign up for the winter edition
of the list is Dec. 15. There is a fee of #6.50 per
telephone number for the first year, with an an
nual renewal charge of #3 after that. People who
miss the deadline will still be included in the
spring edition, which will be released in April.
Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers has
fined 120 companies a total of #450,000 for call
ing consumers on the list, according to Richard
Meyer of Oregon No Call. One of those companies,
Emerald City Tours of Kent, Wash., was fined more
than #50,000 for multiple violations of the law.
The money from the fines goes to the states’ Con
sumer Protection Fund. .
» > • » ♦ » » > * i v ♦ » > i » » ♦ « * ♦ ♦
Joining the
“No Call” list
Online: http://www.ornocall.com/
Phone: (877) 700-6622
Cost: $6.50 per residential
or cellular telephone number
Deadline: Dec. 15 for the January list
SOURCE: Oregon Attorney General's office
Jan Margosian, spokeswoman for the Attorney
General’s office, said Oregon’s ability to enforce i
own laws on companies based outside the state
key to the list’s success.
“Oregon has jurisdiction all over the world if
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