University janitor leaves scholarship legacy behind Attorney gives $25,000 to establish the George Weyrens Scholarship Fund for University students BY KARA HANSEN NEWS REPORTER A former University custodian had few experiences with students and workers around him in his 19 years on the night shift, but it was for that rea son that a friend decided to set up a scholarship in the man’s name. George Weyrens worked as a cus todian at the University from 1968 to 1987. His attorney and friend, Marc Perrin, recently donated $22,000 from Weyrens’ estate, as well as $3,000 of his own money, to establish the George Weyrens Scholarship Fund at the University. Perrin said he was probably “about the only family George had” after Weyrens’ brother died in the 1990s. He described Weyrens as developmentally disabled and "painfully shy,” but said he always did the right thing. “In spite of the barriers George faced in his life, he worked hard, he saved his money, he paid his taxes and he never hurt a soul,” said Perrin, who met Weyrens in 1982 when he began helping him with his tax returns. “He’s sort of an American success story on the small scale, so it’s important for us to remember people like George.” Weyrens lived a quiet life, Perrin said, with few to no friends. He had one plate, one spoon, a coffee cup, a couple of pots and no television, ac cording to a University press release. Newspapers and the radio provided his only sources of entertainment, the release stated. When Weyrens died of a stroke in 2001, he left money to Meals on Wheels, St. Mary’s Catholic Church and $22,000 to his attorney to handle as he saw fit. University custodian Rodney Jensen worked with Weyrens for a few years, but said Weyrens mostly kept to himself. “Nobody really knew him that well, to be perfectly honest with you. But it’s wonderful someone can do this, espe cially a custodian,” Jensen said. The $25,000 will accumulate value for an unknown number of years, Perrin said, and he plans to add mon ey annually. He hopes the principle will grow to $100,000 so it can pro vide funds to students, especially those who are children of University Facilities Services employees or those with special needs. The scholarship endowment is an important example of how one per son can impact the lives of others, University President Dave Frohnmay er said in a press release. “How wonderful that a man who never went to college and who, in fact, was developmentally disabled, was able to establish a legacy that will help students obtain a university education,” Frohnmayer said. karahansen@dailyememld.com toufE's mm 947 Franklin Blvd. (near UO) • 343-4480 Individual, Family Style, Banquets to 100, Take Out Tues.-Thurs. 11-10:30, Fri. 11-11 Sat. 12-11, Sun. Restaurant and Lounge Authentic Chinese Cuisine Fresh, Quality Ingredients MAN’S WORLD For that off-campus quality For appointments call 342-7664 966 Oak Find us under Barbers in the Yellow Pages IN BRIEF Court maintains verdict against Portland schools PORTLAND — The U.S. Supreme Court denied a request from Portland Public Schools to re view a $1 million jury verdict awarded to a former special educa tion teacher. Pamella Settlegoode’s contract was not renewed in 2000 after she repeat edly complained about services avail able to students. She filed suit, con tending that the district violated the Disabilities Act of 1978, her First Amendment rights to free speech and the Oregon Whistleblower Act. A jury deliberated nine hours be fore awarding her $1 million in 2001. A federal magistrate set aside the verdict, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals restored the judg ment earlier this year. Settlegoode started teaching in the district in the 1998-1999 school year after earning a doctorate in education from the University of Oregon. She was hired to work with dis abled high school students in phys ical education. Settlegoode devel oped her own curriculum and had students taking part in track, ten nis, hiking and self-defense classes. She complained that some of the equipment was missing or unsafe, and it was tough to find locations to teach her students. — The Associated Press Evolution: Team challenges other models Continued from page 1 likelihood model, a statistical and mathematical based model, assumes that evolution is homogeneous for every gene, meaning every gene evolved at the same rate, a Denavior tnat is not manitestea in the natural world. “There’s a tendency for people to say maximum likelihood is right,” Thornton said. “We hope people will evaluate maximum likelihood. (Our research is) more of an effort to be critical with maximum likelihood and try out different models.” Kolaczkowski said he designed the program, which runs on three Apple