The phrase "permanent white water" also captured the sense of urgency the seven groups reported they felt the campus should embrace in tackling the array of issues the groups explored. In a four-hour meeting Nov. 24 to report on each of the seven Issue Definition Groups' observations, participants strongly recommended engaging more of the campus in the process before adopting major solutions. Representatives from the Issue Definition groups will be meeting this month to synthesize and write a summary report for the campus to be included in the Jan. 2 News & Views.

Some of the major issues defined by the groups included:

• The UO needs to plan for changes that will generate an additional $5 million in 1998-99.

• Already high tuition, static state funding, rapidly changing technology and a more competitive marketplace for students means the UO needs to look to its own faculty and staff to find creative solutions.

• UO needs a clearer vision of who we want to be and who we want to serve.

• Retaining students is as important to the budget as admitting new students.

• The UO needs to upgrade or expand academic services and programs to attract top students and market them more aggressively--and find ways to do that without new state funding.

• UO must find ways to increase the quality of academic offerings without increasing costs.

• All faculty and staff need to advocate for the UO in marketing programs and improving public perceptions of the UO and higher education.

• Students' academic needs and consumer-savvy demand for support services are changing rapidly and the UO needs to respond quickly or lose students to institutions who can speedily bring programs "online" or in more user-friendly ways.

• UO needs to help faculty find more quality time to meet with students.

• More nontraditional students will be enrolling and doing more comparison shopping for universities or colleges who can serve them best.

• The UO needs to market itself aggressively to reach students, guidance counselors, parents, businesses, alumni and granting agencies who often act in response to past reputation or traditional myths rather than current reality.

• The UO needs to attract an additional 500 to 1,000 students without adding costs and without decreasing student services or academic quality.

• OSSHE's funding and procedures need to become more flexible and responsive to changing needs of the local campus and need to build incentives to reward efficiency and entrepreneurial success.

• The UO needs to develop short-run immediate solutions to growing budget challenges as well as long-term solutions to the rapidly changing higher education environment.

• Every 150 Oregon students add about $1 million to the UO budget and every 100 nonresidents bring in about the same amount.

• All offices, services, programs, staff and faculty need to embrace a consumer service, consumer friendly approach in all student contacts.

• Perceptions persist among various publics that the UO academic program lacks rigor, that the UO is a party school, that students don't get enough personal attention from faculty and staff.

• UO needs to be ready to adapt and change to serve needs of a more diverse student body.

• As a residential university, UO needs to do a better job of providing integrated academic and support services and classroom and campus activities.

• UO is too often perceived by too many publics as being uninvolved and unconcerned with issues faced by the community and important groups such as business, alumni and state taxpayers.

Following President Dave Frohnmayer's call to action at October's University Assembly meeting, Provost John Moseley appointed the seven Issue Definition groups of faculty, staff and students to begin the Process of Change. Led by an academic dean, the groups met almost weekly fall term to clarify, define, assess and report on each issue area. All group members have copies of all seven group reports and will share the materials with interested colleagues.

The Definition groups are the first in a three-phase process to make sure the UO not only survives but thrives in the "white water" ahead. Later groups will explore and recommend solutions on which an implementation team will act in the final phase. (SEE SIDEBAR: "Next Steps.")

Current and former UO employees are proving again they're a generous lot.

On Dec. 15 at its annual campaign celebration, United Way of Lane County will present a Helping Hands Award to the university as one of the county's largest donors.

With the State of Oregon 1997 Charitable Fund Drive also concluding Dec. 15, contributions from faculty, staff and retirees now total more than $150,000, with additional money arriving by cash, check or payroll deduction each day.

"Even if you haven't participated yet, it's not too late to give," says Nancie Fadeley, Academic Affairs. "Every dollar is welcome."

Individually, 70 UO employees are entitled to receive a Governor's Cup because they contributed $500 or more to the state drive. Of these, 26 have become Leadership Givers because they contributed $1,000 or more.

