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O N B R I E F L Y The Rise Campaign concludes May 8, with a joyous celebration in the Chiles Center, and well it is that we should caper: at presstime $172 million has been raised, half the campus has been renovated, there are some 170 new scholarships, $8 million was raised for faculty, and there are riveting new projects focusing on ethics, humor, entrepreneurship, engineering, and clean water, among much else. Details: rise.up.edu. Are we still wheedling for whopper gifts? Heavens, yes. Call Diane Dickey at 503.943.8130, dickey@ up.edu. Father Bill Beauchamp, C.S.C., is stepping down as president after ten years, and will return to Notre Dame to serve his beloved Holy Cross order as sage financial wizard. (See page 24.) A remarkable presidency, by all measures: some $220 million raised for students, a soccer national title, two new residence halls, new riverfront property, the new bell tower, a tripling of applications for admission, national awards for bang for the buck, national honors for Fulbright grants, Peace Corps volunteers, student community service hours, and entrepreneurship programs. And much else. Admired his work? Tell him yourself: beaucham@up.edu. Best in America The University’s student accounting team won the national American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Accounting Competition, carrying off the $10,000 prize after a semester-long effort. Judges “were particularly impressed with the students’ creative solutions, detailed written analysis, and teamwork,” says faculty advisor Ellen Lippman. “A lot of getting to bed at three in the morning. They represented the University very well.” Best in Oregon For the fourth consecutive year the University was the top Oregon school in the Kiplinger’s Personal Finance annual rankings of best values in private colleges and universities. The project ranks 600 schools nationwide by academic quality, affordability, student admission rate, ratio of students to faculty members, graduation rates, financial aid, and student debt at graduation. Among Recent Gifts & Grants: $4 million more from regent Amy Dundon-Berchtold and her husband Jim Berchtold ’63 (after $525,000 in 2011) for their eponymous Institute for Moral Development and Applied
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Ethics, which funds the Character Project and ethics scholarships and fellowships ¶ And $50,000 as a challenge grant for the new Beachamp Rec Center from regent Rich Baek ‘93, if 601 graduates of the last decade match him by June 1; Rich’s theory is that young alumni will be delighted to help replace Howard Hall, at last. Student Feats Peter Pappas’s ED 456 class helped build the new free iPhone app “Japantown PDX,” working with Portland’s Nikkei Legacy Center. The class also published an iBook: Exploring History: Ten Document-Based Questions, available for free download at iTunes. Peter Pappas: cool guy. ¶ The speech and debate finished 7th in the West, a remarkable feat considering their ninecent budget. Campaign gifts welcome. ¶ The new Clark Library, totally renovated with Campaign gifts, saw its normal usage rate rise a whopping 73% since reopening last year; its 19 group study rooms were in ferocious demand, with an average of 3,000 students using them per week. The University has 4,000 undergrad and grad students in toto. Our Commencement Speaker will be Anne Thompson, NBC News’ chief environmental affairs correspondent. Catholic Relief Services CEO Carolyn Woo receives the Christus Magister Medal, and honorary doctorates will be draped upon inventor and philanthropist John Beckman ’42 (who was instrumental in inventing the photofinish camera!), testing expert and author Jim Popham ’53, Oregon State University president Ed Ray (who helped the Beavers raise $900 million for students and faculty during his tenure), and Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland (the 11th such, the fourth such being University founder Alexander Christie). Faculty Feats The best science professor in Oregon? University chemist Sister Angela Hoffman of the Order of Saint Benedict (who has six international patents), says the Oregon Academy of Science. Last year’s winner of the same award: University geologist Bob Butler. ¶ Historian Mark Eifler will appear soon on cable television’s Military Channel, discussing the California Gold Rush (subject of his book Gold Rush Capitalists: Greed and Growth in Sacramento). Half the households in America get that channel. ¶ Journalism professor Steve Duin is an Oregon Book awards finalist for his graphic novel Oil and Water (Fantagraphics), about the fouling of Spring 2014 13
the Gulf. ¶ Communication studies’ Vail Fletcher’s work on youth in Rwanda will be shown at the United Nations in New York in May, part of events on the 20-year anniversary of genocide there. ¶ Thom Faller, retiring after fifty years of teaching philosophy, was appointed by the Vatican as a regent at Bethlehem University in Palestine. ¶ International languages’ Allie Hill won a $10,000 Graves Award in the Humanities, which she’ll use to study the old German Democratic Republic in today’s reunited Germany. ¶ Engineering’s Aziz Inan was interviewed by BBC Radio Scotland on his brilliant and peculiar number mania. ¶ University music professor Michael Connolly, in a talk on Martin Luther King Day, noted that the University’s neighborhood, until 1964, had this legal restriction on property: “No part of said land shall be used or occupied by any Negro, Chinese, Italians, Greeks, Hindus, Armenians, Indians, or Japanese, except that persons of said races may be employed thereon as servants.” Wow. Hosting the riveting Fourth World Conference on Science and Soccer, June 5-7, on The Bluff: biology professor Terry Favero, who doubles as Pilot soccer conditioning coach. Some 300 scientists, coaches, trainers, physiotherapists, physiologists, professors, and students from around the world are expected for three days of talks and workshops. Passes cost $200 to $450, and there are only 300 spots; for details on passes and housing call Terry Favero, 503.943.7373, favero@up.edu.