Ducks awarded academic honors I 5
MERALD
An independent newspaper
urww.dailyemerald. com
Since 1900 | Volume 107, Issue 0011 Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Chamber weathers physiology studies
i ne university s environmental chamber can show
the effects of extreme conditions on the human body
BY EVA SYLWESTER
NEWS REPORTER
While the weather in Eugene
may not vary tremendously, one
can now experience the humid
Deep South, an arid desert or an icy
tundra without leaving campus.
Inside a 12-foot cube buried in
Esslinger Hall, two University pro
fessors have built an environmen
tal chamber in which internal con
ditions can change from 4 degrees
Fahrenheit to 122 F in 30 minutes,
with humidity anywhere from 10
to 95 percent and altitude up to
18,000 feet. Largely funded by the
Department of Defense, this cham
ber has applications ranging from
understanding sleep apnea to
training athletes.
Thursday morning, assistant
professor of human physiology
CHAMBER, page 3
Tim Bobosky | Photo editor
Chris Minson,
associate pro
fessor of human
physiolojy, left,
helps Gregg Mc
Cord, human
physiology grad
uate student,
prepare for a
demonstration
of the Universi
ty's new environ
mental cham
ber Thursday
morning in
Esslinger 156.
Erik Bishoff | Freelance photographer
A memorial for University journalism graduate Phillip Julian Gillins has been erected in the alley between West Moon Trading Company and Hodgepodge on East 13th Avenue.
Remembering Phillip Gillins
The University student, described by friends as a creative social
butterfly, was scheduled to walk during graduation ceremonies
BYGABE BRADLEY
NEWS EDITOR
When Hilary Home first heard about her
boyfriend’s injuries, the prognosis looked good.
“He was supposed to be okay,” Home said. “I
was sobbing, but I had hope.”
University senior Phillip Gillins was expected
to recover from the brain injuries he sustained
when he was assaulted outside a bar on East 13th
Avenue at about 2 a.m. on June 10.
Home, a recent graduate of the University of
Colorado, booked a plane ticket to Eugene in or
der to be with Gillins during his recovery.
“In my mind, I was going home to lay in bed
with him, watch movies and help him recover,”
Home said.
Home soon received word that Gillins would
not recover. Her friends helped her book an earli
er flight. By the time she arrived, however, Gillins
had died.
His friends describe him as a highly creative,
compassionate person.
“He was a great guy; he was always fun to be
around; he had great stories to tell; he was very
accepting of everyone,” childhood friend Katy
Butell said.
Butell hung a small poster honoring Gillins at
the impromptu memorial in the alley between
West Moon Trading Company and Hodgepodge,
near the spot where Gillins was attacked.
“You can just tell what a funny guy he was just
by looking at his face in those pictures,”
she said.
Gillins, a Portland native, had been scheduled
to walk in the graduation ceremonies June 10.
After finishing a few general education re
quirements summer term, he had hoped to
work for an ad agency either in New York or
San Francisco.
“It’s so close I can taste it,” wrote Gillins in
his profile at thefacebook.com.
“He was a very creative guy and you knew
whatever job he was going to have he was go
ing to use the talent of creativity,” Butell said.
Among other things, Gillins expressed his
creativity through drawing and playing
the guitar.
“I remember when he was first learning to play
and he learned the national anthem, and was
playing it for all of us at our Christmas dinner,”
Butell said.
“I would always make him play guitar for me
because he was so good,” Home said.
Gillins, a comic book fan and prolific artist,
drew pictures of superheroes to entertain Home’s
9-year-old brother.
Near the end of his college career, Gillins be
gan gravitating toward writing. He took a creative
writing class in the spring and had planned to
take three more over the summer.
“He wanted to write a novel,” Home said.
Gillins had many close friends. When Home
and Gillins discussed their plans to get married,
Gillins was unable to narrow down his choice of
best man to less than five people.
“He’d say, ‘You can’t make me choose. I
don’t know who it would be,”’ Home said.
“He was a social butterfly. It wasn’t hard to
take him out to new situations with
new people.”
Gillins is survived by his parents, Peter and
Linda, and his sister Liz.
“He loved them so much. I remember every
Christmas he would look forward to spoiling
them,” Home said of Gillins’ family.
gabebradley@dailyemerald.com
University
area houses
face summer
construction
Many houses to the west of
campus will be fixed up or tom
down under a new owner
BY MEGHANN M. CUNIFF
SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
Recent property purchases in the neighbor
hoods east and west of campus might bring
summer activities to the area; such as houses
being moved, buildings being remodeled and
structures being demolished.
Curt Large, CEO of Evergreen Roofing, re
cently purchased 17 properties in the West
University Neighborhood for approximately
$2 million. Large said he is hoping to fix up the
properties, which were previously part of the
late Fred Rankin’s estate, and rent them out to
students as soon as possible.
The poor condition of the properties means
some may need to be demolished and new
structures built in their place, Large said.
The purchase cleared June 9, and Large
said “we’ve been kind of keeping it quiet” un
til more information is known about what will
be done with the properties.
“There’s a lot of things in my favor in terms
of low interest rates, the lack of viable proper
ties and (the properties purchased) have good
zoning,” Large said. “Our goal again is to get
things back up to par and put them at nice
rentable status.”
Eugene Police Officer Randy Ellis, who pa
trols the West University Neighborhood, said
he’s very familiar with the properties, which
he said have been in poor condition for quite
some time.
He said his main concern with the recent
purchase is that the historical significance of
the buildings may be ignored in order to build
large, money-making apartment complexes.
“My biggest concern is they’ll become a
bunch more MUPTEs,” Ellis said, referring to
the Multi-Unit Property Tax Exemption the city
offers to developers looking to build units of
high-density housing.
Large said he hopes to have the properties
ready to rent within 18 months, but he said
the timeline is very tentative because of how
early on in the process it is and the lack of con
crete ideas about what needs to be done with
each of the properties.
The east campus area
Five houses in the east campus neighbor
hood have been sold and need to be relo
cated by Oct. 31. University officials say the
houses, located at 1577 Moss Street, 1660
Moss Street, 1599 Moss Street and 1830-32
Columbia Street, were not in rentable condi
tion but the University was able to find buy
ers willing to cover the relocation costs so
the historical significance of the properties
can still be maintained.
Another house on the “to sell” list, located
at 1788 Moss Street, did not receive any offers,
but Director of Campus Operations George
Hecht said at the East Campus Task Group
meeting on May 17 that he would continue ex
amining the house to see whether something
could be done to restore it or whether it needs
to be demolished.
The group has been working since the be
ginning of the school year to map out a plan
to transfer management of certain east cam
pus properties from University housing to
the greater University. The houses on the
CAMPUS, page 4