5/28/2012: Back in November the RG editors criticized President Lariviere for the raises that brought down the Governor’s wrath, noting that fully 40% of the money was going to administrators:
“Bad Politics, Good Policy: The UO invests its tuition money in (some) people”
… The documents list “special equity raises” of $3.1 million for 743 faculty members and $1.8 million for 417 administrators. The faculty raises averaged 6.98 percent; administrators’ increases averaged 7.68 percent. …
How did the administration go about justifying raises for each other and benefits like cars and family Rose Bowl trips? The documents and thin rationalizations are here.
It took Nathan Tublitz more than three months to get this info via the public records process. Initially UO told him he’d have to pay $4,328.63 to see the records for all administrators. Tublitz narrowed his request to a few top administrators. Even after that it took more than a month, many emails, and a meeting of the Senate Transparency Committee to get UO to release this information.
Some faculty at Oregon State tried to get the same info for some of their top administrators, who also got some hefty raises. They sent the OSU public records officer an email, got a $35 estimate (should have asked for a fee waiver, this should be a slam dunk with their DA) and a week later they had the documents. Full dump here, warning 9MB file.
It’s the coverup that destroys trust. In a few short months Bob Berdahl has managed to do some major damage to the improvements in public records transparency initiated by Lariviere. It’s shameful. But I hadn’t realized we were this far behind.
Spend government money on raises for your friends, then try to hide the documents from the public. Outrageous, but not exactly a new thing in the order of the ages.
Ultima Cumaei venit iam carminis aetas;
5magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo:
iam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna;
iam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto.
I suppose it’s worth pointing out the RG’s own duplicity in this editorial, having earlier endorsed salary increases for faculty as a wise investment, while disparaging raises for admin. Now all of it turns out to have been a bad idea. With its approving words for “investment in institutional competitiveness,” the RG seems to concede its own double standard. Too bad the editorial fails to mention the reason why the UO is bursting at the seams with eager tuition-payers: that at 7.5K/yr, the UO is a terrifically good bargain.
The OSU file you posted as a “full dump,” contains a report on five individuals. That would probably cost somewhat less to retrieve than the request for information on 1160 individuals.
Yes, and UO did not charge Tublitz for it. They did however sit on the request for an additional month.