The founder of Business Wire, Lorry Lokey, recently donated $74.5 million to the University of Oregon, which is the largest academic gift the university has ever received, The Chronicle of Higher Education said. The gift is directed toward the university's science and research program and the majority of it will support faculty and graduate student studies. The Chronicle of Philanthropy cited Lokey as one of the country's most frequent donors. He recently gave to his alma mater, Stanford University, to support stem cell research. With last month's gift of $100 million by Nike co-founder and chairman Philip Knight, the University of Oregon has now surpassed its goal of raising $600 million by 2008.
Thayer School of Engineering professor Lee Lynd spoke about plant biomass at the forty-third Nobel conference hosted by Gustavus Adolphus College, Postbulletin.com reported. Lynd argued that plant biomass is the only sustainable option to replace crude oil and fossil fuels. Lynd's research on the topic makes him hopeful for the future of sustainable energy, although he believes that a revolution in agricultural production may be necessary in order to provide the substantial space necessary for the growth of plants used specifically for fuel purposes. Other major topics at the conference included research on the increased rate of climate change, its effect on the free market and the rapid depletion of crude oil.
A campaign encouraging colleges to limit credit card compa-nies' ability to solicit students will be launched this month by the United States Public Research Group, a consumer advocacy organization. The group's consumer program director, Ed Mierzwinski, explained that colleges often promote the purchase of credit cards with free giveaways and other incentives. This often leads students to purchase cards that they do not actually need. As the number of credit cards increases, so does the amount of debt, which is a problem typically for low income students. Students are a major target for credit card companies "because they have parents who will probably pay off their debt if there is a problem," Bill Hardekopf, chief executive of LowCards.com, a credit card tracking company, told The New York Times. Attempts to pass legislation that would limit how much credit is made available to students has been unsuccessful in Congress for the past 10 years, even though it has traditionally had bipartisan support.
