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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (July 29, 2004)
An independent newspaper www.dailyemerald.com Bill Clinton's 'My Life' Page 9 Thursday, July 29, 2004 Since 1900 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon Volume 106, Issue 12 JUNIOR OLYMPIANS Photo Illustration Erik R. Bishoff Athletes from around the country converge on Hayward Field Wednesday to take part in the 2004 Junior Olympics, the largest track and field event ever held on campus. The competition will continue through Sunday. TRACK in business Hayward Field hosts the Junior Olympics and Eugene works to accommodate the influx of athletes and supporters MEGHANN M. CUNIFF FREELANCE REPORTER What is the city of Eugene expected to do with 5,657 Junior Olympians and their families? Why feed them, house them, and entertain them, of course. Starting Tuesday and continuing through Sunday, Hayward Field is host to the 38th annual USA Ju nior Olympic Track and Field Championships, the largest track and field event ever held in the Willamette Valley. The event's effect on the city of Eugene is tremendous. Every hotel in Eugene and the surrounding area is full and many visitors are being forced to stay as far away as Florence or Salem, said Pat Phillips, vice pres ident of conventions marketing for the Convention and Visitors Associ ation of Lane County Oregon. "It's definitely impacting, in a positive way, the hotel communi ty," she said. The influx of people was expect ed, Phillips said, and something the city has been preparing for since USA Track and Field announced Eu gene as the selected host city nearly three years ago. "We knew what the impact was going to be for the community," Phillips said. Part of the reason for the shortage of vacant hotels in the Eugene area comes from the unexpected loss of the Doubletree Hotel, which recent ly shut down, Phillips said. The hotel had more than 200 rooms fit to occupy multiple people. "That's a whole bunch of rooms that are now not available," she said. With one fewer hotel available for shelter-seeking sports fans, the University's residence halls are housing more than twice as many people as was originally expected. Housing officials originally set aside 400 beds for the occasion; 1,000 are currently occupied, Uni versity Housing Food Services Di rector Tom Driscoll said. "The residence halls are there to provide a sort of'serve space,' in case community hotels cannot handle the influx of people," Driscoll said. Corvallis is hosting the Oregon Special Olympics this same week, making even fewer hotels available and thus making the space provided by University Housing much needed. With more than 1,100 participants, the Special Olympics has about one fifth as many participants as the Ju nior Olympics, but still decreases the number of rooms in the area open to Junior Olympic participants. "There's not as much space avail able in Corvallis as there would typ ically be if the Special Olympics were not there," Phillips said. But, with opening ceremonies that began Wednesday night for the Junior Olympics, Phillips said housing has been the only press ing problem organizers have en countered. Feeding and Please see OLYMPICS, page 3 Medieval Studies major to start in fall The program aims to enhance its ability to attract competitive students and faculty members BEN BROWN NEWS REPORTER Break out your doublet and hose and crack open those Old English epics, for thou art about to enter the kingdom of medieval knowledge. You may have read your Chaucer, and you might even be able to recite the casu alty reports from the Battle of Hastings. You may even have built a trebuchet in your backyard as a kid, but thanks to re cent approval by the Oregon University System, you will be able to get a four-year degree for it. History Professor John Nicols said that for the past eight years there has been talk of making medieval studies its own major, but until this summer, the paperwork had not been submitted. Now that it has, Uni versity students can start taking classes from a new, independent Medieval Stud ies Program in the fall. For the past decade, the University has offered medieval studies both as a minor and a focus in the humanities majors. Associate Professor of English Martha Bayless said the plan has always been for medieval studies to become an inde pendent program. It started as a subdivi sion of humanities, because the smaller Please see MAJORS, page 4 Museum opening postponed until '05 Curators will work to move and display the museum's thousands of pieces of art BEN BROWN NEWS REPORTER The opening of the University's newly renamed Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art has been delayed yet again, from October 2004 to January 2005. Museum spokeswoman Katy Sproles said the opening was rescheduled by the museum's board of directors because of the complexity of moving and unpacking more than 12,000 pieces of art. Sproles said the board delayed the opening to ensure the safety and effective Erik R. Bishoff Online & Photo Editor Lile Moving and Storage employee Rick Holcumb moves artwork into a new 4,000-square-foot gallery at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art Wednesday morning. display of the art, Sproles said. "We weren't going to be able to provide our visitors with the experience they de serve," said Sproles. Temporary walls and fixtures must be built to display the art, but Sproles said this work had to wait until all of the galleries were complete, because it must be done in side the building — formerly named the University of Oregon Museum of Art. This has been made especially complex because the building has doubled in size, allowing curators to display approximately four Please see MUSEUM, page 3 NEWS BRIEF Bill funds brain research, nanotechnology at University The University is slated to receive a total of $8 million dollars for brain function research and nanotechnology from the federal government, thanks to a Department of Defense appropriations bill passed July 22 and awaiting President Bush's signature. The bill includes a $3 million grant for the Brain, Biology and Machine Initiative (BBMI) and an additional $5 mil lion for the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies In stitute (ONAMI). The passage of the bill will marks the sixth consecutive year that the BBMI has received federal funding. University Vice President for Research and Graduate Stud ies Rich Linton joined University President Dave Frohnmay er in characterizing the continued support as recognition of the University's research prowess and as welcome publicity. 'The new hinds will accelerate the pace and impact of the research, will deepen collaborative partnerships, will en hance the quality of the UO's research facilities, and will help UO scientists garner additional grant funding," Linton said in a press release. Frohnmayer said the grant was good news for the University and the state as well. "Our researchers will be working on the development of new products and processes that could have broad applications in the lives of Oregonians," Frohnmayer said in the release. The BBMI program 'integrates the UO's internationally recog nized strengths in cognitive neuroscience, molecular Please see BRIEF, page 3
