LAGNIAPPE
If you recieved your hard copy of this issue in the mail, I'm sure you noticed the wrap-around cover with a bit of news no editor likes to see happen ... a cutback in circulation.

In our case, this begins with the next issue, the December Oregon Stater, which should be in mail boxes right about the time we know the fate of OSU's 2002 football season.

As is often the case, the rising cost of everything associated with producing a magazine - from paper to postage to production - forced our Alumni Association Board of Directors at its spring meeting last April to make the very regrettable decision that, after this magazine, only dues-paying members of our annual membership program, plus all those holding
OSUAA life memberships, will receive the Stater.

In an interview just as we were going to press, OSUAA Executive Director Dwayne Foley had this to say about those factors which motivated the board in its vote to downsize:

"The monies we had set aside in the fall of 1999 to both convert the Stater to a four-color magazine and to mail the publication three times a year to our full mailing list, have now been exhausted. With this current issue, over three quarters of a million dollars have been spent producing this outstanding publication, but the drain in resources this takes can no longer
continue. Also, the board's action was (and is) a reflection of its knowledge that we remain one of the very few universities in the country where annual dues paying members of an organization support distribution of a periodical to that organization's entire mailing list."

"In the coming months," Foley added, "we will be seeking ways to broaden the
funding base of the Stater to make it possible to send it to as many readers as possible. We will be pursuing private resources to do so, particularly with the idea of adding a fourth issue to the three we now produce. Adding an issue remains our top priority in the near future because, with the steady growth the university has experienced over the last five years, we
always have more stories than magazines to put them in."

As editor, my bottom line on all this is that I hope as many of you as possible who are not members of our Association will join in time to not miss a single issue of the Stater. And keep in mind that a subscription to the Stater is only one of many great benefits that go along with an OSUAA membership.

Changing the subject to a story near-and-dear to my heart, I want to express my gratitude to Jeremy Husen, '97, for the role he played in the production of this magazine. As we were beginning work on building the pages for this issue, Tom Weeks, Stater designer for the past eight years, was stricken with a brain hemorrhage and stayed in the hospital for almost two weeks under the watchful eye of some of the best physicians in the state. Jeremy
stepped in immediately, took Tom's place at the computer and got us through our work without a hitch. I am happy to report that Tom is at home, back on his feet, and actually felt well enough just before press time to step in and deliver some of his magic to the look of our feature stories. GPEjr