Four new specializations will become part of the graduate curricula starting in the 2013-14 academic year.

Housed within existing areas of study, the new areas offer specialized credentials to graduate students who meet the requirements. The expansions fit with the graduate school’s aim of being forward-thinking to help students meet the needs of the future.

The approved specializations will be housed within existing areas of study but will now offer specialized credentials to graduate students who meet the requirements. The areas of focus include:

Princeton Review’s inclusion of the University of Oregon in an Aug. 5 list of “party schools” in its “The Best of 378 Colleges” publication doesn’t reflect the experience of most students.

It takes more than a little effort to transform oneself from a respectable, professional university employee to a candidate for Eugene Slug Queen.

For Brandy Todd, assistant director for administration at the UO Oregon Center for Optics, competing in the city’s offbeat annual competition starts with applying enough makeup to paint a kitchen. Then comes a white-plastic lab coat and a pair of Chuck Taylors laced up – excruciatingly – all the way to the knee.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof  and his wife, banker and author Sheryl WuDunn, dropped in for a recent session of the UO's Summer Academy To Inspire Learning (SAIL) and shared stories about their work and the paths that led them to it.

SAIL is a pipeline program at the UO that aims to make higher education a realistic goal for disadvantaged middle school and high school students.

University of Oregon faculty and staff who are connected with overseas travel and international study will soon have an opportunity to learn about MERS (Mideast Respiratory Syndrome) at a town hall meeting to be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 8 in Room 202 of the Ford Alumni Center.

The town hall meeting is a collaborative effort between the UO and Lane County Public Health, designed to provide accurate information on how to prevent infection and limit the spread of the disease. The meeting is free of charge.

The Weekly Wrap is an update each Friday morning from the Office of Strategic Communications. It provides highlights of news you may have missed during the week and showcases UO stories about amazing students, faculty, staff and alumni.

UO in the News

Straub Hall remodel begins


As part of its mission to promote excellence in research in environmental sciences, the recently launched Environmental Science Institute at the University of Oregon is giving rise to collaborations that address environmental challenges in new ways.

An Aug. 16 training on “Violence on Campus” will address early identification, resources and response.

The training is hosted by the Counseling and Testing Center, Emergency Management & Continuity and the University of Oregon Police Department.