dual-processor G3 computers, to han aie tne intensive loaa tnat tne evolution simulator requires. He added that the simulation uses Apple’s Mac OS X oper ating system for its Unix code. “This is a very pathetically simple simulation right now that’s not close to real life as of now,” Ko laczkowski said. Right now, the team said the simulation is working in a wide range of parameters, trying to determine the pattern of problem occurrences from small- to large-scale genetic evolution. “We used a variable rate — a range of rate observed for real biological circumstances,” Kolaczkowski said. “We wanted to try out many of our hypotheses to see how well thev worked.” HOW DOES THE SIMULATION SHOW EVOLUTION? Associate Professor Joe Thornton and graduate student Bryan Kolaczkowski used a model called maximum parsimony, which maps out a phylogenetic tree by using the fewest steps of evolution possible to explain a given set of data. The simulation then maps an evolution tree that can display genetic relationships between different species. The project was funded by a National Science Foundation grant to train graduate students in interdiscipli nary research in evolution, develop ment and genomics, according to a University press release. Thornton said in the future this project will create more complex evolution simulations. The two men are still working with maximum likelihood and other models so they can improve their mod ulo “When you’re using a computational or scientific method, you automatically have assumptions and questions you’re looking for that are built into the re search you do,” Kolaczkowski said. “You need to try different approaches to see what assumptions come with every model.” anthonylucero@ daily emerald, com Bush: President may reshape federal judiciary Continued from page 1 are against abortion were unlikely to be confirmed. Assistant Law Professor Robert Tsai said Bush may use his “capital” is to shape the federal judiciary by appoint ing judges, including filling potential openings on the Supreme Court. Tsai said Bush, who has appointed about 170 judges to federal positions, may even have an opportunity to match President Ronald Reagan’s efforts to remake the judiciary — Reagan ap pointed about 350 judges, including three Supreme Court Justices. Bush might be able to replace be tween one and four justices during his second term, as Chief Justice William Rehnquist suffers from thy roid cancer and several other jus tices of age, Tsai said. Tsai said the “strong assertion of executive power by this particular administration” related to Guan tanamo Bay detainees and security issues leads him to believe Bush will seek people with executive ex perience or who are open to broad executive power. r Novkov agreed that judicial appointments will be extremely important. “There’s a possibility for a funda mental debate on the constitutional level of executive authority depend ing on what judicial appointments are made,” she said. Tsai said Bush decided to confront difficult issues by focusing on both Social Security and Internal Revenue Service tax code reform. “He gets points for being ambi tious,” Tsai said. Tsai said there is a possibility for consensus on both issues, but he said Democrats will probably be more open to changes in the tax code if Bush’s changes are designed only to simplify the code and not make it a “less progressive tax.” However, Tsai said attempts to re vamp or privatize Social Security will meet with opposition from across the isle. “My guess is Democrats will fight tooth and nail on that one,” he said. He added that even minor progress on tax reform will give Bush credit. “I think these issues are being pushed for a particular reason,” he said, adding that a positive Bush lega cy would help whoever is running on the Republican ticket in 2008. “When you personally no longer have an election hanging over you, you start thinking about your lega cy,” Tsai said. Bush said there will be changes to his cabinet, but he has not specified what these changes will be. Past presidents have also faced po litical difficulties during their second terms. Bill Clinton underwent im peachment by the House after admit ting to an affair with intern Monica Lewinsky, and the Iran-contra scandal marred Ronald Reagan’s second term. “We expect too much. Second term presidents get careless and cocky,” said Stephen Wayne, a politi cal science professor at Georgetown University, according to an Nov. 6 As sociated Press article. “They either overreach, or do something illegal, or don’t manage the way they should. ” parkerhowell@ daily emerald., com BRECON DAILY EMFRALD 1 newspape Two I Tuesday p 86-5808 '■ 1 . Satfcfe /VnT-T“ ipeline *“Cnht i»i+H Cnhc “Subs with Substance" jsl