University of Oregon President Michael Gottfredson announced on Thursday (April 4) the formation of a Selection Advisory Committee for Provost, which will guide the national search for a successor to Senior Vice President and Provost Jim Bean, who will return to the faculty July 1.

The 18-member committee – which includes 12 faculty members – will be assisted by a search firm and staffed by central administration. It will be chaired by Alec Murphy, a professor in the UO Department of Geography.

How will you celebrate Earth Day this year?

Consider a week of action to honor the Earth – that’s the Emerald ECOchallenge, a new community-wide initiative that recognizes Earth Day and the importance of making sustainable lifestyle decisions.

Formerly the UO ECOchallenge, the challenge is a weeklong commitment to doing something new that reduces your environmental footprint and/or increases your community engagement – like biking to work, volunteering or buying local food.

University of Oregon Philosophy Professor Naomi Zack’s newest publication, “Race and Ethnicity” (Bridgepoint Education, Inc., 2012), is a textbook that combines her earlier philosophical work examining the concept of race as culturally relative with a look at the social aspect of race being associated with oppression.

The book is organized into five broad parts beginning with an introduction and then “European Ethnicity in America,” “American Racial Groups,” “Current Trends in the United States” and “Global Racial and Ethnic Relations: A Comparison.”

African American literature will take center stage when a group of innovative scholars come to the University of Oregon to give public talks about their research.

The symposium, “Racial Representations: African American Literature Since 1975,” runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. April 26 in the Alumni Lounge of Gerlinger Hall, 1468 University St.

English professor Mark Whalan and Ernesto Martínez, an associate professor in Women’s and Gender Studies, will serve as moderators.

The Cockettes was a commune and theater troupe that performed lavish stage acts regularly in the late 1960s and early 1970s at San Francisco’s Palace Theatre.

Now one of their original members is bringing the show to Eugene.

Fayette Hauser’s intimate photographs of the Cockettes, featured in “West of Center,” reveal the group’s off-stage antics and radical lifestyle. She will present an artist’s talk, host a special performance and kick off a screening of the documentary, “The Cockettes,” showing for one week at the Bijou Art Cinemas.

China is well-known as the world’s most populous country and keeper of the second largest economy.

But the country is also fast developing several large-scale “eco-cities” – and that makes China a great place to study urban sustainability planning.

The social and economic costs of the drug war – including more than $1 trillion spent over the past 40 years – have led voters in Washington and Colorado to suggest that alternatives to criminalization may be worth a look.

Voters in the two states approved measures last year legalizing the recreational use of marijuana.

Nominations or self-nominations are due no later than Wednesday, April 17, for the UO Research Excellence awards, which recognize outstanding career work and other accomplishments.

Sponsored by Research, Innovation and Graduate Education, the awards are:

The University of Oregon School of Music and Dance will present the annual Repertory Dance Company concert. In addition, the UO Opera Ensemble will present perfect family fare in the form of two one-act operas at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts.

The school is located in the Frohnmayer Music Building on the UO campus, 961 E. 18th Ave., Eugene. For more information, call 541-346-5678 or visit music.uoregon.edu.

The UO Study Abroad program is inviting faculty members to an event on Wednesday (April 3) to meet a representative of the Long Way Home, a non-profit that uses sustainable design and appropriate materials to build self-sufficient schools in Guatemala.

Long Way Home offers internship opportunities for UO students and is looking for faculty collaboration related to alternative construction and appropriate technology. The group is also seeking help in estimating the ecological impact of using waste materials in productive construction.