Oregon drops heart-breaker to Washington | 7
Oregon Daily Emerald
An independent newspaper
www. daily emerald. com
Since 1900 | Volume 106, Issue 99 | Friday, February 11, 2005
Club baseball denied access to UO facility
The Athletics Department refuses to let the team
use the recently renovated Hayward Fieldhouse
BY SHELDON TRAVER
NEWS REPORTER
With the theft or vandalizing of its
equipment and one-third of its budg
et being spent on practice facilities,
EMU Club Sports Baseball is asking
the Athletics Department why it is
being denied access to a practice
and storage facility it has used for
many years, baseball coordinator
Tory Caputo said.
Caputo said the Athletics Depart
ment has refused to allow the team
to use the Hayward Fieldhouse, an
indoor training facility used by the
University Track and Field team.
Previously, the baseball team was
able to use the fieldhouse to practice
batting and pitching. Now it is prac
ticing at an indoor facility in Spring
field, paying $140 for three hours
each week, he said.
The team is partially funded by
team-member dues but also re
ceived $4,258 in student incidental
fees for the 2004-05 school year. Ad
ditionally, there are no outdoor
baseball fields at the University, so
the team spends the remainder of its
budget on travel expenses.
Former Club Sports baseball coor
dinator Jonathan Loomis said the
team’s equipment was set outside
while the fieldhouse was being re
modeled during summer 2004 and it
is still there now. He said the team
was unable to pay for storage.
“We had pitching machines. We
had nets. We had all this gear that we
collected over 20 years,” Loomis said,
adding that the weather destroyed
equipment and a pitching machine
was lost or stolen.
“They never cited any reason for
kicking us out of the facility,”
Loomis said.
Associate Athletic Director for
Compliance Gary Gray said the Ath
letics Department has always made
an effort to work with the team, but
improvements to the facility neces
sitated the change. He said the Ath
letics Department spent $50,000
remodeling last year, including
$40,000 on new gas heaters. Gray
said there was a potential safety
hazard if a stray baseball hit a heater
and dented it.
“Historically, baseball hasn’t done
a good job of maintaining the area,”
he added.
Gray said he was unaware of any
damaged or stolen equipment related
to the removal of the baseball team’s
cages, nets and mounds.
Loomis said they have always been
able to use the facility without im
pacting the track and field team’s
ability to train.
“They already have a netted area
set up,” Loomis said. “They wouldn’t
have to change anything. ”
Gray said the batting cages cannot
be raised high enough to accommodate
the hurdlers and pole vaulters. He
added that the baseball team signed .
a contract that said it could lose us
age of the facility.
“Every year we have them sign a
contract that says if we remodel, you
are out of there,” Gray said.
Each year copy of this facility-use
agreement was signed by Club Sports
Director Sandy Vaughn and the base
ball coordinator for that season.
ASUO Senator Jack Crocifisso has
been working with the baseball team
to try to resolve the issue.
“This is kind of frustrating for
me because the facilities exist on
our campus, and they’ve been
working out for the last how many
years,” Crocifisso said. He said
he hopes the team can come to
BASEBALL, page 6
me ■ i
vagina s
^Voice
Actresses in this weekend's
monologues were chosen by
nomination to increase diversity
BY AMANDA BOLSINGER
NEWS REPORTER
a fter considering ending their production
of the “The Vagina Monologues” due to
JL jL disagreements over the lack of diversity
in last year’s show, members of the Women’s
Center accepted nominations for women to fill
the roles instead of holding auditions this year.
In a celebration of female empowerment and
sexuality, the Women’s Center is producing a
rendition of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Mono
logues,” with the first showing starting tonight.
The monologues are based on interviews
with more than 200 women about their vagi
nas. The monologues range from “My Angry
Vagina” to “The ‘Smell’ List.” The monologues’
themes include the way women feel about their
vaginas, what their vaginas would say or wear,
menstruation, tampons, gynecologist appoint
ments and many other aspects of womanhood
Danielle Hickey | Photo editor
Dana Gorman, business manager for Kinesiology Publications, part of the Institute for Sport and Human
Performance at the University, rehearses her monologue for “The Vagina Monologues.”
and sexuality.