Fadeley says the 1997 campaign would not have gone so well "had we not had the participation of small units as well as large. Contributions came in from almost every unit on campus, and the departmental coordinators have been tireless workers for the cause."

Members of the Retired Faculty Association of the UO have shown their continuing caring for this community, she says, by contributing more than $20,000 to earn a Helping Hands Award all by itself.

"That $20,000 is in addition to the donations which many retired faculty make to the Charitable Fund Drive through their own departments," Fadeley says, pointing out that nine association members are Leadership Givers ($1,000 or more).

Other outstanding units include:

• Lundquist College of Business, in which 55 donors gave $21,613. Jan Clayton and Marian Friestad headed the college's effort.

• Facilities Services, with 68 givers donating $7,913, and their pledges are still coming in through coordinator Chris Silva.

• Psychology, which almost doubled its number of donors this year, climbing from 12 to 23, and boosted its donations by more than $2,000, increasing from $3,336 to $5,368. Joanna Molitor was CFD coordinator.

"Even though these accomplishments are noteworthy, without the participation of so many from all corners of our campus, we would not have topped our $140,000 goal," Fadeley says.

Preliminary work for the $18.4 million Recreation and Fitness Center has begun, with construction fencing now up along the south side of East 15th from the Bowerman Family Building to a point in front of Leighton Pool.

A second strip of fencing, from near the west grandstand at Hayward Field to the Covered Tennis Courts, blocks off the north end of the athletic field, giving the project's contractor, John Hyland Construction, room to dig trenches and relocate utility lines.

"Between the completion of this preliminary phase by Jan. 6 and the beginning of the majority of work the week of Feb. 2, the fencing will be opened to allow pedestrians to use their regular routes," says project manager Mark Henry, Facilities Services.

Once work begins in February, Henry says, the site fencing will be restored and will remain in place until construction and renovation of Esslinger Hall and adjacent tennis courts and playing fields are completed in the summer of 1999.

For information, call 6-2243.

• Just in time for the holidays, the Oregon Bach Festival released on Dec. 10 its new CD recording of Handel's "Messiah" on the Hänssler Classic label. Recorded at the 1997 festival, the two-disc set sells for $30. For orders, call Nancy Blake, 6-5666 or fax 6-5669.

• Thomas Quasthoff, baritone soloist featured recently on CBS News' "60 Minutes" as one of today's brightest classical music stars, can be heard at 7 p.m. Dec. 22 on KWAX-FM when the station airs a performance taped at the 1997 Salzburg Festival, conducted by Claudio Abbado.

• * NOMINATIONS ARE DUE MONDAY, DEC. 15, at Human Resources for classified employees and officers of administration who uphold the ideals espoused by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Recipients will be honored at a presentation ceremony in January during Martin Luther King week. For information, call 6-2966.

• * THE UNIVERSITY WILL BE CLOSED FRIDAY, DEC. 26, President Frohnmayer has decided, due to an overall decrease in work activity. University operations will not be staffed the day after Christmas except for those providing essential or emergency services. In accordance with collective bargaining agreements, employees normally scheduled to work that day may use paid leave, including vacation, personal leave, comp time or leave without pay. For information, call Eric Buckles, 6-2965, or Linda King, 6-2966.

• * EARLY DEADLINES are in place for the next issue of News & Views. The issue originally set for Jan. 8 has been moved up to Friday, Jan. 2, so that we can share a summary report from the Issue Definition groups before President Frohnmayer's address to the University Assembly on Jan. 7. News copy must be received by 5 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 17; calendar entries should be submitted immediately.

The Professional Partners Mentoring Program (PPMP) is underway, and organizers are encouraging employees to give it a try.

A pilot project in development by the Classified Staff Training and Development Advisory Committee, PPMP is intended to be a way for all levels of staff to meet and form a network to teach and learn from each other; to share ideas; and to improve skills.

"PPMP is for classified staff, managers and faculty at any level," says Tricia Howard, Financial Aid. "With support by Human Resources, groups are encouraged to meet on work-release time, although some groups are choosing to meet during lunch hours to allow participation by those who feel they cannot take time away from their usual duties."

