Tuesday, January 22, 2008

President Ed Ray to Speak to the Economics Club April 2nd

Ed Ray, President of OSU, has accepted an invitation to speak to the Economics Club. He is scheduled to meet with the club at its regular meeting on April 2nd. We will meet with him in the 6th Floor Conference Room in Kerr Admin Building (Kerr 650). Please don't be late as Ed has only a hour to spend with us.

In the meantime, why did we ask President Ray to speak to us (other than the fact that he is the president)? He is a eminent trade economist who made some major contributions to the trade literature before he became a full time administrator. Here is a sample of his early work.

State Representative Sara Gelser to Speak on Jan 30th

Sara will join us at our regular meeting, so think about questions you have about legislating and economics.

From her bio:

Sara Gelser (Democrat, Corvallis) was sworn in as State Representative for House District 16 on December 2, 2005 after being appointed to fill a legislative vacancy. In 2006, she was elected to the position. Soon thereafter, she was elected as Assistant Majority Leader for Policy for the 2007 legislative session.

During the 2007 session, Sara served on the Revenue Committee, the Health Care Committee, and was Vice Chair of the Human Services and Women's Wellness Committee. She was also appointed to chair the House Guidelines Committee, which was created to oversee stringent ethics reform in the Oregon House of Representatives. In her first full term in office, Sara was able to pass several bills she introduced. Most significantly, she passed Karly's Law which will improve child abuse investigations statewide and a Mediciad waiver bill which will allow children with severe disabilities to grow up in their family homes rather than foster care or nursing facilities. She also saw successful passage of a bill to allow statewide electronic permitting for contractors. This was the largest regulatory streamlining initiative for the construction industry in the United States. Sara was also a founding member of the new Oregon Senior and Disability Caucus.