State board approves plan to seek funding for arena.Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-GuardAURORA - With little debate, the state higher education higher education Study beyond the level of secondary education. Institutions of higher education include not only colleges and universities but also professional schools in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. board on Friday gave the University of Oregon The University of Oregon is a public university located in Eugene, Oregon. The university was founded in 1876, graduating its first class two years later. The University of Oregon is one of 60 members of the Association of American Universities. the green light to ask the Legislature for $200 million in state bonds to finance a new basketball arena. With the unanimous vote, the UO cleared the first hurdle in its three-step process leading to official approval of a replacement for McArthur Court McArthur Court is a basketball arena located on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene. Also known as "The Pit," it is known as one of the toughest arenas in the country for opposing players to play in. The arena is named for Clifton N. . The university will go to state lawmakers this winter and ask them to authorize To empower another with the legal right to perform an action. The Constitution authorizes Congress to regulate interstate commerce. authorize v. to officially empower someone to act. (See: authority) the bonds, then return to the higher education board for approval to sell them. The UO is moving quickly after spending more than four years trying to put together financing for a new arena. It plans to build a facility of almost 400,000 square feet and at least 12,500 seats on the former Williams' Bakery site just east of campus, with a goal of opening in time for the 2010 basketball season. Members of the state Board of Higher Education asked few questions and were mainly interested in the financial analysis showing that the UO athletic department can afford to build the arena and pay back the state debt. UO President Dave Frohnmayer and Athletic Director Athletic director (commonly, "athletics director") is a position at many American colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, which oversees the work of the coaches and related staff involved in intercollegiate or interscholastic athletic Pat Kilkenny said they were confident the numbers pencil out and are based on appropriately cautious expectations. "Our numbers are very conservative," Kilkenny said. "There's no plausible scenario where we feel we would have to draw on university (non-athletic) resources." The UO athletic department is one of only about 20 in the country that requires no support from the university's general fund. Frohnmayer and Kilkenny have pledged to keep it that way and say the arena will help ensure the department's long-term financial independence. The university is awaiting an outside consultant's analysis of the financing plan and its assumptions. That report should be complete by the time the university meets with legislators, Frohnmayer said. Under the university's plan, the bonds would be repaid through arena revenues and other athletic department resources, mainly private donations. That additional funding would come from gifts to the Duck Athletic Fund and the newly established Athletic Legacy Fund, started with a $100 million pledge from Nike co-founder Phil Knight This article is about the co-founder of Nike, Inc.. For the guitarist of Shihad, see Phil Knight (musician). Philip H. Knight (born February 24, 1938) is the co-founder and former CEO of Nike, Inc.. and his wife, Penny. Frohnmayer said the university will build the fund to $150 million in five years through additional fundraising. Earnings from the legacy fund would be used to support the arena and balance the athletic department's budget should the arena not bring in enough money, UO officials said. That would be necessary only under a pessimistic pes·si·mism n. 1. A tendency to stress the negative or unfavorable or to take the gloomiest possible view: "We have seen too much defeatism, too much pessimism, too much of a negative approach" scenario, and Frohnmayer believes the arena will be profitable enough to make that situation unlikely. Board member Jim Francesconi asked whether the Knight gift was structured to allow earnings and principal to be used for athletic department operations. Frohnmayer said it will be, although the final agreement is not yet complete. Board member Dalton Dalton, city (1990 pop. 21,761), seat of Whitfield co., extreme NW Ga., in the Appalachian valley; inc. 1847. It is a highly industrialized city in a farm area. Miller-Jones, a psychology professor at Portland State University, asked about a letter sent to the board by UO biology professor Nathan Tublitz and signed by four other faculty members. It asks 10 questions that revolve around Verb 1. revolve around - center upon; "Her entire attention centered on her children"; "Our day revolved around our work" center, center on, concentrate on, focus on, revolve about the adequacy of the financial analysis and financing plan. For example, it asks what effect poor performance of the men's or women's basketball Women's basketball is one of the few games which developed in tandem with men's. It became popular, spreading from the east coast of the United States to the west coast, in large part via women's colleges. teams might have on arena revenue, and whether the UO projections took into account the likelihood of periodic national economic downturns. The letter urges the board to seek answers to the questions. Miller-Jones asked whether Frohnmayer had adequately involved faculty in arena planning. Frohnmayer replied that the university's Faculty Advisory Committee has been kept informed, along with the Intercollegiate in·ter·col·le·giate adj. Involving or representing two or more colleges. Adj. 1. intercollegiate - used of competition between colleges or universities; "intercollegiate basketball" Athletics Committee in the UO Senate. Also, a subcommittee of the Senate Budget Committee is doing its own analysis of the financing plan. Frohnmayer said he saw the letter for the first time Friday morning but that none of the 10 questions was unfamiliar. He said all of the issues had been "exhaustively considered." "I don't think there's a single surprise to me in that letter," he said. The meeting was held at an Oregon State University Oregon State University, at Corvallis; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered 1858 as Corvallis College, opened 1865. In 1868 it was designated Oregon's land-grant agricultural college and was taken over completely by the state in 1885. agricultural research center near Aurora. |
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