Eleven groups, on topics ranging from BANNER/FIS and desktop publishing to customer service and job search/promotion skills, are meeting this year. Many groups are still open to new members.

"With the wide array of topics, we think there is something that could apply to just about anyone," Howard says. "Groups are open to experts and novices; the point is to share and work together."

For more information, to share comments or to register, browse http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~cstdac/ppmp.html or contact Howard by phone, 6-1176, or e-mail,thoward@oregon.uoregon.edu.

In the spotlight

James Crosswhite, English, is winner of the Modern Language Association of America's Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize for his book, The Rhetoric of Reason: Writing and the Attractions of Argument (University of Wisconsin Press, 1996). He will receive the award Dec. 28 during the MLA annual convention in Toronto.

Kenneth Liberman, Sociology, has received an American Philosophical Society grant for a two-month residency this winter at Sera Monastic University in India. He also will present a plenary lecture to the Fourth International Conference on Yoga Research in Bangalore and will attend one month of daily lectures by the Dalai Lama.

Marian Friestad, Marketing, chairs the marketing committee and Jan Oliver, Administration, is a newly elected 1997-98 board member for United Way of Lane County.

Garrett Hongo, Creative Writing, reviewed and chose the winner of the 1997 Bakeless Nason Prize in Poetry at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference of Middlebury College in August.

On the move

Keith Autele, Public Safety, was promoted Nov. 10 from campus security/public safety officer to sergeant. In August, he was keynote speaker for his Board on Police Standards and Training graduating class.

In Print/On Display

Karen Jackson Ford, English, is the author of Gender and the Poetics of Excess: Moments of Brocade (University Press of Mississippi, 1997).

Linda Kintz, English, has written Between Jesus and the Market: The Emotions That Matter in Right-wing America (Duke University Press, Durham, 1997).

Dan Wojcik, English, is the author of The End of the World As We Know It: Faith, Fatalism and Apocalypse in America (New York University Press, 1997).

Sean S. Kohles, formerly Exercise and Movement Science but now at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, is the lead author of "Thermographic Strain Analysis of the Proximal Canine Femur," Medical Engineering and Physics, 19 (3): 262-266, 1997, and "Ultrasonic Wave Velocity Measurement in Small Polymeric and Cortical Bone Specimens," ASME Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, 119 (3): 232-236, 1997.

Richard Bear, Knight Library, has published an HTML edition of Sir Thomas Hoby's 1561 translation of Baldesar Castiglione's Book of the Courtier at <http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/courtier/courtier.html>.

On the podium/stage

George Andrews, Architecture emeritus, presented a paper, "Rio Bec Architecture: Forms and Meaning" at the Segunda Mesa Redonda de Palenque, held June 18-21 in Chiapas, Mexico.

Kenneth Helphand, Landscape Architecture, spoke on "Urban Open Space Systems" in Tel Aviv at a July 8 symposium on "Architecture in Israel in the 21st Century."

Presenting papers in August at the International Musicological Society meeting in London were Music faculty Susan Boynton, "The Influence of Homiletic and Exegetical Literature on the Fleury Lament of Rachel"; Steve Larson, "Great Expectations: The Interdisciplinary Promise of a Theory of Expressive Meaning in Music"; and Marian Smith, "The Breakdown of the Proscenium Wall at the Paris Opera."

Maradel Gale, PPPM, was keynote speaker and presented a workshop at the Pacific Islands Association of Libraries and Archives in November in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia.

In memoriam

A celebration of the life of Donald E. Wimber, Biology emeritus, is set for 2-4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, in the Knight Library Browsing Room. Contributions may be made to a memorial research fund being established by the UO Foundation.

Richard M. Noyes, Chemistry emeritus, died Nov. 25 in Eugene of complications from diabetes and stroke. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1977 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1989, Noyes, 78, pioneered studies of oscillating chemical reactions, including the world-renowned "Oregonator" system. He was a graduate of Harvard and the California Institute of Technology. Memorial contributions may be made to the Sierra Club.