2006 will mark the 20th anniversary of the UO Applied Information Management Master’s Degree Program. The program, based in Portland and online since 2000, serves more than 150 Oregonians, many working in or near Portland. Graduates have earned this innovative, part time degree, designed specifically for students who work full time while going to graduate school. If you’ve been looking for a master’s degree program in Portland, the UO AIM program is an opportunity worth pursuing. For more information, check out aimdegree.com!

Once you have had a chance to check out the website, take another step and enroll in the next upcoming short course – titled Tools for Systems Thinking -- meeting in the UO Portland Center. Many of the most vexing problems confronting managers today are caused by a web of tightly interconnected relationships. Pressed for time and resources, most problems are given a quick fix and eventually resurface -- sometimes in a more potent and costly form than before. This course will provide skills that can be used immediately in the workplace to help clarify complex issues by learning to examine key elements and their relationships, over time. Special efforts will be made to demystify Systems Theory, and to provide hands-on practice.

Tools for Systems Thinking meets two Fridays (February 24 and March 10) from 6:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. and two Saturdays (February 25 and March 11) from 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. Register by calling (800) 824-2714 – no later than January 6. Why not start the new year by returning to the UO – in Portland?