This year’s cast, made up of University stu
dents and faculty as well as community mem
bers, features women from numerous racial
and economic backgrounds and different sexual
orientations, said sophomore Haley Rabago, a
participant in the show. After cast members
MONOLOGUES, page 5
IN BRIEF
History museum resurfaces
with flair after renovations
The Museum of Natural and Cultural Histo
ry re-opens today after more than a year of
renovations. The grand opening, from 11 a.m.
to 5 p.m., will feature festivities at noon in
cluding a ceremonial ribbon-cutting by Uni
versity President Dave Frohnmayer and a
speech by Museum Director Mel Aikens.
Admission is free.
The museum will also be open Saturday
and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday
from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. families with children
can take part in special hands-on science ac
tivities that explore how archaeologists un
earth artifacts.
The museum’s highlight is a new $1 million
exhibit, “Oregon — Where Past is Present.” The
exhibit explores Oregon’s natural and cultural
history from its geological beginnings to today,
with an emphasis on Oregon’s indigenous cul
tures. The exhibit is divided into four parts that
represent each of Oregon’s geographic regions
and their distinct indigenous groups.
Aikens said the museum attempts to pro
vide a comprehensive look at Oregon’s natu
ral and cultural history, but he admitted it
barely scratches the surface.
“It’s just a sketch,” he said.
— Moriah Balingit
Simulations predict chemistry
A University instructor has developed a method that
anticipates the chemical reactions of untested materials
BY EVA SYLWESTER
NEWS REPORTER
When engineers use chemicals
to make fire-resistant clothing for fire
fighters, they often have to make
numerous unsuccessful prototypes
before something usable results.
The same goes for scientists making
artificial body tissues — they may
wind up with substances that are ei
ther liquid or rock hard at room tem
perature before achieving the perfect
level of solidity and flexibility for the
human body.
However, Marina Guenza, assistant
professor of theoretical physical
chemistry at the University, has devel
oped a solution to these problems:
She uses computer simulations to
predict how untested chemicals will
perform outside the lab.
Guenza investigates polymer
liquids. According to Guenza’s Web
site, examples of natural polymer liq
uids are proteins, cellulose, silk, rub
ber and DNA. When synthetically pro
duced, polymers include fibers,
plastics and glasses.
Given the physical structure of a
polymer molecule, Guenza uses com
puter simulations to determine the
molecule’s properties.
“We can study and understand very
complicated properties that happen on
a large scale,” Guenza said.
Understanding the properties of a
molecule before using the molecule in
engineering lessens the guesswork of
making new materials.
“When you want to devise a new
polymeric system, you have to go
through a trial and error system, unless
you have a theory of properties based
on input into a simulation,” said chem
istry graduate student Edward Sam
briski, who collaborated with Guenza
on a recent paper.
“Having the models of these things
can save a lot of time and money,”
Guenza said.
The simulation software Guenza
uses is available over the Internet,
Sambriski said. Guenza simplifies the
process, calculating data for the equiv
alent of one unit of a chemical chain
rather than the whole chain.
“The calculations are basically very
reduced,” Sambriski said. However,
he added that the reduction does
not interfere with the accuracy of
the calculations.
Guenza’s research has been pub
lished in Fhysical Review Letters and
other scientific journals.
“When I submitted my publication,
it was accepted without any changes,”
she said. “That, for me, is really a lot.”
CHEMISTRY, page 12
Bret Furtwangler | Graphic artist
Assistant professor Marina Guenza uses a few steps to create simple models that can
save researchers time and money. Step 1: Computer simulations gather data about a
given polymer. Step 2: Calculations simplify the data for the equivalent of one unit of a
chemical chain. Step 3: The model allows researchers to create theoretical formulas
with multiple molecules. Step 4: The formulas can be used for many purposes.